Ep. 14: The Lost Ark

Now, as we move into our sermon, we are on episode 14 of the plan, which puts us in 1st Samuel. We started with Genesis in September, and we're working toward hitting the Resurrection on Easter. We want to tell the whole story of the Bible this year, which means that during Christmas during the Advent Christmas season. We're in kind of a weird place where usual place for this time of year, in 1st, Samuel, and the story that we have, been telling the way we've been connecting. The story of the Bible together is that the Bible is the story of God's plan, to establish a Place. Full of people who live out their purpose in his presence. God made the world, he put people in it. You told him to rule it on his behalf and then he came down to live with them and we messed it up. But ever, since God has been working to reestablish, that design, that is the design God has in mind for us. It's what we were created for. It's what we are called into. And so, we're talking about the story because it's important for us to know the story that we are meant to be living out his And also the story that were inviting others into as we share our faith. Because that is what we're doing. When we tell people about Jesus is, were inviting them to become part of this story of what God is doing in the world. Now, this particular stage of where at in the story, God is working to re-establish, his plan by focusing on one specific group of people, out of all the people in his Chosen People Israel, and he's giving them a particular place to live. And he has come down to live with them in that place and he's giving them the law of Moses. As so that, if they live out the law of Moses living that out will demonstrate, who God is to the, to the people so that the other nations around them would be. So I supposed to be able to look to Israel and understand who their God is and what he wants for Humanity. And this is how God reveals himself to the world is through the way his people live out. His plan. Now, two weeks ago, we were in judges and we saw that that this plan is not working particularly well and and that is because of the failure. Israel to hold up their end though. It started with the fact that they didn't follow through on God's command, to drive out the the Canaanites. And so, the Canaanite influence stayed with them and tempted them to start worshipping God in other ways and then to start worshipping other gods. And eventually it corrupted them to the point where you couldn't really tell the difference between Israelites and Canaanites and the neighbors. They didn't actually look any different. They were just as violent just as destructive, and it things are just horrible at the end of judges. And so if their purpose is to reveal God, to the world and you look at the end of Judges, you don't really see God revealed through what they're doing and that's a significant problem. Now, last week, we were in The Book of Ruth and we saw a glimmer of hope through this moabite woman who actually behave, the way God calls us to behave, and we, and we saw something kind of begin with her and their family that We know he's going to bear fruit later on, but as we return to the major main story and 1st Samuel, we're still back in that place where Israel is just really doing a very poor job of representing Guide to the world. However, at the beginning of 1st, Samuel, something changes, there is a miraculous baby boy, born to a woman. You would not expect to be able to conceive. Not. Miraculous baby boy in the beginning. Its first Samuel opens with a woman who is unable to have children begging God in the Tabernacle to give her a child. And she says, if he gives her children than the first very first child will be dedicated to him. And got here is her and had compassion on her and he gives her children in the first one is Samuel and she follows through on her word. She dedicates him to God and bring some to the Tabernacle and he begins living and working in the Tabernacle. And and he begins hearing from God. And so as we go into are our coordinates passes. What I'm calling our opening passages when we do the plan, that's the stage that we're at, is this this new thing that God is doing, it seems to be centered around. This young man named Samuel. So, as we go into this passage, I want you to remember, these are our very this, how we keep our bearings in the story, be keeping in mind. Who was the story about, where is their home? How can they meet with God, and what did God tell them to do? Those are the four coordinates that will keep us to help us. Keep our bearing to the story. Now, in your bulletin. I got this passage completely wrong. It is not for seeing you for one through one. If it's a 3-19 through for 3, if you want to correct, that it is the kind who will want to know that. 319 through 43. Here's the story. How begin the Lord was with Samuel as he grew up and he let none of Samuel's words, fall to the ground and all of Israel. From Dan to Beersheba. Recognize that Samuel was a tested as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord continue to appear at Shiloh and there, he revealed himself to Samuel through his word and Samuels word came to all Israel. Now the Israelites went out to fight against the Philistines. The Israelites can't it ever needs are in the Philistines, it a fact, the Philistines deployed their forces to meet Israel. And as the battle spread Israel was defeated by the Philistines who killed about four, thousand of them on the battlefield when the soldiers returned to the camp, the Elders of Israel asked, why did the Lord bring the feed on us today before the Philistines? You would have to pause there. I'm going to get our bearings. Okay. So first of all, who's the story about

It's about Samuel in the Israelites. Now, when we were in judges, there wasn't really a main leader of Israel. There are a bunch of Judges that would come through, but they tended to be temporary, political leaders. There's really only one judge who actually spoke for God, Deborah was the only one who is also a profit and actually spoke for God to the Israelites. The rest of them tended to be just military leaders in NM priests poor representatives of God in a lot of ways. I so it's been a while since there's been someone who could really firmly, leave them back to God. And so the fact that everybody and Israel recognized as the Samuel speaks for God is a big deal. It's kind of a turning point in the story that that God is speaking reliably through a particular person and that person that person then should be Listen to. If we might be following God, Where is there home? Home is the land of Israel and but the land of Israel is going through a particular challenge right now because they has been invaded by the Philistines. The Philistines are not regular, regular enemies in the Old Testament in the Book of Judges until the Philistines arrive everybody that attacks their kind of like nomadic Travelers. They they come in they oppress them for a while and then move on kind of like the Magnificent Seven kind of story like they come through they pressed and they leave that kind of thing. The Philistines are actually a group of Greeks who came down from down the Mediterranean, and landed on the beaches, and started building cities, and they are there to stay. And they also are very technologically advanced. They cannot be beaten on level ground because they have chariots, which are new in that region. So, the Philistines are a significant threat to the land of Israel. This is things have gotten serious. Now, How can they meet with God? Now this answer hasn't changed. But today we're going to need to be a bit more specific. They can meet with God in the Tabernacle, which is currently in Shiloh. Okay. We're in the Tabernacle you meet with God because it's not just the tent, right? When you take apart the tent and move it, God's presence moves with one item in the ark. And, and when the time now, I gave it away to Sea Arch. You, meet, with God. Before they argue. That's why the most important moment of the year for Israelites. Is that moment when the high priest goes into the holy of holies and puts Blood on the Ark of the Covenant. In fact, they'll call Bill refer to God as in throne above the cherubim, the cherubim art angels, that looks like sphinxes and there are two of those on top of the arc. So the idea was that God's presents went over the ark and when they traveled with the ark, that was God's presence. So this point where you meet God's presence if you're in his right, you want to go meet God, you go. The Tabernacle, and it's the fact that the ark is there is, what means God's at home? Right now. It's important because the story they were looking at today is a story that we that we often recognized the significance of what happens here, but that's specifically how they meet with God. Now, the question is, what are they meant to be doing technically at this point? But was not told him to do while he's actually giving them, about 613 things to do in the law of Moses. And, but in particular moments, you will there are certain parts of the law that are especially relevant, right? So they went into battle and they lost and if we all had Deuteronomy memorize we might be reminded at that. Moment to go back to Deuteronomy 11, where God says Moses says if you carefully observe all these commands, I can give you to follow to love the Lord, your God to walk in obedience to him and hold fast to him. Then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you and you will dispossess Nations larger and stronger than you. So what is the key to military Victory? According to the law of Moses? It is to observe the commands to love God to walk in obedience with him to hold fast to him. I'm going to summarize that with the phrase be faithful to God, right? That kind of summarizes the all the different aspects of what's going on there. So if if God says be faithful to me and I will give you victory in battle and they lose the battle. What should the Assumption then, be or what? Should at least be? The first kind of thing that crosses your mind, right? Maybe. They haven't been faithful to God. How are they going to find out where the problem is actually, is a significant problem. If you've been reading all Samuel to up to this point, you'll know that the guys who run the Tabernacle have been embezzling funds and sleeping with their secretaries. I guess. This is the ancient version of that. Like, the more things change, the more, they stay the same. So, the problem is that even the people in the Tabernacle are corrupt now, like the corruption has reached every single part of his right Society. So there is a reason why this is happening now, right? How do they find out? How are they supposed to know?

Well, they've they've got access to the word of God, right? We just, we just read that. There was a person in Israel that everybody recognizes God is speaking to write it. So they have a way to ask God. So, what they need to do, if they want to know what God is telling them to do or where they've messed up. Listen to Samuel, go ask Samuel, right? When they, when they, when they lost a battle in Joshua, in the book of Joshua, the leader, the prophet of the time Joshua went before the Ark of the Covenant and stay there for like a day. Well, Waiting for God to tell him what they have done wrong and they could have easily follow that example. That would be the logical thing to do it, right? Is to find out how you been unfaithful or whether you've been unfaithful, there might be another reason and remedy that situation but he's faithful to God. Then you need to hear from God or you know, so that seems like the logical thing that they should be doing at this point in the story. Do, what do they actually do? Well, I'm going to read that same last verse again, and I'm going to finish it because I want you to notice how much time they spend deciding what they're going to do. When is soldiers returned to Camp? The others asked, why did the Lord bring two feet on us today? Before the Israelites? 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. How long do they spend actually reflecting on what the problem might be? Or do they actually even try to find out what the problem is that they jumped straight to a solution and and yelled? This might think this might be them trying to follow the example of Joshua, just the wrong example of Joshua because they're looking at the story of Jericho when they brought the ark and they yelled really loud in the walls, came tumbling down. So they're thinking, we'll maybe we just need to adopt the right tactics. So they they decide to bring the Arkansas, the people that they are, the people sent men to Shiloh who walks, right past Samuel to and brought the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim and he lies to Sons hop, infinus. Were there with the Ark of the Covenant of God. So what's going on here? What's going on is that it does not occur to them, that they might be on the wrong track. It does not occur to them, that God may not want them to win. Under these circumstances that there might be something that needs to change. They don't actually think to ask God's will be hazard lights assumed that they were on the right track and they use the ark to try to force a victory. It's possible if they're, they're thinking about God, the way they were. The other nations thought about their gods. They might have thought that God just missed the battle that he wasn't paying close enough attention and they need to make sure that he's paid attention the next time they go into battle. It's also possible. If we were to think that may be the most negative assumptions about their motivation is that they're they're trying to Corner God into winning for them because they're basically gambling with The Arc. Like I'm putting the Ark in Jeopardy. So now if God was to preserve his art and preserve his plan, he needs to protect these. He'll need to defeat the Philistines. But however, it is, they think that if we take the ark, and we bring it with us into battle, because it carries our presence of God, then we'll win. We just need a better tactic.

How do we think that's going to work out for them? Well, let's see. The Philistine spot and the Israelites were defeated in every man. Fled to his tent. The slaughter was very great Israel. Lost thirty thousand foot soldiers or thousand the first time. Now, it's 30,000. The Ark of God was captured and Eli's, two sons, haughey and Phineas died.

Hey now, when you read this story, keep it in mind the coordinates of the plan. You realized that this is a really really big deal. Okay, so the switch is bad, but they also lost the ark and what did they lose when they lost the ark? They lost the presence of God. In fact, there's a messenger who goes back to Eli, the high priest and tells him we lost the battle. Doesn't get a reaction. You're both of your sons died. Doesn't get a reaction. They captured the ark, Eli out of shock falls, out of his chair, breaks his neck and dies.

Right. That's how serious this is. We say that the glory of God departed Israel and went into Exile. This is a huge deal. Because when the ark and the Tabernacle are separated, the presence of God goes with the ark. And having access to the presence of God is a key part of the plan, until they have gambled with the presence of God, and God has called their Bluff.

And they they lost not only the battle but also the ark. This is a huge deal for their identity and also for their mission and for the whole plan, the whole plan of the Bible. This is a common thing that happens in the Bible that says scarves recalled. Covenant, Jeopardy. Something's Happened that puts the whole plan. At least from a human perspective in Jeopardy because because human beings did something wrong. Give me the bad choice. I like to imagine what are the Israelites thinking after they regroup, like obviously they're devastated but I like to wonder if maybe there were some like that is her like Commandos. Like ready to put on some kind of put together a strike force. It was going to go back in and take cash or the arc back and deliver them. There. They're trying to figure out all these Strays. How are we going to liberate the ark and defeat the Philistines? And then one day they're harvesting at a town called that should end this wagon just appears over the hillside with nobody driving it and they go up to the wagon. And in the back of the wagon, is the Ark of the Covenant and a bunch of crates full of gold. Just shows up over the hill one day. Because something interesting happened among the Philistines. So they, the Philistines took the ark and they put it in its in the, in the temple of Dagon, their God, and one of their towns and the next morning, the temp. The the idle had fallen over there Saturday and then all of a sudden people in town start dying. So they get all worried and they take the Arca, they move it to another town and people start dying. And so, after a while, the people there ghosts, at in the move it to a third town. And as removing this very time, the third Times by no, no. No, we do not want the art, turn around weed. We don't want it. So, they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, send the Arc of the diver is real 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 that this meeting is a what do we do in their priests? Like? Well, I don't know what to put on a cart, loaded up with gold 22 to try and drive him into not killing any more. Unless I just a minute is real and let him go and it says that they like follow the wagon until it across the border, like from a distance across the border and then they got out of there cuz they didn't want anything more to do with the ark. Nothing. Just it's kind of a funny story. But it's it's a lot of the commentaries. I was worried you were tired. But this story is. And then what's the point of it here? Part of the point of it is it's demonstrating to us that when that battle was lost. The Philistines defeated the Israelites, but they didn't defeat God. Cuz that would be the Assumption. Was that when two armies fight, the one that wins their God, also defeated the other. That's why they took the ark and they put it in with their Temple. Was to show that they had that Dagon had conquered Yahweh. So. It makes it very clear that no. No, you didn't defeat Israel. You didn't defeat me. You defeated Israel because even without the Israelite Army, God can take care of himself.

And so, this is the moment when God intervenes Israel, wanted to force him to intervene during the battle. And instead you let them lose the battle and then he intervenes in among the Philistines to take 67 South. So God, intervened to foresee Israelites, to release the ark, and this is the first time that he really steps in. Okay. So, the art comes back to Israel. And here's where the story gets really interesting. Because I always thought, when I read this myself, that that's where the story of The Adventures of the Ark kind of ended right that it came back to Israel. And now everything is hunky-dory. Everybody's reunited. It's great day. And and so, and even when I read the commentary to say, yes, so there's this little detour, the soul of distraction from the story of Samuel, and it just did shows us that God is more powerful than Dagan. And I seem to be the only point and then we're back and everything's the same, like, we started. She can kind of skip over this story. I'm going to argue that. You can't skip over this story because this story is a key part of understanding what's going on in Israel from here and tell 1st Kings until the next major change. Because the story doesn't end hunky dory. Feed the, the Arco Sebastian mash and the Levites who are supposed to know how to handle the. Are they get it down. And and that's what they had. This big party and it seems fine but God struck down. Some of you have any Sebastian match, putting 7 of them to death because they looked into the Ark of the Lord. The people mourn because of the heavy blow. The Lord had doubt them. Somebody did not watch Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. You don't open the ark. More importantly. These are Israelites. They should know, right? They should know how to handle the art. They should know to handle it with respect. But what's Happening Here is it is it's revealing just the one that used by suddenly realized that things are not back to normal between them and God. Because they gambled with the presence of God. Right, they they they gambled with it. They were willing to risk the art to try and win a battle on their own terms and they took God for granted and that hasn't gone away. That hasn't been dealt with. And so the arc comes back and they're still treating it casually. They're still taking it for granted and they realize things are not okay. The people of estimates asked who can stand in the presence of the Lord this holy God to whom will the ark. Go up from here. That would we do. We are not on the same page with God. Clearly, God's not, okay, with us. And we don't know what to do. What's going on? Then the, the people, the best Ramesh. Sorry, then they sent Messengers to the people, curious Jeron saying, the Philistines have returned, the Ark of the Lord, come down and take it up to your town. So, the Menace. Erin came and took up the Ark of the Lord, the ark remained, a curious dream, a long time, 20 years, and all now that is utterly fascinating. 30 Arcadian, Epicurious Jerome. It is utterly fascinating for reasons that are not immediately clear. You're the first reason and means they did not reunite the ark with the Tabernacle.

The ark or the Tabernacle last we saw it was in Shiloh. Now, it's possible. That Shiloh has been destroyed at this point. We know this child gets destroyed and one of the leading theories is that when the Philistines captured the ark, they weren't destroyed Shiloh, but the next place that the Tabernacle ends up is in a town called knobley. See that later, and for Samuel, and when it's in Nob, the ark is still in. Biram. So they do not reunite the ark with the Tabernacle. And in fact that they won't reunite the ark with the Tabernacle for very long time. The ark is going to be on its own. And now, why don't they send it back to the Tabernacle? Well, I think there's a clue to that in the fact that they sent it to curious. Grm. Instead, if I know anything, any interesting facts about curious Young, The Reverend Joshua when we were talking about this tribe of Canaanites, who made a deal with Josh either? Sorry, they they they tricked Joshua into signing a treaty with them thinking they weren't Canaanites and that meant that he couldn't drive them out. And so instead, he says, all right, you guys are going to have to be manual labor for the Tabernacle forever. They still are not Israelites. They live in Israel, there call the gibeonites. Jeremy is a given night town. Is not an Israelite town.

And when they put people in charge of taking care of the Ark, they don't say their priests. They just say their caretakers. In fact, there's going to be one more stop that the that the arc makes on the way to Jerusalem eventually and that stop is also not going to be within his rights going to be with a Philistine who lives in Israel. So actually the ark is back in the land of Israel, but it is not back with the people of Israel. The Israelites essentially can't be trusted. So they realized, I think the reason why they didn't send it back to the Tabernacles because Israel couldn't have it at all, at this point because that relationship is still significantly fractured. So God did not restore the ark to the Israelites. He left it in Exile, with the gibeonites. You have not been brought back together, because the problem that put the ark at risk is still there. We will continue to be there in some form for a long time. Until they have a temple to put at risk.

And so God does not reunite with them now. Why is he not, why, why would God respond this way? I think often times we will look up a guys doing and we will assume motivations or we will assume emotions with those kind of things. And sometimes we will assume negative ones or will assume distance like God is, God is just fed up with him. He's giving up on them, but I think we should always assume that God knows the consequences of what he's doing. Right? And so what are the consequences of God? Removing his not sending the ark back to the Israelites? Well, I'm going to reread, I only read you half of the last verse. I'm going to redo the whole verse, you can see the immediate consequences of God. Not sending the ark back, the Israelites, the ark remained in a long time, 20 years and all then all the people of Israel. Turn back to the Lord. What? We, that hasn't happened since for Generations that they've actually really true that didn't happen in judges and all the attacks. All the oppression. All the op is all the stuff that have any judges did not create this effect and yet, they, they realize the arcs not coming back and they repent, and they turn back to God and it's sincere. They they even go to Samuel as the person who speaks for God and they and they talked to him. And Samuel said that, if you are returning to the Lord, with all your heart, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods in the actress and commit yourselves to the Lord, and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hands of the Philistines. So the Israelites put away their bills and actress and serve the Lord only. So, this is real. This is real repentance. This is sincere repentance. They've turned back to God and it's triggered by the realization that God is not just going to come back. Like everything's hunky-dory. Losing the presence of God. Finally drove the Israelites to True repentance. This is kind of like a trial separation. Right? When a spouse has been taking the other spouse for granted and it a certain point. There's a crisis that makes them realize. What they've been taking for granted, right? That's what's happened here. And when they suddenly realize, what they've lost that, that the ark could be with the dark isn't captured anymore, but it's God's decision that it's not with them that Jasmine that gets their attention and that drives them to repent. And I think that we should assume God knew that was going to be their immediate reaction. When were looking at what God? What motivated goddess to not send the ark back immediately. I we can also get a sense of God's attitude towards the Israelites by how God responds when they were paint. Cuz remember it's been Generations since he is why it's really weird word, sincerely following God, right? And they paid a lot of lip service to him in the cycle of the judges, but they never really turned to him. And so how, how would one of us respond in a situation like that? Right? We might say. Okay, sure. You're talking a good talk with. Let's, let's give it some time. Let's see how things turn out before I before, I trust you again before you like there's, you could, if you could totally expect a very lukewarm response from God. But that's not what happens. So they get together and they make these sandals leaving them in sacrifice to repent to God. And while he was Samuel sacrificing, the burnt offering the Philistines do near to engage is real battle, but that day the Lord's funded with loud Thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites. They repented and immediately, God was there. Protecting them from the Philistines. When Israel turned back to God, he deliver them from the Philippines, which remember was exactly what they were trying to do at the beginning of the story. Right? But it wasn't under the conditions. God wanted to happen because of God, defend them from the Philistines going to do some victories while they're completely disregarding him. He's validating that attitude and say, yeah, they're doing good. He needs them to be faithful to him and turn to him and a moment that happens. God is God is at their side. He is defending them. He is taking taking care of them. He doesn't wait. He doesn't say, I'll let me, let me, let me get over my emotional, you know. Frustration. He is there with him immediately. And for a moment, for a, for a time, we're going to see, they are, they are back together again. Now, the ark is still not reunited and that's going to be a longer path to reunions, but God and Israel are working together again. They repent and God responds. Does he look at this story that, you know, when you bring in stories about things like the Arctic make, it really hard to think that we deal with the same God, right? This instance like such a different scenario. So, how can we what can we learn about our station, the story, and our relationship with God. Today? There's a couple of key things that I think we need to remember from this story. First of all, the success of God's people comes from faithfulness, not effort or tactics.

Sometimes we think that if I just push a little harder, if I just try harder, if I figure out another way to get there. If our do this, then it'll work. Hey, I just need to push harder in force this thing through it. Sometimes we think of that as churches or as the church in America. Like if things aren't going the way, we think they should, let's just try harder. Let's find the right technique. Let's, let's do things. The old ways are like to do thing in the do things, in the newest of the new ways. And if we tweak, the techniques, everything will work out. And we forget that the key to success as God's Partners in Covenant is faithfulness to God. That is what makes things work. We can have the best tactics, we can have the best ideas. We can work the hardest and it won't matter if we're not being faithful to God.

That isn't to say there aren't some times that God is telling you to just buckle down and and and do the work. But ultimately the first thing that we look to is our faithfulness to God. I give you an example of this in my life. You hear me talk about this a lot. But this was a pretty formative experience for me. I really tried to force through the idea that I was supposed to be a professor. All the way through through my degrees. I was going to be a professor. I was going to teach passes. I was going to be a pastor. I was going to teach pastors and I really tried to force that through and I also had and I also know I knew who I was going to marry at the time was not. Casey is what I thought at the time. And I had a career in mine and I try to force it through and force it through. And I didn't actually really stopped, and asked God and check in with God, Is this where I'm supposed to be going? I'm not saying that every time we faced obstacles or failure or defeat in our lives, that that means we're taking the wrong path. Sometimes. We experienced two feet are obstacles for other reasons, but we need to ask the question, right? The first instinct should be to go to Gaudin and take stock. Am I going the right way, right? Instead, we will often throw, blame. All these other people, are the reason why my life isn't on track. And all these other things are the reason why the I'm facing this failure, this kind of thing, but we need his first start by checking our faithfulness checking in with God. And I Something that I didn't really do. And here's what I learned. And what we also see in the story that when we try to control God's plan, which is what I was doing. I would say no, this is God's plan. That's, that's what it is. I know this is God's plan. When we try to control God's plan, our relationship with him, always suffers. Because what we've done is, we've gambled our relationship with God on whether he does this thing that we told him to do. And one of two things are going to happen, one. It's not in God's will to do that thing. And then that causes us, then then we have to react to the fact that God's not giving me the thing that I've decided he has to give me. So maybe that makes me think that God doesn't love me. Or maybe that makes me think that I do God isn't listening or God isn't there or they're all kinds of rabbit holes. We can go into when we come to this crisis of God. If God was good and loving, he would give me this thing. He would do this thing and he's not doing it, and we can go into all kinds of tailspins and all kinds of problems because of that thinking. Now, the other side of that might be more dangerous when for at least a certain amount of time. It is God's will to give us the thing that we told him. We'd like that, we decided he would like, for me, Cemetery was where the my plans and God's plans overlapped. So, for the two years of Seminary, things were great until I started trying to get into a PhD program and then I hit the crisis. So sometimes we do end up in places where they call, I'm getting what I wanted. That must mean the God. Now, you're great and he endorses what I'm doing. And I should continue down this path in and not worry about it. And God, and I are always on the right page and that can be a dangerous assumption to because our success comes from faithfulness. And that means we need to be close to God. We need to be checking in with God. That needs to be the key to how we move forward, is our connection with God. Because I will tell you that, when when PHD programs didn't work out and that relationship didn't work out, I end up in a pretty dark place. I ended up not going to church and not being, not just being depressed and and not have The great spirit has not just been in a very bad, one of the worst places of my life. At a certain point, God use that to turn me around. And that's one of the encouraging things that I get from the story is that God can use those dark places to get our attention because it was that dark place that finally turned Israel around. Right. It was that loss of God's presence that loss of that key part of the plan, that turns them around. And God did that for me to when I was in that place. That was when I finally had a certain point started considering maybe God was leading me in another Direction. And God, put an opportunity in front of me and I actually prayerfully consider that. I had dismissed out-of-hand, the idea that I was going to a pastor and then a little town, a little church church in a little town, in northeastern Oregon needed to use pass and I said I could consider helping out there for a year while they get their building project done. And God took me there and I stayed there for three years. And while I was there, I got connected in a way. I didn't expect with a woman that became my wife. And man, when you know, I have never been happier about prayer, request. God didn't answer. Then when I found out who he had in store for me all along, right?

I'm so glad that he said, no. Would you say nothing about the guy in the other people, but just how amazing that? I love you is what I'm saying. And and I can't promise cuz I'm not it's not like I reach that point in. My life is perfect from there on my life is not perfect or anything like that and and I still struggle points. When God, my struggle and I struggle with work where God is leading me in that kind of thing. But we're at the point in those times, when I am genuinely open to what God is saying, genuinely open to how God is leading. It is amazing. How different my life goes and it's important to remember that because when we are faithful to God, he is eager to fight for us. Not remember this, this caveat is very important. He's eager to fight for us according to his plant. It doesn't mean that when I started listening to God, he started. Give me exactly the things I can ask you for before. I'm not a professor, right? You didn't start. Give me the things that he didn't give me the wrong path. I tried to go down, but he fought the battles to get me to the place where he wanted me to be. The God is eager to fight for you. Got his eager to defeat your Philistines, but he's going to do it according to his plan and it needs to be in that mountain. That's place where we are. Faithful to him and faithful to his leading.

Being faithful to God is a lifetime Challenge and it has its ups and downs. And there are there are moments ahead of me, guaranteed where I'm going to have to relearn being faithful. Got in checking back in with him, and I'm going to go off to the side and get pulled back in. But there's one really important thing for us to know that has changed between the story. We've been looking at in the Old Testament and today because not everything, is this In that time, it was possible for them to genuinely gamble with the presence of God on Earth with the art in and God's presence was tied to that box. And we might be afraid that we can genuinely gamble with our access to God. And like, if I take the wrong step here, I'm actually going to lose access to God. He's only Fed Up done with me. That's it. The ark is gone. And our access to the presence of God comes to a very different place. In fact, the story of God, wrote the story of Christmas. He orchestrated things specifically to make a particular point. Do you know why Jesus was born of a virgin? Matthew tells us all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said, through the prophet, the Virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means god with us. The miraculous birth of Jesus was a sign to make it clear to us that God is with us, not because of a box, not because of a tent, not because of a priesthood. But because of a baby boy that was born, two thousand years ago and became a man and a prophet and a savior and a king and died on a cross for us and was risen back to life and offers that life to us today.

The birth of Jesus means that the presence of God is available to us forever. And that is the certainty that we have that. When we depart from that paddle, we need to get back to God. That God is there waiting for us? Because he never left. Is this present is here?

Twice be closed. I'm going to ask you to consider. Where where are you at in that path? Do you need to to reconnect with, God know that he is there and he is not going anywhere. And God may be calling you to a next step. One of those steps. You can take you to give your life to Jesus. Today is the best day for you to do. That. Didn't to enter into that relationship for the very first time. God is eagerly waiting you to decide to be in his people to give your life to him. And if he is putting that on your heart, do it today. If you're here, you can come forward during our final song. You can talk with the minister after the service. If you're online, you get in touch with us. Talk to a Christian that you trust connect with someone who can walk you through that. If you're looking for a church community be apart of. We encourage you to sign up for a connectlife actually, today, ducted you can sign up for a future. When we also have a connect class after the service today. You can just show up at 12:30. We'll have sandwiches and you can come and find out more about who we are as a church, what we do and how you can be a part of it. Finally, on your connect card. You'll also see a couple other opportunities to join a small group, which is how we get together and do this journey of life together and support each other, you know, also join a service team which is how we we serve our God by serving others and we give back because he's been so generous with us. If you want to join any one of those teams Mark that on your connect card at before you drop it in, the receptacle, May encourage you to consider. What is the next step that God is asking you to make today, as we stand and sing.