Scripture reading comes from 1 Samuel chapters 4 and 5.
Please follow along on the screen, in your bulletin, or your own Bible.
Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines.
They encamped at Ebenezer, and the Philistine encamped at Aphek.
The Philistines drew up in line against Israel, and when the battle spread,
Israel was defeated before the Philistines, who killed about 4,000 men on the field of battle.
And when the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said,
Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines?
Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh,
that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.
So the people sent to Shiloh, and brought from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord, a host.
He was enthroned on a cherubim.
And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
As soon as the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp,
all Israel gave a mighty shout, so that the earth resounded.
And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said,
What does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?
And when they learned that the ark of the Lord had come to the camp,
the Philistines were afraid.
For they said,
A God has come into the camp.
And they said,
Woe to us, for nothing like this has happened before.
Woe to us.
Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods?
These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness.
Take courage and be men, O Philistines,
lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you.
Be men and fight.
So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated,
and they fled every man to his home.
And there was a very great slaughter,
and thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell.
And the ark of God was captured,
and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.
A man of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh the same day,
with his clothes torn and with dirt on his head.
When he arrived, Eli was sitting on his seat by the road,
watching, for his heart trembled for the ark of God.
And when the man came into the city and told the news,
all the city cried out.
When Eli heard the sound of the outcry, he said,
What is this uproar?
Then the man hurried and came and told Eli.
Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes were set so that he could not see.
And the man said to Eli,
I am he who has come from the battle.
I fled from the battle today.
And he said,
How did it go, my son?
He who brought the news answered and said,
Israel has fled before the Philistines,
and there has also been a great defeat among the people.
Your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead,
and the ark of God has been captured.
As soon as he mentioned the ark of God,
Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate,
and his neck was broken and he died.
For the man was old and heavy.
He had judged Israel forty years.
Now his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant,
about to give birth.
And when she heard the news that the ark of God was captured,
and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead,
she bowed and gave birth.
For her pains came upon her.
And about the time of her death,
the women attending her said to her,
Do not be afraid, for ye have born a son.
But she did not answer or pay attention.
And she named the child Ishabod, saying,
The glory has departed from Israel,
because the ark of God had been captured,
and because her father-in-law and her husband.
And she said,
The glory has departed from Israel,
for the ark of God has been captured.
When the Philistines captured the ark of God,
they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod,
then the Philistines took the ark of God,
and brought it into the house of Dagon,
and set it up beside Dagon.
And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day,
behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground
before the ark of the Lord.
So they took Dagon and put him back in his place.
But when they rose early on the next morning,
behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground
before the ark of the Lord,
and the head of Dagon and both his hands
were lying cut off on the threshold.
Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him.
This is why the priests of Dagon
and all who enter the house of Dagon
do not tread on the threshold of Dagon
in Ashdod to this day.
The hand of the Lord was heavy
against the people of Ashdod,
and he terrified and afflicted them
with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory.
And when the men of Ashdod saw how things were,
they said,
The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us,
for his hand is hard against us
and against Dagon, our God.
This is the word of God.
Great.
Thank you so much, Celeste, for reading to us.
I know it's a long passage that we're looking at.
As we go through Samuel,
some of these are going to be longer passages,
but it's really important for us
to actually hear God's word in full.
We've actually going to,
I'm going to summarize some of the last part
because we haven't looked at all of it.
But I hope actually,
as we're back on Zoom again,
that we can actually just still our hearts
to really hear what God wants to say to us this morning.
I don't know what kind of day you've had.
I don't know what kind of morning you've had.
I had a little bit of a crazy morning with my kids.
But actually, Jesus is still on the throne.
Whether we're gathering physically
or whether we're on Zoom,
Jesus is still here with us.
So let me just pray for us
as we get into God's word
and invite him to speak to us.
Father, we thank you that you
are not the God that we imagine you to be.
You're not the God that we try and make you to be,
but you're a God who's so much better than you,
than we think you are.
And I pray today,
even as we look at this tricky passage
where there's a whole load of stuff,
even about judgment.
And Lord, I pray that we would see you
for who you really are,
that you would come and open our eyes
to see that we don't come before you casually,
but we come before you joyfully
because you're a God who is so awesome
and yet so present and so merciful and gracious.
So speak to us, we pray.
Amen.
In Jesus' mighty name.
Amen.
Great.
Great to see a lot of you.
I can see,
I saw Jesse and Victoria earlier.
I saw the Yangs and Edward and Ada
and a few others.
Great to see you.
So we're continuing in our series in Samuel.
And today's going to be,
there's a challenging passage in many ways.
But as I start,
I was reading a professor from New York University.
He's an atheist
and he's a very prominent philosopher
called Thomas Nagel.
And he said this,
he said,
I want atheism to be true.
It isn't just that I don't believe in God.
It's that I hope there is no God.
I don't want there to be a God.
I don't want the universe to be like that.
Now, I actually appreciate his honesty
because what he's saying is how we view God
is often less to do with our kind of rational arguments
that we live by,
but more to do with the desires
that we have in our hearts.
An atheist like Nagel
might not want God to exist
so his life can carry on without interference.
Or a religious person
might want God to exist
but to be the kind of God that they want
rather than the God that he actually is.
I was talking to Alan in the week
and he told me in Nepalese culture,
the Nepalese church is fine with a God of judgment,
but they have real problems
with a God of mercy and forgiveness and grace.
I've spoken to some other people who said to me,
yeah, I believe in a God of compassion and forgiveness,
but I don't like this kind of God
and this stuff about a God of judgment.
You see, today's passage is difficult for many of us
because it calls us to stop making God in our own image.
It calls us to take God for who he really is,
not for who I want him to be,
you want him to be,
or your culture wants him to be
because actually who he really is
is a place of life
and a place of blessing
better than we can ever conjure up for ourselves.
And so this series we're looking at in 1 Samuel,
we've seen how the real theme that's going through
is how man looks at the outward appearance,
but God looks at the heart.
God raises up the humble who turn to him
and he brings down the proud who trust in themselves.
And we've seen that with Hannah,
who was honored as she ran with desperation to God
and God provided her with a son.
We've seen that with Samuel, the little boy,
but actually he was listening to God's word
and how God honors him as the last judge of Israel
and how God has promised to bring down the sons of Eli
and Eli himself and his household
because they were dishonoring God
and treating his word with contempt.
And today in chapters four through to seven,
this is the kind of block we're gonna look at,
we see how God plays out his promises
of what he had said to the sons,
how his judgment comes.
So he removes the weeds from the garden of Israel
so that new life and new flowers
can flourish and blossom in the kingdom
and the new king can come.
So I'm gonna look at three things.
I'm gonna look at putting God in a box
and then when God breaks the box
and then our response to that.
So let's start off, putting God in a box.
And so I encourage you to have the passage in front of you.
I'm just gonna pull through a few key verses
to show you what's going on.
So background, Israel has been in an on and off conflict
with the tribes of the Philistines
and it's been going on throughout the book of the Judges
and now they're back on the battlefield again.
And this time they suffer a crushing defeat.
And in the book of Judges, which were dark times,
when they were kept defeating,
even then the people would actually cry out to God
and God would come and deliver them.
But here we see the Israelites don't do that at all
because we see the Israelites are users of God,
not those who turn to God.
And so here we see verse three.
Their response is,
why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines?
That's a good reflection question.
And notice they say,
why has the Lord defeated us?
Not the Philistines defeated us.
Because you see defeat in battle
in those times was seen as either a sign
of the weakness of your God
or a sign that your God was displeased with you.
And here we see the Israelites
see that their God, Yahweh,
is not happy with them.
But how do they respond?
Do they repent?
Do they go back to see what does God require of us?
No, they come up with their own little fix,
their own plan to deal with the situation.
Verse three continues.
Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord
here from Shiloh,
that it may come among us
and save us from the power of our enemies.
Well, just stop and think about it.
What is the ark of the covenant?
If you know your Old Testament,
you know the ark was a wooden box
overlaid with gold,
which symbolized the footstool
of the throne of God himself.
It's the throne of the Lord of hosts.
And that means the God of the heavenly armies,
the all-powerful one.
This is a sign of his rule.
And it's a holy thing.
Numbers four tells us
that no one was to look at it.
It was meant to be kept hidden
behind a curtain in the tabernacle,
in the holiest place,
and treated with great reverence
because it shows the presence of God himself.
And it's the ark of the covenant of the Lord.
And so inside were the Ten Commandments,
the tablets of the Ten Commandments,
showing that God's covenant
with his word, with his people,
is right at the center
of a relationship with him.
And then on the very top
was what's called the mercy seat.
And this is the place
where the high priest would come in
and would offer blood
from the sacrifice of an animal
to bring forgiveness and cleansing
for the people's sin.
You see, the ark was about
God's holy rule,
his presence.
It's about his covenant
through his word.
And it's about the place
of forgiveness and reconciliation
to a sinful people.
It's a highly significant thing.
And so the Israelites,
they figure,
well, this box is from the Lord of hosts,
God of the armies.
So like Joshua defeated Jericho
when he took the ark before him,
let's bring out our secret weapon,
carry out the ark,
out of the tabernacle,
put it on the battlefield,
and ya-ra-ra,
we're going to win this thing.
And do you see
who's actually organizing
the whole thing?
It's da-da-da,
the sons of Eli.
Remember them?
Okay, they're the ones
who just treated God
with utter contempt.
They had taken
and used their position,
priestly position,
to get for themselves,
sleeping with all the women around,
because it was all about them,
their whole religion.
And yet,
they're organizing
the whole of this,
and the Israelites
go wild.
They're excited.
They're now confident
they've got their box with them.
Okay?
God's going to come
and defeat the Israelites,
Philistines for them.
But it's all a load of hot air,
because they have literally
put God in a box
to use him
to get them out of trouble,
but they don't actually want him
for who he really is.
You see,
isn't that actually sometimes
what we often do?
You know,
we can have problems at work,
or you've got a job interview,
or you've got a health crisis,
and suddenly,
you haven't really been
praying very much,
you haven't really been
engaging with God,
but suddenly,
your prayer life just takes off.
You're kind of at church,
you're really trying to do
whatever it takes
that you can get from God
the answer that you need.
And then,
when he fixes your situation,
what do we do?
What happens to our prayer life?
Suddenly,
we go back to
what we always were.
We just kind of move on.
We kind of put God
back in the box.
You know,
we kind of wheel him out,
like giving us some licey,
for New Year,
like an elderly relative,
and then wheeling him back
to his nursing home,
leaving him there,
ignoring him for the rest of the time
until we need him again.
I don't know if you've ever felt
used by someone,
but it's not nice.
Because when we do that,
we're not seeking
the holy God of the universe
in relationship with him.
We're using him,
putting him in a box,
and that's actually contempt of God.
And the thing this passage
is going to show us
is God will not be put in a box.
That's the Israelites.
They're religious users.
But then,
let's look at the pagan,
the Philistines.
They are pagan refusers.
Because what do they do
as the ark comes out?
They go,
a God has come into the camp.
Who can deliver us
from the power
of these mighty gods?
You see,
they've actually got more reverence
for this
than the Israelites.
They've heard of the power
of this God.
They've heard of the victory
over the Egyptians.
But they don't go,
wow,
let's just surrender
before this awesome,
powerful God.
Instead,
they go,
take courage,
be men of Philistines,
lest you become slaves
to the Hebrews
as they have been to you.
Be men and fight.
You see,
they've heard this God,
but they,
like Thomas Nagel,
don't want him
to be their God.
They prefer their idols
because they think
they're going to lose
their freedom
if they surrender to him.
They'll become slaves
and restricted.
And so they refuse God
and they actually fight
against him.
Because you see,
some of us may be users,
some of us may be refuses.
But the result of this
is bad.
Israel is demolished
by the Philistines.
30,000 dead,
Eli's son's dead,
the ark of the covenant
of God captured,
and Eli waits trembling
to hear the news.
Remember,
in chapter 2,
verse 34,
God had promised him
that both of his sons
would die on the same day.
The news,
when the news came
of their death,
it didn't shock him.
What did shock him
was the news
that the ark
of God's presence
had gone,
had been captured.
And it kills him,
literally.
He falls over backwards
and he dies.
And it says,
because the man
was old and heavy.
And actually,
it's a play on words here,
because the word for heavy
is the word kabod,
kabod in Hebrew.
It's actually the same word
for glory.
See,
the glory of God
in the Old Testament
is his weightiness,
his substance,
that when he speaks,
there is power
and weight
behind who he is.
But Eli,
in honoring his sons
above God,
you see,
he had lived
for his own kabod,
his own glory,
and it ends up
killing him.
That's really sobering.
And then,
his daughter-in-law
hears the news,
and it gets even worse,
because she goes into labor
and she dies,
proclaiming,
in the name of her son,
she says,
her son is called
Ichabod,
kabod,
same word,
saying,
the glory,
kabod,
has departed from Israel,
for the ark of God
has been captured.
You see,
literally,
she says,
the glory has gone
into exile.
But do you know
she was wrong?
God's glory
and God's presence
didn't depart
from them
when the ark left.
The glory of God
had long since departed
because Israel
had long since departed
from honoring their God.
And the amazing thing
is this,
the pagan news
at the time,
would have gone,
Yahweh defeated,
Dagon,
the Philistine god,
reigns supreme,
because warfare shows
whose God is strongest.
But God doesn't work
in our ways.
You see,
man looks at the outward
appearance of defeat,
but God was fulfilling
his promise to Eli,
he was bringing an end
to the family's corrupt rule,
and he was wiping
the slate clean
to prepare
for a fresh,
clean start
that he wanted to bring.
God's judgment
clears the dead branches
out so that new life
can come.
A scholar
named Dale Ralph Davis
said this,
a very challenging quote,
he says,
Yahweh
will suffer shame
rather than allow you
to carry on
a false relationship
with him.
He will allow you
to be disappointed
with him
if it will awaken you
to the sort of God
that he is.
You know,
when I was in the UK,
where I studied,
the university,
many of the lecture halls
and the drama studio
and even flats
were actually
old church buildings
which had closed
and they'd been taken over.
And many people
I heard lamented,
oh,
the glory departed
when the building shut.
No,
the glory doesn't depart
then.
It departed long before
when people
had treated God
as a user
and weren't lovers
of him.
You see,
God may,
and this is challenging,
but this is what
the passage is saying,
God may allow
your plans,
he may allow
your prayers,
he may even allow
his church
to be defeated
to wake us up
to who he really is.
And you know,
I've talked to people
who say things like,
I used to pray
before job interviews
and every time I prayed,
God gave me the job,
but I prayed this time
and I didn't get the job.
Like,
what went wrong?
Like,
what's the point
in praying?
But maybe
we've made God
our genie,
we've put him in a box,
he is so gracious
to us,
but sometimes
he'll disappoint us
so that we come
to him for him,
we come to him
for his face,
not just for his hand
of what he's going
to give us.
So that we learn
how to honour him
as the holy God,
the sovereign God,
the gracious God,
but who God really is
not to use him.
That's the first thing.
When we put God
in a box.
But the second thing
is this.
When God
breaks the box.
And
I love this,
this is kind of,
I'd love to see this
acted out,
but maybe Annabelle
and Justin
can do this for us later.
But just when
Yahweh
seems down
and out
for the count,
God proves
that he's still
on the throne.
Do you remember
in chapter 2,
Hannah's prayer
says,
the adversaries
of the Lord
will be broken
in pieces.
And so what happens?
Verse 5,
sorry,
chapter 5,
verse 1 and 2.
When the Philistines
captured the Ark of God,
they brought it
from Ebenezer
to Ashdod.
And then the Philistines
took the Ark of God
and they brought it
into the house
of Dagon
and set it up
beside Dagon.
See,
remember,
I said warfare
was a battle of gods.
And so when pagans
won a victory,
pagan nations
won a victory
over another nation,
what would they do?
They would bring
the image
of that nation's god
and like a hunter's
trophy cabinet,
they'd put it
in their temple
to show,
look at all the people
we've defeated.
It was,
because you know,
refusers,
when they seem successful,
they love to mock
and to look down
on those who seem
defeated and weak.
But here's what I love.
I love this part.
And when,
this is verse 3,
when the people
of Ashdod
rose early next day,
okay,
they're probably
like kind of,
a bit kind of cocky
after the victory
of the day before,
they walk into
their temple
and it says this,
behold,
Dagon had fallen
face down
on the ground
before the Ark
of the Lord.
You see,
what's happening
is Dagon
is literally
prostrate
on the floor
before the Ark
of Yahweh.
That's actually
how people
used to work,
worship.
If you see
how Muslims pray,
that's how people
would do it.
Dagon is worshipping
Yahweh.
It's kind of comical.
It's tragic.
And so,
what do the people do?
They go,
oh,
do they repent?
No.
They prop their idol
back up into their place.
And so,
what does it say?
They took Dagon,
put him back in his place,
and the next morning,
okay,
what happens?
Behold,
Dagon had fallen
face down on the ground
before the Ark
of the Lord.
And now,
the head of Dagon
and both his hands
were lying cut off
on the threshold.
Only the trunk
of Dagon
was left to him.
Do you get the message?
Okay?
Your idols suck.
That's what he's saying.
Okay?
What you think
is the source
of your success
actually is just
a museum piece.
because anything
you trust in,
anything you give glory
to for your success
or for anything
in your life
other than God himself
will ultimately
at some point
be exposed
and brought low
and been shown
for a dead,
worthless idol
for what it really is.
You see,
you haven't kind of
COVID
and even you think back
to like the financial crisis
in 2008
and a thousand
other things
shown us things like
we're not in control.
Our plans
are not God.
Yet how many of us
kind of,
we continue to prop
that idol
back up in its place,
you know,
trust our own plans,
our own abilities,
our own success
for what can make us through.
And you know,
God is sometimes
so gracious to us
to actually smash our plans,
to actually smash
the things we trust
into pieces
to wake us up
to see that
his holiness
is the source
of life
that you are craving
for and longing for.
He is the source
of everything
that you ultimately desire.
He is our oxygen.
He is our life.
And he keeps going,
come to me.
I want to give you life.
Let me show you
that,
you know,
that your kind of,
your self-made snorkels
don't work in deep water.
Let me show you,
come to me.
But if you,
like the Philistines
and like a diver
who continually refuses,
no,
I don't want your oxygen.
I can do it by myself.
I'm going to cut the line.
Trust yourself.
At some point,
God will not force
his life upon us.
And we will die
cut off
eternally from God
if we continually,
continually refuse him.
And you can't go,
well,
God's just mean,
isn't he?
No,
if you choose
to go,
hey,
I want my life,
my way,
not his way,
he will eventually
hand us over
to the consequences
of our choices.
And even if you're
a believer,
you're not going to,
there's not a place
of eternal death,
but actually he can
wake us up
through bringing
consequences
of our decisions
to us.
you know,
Paul in the Romans
says the wages
of sin is death.
God says,
don't walk away
from me.
And what happens
is God brings
a deadly plague
on the Philistines.
It's quite heavy
in many ways.
And that's where
we got up to
in the reading.
Because actually
scripture is really clear.
All of us
at some point
are users
or refusers of God.
at some point.
All of us
have sinned
and fallen short
of the kavod,
the glory of God.
We all of us
have not treated
God as God
in some way.
And all of us
experience our sin
and at some point
experience the consequences
when we get exposed
and God exposes us
in different ways.
And God is gracious
to bring our idols
to fail.
But when you feel
the consequences
of your sin,
do you know
what uses
and refusers do?
They either
become self-atoners
or they become
minimizers
and deniers
of their sin.
And here's where
chapter 6
comes into play.
We didn't read this
but here's where
chapter 6
kind of
picks up the story
and I'm going to go
quickly and summarize this.
But what happens is
the Philistines
seek to self-atone
and remove
the consequences
by appeasing God.
So they produce
a guilt offering
for God.
And that's good.
Scripture tells you
that sin requires
a guilt offering
for healing.
But what offering
do they bring?
Do they bring
a sacrifice
of an animal
blood to God's altar
as he required?
No.
They actually say
this and this is
verse 5.
They say
you must make
images
the word is
idols
of your tumors
and images
idols of your mice
that's actually rats
that ravage the land
and give glory
to the God of Israel
perhaps he will
lighten his hands
off you
and your gods
and your land.
Do you see
what they're doing?
They feel the consequence
of their sin on them.
Okay.
And so they're
appeasing God
by making
golden idols
of boils
and rats.
That's just gross.
In fact
in scripture
it's unclean
all of it.
And they're putting them
they put them
on a car
next to the
holy ark
of God
and they think
that these
disgusting images
in some way
are going to
please this God.
And they send it
back with the ark
and kind of hope
that they've just
kind of removed
the consequences
they can get on
with their lives
and their gods
and all the other stuff.
Because you see
this is them
self-atoning
making up
trying to remove
the consequences
of their sin
while still trying
to stay in control
without coming
to God
on his terms.
You know
I've got friends
who self-harm
and you know
self-harm
is a way
to try and remove
feelings of guilt
and shame
through shedding
our own blood.
It's a form
of self-atonement
and it's devastating.
It feels good
for a moment
but it leaves scars.
But it's
I think we can do that
also psychologically too.
You know
I talked to
a lady
who said
I know
God forgives me
but I can't
forgive myself
for what I've done.
You know
what she's saying
is
sure I understand
the idea
that God forgives
but that's not enough
so I've got to
self-atone
by being really
hard on myself.
Thinking that
maybe the worse
or the more guilty
I feel
the more likely
God is to forgive you
or to get you
out of it.
That's actually
psychological self-harm.
Some of us
self-atone
by serving
or doing charity.
Others
through confessing
your sin
in CG
removing the guilty feeling
you just had a nice
therapy session
in your CG
and then
you go away
and you just carry on
with the rest of your life
and then you come back
again next week
just confess the same
thing
but you have no sense
of actually trying
to really change
or to make any difference
in your life.
It's actually a form
of self-atonement.
Remove the consequences
of sin
without running to God
to truly cleanse you
from your sin
and to truly change you
so that you want him
for him.
Now that's
what the Philistines do
self-atonement.
The Israelites
they do something else.
When the ark returns
they are ones
who minimize
or fail to own
their sin.
The ark gets back
and the Israelites
don't kind of repent
sorry God
we've just been
users of you.
No they go
oh everything's fine
the ark's back
let's have a party.
They sacrifice the cows
when only bulls
were meant to be sacrificed.
They put the ark
on a huge stone
for everyone to look at
when actually it was
meant to be hidden
and treated respect
behind the curtain
of the tabernacle.
God is still in their box.
They're still users
after all that has
happened to them
and the judgment
of God comes upon them
and death comes upon them
and they go
oh this is a problem.
Who is able
to stand before the Lord
this holy God?
Okay that's a great question.
Psalm 24 says
yeah only those
who've got a pure heart
and clean hands.
And so they don't go
let's repent.
They go
oh to whom shall he
go up away from us?
Let's get rid of him.
We don't want him.
Okay.
We don't want him
because he doesn't
fit in our box.
You see
when self-atoners
and minimizers
still have God
in their box
they do so
because they don't realize
that when you come to God
on his terms
when you let him
break your box
you can quit
being hard on yourself.
You can quit
all your self-atonement.
You can quit
denying or minimizing
your sin
because he has made
a way
to face it fully
and to remove
all of your sin
and consequences.
Because the crazy thing
in the story is
the whole way along
the top of this
holy ark
of the covenant
which has been
with the Israelites
which has been
with the Philistines
all along
was the mercy seat
where
through the blood
of an animal sacrifice
the people
would be cleansed
forgiven
healed
and could experience
God's blessing
into their life again.
And we know
as Christians
if you kind of
fast track the story
those of us
who've been
in Watermark a while
we know
that actually
we have a
new covenant
that's the ark
of the old covenant
that we have
a new covenant
in Jesus' blood
which as we celebrate
communion later
we're celebrating
this new covenant
which is sealed
with Christ
came to die
to atone
for every ounce
of God's judgment
on us
every ounce
of all need
for self-atoning
removed
because Jesus
paid it all.
He drained
every morsel
and every drop
of it.
There's nothing
but grace left
it's a throne
of grace
Hebrew says
for those
who come to it
and who come
to him.
God's mercy
triumphs over judgment
for those
who come to God
in his way
not in our way.
His forgiveness
is total.
No believer
needs to live
in a cringing fear
that God
is somehow
going to condemn you
God is somehow
going to be
disappointed in you
God is somehow
going to turn
his back on you
you haven't done
enough for him
because
if you run
to the one
who wants to
give you oxygen
and life
he's not
withholding
it from you
he's been wanting
to give it
to you all along.
Nothing delights
him more
than when sinners
come and repent
before him.
He delights
to call us
his beloved
sons and daughters
and the only
condition
to receive mercy
is to quit
using
and quit
refusing
God
and return
to God
on his terms
with empty
hands
in repentance.
20 years later
chapter 7
Samuel
finally appears
he hasn't been
anywhere in these
last two chapters
he finally appears
and he calls
the people
back to relationship
to himself.
7 verse 3
says this
he says
if you are
returning to the
Lord with all
your heart
put away the
foreign gods
the Ashteroth
that's an idol
from among you
and direct your
heart to the
Lord
not just to use him
not just to refuse him
but to actually
want him
and do you know
what they did?
I mean
this is like
one of the highlights
of the book of Samuel
it's like the one
of the few times
to actually do
something right
so the people
of Israel
they put away
the Baals
and the Ashteroth
and they served
the Lord
only
you see
what happens
revival
begins to break
out in the people
of Israel
and God
brings them
the very
victory
over the Philistines
that they had
wanted all along
because finally
they've woken up
to see that when
you love God
for God
when you honestly
turn to him
he can deal
with everything
else in our lives
when you come
in his way
there is life
what does this
mean for us?
here's the final thing
we're going to take
communion
actually in a second
and that's that
symbol I said
of the presence
of a holy God
with us
bringing us
this incredible
forgiveness
through Jesus
death
as the only way
that you can
come to God
do you know
some of us
don't truly
enjoy communion
and everything
it represents
we don't truly
enjoy
and get excited
at the grace
of God
because you read
passages about
judgment like this
in the Bible
and because of
upbringing you've had
or experiences
you've had
we know
theoretically
that God
loves us
and that Jesus
forgives us
we kind of know
that because you've
been in church a while
but we still put God
in this box of harsh
or hard
or demanding
or disappointed
but you know
God so loved
the world
that he sent Jesus
to die for you
not to forgive you
theoretically
but to smash
that box
it's actually a false idol
it's a false image
it's an idol
the box
that God
is harsh
towards you
that's maybe
your parents
that's maybe
your culture
but it's not God
he wants you
to come to him
as you come
to communion
firstly to repent
of all the ways
that we try
and self-atone
be totally honest
and real before him
about sin
don't have any hiding
and when you do that
you can find
the most joy
filled freedom
that there is
full forgiveness
for you
every time
you confess sin
let me tell you
never just confess sin
and confess sin
always finish
thanking God
that it is dealt with
and don't take it up
and don't
you know that phrase
in that song
it says
when Satan tempts me
to despair
and tells me
of the guilt within
upward I look
and see him there
who made an end
of all my sin
if Satan comes
to make you despair
you tell him where to go
because Jesus
has already dealt with it
some of you need to hear that
some of us
need to hear a different message
some of us
we get God's forgiveness
but here's the challenge
of the passage
we actually take it lightly
it doesn't thrill us
we come casually
to communion
we come casually
confessing
we respond to sermons
casually
because we don't want
to face the cost
of change
we don't really want
God to be God
in every area
of our lives
John the Baptist
says bear fruit
in keeping
with repentance
let's not carry on
as users
or refusers
of God
Paul actually says
and here's actually
we often don't read
this part
but Paul says
in 1 Corinthians 11
some people have died
after taking communion
because they took it
so lightly
because they didn't
think about the sin
of the way they were
treating their other
relationships
and the way they were
treating God
God says
take my discipline
seriously
it's gracious
but I want to break
the box where you
treat me as your mate
I'm not a tame lion
as C.S. Lewis says
in the Chronicles of Narnia
but I am good
really good
so take me for who I am
on my terms
come and repent
and that is where
you're going to find life
I want you to
just take a minute
and just think
for yourself
where are you
with God
who do you
resonate more
within this story
what's the box
that you've placed
God in
are you a user
are you a refuser
if you haven't
got the communion
elements
I encourage you
to have them now
because we're going
to take it in a second
but before we do
we don't come lightly
this is a holy moment
this is an awesome moment
this is a joyful moment
for those who come
to God on his terms
so let's just
really take a moment
to actually examine
where we are
with God
how are you viewing him
what does your life
show you
about where you are
with him
he longs for you
to run back
if you need to repent
just take this time
to actually come
before him and repent
if you're not a believer
you need to take seriously
who is this God
don't make him
in your own image
you've got to take him
as he is
will you be like
the Philistines
or will you be like
the Israelites
at the end
who really do turn
and recognise
that he is the only one
some of you
actually need to
allow him
to just show you
his grace
maybe you just need
to actually
open up your hands
and release to him
some of
those boxes
that you've placed him in
and ask him
to change them
and break
break out of those boxes