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Sermon Transcript:

Thank you all so much for being here we are in a series on First Samuel. So excited to get there. And we're really in our second part to that, but I just want to float something out to you guys. And that is just to kind of let you know about something you may not be aware of, I wasn't aware of it until I came to be your pastor, which is that we had a debt on this building that is 17 years old or so. And so it was inherited all this this is I've been your pastor for about four years, but just want to make you aware of this as something to pray through. A lot of times, you know, you'll have a leader or pastor who will get up here and they'll say, Hey, I know how we can do this, we can do this. And we can do this. And you know, we can get rid of our debt. I don't have that sort of Spiel or speech for you guys, today, I just want to present this to you, as a matter of prayer to say that in three years, this loan runs out and it'd be a fully, you know, 20 year loan, and we are just praying and thinking through Lord, how might you be pleased that this $1.2 million would be gone over the next three years, we don't know how that's gonna happen. I don't have any, like I said, big plans. But I wanted to put that before you, as you go out. There's a TV to your right, that we've set up to just kind of let you know where it's at. And we are trusting and believing that God is not done with Life Church at all. But this is what you have debt. And you guys know this, whether it's personal debt or family debt, it really holds you back. And so we believe that yes, it's been going on long enough, it'd be 20 years in February 2027. And we're just praying and asking the Lord, how might you be pleased to help us to rid ourselves of this debt? So I just want to throw that out there. And then before we get into our series today, so where is this in the Bible, and again, whether you're here last week or not, we have moved out of a period in the Bible, that's called the period of the Judges, Samuel is going to be what we call the last judge, if you want to look at this, historically, we're moving around 1000 BCE, we're gonna move into the time of Saul and David, and all those characters are going to be introduced in coming weeks. But before we get there, we're talking about the Ark of the Covenant today. And yes, I know there was a movie about that. So you understand that at 1400 BC or so God led the people of Israel, using Moses out of Egypt, put them to worship on Mount Sinai, and in the Ark of the Covenant was a couple of things, and one of them being the 10 commandments, and all those kinds of things. And it was very important to the people of God. And so we're going to pick up in First Samuel chapter four today, where Samuel last week went from a boy to becoming a judge, you're gonna see that very clearly in the text today. And right now, it says in chapter four, beginning of verse one, it's a time where Israel is at war with the Philistines. And if you know anything about even just cultural or biblical history, Philistines are is where Goliath is going to come. So we're going to catch that story here in a couple of weeks. But that's who this is. These are people who really terrorize the people of God. And so they decide to attack Israel, and end up killing about 4000 men. And so what the troops do is they man, how can this happen? How can this continue happening, that we're being defeated by these Philistines, and so they come up with a plan, they say, we're gonna we're gonna go into battle with this Ark of the Covenant, we're gonna go into battle with this with this beautiful thing that maybe is gold over it, and the share of them on the top and, and again, holds our artifacts that we have, they're so important to us. And so one of the things that they're doing here is they're not doing this out of faith. They're doing this out of fear, and just hoping that God will bless them as they go out and use this this item. They're almost using it as what we would call like, a, like a rabbit's foot in our culture in time. But they think, bless, let's just take this arc. And I know God will save us from our enemies. So they bring this arc and who is leading in time as a is a guy named Eli. He's gotten a lot older. He was a judge that we introduced last week. And remember, he had two evil sons, and they weren't doing right by God. They were taking advantage of women at the tabernacle, they were taking advantage of the Lord's offering. And so you got Eli and his sons, you got all these Israelites. And so they're saying, Oh, good. We've got this arc that we're going to bring before us in battle. Now we're going to do great things. So they began to shout, and it says, They shouted so much, that it began to make the ground shake. So the Philistines like what's going on? And so they figure out that oh, my gosh, the Ark of the Covenant is with the Israelites. And what's amazing about the people of God is there's enough stories that go around even over hundreds of years, that they know what's true and what's not.

Right. And so the Philistines start thinking to themselves, we know what happened to the Egyptians.

They were ultimately taken over by the people of God. And we don't want that to happen. So what we're going to do is we're going to fight as hard as we can for our very lives, and see what happens. So the Philistines come in and they fight Israel, and instead of Israel winning, even with the ark, it says that 30,000 Israelite soldiers died that day. And it says that the survivors fled to their tents. And it says the ark of the Lord was captured, and that Eli's two sons were killed. And so what ends up happening in those days is someone is going to now send a message to let us know what occurs. And so we have this guy from the tribe of Benjamin because again, how is Israel sort of designed in this ancient world? It's, it's designed by 12 tribes of Israel. So representative, from Benjamin runs to go to Shiloh. Now, what's Shiloh significant? Remember, that's where the tabernacle is, at this time where Eli was and where Samuel grew up. And so Eli is waiting on the side of the road to hear news of the battle, because he's concerned about this taking the Ark into the battle. And Eli asked, What's the noise all about? And all of a sudden, this representative comes to Ilan. Eli's old at this point, it says he's 98 years old, and he's blind. And it says, And he asked what happened. He says, Israel has been defeated by the Philistines. But there's lots of things you need to know. Number one is lots of people were slaughtered, your two sons are killed. And third, and maybe most devastating, is the ark of the Lord has been captured. And when this messenger told us to Eli, it says that he fell back and broke his neck and died. And there was also this little side item that says he was overweight. And so he had judged Israel for 40 years. Now, I'm gonna stop right there. And I'm showing you guys the references, there's a lot of passages we're gonna go through, you can read this in your Bible later, you can just listen, I'm trying to store it as best I can. But it's a crazy scene. Again, they were using the ark, like we would think about pagans using a witch doctor to say, hey, look, I'm gonna make sure that this thing goes the way I want to, I'm gonna get this thing on my side so that I can have victory. It's about me and what I want. And that's exactly what they're doing here. Lots of death 30,000 on top of the 4000 Initially, is a lot, Eli's faults are shown. You remember in the last passage that we looked at last week, we said that it was pronounced by Samuel because God told him that Eli sons were going to be punished for their wickedness and Eli's failing to deal with it. And so now all this comes to fruition, the sons die, Eli himself dies, and it shows you that he was at least sloppy towards the end of his life. Well, how's it going? Let's continue on in the story of First Samuel chapter four. Before I get to my first point this morning, it goes on it says that Eli had a daughter in law, and she was near the time of delivery. And so hearing that the Ark had been captured and that her father in law and her husband were killed. Her father in law died and her husband was killed. It says she immediately went into birth. And she is just silent at this point. But all of a sudden, the midwife says You're having a boy, and the boy cries out and says, What do you want to name this child? And she says, I want to name him, it Gabbard, which is, without glory, or where is the glory because Israel's glory is gone. She cannot think of a reason to live because the Ark is gone. Her father in law's gone, her husband is gone. And it says that the glory of the Lord has departed Israel and she herself dies in childbirth. First one wants to see this morning is that the glory of God has left us. That's the point this morning, the glory of God has left us and there's, you say, Does this really happen today? And I am here to tell you I have experienced it. I have seen it and I can show you biblically that you and I can conduct ourselves in such a way individually and corporately, where the winds of favor are no longer with us because we're no longer with God it's not that God has left us is that we've left him and we're now going to pay the repercussions for our actions. I've seen this in my own life. I've seen this in my family's life. I've seen it in churches before where all the sudden, too many steps have gone away from what God had for them too many running through stop signs and warning signs to all of a sudden you find yourself no longer in step with the Spirit no longer in step with what God has for you and for me. Now this idea of Erykah Badu you may have recognized that name I don't know if any of y'all like to read short stories or like to kind of pay attention to certain movies and TV

These shows, but you remember around Halloween a lot of times, they'll talk about a guy named kebab crane. And there's a famous story that sometimes gets done into TV shows and movies about The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Maybe you're familiar with this. It's nice to have a short story from 1820 by American author, Washington, Irving. And if you remember anything about that story, it's about a headless horseman that has sometimes they have a pumpkin for their head and sometimes they hold a pumpkin in their hand. But it's this idea of, of IK Abad crane is sort of a gangly, old school teacher who runs into the wilderness and into the forest. And he runs into this, this headless horseman. And I often wonder, why did Washington Irving named him it Gabon? I mean, he obviously got it from this part of the Scripture. And I think that, you know, there's a lot of stories he didn't tell us why. But I think at a minimum, we can say, just like that short story, just like at this point in Israel's history, the times are gloomy. You ever been that you ever had a point in your life where you feel like, it's not only raining, but it's pouring? And all of a sudden you find yourself very vulnerable, very hopeless, very heartless. And I think that's exactly what's going on here. I think he was trying to pick up on that. That is Washington Irving, when he named this, this character, ik Abad crane, because he knew what it meant. It meant that the glory of God has left us there's darkness over the story right now, there's darkness over the land. I also think it's significant that a child is being born here. You often notice in stories in the Bible, even though it's true, it's also a really, really good literature to understand how good storytelling works. And what sort of helps us to keep engaged in the story, even though it's true. I think about this in terms of you guys know, I'm huge Star Wars fans. And so I think what is in the terms of the End of Episode Three, do you remember that that was one of the prequels, whatever you think of the prequels episode three, but if you remember, at the very end, Padma is having a child and she's dying, during childbirth, and she thinks this is the end, like, my husband has gone crazy, he's probably dead, and everything just looks very, very hopeless and bleak. And we end that narrative with what the birth of a child not only a child, but children, right twins. And in fact, there's no hope to be found, until what episode four, A New Hope. And so I think it's just interesting how, again, we pick up on these stories. And you know, one of the things we talk about here, as well here at Life churches, we understand that you can go back and look at ancient stories, whether it's Roman culture, or Greco culture, or biblical culture, extra biblical culture, and say that there are certain themes, and there are certain stories that tend to repeat themselves. But one of the things that we always I think, understand is we have to ask ourselves the question, is there a story that defines all other stories? Is there a true story that is superior to all the legends and myths that we've heard about? And I think that there is and that's why I find myself a Bible believing Christian. Let's continue on the story, though. So we keep that in our mind that there is a possibility that the glory of God has left us just like it did for Israel. First Samuel chapter five, here's what happens the Philistines, they take this ark of the covenant, and they take their victory, their spoils of war, and they take it and they put this ark into the place where their pagan god is set up. Now, who's their pagan gods at this point, it is Dagon, which is probably related to Bale, maybe bales father, and so they put this ark in their temple with Dagon. And they go to bed, and they get up the next day to go see what has occurred. And all of a sudden, Dagon has fallen down flat on his face. Now you can imagine this. And so these Philistines say, Well, I don't know what happened. Maybe it was something natural, maybe it was, who knows, let's just settle Dagon back up. And so that's what they do. Then they come out again, and all of a sudden, Dagon has fallen down. But now his arms in his head has come off as well. And he has nothing left. But idle trunk. Just a humorous little story here. But it's not it's not gonna get funny for very long because all of a sudden, disease and pestilence breaks out wherever the Ark is taken with the Philistines. To make a long story short, they sort of take this ark and they say, well, listen, it's not good here. It's obviously superior to our pagan gods. And all of a sudden they start getting plagues upon them like the Egyptians did. And so they say, let's send it out to another city. So they took out from this city, and they went to another city and guess what, everybody there breaks out in tumors. There's great panic.

So then they say, No, let's take it to another city. And so they take it to another city. And all of a sudden, they were like, no, no, like, so many people have died. So many tumors have occurred, they begin to cry out and actually get their city leaders together to say, what are we going to do with this arc, because bad things keep happening to us, as we have it in our possession. I just think that's so ironic that God is God, and the Philistines know it, and the Israelites know it. So the Philistines come with this plan, like you and I will come up with let's send it back. You ever have something that's not really a gift, it brings more cursings and blessings. And so that's what they're thinking about this art. And so they send it back. And so it had remained in Philistine territory. I'm now on First Samuel six, one through 18, in the remaining Philistine territory, for about seven months. And they say, how are we going to return it back? And they say, Okay, let's do this. Not only have we sort of messed up by taking the art, but we better a piece and sacrifice something to their God. And to even then let's offer some peace offerings, right. I mean, you've done this before, too, when you've messed up, maybe you bring back some things for peace offerings, whether it's flowers, or candy or chocolate, or you mess up at work, I not only am I going to pay back, but I'm going to offer some retribution, I'm going to pay back with interest because I know, I'm messed up. And that's exactly what they're thinking that they messed up and taking the arc. And they're tired of three different areas, three different cities, going into massive, massive chaos, because the arc was with them. So they come up with this idea of let's come up with five gold tumors and five gold rats, let's form them, let's put them on a cart, because this is what we broke out with. We broke out with tumors, we broke out with disease and pestilence given to us by the rats. So let's just make those out of gold, put that,

that arc on the cart and send it somewhere. And we'll know that their god is really gone. If it goes back to their country. So they take two cows that just had calves, they hitch this, these two cows to the cart, and all of a sudden it starts making its way to a place in Israel. They see it from a distance that people are farming, they see it from a distance, and they become overjoyed. I mean, Joshua comes and he takes this ark, he's rejoice, they sacrifice there, they offer the wood from the cart and a fire and then several men, they go and they place this ark on a rock. And they take the the offerings and all that as well, which represented these different areas that had been decimated by the ark that God had done, then, here's what happens. 70 people decide, maybe it's a good idea for us to look at this arc. Let's open up. Let's see what's inside. And if God had told them very clearly not to do this, so if y'all had been around, I wasn't gonna show but it's very old. 1981 Indiana Jones, we know what happens, right? Then we open up the ark, bad things happen. So that's what they do. They go in and they open up the ark, and all of a sudden, 70 people are killed. And so now they're like, What in the world are we supposed to do this thing seems like it's it's bad blood for the Philippines. Now, it seems like it's bad blood for us. And so they go and they take it to a hillside home. And they just kind of leave it there says for 20 years and all its going to come back later on in Second Samuel, but just know that they leave it at a house. Point to you, I want us to see this morning is that the glory of God is not to be trifled with. We understand what that means, right? Because one of the things that we often think of in our own hearts is I've got more time to deal with this. I'll kick this can down the road, Eli thought I got more time to deal with my disobedient sons. I'll kick this can down the road. Israelites thought, man, we'll just take this, this rabbit's foot and we'll figure out a way to beat the Philistines. Not by relying and trusting in God not by repenting of our sin, but by just pushing through what we want to do. thinking our way will be okay. So the glory of God was not to be trifled with from the Philistines perspective. He is over the pagan gods he showed this so clearly. That's why there's 10 plagues in Egypt. He shows us so clearly in this story as well. He shows in other stories If you love to read the Scriptures with Elijah and all that, but the glory of God is not to be trifled with even by the people of God. And so both the Philistines, the Philistines, and the Israelites suffered in their ignorance and disobedience, that's the other thing is sometimes we might say, but I didn't know. Like I didn't know I wasn't supposed to look at that. You'll see later on when they put it on a carton, it begins to maybe pop off that someone puts their hand down and they're dead. And I didn't know. But ignorance and disobedience a lot of times leads to the same thing which is just death and destruction. But what's going to happen Samuel is going to come to the rescue as a judge and kind of help them get some things right. So let's look at the last part of our narrative. Our story this one and that's first shaming.

You'll chapter seven beginning in verse three. And he says, Listen Israel, if you want to return to the Lord with all your hearts, so now we're getting it right. Get rid of your foreign gods and your images of Astra eth, turn your hearts to the Lord and obey Him alone, and then he will rescue you from the Philistines. So the Israelites got rid of their images of Baal, and Astrid, and worship only the Lord. Then Samuel told them, gather all of Israel to Mizpah and I will pray to the Lord for you. So they gathered in this pot in a great ceremony drew water from oil and poured it out before the Lord. They also went without food all day and confess that they had all sinned against the Lord. And it says in parentheses, it was that Mizpah that Samuel became Israel's judge. When the Philistine rulers heard that Israel had gathered at Mizpah they mobilize their army in advanced so they can we lick them before we can lift them again. The Israelites were badly frightened when they learned that the Philistines were approaching. Don't stop pleading with the Lord our God to save us from the Philistines. They begged Samuel, Samuel took a young lamb and offered it to the Lord as a burnt offering. He pleaded with the Lord to help Israel and the Lord answered him, this is what we just need to learn over and over again, in our Christian faith in our Christian life, a humble and contrite heart, He will not cast out.

Just as Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering the Philistines arrived to attack Israel, but the Lord spoke with a mighty voice of thunder from heaven that day, and the Philistines were thrown into such confusion that the Israelites defeated them. The men of Israel chased them from Mizpah to a place below Beth Carr, slaughtering them all along the way is that can you imagine this, that you've already sort of game victory, you've already sort of had the upper hand, but just to continue on with that, as they are going as they are leaving as they are fleeing. They're continuing to slaughter them all along the way. And then Samuel took a large stone and placed it in between the towns of Mizpah. And Jessica, Hi, Anna, and named it Ebenezer, which means the stone of help for he said, up to this point, the Lord has helped us that isn't that interesting. And you may have heard that term Ebenezer before it is famous in a song that we'll sing here in a minute in our closing, but just just see the bookends of this story. And I know it was a long story. And I appreciate y'all hanging in with me. But I thought it was important for us to see it and hear it in the narrative, you can always go back and read it later. But you sort of have this lowest of lows, don't you? Oh, my gosh, the arc is gone. And we are literally naming one of our children.

It combined, that the glory of God has left us and now all of a sudden, what was the linchpin that sort of turned the tides for Israel or the people of God? That's what we find ourselves right? Where we are. Now the reason why I read Old Testament stories and see ourselves in those stories, is because we're Israel in the sense of not by natural blood, but because we follow Israel's God because we follow the Jesus Christ who was born a Jew. And ultimately, he said, I'm here for the whole world. And so that in that way, as we look back on the Old Testament, and we see ourselves as the people of God, what was the linchpin that turned the tides in their life? Was it playing around or messing with the ark? Was it you know, running down an aisle or, you know, cleaning some things up? No, what was it? It was massive repentance. That's what turned things around for them. And you can see this sort of bookends here that you see darkest, lowest of low, gloomy times for Israel. But all of a sudden, there is now hope there's now now the Philistines aren't ultimately defeated here, right? We know they're going to continue to cause trouble for Saul, and they're ultimately going to cause trouble for David. But there has been a victory this day. So we stop, we pause, we celebrate again, some of y'all are gonna think this is cheesy, but let's go back to Star Wars. Right? It all comes back to that. If you look at episode three, get to the end. Padma has these promised children, they go they go out they are in seclusion to their about 18 or so. And then who rises from that to help deal a blow to the Empire and defeat them by blowing up the first Deathstar. Look, but was that an ultimate victory? No, they got to celebrate it though. They got to go down, you know, and have a couple of medals and say, Hey, this is good. But what's gonna happen in Episode Five, The Empire Strikes Back. And so what we're gonna see next week, if you hang with me, is you're going to see that the Philistines they're not done yet. I mean, they've been dealt a little blow, but they're not done yet. They're gonna they're gonna strike back. But for this moment, though, let's pause. Let's celebrate let's worship that the people of God got something right

They got something right and we can get something right did they? They they denied themselves food they they poured out an offering they, they really begged upon the Lord. They begged the leaders of them a judge at that time Samuel to Why don't you and treat the Lord for us so that the Lord would help us. Let's keep going. Verse 13, says, The Philistines were subdued and didn't invade Israel again for some time. And throughout Samuels lifetime, the Lord's powerful hand was raised against the Philistines, the Israelite villages there Ektron and Gath, the Philistines had captured were restored to Israel, along with the rest of this territory that the Philistines are taken. And there was peace between Israel and the Emirates in those days is the same, you'll continue to judge Israel. For the rest of his life. Each year, he traveled around setting up his court first at Bethel and Gilgal, then Miss POM. And he judged the people of Israel at each of those places. Then he returned to his home at Rama, and he would hear cases there and Samuel built an altar to the Lord

Rama. So what's the final call for us? We can see here third and final point that the glory of God is celebrated. And so how do we get there? How do we get there today? Because I know, you know, you know, didn't build Rome in a day and you know, aren't gonna get fixed in a day probably, although I think Lord can touch us sometimes with a divine touch and set us on a different path. But we have to get rid of those things that don't help us run with Jesus. Did you notice that's what he called them to do. In those days, what he said is he said, I need you to smash your pagan altars, I need you to get rid of those things that are, are attracting you to bail into the things of this world. And those of us who are believers, we have to do something, there are things that we have to get rid of when we get to the New Testament it calls it put off and put on. It's that whole idea of these are things that do not help me run. Hebrews calls it, you know, why don't you throw off not just the sin, but also anything that easily sort of entangles us keeps us from running the race that God has set before us. We have to get rid of some of those things that don't help us run with Jesus all of us do. It begins with always me, right. That's how we understand repentance, right? Oh, Lord, let there be repentance in my household and in my church. But we have to always say and let it begin with me so that we can do what so that we can celebrate the glory of God, that we don't have to be fearful that he's gonna strike us dead, that we don't have to be fearful because we're not viewing it flippantly or without respect, or, or reverence or all, but that we're able to celebrate who God is and what he's doing in our life. Because our Ebenezer ultimately is the cross of Jesus Christ. I don't know if you ever thought about that. If you play this forward, they have a little small, tiny victory. And so they set up a stone and they say, here is my Ebenezer, hereby they helped I come you helped me Lord at this moment. But we have the cross of Jesus Christ, that we can lean on that we can grow in that we can say, this right here took care of all my sins, and the fact that you rose again, we can declare victory because he has declared victory in our lives. So now, that's what we're gonna do, we're gonna celebrate, I'm going to close here in prayer, the band is going to come back up, we have a couple more songs that really sort of help us lean into whatever God's doing in your life, wherever you're at whatever it is that you feel like you need to throw off whatever it is, you need to repent of whatever you feel like you need to, we've talked about fasting before, you'll see this the people of God, there are moments and times in their life where I'm gonna do without something that's not necessarily bad or evil. For your sake, oh, Lord. And so maybe God's calling you to do any number of those things or a combination. But as the band comes, I'm going to pray. And then we're going to sing, and we're going to be grateful for who God is. And then we're going to be people who don't continue to kick things down the road. Don't continue to not deal with whatever God is asking you to deal with. But we come to Him and we celebrate him. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank you that you didn't leave us wondering or wondering what it is you're doing in the universe, you have clearly told us, God we have questions about individual issues, individual problems, maybe even some church issues or, or work issues, family issues. But God you have promised that you are sovereign over them all. You can cover them all.

That your hand is not too short to save.

Hands not too short to move in our life. Individually and at life, church, Father, we're praying would you do that? Would you not just leave us be would you not just let us stay? Would you move us towards that cross which is where the only hope can be found for us. We ask these things in Christ's name and for your glory. Amen.