You Believe In God. Does Your Life Show It?

We're simply calling this series "It Might Get Loud." It might, it might not, clearly, clearly this is the non-loud side of the room, and it might not get loud for them. But I chose that title as our series, not in honor of all the people who grab the earplugs when they come into one of our auditoriums, because they think it's a little loud. I actually chose it because, well, because your life should be lived loud in worship. And that's what this series is about. It's a three-week journey together that we're going to take to understand worship. And I should warn you that when you understand worship it will get loud. Now, unfortunately, today is probably going to get quiet. So the series is called "It Might Get Loud," but today, I got a feeling, I don't know, but I've got a feeling that it might get quiet. It's like this, sometimes I'll preach a sermon and I'll get back home and I'll say to Tabitha my wife, I'll say it sure was quiet in that church today, sure was quiet. By the way, that's not meant as a compliment to any of you when I say it sure was quiet in that church today because I interpret a quiet sermon as a not very good sermon. I like sermons that are loud. Those are the kinds of sermons that I like. I like loud sermons. I like sermons that have you laughing and engaging and clapping along. Those are the kinds of sermons. I like the talk-back sermons. Y'all know what I'm talking about? The talk-back sermons? I know some of y'all didn't grow up in talk-back churches, some of y'all, and you and I used to the talk-back kinds of some of y'all, some of y'all sit up in here like stone cold Presbyterians, just staring at me when I try to get a little talk-back. Can I teach you some talk-back for a moment? Maybe you didn't grow up in this, but when the preacher says something and you agree with it, you talk back and you say amen.

Amen. Can we all try it? Amen. Yeah. Yeah, that's a talk-back. That's a talk-back. Or the preacher gets on a roll. He gets going a little bit, you know, and when the preacher gets going a little bit, you respond by saying, "Come on, preacher, you don't want to try that one? That's a good one. Let's try it all together. Come on, preacher." Now, I don't always have to be all amped up and everything, because sometimes the preacher will say something kind of thoughtful, kind of deep, kind of mysterious, if you will. And I like this response when the crowd says, "Wow." You want to try that one? Wow. Wow. You don't have to say it all sarcastic and everything, all right? It's just like, "Wow." When I grew up going to seminary, there was a seminary professor. This was his favorite one. He would shout out. He would shout out, "Fix it." That was his. "Fix it." You want to try that one? "Fix it." I don't know what it means, but I like it. I like it.

And those are the kind of sermons I like to preach, the talk-back sermons, but sometimes it gets real quiet. And Tabitha will often correct me when I say it was real quiet in that church today. She'll often say to me, "But don't misinterpret our silence. Don't misinterpret it." She says to me sometimes, she'll say, "We're so quiet because we're so convicted." Wow. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. That's Tabitha. She's deep like that. We're so quiet because we're so convicted. She'll say sometimes God is speaking something so deeply profound to our spirit that we don't actually know how to respond with our voice, so we're quiet. So the series is called "It Might Get Loud," but today it might get quiet. And if it does, I'll just ask you to do what I asked the earlier service to do. If it does get quiet, could you at least help the preacher out by smiling and nodding your head occasionally, all right? There it is. In the Old Testament, the presence of God was represented here among God's people on earth in a box. It was God in a box. system and structure that God had instituted called the Tabernacle, and it was God's dwelling place among His people in the Old Testament. If you're taking notes today, you can write down Exodus chapter 25 and read more about this on your own. God gave very specific instructions about the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant would have looked something like this, a very elaborate box, and at the top of the box would have been the most important part of the Ark. It was called the Mercy Seat, and once a year the High Priest would enter into the

Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle where the Ark of the Covenant was located, and he would kill an innocent animal, and using the blood of that animal, he would sprinkle blood on the Mercy Seat as a sacrifice offered for the forgiveness of the people's sins. Now why would he do that? Well he would do it because sin can't be in God's presence. God is holy, and therefore sin cannot enter into His presence, and the only way to get rid of sin is through blood, and so because the Ark of the Covenant represented God's presence, God's people wanted to experience God's presence, and there had to be a sacrifice to pay for their sin, and sin was paid for by the blood of the animal. I'm telling you all that really just as a background because the story we're going to study together today features the Ark of the Covenant, which remember, represented God's holy presence. The Ark of the Covenant was God's holy presence. I'm telling you for another reason as well, and I need you to know the Ark of the Covenant was simply a foreshadowing. I don't know if you remember foreshadowing from freshman high school English class, but foreshadowing is just a type of something that comes before the real something is revealed. It's a preview of what's to come, and the Ark of the Covenant was just that. The Ark of the Covenant was just a preview to Jesus because God's presence came in a person, not in a box. God's presence came to earth in the person of Jesus, and in the top of that Ark of the Covenant that was so important called the Mercy Seat, it was just a preview as well. It was just a foreshadowing too. It was a preview of the cross because on the cross Jesus shed his blood so you and I could now be forgiven and come into God's presence. And so now we don't need to go to a tabernacle, and we don't have to sacrifice an animal, and we don't have to have the Ark of the Covenant anymore because y'all, we've got the real thing, his name is Jesus, you should get loud on that because that's awesome. That's incredible, but there's something to learn from the Ark of the Covenant. By the way, just so you know in case you've got a middle school or high school student sitting around you and they're kind of shaking their head a little bit like they know where I'm going with this or they're opening up some old notes, you should know I preached this sermon to our students this past summer at Student Summer Camp, and when I was done preaching this sermon, I asked them a question and they actually all agreed, I asked them do your parents need to hear this sermon and they all said yes. So if you like the sermon, think a student. And if you don't like this sermon, blame your student. All right, I'm just telling you, but this is what your students get at Student Summer Camp. I'm telling you that because if

you're a parent, I hope you'll understand one of the most important things you can do for your son or daughter spiritually is expose them to great preaching and one of the great ways to do that is to send them to Student Summer Camp. And if you don't have a student, one of the best things you could do is pay for somebody else's student to go to Student Summer Camp. All right, just going to give that plug. We're a long ways away from summer, but I just want to give the plug. With all that is background, the arc of the covenant is featured in this story that I want to show you from 1st Samuel chapter 4. Let me give you the context. Israel, God's people are being led now by a priest named Eli, and Eli, this priest has two sons. Why don't you see what the Bible says about them? The Bible says that Eli's sons were scoundrels that they had no regard for the Lord. Now think about that. How horrible would it be to be mentioned in the Bible but be titled as a scoundrel? Some of you are like, I don't even know what a scoundrel is. That's okay. You can tell by the sound of the word, it ain't good. Can we agree? You don't want to be a scoundrel. prominence and a lot of influence within the nation because of who their dad is. And now we get to the feature story. This is what the Bible says. Now the Israelites went out to fight against the Philistines. By the way, if you know anything about the Old Testament, you know this is kind of the storyline of the Old Testament. It's God's people versus the world's people. It's God's chosen people, the good guys, the Israelites, versus oftentimes the bad guys, the Philistines. And it says the Israelites camped at Ebenezer and the Philistines at Afeck and the Philistines deployed their forces to meet Israel. And as the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines who killed about 4,000 of them on the battlefield. This is a bad day, a bad day for God's people. 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. And notice this is their choice. This is their decision. This was their idea. They were not asking what God wanted or what God thought about it. They're taking matters into their own hands. Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord's covenant from Shiloh so that He may go with us and save us from the hands of our enemies. Because remember, the ark of the covenant is God's presence. So the people sent men to Shiloh and they brought that God's presence. They brought back God in a box. They brought back the ark of the covenant of the Lord Almighty who's enthroned between the chair of them. And Eli's two sons, here are these scoundrels, Haphne and Phineas. Those are their names. If you're looking for a good child's name,

don't choose these two, all right? Haphne and Phineas and Ferb were there with thee. I told you, I preached this to students this summer, but they were there. They were there with the ark of the covenant of God. So these two scoundrels come up with this idea. Hey, we lost the battle today. The Philistines defeated us today. We lost 4,000 of our men. They're dead. Let's go get God in the box. Let's send some guys to Shiloh and get the presence of God, the ark of the covenant of God. And we're not going to ask God and we're not going to consider God and we're not going to wonder if this isn't God's will or what God wants. We're just going to go get God's presence and now God's presence will be with us. So the next time we go to a fight, we can't lose. And so that's what they did. They sent them into Shiloh. They brought back the ark of the covenant from Shiloh to the people and it got loud. I'll show you, it says, "When the ark of the Lord's covenant came back into the camp, all Israel raised such a great shout that the ground shook." In other words, the people of Israel lost their mind in the presence of God that day. They shouted, they cheered, they celebrated those words. Great shout means a loud clamor. It denotes this vocal volume that was so intense, so massive, so piercing with such loud fanfare. It would have sounded like a loud battle cry. They cheered so loud, y'all, that the earth shook literally the bedrock of the ground, shook beneath their feet. That's how loud they got. Which, by the way, should challenge you and I today not to enter into God's presence and treat it casually, not to act like when we are in God's presence. Oh, this is normal everyday average. No, no, no, no. When we come to God's presence, it requires out of us an unusual response, a ground shaking response. We're in the presence of God for goodness sakes. We've got to let somebody know it. We've got to be furt up about it. The ground shook and the noise was so loud and the trimmer of the ground was so great that the Philistines who were far away heard it and scared them to death. Literally, the Bible says they looked at each other and they said, "We've got to fight for our lives. We've got to get ready for a battle like we've never had before because those Israelites, they must mean business." And sure enough, they battled again in a second time. Only this time the Israelites had with them the ark of the covenant of God. The Philistines won again. This time, the Philistines killed 30,000 of the Israelites on the battlefield.

And that's not even the worst thing that happened. The worst thing that happened is after they won the battle, killing 30,000 of the Israelites, that they also took the Ark of the Covenant. They captured God in a box. They stole His presence from the people of God. And the Bible summarizes that battle. And this is what it says, "The Ark of God was captured. And Eli's two sons, Koffney and Phineas died." So Eli's boys are dead. 30,000 soldiers are dead. And worse than all that, the enemy, the Philistines, this pagan nation, this nation who blasphemed the one true God, this nation who worshiped all kinds of other pagan gods. They have now taken the Ark. They've taken the presence of God from the people of God. And so a messenger is sent back to Eli to deliver the news. Now mind you, by this point, Eli is 98 years old and almost completely blind. And the messenger comes back to deliver to Eli this tragic announcement. But before I read you the verse, I got to give a little disclaimer because I know this isn't like a funny sermon or even a funny story whatsoever. But there are a few of us who might find it in us to laugh at the next verse. And if that's you, I just want to give you a little permission and tell you you're not a bad person. All right, I just want to tell you that. It would be like this, it would be like imagine if somebody got up

in the middle of the service and walked out and on the way out, they slipped and they fell. Imagine that. See, normal mature people, like almost all of you here in the room, would be concerned about them. Like, oh my gosh, that's terrible. I hope they're okay. But there are some of us who aren't quite as mature as the rest of you. And the while we would be concerned for them, we would also laugh at them. All right, that's just a great of those. I'm sorry. Anybody who laughs at people who fall, you know what I'm talking about. It's just uncontrollable. Doesn't make us a bad person. I'm just trying to clear that up so there's no judgment here in the next little bit because the next verse though, it is very serious, does have a flair of comedic laughter in it. If you'll catch it, you'll understand what I'm saying. Eli, Eli gets the message and the Bible says this. When the messenger, 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 was heavy. I'll give you the translation. He was a fat old man which caused him to die. All right, everybody, send her say that. [laughter] Okay, sorry. I need you to understand though the severity of the situation. The messenger tells Eli we've lost. The messenger tells Eli 30,000 soldiers have died.

The messenger tells Eli your sons, Haphne and Phineas are dead. But when the messenger says the ark has been taken, it brings forth such a reaction from the priest, Eli, that he falls out of his chair, breaks his neck and he dies. So he didn't die when he heard the news they lost about it. He didn't even die when he heard the news that his sons were dead. He died when he heard the news. The presence of God is gone. The ark has been taken. But that's not all that happened. Phineas' wife was pregnant, and when she heard the news your husband is dead, your father-in-law is now dead, and the ark has been captured. The stress of the news sent her into labor. So now she's giving birth to a baby on the same day that Israel has lost the battle on the same day that her husband and her father-in-law have died. And the pain is so great and the complications were so severe that she's not going to make it. You've given birth to a son." In other words, this is good news. You have a son, but she didn't respond or pay any attention. She named the boy before she died, 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. In case you missed it, the Bible tells us again, she said, "The glory has departed from Israel." Why? Because the ark of the covenant of God has been captured. And there's a little boy named Ichabod who grew up with the name that reflected the condition of the entire nation. Ichabod, the glory has departed, Ichabod, our God was here, but now he's not. Ichabod, God's presence was with us, but now it's not Ichabod.

We had a relationship with God because we had the mercy seat where we could have forgiveness of our sin, but now we don't have the mercy seat so we can't be forgiven and now we don't have a relationship with God. Ichabod, God's glory, God's presence, God's greatness, God's honor is gone. My name is Ichabod, the glory has departed. The word "glory" just means this, it's the sum total of all the awesomeness of God wrapped up in one word. When you read the word "glory" in Scripture, hear the word "glory" or we sing the word "glory." It's all the attributes of the incredible nature of who God is in one word. It's that feeling you get "glory" when you suddenly realize how big and holy and beautiful and awesome and real God is and how small you are. Glory. It's the majesty and the splendor, the awesomeness, the wonder that accompanies the presence of God and now the glory is gone, Ichabod. That's why I want to ask you today, is your name Ichabod? Has the glory of God departed? Because it is possible to know God but not honor Him. It is possible to sing the songs and pray the prayers and be on the team and be in the group. It is possible to do Christian things, to act in Christian ways but still not experience the glory of God in your life. Are you Ichabod? Is there something in your life with your life about your life that's missing the glory of God because He is awesome and He is holy and He is majestic and He is wonderful and one moment in His presence should change us forever and yet there are so many of us who will experience His presence time and time and time again and walk out the doors and never be changed by it. Are you Ichabod? You might be.

It might be your name. How do you know? Let me give you three ways. Three ways to know if you are Ichabod. Number one, you might be Ichabod. If you treat God like a trinket, you know what a trinket is right? A trinket is what you buy at the dollar store. That's what you get at five and below. It's what you walk up to a vending machine and punch in the numbers and get out and you really have to have it. You really want it. You really need it in that moment but an hour later you forget all about it. That's a trinket. The Israelites treated God like He was a trinket. They said to each other, "We lost the battle. Let's just go get God so we'll win the next one." He was like a trinket, no consideration about what God thinks or what God wants or what God says. Let's go get God in a box so we'll have Him when we need Him. God is my trinket and I find Him and I pull Him out and I use Him when it's convenient for me. So I have a need in my life. I love a sick or one of my kids is having a or I wake up in the middle of the night, full of anxiety or I feel this tremendous weight and financial pressure, I have a need. So I pull God out, I use him, but as soon as the need is gone, I put him away and live like he's not part of my life anymore. I'm Ichabod, he's my trinket.

He's my good luck rabbit's foot. He's there when I need him. I forget about him when I don't. You get what I'm saying, Ichabod, right? And if you find yourself treating God like a trinket, using him when you need him only then the glory of God has departed. But the Bible says this. It says since we are receiving a kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God, how do we do that? By worshiping him with holy fear and all. For our God is, say the next words with me everybody. He is a devouring fire. That's who God is, not a trinket to be used, but a holy king to be served. This is our God. (congregation applauds) He's a God to be feared. And not a fear like that makes me want to run away from him. No, we just saying we run to the Father. We run to him with awe and wonder. We don't treat him lightly or casually. He's a devouring fire. You don't treat fire casually. You treat fire with great respect, great honor. And when you build a great fire, have you ever noticed this? You're mysteriously drawn to it. You can't stop looking at it. You want to be near it.

God is that way. Pastor Craig Rochelle said it the best I think. He said the problem for most of us isn't that we've rejected God. We've just reduced him. A trinket in our pocket. A name we use when we need him most. We've become Ichabod's. You might be an Ichabod. Number two, you might be an Ichabod if God is equal to your other little g-gods. A God is what you worship. And worship isn't singing songs. Worship is giving your affection. Your attention, your heart, your passion, your praise, your first and your best of something or someone. And so we all have a bunch of little g-gods in our lives. All of us do, it's the job you have or the car you want or the dream in your heart or the team you root for, the vapor, the drink. You can't go without or the control you have to have or the dream for a dream vacation in the future. It's the money in the bank or the travel team your kids play on. We all have little g-gods. You have 'em, I have 'em. Like, how do you know that? Because that's what you give your time and attention and your resources, your affection to those things. It makes some gods.

And if you find yourself giving those little g-gods, the same worship that you give to the one true God, your name is Ichabod, the glory is departed. If you find yourself prioritizing any of those little g-gods over the one true God, you're an Ichabod. I should just warn you, God says this, God says do not worship any other little g-god for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God. Well, wait a minute, wait a minute, pastor, isn't jealousy a bad quality? What is when it's on you? But not when you're God. You understand that, right? To not be jealous would be to diminish his own awesomeness. And God cannot diminish his own awesomeness. And so therefore, when you elevate something to the level that he is, of course he's jealous 'cause he's the most awesome. You get it, right? (congregation applauds) Can you imagine what a jealous God thinks when we put something as trivial as sports or yard work on a cold rainy Sunday. Imagine it. What a jealous God thinks when we put something that trivial equal to or above him. God has no rival. So don't act like he does or you'll be an Ichabod. The glory has departed. I told you, it might get quiet.

Here's the third way to know if you're an Ichabod. Number three, you might be an Ichabod if you want your way instead of God's word. We don't have time to get into it all today but God gave very specific instructions in his word for the ark of the covenant, how to deal with his presence, how to be in his presence, how to handle his presence. And the people of Israel completely disregarded what God had said, why? Because they wanted their way over God's word. And we do this too, all the time. We want our way over God's word but I just want to go on a record to testify today that God's word is always the best way, better than your way. I promise you. You know what God says in his word to forgive others? It's because forgiveness is the best way. That's the truth. Then why in God's word he says avoid sexual immorality. The answer to why that is is because purity is the best way. If you've ever wondered why does God say hey, when you make a dollar, give me a dime, that's called the tithe. It's called the tithe. By the way, when I preached this to the students, I said when you make a dollar, give me a dime.

And then I realized that we had some adults in the room. So I said, hey, when you make $100,000, give God $10,000. Their eyes got real big. Same principle. It's called the tithe. You know what God does that? The answer is because generosity is the best way. That's why. That's why. You know what God says, be holy as I am holy? That's because the holiness is the best way. Nobody ever wakes up the day after holiness feeling regret. But there are a lot of us who've woken up the day after some decisions of unholyness feeling a lot of regret. 'Cause we want it our way, not God's word. (congregation laughing) What's your name? The scripture says this. The scripture says work hard. Work hard to show the results of your salvation. Make no mistake about it. You are not saved by your hard work. We are saved by something wonderful that none of us could ever earn or deserve. It's called grace. That's how we're saved. Thank God for grace. (congregation clapping)

But once you're saved, the Bible says this. Show it. How do you show it? By obeying God with deep reverence and fear. I mean, listen. Just let the Holy Spirit speak to you for a moment. What's my name? (congregation clapping) Do I ever treat God like he's a trinket? What's my name? Do I ever want my way over his word? What's my name? Do I ever put anything above or equal to God? What's my name? And if the answer to any of those questions is yes. (congregation clapping) Then your name is Ichabod and the glory has departed. I am Ichabod. And so are you. It might get quiet. Tabitha said we're quiet because we're so convicted. God help us. (gentle music) (gentle music) But can I tell you that when praise entered back into the lips of the children of Israel, the glory departed for years and years and years, but finally when praise entered back into the lips of the children of Israel, the glory of God returned. And so the series is called It Might Get Loud, because the good news of today is this, your name might be Ichabod, but we have a God who can change your name today.

You don't have to walk out these doors being Ichabod. We don't have to be quiet any longer. When praise enters our lips, the glory of God returns. The Bible says this, "His mercies are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness." That means whatever happened yesterday that gave you a bad name, God can change to give you a good name today. Your name doesn't have to be Ichabod. Your name could be son or daughter of the king, loved and beloved. Your name can be holy and righteous. Your name is what God calls you today. And when praise is on your lips, Ichabod is no more. And so I think today the sermon should be called It Will Get Loud, let them just stand your feet all over the room. I think it's time to lift our voice, praise him today, praise your roles and defeat it. Come on, lift your voice, praise your faithful, praise your true, praise because there's nobody greater than you. Come on! Praise God, you're sovereign, praise because you're roles and you're feeding the great. Our praise because you're faithful, praise because you're true, praise because there's nobody greater than you. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Oh I'm going to praise the Lord, oh my soul, praise the Lord, oh my soul, oh I won't be quiet. My God is alive, how could I keep it aside? Oh I won't be quiet, my God is alive, how could I keep it? Oh I won't be quiet, how could I keep it inside? Shout it out, praise the Lord, oh my soul, come on church, give them all your praise right now. Get loud in this place, we're going to shout it out one more time with one voice, we're

going to shout praise the Lord, come on here we go. Praise the Lord, let's go, no more Ichabod, the glory has returned. And church family listen to me, the presence of God is for you, the presence of God is with you, you don't have to walk around like Ichabod anymore, the glory returns when praise leaves our lips. Some of you today, you need a relationship with Jesus Christ. So before we're done, before we end our time together, I want to give you an opportunity to say yes to Jesus to become your personal Lord and Savior. So would you bow your heads and close your eyes all across the room and those If you know Jesus, would you pray boldly for someone in today who does not? And if you came to this place today, unsure or unsettled about your relationship with Jesus Christ, this is your moment. I'm gonna lead you in a simple prayer, but before I do, I'm gonna ask you to mark this moment so you never forget it. And if you'd say pastor, include me in that prayer, I'm giving my heart and life to Jesus today. I'm gonna ask you to boldly shoot your hand high in the air on the count of three and just leave it there while we pray this prayer together. You know who you are, God speaking to your heart. One, two, three, this is your moment. Hands in the air, let us know over in the chat if that's you, God bless you. God bless you. Leave your hand high and pray this prayer with me silently from your heart. Say, Jesus, I wanna know you.

I want my sin forgiven by you. I wanna live my life for you. So come into my life and be my Lord and Savior. Put those hands down and Father today, I thank you for every person praying that prayer for all of us leaving the persona of Ichabod behind because we lift praise to you, your glory envelops our lives. We show you honor and glory for it. We worship before it. We serve you for it. We walk in it now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen, amen, amen, amen. (congregation applauding) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)