This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Hi, this is Pastor Tom and I want to welcome you to week two of our look through
1st and 2nd Samuel, the first day of week two. We're going to look at 1st Samuel
chapter 4 today. Remember we talked about last week that 1st and 2nd Samuel, in
essence, it's the story of four men and their heart before God.

Samuel, the man with an open heart; Saul, the man with a troubled heart;
Jonathan, the man with a divided heart; and David, the man after God's own
heart. But there is one other major character, in a sense, in 1st and 2nd
Samuel, and that character is represented by the Ark of God. Throughout 1st and
2nd Samuel, we're going to see things happen with the Ark of God, which is the
place of God's presence, and it gives us a sense of God's presence throughout
these books.

1st Samuel chapter 4 through chapter 6 tells the story, it's sort of a twist to
a modern movie theme. The Ark is actually stolen by the Philistines, and it's
taken to their country, and when they take it there, they suffer many, many
things because of them taking it there. So you might say, in this case, it's the
raiders of the Ark lost, how they lost because they took God's Ark from God's
people.

It's the story of how these people thought they had won a great victory by
stealing the Ark of God, but they found more on their hands than they bargained
for. It's a strange story. It's strange that God would allow the Ark to be
taken.

It's even stranger that He would allow the Philistines, the enemies of God's
people, to take the Ark, and it's stranger still what He did to the Philistines.
So why did all this happen? Why did God allow it to happen?

Well, the entire story in these chapters is an object lesson concerning God's
holiness. God has something to teach us, to teach you, to teach me about who He
is and about how we relate to Him, and the teaching in these chapters that
center around the Ark centers on the word "holy. " We sing that word in so many
of our hymns, so many of our songs.

We talk about that word "holy" in so many of our messages, but what does it
mean? For many people, the word "holy" has become more familiar as the start to
a swear word than as a church word, and for most people, even people in church,
the word "holy" takes on sometimes a negative connotation, a negative feel. "God
is holy" means that God is distant, God is judgmental.

But here's a story, this story of what happened with the Ark, that's going to
impress on our hearts, on our minds, exactly what holiness is. Each chapter of
this story gives us a separate truth to hang onto on our concept of God's
holiness, and that gives us something about our relationship with God. Because
what does holiness have to do with me?

We're going to be seeing these next few days together that a proper
understanding of holiness transforms our heart, and when our heart is
transformed, that transforms our personality, and when our personality is
transformed, that transforms our actions, and when my actions are transformed,
that transforms my life. So let's read in chapter 4, beginning in verse 3, the
people of Israel had just suffered a great defeat. So listen to what happens,
verse 3, "When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, 'Why
did the Lord bring defeat upon us today before the Philistines?

Let us bring the Ark of the Lord's covenant from Shiloh, so that it may go with
us and save us from the hand of our enemies. ' So the people sent them into
Shiloh, and they brought back the Ark of the covenant of the Lord Almighty. When
the Ark of the Lord's covenant came into the camp, all Israel raised such a
great shout that the ground shook.

Hearing the uproar, the Philistines asked, 'What's all this shouting in the
Hebrew camp? ' When they learned that the Ark of the Lord had come into the
camp, the Philistines were afraid. 'God has come into their camp,' they said.

'We're in trouble. Nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us!

Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? They are the gods who
struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the desert. Be strong,
Philistines.

Be men, or you will be subject to the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Be men
and fight. ' And so the Philistines fought, and the Israelites were defeated,
and every man fled to his tent.

The slaughter was very great. Israel lost 30,000 foot soldiers. The Ark of God
was captured, and Eli's two sons, Haphne and Phinehas, died.

This is quite a story about what happened with the Ark. And as I said, each
chapter, as we walk through what happened with this Ark, this place of God's
presence, tells us something about our relationship with God. And this chapter
reminds us that God, what does it mean for God to be holy?

It means God will not be manipulated. Israel made the mistake of trying to
manipulate God. They decided that the physical presence of the Ark would
guarantee God's presence, God's victory in battle.

No matter what we do, no matter how unholy we've been, if we just bring this Ark
in, it's like our lucky card. It is like our guarantee. There's no way God's
going to let the Ark be captured, so we will certainly win, even though their
hearts were filled with sin.

You see, they wanted to keep God in a closet, and just bring him out when they
needed him. And then put him back in the closet so he couldn't see what they
were doing in their lives. And they believed it would work.

They were absolutely convinced that if they brought the Ark that day, they would
have victory. Not only did they believe it would work, the Philistines believed
it would work. They were terrified.

But both of them forgot to take God into account. They thought, the Israelites
thought, God has to bless us, but instead, what do they see? They see nothing
but defeat.

They see the defeat of Israel. They see the capture of the Ark. They see the
death of Haphne and Phanaeus, who are the sons of Eli, remember the priest Eli,
who was the one who raised Samuel in the temple, in his household.

And after this, we're going to see next the death of Eli. Down in verse 18, when
somebody came and told Eli what had happened in the battle and how the battle
had gone badly, he'd been told how his sons had been killed, so now he's in
distress. And then he tells how the Ark has been captured.

In verse 18, when he mentioned the Ark of God, Eli fell backward off his chair
by the side of the gate. His neck was broken and he died, for he was an old man
and heavy. He had led Israel for 40 years.

His leadership didn't end well because the Ark was captured. God will not be
manipulated. He allowed that Ark to be taken out, and now he's seeing the result
of that sin.

And then a fifth thing happens. The defeat of Israel, capture of the Ark, death
of the sons, death of Eli, then there's the birth of a boy named Ichabod. Listen
to what happens to Eli's daughter-in-law.

In verse 19, Eli's daughter-in-law, the wife of Phineas, was pregnant and near
the time of delivery. When she heard the news that the Ark of God had been
captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she went into
labor and gave birth, but she was overcome by her labor pains. As she was dying,
the woman attending her said, "Don't despair.

You've given birth to a son. " But she did not respond or pay any attention. She
named the boy Ichabod, saying, "The glory has departed from Israel because of
the capture of the Ark and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband.

" That name Ichabod, we know it from English literature, Ichabod Crane, The
Headless Horseman, that whole story. The name Ichabod means the glory has
departed, and it comes from here in the Old Testament. All this happened, all
this disaster, because they tried to manipulate God.

Now the question for me, the question for you is, do I ever try to manipulate
God? Do you ever try to manipulate God to keep him in a closet until you need
him? For instance, to use prayer as an escape hatch rather than your life's
blood.

I only really pray with desperation when I can't make it happen myself. That's
keeping God in a closet. Or to look upon your Christianity primarily as an
opportunity for business rather than the way that you live your life.

Or to tell God, "God, if you will do this, then I will do this. " Keeping God in
a closet, trying to make God, manipulate God to do what you want to do. God is
holy.

He is all-powerful, and he will not be manipulated. And the truth of the matter
is, he's not meant to be manipulated. When I try to manipulate God, it means I
misunderstand my relationship with him.

He's not there to do my bidding. He's not there to get what I want. He's there
for me to live in relationship with.

And so when we try to use God like that, the glory departs. Now each of these
chapters as we walk through it, they really speak in a positive way towards the
kind of heart that we're to have towards God. This is not the kind of heart, the
heart to manipulate.

So what is the kind of heart? It's the heart to serve. My heart towards God is
to be one of a servant, of a servant.

When I understand holiness, that gives me a heart towards God. And it helps me
to realize I'm not here to manage God. God's here to manage me.

He's the one who made me. He's the one who created me. And I've been made, I've
been created to live in relationship to him.

And one of those ways that I live in relationship to him is I serve him. Listen,
God is to be served, not used. When you try to use him, you'll find that nothing
in your life seems to fit into place.

But when you start to serve him, you find that everything seems to begin to fall
into place. I'm not saying all the circumstances are right or perfect, you still
go through struggles and difficulties, but you see how God is at work even then.
So I want to have a heart.

I want you to have a heart to serve a holy God. And the only way that I'm going
to have that, it's not some ethereal thing that I think about. The only way I'm
going to have that is to ask the question, how can I serve today?

How can you serve him today? Right now in prayer, let's spend a moment asking
that question. Just take a moment to talk to God, just in your heart say, God,
how can I serve you today?

Forgive me for those times when I've tried to use you to get what I want. I
realize that's not the relationship I meant to have with you. I meant to live in
this relationship of love with you.

And out of that, I want to serve you. I want to worship you. I want to be at
work in the world that you've given in ways that you want me to work.

So Lord, how can I serve you today in one small way or one great way? How can I
see everything that I'm doing at my work? Everything I'm doing for my kids,
every small task even that I'm doing as an opportunity to serve you.

Lord, how can I serve you today? I pray that you help me to see this. I pray
this in Jesus' name.

Amen. Tomorrow, we're going to see a second truth about God's holiness, the
truth that God will not be minimized.