40 Days in the Word: 1 Samuel | March 1 2026 (Part 3)

Well, good morning church, turning your Bibles with me,

would you? 2 First Samuel chapter 3.

1 Samuel 3 · chapter mention

First Samuel chapter 3 we are on day ten of our Lenten series and

1 Samuel 3 · chapter mention

and devotional Lent, of course, is this lead up 40 day lead up

to Easter. It's actually a 46 day lead up,

but we don't count Sundays. Sundays are a little break from

that Lent preparation and that we have this chance to celebrate

every Sunday is like a a Easter resurrection celebration.

But day 10 actually that was yesterday, but today because we

don't do it day 11. How's it going?

How have you guys been doing with the with The Walking

through first Samuel in the word.

I've had some great conversation with people sound like God has

really stirring some great things up.

Having this opportunity to use that journal that that kind of

structures our time with God is, is a pretty profound thing.

To be able to lay our burdens down before Him in preparation

even before we start reading His Word, and then to be able to

reflect on His word and how to respond.

I realize that all of us are different stages of life.

If you have young children, man, you probably, you know you'd be

lucky if you get 5 minutes of quiet.

But 5 minutes can count for a lot.

And if you're retired, I hear some people are like 2 hours by

candle and window and coffee enjoying their time.

Whatever time that you can devote to the Lord in his word

is, is, is going to have incredible dividends in your

life. So I encourage everybody to be

doing that. Now, if you have not started and

on this devotional yet, don't think it's awash, might as well

forget it. No, that's a lie of the of the

enemy. Pick it up today.

Pick it up today and just move, move on ahead.

There is so much great stuff coming.

We've just, it's kind of like we just got started.

So, so much great stuff coming in in First Samuel.

So, so we're this is this is week 3 of in terms of the

message series and the first week what we looked at just to

give you a little bit of an outline of the series.

We looked at Hannahs God in chapter 1 and a little bit into

chapter 2 last week. Chapter 2 finished with Eli Sons

this week. Today we're looking at Glory

Departed. That's the theme of the message

today. Now, I have preached on First

Samuel a number of times in my years at Forest View and on a

number of different texts, but probably the one that I've

preached on the most was is First Samuel Chapter 3, the call

1 Samuel 3 · chapter mention

of of Samuel. We're not going to put our focus

here. I'm going to be focusing on

Chapter 4 primarily. Um, at the end of chapter 3, it

kind of looks like it's going to begin the ministry of Samuel,

but it takes this three chapter break and talks about the arc of

God. And so we're going to be looking

at a lesson in archaeology today that this morning we don't, we

don't really stop and talk about the arc very much, but we're

this is kind of dead centre of what we're doing 34 times the

arc is mentioned in these few chapters.

So it's a significant theme. We don't want to miss it.

What is the Ark of God? Many of us think, OK, what I

know my, my knowledge of the Ark of God came from Steven

Spielberg and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

That's how that's what I know about that, right.

But Scripture Scripture highlights in a number of

different places, but it's essentially A4 foot by two foot

box that has been overlaid in gold.

And it was it was in the Israelite people were instructed

by God to to to to put it together as a symbol of his

presence. Like this was going to be the

tangible place of his presence with his people.

And inside the arc were the tablets of the law. 10

commandments were in there. And then there was a cover and

on top of the cover that covers actually referred to in

Scripture as the footstool of the throne of God.

And so you have these two winged creatures, cherubim on either

side of the of the cover long. So it's a like a lot.

It's a sphinx, basically a a lion with a with the human face,

but with wings that pointed into the middle and in the centre on

top of the Ark of the Covenant is referred to as the Mercy

Seat. That is the place where the

holiness of God and the sinfulness of human beings

intersect, and this is the place where God has the most intimate

connection with his people. And in fact, you know, this kind

of points forward to the New Testament where the cross is

that intersection of the holiness of God and the

sinfulness of man, where God's compassion is poured out on us

and forgiveness is granted. It's just a beautiful, beautiful

scene. But all of this is kind of a

kind of a precursor to what's coming in the New Testament.

Exodus chapter 25 describes the stuff that I I'm referring to.

Exodus 25 · chapter mention

And just here's a summary statement from Exodus chapter 22

Exodus 22 · chapter mention

there above the cover between the two cherubim 2 angels that

are over the ark of the covenant law.

I will meet with you. You're speaking to Moses and

give you all my commands for the Israelites in that place on that

throne where the law and the mercy of God meet.

This is where I'm gonna speak to you.

It was an intimate. It is meant to be an intimate

place in the Ark was kept in the Holy of Holies, the Most Holy

place, and this was the symbol of God's presence with his

people, and it was carried with God's with God's people wherever

they went. Now in Hebrews Chapter 9, verse

Hebrews 9:5

5 gives us a powerful statement. It says this above the arc where

the cherubim of the glory overshadowing the atonement

cover. The author of Hebrews is

referring to that place. Right there is the glory

referring to God himself, but that but that place in the

covenant where his in that mercy seat, that's where the glory of

God is revealed. And we can't separate the glory

of God from the ark of God. And we're going to see that as

we look at glory departed through these chapters.

But let's talk about glory just for a minute.

This is sort of introduction so that when we get into the text,

we kind of know what we're talking about when we refer to

glory. That's one of these sort of

elusive terms. It's like, OK, it's kind of so

ethereal. It doesn't make you know, to

tell me something concrete. Most of us think glory, the

glory of God. What does that actually have to

do with my life? Has nothing to do with my

everyday life, but it has everything to do with our

everyday life. The word glory, the Hebrew word

kabob refers to it it. It literally means weight or

heaviness and it's referring to God as being the one kind of the

the centre of gravity, the thing in the universe that has the

most weight, the most significance, the most beauty.

And because of that, it has a reputation.

It's it's, it's, it's recognized.

It's it's given recognition. That's why we say, you know, to

God be all of the glory. May he get all the recognition

because he is the one that's so important, more important, just

pale. Everything else compiles in

comparison to Him that glory of God.

The presence of God is the most captivating thing in all the

universe, and it was represented in the Ark.

So distinct from absolutely everything else, so attractive

is the glory is the glory of God that we look at it and it's

like, OK, that that's something that is beyond us.

That's something that isn't almost isn't even real because

it's not something that we actually see on the everyday,

everyday plane. We can use the word glory to

describe a lot of things in this world like a sunset, glorious

sunset. Wow, glorious.

You know, I don't know how many of you What do you feel like

when you woke up this morning went outside for the first time.

I I was a bit surprised to see snow.

I didn't see that coming, but this blanket of whiteness early

in the morning, it was just like this holy hush came over the

neighborhood was like beautiful, beautiful.

Maybe it's a exquisite flower. You know, you look into it and

you think, wow, that's glorious. It's not something that we see

all the time. It's or a person that's

absolutely gorgeous, right? A Prince or Princess or

whatever. And we look at these things and

they're so distinct. They stand out so much, and all

of these things in Creation Point to the One who is

glorious, to the Creator God, whose glory is emanating from

himself. And so everything that he makes

is absolutely beautiful. What is it that makes Him so

glorious? What is it that makes God so

heavy, so weighty, so significant?

In a word, get ready for this. It's his goodness.

It's his goodness, it carries all the weight.

We can't read it all, but Exodus chapter 33 and 34, go back to

Exodus 33 · chapter mention

that sometime and read through this conversation that the Lord

is having with Moses. And we're just going to we're

just going to pick bits and pieces from it.

But the Lord, So first of all, in chapter 33 verse 11, it says

that the Lord would speak to Moses face to face as one speaks

to a friend. Then Moses would return to the

camp. So he's speaking face to face

with God in the presence of the ark of God, which is the symbol

of the presence of God. And it says this, Moses said to

the Lord, If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I

may know you and continue to find favor with you.

The Lord replied, My presence will go with you, and I will

give you rest. Speaking about his presence,

going with his people as Moses leads the people, then Moses

said, now show me your glory. He's equating God's glory with

God's presence. And the Lord said, I will cause

all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my

name, the Lord, in your presence.

Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him

and proclaimed his name, the Lord, and he passed in front of

Moses. This is the glory of God passing

in front of Moses, the Lord proclaiming the Lord, the Lord,

the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in

love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands,

and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.

Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.

He punishes the children and their children for the sin of

the parents to the third and 4th generation.

Don't get caught on that last line.

It's not referring to punishing innocent kids.

He's referring to the sins of of the parents being passed on to

the next generation, and nobody gets away with anything.

But we see here the forgiving, compassionate nature of God, His

goodness, His goodness in the sense that of His righteousness,

His purity, His Holiness, but also His compassion and His

tenderness and his His mercy towards sinners.

This is the glory of God. This is what gives God His

weight. And it's not like he's this, you

know, when we think of the goodness like someone's prudish,

you know, an exacting no, he, he is tender and kind towards us.

All of this in the perfect package, all of it displayed

wonderfully on that cross were justice, the justice of God,

rightness of God, and the mercy and compassion of God.

Meet on the cross for our forgiveness.

This is what we're talking about when we're referring to the ARC

of the presence of the living God, and the people of Israel

lost sight of it. That's what these chapters are

about, completely lost sight of the ark.

And so we're going to step into just the beginning of chapter 3,

and we're going to walk through this together.

But Lord, as we do, we recognize that this is all about you and

we invite you to reveal yourself to us as we read your word.

Thank you for the gift that it is to us.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

First Samuel chapter 3. Just setting the stage, The boy

1 Samuel 3 · chapter mention

Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli.

In those days, the word of the Lord was rare.

There were not many visions. One night Eli, whose eyes were

becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in

his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone

out, and Samuel was lying down in the House of the Lord, where

the ark of God was, and it's then that the Lord called

Samuel. Just highlight a couple of

things. First of all, the the this is

the setting. Remember, this is the time of

the judges where there is no king.

Everybody's doing what they saw fit in their own eyes.

There was, there was such a massive move away from the

devotion to the living God that it was crushing the people of

Israel. And so the Word of God was rare.

People weren't hearing the voice of God much then.

Dark time and we have Eli, who is the he was the high priest in

his eyes are so weak and they can barely see.

This is almost like a metaphor, but I, I, I can't see my way

through, can't see the truth. And he's lying down in his usual

place is use his usual place, just he's lying down.

It's just kind of a, it's a, it's a picture of complacency

and deadness. But here we have Samuel lying by

the ark of God. There's some hope.

Someone's recognizing how important the ark of God is.

And it's there that the Lord speaks to Samuel.

And this is where the good news begins.

Because God doesn't leave us in the darkness.

He doesn't leave us without hope and in despair.

He actually speaks and he's raising up Samuel for the

purpose of of bringing about his good plans for his people.

It says in verse 7, we're just going to continue to move

through. Now Samuel did not yet know the

Lord, the word of God. That sort of the word of the

Lord had not yet been revealed to him.

Interesting he didn't know the Lord because the word had not

been revealed to him yet. The important the Word of God is

skipping down to verse 21. It says that the Lord continued

to appear at Shiloh and there he revealed himself to Samuel

through his word. Why am I focusing on this?

Because it is through the Word of God that we come to know God.

It's through his holy Word. That's that's how we know him.

That's how we know Him, and that's why it is so important

for us to be reflecting on the Word of God on a regular basis.

This is how God reveals Himself to us, not through just a

feeling through prayer, but through His Word is where we

actually learn about His character and His plans for us.

5 minutes. If you only have 5 minutes in

the morning or at night, set your timer and make the most of

those 5 minutes and just say, Lord, reveal yourself to me

through Your Word. He speaks during those times.

And the questions that we need to be asking of the text are not

OK. How does this relate to me?

That's not the first question. It's important to ask that

question, but not first. First question is, what does

this text reveal to me about God?

Because that's the primary reason why God gives us His

word, that He reveals Himself to us.

That's the first. And once we answer the question,

what does this reveal to us about God, Talking about how

this applies to my life becomes so much easier.

That's that's the mode. That's the mode that we're

talking about. And it says here that the Word

of God was rare and it was rare. So how does that relate to us

today? Because we got the Bible, right?

We got the Word of God already. The Word of God isn't rare, and

yet we can be so deaf to the Word of God.

We can have many Bibles stacked up in our homes collecting dust,

but we're not opening them up. So the encouragement always is

open up that word and whisper a prayer and anticipate that God

is going to speak to you. That dynamic is something that

that that was that was lost in the time of Samuel.

So the word of God, God speaks to Samuel and he gives him his

first Test as a prophet. And he had to deliver a very

difficult word to Eli. And it was, it was it was

basically a summary of what was prophesied back in chapter 2.

And so it was gonna be a very difficult word in Sandal didn't

want to give up, but Eli was mentoring Sam and said let me

have it, don't you dare hold anything back.

And of course he speaks the word and that is about the decline of

Elie's house and and and of course the death of his sons.

So that things were going to shift at that point.

So we move into Chapter 4. Now the Israelites went out to

fight against the Philistines. Philistines are very important

people. They appear that the Philistines

appear like 150 times through First and Second Samuel, pretty

significant group of people, always sort of at war with them.

And who were the Philistines? They were descendants of Ham.

If you were to go back to the opening chapters of Genesis,

they were considered the see people.

They kind of settle along the coast of the coast of Canaan and

this is where we get the the word Palestine from.

They were so dominant in that place that that became the name

of of that area, the Gaza, Gaza area.

Moving on, the Israelites camped at Ebenezer and the Philistines

at Affect. The Philistines deployed their

forces to meet Israel and as the battle spread, Israel was

defeated by the Philistines who killed about 4000 of them on the

battlefield. When the soldiers returned to

camp, the elders of Israel asked Why did the Lord bring defeat on

us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the

Lord's covenant from Shiloh, so that he may go with us and save

us from the hand of our enemies. So the people sent men to

Shiloh, and they brought back the Ark of the Covenant of the

Lord Almighty, who was enthroned between the cherubim and Ellie's

sons. Hophni and Phineas were there

with the Ark of the Covenant of God.

When the Ark of the Lord's Covenant came into the camp, all

Israel raised such a great shout that the ground shook.

Hearing the uproar, the Philistines asked What's all

this shouting in the Hebrew camp?

When they learned that the ark of the Lord had come into the

camp, the Philistines were afraid.

A God has come into the camp, they said.

Oh no, nothing like this has happened before.

We're doomed. Who will deliver us from the

hand of these of these mighty gods?

They are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of

plagues in the wilderness. They'd already heard what

happened in the Exodus. So here they conclude, Be strong

Philistines. Be men, or you will be subject

to the Hebrews as they have been to you.

Be men and fight. So the Philistines fought and

the Israelites were defeated and every man fled to his tent.

The slaughter was very great. Israel lost 30,000 foot

soldiers, the Ark of God was captured and Elie's two sons,

Hophni and Phineas died. Remember the first time I read

this passage, I thought what have the ark of God?

How could they lose and it was captured like it made absolutely

no sense to me why why that why that would take place.

And the Israelites felt the exact same way that the

Israelite leaders is Like how on earth could this happen?

But the point of this whole scene is how ridiculously in

charge God actually is, because you're doing the whole thing.

And he was gonna show them a fresh new understanding of who

He is. He was going to reveal His glory

to them through this difficult circumstance.

So they're defeated. And the elders, they asked the

right question. Why did the Lord bring defeat on

us today before the Philistines? Good question.

But they didn't linger on that question for very long.

Ah, let us bring the ark of the God's covenant from Shiloh so

that he may go up with us and save us from the hand of the of

our enemies. If we got the arc, we're going

to win. That was the attitude.

They didn't even look from within and say, could there be a

problem with us? No, we're just gonna grab the

arc. And now God, it's actually

gonna, it's, it's like it's going to force God's hand.

God's gonna win this battle for sure, because he's gonna protect

his honor if we bring his, his, his, his arc into this battle.

And you know, as, as in the in children's message we heard, you

know, it's kind of like a lucky charm.

It's kind of like twisting God's arms like a rabbit's foot.

We got the rabbit's foot in my pocket.

And because I do, I'm gonna be blessed.

Not not a great way to go. They force God's hand so that

they thought that He was gonna protect His glory.

And the irony in all this is that He is gonna protect His

glory, that this whole thing was about protecting His glory.

How is he going to let? How could he let them continue

to go on the way that they are? He's going to step in because

they're the ones that bear his name.

He's gonna step in and set things, set things right.

And so in verse 4, as the Ark of the Covenant is being brought

into battle, we see that there we go.

Eli sons, Hophni and Phineas, these sin laden priests who have

been completely taken advantage of the sacrificial system and

have been sleeping with women outside the tent of meeting.

Like completely dishonoring God's name.

They're with the arc. It's kind of like if this was a

movie and you know, how music dramatizes what's going on, you

know, is the ark is brought out. You know, you could imagine like

the the victory music like melody is swelling to this peak.

And then the camera pans over to Hophni and Phineas by the ark.

And it's like this minor note gets struck and it's like this

ominous, you know, sound, right? Like that's kind of what's what

what what's happening here? You know this isn't good.

You know this isn't good. I mean, they should still win

because the arcs there. But Hoffman finished, no.

And so the interesting thing is that the Philistines are

actually motivated when they hear that the Ark has come.

Like they're freaked out that the Ark has come into the camp,

but it actually becomes something that makes them rally.

And they say we're going to fight, we're going to fight.

And then they slaughter Israel. And this was God's plan all

along. He wanted them to lose.

He wanted the art to be captured because he wants his glory to be

revealed. Now.

I think we should just pause at this point and just think about

the fact that they were trying to manipulate God, trying to

manipulate the Almighty, so to speak.

And how do, how do we do that, that, that, that that's I, I

kind of think of, you know, for myself, how do I, how do I

manipulate, how do I manipulate the Lord?

Can I get the the next slide to this is this is how sometimes we

operate. If I do this, God must do that.

Ever thought that way? If I do such and such, God has

to do this and this. If I were a cross, God's gonna

protect me, right? If I fast and pray over

something to happen, God has to answer my prayer.

If I volunteer at a homeless shelter, God now has to.

It's like if I do, I'm like, I'm doing God a favor.

He owes me something. If I do this in this, if I'm

nice, rather than explode in anger, which is what I would

normally do, God's now going to be nice to me.

It's like he he owes me. I did him a favor and now he's

gotta do he's gotta return the favor to me.

But think this way often we do this and it's very subtle.

We don't don't really realize that we're doing it, but this is

kind of twisting God's arm. It's trying to manipulate the

Almighty in very subtle ways. And God says I will have none of

that. I will have none of that.

The Lord is willing to disappoint us if it means it

will wake up to who he actually is.

He's willing to disappoint us. He is actually willing to

undergo shame, as he does in this story, because the arc is

captured. He's willing to do that if it

means that he can put an end to this false relating, false kind

of relationship with him. He's OK with that and in our

lives, we're going to experience disappointments and in fact, he

will at times pull away in order to in and where His glory will

depart so that we'll seek him so that we'll acknowledge the place

that we're in and and turn to him.

This is he. He, it's, it's all, it's all out

of his great goodness towards us because he knows we can't

operate apart from him. We should keep moving.

Risk 12 That same day, a Benjamite ran from the

battlefield and went to Shiloh with his clothes torn and dust

on his head. When he arrived, there was Eli

sitting on his chair by the side of the road, watching because

his heart feared for the ark of God.

He he he obviously agreed to have the ark go, but it sounds

like maybe he was anxious about about the art going well when

the man of God entered. Sorry.

When the man entered the town and told what had happened, the

whole town sent up a cry. Eli heard the outcry and asked

what is the meaning of of this uproar?

The man hurried over to Eli, who was 98 years old and whose eyes

had failed so that he could not see.

He told Eli, I have just come from the battle line.

I fled from it this very day. Eli asked what happened.

My son, the man who brought the news replied.

Israel fled before the Philistines and the army was has

suffered heavy losses. Also, your two sons Hophni and

Phineas are dead and the Ark of God has been captured.

Just get his response when he mentioned the Ark of God.

Eli fell backwards off his chair by the side of the road or side

of the gate. His neck was broken and he died,

for he was an old man and he was heavy.

He had LED Israel 40 years. It wasn't that his sons had

died. He kind of knew that was gonna

happen. It was at the ark of God had

been captured. That's what devastated him.

It was too much for him to bear, and he tips over off his chair

and breaks his neck. Why?

He was old, to be sure, but the text says that he was heavy.

And the word that's used there is cabed, which is, which is an

offshoot of kabaddi. It it's glorious, the same.

It's it's a glory word. His heaviness.

His heaviness led to his downfall.

He was dethroned at that moment from his place.

Nothing is gonna stand in the way of God's glory.

Nothing. Nothing.

Where are we? Here.

Here we go. Next page.

Yeah, verse 19, his daughter-in-law, that's Eli's

daughter-in-law, the wife of Phineas, one of the one of the

two sons was pregnant and near the time of delivery when she

heard the news that the ark of God had been captured and that

her father-in-law and her husband were dead.

She went into labour and gave birth but was overcome by her

labour pains that she was dying, the women attending her said.

Don't despair, you have given birth to a son.

But she did not respond or pay any attention.

She named the boy Ichabod Sane. The glory of the glory has

departed from Israel because of the capture of the Ark of God

and the deaths of her father-in-law and husband, she

said. The glory has departed from

Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.

She couldn't bear the news either.

And an unfortunate delivery, to be sure.

But she names her son Ichabod. Which Kabad, right?

It's it's glory. The there's literally means no

glory. Or where?

Where did the glory go? It has departed from us.

Verse 21 she says 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 and her husband.

It's true. She was right in the sense that

the the glory of God had departed.

But she was wrong, and that it departed because because the ark

of God had been captured. The glory departed already.

The capturing of the ark was just a sign of that fact.

It already happened. Now we're not going to read

through this, but chapters 5 and 6, they, they tell the story of

how the arc is moving around, moves to Philistine territory.

And if you've been keeping up with the readings, at the 1st

place it goes is Dagon's temple, which was the God of the

Philistines. And in the in the morning they'd

found that the the, the big idol of Dagon had fallen in its face

before the ark. It was literally bowing before

the glory of God and the people had to actually prop him back

up. Philistines had to prop him back

up, which is kind of laughable. How you know your God needs

propping up. You know, there's a bit of

trouble there. So there's a comical, there's a

bit of a comical relief there, but God is trying to make his

people think, think about what's going on, What's what's going on

here? The Lord is going to fight his

battle on his own. He's gonna bring back the Ark to

his people all by himself. He doesn't need his people.

He doesn't need us to do that. And this is, this is glorious

good news. He doesn't need, he doesn't need

you. He doesn't need me now.

That's not that's not to say that he doesn't want us.

He does, but he doesn't need us and that's significant.

He is glorious. He is the centre of gravity.

He is. He is everything, my friends,

and he's waking up his people, and he is waking us up to this

reality as well. Later on in these chapters, in

chapter 6, when the Ark is actually returned to his people,

the people of Beth Shemesh, some people had looked into the Ark

and they lost their lives as a result of it.

A lot of people had, they had not, they just taken things too

casually. They they they didn't see the

arc for what it was, the representation of God's glory

for his presence, 12 and as a result, they lost their lives.

And I think what what the what the Lord is trying to

communicate to us is how important his presence is, how

weighty and heavy his presence is.

And he wants us to recognize him for who he is.

Sometimes we can just take kind of see him too casually approach

his presence to lightly and so he's continuing to wake us up as

well. So I'm 114 verse 7.

Love this tremble earth at the presence of the Lord.

That's the admonition. Hey everybody, tremble at the

presence of the Lord. There's should be an awe within

us of just the thought of God's presence here with us right now

that He is here. He's waking us, waking us up to

that, to that reality. You know, we are.

We're referred to as priests in the New Testament.

First Peter chapter 2, verse 9 says, But you speaking to

1 Peter 2:9

Christians are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy

nation, God's special possession, that you may declare

the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his

wonderful light. We can point the finger at

Hopping and Phineas. These priests, They shouldn't

have done this. But we're priests too, and it is

those who are called to represent God, to glorify Him

with our lives, that is, to reflect Him.

We're to be those ones that are trembling before the Lord and to

be in awe of His presence and to have a holy fear of God, the

kind of fear that enables us to not fear anything else.

That's the reason why we're called to fear the Lord, not to

tremble in our boots. Fear because we know about His

compassion. We know about His goodness, but

to have such an awe of him that would be such weight in our

respect for Him that whatever it is that we're facing financial

difficulties, health issues, maybe a relational problem that

we have. Maybe there's something upcoming

that we're very, very fearful of.

And we think, think about, you know, the Iran is bombed and you

know, the, the, the unrest in the Middle East.

Where is that going to take us? When we have a fear, a rightful

fear of the holy God, the righteous God, the glorious God,

it enables us to recognize He's got this, He's got this.

I have nothing to fear because I know who He is.

When we lose sight of Him, that's when we start to fear

other things, other people, other situations, possibilities

in the future. Tremble Earth at the presence of

the Lord. So my question is this, has God

become too familiar for you? Because we slip in and out of

these kind of casual places with God, Has he become too familiar

perhaps? Has the glory of God departed

from your life? Does it feel like that?

Is it feel like he's departed? Or do you have a Do you have

that sense of awe and wonder and fear of the presence of God in

your life? Jonathan Edwards said it's the

absence of godly fear that signifies a lack of knowledge of

God. When we don't have that fear,

when we're not when, when, when the when the word of God, we

we're not trembling before the word of God.

It's a sign that we don't know God and He's inviting us to come

closer to Him, Closer and closer and closer to Him.

I remember cause I'm a BC boy, spent most of my life in British

Columbia hearing about the Niagara Falls and seeing

pictures of the Niagara Falls. I thought, yeah, that's pretty

cool. But it's not false.

Haven't haven't been there until we moved to Ontario to pastor

Forest View and got to see Niagara Falls up close and to

feel feel feel the ground shaking and to hear it and to

see it, it was like oh man, this is awesome.

And then to return to Niagara Falls, every time I go back,

it's like it's even more magnificent.

And this is the invitation that God has given to us, to come

close to Him, to come close to Him, not to be familiar and

casual with Him, not to take him lightly, but to feel the weight

of who He is. His Holiness and His kindness,

His goodness, and to come to know Him more through His Word.

He's inviting us to come close. I'm gonna lead us in a prayer

this morning. I don't even know how to respond

to a message like this, but as God would reveal Himself to us,

I know that we will respond. Alright, so let's let's pray

together. Father in heaven, OHS Lord I, I

can never do justice to the glory that is yours.

Lord, we acknowledge your weight, your heaviness, your

importance, your beauty, Your Majesty.

Lord, that you deserve all the recognition.

We acknowledge that and we ask, Lord, I ask you to forgive me.

Where have taken you too lightly, that have approached

you too casually, Lord, that I have just ignored your presence?

Yeah, taken for granted. Your goodness that somehow you

become background in my life, Lord?

I ask that you come into the foreground, that you would open

my eyes to see you for who you are, Lord, that you would draw

me ever closer. That I could be in awe of you

walking out my day, in awe of you walking out my day in

reverent fear of you, so that whatever else may come my way, I

will fear. I will not fear it because I

know that you're in charge. Lord, enable us, those who bear

your name, to seek You for a fresh re revelation of who you

are. Yeah, open our eyes to see that

our lives may never be the same, but that we would, through our

thoughts, through our words and through our actions, glorify the

God that you are. That we pray this all in Jesus

name. Hey, Ben.