Returning to 1 Samuel chapter 7, we'll read from verse 1 tonight. Let us hear the word of the Lord. And the men of Kirjath-Jerim came and fetched up the ark of the Lord, and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill, sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the Lord. And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjath-Jerim, that the time was long, for it was twenty years. And all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. Samuel spoke on to all the house of Israel saying if you do return on to the Lord with all your hearts Then put away the strange gods and ashtaroth from among you and prepare your hearts on to the Lord and serve him only and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines Then the children of Israel did put away Balaam and Ashtaroth and serve the Lord only Samuel said gather all Israel to Mizba and I will pray for you on to the Lord And they gathered together to Mizba, and drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizba. And when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizba, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. And the children of Israel said to Samuel, cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. And Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered it for a burnt offering, holy unto the Lord. And Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him. And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines and discomfited them, and they were smitten before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and smote them until they came under Beth-kar. Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shem, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. Amen. We'll finish at verse 12. We trust that God will bless his word to our hearts this evening. Surely the latter part of verse 2 and verse 3 that I want to draw your attention to. I think what we have in this passage, this opening few verses of the chapter, are the beginnings of a revival, a time of restoration for Israel. And it's those two verses that I want to really focus our thoughts on before we get to prayer. That's where the Bible's open there. Let's just unite our hearts together in a word of prayer now. Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for Thy presence with us tonight already. We thank Thee for the hymn that we've been singing. And Lord, we pray that thou will give us that grace that we need that we might go on with God. We might live for thy glory and serve thee with all of our hearts. We thank thee for the glorious prospect that lies before every child of thine. We rejoice, Lord, in the great privilege of being soldiers of Jesus Christ for that great day when we shall see him who is the captain of our salvation. We ask, Lord, until that day would come as we live down here on earth, that thou would give us times of refreshing, times of revival, and times of blessing. We thank thee for bringing us together tonight into thy house and for the desire planted within our hearts to be here. We ask, Lord, that thou wilt meet with us now. Thou wilt bless thy word to our souls. Help us then as we get to prayer. Pour out thy spirit upon us. We thank thee that while we gather for prayer here, have one in glory who prays for us and father we ask tonight that our eyes might be fixed upon christ and i will set our souls on fire for thee bless us today and put thy word into my mouth i pray and bless this time of study of scripture may the meditation of our hearts and the words of our lips be acceptable unto thee and lord bring glory to thy name and bless us we pray for jesus sake Amen. Eli's failure, both as a parent and as a priest, had the most devastating impact on the nation of Israel. As the spiritual leader, Eli had the opportunity to influence the nation of Israel in the ways of the Lord. And he could have used his position in the temple to great effect. He could have encouraged a return to the old paths and to the ways of true religion. But Eli felt Although he lived in the temple, he did not take control of life in the temple. Rather, his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were men who ran amok and sought to do as whatever pleased them in their own hearts and in their own lives. Those two men were sons of Belial. They had no real interest in spiritual things. Rather, they abused their position and committed the worst kinds of wickedness, and that within the grounds of the house of God. For example, we know from the opening chapters of 1 Samuel that they despised the sacrifice and they made themselves fat on what really belonged to the Lord. They refused to obey the rules and the regulations for true worship. They discouraged the hearts of the people. And besides all of that, they went as far as to commit fornication and immorality as the people came to worship. Hophni and Phinehas were wicked and sinful, in the extreme as they lived there in that particular place. And their father Eli, while not partaking of their sin, did nothing to hinder them in their sin. He did not restrain his sons. He did not remove his sons. And in fact, God charged Eli with honoring his sons more than honoring him. It was a dreadful situation. The house of God had been turned into a den of iniquity, and that in turn led to the nation of Israel suffering horrendous losses. They were defeated by the Philistines. In 1 Samuel chapter 4, we have a record there of one of the many battles that took place between these two particular nations. But it was not a glorious day for Israel. They expected victory, but they suffered defeat. And we discover in verse 2 of that chapter that Israel was smitten before the Philistines, and they slew of the army in the field about 4,000 men. Essentially, what's taking place there is that the nation of Israel can no longer stand against their enemies. And that failure was an account of their sin. Furthermore, they suffered the loss of the Ark of the Covenant. There are numerous references in that same chapter, 1 Samuel 4, to the fact that the Ark of the Lord was taken by the Philistines. Israel had treated the Ark almost like a magical relic, bringing it into the battle, thinking that would be the solution. But the Philistines had captured it. And for the first time in the history, since the ark was made, they were without the ark of the Lord. A devastating thing had taken place. And their add to that was the fact that the glory of God departed from the nation. Because of the sin of Eli's family, God withdrew from the people. And that generation at that time became known, became identified with the word Ichabod. The glory has departed. And God was no longer amongst his people as once he had been. Their rebellion had led to his withdrawal. The absence of the Ark was a symbol or a token of that, and Echavod had been written across the nation. Sin had come at an awful price, and that's how it was for the next number of years in Israel. For though the Philistines returned the Ark and it tarried for a while in the house of Abinadab, It was not restored to its proper place for some considerable time. Those years were years of failure, years of despair, years of barrenness, years of sin, not only in Eli's family, but sin among many other families in Israel also. And that had resulted in God's people losing out with God. In many ways, the nation was in a spiritual mess. But in 1 Samuel chapter 7, things begin to change. One writer aptly described it, suddenly there was a break in this embarrassing downward march in spirituality. What you have in 1 Samuel chapter 7 is essentially a chapter of revival or a chapter of restoration. And central to that was the work and the ministry of Samuel, the prophet of God. Is it not true that we long for revival in the church? We long for revival in our respective countries. We long for revival across the work of God, across the world. And we certainly need revival within our own souls. Individually and personally, we need a move of God. We need the Lord to stir our hearts afresh, to quicken us, to awaken us, to revive us, to bring us into that place where we can know His blessing and enjoy His blessing also. While 1 Samuel chapter 7 is in a national context, I think there are tremendous personal lessons for us here tonight. And as we come to our season of prayer, those lessons that I want to draw your attention to from these two verses especially. 1 Samuel 7 verses 2 and 3. The beginnings of a move, the beginning of a stirring in the nation, the beginning of a turning point for these people. And may God bring us that way even tonight in our own lives. What I want you to notice first of all from verse 2 is the spiritual moving amongst God's people. For many years now, and especially during the time of Eli's sin, the sins of his family, the nation of Israel had grown cold and grown careless towards God. There was little desire for the Lord's blessing. True religion had become a thing of superstition. There was no real heart for God, no real effort to return on to Him. Things were at low ebb spiritually. But it didn't stay that way forever. Because 1 Samuel 7 records the fact that the time came when Israel began to seek after God again. Look at verse 2, the latter part of it. For it was twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. The word lament there I think it's much more expressive in the Hebrew than it is in the English. It's a word that means to weel after, or to mourn for, or to cry for. One commentator has likened it to the crying of a child after its parents that it may be relieved of whatever happens to be wrong with it. It pictures a very intense desire. The same words used in Ezekiel 32 in verse 18, and there it's translated by the English word weel. In Micah 2, verse 4, it's used again, and this time it's translated by the phrase, lamenting with a doleful lamentation. And when it's used in this context, in 1 Samuel chapter 7, it indicates that there was rising within the hearts of God's people a fresh desire for God's presence. They wanted to know Him in their midst again. They were crying after God. And notice how it's put in verse 2, All the House of Israel lamented after the Lord. They were not merely crying for a political solution. They were not merely seeking something that would deal with the Philistines and save the nation in a military kind of fashion. They were not looking for something that would reverse the fortunes of the people in a temporal or social way. They were lamenting after the Lord. And you'll notice it was all the house of Israel lamenting after him. They realized that the Lord had not been in their midst for some time. And they longed for him to return and occupy his rightful place among them again. To put it very simply, what you have in verse 2 is a new concern, a fresh concern after God. And surely that was a sign of a spiritual awakening. a moving amongst God's people, and it was the beginning of a gracious move in this particular chapter. You'll notice that this longing after God came about after the faithful preaching of God's Word. While Israel had lost out with God for some considerable time, God still showed tremendous mercy to them in the raising up of a prophet. If you turn back to 1 Samuel chapter 3 and verse 19 through to 21, you have a record there of Samuel being established as the prophet of God in the opening part of 1st Samuel 3 you have his call his conversion and then verse 19 we discovered that Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and That let none of his words fall to the ground and all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord and the Lord appeared again in Shiloh for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord God had raised up a prophet He had raised up a man, a man who would come to preach the Word. And therefore, the Word of God was still being preached at this time. And as Samuel was preaching the Word, going on that circuit from Gilgal and those various other areas where he was in Israel, as he went and preached the Word, that Word began to penetrate the hearts. It was making an impact. It was good seed. It brought forth a harvest for God's glory. And Samuel kept on preaching. And as Samuel preached the Word, God's Word did not return void. Until we come to this point, and all the house of Israel are now crying after the Lord, wailing after Him that the Lord might come amongst them again. There's one thing we need to do in times of barrenness, times of trouble, it is to pay particular heed to the Word of God. It's not always an easy thing to keep preaching in times of hardness spiritually. When things are happening, it's much easier. But things are difficult. It's much more difficult to keep on preaching. But God blesses the preaching of the word. And as that word is preached and hearts are spoken to you by God's spirit, there is within the hearts a stirring and a crying after God. It's true that this longing was genuine because it was from the heart. The word heart appears twice in the third verse. Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and ashtoreth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord. The work was real. These people have come to Samuel, and they're lamenting after the Lord. And Samuel is a man of discernment. He's a man of perception. And he says, If this is a work in your heart, then turn from your sin. Turn away from your false gods. Cry unto God. And here's a work that has been taking place within their heart. It's not just from the lips only. It's not people playing with words and playing with ideas. Their hearts have been moved. Moved by the power of the Holy Ghost and they're brought to see their desperate need for God to visit and blessing. Can't help but think of Joel. He cries there that they would rend their hearts and not their garments. It's one thing to speak about revival. It's one thing to pray about revival. It's one thing to read about revival. It's something else to have God work in our hearts and increase that desire within our soul. We can't contain that burden and it's a genuine work of God's Spirit. Notice too that this longing was freely and unashamedly expressed. The lamentation of verse 2 was no secret thing. There was a public dimension to it. It undoubtedly began in the secrecy of the heart. But it was given expression by their crying unto God. And that indicates to me that here were a people who were unashamed to acknowledge their need. Unashamed to come before certainly Samuel and as coming before Samuel, they're coming before the Lord and they're crying that God might move and intervene in their circumstances give them a blessing. This was something they were happy to pray over and as we have come to prayer tonight surely it's our longing as God moves in our heart and God stirs our soul as we lament after him and cry after God that that's given expression in our praying. Notice too that this longing after God involved solemn humility to lament or to wheel after God. revealed that these people realized their hopelessness and their helplessness without him. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. And surely that's the thought here. Here were people who knew that the future would be bleak for them, the future would be dark for them, if the Lord would not come and intervene on their behalf. And so with solemn humility they lament after Him. Tired of their sin. Tired of their circumstances. Tired of their failure. Tired of their defeat. And they start to yearn that they might know God amongst them again. Is that not what Christ spoke of in Matthew 5 when He addressed the issue of hungry and thirsting after righteousness? Not simply a desire For holiness, though, it has that aspect to it. It's a desire to know the Lord who has made unto us righteousness. A hungering after His presence. A thirsting to know His power. A yearning for His blessing. A craving that the Lord would come again and make Himself known amongst us in His power. Think of Psalm 42, verses 1 and 2, as the heart panteth after the water brooks. So panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. Picture there's an obvious one as the heart of the deer standing by their dry river bed, panting for the water brooks. Sides heaving, looking for the water, crying out for the stream. And the psalmist says, so panteth, so crieth out my soul after thee, O God. The word pant there has the thought of looking upwards or longing for. And the psalmist was looking upward. He was longing to know the Lord. He pined for the Lord, that the Lord might come amongst them and bless them again. The same intense desire is found there in Isaiah 64. And verse 1, O that thou wouldest rend the heavens and come down. And you can almost visualize the prophet there lifting his eyes heavenward, panting, looking to the Lord and crying, O that thou wouldest rend those heavens and come down. The mountains would flow down at thy presence. The prophet realized his greatest need was to have the Lord amongst his people. and therefore he longed for such a move." Is that not our desire tonight as we come here? Is that not the desire of our hearts? Do we desire God's presence more than anything else? To keep with the language of the text, are we lamenting after him? Or can we come and go and not really have a burden to know the Lord amongst us. Oh, that God would move in our hearts and stir our souls in this direction. When you think of the beginnings of revival in 1859, and that's the anniversary year this year, you can trace it back to God placing a desire in the hearts of young men, men who had been converted, and God places a desire in their hearts. that they might know him amongst them. They began to lament after the Lord. There's a spiritual moving in this chapter that marks the beginning of a time of blessing. Notice then in the second place the solemn message to God's people. Israel's cry after God prompted A very swift response from Samuel. Look at verse 2 again. And all is the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtoreth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only. And he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. I don't think it's any surprise that Samuel acted immediately here. He had been preaching. He had been calling for repentance. He had been watching. He had been praying. He had been longing for such a change of heart. And now when it's evident that God has started to work, He has a message for the people. Yearning for God is good. But there are other things that we must pay attention to. And in verse 3, there are three particular matters. There's the matter of separation. He says in verse 3, If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you." There were strange gods in the nation of Israel. They had imbibed the spirit of some of those nations around them. And now at this time of God beginning to move, they are counseled to put away those strange gods. If you turn in your Bible to Genesis chapter 35 and verse 2, you have similar words there. the life of Jacob, when he has been away from Bethel for some considerable time, that place where he met with the Lord, the house of God. And after some time, the Lord calls him back, and in Genesis 35 and verse 1, you have these words, God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto God that appeared unto thee, when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. Then Jacob said unto his household, And to all that were with him, put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments, and let us arise, and go up to Bethel. And I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went." He was to put away the strange gods. Before he would go to Bethel, before he would have the altar there, before he would meet with God there, he had to put away the strange gods, his households, had gathered up these matters and had adopted these things from those nations around them. And now when God is beginning to deal with Jacob again and speak with His servant again, He has to put away those things. How important that is for us tonight. We must not hold on to our strange gods, our secret sins, our disobedience to the Lord. I can't help but think that those people in Samuel's day had divided loyalties. They in one way lamented after the Lord and at the same time they had these strange gods. Samuel says if your heart is in this, if this is the case of all your heart, then you've got to put away those strange gods. There's got to be separation, you've got to put away that sin, you've got to yield yourself to God. Is that not vital for this day? There are times when even Christians have their idols, their pet sins, flesh, the world, lusts, affections, things that beset us, and we must be done with them. We must be done with them. In Euridic Ephesians chapter 5, And the command there to be not drunk with wine when is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Obviously what Paul is teaching there is that the Christian is to have a life that's in stark contrast to the life of the world. And in that chapter, chapter 5, there's a tremendous emphasis upon contrast. He says in verse 3, But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, is become a seance, neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting. which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks. There he draws the contrast. He speaks in verse 7, Be ye not therefore partakers with them. He is speaking of those who are the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. There is another but, another contrast. Verse 11, Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. There's another but, another contrast. And right throughout that chapter, Paul emphasizes that the Christian is to be different. And as we look and long for revival, we've got to put the strange gods away. It's not a strange thing that some believers can talk about revival, maybe even pray about revival, And yet hold on to their sin. Refuse to give it up. The very thing that has caused God to withdraw. It's the very thing they're loath to give up. There was a call here for separation. There was a call for preparation in verse 3. Samuel goes on and he tells them, put away the strange gods of Ashtaroth from among you and prepare your hearts unto the Lord. Literally, it's fix your hearts unto the Lord. And if the first part of the verse has a negative thought in it, putting away the strange gods, then this part is positive. They were to be fixed upon the Lord. They were to prepare their hearts unto the Lord. And in verse 2, they were lamenting after the Lord. And now Samuel tells them, you've got to prepare yourself and your hearts unto the Lord, or fix your hearts on the Lord. Be firm. Be steadfast. Be settled in your desires after God. Be settled in your devotion to God. Be settled in your dedication for God. Be settled in your determination to go on with God. Be settled in your distinctiveness for God. They were to prepare their hearts and resolve that they would go through with God whatever the cost would be. Fix your heart upon the Lord. Remember what Barnabas told the new believers at Antioch in Acts chapter 11? They were with purpose of heart to cleave unto the Lord, to hold fast there, to be steadfast. Is that not a need of this present hour as well? When he had seen the grace of God, he was glad. He exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. The psalmist speaks of having his heart fixed on the Lord. He would not be afraid in the day of evil tidings. So we must have our hearts prepared and fixed onto the Lord. Separation, preparation, there's also consecration, verse 3. Serve Him only. Serve Him only. That comes really to the very crux of the matter. The Israelites were wavering. They were undecided. They were double-minded. They had their strange gods, yet they spoke of returning to the Lord. And so Samuel urges them to serve God, and he emphasizes it with the word, only. Serve Him only. Remember Elijah, the top of Carmel, before those showers of rain came? He challenged the people. How long halt ye between two opinions? God be God, then serve Him. It was time for a decision. So it ought to be with us. We must not seek to serve God and man. God and the world. A foot in the world and a foot with the Lord. Mixing the world into our Christianity. Mixing our Christianity up with the world. It amazes me sometimes that some can sing the world's music and follow the world's trends and think all is well. There has to be something wrong there. We must serve him only. It's a narrow command. No room for divided hearts here. But this was the solemn message that Samuel brought. They were lamenting after the Lord. Samuel said, well, here's what we've got to do. I'm sure that's what God would say to us tonight as we get to prayer. Notice the supreme ministry for God's people. As Israel returned to God and they did obey this message in verse four, they discover that the son of Israel did put away Balaam and Ashtoreth and serve the Lord only. As this work begins to develop, Samuel comes very much to the fore. He has acted there in verse 3 as their prophet. And then we discover him in verse 5 as the priest. Samuel said, gather all Israel to Mizbe and I will pray for you unto the Lord. Verse 10 we discover Samuel offering up the burnt offering. The Philistines are drawing near to battle. The Lord thunders a great thunder that day upon the Philistines and discomforts them. and they're smitten before him, then you have victory there. So you have a prophet and you have a priest and you have victory, and it draws my mind to the thought of a king. You have Samuel as God's man, certainly God's prophet, certainly God's priest. Who does that point us to? But to Christ himself. And the nation now are being prayed for by Samuel. I will pray for you unto the Lord. In verse 8, they cry to Samuel, cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us. Verse 9, and Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him. Three times you have this reference to prayer. The praying of the man of God. You can't read that, surely, and not think of the one who prays for us. Our great high priest. And believe me, if we're going to know revival, then we've got to deal much with Christ. Christ is our prophet, our priest, and our king. Samuel prays for these people. As he's praying, as he's offering the sacrifice, the Philistines are drawing near, but they're defeated. God gives them a time of tremendous victory until Samuel raises up the stone, calls it Ebenezer, and says, hitherto hath the Lord helped us. God blessed the people. He answered the prayers that Samuel offered. The Lord heard him. The Lord answered. And we have a great high priest in glory. And the Lord answers him. Our Heavenly Father regards the prayers of His Son. And therefore we can come tonight with confidence as we pray because Christ is praying for us. And may the Lord give us a heart that laments after Him. May He give us a heart that puts away the strange gods, a heart that's fixed and a heart that serves him and serves him only. And as these people cry to Samuel, may we cry unto our great high priest tonight. May the Lord thunder forth and give us a victory that we will have cause tonight to say hitherto hath the Lord help us. May the Lord bless his word to our hearts and help us as we get to prayer. For Jesus' sake.