Things We Can Learn From Lost People 1 Sam. 4:1-11 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
In this sermon we are going to look at some things that we can learn from lost people. We will look at two examples in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament. I realize that in the Old Testament no one was saved like we are today. So when we look at the two examples from the Old Testament these are non Jews who would have most likely worshipped other gods. With that being said our examples show forth some good character traits that we should have today as saved people. The sad things is that many times even in today’s world there are lost people with better character than saved people.
1) Courage of the Philistines (1 Samuel 4:1-11)
- In the passage the children of Israel are in a battle with the Philistines. They lost about 4000 men on the first day of the battle.
- The Israelites gather themselves together and send for the ark of the covenant because they think that will save them. When the ark of the covenant does show up they rejoice and shout with a shout so loud that when the Philistines heard it they were afraid because they knew that the ark of the covenant had come into the camp.
- The Philistines also knew that where the ark was that God was and they were afraid that they would lose the battle.
- Note in verse 9 that the Philistines encouraged themselves with the phrase “quit yourselves like men”. Now they may have not of known that God was against the Israelites at this time and that they were going to win the battle anyway, but they showed courage any way even though they thought that they would lose the battle and fought hard and won.
- We as saved people need courage today to make a difference in the wicked world in which we live (1 Corinthians 16:13)
- Note how much courage is mentioned when Joshua is taking over for Moses (Joshua 1:5-9)
- David encourages himself in the Lord (1 Samuel 30:6). And note also in Psalm 27:14 and Psalm 31:24 that when we show courage that God strengthens us.
2) Integrity of Abimelech (Genesis 20:1-18)
- In this passage Abraham goes down into Gerar. When he is there he is afraid that they will kill him and take his wife for their own so he tells Abimelech that she is his sister.
- Abimelech takes Sarah but does not marry her and is told by God in a dream that she is really Abraham’s wife. God also tells Abimelech that he is a dead man unless he returns Sarah to Abraham.
- Note that in verse 5 Abimelech says that he done this in the integrity of his heart. God confirms that Abimelech has integrity in verse 6.
- Simply put integrity is doing right whether there is anyone to see it or not.
- Note the integrity of Job (Job 2:3,9 and 31:6)
- Integrity should be our guide ()Proverbs 11:3)
- Integrity affects the next generation (Proverbs 20:7)
- We need some saved people with integrity today!
3) Faith of the Centurion (Luke 7:1-10)
- This is the passage where Jesus heals the centurion’s servant. The unique thing here is that the centurion is a Roman and yet Jesus says that this man has more faith than any one he has found in Israel.
- We live in a day like David spoke of when there are not many faithful people anymore (Psalm 12:1). We can ask the question just like Solomon “a faithful man who can find” (Proverbs 20:6).
- It is interesting to note that this man’s faith was placed in the word of Jesus (verse 7). Our faith should be placed in the word of God also.
- The other interesting thing is that the real issue of faith is authority (verses 6-8).
We should take lessons from these lost people so to speak and never let it be said by the next generation that they had no good examples of courage, integrity, and faithfulness.