Useless No More

Today, we're gonna be back in the book of 1 Samuel, which we're studying all this fall in a series called "After God's Own Heart." And today, we're picking up in 1 Samuel chapter 2. If you want to find the Bible in the pew, it's on page 234. It's also going to be on the screen behind me. Page 234, starting at verse 12. We're going to read together through verse 29 and then skip down to verse 35. So if you want to join your voices with mine.

Eli's sons were wicked men. They did not respect the Lord or the priest's share of the sacrifices from the people. When anyone offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come with a three-pronged meat fork while the meat was boiling and plunge it into the cauldron or cooking pot. The priest would claim for himself whatever the meat fork brought up. This is the way they treated all the Israelites who came there to Shiloh. Even before the fat was burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the one who was sacrificing, "Give the priest some meat to eat because he won't accept boiled meat from you, only raw." If that person said to him, "The fat must be burned first, then you can take whatever you want for yourself," the servant would reply, "No. I insist that you hand it over right now. If you don't, I'll take it by force." So the servant's sin was very severe in the presence of the Lord because the men treated the Lord's offering with contempt.

Samuel served in the Lord's presence. This mere boy was dressed in the linen ephod. Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice. Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, "May the Lord give you children by this woman in place of the one she has given to the Lord." Then they went home. The Lord paid attention to Hannah's need and she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord.

Now Eli was very old. He heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they were sleeping with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting. He said to them, "Why are you doing these things? I have heard about your evil actions from all these people. No, my sons, the news I hear of the Lord's people spreading is not good. If one person sins against another, God can intercede for him. But if a person sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?" But they would not listen to their father, since the Lord intended to kill them.

By contrast, the boy Samuel grew in stature and in favor with the Lord and with people.

A man of God came to Eli and said to him, "This is what the Lord says: Didn't I reveal myself to your forefathers' family when they were in Egypt and belonged to Pharaoh's palace? Out of all the tribes of Israel, I chose your house to offer sacrifices on my altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod in my presence. I also gave your forefathers' family all the Israelite food offerings. Why then do you despise my sacrifices and offerings that I require at the place of worship? You have honored your sons more than me by making yourself fat with the best part of the offerings of Israel."

There's verse 35: "Then I will raise up a faithful priest for myself. He will do whatever is in my heart and mind. I will establish a lasting dynasty for him and he will walk before my anointed one for all time."

— 1 Samuel 2:12-29, 35

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

I know in your house, like my house, we have beautiful things and we have useful things, and we try not to confuse those. So you would never put a vase for flowers in your toolbox. You would never mount a screwdriver on your dining room wall. You would never hang a painting in the garage next to the rakes. You would never put the blender on your mantle, because you know the difference. You know the difference between what is useful and what is beautiful.

But to make a category mistake there is something that is silly when it comes to home implements, but is devastating when it comes to God and to other people. This story is a tragedy about those who forgot the difference—about what is beautiful and what is useful, what is to be loved and served versus what is to be used.

Here's my main idea: the gospel can turn us from people who use God and other people into people God can use.

And here's my outline, right on the front of your bulletin there, the front inside cover: "The Useless Users" and "Useless to Useful."

So the priests here, Eli's sons, Hophni and Phineas—not Phineas and Ferb, that may be the Phineas you know, but Hophni and Phineas are given one of the most frightening labels in all of the Bible. Look at verse 12.

Eli's sons were wicked men. They did not respect the Lord. — 1 Samuel 2:12

Now that phrase "wicked men" literally is "sons of Belial" and it means worthless. It's the same word that Hannah used in our passage last week where she's praying in the tabernacle and Eli thinks she's drunk and she's like, "I'm not a worthless woman. I'm not a daughter of Belial." But actually the best translation of this—my favorite—is "completely useless." And I think about that. Like, why would God ever put that label on a person's life? Doesn't that feel a little harsh? Completely useless? That's quite a verdict.

We're going to see in this passage what's happening. But here's what I want you to think about. We might think of somebody as useless—somebody who's useless to the Lord—maybe they have a lot of doubts. Maybe it's a person who's really stumbled a lot on their journey or doesn't have many gifts. But this is the definition though for what God says is useless: a person who confuses what's beautiful and what's useful and therefore becomes useless. Let me show you.

Hophni and Phineas had the right family—priest family. They had the right clothes, they had the garb of the priest, they had access to the sacrifices, access to the tabernacle—and yet they don't respect the Lord. That's a powerful warning for us. For anybody who's grown up in the church, it's easy over time to become calloused to the holy things of God. You can grow up around the things of God without ever knowing the God of those things. The Bible warns us against relying on our spiritual heritage. "My daddy was a preacher," position, "I'm a deacon, Sunday school teacher"—privileges that God's given us as some sort of merit badge because proximity to the gospel isn't the same thing as personal relationship with God. In fact, being around those things can make us hard-hearted over time.

And of course this applies especially to people like me—people who are pastors or on church staff whose job is handling holy things. And it's a job hazard for those who work in the church. It's easy to become callous to this. I have a heart grow cold because I'm serving him every day. But I just want you to think about this: There are no priests in God's church anymore. Nobody's making sacrifices. And let me nuance that a little bit more. It's not that there are no priests, it's that we're all priests. That's how the New Testament views you.

You are a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices accepted to God through Christ Jesus. — 1 Peter 2:5

You are a kingdom and priests to serve our God. — Revelation 5:10

So I just want to remind you, this is a hazard for you, for every person in this room. It's one thing to be around the holy things of God. It's another thing to really know the God of those holy things.

The Matter of the Meat

And the case study that we read about this morning, which may seem odd to you—about cooking meat in a pot—this is sort of like Exhibit A in Hophni and Phineas' journey. So the details here: the book of Deuteronomy prescribes that when a family brings a sacrifice in, they boil the meat and a portion of that is given to the priest for their sustenance. The fat is burned off and a portion of that is given back to their family for them to enjoy and feast on in God's presence.

And what happens here, though, with this little description of the three-pronged fork—did you notice that in the passage? Hophni and Phineas are beginning to change the rules. They're beginning to change the rules to suit themselves. They are not people who serve God; they serve their appetites. And I have to ask this question for us: Is that not a temptation for us as well? If we're all priests, we have some of the same problems and temptations as Eli's boys.

Like this: Do I want the best parts of a life with God without giving myself to the Lord? Do I want the benefits of belonging to God without the costs of belonging to God? Do I want forgiveness without repentance? Do I want to have the fat portion of God's blessings in my life without offering him the best of myself?

See, this is a temptation for all of us. It gets worse because Hophni and Phineas refuse to wait on the meat to be done boiling. They begin pushing. They begin demanding, "Give it to me now." They want the raw meat before it's cooked because they want the fatty portions for themselves. And they begin to say things like this: "I'll take what I want when I want it."

Now that is the very definition of sin. I want you to think about this. We think of sin as doing bad things, but it's much more than that. It's the "I know better" mindset. It's the "I know better" heart that's at the root of all of our sinning. Sin is not wanting something bad, just that. Sin is saying, "God, I will decide."

I will decide what belongs to me and I will take it. Or I will only obey God if it makes sense to me and if it's working out and benefiting me right now. See, how many of us finish that not worshiping God—they use God and they're using God's people. And it gets worse, right? They become even bolder. They begin sleeping with women at the entrance of the tent of meeting. It's like they're saying, "Hey, I've gotten away with this so far. Nobody, God doesn't seem to care. Nothing's happened to me." And so they're emboldened.

And verse 17 gives this really scary verdict:

So the servant's sin was very severe in the presence of the Lord because the men treated the Lord's offering with contempt. — 1 Samuel 2:17

They have on their head a turban that says holy to the Lord and yet they're acting like I don't even know the Lord. It's God belongs to me. I don't belong to him.

See, I want us to think about this this morning. Again, the category mistake of the vase put in the toolbox, the screwdriver hung on the wall, the blender on the mantle, the painting next to the rakes. There's a way for people who have been around God for a long time to not worship Him, but use Him. There's a way we do this with other people. We become those who, instead of serving and loving others that God has put in our lives, we become those who use other people. I think there's a little bit of Hophni and Phineas in every one of us.

Samuel's Example

By contrast, you get this picture of little Samuel. This is what it says in verse 12:

Samuel remained behind, left there by his parents to minister in the house of Eli. — 1 Samuel 2:12

Samuel's life is oriented toward God. He's there to serve God and he's growing up this little boy in the tabernacle with Eli's family. And verse 26:

Now the boy Samuel grew in stature and in favor with God and with people. — 1 Samuel 2:26

That's not just a statement about Samuel's marks on the hall growth chart. Any of you have had those growing up where your parents marked that off? This isn't just saying he's getting bigger. The words there imply he's getting greater. He's growing not just on the outside, but on the inside. By contrast, Hophni and Phineas are growing smaller spiritually.

Most spiritual growth isn't dramatic. I know we'd like it to be. You think like, "I should be really mature at this point," but spiritual growth is little bits at a time. Time in the morning with the Lord, little bits of time in His word, little things in your life that you become more sensitive to and you're willing to give the Lord access to. "Lord, I need you to speak into this part of my life." It's like the little boy's robe that gets bigger in size every year. It's incremental. It's small things often.

Let me ask you this. Are you growing? Is something happening in your life of substance spiritually? We're very aware of whether our assets are growing. We're very aware of the prices growing. We're very aware of maybe our kids growing, but do you know about you? Ask the Lord. "Am I becoming someone who more and more serves him and knows him or uses him?"

The Useless Parent

So there's the useless priest. There's also the useless parent here. Things get worse and worse with the sons. So this nameless man of God shows up at Eli's house. Now it's never good in the Bible when the nameless man of God shows up at your house, right? And this guy comes in, rebukes Eli and says this, speaking on behalf of God:

Didn't I reveal myself to your father's family? And didn't I choose you? And didn't I give you all these things?

It's a devastating litany of all the ways that Eli has forgotten who he is and what he's supposed to be doing. And this is the heart of Eli's failure. You realize that, yes, his sons are sinning boldly because they love themselves. But Eli is passive because he loves his sons more than he loves God.

Eli's not like his sons in every respect. I mean, he's not the one who's doing the sinning, but he's benefiting from it every night at dinnertime. He's eating on the food that's coming in. And he's speaking up saying, "Hey, this is wrong," but he's not doing anything to stop them. Eli loved his sons more than he loved the holiness of God. And by failing to discipline them, he implicitly says, "This is okay." He's also receiving the benefits of this. He's using his sons for what they can gift him. In another way you could say, like Eli's sons, he's using God and also using people.

Now, again, this is very us. It is very us to make the category mistake, to think that silence or passivity in relationships is just nothing when it's actually something. Remaining silent when you're watching someone actively sin against the Lord and against other people is deep spiritual danger.

You know, what we see here is the danger for a lot of parents. A lot of parents, you know, we can't control your children, not ultimately.

You can't control how your children will turn out, but one of the most dangerous things for parents is remaining silent or passive, especially as our kids are getting older. Eli loved his sons enough to confront them verbally, but not sacrificially. He's not willing to put the relationship on the line. You can't control whether your kids will follow Jesus, parents in the room, but you can refuse to make idols out of their happiness or success or reputation or approval.

That can look like protecting your child from their reputation when they're doing things that are wrong. It could mean excusing sin because that's just how they are. Refusing to discipline because you don't want conflict. Man, that's a hard one. I'm just tired. Tired of the battles. Making your child's happiness the ultimate goal, making your child's activities the ultimate things, demanding nothing spiritually out of them because you worry about their losing their affection. Your child is a terrific gift but a terrible savior. A terrible savior. You were never meant to build your life around a child.

By contrast, you see Hannah. If Eli is physically present but spiritually absent from his boys, Hannah is at a distance. She's physically absent but spiritually present to her son. We have this little detail about her making a robe every year that's just a little bit bigger. I remember our boys would grow and you'd look down and you're like, those pants did not used to be four inches too short. Like what happened to you? And she keeps every year going up a size for him, making a little robe and she brings it to the festival. It's a picture of a mom who's doing something to aid her son's growth in God.

And this is what I have to ask you as parents: you can't make your children follow Jesus, but you can make it easier or harder for them to see that Jesus is worth following. Are you showing them Jesus?

Can the Useless Be Made Useful?

Can the useless be made useful? This is actually the question that Eli sort of asks in verse 25. Is there any hope for useless people? People who sin by using other people, people who sin by their silence. Is there hope for us?

If a person sins against another person, God can intercede for him. But if a person sins against God, who can intercede for him?

This question is not answered until the New Testament. You have to flip over. Only Jesus can do this. Only Jesus can intercede and change us from people who are selfish and people who use other people and use God to those who are actually useful because we serve other people. We love other people. We love God.

Own Your Own Guilt

Number one, own your own guilt. Look at verse 25. Did you notice this phrase? It's a jarring phrase.

For it was the Lord's will to put them to death.

Anybody freaked out by that one this morning? Yes, I hope so. That is a jarring statement. God judging people? I don't want a God like that. God willing someone's death.

So I want to ask you to think about that in two ways. First, do you think it's wrong for God to judge people who abuse other people? Would you be okay with God judging someone who's spiritually abusing and hurting other people? Most people are like, yeah, I would. There's lots of stories in the news about this and they make us angry and should. In fact, one of our issues is more impatience about like, why doesn't God do something? Do you feel that sometimes? Like, why hasn't God—God, where are you? Don't you see this person who's harming other people in your name?

In indicting other people's sins, do you see that we're actually indicting ourselves? Remember the definition of sin in this passage: if it seems good to me, it's okay for me. I know best. I'll take what I want when I want it. I will obey God only if it makes sense or if it benefits me right now. I mean, look in the mirror, friends.

By the measure you judge, you will be judged.

So when we're angry about this, we gotta remember we're talking about ourselves. We're guilty, all of us, of using other people, passivity, wanting people to like us more than we are willing to speak something that's true. Like Hofney and Phineas, we may be people who have no respect from the Lord if we think we can rewrite what he says to suit what we want. Like Eli's boys, when we use God or use other people, it's like taking a screwdriver and hanging it on the wall. We're distorting something. We're using something in a way it's not designed to be used.

If all sin is using God, then the wages of sin is, and I hate to tell you this, is death. But that's not the end of the story. This passage highlights to us. It kind of screams, there is one coming. There's a greater Samuel. It's such a hopeful passage.

God says, verse 35:

I will raise up a faithful priest for myself who will do everything that's according to my heart and in my mind.

That's the phrase we're coming back to this fall—after God's own heart. God is gonna raise up a faithful priest after his own heart. And he's not talking about Samuel. Samuel will serve for a brief time as a priest of God. The house of Samuel will serve a brief time, but that priesthood will die out. And it's pointing us to Jesus.

God's answer for Eli's failure isn't, "Hey, try to have some better sons." No. The hope of Israel is not that Eli's gonna fix this, that Samuel's gonna fix this. Listen to what God says: "I'm gonna fix this. I'm gonna give you this kind of faithful priest in Jesus."

In the immediate story, the promise is looking down the road. This is what we can put together—owning our guilt and looking to the greater Samuel right here in verse 25:

It was the Lord's will to put him to death.

That is echoed in the New Testament. In Acts chapter two, right after the resurrection of Jesus, Peter stands up and preaches to this huge crowd and he says, "Guess what? It was God's will to put this man, Jesus, to death for you as your substitute. This is how the Lord will intercede so that our sins are forgiven. He himself will step in to that place. He will take all of that on him."

All of the guilt for the way that we manipulate people, we fear their good opinion more than we speak truth, the way we tend to use people—all of that put on Jesus, all of that forgiven because of him.

The Gospel Makes Us Useful

So here's my call for you this morning: Would you let the grace of God transform you? Useless no more. Useless no more.

In the New Testament, there's the book of Philemon. It's so short that it doesn't have any chapters—it just has verses. It's a little tiny book that packs a really big punch. Paul is writing to this man, Philemon, who had a member of his household—a servant—who probably stole from him and disappeared. Somehow Paul crosses paths with this guy whose name is Onesimus and writes this letter to Philemon.

He's like, "This guy has become a believer. You should take him back as a brother in Christ and welcome him back into your home and forgive him and restore him."

Here's what's shocking about this: there's a little play on words in the book of Philemon. The word Onesimus—the guy's actual name—means "useful." Paul's writing, "This guy was useless to you before. He stole from you. He abandoned you. He was useless. Once he was useless to you, now he is useful to you and me." Little Paul dad humor for you for Sunday morning, right?

He's saying the gospel has the power to make people who are users and thieves and those who manipulate and those who fear another person's opinion more than they do speaking the truth into people who can change. Only the gospel can do this in our lives. Only the gospel can do this.

Some of you have spent your whole Christian lives trying to prove that you're useful. Some of you have spent your whole Christian lives feeling absolutely useless. And those are, can I be honest, usually dumb human comparisons, because you're looking around at other people and you measure. God throws away the measuring tape. At the cross it is nailed. There is no more measurement. Sons and daughters don't have to prove themselves. You're part of the family.

Do you hear the invitation really kind of behind this passage? It's not "Stop sinning." It's "Come home." Brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, this is what God's done for you in Christ. Useless becomes useful. You have all of the forgiveness and righteousness of Christ given to you.

You're Not in the Junk Drawer

You know that junk drawer that you have at home? I'm kind of on a theme of cleaning out the house right now, so just bear with me. You know the junk drawer that everybody has in their house? You're like, "What is happening in here?" It just multiplies. Every once in a while you pull open the drawer and you're like, "That's what that thing is. Oh, I thought that was junk. I just remembered what that thing goes to—and it's useful to me."

This is a picture of the gospel. You're not useless junk. The Lord has incredible purposes for you, brothers and sisters. Can you remember this morning who you are? And that's part of Hophni and Phineas' problem—they forgot who they were. Holy to the Lord written on their very heads. The privileges given to you, the rights as sons and daughters, forgiven, restored, useful to the Lord. You're not in the junk drawer of Jesus. You are so valued. Let God's grace make you useful again.

In the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, amen. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for your word. There's nothing like your word. Give us hope for ourselves today where we confess we can be really negative about the person in the mirror. Lord help us to measure the way you measure. Help us to remember that we are sons and daughters of the most high God. Help us to find our use in you. We pray this in Christ's name, amen.

Let's respond to God's word together in song.