Called to Serve

go ahead and stand with me. We'll pray and we'll get started. Father, we thank you. Thank you for the day and just thank you for another opportunity to be here to spend some time in your word, God, and just lift praise to you. I ask that you bless this time, Lord God, and just protect us as the weather moves in, Lord, and just bring us some rain and just, again, just protect us in the

midst of all the storms. We ask your blessing upon this time. We love you and we praise you. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's wait patiently for your return because we know that you are coming again soon. Amen. Amen. You guys can go ahead and have a seat if you like, or you're welcome to stand as well. That is our desire tonight, Lord, just God, just to worship you, Lord God.

Lord, forgive us for making it about anything else but you, Lord. God, it's not about, it's not about even the music, Lord. It's just about how we live our life to honor you, Lord, to worship you. Amen.

Lord God, we just, again, we want to praise you. We want to thank you for what you've done for us, Lord God, for what you've done for us on the cross, Lord, for the beating that you took, for the blood that you shed, and for the body that was broken, Lord. We want to thank you and we want to lift praise to you for what you've done for us. As Pastor Ryan comes now, I just pray that you would overflow him with your Holy Spirit, with your gift of teaching. Give him the words to speak and give us hearts to receive.

We ask these things. In your precious and holy name. Amen. Good evening. If you would open up in the book of 1 Samuel to 1 Samuel chapter 3. 1 Samuel chapter 3. We're going to be covering chapters 3 and 4 tonight and under the title of Called to Serve. So we started last week into the book of 1 Samuel. And of course, we saw the miraculous birth of Samuel, that Hannah was unable to have kids.

And so finally she reached a place of absolute surrender to the Lord. And when she reached that place of absolute surrender to the Lord, she said, if you give me a son, I'll give him back to you. Dedicate him to your service. And that's exactly what God did. God blessed her with a son. And that's exactly what she did is dedicated him back to the Lord. But then we also saw the tragic

things that were going on within the priesthood of Israel. Eli was the high priest, but Eli had not dealt with his sons, Hophni and Phinehas. They were doing sinful things. They were causing people to not, or to disrespect the sacrifice because they were pulling the best of the meat out even before the sacrifice could be made and going about that the wrong way. And then of course, committing great sexual immorality with

the ladies that gathered there at the tabernacle. And so God had sent a man of God, a prophet to say to Eli that he was going to have to bring judgment on his house. That he would ultimately do away with the priesthood of Eli and raise up for himself a man who would do all of his will that found its partial fulfillment in Samuel, but it'll, it'll find its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ. And so as we come to chapter three, we're going to see the call of Samuel to ministry. So it starts in verse three, chapter one, it says, now the boy Samuel was

ministering to the Lord before Eli. And the word from the Lord was rare in those days. Visions were infrequent and it happened at that time as Eli was lying down in his place. Now his eyesight had begun to grow dim and he could not see well. The lamp of God had not yet gone out. Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was that the Lord called

Samuel. And he said, here I am. And he ran to Eli. He said, here I am for you called me. He said, I didn't call you. Lie down again. So he went and lay down. The Lord called yet again, Samuel. So Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, here I am for you called me. But he answered, I did not call you my son, lie down again. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor had the word of the Lord yet been

revealed to him. So the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, here I am for you called me. And Eli discerned, that the Lord was calling the boy. And Eli said to Samuel, go and lie down. And if it shall be, if he calls you that you shall say, speak Lord for your servant is listening. So Samuel went and lay down in his place and the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, Samuel,

Samuel. And Samuel said, speak for your servant is listening. Now, the first thing that we are given in chapter three is a state of the nation at that point in time, because the nation was in great spiritual decline. We saw that first of all, in chapter two with the priesthood and how much the priesthood was in decline, that Eli had never rebuked his sons had never really dealt with the issue of his sons and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas had found themselves in a place where they were driven by their flesh and by immorality more than they were driven by the truth of God's word. And when the priesthood is corrupt, then that corruption tends to go out,

to the rest of the people as well. And so we're given two things that tell us about the state of the nation at that point in time. We're told that the word of the Lord was rare in those days and that visions were infrequent. Now there is one interesting thing to pay attention to about the word rare. If you're reading the old King James, you will find that it says that the word of the Lord was precious in those days. And I thought

that that was an interesting way that the old King James translated that because when something is rare, we do find it to be very precious. And unfortunately, though God's word was precious because it was rare in those days, it was not precious in that the people really cared that much to hear what the Lord had to say. Because one of the things I find in my own life is that God is always speaking. The question is, am I listening? Because God is declaring himself in

all kinds of ways. God is declaring himself through nature. We find that all the time. We're told that the heavens declared the glory of God and the firmament shows, his handiwork. I find that God reveals himself through his Holy Spirit, oftentimes by the message of other people around me, because oftentimes when I speak with people that confirm things that the Lord's speaking. But of course, the greatest way that we have that the

Lord speaks to us today is through his word, because God is always speaking to us in these ways. The question is, are we listening? Is the word of the Lord rare or is it precious to us? And so the word of the Lord was rare in those days. And it says that, visions were infrequent. Now, one of the things that we often take for granted in our world today is that we do have God's written word right here in front of us. They did not have that available

to them at the time of Samuel. And so they relied on a vision from the Lord, usually through some sort of a man of God that would speak for the Lord. But because the people that were supposed to be representing God to the people, because they were corrupt, there just wasn't very much going on with the word of the Lord. And yet in the midst of that, there was a vision from the Lord.

And in the midst of all of this, I would like for you to pay attention to the very first line of verse one of chapter three, Samuel ministered to the Lord. In the first three chapters, that is now the third time that we find that that's what Samuel found himself doing. Now, Samuel was a young man at this point in time. It's verse three, it says that he was a boy. And how old Samuel was

at this point in time, no one's totally sure. The Jewish historian Josephus says that Samuel was 12 years old at this point in time. And he was a young man at this point in time. And he was a young man at this point in time. Other commentators say that perhaps Samuel was a teenager at this point in time. I think it would be safe to say that anywhere from 12 to 18 years old is probably

how old Samuel was. But I lean towards the younger age, just because of what we see that he hasn't quite yet discerned the word of the Lord. It wouldn't surprise me if 12 to 13 years old is not about the age that he was. And so as a young man, Samuel is ministering to the Lord. Now, I would like to point out something to you about Samuel, because Samuel was ministering to the

Lord. But I would like for you to look down at verse seven. But Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor had the word of the Lord yet been revealed to him. Now, I think that's interesting for us to pay attention to, because if you will, Samuel was being raised in all of the right ways. Could we agree? Samuel was, for lack of better terms, being raised literally in the church, because

that's the way he was growing up. We would have to say the tabernacle at that point in time, but that's literally where he was being raised. He had godly parents that he was born to, because they had already surrendered him to the Lord at an early age. Not only that, he was raised by the priest, Eli, the high priest, who would have raised him in all the truth of the law. And he had everything about God in front of him on a daily basis, because everything about

the tabernacle spoke of God. And he would have had to learn all of the laws as a Levitical priest, so that he knew how to do things properly. As a matter of fact, the very thing that Samuel is doing is actually attending to the lamp that was in the tabernacle. And he was raised by the tabernacle. That's what he was doing in there when God begins to speak to him. But while Samuel

was ministering to the Lord, and he grew up in the church, and he knew all of the right language, and he knew all of the right things, and perhaps even had a heart to know the truth, he still did not yet know the Lord. And I think that's an important thing for us to pay attention to, because we have to realize something about our kids. We have to realize something about the young people that gathered out at the other end of the hallway every Sunday and every Wednesday night. They've been raised in the church. My girls literally almost have been raised in the church.

Matter of fact, so comfortable sometimes that they take their shoes off and act like it's their own house. They've been raised in the church. They know all of the right things. Perhaps they've even memorized some of the scripture. They can tell you some of the Bible stories and even tell you how to find some of the books in the Bible. But that doesn't mean that they know the Lord.

And there does come a time in a kid's life where they're gonna have to make a decision, are they going to actually know the Lord? Are they gonna actually follow the Lord for themselves? If you listen to David Jeremiah this week, he's answering a question that I think is kind of an interesting one, and that's that will children go in the rapture? And he's had some great things to say. If you haven't listened to him, I would recommend that you go to davidjeremiah.org

and listen to his studies from this past week, because they've been really, really good. And one of the things that he pointed out is he says, I had an early conversion to the Lord as a child, but I didn't understand what it meant. It wasn't until I was older that I truly understood what it meant to be born again. I went forward because I thought it was the right thing to do. I would raise my hand in the altar

call because I thought it was what my dad wanted me to do. It wasn't until a little bit later on into my early teen years that I truly committed myself to the Lord because I knew that I didn't just know about God now, I know God now. And I think we have to realize that about kids. Some of them don't know God. Some of them don't know God. Some of them don't know God. Some of them don't

know God. Some of them don't know God. Some of them don't know God. Some of them don't know God. And that's a beautiful thing. But one thing I know growing up is that I made an early profession of faith, but it was later that I really understood what that meant. And so as we see these young people, and we've got lots of them in our church, as we see them gaining an understanding of God's

word, we need to understand that some of them are ministering to the Lord and they know about God, but it doesn't mean that they know God yet. And we have to keep bringing them to that point. Right? So the Lord begins to call Samuel. So Eli was lying down in his place. Of course, his eyesight had begun to grow dim at this point in time, and he couldn't see very well.

And in verse three, it says the lamp of God had not yet gone out. Now that's not a, that's not some sort of like philosophical statement. It actually meant that it was in the middle of the night because the lamp of God was to be lit all night long and to remain burning all night long. That's what Samuel was doing in the tabernacle. So it's the middle of the night, perhaps heading towards early morning. It says Samuel was lying

down in the temple and the ark of the Lord, the God, the ark of God was there. And the Lord called to Samuel. He said, here I am. He ran to Eli and he said, here I am for you called me. So this 12, 13 year old kid, he has a job to do, maybe not sleeping very deep. And all of a sudden he hears, I want you to pay attention. It's an audible voice that he hears. Now I have no problem believing that

God can speak in an audible voice. I don't know that he always does that. But in fact, I would say that that's a somewhat rare thing, but I do believe that God can do that, especially in places where God's word is not necessarily available to people. Typically the way that he speaks to us is he speaks to us in our spirit through his word. But in this instance, the word of the Lord is rare. Visions

were infrequent. And so he audibly heard a voice. And so he thinks the only person who potentially calling him at this point in time is Eli. And so he goes to Eli because that's the spiritual authority he knows in his life. And so that's who he goes to. He says, Eli, here I am. What do you need? And Eli rubbing his sleepy eyes, looks and goes, what are you doing in here, son? Right? Go

back to bed. I didn't say anything to you. And Samuel, a little confused, a little disconcerted, man, I know I heard my name goes back and he lays back down. You can imagine the scene, right? He lays down and perhaps starts. He starts to drift off into sleepy time one more time. And as he drifts off into sleepy time, he hears it again. Samuel, man, I know that's Eli. It's gotta be him. That's the only male voice

around here. So he goes and he finds Eli again. And he says, yes, what did you need? Eli says, dude, go back to bed. I am not calling your name. Well, Samuel goes back and he lays back down and still a little confused, a little disconcerted and starting to think perhaps he's maybe going a little bit nuts. He lays back down. Starts to drift off into sleepy lullaby time again. And then he hears the voice again. Samuel

says, it's gotta be Eli. He's messing with me. So he goes back in there and then Eli begins to realize something. He says, Samuel, I know what's going on. The next time you hear your name, I want you to say, speak Lord for your servant hears. Now this is where I think we should pay attention to something. Eli is now discerning. That Samuel is hearing his name, but the one who's calling him is not Eli. The one who's calling him

is God. And so he discerns that there is now God calling Eli or calling Samuel to listen to something that he has to say. And so Eli being the older man in the Lord helps him discern the voice of God. And he says, you are hearing your name called. It's not me. It's the Lord. And so you need to say, speak Lord for your servant hears. Now I want all of us as adults in here to pay attention to

something. This young boy, this 12, 13 year old kid was hearing God call him, but he didn't realize it was God calling him. He just knew that something was calling him. He needed Eli to help him discern the voice of the Lord. He felt a calling. He heard a calling. He knew something was calling him. Someone was calling his name, but Eli being the older man in the Lord helped him to discern

that it was God who was calling him. Now I need us to think about something. We've got a whole bunch of kids in this church, right? And I wholeheartedly believe that all the kids that are being raised in this church, God is going to be calling them. God is going to call their name and it's going to start with salvation. And they are going to start to feel a tugging on their

heart. Maybe they'll hear an audible voice. I don't want to put anything past God, but probably they're going to feel a tugging on their heart. They're going to feel themselves being drawn in and they are going to not fully know what it means. I remember I was probably 10, 11 years old and we had watched a Billy Graham crusade on TV. And this is kind of early in my spiritual journey. I didn't

fully know what it meant just yet. And I laid down to go to sleep and I couldn't sleep. And I was so upset because I was scared. So I went and I got my dad. My dad prayed with me. He helped me discern. This is God calling you. This is, this is God speaking to you. That's why you feel the way that you do right now, because it's God convicting you. So let's, so let's pray together. There's been other times

where my dad has helped me to discern. No, that's not the voice of the Lord because that's the voice of condemnation. And that's what you need to realize about that. But as an older man in the Lord, he helped me to understand and to discern the voice of condemnation. And that's what you need to know about the voice of the Lord. Well, the same thing is going to be going on with the kids in

this church is they are going to start to hear God call. And as they hear God call, they're not going to fully know what it means just yet because they might know about the Lord, but they don't know the Lord. And so what they need is older people in the faith to help them discern this is God. So what you need to do is you need to say, Lord, what do you want me to do? Maybe that's

being called into salvation for some of them. But what you need to do is you need to say, Lord, what do you want me to do? Maybe that's being called into salvation for some of them that have come to the place of salvation. Perhaps it's being called deeper in their faith or maybe even into ministry. But sometimes we, as the older adults in the Lord need to be there to help guide them,

to show them, this is the voice of God speaking to you. But you know, I think this is not just a lesson for kids because we have people around us all the time that are either new to the faith or have not yet come to faith. And maybe they're grown adults. And they're feeling a tugging on their heart. And they don't know what that looks like just yet. They just know that something's not right in their life. And they are sensing themselves being called.

They're having a desire to be a part of a church. They know that something's not right in the world and they need something to line them up with what's true. That's where people like us come into play because we are older in our faith and we help them to discern the voice of the Lord. And I think that that is so necessary. Right now, because I don't know if you've noticed this, there's a lot of people sensing that what's

going on in the world right now is not normal. That what's happening right now is a little bit off, but perhaps lining up with what the Bible has to say. And you as believers in Jesus Christ need to be ready for your friends, for your coworkers, for your family members to say, I need to have a conversation with you because something's not right. And you need to be able to be there to help them to discern. That's the voice of the Lord.

That's the voice of conviction telling you that there is something true in your life. Isn't following that. That's the voice of conviction saying you're right. The world is going crazy right now. And you need to make sure that your heart is right with Jesus. And that's what we as believers need to be available to do because Eli and all of his failures knew what the voice of

God sounded like. And he helped Samuel to discern that. And today we need other believers to help both unbelievers and new ones to discern the voice of the Lord. And so he goes back and he says, next time what I want you to do is I want you to say, speak Lord for your servant hears. Now I want you to think about this. This kid's 12, 13 years old, right? And God's literally audibly

calling him. And that didn't happen very much at this point in time. So this is all pretty new. And he's supposed to, the next time he hears a voice, call his name, say, speak Lord for your servant hears. I don't know about you guys, but at the age of 43, that would still be a little bit eerie for me. I would still be like, whoa, that's a lot to take in right now, but pretty

cool at the same time. Right? And so that's exactly what he does. So a fourth time it says, verse 10, the Lord came and he stood and called as at other times and said, Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel said, speak for your servant is listening. Now I want to point out something about the way Samuel responds because Samuel responds in the way that each one of us has to respond when God is calling us.

First, he made himself available to the Lord. And then he made, he made himself surrendered to the Lord. You see, God's calling people all the time, right? He's, he's calling us. It always starts with that call to salvation. That's the first call that we answer from God. That's the first time we present ourselves to the Lord and say, Lord, listen, your servants here. What do you want to say? What do you want

to do? And then we surrender ourselves and say, you talk to me, you tell me what I need to hear now. And we surrender ourselves to the Lord. It's fascinating to watch people and to be around people who God is absolutely working in their life and they're fighting it with everything in them. You ever been around somebody like that? Where God is absolutely calling and working

and they say things like, I don't know why I just cry all the time. I don't know why I feel convicted all the time. They'll say that feel guilty all the time. I don't, I don't know what's wrong. It's like, something's wrong with me. It's like, yeah, you're fighting against God right now. That's, that's why you're doing this. That's why you feel this way is because God is calling you

and you're trying to suppress it. You're trying to push it away. And what you really need to do is say, what do you want me to do? Speak Lord for your servant hears. And I found in my own life that when I finally did that, and I came to that, breaking point, it was like, because you finally gave up, but that's not the only time God calls us. Sometimes God's calling you to go deeper into some area of your life, whether it be an area of

service, whether it be an area of your relationship, going deeper, your prayer life, going deeper, calling you to get out of your comfort zone and, and, and do things for the Lord. And we have to decide, am I going to present myself to the Lord and then surrender myself to the Lord? Or will I continue to fall? Because I'm here to tell you right now, if you continue to fight, God's just going to keep calling you. Uh, I, I don't remember who I tell what story anymore because I talked to too many

people all the time. So if I told this story, I'm sorry. But when God was calling me into ministry, I was not in the place where I wanted to do that. And my uncle who pastored the church over in Wellington, uh, called me up and I've learned to not tell him no. Uh, now he calls me to speak at his conference. And I'm like, if I don't, if I don't, if I don't, if I don't, if I don't,

if I say no, he's just going to say, pray about it. And God's going to say yes. So I just do it. Um, so he, he calls me up and says, Hey, I'd like for you to come fill in for me. I'm going to be out of town on this date. And I wasn't in a really good place in my life at that point in time. And I said, no, it's flat out told him no. And he said, why don't you pray about it? And so I did, I prayed

about it. And wouldn't you know, God said, yes, I could not tell God. No. You know why? Because God was going, Ryan, Ryan. And I was finally like, fine. So I called him back and I'm like, look, I'll do it. But this one's on you. If I screw everybody up and I do something wrong, this is on you because you're the one asking me to do this. And he goes, I'm willing to accept that responsibility. And now

here I am 22 years later, right? Because finally I just surrendered. And that's what Samuel does here is he goes, speak Lord for your servant. Here's And so the first message comes to Samuel in verse 11, it says, then the Lord said to Samuel, behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the ears, at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle in that day. I will carry

out against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house from beginning to end. For I have told him that I am about to judge his house forever for the iniquity, which he knew because his house is sons brought a curse on themselves and he did not rebuke them. Therefore, I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever. So Samuel lay down until morning and then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord.

Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. Man, did God baptize him in fire or what? He was like, what do you have to say to me, God? And God, it's like, I'm about to wipe out the priesthood. I mean, it's basically what he said. So I'm going to do something that's going to cause everyone's ears to tingle. In other words, when they hear it, they're going to be like, I can't believe that's going to take place.

I can't believe that happened. He says, because Eli knew about the iniquity going on in his house and listen, he didn't do anything about it. Now, as a sidebar, I just want to say something and I don't know what this means just yet, but I feel like I need to say it. When we know that something's wrong and we don't do anything about it, when we know that something is taking place that's wrong and we don't stand up about it, then we bear the guilt. God told Ezekiel, he said,

I've made you a watchman on the wall. He said, the job of the watchman is to warn the people of the impending doom. If you see an enemy coming as the watchman and you warn the people and they don't take heed to your warning, that's on them. Their blood will be on their own head. But if you're a watchman on the wall and you see the enemy coming and you don't warn the people,

then the blood will be on your head. And I think that that's something for us to pay attention to because again, right now, judgment's coming. And I think we need to know that, right? We're told that as it was in the days of Noah, so we'll be in the coming of the son of man. And I think we're pretty much in the coming of the son of man. But not only that, we're told that as it was in the days of Noah, when God wiped out the entire

earth with a flood, it's going to come again, only this time with fire. So there's judgment coming. I think we need to make sure that people know that. I think it needs to start in our own homes, where when we see iniquity going on in our homes, we deal with it. When we see sin taking place in our house, we deal with it. Because the problem with Eli is that he saw what was going on in our

house. He saw what was going on. He wasn't the one doing it, but he saw what was going on and he didn't do anything about it. And so it starts in our houses, but then it starts in our, then it carries on to our circle, right? When we see things taking place, we need to do something about it. And then it goes to our greater circle of influence. Because listen, I can't go to

Washington DC and tell them that they're morons there. I can say it on here and it can get recorded, but I can't go talk to them there and say, Hey, listen, there's sinful things going on but I do have a circle of influence and I can do that. Right? And so he says, because he knew what was going on and didn't do anything about it. I'm going to have to deal with the house of Eli. And I

want you to hear the scariest verse in all of first Samuel. And it's in verse 14. Therefore, I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house, listen, shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever. I can't imagine anything else that would send shivers down my spine. Quite like that statement right there. What he's done is so bad. It cannot be atoned for praise

God that the blood of Jesus Christ covers all sin until the day that we take that last breath. There is always salvation available, but that's a scary verse. And so Samuel hears all of this and it says, and then Samuel lay down until morning. I can't imagine Samuel slept the rest of that night because he loves Eli. And if you don't believe me, then you'll look at the next section and see why he,

how he was scared to tell Eli the vision. I think he loved Eli. After all, he lived with him for at least 10 years by this point in time, been raised by him basically. And now he's got to deliver the harshest news he could have imagined. Listen, as a 12 to 13 year old kid. So he wakes up the next morning. It says, then Eli called verse 16, Samuel and said, Samuel, my son,

he said, here I am. He said, what is the word that the Lord spoke to you? Please don't hide it from me. May God do so to you. And more also, if you hide anything from me of all the words that he spoke to you. And so Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And he, meaning Eli said, it is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him. Can you imagine how hard that conversation was for Samuel? You know, sometimes the hardest thing

for us to do as believers in Jesus Christ is to deliver a word of rebuke to the people that we love the most. It's so hard to deliver a word of rebuke to the people that we are closest to, because they're always the hardest ones to tell when they're wrong. That's what he has to do. And listen, faithful are the wounds of a friend. Amen. And so he tells him everything and Eli

ultimately surrenders to the will of God. It says in verse 19, thus Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fail. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh because the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord. And so we come to chapter four and we see a tragic scene where the ark is

captured. And so starting in chapter four, verse one, it says, Samuel grew and the Lord revealed thus the word of Samuel came to all Israel. And Israel went out to meet the Philistines in the battle. And they camped beside Ebenezer while the Philistines camped in Aphek. The Philistines drew up in battle array to meet Israel. And when the battle spread, Israel was defeated before the

Philistines who killed about 4,000 men on the battlefield. Now we were introduced to the Philistines in the book of Judges, but we see them much more in the book of first and second. Samuel, because that will be the enemy that Israel constantly faces. The Philistines were a seafaring people. They actually came from the island of Crete. And when they came from the

island of Crete, a first wave of them came somewhere around the time of Abraham. And then another wave came somewhere around the time of Joshua. And they settled along the coast of Israel and Ashkelon and Gath. There's about a five city region there. And that's where they settled. Now they were far superior in their technology at that point in time. They had learned to use iron and steel for the, or excuse me,

iron and different metals for their, for their weaponry. And so they were very far advanced in their weaponry, which made them a very difficult enemy for the Jews. And they were always an enemy that the Jewish people would face throughout a good portion of first and second Samuel, as well as first Kings. And so they find themselves in battle against the Philistines and they find themselves defeated by the Philistines.

Probably because they were in spiritual decline. And when they were in spiritual decline, God had removed his hand of blessing and they found themselves defeated by the Philistines. 4,000 men were killed on the battlefield. And so they came up with an idea. Verse three, when the people came into the camp, the elders of Israel said, why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us take to ourselves from Shiloh,

the ark of the covenant of the Lord, that it may come among us and deliver us from the power of our enemies. So the people sent to Shiloh. And from there, they carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts who sits above the cherubim and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. Now, I want you to contrast this story with what took place in Joshua. Do you remember in Joshua,

when they had to go up against the city of Ai and they found themselves defeated and Joshua being a good and godly man and a good and godly leader, when they said, why have we found ourselves defeated by the Lord? What did they do? Do you remember? Joshua sought the Lord to find out why they had been defeated by the Lord. And if you remember the story of Ai,

they had been defeated before their enemies because there was sin in the camp. Well, now they find themselves several hundred years later in a same sort of situation where they go to battle against the Philistines. And even though they had superior weaponry and technology, Israel still had God on their side. And so they find themselves defeated before their enemies.

Now they're right. And they say, why has the Lord defeated us before our enemies? But they're wrong and that they didn't take step two. They didn't stop and say, why? Why have we found ourselves defeated before? Before our enemies? Because if they would have gone to God and said, why were we defeated by the Philistines? God would have revealed sin in the camp

because revival will bring about victory. But that's not what they did. They didn't go to the Lord and say, why are we defeated before our enemies? They didn't go to God and say, why have we found ourselves in this place of being defeated? Instead, they said, let's get our good luck charm. Those aren't the words that they use, but that's what they meant. They said,

let's go get the Ark of the Covenant and we'll take it into battle. After all, in times past, the Ark of the Covenant was taken into battle. I'm reminded of the Ark of the Covenant going across the Jordan River before the children of Israel. I'm reminded of the Ark of the Covenant going around Jericho with the children of Israel. They're like, it's worked before.

Let's do it again. Only the problem was that even though the Ark was going to go into battle with them, God was not, going into battle with them. What they had done is they had turned the Ark of the Covenant of God into a good luck charm instead of the representation of the presence of God. They had put all of their hope in the Ark and none of their hope in the God of the Ark.

Now, I think that's an easy thing for us to do, is it not? It's an easy thing for us to find our little good luck charms. We might not call them that, but we think, when did God speak to me last? Well, I was sitting on my couch and I had a cup of coffee and I had this one particular Bible and I had this one Bible journal in front of me and I was listening to this worship song and that's where God spoke to me.

Now, I haven't heard from God for a long time, but I'm going to set the scene exactly like it was on March 25th of 1997, the last time I really heard God speak to me. I'm going to set the scene exactly like it was then. And that's what you do. You sit down and you get everything exactly like it was then. Only, you know what you find? God still isn't speaking to you.

You know why? Because the problem is not the scene. The problem is not the setting. The problem is not whether or not you're using the right Bible or the right journal or any of those other kinds of things. The problem is, your heart's far from God because of sin. That's why God's not speaking to you. That's why you don't sense that presence anymore. And we turn so many things into good luck charms.

I've seen people do this even with the Calvary Chapel movement. They're like, we need to go back to the way that it was. We need to go back to the way that it used to be. No, we don't. We need to move forward to what God has for us today. Not go back to what he had for us in 1978. Right? Because going back to the way that it used to be won't bring back the presence of God.

After all, when all that was taking place, they weren't going back to the way that it used to be because they weren't seeking all of the things. They were seeking the presence of God. They wanted to bring the ark in because they thought that that will be our good luck charm. We can't be defeated if the ark is here. Not realizing that just because the ark was there

doesn't mean God is here. And so they go and they get the ark and they bring the ark. And notice what it says in verse five. Everybody's geeked up. As the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all of Israel shouted with a great shout so that the earth resounded. When the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, what is the noise of this great shout

in the camp of the Hebrews mean? Then they understood that the ark of the Lord had come into the camp and the Philistines were afraid. For they said, God has come into the camp. They said, woe to us, for nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us, who shall deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who smote the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness.

Take courage and be men, O Philistines, or you will become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been slaves to you. Therefore, be men and fight. Did you notice that the mentality of the Philistines, a pagan people, was really similar to the mentality of the Hebrews, supposedly a godly people. They both equated God with one thing, the box, right? The ark comes in,

everybody goes, right? That's the whispers going to the camp. The ark's here, the ark's here, the ark's here. What's everybody shouting about over there? The ark of the covenant is there. God's in the camp. You know, that's the exact same thing the Israelites said. They all shouted because the ark was there. And they said, God's in the camp. Interesting how our mentality can become just like the pagans

if we're not careful. And so they're like, you better fight like men. Otherwise you're going to become their slaves. The thing that was supposed to bring victory instead brought motivation to the enemy. So it goes on from there to say, so the Philistines fought and Israel was defeated and every man fled to his tent and the slaughter was very great for their fellow of Israel,

30,000 foot soldiers and the ark of God was taken and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas died. It was an absolute tragic defeat. 30,000 men. They were upset when 4,000 died and they brought the ark of the covenant in. This time 30,000 men died. Not only did 30,000 men die, but the two in line for the high priesthood were killed. Hophni and Phinehas. Not only did 30,000 men die,

the two men in line for the high priesthood were both killed, but the ark of the covenant was captured. Now we're going to find in chapters five and six that even though we won't get there tonight, don't worry, even though the ark was captured, God is still in control. But for this particular moment, it seemed to the children of Israel as if everything had been destroyed. And so it says in verse 13, or excuse me, verse 12.

Now a man from Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes torn and dust on his head. And when he came, behold, Eli was sitting on his seat by the road, eagerly watching because his heart was trembling for the ark of God. So the man came to tell it in the city and all the city cried out. When Eli heard the noise of the outcry, he said, what does the noise of this commotion mean?

Then the man came hurriedly and told Eli. Now Eli was 98 years old and his eyes were set so that he could not see. He said, the man said to Eli, I am the one who came from the battle line. Indeed, I escaped from the battle line today. He said, how did things go, my son? Then the one who brought the news replied, Israel has fled before the Philistines and there has also been a great slaughter among the people.

And your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas are dead and the ark of God has been taken. And when he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell off the seat backward, beside the gate and his neck was broken and he died for he was old and heavy. Thus he judged Israel 40 years. So a man of Benjamin runs from the line. Fun fact, Jewish tradition says that it was Saul himself,

soon to be King Saul. It was the one that carried this news. Whether that's true or not, I'm not sure, but it is Jewish legend. Came and brought the news. And of course the whole town cried out because now the ark of the covenant, the ark of the covenant is gone. And Eli not being able to see what's going on, just hearing the commotion is trying to figure out

what's happened. The young man comes to him and tells him, your sons are dead and the ark is gone. I want you to notice the one thing that caused him such shock that he would not recover from it. And that was that the ark of the Lord had been captured. He literally fell over backward in his seat, broke his neck and he died. It's amazing how God keeps his, his promises, both the really positive ones

and sadly enough, even the negative ones. And so Eli and both of his sons were killed. Notice what it says in verse 19. And now his daughter-in-law, Phineas' wife, was pregnant and about to give birth. And when she heard the news that the ark of God was taken and that her father-in-law and her husband had died, she kneeled down and gave birth for her pains came upon her.

And about the time of her death, the women who stood by her said to her, do not be afraid for you have given birth to a son. But she didn't answer or pay attention. And she called the boy Ichabod saying, the glory has departed from Israel because the ark of God was taken and because her father-in-law and her husband. And she said, the glory has departed from Israel for the ark of God was taken.

The last scene that we see in the chapter is that And Phineas's wife hears of everything, and as can happen, the stress of everything that had taken place caused her to go into early labor. And she has this son. And the midwife says, don't worry, you've had a boy. And of course, she just kind of looks off into space, and then she names him just a terrible name, Ichabod, which literally means the glory has departed, because the glory of the Lord had departed.

Now, as far as Israel was concerned, all was lost. The ark had been captured. The entire priesthood basically is dead. What are they going to do? But I want you to know something. Though it appeared as though the glory of the Lord had departed, God was absolutely in control, because God had already anointed the man who would lead Israel forward, not only in battle, but also lead them forward spiritually.

And that man was Samuel. God already had a plan as to how he was going to bring the ark of the covenant back, because it may have appeared as though that the glory of the Lord had departed, but really all that had departed was the ark of the Lord. The God of the ark was absolutely still in control. And we're going to see that next week. But I want to remind us of something.

Sometimes when we look at the world, sometimes when we look at our nation, sometimes when we look at the state of the church today, we can find ourselves sort of like Phineas's wife saying, the glory of the Lord has departed. Because we look and we see things not really going very well. But I want us to remember something. It may look like the glory of the Lord has departed, but God is absolutely still in control.

Because God is absolutely still sovereign. And it may look like the gods of this world are winning right now, especially in our nation. But just know that we have a God who sits on the throne, who behind the scenes is in control of everything that's going on. And we can rest in that. The glory hasn't departed. The glory is still in control. The glory is still in control.

The glory isn't in control. The glory isn't in control. The glory isn't in control. is still in the father and we can rest in his ability to bring victory amen father we come to you now and i thank you as always for these wonderful old testament stories lord i thank you that there are so many things that we can learn from them and lord that we see your hand at work in the history of the nation of israel as you move your plan of redemption forward and so father help us to rest in you help us to have discerning ears to hear what you have to say and lord help us to have surrendered hearts to follow what it is that you're calling us to do in jesus name amen