August 22, 2025 • 27 mins
What would it feel like to live in a world completely free from evil? Jesus offers us precisely this—a kingdom characterized by the total absence of evil and filled instead with righteousness, peace, and joy. This reality stands in stark contrast to the corrupt priesthood we encounter in 1 Samuel 2.
As we explore the story of Eli and his wicked sons, we discover a sobering picture of religious leadership gone wrong. These priests exploited their sacred positions for personal gain, treating holy offerings with contempt and creating a spiritually oppressive atmosphere. Their self-serving approach reveals what happens when leaders forget their true calling to serve rather than be served.
Yet even in this corrupt environment, young Samuel was being raised—a powerful reminder that God's Word remains pure even when delivered through spiritually compromised vessels. Like seed that stays clean despite contact with death, divine truth maintains its potency regardless of who delivers it.
The contrast couldn't be more striking: while Eli's sons schemed for personal advantage, Jesus demonstrated true leadership by washing his disciples' feet. One approach creates division and heaviness; the other fosters an atmosphere where love can flourish freely. This difference matters profoundly in our churches and communities today.
For those in leadership positions, this serves as a sobering warning against exploitation and self-interest. For those under corrupt spiritual authority, it raises important questions about when to confront, when to remain quietly faithful, and when departure might become necessary. Whatever your situation, remember that we're all called to citizenship in a kingdom where evil has no place—and living as representatives of that reality changes everything around us.
Join us in exploring how to create atmospheres free from evil that attract others through authentic love. Your journey toward holy living doesn't depend on perfect circumstances but on connection to a perfect God.
Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved!
Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearoundthefire.com or Life Around The Fire ... We think you'll find some beneficial stuff to look at and apply to your life.
Shalom to you and your home.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
The amazing thing about Jesus is that in him, in
his presence and in his kingdom,there is no evil.
It's a complete absence of evil, a complete absence of evil in
(00:31):
him, in his kingdom, in hispresence.
Now I want you to hold on tothat thought, because we're
going to be coming back to that,but we are right now in the
early stages of taking a lookinto the book of 1 Samuel, and
(00:52):
it is a book in the OldTestament that is rich with
stories.
In fact, that's probably one of, if not the primary, reason why
I love it, along with 2 Samuel,along with 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1
Chronicles and 2 Chronicles, isthat they are full of stories,
(01:16):
some of the most famous storiesthat have ever been told.
And we are now in the book of 1Samuel, and again we've said
that it takes a person about twoand a half hours to read it out
loud, to read it with feeling,and that really, you know it's
(01:41):
not relative, it's a little bitof time, but it's relatively a
short period of time to read itout loud.
But in all reality, it took 100years worth of living for that,
this particular book, for thatpiece of history to be written
(02:01):
100 years.
So, once again, not everythingthat we read is happening right
away.
You know, it could seem likethat.
So in our own lives, whenthings aren't happening right
(02:26):
away, we can think it's notnecessarily that way.
There are years where thingsare sometimes barren, and it's
in those times that God isactually at work, but the way it
feels to us, those of us wholive in the realm of time and
(02:46):
space, is something's wrong.
Hannah was barren for yearsbefore she gave birth to Samuel,
and during that time she wastaunted, she was mocked, she was
ridiculed.
It was really uncomfortable, tosay the least.
(03:07):
And so if you're experiencingthings that are difficult,
really don't be too hard onyourself, because sometimes it's
in those times that things thattake place after they're done
(03:27):
are the most, or some of themore significant things that
take place.
So we're in chapter 2 of 1Samuel, and we're at the point
right now where we're going tobe starting to look at Eli, and
we're at the point right nowwhere we're going to be starting
to look at Eli.
(03:48):
He's the priest, the head ofthe priesthood, the high priest
in Shiloh, and he has two sons,hophni and Phinehas, and the
whole crew is really not livinga very upright life, they are
(04:11):
living a rather self-servinglife.
They've taken the priesthoodand turned it into kind of a
profession where they can getrich on it.
They take from the offeringsand they line their own
pocketbooks, so to speak.
(04:32):
If they had pocketbooks right,they line their own pockets with
the produce that should begiven to God, and so there's a
portion right now that we'regoing to be looking at.
That's pretty significant in thesense that there is some evil
going on and it's evil in thepriesthood and it doesn't
(05:00):
represent anything at all likethe character and nature of God.
God is holy, and holy inessence means absence of evil,
set apart, set apart from evil.
(05:21):
Evil does not exist in God,can't, can't.
And so when evil exists in thepriesthood and the priesthood is
supposed to represent God,there's a real problem, and we
(05:42):
see that taking place in manychurches in America, in England,
actually throughout the world,where there are people that are
there in a position ofleadership, that are there to do
it because it's a profession,it's a job.
They're as dead as dead can bespiritually, but they have found
(06:08):
that it's a way to make money,because religion sells, just
like sex sells.
Religion sells.
You can make money off ofreligion.
And so in chapter 2, we left offin verse 11, where Elkanah went
(06:30):
home to Ramah after he was inShiloh and he left behind him
Samuel.
Hannah and Elkanah left theirson, samuel, at the age of three
to be reared in the house ofthe Lord in Shiloh.
It was their offering to God totake their son and give him
(06:54):
over to the priesthood.
That's powerful.
So we pick up the story inchapter 2 at verse 12.
And the scripture says Eli'ssons were wicked men.
They had no regard for the Lord.
(07:19):
Now, it was the practice of thepriests with the people that
whenever anyone offered asacrifice, and while the meat
was being boiled, the servant ofthe priest would come with a
three frond pork in his hand.
He would plunge it into the panor kettle, cauldron or pot and
the priest would take forhimself whatever the fork
(07:39):
brought up.
This is how they treated allthe Israelites who came to
Shiloh.
But even before the fat wasburned, the servant of the
priest would come and say to theman who was sacrificing give
the priest some meat to roast.
He won't accept boiled meatfrom you, but only raw.
(08:02):
If the man said to him let thefat be burned first and then
take whatever you want.
The servant would then answerno, hand it over now.
If you don't, I'll take it byforce.
This sin of the young men wasvery great in the Lord's sight,
(08:24):
for they were treating theLord's offering with contempt.
But Samuel was ministeringbefore the Lord, a boy wearing a
linen ephod.
Each year, his mother made hima little robe and took it to him
.
When she went up with herhusband for the annual sacrifice
(08:44):
, eli would bless Elkanah andhis wife, saying may the Lord
give you children by this womanto take the place of the one she
prayed for and gave to the Lord.
Then they would go home and theLord was gracious to Hannah and
she conceived, gave birth tothree sons and two Verse 21.
(09:17):
Let's rewind Right Eli's sons.
They were Hophni and Phinehas.
Eli's sons were wicked men,meaning they were evil.
Remember I said that Jesus, ourhigh priest, our high priest,
(09:44):
he in his own self, as God,there is no evil.
There is no evil in Jesus,there is no evil in his presence
and there is no evil in hiskingdom, and we are called to be
citizens of his kingdom.
(10:04):
We are born again by his spirit.
When we believe in Jesus, whenwe place our faith in Jesus, we
are transformed into a newcreation.
Our old nature is dead.
It died with Christ on thecross.
We are crucified with Christ,but nevertheless we live yet,
(10:25):
not us, but Christ who liveswithin us, powerful, powerful
transaction, covenantrelationship.
We become partakers of a divinenature.
We are a new breed.
So we live in a kingdom Checkthis out.
We live in a kingdom wherethere is no evil, there is
(10:49):
righteousness, peace and joy inthe Holy Spirit that makes up
the kingdom of God.
That's the air, the atmosphere.
Where things are right, they'rein right order, they're
righteous, there's peace,there's shalom, all good things
(11:09):
taken together.
Where there is no lack and joy,where there's an undercurrent
of just this, knowing thatthings are being taken care of
and that there are no worries,zero, no worries and no evil.
Because evil is a heavy thing.
Evil divides, evil createsstrife, envy, bitterness,
(11:34):
jealousy, rage, sexualimmorality, broken relationships
, first and foremost with God,but also with each other.
Evil.
(11:54):
Evil is a heavy thing, thebyproduct of evil, sin and death
.
When it is removed, when it isnot just covered, but when it's
(12:15):
cleansed, the feeling of that isso liberating initially.
But we're not just called tolive it initially, we're called
to live it out.
And that's what the high priestsand the priests underneath the
high priest, the Levites, theLevitical priesthood they were
granted the place of receivingthe anointing of the Spirit to
(12:40):
live in that type of atmosphereand to project it in adherence
to the law.
But these priests, eli's sons,were wicked men.
So the atmosphere was heavy,you get.
(13:02):
So the atmosphere was heavy,you get it.
The atmosphere was heavy andthey had a practice of taking
from the offerings that wereoffered to God and taking them
for themselves.
Eli had taken so much from theofferings that he was actually
(13:27):
an obese man and gluttony inthat day was really very, very,
very egregious, in the sensethat a person would eat and then
vomit what they ate.
They would gorge themselves,vomit and then eat some more so
(13:48):
they could keep eating Gluttony.
And Eli was an obese manbecause he would receive from
the sacrifices along with Hophniand Phinehas.
And we find out later thatHophni and Phinehas were having
(14:08):
sex with the women that were atthe entrance of the temple.
So it was really a very darkatmosphere that Samuel was being
raised in.
Dark atmosphere that Samuel wasbeing raised in.
But there's a passage inLeviticus, chapter 11,
(14:30):
interesting passage where itsays if the seed to be sown has
a dead body that touches it orfalls on it, does it make the
seed clean or unclean?
And the answer is the seedremains clean even if a dead
(14:51):
body falls on it.
How is that relevant to thisstory?
The seed represents the word ofGod.
The living word of God is theseed of God and even if a dead
body falls on it, even if a deadpriest administers the word of
(15:19):
God, the word of God remainspure, even if the people are
evil.
Samuel was raised in thatenvironment where the people
were evil, but the word of Godwas pure.
Folks, some of you have peoplethat are leading the fellowship
(15:42):
that you're in and they are deadspiritually, but you can
rejoice over the fact that theWord of God remains pure, even
if it's delivered by a dead body.
It might be boring, it mightsound bland, it might sound
empty, but at least it's theWord of God, the Scriptures,
(16:11):
these people provide for us anexample of what not to do.
They provide for us an exampleof what evil looks like in
leadership.
Self-serving Jesus portrayedleadership when he took his robe
(16:34):
, tied it around his waist andtook up a towel and washed the
feet of his disciples.
A servant leader.
Gave us an example.
That's what leadership isTaking the place of a servant.
Not self-serving, but servingothers.
That's what a true leader does.
(17:02):
The best leaders are those whoare the greatest servants.
God has a unique way of takingthat which looks weak and
demonstrating the strength ofhis very nature.
It looks weak, god looks strongbecause God is strong.
(17:27):
One time I was asking the Lordwhy I just felt so weak, and he
said to me David, if you stayclose to me, you'll look like
you're strong.
(17:48):
We are dependent upon God.
These individuals wereself-serving and dependent upon
their own devices, their ownschemes.
Their own schemes.
(18:09):
Evil schemes things.
Wisdom has a plan based uponthe knowledge of God, the
knowing of God.
Evil schemes things schemesthings.
Connives, shrewd thievery,trickery, control.
(18:40):
Also, there's a statement thatjust jumped out at me in verse
17,.
The sin of the young men wasvery great in the sight of the
Lord, for they were treating theLord's offering with contempt.
(19:02):
There's a statement that goeslike this Over-familiarity
breeds contempt.
You become overly familiar withsomething.
It's just like ah well, it'sjust an offering.
They didn't treat it as An actof worship, they treat it as
(19:27):
just another thing, kind of likeSame old, same old.
Here they come More meat.
Okay, well, what can we do withthe meat?
You know what we can do withthe meat.
We can probably sell the meat.
We can probably take some, eatsome, sell some, why not?
We probably take some, eat some, eat what we want, sell some,
(19:49):
why not?
They think it's going to God.
It's just going up in smoke.
Wow, overfamiliarity Becomingtoo overly familiar with God,
the mighty God, god Almighty,hallelujah, holy, holy, holy is
(20:16):
the Lord, god Almighty, who wasand is and is to come.
That is being declared aroundthe throne of God as we speak,
by seraphim cherubim, holyangels of God, making
(20:42):
declaration of God's holiness,in essence saying you are set
apart, there's no one like youand there is no evil in you.
No evil, not a shred.
We are heading toward a daywhere that's going to be
(21:08):
eternally the way it is the dayof the Lord.
Time will be no more.
We'll enter into an eternaldynamic, in the realm of God's
kingdom, where there is no evil.
Do you know how freeing that is?
Do you know how light and freeand just wonderful the air is
(21:33):
how love is able to justfunction in it, free from lust,
free from having to look overyour shoulder, free from
wondering what the motives are,free from having people think
things.
You see, even our thoughts arefree from evil, or at least they
(21:56):
can be.
Actually, we can have our mindsrenewed so that we don't think
evil things about other peopleor other things, we don't think
wrong things.
We actually dwell on thingsthat are of a higher nature.
We can demonstrate, we can livein an environment that is free
(22:17):
from evil.
In fact, that's what will beattractive.
That's what is attractive whenoutsiders see an atmosphere
that's free of evil.
It's like what is that?
Where love is in the midst ofit and it's free of evil.
You can feel it.
You can feel it and you knowwhat you feel sometimes the
(22:40):
absence of something.
You don't even realize howheavy it is until it's gone.
You don't even realize howheavy it is until it's gone.
But these people, these priests, they were perpetrating evil,
they were keeping evil in theculture, and leadership is what
(23:03):
leads the culture.
If your leaders are evil, theculture is going to be heavy.
The atmosphere is going to beheavy divisive, egotistical,
(23:23):
maniacal megalomania, stuck onself, stuck on self.
Freedom from that is thefreedom to love and demonstrate
things, to love one another, tolay down one's life for their
brother, sister, friend,hallelujah, their brother,
(23:46):
sister, friend, hallelujah.
What a warning, what a warning.
We find out later that Hophni,phineas and Hophni, phineas and
Hophni reached the place wherethere was a critical mass and
(24:11):
there was no turning back.
Their number came up and theywere going to be eliminated.
You see, god doesn't play,because there's things that he
has that are unfolding andthey're going to unfold and we
(24:35):
can either get on board, get outof the way or get run over, so
to speak.
Eli, hophni and Phinehas serveas a warning for leaders.
Don't be like that.
Repent, change your ways,change your mind, change, change
(25:00):
, change and it's available.
It's available and it'savailable.
And if you are in a place whereyou have leaders like that, you
need to take that issue to Godand ask him what you should do.
Stay and confront it, stay andbe quiet, or be sent from there,
(25:27):
or sometimes you just gottaleave.
But we are called to be holy,just as God is holy, and we are
called, in that respect, to befree from the effects of evil.
(25:49):
Let's pray, father, thank you,thank you, thank you, thank you
that we don't have to do thesethings on our own.
We can't, we can't perform thisout.
We can't just do somethingtwice as hard and it's going to
happen.
Lord, you happen more.
You know that.
You know that.
Thank you for empowering us byyour Spirit, giving us the
(26:16):
strength, the grace to be ableto conquer these things that are
evil and live in an atmospherethat's free from it.
Holy Spirit, I ask that youwould reveal the wisdom of the
knowledge that you give to usconcerning this very thing, so
that we can have a plan tooperate in a way that is not
evil, that dispels evil from ourmidst, and we can function as
(26:38):
citizens of the kingdom of God.
Jesus, we honor you, we exaltyou and we thank you for being
our Savior and our Lord, and wesubmit ourselves to you and we
stand here in your name and wesay Amen.
So be it, amen, all right,folks, we love you.
(27:01):
We really do, and if you haveany thoughts, questions,
concerns, please feel free todrop us a line at
lifearoundthefire, at gmailcom.
That's our email address, oryou can type in
lifearoundthefire and look us upon the web.
We would love to hear from youIn the meantime.
God bless you.
Adios amigos.
The amazing thing about Jesus is that in him, in
his presence and in his kingdom,there is no evil.
It's a complete absence of evil, a complete absence of evil in
(00:31):
him, in his kingdom, in hispresence.
Now I want you to hold on tothat thought, because we're
going to be coming back to that,but we are right now in the
early stages of taking a lookinto the book of 1 Samuel, and
(00:52):
it is a book in the OldTestament that is rich with
stories.
In fact, that's probably one of, if not the primary, reason why
I love it, along with 2 Samuel,along with 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1
Chronicles and 2 Chronicles, isthat they are full of stories,
(01:16):
some of the most famous storiesthat have ever been told.
And we are now in the book of 1Samuel, and again we've said
that it takes a person about twoand a half hours to read it out
loud, to read it with feeling,and that really, you know it's
(01:41):
not relative, it's a little bitof time, but it's relatively a
short period of time to read itout loud.
But in all reality, it took 100years worth of living for that,
this particular book, for thatpiece of history to be written
(02:01):
100 years.
So, once again, not everythingthat we read is happening right
away.
You know, it could seem likethat.
So in our own lives, whenthings aren't happening right
(02:26):
away, we can think it's notnecessarily that way.
There are years where thingsare sometimes barren, and it's
in those times that God isactually at work, but the way it
feels to us, those of us wholive in the realm of time and
(02:46):
space, is something's wrong.
Hannah was barren for yearsbefore she gave birth to Samuel,
and during that time she wastaunted, she was mocked, she was
ridiculed.
It was really uncomfortable, tosay the least.
(03:07):
And so if you're experiencingthings that are difficult,
really don't be too hard onyourself, because sometimes it's
in those times that things thattake place after they're done
(03:27):
are the most, or some of themore significant things that
take place.
So we're in chapter 2 of 1Samuel, and we're at the point
right now where we're going tobe starting to look at Eli, and
we're at the point right nowwhere we're going to be starting
to look at Eli.
(03:48):
He's the priest, the head ofthe priesthood, the high priest
in Shiloh, and he has two sons,hophni and Phinehas, and the
whole crew is really not livinga very upright life, they are
(04:11):
living a rather self-servinglife.
They've taken the priesthoodand turned it into kind of a
profession where they can getrich on it.
They take from the offeringsand they line their own
pocketbooks, so to speak.
(04:32):
If they had pocketbooks right,they line their own pockets with
the produce that should begiven to God, and so there's a
portion right now that we'regoing to be looking at.
That's pretty significant in thesense that there is some evil
going on and it's evil in thepriesthood and it doesn't
(05:00):
represent anything at all likethe character and nature of God.
God is holy, and holy inessence means absence of evil,
set apart, set apart from evil.
(05:21):
Evil does not exist in God,can't, can't.
And so when evil exists in thepriesthood and the priesthood is
supposed to represent God,there's a real problem, and we
(05:42):
see that taking place in manychurches in America, in England,
actually throughout the world,where there are people that are
there in a position ofleadership, that are there to do
it because it's a profession,it's a job.
They're as dead as dead can bespiritually, but they have found
(06:08):
that it's a way to make money,because religion sells, just
like sex sells.
Religion sells.
You can make money off ofreligion.
And so in chapter 2, we left offin verse 11, where Elkanah went
(06:30):
home to Ramah after he was inShiloh and he left behind him
Samuel.
Hannah and Elkanah left theirson, samuel, at the age of three
to be reared in the house ofthe Lord in Shiloh.
It was their offering to God totake their son and give him
(06:54):
over to the priesthood.
That's powerful.
So we pick up the story inchapter 2 at verse 12.
And the scripture says Eli'ssons were wicked men.
They had no regard for the Lord.
(07:19):
Now, it was the practice of thepriests with the people that
whenever anyone offered asacrifice, and while the meat
was being boiled, the servant ofthe priest would come with a
three frond pork in his hand.
He would plunge it into the panor kettle, cauldron or pot and
the priest would take forhimself whatever the fork
(07:39):
brought up.
This is how they treated allthe Israelites who came to
Shiloh.
But even before the fat wasburned, the servant of the
priest would come and say to theman who was sacrificing give
the priest some meat to roast.
He won't accept boiled meatfrom you, but only raw.
(08:02):
If the man said to him let thefat be burned first and then
take whatever you want.
The servant would then answerno, hand it over now.
If you don't, I'll take it byforce.
This sin of the young men wasvery great in the Lord's sight,
(08:24):
for they were treating theLord's offering with contempt.
But Samuel was ministeringbefore the Lord, a boy wearing a
linen ephod.
Each year, his mother made hima little robe and took it to him
.
When she went up with herhusband for the annual sacrifice
(08:44):
, eli would bless Elkanah andhis wife, saying may the Lord
give you children by this womanto take the place of the one she
prayed for and gave to the Lord.
Then they would go home and theLord was gracious to Hannah and
she conceived, gave birth tothree sons and two Verse 21.
(09:17):
Let's rewind Right Eli's sons.
They were Hophni and Phinehas.
Eli's sons were wicked men,meaning they were evil.
Remember I said that Jesus, ourhigh priest, our high priest,
(09:44):
he in his own self, as God,there is no evil.
There is no evil in Jesus,there is no evil in his presence
and there is no evil in hiskingdom, and we are called to be
citizens of his kingdom.
(10:04):
We are born again by his spirit.
When we believe in Jesus, whenwe place our faith in Jesus, we
are transformed into a newcreation.
Our old nature is dead.
It died with Christ on thecross.
We are crucified with Christ,but nevertheless we live yet,
(10:25):
not us, but Christ who liveswithin us, powerful, powerful
transaction, covenantrelationship.
We become partakers of a divinenature.
We are a new breed.
So we live in a kingdom Checkthis out.
We live in a kingdom wherethere is no evil, there is
(10:49):
righteousness, peace and joy inthe Holy Spirit that makes up
the kingdom of God.
That's the air, the atmosphere.
Where things are right, they'rein right order, they're
righteous, there's peace,there's shalom, all good things
(11:09):
taken together.
Where there is no lack and joy,where there's an undercurrent
of just this, knowing thatthings are being taken care of
and that there are no worries,zero, no worries and no evil.
Because evil is a heavy thing.
Evil divides, evil createsstrife, envy, bitterness,
(11:34):
jealousy, rage, sexualimmorality, broken relationships
, first and foremost with God,but also with each other.
Evil.
(11:54):
Evil is a heavy thing, thebyproduct of evil, sin and death
.
When it is removed, when it isnot just covered, but when it's
(12:15):
cleansed, the feeling of that isso liberating initially.
But we're not just called tolive it initially, we're called
to live it out.
And that's what the high priestsand the priests underneath the
high priest, the Levites, theLevitical priesthood they were
granted the place of receivingthe anointing of the Spirit to
(12:40):
live in that type of atmosphereand to project it in adherence
to the law.
But these priests, eli's sons,were wicked men.
So the atmosphere was heavy,you get.
(13:02):
So the atmosphere was heavy,you get it.
The atmosphere was heavy andthey had a practice of taking
from the offerings that wereoffered to God and taking them
for themselves.
Eli had taken so much from theofferings that he was actually
(13:27):
an obese man and gluttony inthat day was really very, very,
very egregious, in the sensethat a person would eat and then
vomit what they ate.
They would gorge themselves,vomit and then eat some more so
(13:48):
they could keep eating Gluttony.
And Eli was an obese manbecause he would receive from
the sacrifices along with Hophniand Phinehas.
And we find out later thatHophni and Phinehas were having
(14:08):
sex with the women that were atthe entrance of the temple.
So it was really a very darkatmosphere that Samuel was being
raised in.
Dark atmosphere that Samuel wasbeing raised in.
But there's a passage inLeviticus, chapter 11,
(14:30):
interesting passage where itsays if the seed to be sown has
a dead body that touches it orfalls on it, does it make the
seed clean or unclean?
And the answer is the seedremains clean even if a dead
(14:51):
body falls on it.
How is that relevant to thisstory?
The seed represents the word ofGod.
The living word of God is theseed of God and even if a dead
body falls on it, even if a deadpriest administers the word of
(15:19):
God, the word of God remainspure, even if the people are
evil.
Samuel was raised in thatenvironment where the people
were evil, but the word of Godwas pure.
Folks, some of you have peoplethat are leading the fellowship
(15:42):
that you're in and they are deadspiritually, but you can
rejoice over the fact that theWord of God remains pure, even
if it's delivered by a dead body.
It might be boring, it mightsound bland, it might sound
empty, but at least it's theWord of God, the Scriptures,
(16:11):
these people provide for us anexample of what not to do.
They provide for us an exampleof what evil looks like in
leadership.
Self-serving Jesus portrayedleadership when he took his robe
(16:34):
, tied it around his waist andtook up a towel and washed the
feet of his disciples.
A servant leader.
Gave us an example.
That's what leadership isTaking the place of a servant.
Not self-serving, but servingothers.
That's what a true leader does.
(17:02):
The best leaders are those whoare the greatest servants.
God has a unique way of takingthat which looks weak and
demonstrating the strength ofhis very nature.
It looks weak, god looks strongbecause God is strong.
(17:27):
One time I was asking the Lordwhy I just felt so weak, and he
said to me David, if you stayclose to me, you'll look like
you're strong.
(17:48):
We are dependent upon God.
These individuals wereself-serving and dependent upon
their own devices, their ownschemes.
Their own schemes.
(18:09):
Evil schemes things.
Wisdom has a plan based uponthe knowledge of God, the
knowing of God.
Evil schemes things schemesthings.
Connives, shrewd thievery,trickery, control.
(18:40):
Also, there's a statement thatjust jumped out at me in verse
17,.
The sin of the young men wasvery great in the sight of the
Lord, for they were treating theLord's offering with contempt.
(19:02):
There's a statement that goeslike this Over-familiarity
breeds contempt.
You become overly familiar withsomething.
It's just like ah well, it'sjust an offering.
They didn't treat it as An actof worship, they treat it as
(19:27):
just another thing, kind of likeSame old, same old.
Here they come More meat.
Okay, well, what can we do withthe meat?
You know what we can do withthe meat.
We can probably sell the meat.
We can probably take some, eatsome, sell some, why not?
We probably take some, eat some, eat what we want, sell some,
(19:49):
why not?
They think it's going to God.
It's just going up in smoke.
Wow, overfamiliarity Becomingtoo overly familiar with God,
the mighty God, god Almighty,hallelujah, holy, holy, holy is
(20:16):
the Lord, god Almighty, who wasand is and is to come.
That is being declared aroundthe throne of God as we speak,
by seraphim cherubim, holyangels of God, making
(20:42):
declaration of God's holiness,in essence saying you are set
apart, there's no one like youand there is no evil in you.
No evil, not a shred.
We are heading toward a daywhere that's going to be
(21:08):
eternally the way it is the dayof the Lord.
Time will be no more.
We'll enter into an eternaldynamic, in the realm of God's
kingdom, where there is no evil.
Do you know how freeing that is?
Do you know how light and freeand just wonderful the air is
(21:33):
how love is able to justfunction in it, free from lust,
free from having to look overyour shoulder, free from
wondering what the motives are,free from having people think
things.
You see, even our thoughts arefree from evil, or at least they
(21:56):
can be.
Actually, we can have our mindsrenewed so that we don't think
evil things about other peopleor other things, we don't think
wrong things.
We actually dwell on thingsthat are of a higher nature.
We can demonstrate, we can livein an environment that is free
(22:17):
from evil.
In fact, that's what will beattractive.
That's what is attractive whenoutsiders see an atmosphere
that's free of evil.
It's like what is that?
Where love is in the midst ofit and it's free of evil.
You can feel it.
You can feel it and you knowwhat you feel sometimes the
(22:40):
absence of something.
You don't even realize howheavy it is until it's gone.
You don't even realize howheavy it is until it's gone.
But these people, these priests, they were perpetrating evil,
they were keeping evil in theculture, and leadership is what
(23:03):
leads the culture.
If your leaders are evil, theculture is going to be heavy.
The atmosphere is going to beheavy divisive, egotistical,
(23:23):
maniacal megalomania, stuck onself, stuck on self.
Freedom from that is thefreedom to love and demonstrate
things, to love one another, tolay down one's life for their
brother, sister, friend,hallelujah, their brother,
(23:46):
sister, friend, hallelujah.
What a warning, what a warning.
We find out later that Hophni,phineas and Hophni, phineas and
Hophni reached the place wherethere was a critical mass and
(24:11):
there was no turning back.
Their number came up and theywere going to be eliminated.
You see, god doesn't play,because there's things that he
has that are unfolding andthey're going to unfold and we
(24:35):
can either get on board, get outof the way or get run over, so
to speak.
Eli, hophni and Phinehas serveas a warning for leaders.
Don't be like that.
Repent, change your ways,change your mind, change, change
(25:00):
, change and it's available.
It's available and it'savailable.
And if you are in a place whereyou have leaders like that, you
need to take that issue to Godand ask him what you should do.
Stay and confront it, stay andbe quiet, or be sent from there,
(25:27):
or sometimes you just gottaleave.
But we are called to be holy,just as God is holy, and we are
called, in that respect, to befree from the effects of evil.
(25:49):
Let's pray, father, thank you,thank you, thank you, thank you
that we don't have to do thesethings on our own.
We can't, we can't perform thisout.
We can't just do somethingtwice as hard and it's going to
happen.
Lord, you happen more.
You know that.
You know that.
Thank you for empowering us byyour Spirit, giving us the
(26:16):
strength, the grace to be ableto conquer these things that are
evil and live in an atmospherethat's free from it.
Holy Spirit, I ask that youwould reveal the wisdom of the
knowledge that you give to usconcerning this very thing, so
that we can have a plan tooperate in a way that is not
evil, that dispels evil from ourmidst, and we can function as
(26:38):
citizens of the kingdom of God.
Jesus, we honor you, we exaltyou and we thank you for being
our Savior and our Lord, and wesubmit ourselves to you and we
stand here in your name and wesay Amen.
So be it, amen, all right,folks, we love you.
(27:01):
We really do, and if you haveany thoughts, questions,
concerns, please feel free todrop us a line at
lifearoundthefire, at gmailcom.
That's our email address, oryou can type in
lifearoundthefire and look us upon the web.
We would love to hear from youIn the meantime.
God bless you.
Adios amigos.
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