Sermons
Covenantally Courageous Fathers (1 Samuel 2:12, 1 Samuel 2:22-30, 1 Samuel 3:11-13, Luke 2:52)
Pastor Ralph A. Rebandt, II, June 6, 2010Part of the Covenants series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
All of us set examples to those around us—to friends, co-workers, neighbors , family, and especially our children. What are covenantally courageous parents? This 1 Samuel text, like many others in Scripture, compares and contrasts situations where God places parents and particularly men over their families, the results of their leadership, and the inevitable accountability that follows. Vivid is the contrast in parenting between Eli, and the wicked behavior of sons Hophni and Phinehas, with Elkanah and Hannah, and their young priestly intern Samuel. Just because our children are around the church doesn’t mean we have done our job as Christian parents. Learn more …
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1 Samuel 2:12
12 Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord. (ESV)
1 Samuel 2:22-30
22 Now Eli was very old, and he kept hearing all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who were serving at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 23 And he said to them, “Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people. 24 No, my sons; it is no good report that I hear the people of the Lord spreading abroad. 25 If someone sins against a man, God will mediate for him, but if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?” But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the Lord to put them to death.
26 Now the young man Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and also with man.
27 And there came a man of God to Eli and said to him, “Thus the Lord has said, ‘Did I indeed reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharaoh? 28 Did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel. 29 Why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?’ 30 Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,’ but now the Lord declares: ‘Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. (ESV)
1 Samuel 3:11-13
11 Then the Lord said to Samuel, “Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. 12 On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. 13 And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. (ESV)
Luke 2:52
52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. (ESV)
