Kingdom I. Rising: A God in Your Pocket

Transcription

1 Kingdom I. Rising: A God in Your Pocket I Samuel 4-6 Dr. Matt Cassidy --- September 10, 2017 So I have no time for an attention grabbing and need-building introduction. No flash today. We have three stories that give three lessons and they re profound. They are hard lessons learned a hard way. And I say, Why don t we learn these hard lessons the easy way? How about we just read the Bible and see how other people might have learned something and not to have to go through what they went through? What you think about God is the single most important thing about you. And that s what we re going to look at today --- the way people think about God. And we re going to see whether we think right or wrong accordingly. We re going to watch and learn. Now before we get to the passage itself --- we re in 1 Samuel chapter 4 in the Old Testament --- let me give you some context and review, because it s important to understanding the bigger meaning here. Review We re studying the Samuel books together this fall and it is what s called a hinge of history. In other words, after this epic of time, the world will be forever changed. Because the book of Samuel is about the birth of the nation of Israel. And we saw last week in chapters 1, 2, and 3, it has a dreadful beginning. And it has a dreadful beginning --- we can know that because in a typological way, the person leading the spiritual development of Israel is a man named Eli. He s an older man; technically he s retired and has turned over the sacred and most holy things to his sons Hophni and Phinehas. And here s how the Bible describes those two adult males. Kingdom.2.cassidy 1

2 1 Samuel 2:12 Eli s sons were very wicked men; they had no regard for the LORD or for their duties as priests. Verse 12 says, Eli s sons were very wicked men. They had no regard from Yahweh or their duties as priests. They had contempt for God, they had contempt for the way they were supposed to be priests. And if that weren t bad enough, besides their embezzlement and racketeering, they turned the sacred tabernacle into their own private brothel. And so at the end of chapter 2 God s judgment is pronounced upon them. It is clear and understood by Eli. That s the first two chapters. He says, Be afraid. And if that weren t all, then here comes that evil empire that s new on the scene, filled with pride and power, the Philistines. And they re right at the doors, they re marching towards us. Now chapter the mood has an ominous feel, but that s interrupted just for chapter because they introduce this gift from God, this miracle baby, and his name is Samuel. And he will be the future and the hope. And he will hear God s voice and he ll lead Israel to the place where they were meant to be. And then chapter 4 through 6 that we re going to study, there s not a single mention of Samuel by name. And that says, Oh no, oh no, oh no! We ended last week --- it was spell binding, a cliffhanger --- and the question was, Could it get any worse? And the answer today is Oh, yes. It can get a lot worse. What happens is that the Philistines have now crossed the border. They have arrived. And this is the descent to Israel s darkness and despair. Their first combat, the first war situation between the Philistines and the Israelis --- it s brief, it doesn t take long, and 4,000 foot soldiers of Israel perish. 1 Samuel 4:3 When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, Why did the Lord bring defeat on us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the Lord s covenant from Shiloh, so that He may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies. Kingdom.2.cassidy 2

3 And this is the conclusion that the leadership comes to, chapter 4, verse 3. It says: When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, Why did the Lord bring this defeat on us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the Lord s covenant from Shiloh, so that He may go with us and save us from the hands of our enemies. The loss is bad, but this thinking, their response, is frightening. For you to understand the depth of their reasoning, we have to understand two things. One, the way they re thinking and what they re thinking about. Pagan Values The way they re thinking is like pagans. And when you and I use the modern expression of the word pagan we make that sound like a person s an atheist. Oh, he s a pagan, he doesn t believe in God. No, no real paganism believes in God or many gods. But it s a formulaic way of believing in these deities so that you can control the deity. In other words, you use that deity to get what you want. And so you learn chants and sacrifices and incantations, and if you get those right, you get what you want. Here s the word --- oblige. That deity is obliged to you at that point. So in graphic terms you ve probably seen where if we just throw a virgin in the volcano once a year, then the harvest will come in and that s all good. We bring that into our own lives when we say, Well, I started the day with this amount of prayer, so probably God owes me a pretty good day. And I m going to be disappointed if that doesn t happen. I think that this idea of a pagan view of God where He s obliged to us, I think this is the darkest bent that comes with our broken soul. I believe that at conception we re born broken and the darkest expression of that brokenness is this value that we can take what He says is sacred and use it to oblige Him. So in this passage it says, Why did the Lord cause this loss? I mean, we did our stuff, why didn t he do His stuff? There s a lot of times --- I ve heard it many times --- How come my kids didn t turn out? I made them memorize all these verses? I did my part. Kingdom.2.cassidy 3

4 So paganism --- one aspect of it --- is God is a genie and you rub the lamp. If you rub the lamp just right He s going to appear and then He s going to grant you at least one wish --- that s for sure. And so that s part one, that the value or the view of God is like a pagan s. The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord The second one is what they re bringing into this equation. We re talking about the ark of the Lord. Thirty-six times in these three chapters --- when you read it you ll think, Stop already! because it s the point of emphasis --- thirty-six times it s going to say the ark of the Lord of the covenant or the ark of God Almighty. It never says the ark, because it talks about whose ark it is. This is the most holy thing in the Old Testament. This is a different kind of religious artifact. This is the spiritual representation of God s presence on earth. You don t use it. You put it somewhere inside the Tabernacle, later the Temple, and if you want to be near it, you go to it. You don t take it to you. This is the presence of God, God Almighty, the Most High God. And so it is not a rabbit s foot. It s not a genie that you rub and get what you want. And if that value of paganism weren t bad enough, and what they re projecting it on, the ark of the covenant of the Lord --- then look who s in charge of this event. Look at verse 4 on the screens. 1 Samuel 4:4 So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim. And Eli s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. And so the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the Lord Almighty, Yahweh Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim. Okay, just so you know that that s the right ark we re talking about. And Eli s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who are known as very wicked men, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. Are you adding this up? So we have a pagan view. We are taking the ark of the covenant of God Almighty out of the sacred and holy Tabernacle and into this dangerous war situation led by two wicked men who have already been pronounced as judged by God. What could possibly Kingdom.2.cassidy 4

5 go wrong? And these Israeli soldiers walk with great confidence, because they have the ark with them, into this kill box. 1 Samuel 4:10-11 So the Philistines fought, and the Israelites were defeated and every man fled to his tent. The slaughter was very great; Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers. 11 The ark of God was captured, and Eli s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died. And here s what happens, verses 10 and 11: So the Philistines fought, and the Israelites were defeated --- this is different --- and every man fled to his tent. The slaughter was very great. Oh, yes it was. The Philistine army is not this good. God s making a point. The slaughter was very great; Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers this time. And the ark of God was captured, and Eli s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died. This is it, right? This is as bad as it gets? Oh no. It gets worse than this. Because someone watching the war runs back to Shiloh where Eli, the father, is an old man, and he s nervously waiting on the report. And the reason he s nervous? Because he knew that ark should never leave the Tabernacle. So here s what happens. The reporter shows up, he says, Oh, it was a terrible war. We had a horrible slaughter. Your sons Hophni and Phinehas are both dead. And the ark of the Lord has been taken by the Philistines. And when he hears that the ark has been stolen, he falls off the back of his chair, hits his head on something and his neck snaps and he s dead before he hits the ground. Now we re at the bottom. This is as bad as it gets. No, it gets worse than this. Because Mrs. Phinehas is well with child and when she finds out there was this terrible defeat and her father-in-law is dead and her husband is dead, she goes into a traumatic labor. And during labor she starts losing her life. And as the child is born she s in and out of consciousness, and the hand maiden is there and she says, Wait, wait, wait --- all is not lost --- you have a son. You have a legacy. And here s how the story ends. Kingdom.2.cassidy 5

6 1 Samuel 4: She named the boy Ichabod, saying, The glory has departed from Israel --- because of the capture of the ark of God and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband. 22 She said, The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured. And she named the boy Ichabod, saying, The glory has departed from Israel, and that s because of the capture of the ark of the covenant and the death of her father-in-law and her husband. She said, The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured. Ichabod means God is gone. Name this remnant of our family s wickedness --- name him Ichabod. God is gone. He s left. We are on our own. This is it. This is the bottom. The dying words of a birth-giving mother saying, We re done. The Tabernacle is a hollow shuck. There s nothing in it. The lampstand that s there with the candles that are expressing the presence of God --- blow them out. What do we do now? All is lost. What you think about God is the most important thing about you. And when you think about God with a pagan view of life, like you can take the sacred and use it to obligate God, it does not end well. Application #1 So that s the first story. The first application would be is there anything like the ark today? Is there anything that is sacred, set apart for a purpose, very special in the values of God - -- it doesn t matter about our values --- but God s values, that s precious to Him? Is there anything you can think of that represents the physical presence of God on earth today? How about the church? The church is special. There s a universal church and then the localized expressions of that. That s precious in God s eyes. He doesn t treat that like anything else. It represents the presence of God in the world today. Would we possibly be thinking of the church like people think in a pagan way --- use something that s sacred and try and obligate God with it. Oh, yeah, we do that, we re good at that. Rub it like a lamp whenever we need help. Kingdom.2.cassidy 6

7 Having some marriage problems --- we should go to church for a while. Okay. We go to church for a while. You know, things have settled down, so like a used band-aid, you kind of throw it off to the side. Thanks. Maybe I ll see the church again if I ever need her. We have some children. Uh-oh, we got to get religion in these kids. Let s go to the church. Let s just use that thing that God loves so much. And then it s so funny. In my business, you know when this happens. Anybody involved in children or student ministry knows when this is happening. We ll say when that person s youngest child graduates from our youth ministry, we ll never see them again. They re here to take. Thanks! Thanks for helping the kids! Thanks, church, I ll be back. No, maybe, I guess, if we had some marriage problems, but other than that, see ya. Sleepin in on Sundays. It s the church. She s different. I want a huge disclaimer. Listen to me. Listen to me. Some of you are already really mad and some of you are confused. If you re just trying to figure out what Christianity is, if you re exploring God, if you re new in the faith of Christianity, I don t expect you to have this value. This should be very foreign to you. It s mystical. There are things that are clearly communicated in the Bible, but you wouldn t know that any other way. And so even in the Bible it throws you a bone, because it says when you re new in Christ you are like a child, a newborn child. You can t even handle solid food yet. And so it s very common for people, when they re young in the faith, to have inappropriate evaluations of things that are precious. Just like when you re a kid and you re making mud pies with the family china. I mean, you don t know it s that valuable, but it is, and someday there will be a day. You ll figure out, Whoa! Remember the time when I made a mud pie with the china? Boy, was I goofy. You were just young, okay? And so if you re new to the faith, if you re young in the faith, you re going to see us as a group of people that say, How can we help you? But listen, friends, this is not a service depot. This is not a service organization. We love to help people. But this is a place that s sacred, that s set apart for the purpose of making the saints holy. It s not like anything else in the world. Listen to the titles associated with the church. It s called in the Bible: the bride of Christ. Think about that title. The bride of Christ, the future wife of Jesus. No one else gets that. The future wife of Jesus --- that s us. Kingdom.2.cassidy 7

8 So again, think of it in a familial way. When you re young and a child, you probably look at your mother as someone that you could use, who fed you and clothed you and took care of your room, and that sort of thing, and that s fine. But when you grow up, there probably was a time when you constantly looked at your mother as your mother, and you crossed a line at a time when you should have known better, and dad steps in and says, That s not your mother. That s my wife. Anyone else? I remember the day. I remember it vividly, because I said something that I shouldn t have and I owed that woman respect and honor like no other woman in the world. She was not my mother, she was that man s wife. Hopefully you ve heard something like, You know that little room you live in, that 10 x 12 thing that you think is yours? That will be my home office by noon. I swore to God to love her, and I cherish her. You re optional. And that was the day you learned that there was no other person on earth like your mom, because your mom was your father s wife. There s nothing like the church on earth. You can t compare it to anything else. If you do, you re going to come up short. The closest thing that you can compare the church to is the ark of the Lord of God, the presence of God on earth. Listen to this. Jesus doesn t come back to get that really cool Christian school. He doesn t come back to get the orphanage, that really awesome orphanage. He doesn t come back for the hospitals. He comes back for his bride, He comes back for the church. And the Christian school and the orphanage and the hospital, they can serve her, but she won t serve them. The church is different. The church is sacred. And we have to change our values about something that we think is common, but God thinks otherwise. And if you change your values, you re going to change a lot of your conduct. I see this as probably the biggest area for people that have walked with God for quite some time; they have no understanding of what s called the doctrine of ecclesiology. And they just think of this as something that s common and simple. And it s neither. It s a mystery and it belongs to the King. So here s where I find that most people get in trouble. The most common mistakes when they re looking for a good church --- granted, it s hard to find a church --- but here s the common problems that people misunderstand because they don t have the right values. One is they re looking for the perfect church. They re looking for one that doesn t have problems. And Kingdom.2.cassidy 8

9 first of all, let s just talk about this. If you found the perfect church and you went there, you d kind of wreck it, right? Come on, you know you, you d wreck it. The second thing is, just the idea of a perfect church is so absurd because we re a family. So you don t look for the perfect church, maybe you don t even look for a good church. In ethics it s called the lesser of evils. You look for the lesser of evil church. You look for a church that has the least amount of cringes. It s like Oooh, ick --- but hey, that one has less cringes than the other one. That s the first one. We have to have realistic standards. And the second one is you find a church to serve and to honor. Because this goes by design; our souls were designed for this and the church, by definition, is designed for this. Listen. Our souls were designed to give, not receive. Our souls were designed to serve, not be served. Meanwhile, the church, she is the bride of Christ --- she was designed to receive honor and to receive service. And so things work the way they re designed. When you go to find a lesser evil church where you can serve. And so when people say stuff like, Yeah, I tried church for a while but it didn t serve me, that s like driving a nail with an iphone. That s not how iphones work and that s not how nails work. And you wonder why it didn t work? How could it possibly work? The goal is to find the best possible church and then go there and honor her and serve her. It can start early. Ray Anderson, our executive pastor, taught me this so long ago that I can t even remember. When his oldest child was about fourth grade --- and he had four kids and so some of them were just barely talking --- every Sunday they would come in and they d play hide-and-seek at church. And hide-and-seek was like this. Okay, kids, today we re playing hideand-seek at church. Remember? We re going to find someone to bless and we re going to find a way to honor the church. Okay. You be looking. See you at lunch. At lunch they would do a debrief. Okay, what happened? I helped a little girl off the slide. She got stuck and I blessed her that way. I passed out the Cheerios during kindergarten time. I picked up more communion cups than anybody else. It s not a contest, but I like your attitude. But friends, when you walk up the courtyard --- again, it s values and mindset --- but when you walk in and you ve changed the view of what s happening here --- this is not a sermon about let s get everybody busy, it s looking at this, saying, How did they treat the ark? How do we treat the church? If you re mentoring and discipling people and you don t include the majesty of the local church, you re forgetting to talk about who Jesus Christ is engaged to marry. Kingdom.2.cassidy 9

10 And when you start discipling people and bring her up, wait until you see what the future groom is going to do for you. The Curse of the Ark of God on the Philistines That s the first story and the first lesson. The second story has a whole different lesson. Let s pick the story up again. I think we re in chapter 5 now. And now we re at the Philistine camp. And friends, they re having a great time. Because the bully Philistines have beat up another scrawny kid and taken his lunch money. Another inept deity is now in their vaults and belongs to them. And by the way, there is not a single mention of Israel trying to recapture that ark of the covenant in this storyline. And so they have this big bonfire, the Philistines, and they re just singing and dancing around it and they re all singing in harmony, We are the champions of the world! They don t know what to do with the ark of the covenant and they say, You know what, let s put it in our shrine, our trophy case so that our god, Dagon, can look down at it. 1 Samuel 5:3 When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. And that s where we pick up the story in chapter 5 verse 3: And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen face down on the ground right in front of the ark of the Lord! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. Can you visualize what happened? Oh yeah, Dagon was worshipping the ark of the Lord. I don t mean to pick on Dagon as being a weak deity, but if you need humans to help pick you back up, you know, and set you straight I m just saying, you might want to pick a different deity. So they put a night watch on it and the next morning they run in to see if anything s happened and oh, things happened all right. Kingdom.2.cassidy 10

11 1 Samuel 5:4 But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained. Verse 4 says, But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen down face down on the ground before the ark of the Lord! Uh-oh. His head and his hands were broken off. They were lying on the threshold; only his body remained. And if you don t think they knew what this meant --- they knew exactly what this meant. When the Philistines captured another tribe or city, they would take the mayor or the king, they would cut the head off and the hands off, and they would hang the corpse on the wall. Because if you take the head, that s the sovereignty of that king. And the hands were the power. And so they wanted to show the world that this nation, this king, has no sovereignty, he has no power. Wait --- that just happened to Dagon. And so Yahweh, the God of Israel, is standing over them. Who s the bully now? And they realize this, friends. Somebody says, Will someone stop that stupid song We Are the Champions of the World?, because terror has now entered this storyline. These are the first two days and they know death is coming. They are in way over their heads. Nine times in the next few verses, nine times the phrase the hand of God was upon them will be used, because that is the power of God, and it will not have a bead of sweat on it. And while the sun goes down and Dagon is in pieces and the people are restless and they know what s coming, God releases rats to do what the Israeli army couldn t do --- to obliterate the Philistines and crush their pride. So that s what happens. Kingdom.2.cassidy 11

12 1 Samuel 5:6-8 The LORD s hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity; He brought devastation on them and afflicted them with tumors. 7 When the people of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, The ark of the god of Israel must not stay here with us, because his hand is heavy on us and on Dagon our god. 8 So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and asked them, What shall we do with the ark of the god of Israel? They answered, Have the ark of the god of Israel moved to Gath. So they moved the ark of the God of Israel. Verse 6: The Lord s hand was heavy --- there s that phrase --- The Lord s hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod and the vicinity; He brought devastation upon them and afflicted them with tumors. And when the people of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, The ark of the god of Israel must not stay with us here, because his hand is heavy on us and on Dagon our god. He beat up our god, now he s beating us up! So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and asked them, What shall we do with the ark of the god of Israel? They said, Let s send it somewhere. We ll have the ark of the god of Israel moved to Gath. That s it. We ll move it to Gath. And so they moved the ark of the God of Israel to Gath. Let me explain something that s happening. When I was a kid growing up, parenting was a lot easier. You kicked your kids out in the morning and they couldn t come back until the street lights came on. And so me and my guys, we would just sit on the curb and usually come up with what s the worst way to die. That s just what little boys do. And the number one was always taken, and that was die by quicksand. We were all watching Tarzan all the time, and we just thought quicksand was everywhere and that s how we would go. The second one was usually, again Tarzan-related, somehow getting eaten by ants. Tripping and falling and catching yourself somewhere and the ants eat you. But here s the reason I bring this up. Because if one of these little guys that we used to run around together, if one of them had read the Bible, they would have picked this. Because that word tumor means a swelling of the groin area. It means hemorrhoids. And I think of all the Kingdom.2.cassidy 12

13 ways to die, that would be the worst way to die. Ask your mom what that means later. And so they re in a lot of pain and then you die. 1 Samuel 5:9-10a But after they had moved it to Gad, the Lord s hand was against that city, throwing it into a great panic. He afflicted the people of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumors. 10 So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. Verse 9: After they moved it to Gath, the Lord s hand was heavy against that city, throwing them into great panic. And he afflicted the people of that city, both young and old, with an outbreak of these tumors. So they sent the ark to Ekron. 1 Samuel 5:10b 12 As the ark of God was entering Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, They have brought the ark of the god of Israel around to us to kill us and our people. 11 So they called together all the rulers of the philistines and said, Send the ark of the god of Israel away; let it go back to its own place, or it will kill us and our people. For death had filled the city with panic; God s hand was very heavy on it. 12 Those who did not die were afflicted with tumors, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven. Well, Ekron s already heard about it, so this is where we pick up. As the ark of God was entering Ekron, the people of Ekron ran out and said, No, no, no, they brought the ark of the god of Israel around us to kill us and all of our people. So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, Send the ark of the god of Israel away; let it go back to its own place, or it will kill us and all of our people. For death had filled the city with panic; God s hand was heavy on it. Those who did not die --- those were the lucky ones --- they were afflicted with these tumors, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven. Kingdom.2.cassidy 13

14 1 Samuel 6:1-3 When the ark of the Lord had been in Philistine territory seven months, 2 the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it back to its place. 3 They answered, If you return the ark of the god of Israel, do not send it back to him without a gift; by all means send a guilt offering to him. Then his hand has not been lifted from you. I m just going to keep reading. I m sorry --- then Chapter 6 begins. So when the ark of the Lord had been in the Philistine territory for seven months, the Philistines called on the priests and the diviners. And so the politicians get the diviners and they say, What do we do? And they say, Well, we can send it back to Israel, but with a huge apology. Give them a sin offering. And so that s where we pick up. 1 Samuel 6:4-6 The Philistines asked, What guilt offering should we send to Him? They replied, Five gold tumors and five gold rats, according to the number of the Philistine rulers, because the same plague has struck both you and your rulers. 5 And give glory to Israel s god. Perhaps he will lift his hand from you and your gods and your land. 6 Why do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? When Israel s god dealt harshly with them, did they not send the Israelites out so they could go on their way? The Philistines said, What guilt offering should we send to them? Well, five golden tumors and five gold rats, according to the number of Philistine rulers, because the same plague has struck both you and your rulers. And give glory to Israel s God. Perhaps He will lift His hand from you and your gods and your land. Why do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharoah did? When Israel s god dealt harshly with them, did they not send the Israelites out so Kingdom.2.cassidy 14

15 they could go on their way? You bet they did. So let s learn from the Israelis, let s learn from Pharoah, let s load this thing up with gold and send it back. So we ve talked about reversal of fortune? This is the end of the second story? Sitting around a bonfire singing We Are the Champions of the World, and now we re dying of hemorrhoid poisoning? And we re saying, Could you just give glory to the God of Israel? Load up the cart with gold and send it on its way. Just give God glory. Application #2: God Doesn t Need Our Help The second application for the second story. God doesn t need us. He really does not need us. I mean, look at this story. God has a plan. He s going to rule the planet. He s going to convince the entire world that He has a right to rule His creation. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. You can pray it --- it s going to happen. And so the question is why does He even include us? He is doing with rats and fleas what the army couldn t do on their best day, so why does Israel even have to fight these Philistines? Why even get us involved with it? Kingdom.2.cassidy 15

16 Can I give you a clue? This was a changing moment in my life. This is when my young son helped me mow the lawn. I ve got to tell you, if he hadn t shown up when he did, I d have never got it done. I was going to mow the yard that day and I couldn t get it done and so this little guy wanted to spend time with me on the day when I mow the lawn, and he came and helped. He didn t help at all. Not even the least bit. But I was glad he joined me. Is that a clue why God would involve us in His will? Kingdom.2.cassidy 16

17 Let me give you another one. Look at this one. This one s graphic. This is my youngest daughter helping my wife bake cookies. Just really quick --- we re running out of time --- does that look like she made it easier? Was it faster? Was it cleaner? Did the cookies look better? And who cares about any of that --- did they taste better? Now if you like cookies with eggshells, you re going to love what she produced that morning. So why include her? Because Melinda was going to make cookies that day, and if that young girl wanted to spend time with her mom, it would be in the kitchen. God lets us be involved in His will because He d love for us to spend time with Him. If you want to spend time with the Lord, you need to find out what His will is and go there. That s the way He works. We were designed, we were meant to have a relationship with God while we do things with God. Those are our best times. And if you look at the pictures, He s going to do the hard stuff, and He s going to leave the easy stuff to us. The little boy was not going to try to pull start that thing --- he couldn t. She was not going to get near a mixer. She could be enveloped by it. And that s the way God works with us. Look, I want you to be part of My will. Yeah, you ll be doing some scary stuff, but it s not really scary. I ll do the hard stuff, you do the easy stuff. You want to hang out with God? He d love you to be there. He doesn t need us. He wants us. And we would enjoy His presence. Kingdom.2.cassidy 17

18 will. Story one: Don t use the sacred; revere it. Story two: Enjoy God s presence doing His Third Story: The Ark of God is Returned Third story, very quickly --- I m sorry, we re a little bit late here. The ark ends up on an ox cart pulled by a couple of cows with bags of gold on it and it ends up in Israel, the closest town possible, and it ends up in this field during harvest season. They put the ark on a big rock and it becomes somewhat of a shrine. They have a great day of festivities. They have these sacrifices and everybody s starting to sing Happy Days Are Here Again. It is awesome. There s hope again because the ark of the Lord has returned to Israel. It s a good story. And they lived happily ever after. And they didn t. Because a couple of numbskulls did what the Philistines were afraid to do. They took the lid off and looked into the ark. And the temporal was never meant to gaze on the eternal. And this is what happens. I mean, you saw the ark of the covenant, right, The Raiders of the Lost Ark? You ve seen the movie, right? Based on a true story. [Laughter] 1 Samuel 6:19-20 But God struck down some of the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy of them to death because they looked into the ark of the Lord. The people mourned because of the heavy blow the Lord had dealt them. 20 And the people of Beth Shemesh asked, Who can stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God? But God struck down some of the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy of them to death because they looked into the ark of the Lord. The people mourned because of the heavy blow the Lord had dealt them. And the people of Beth Shemesh asked, Who can stand in the presence of Yahweh, this holy God? Kingdom.2.cassidy 18

19 Application #3: Respect God Maybe you could respect who He is. What you think about God is the most important thing about you. And in this time, this epic, this era, this dispensation of spiritual experience, we live in what s not a contradiction, but a paradox. Never before have we been told in the Bible to call God, not Father, but Abba, Daddy. We get to call Him Daddy. And when we do, we need to remember --- He s the great king. He is God, Yahweh Almighty. He is our good, good Father, but he is majestic. The Bible says, Don t you hang your head. You lift your head up. You walk with great confidence into the throne room of grace and you talk to that great high priest Jesus Christ who did things for you. But never be casual when you do that. Matthew Henry said, You can bow your knee to God, but you can t tip your hat at Him. Did you learn some hard things today? What God calls sacred, we honor. We get to spend time with Him if we are part of His will. And He is our good, good Father and never stopped being the God of the universe. Well, the theme of the whole monarch series is this. There are two types of people in the story. Those who stand in front and be trampled, and those who get to follow behind and be led. Which one do you want to be? Do you know how the story ends this time? Do they live happily ever after? Do things change? Is there finally a hinge of history? You kind of need to come back next week to find out. That s how the story goes. Let s pray. Lord God, these are very heavy lessons and I ll admit, I have had a casual attitude towards what You call Your bride. I ask, Lord, that You would help those here that have considered what it means to be disciple to not include the love of Your life, the bride of Jesus Christ. I d ask, Lord, that we would take responsibility, that we would confess those things, that we would change our attitude towards the church. That we would love her and honor her and consider her sacred, worthy of returning to save. Kingdom.2.cassidy 19

20 God, I also ask that we would enjoy finding our way in Your will so that we might have an experience of presence with You. Lord, You are a great God. You are Jehovah, the King, and we love to worship You. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Kingdom.2.cassidy 20