Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church, located in Kernersville, North Carolina. Here I raise mine Ebenezer. I want to give you a little information, but I want us to just read the passages of Scripture, and then I'm going to have them sing this familiar song to us.
And then we're going to jump into it briefly and explain what God's laid on our hearts for today.
Now, these verses that I'm going to read will be on the screens. You can follow there in your Bible. But as always, if we have some that come and they don't have their Bible. I don't want them missing out. I want to always preach biblical and I want to preach Bible.
But we want visitors to come too, and I don't want them lost because they don't have their Bible with them.
So these are not on the screen to keep you out of your Bible. Verses are on the screen to make sure everybody can see the Bible, okay? And so it's there if you need them. 1 Samuel chapter 4. In verse 1.
And let me give you just a quick background. You've ever heard of the name Eli, and Brother Eli Falls is here in our church. And uh Eli In the Bible, Eli was a priest. And in this time, priests also were judges. And Eli was a priest, and he judged Israel for over 40 years.
Eli was second to the last. Samuel, who many of you know the story in the Bible, how Hannah in the Old Testament wanted a child, couldn't have a child. Her husband Elkinah, she loved him and wanted them to be able to have a child, and she just couldn't.
So she began to seek God's face, and God rewarded her with a child. And she promised God that if God would give her a child, she would give it back to God. That's the principle that you and I, we dedicate our children back to the Lord. We're acknowledging that He's the one that gave them to us. And that he is the one that owns our children, and we want to raise them to glorify him.
And so, as she brought Samuel back to the temple where she had gone to seek God's face for this child, Samuel ended up living at the temple, working there under Eli, learning temple ministry and different things. And you remember the story how God began to call out to Samuel at night, and he would go, Samuel, and there was nobody there. And I keep thinking of that commercial, Samuel, Samuel. Anyway, so he said, Samuel. And God would call out, and Samuel would get up, and he would go and wake up Eli, and he goes, Did you call me?
And Eli said, No, I didn't call you. Go back to bed. And then he'd go back to bed. He'd hear, Samuel, Samuel. And then he'd get up, run back in, wake up Eli.
And he's like, Did you call me? And he's like, Listen, you idiot. That's not what the Bible says, but. That's what Daniel would say. It was like, quit bothering me.
Go back to bed. I didn't call you. I'm not going to call you. Just stay away, kind of a thing. And finally, God said, Samuel, and Samuel realized it was God, and he said, Here am I.
And so Samuel ended up following Eli. We've got to understand those two things as we go first. to 1 Samuel chapter 4.
Now look at verse 1. And the word of Samuel came to all Israel.
Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle and pitched beside Ebenezer. And the Philistines pitched in Aphag. Verse 10. And the Philistines fought. And Israel was smitten, and they fled, every man.
and to his tent. And there was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. And the ark of God was taken, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, were slain. And when Eli heard the noise of the crying, he said, What meaneth the noise of this tumult? And the man came in hastily and told Eli.
Now Eli was 98 years old. His eyes were dim that he could not see. And the man said unto Eli, I am he that came out of the army. I am fled to-day out of the army. And he said, What is there done?
My son. Eli said, well, tell me what's going on. Verse 17. And the messenger answered and said, Israel has fled before the Philistines. There hath been also a great slaughter among the people.
Thy two sons also Hofni and Phineas. are dead. And the Ark of God, the Ark of the Covenant that you're familiar with, the Ark of God has taken. And it came to pass when he had made mention of the ark of God that he, meaning Eli, fell from off the seat backward. By the side of the gate.
and his neck break. And he died, for he was an old man and heavy, and he had judged Israel forty years. Verse 19. And his daughter-in-law. Phineas's wife.
was with child. Near to be delivered. And when she heard the tidings that the Ark of God was taken, And that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself. and travailed. for her pains came upon her.
And about the time of her death, the women that stood By her said unto her, Fear not, for thou hast borne a son. She, with the news of the Ark of the Covenant, she went into labor. And she was dying while she was having this child and Right before she died, these women looked at her and said, well, listen, we want you to know you did, you've had a child. But notice what happens here. But she answered not.
Neither did she Regard it. She didn't hold it. She didn't want to see it. She didn't even acknowledge This baby. Look at verse 21.
And she named the child Ichabod. Same. The glory. is departed from Israel. Because the Ark of God was taken.
Because of her father-in-law. and her husband. And she said. The glory is departed from Israel. For the Ark of God is taken.
And she died. We're going to read some more passages in just a minute. I want us to pray, and they're going to come and let's. Sing this song. In verse 1, the Bible says that this all took place at Ebenezer.
It was not yet Ebenezer. But for sake of historical reference, we're told where all this took place. It wasn't named Ebenezer until 1 Samuel chapter 7. But what a horrible day. By the way, Eli was a wonderful man, a good priest, a good judge, but.
He had some issues. One of the issues was his family. His two sons, Hophnai and Phineas, were evil, evil men. The Bible said that they literally had adulterous relationships. with women in the court of the temple.
in front of everybody. They were evil men. And people kept telling Eli about what was going on with the sons, and he just. wouldn't deal with it. And things came home to roost.
Israel is going away from God. Eli, the priest, wasn't keeping the temple clean. Here's Samuel now had grown up, and Samuel was a man of God. Eli was older, he was 98 years old, and he couldn't really see well, couldn't get around well. And the day of reckoning comes.
And God, who had always protected them, the Philistines come in. And not only do the Philistines kill almost 30,000 men of Israel. The Philistines kill the king's sons. God allowed this. The Philistines stole the ark.
of the covenant. The Ark of the Lord. was so precious to Israel. Here Phineas's wife is with child and Eli is sitting there on a rock, and when man comes out of battle, and Eli says, Hey, what's going on? And tell me how the battle's going.
He said, It's horrible. Philistines have taken over. 30,000 have died. Your sons are dead. And they stole the Ark of the Covenant.
And he was so taken back by this news that he literally lost his balance, fell back, hit his head, and he died. Then his daughter-in-law goes into labor prematurely. gives birth to this baby and to signify the whole day. Before she dies, says name it Ichabod. By the way, I would not suggest naming your child Ichabod.
Here's the reason. glory of God departed. And for 20 years. That's exactly what happened. He said, Preacher, what does this have to do with altars?
Well, we're going to see. Let's pray. Lord, pray that you'd work and thank you for your word. Lord, I know it's a little bit different today. I like different.
And Lord, I want to learn more of your word. This is our history.
So God, I prayed that you would. Blessed. Thank you for this song that has meant so much to us over the years. Lord, what it signifies. Um Pray that our folks will listen closely to the words.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you guys for doing this. Come, thou fount every blessing. Tune my heart to sing thy grace.
Streams of mercy, never ceasing, calls for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sun it, sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mountain fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love. Here I raise my hand. Even easer, hither by thy help I'm come, and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home.
Jesus saw me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God, He to rescued me from danger and post His precious blood, His precious blood. Oh, to grace, how great a day. Daily I'm constrained to be Let thy goodness, like a feather, bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.
Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above. Fantastic job. Thank you guys. Twenty years go by. 1 Samuel chapter 7.
Verse two. And it came to pass. While the ark abode in that place. That the time was long. For it was 20 years.
And all the house of Israel lamented. After the Lord. Have you ever? Lament it. After the Lord.
Longed for him. Missed him. Felt like it'd been forever. Since you'd felt him. Seen him.
Talked with them. Had closeness. They lamented. Regretted Twenty years. Verse 3.
And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, All right, you're lamenting. It's been 20 years. I have a message from God for you. If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts. Then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you.
And prepare your hearts unto the Lord. What did the song just say? Here's my heart. Lord. Take.
And seal it. And serve him Only He will deliver you. out of the hand of the Philistines. And they gathered together to Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the Lord, and Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah. Why were they there?
They showed up there in Mizpah and where is there? This is the same place. That they had suffered the defeat. This is the same area. Where 30,000 had been killed, where The Ark of the Covenant had been stolen.
This was the same place. Where the first child born right in that area was named Ichabod, because God has left.
So Samuel takes them right back to the same place so that they can repent, so that they can get their heart right. But the Philistines heard that they came back there, and the Philistines. did not know that they had just come back to repent. The Philistines thought that they had all been gathered back there because they were going to come at war against the Philistines. Look at verse 7.
And when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to mizbah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. Philistines think, hey, they're going to attack us, so we're going to go attack them first. Samuel gathers all the tribes together and says, listen, we got to repent. They were there to worship.
They were there to get right with God. The Philistines thought they were there to come after them.
So the Philistines take off after them, and when Israel found out. Oh no, here they come again. This is exactly where it happened 20 years ago.
Now they're scared. And they're just trying to get right with God. Verse 8 And the children of Israel said to Samuel Cease not. to cry unto the Lord our God for us. Don't stop praying, Samuel.
Get to God now. and begin notice. That he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. And Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered it for a burnt offering, holy unto the Lord. There's your altar.
There's your sacrifice. And Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him. And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the Lord. Thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines and discomfited them, and they were smitten before Israel.
And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and smote them until they came under Bethkar. Then Samuel. took a stone. and set it between MISPA. And Shin and called the name of it Ebenezer.
Same. Hitherto. Hath the Lord helped us. Ebenezer means The Lord has helped us. What an interesting story here.
Now I want you to notice as Samuel, 20 years later, Eli's off the scene. I would say he got stoned and died, but that would be a bad joke about because he fell off, hit his head on the rock. He got stoned. But anyway, I'm not even going to go into that. Samuel's been in charge for 20 years and The people were lamenting.
Oh for God. By the way, that's where you got to get to. before you're ready to start changing things. You know, I'm afraid that even in a good church like this one, we can get so comfortable, there is no lamenting. There is no yearning for a move of God because we're fine.
We're okay. Hey, the bills are getting paid. Hey, we added some missionaries. We're doing great. But dear friend, until we start lamenting God, only then will we start changing.
Samuel gathers all the tribes together. Brings him right back to the spot where the glory of God had left. Samuel says, listen, this is where the glory of God left, but this is right where the glory of God can come right back. It's not God that left, it's us that left.
So here he gives in verse 3, he gives this little brief outline. First, he says, you have to return. Look. If ye do return unto the Lord, With all your hearts. God's not the one that left us, Samuel says.
We're the ones that left him. And if we're going to get God's glory back. We're going to have to return to him. And I don't just mean return to him by standing up and saying, I'm returning to him. I'm returning to him with all your hearts.
Here's my heart, Lord. Take and seal it. He says you're going to have to return. Can I ask you a question this morning? We're not like a hundred percent This morning Good, decent crowd, but we're not at 100%.
Can I ask you something today? Anybody here need to return? Anyone here have an area somewhere in your life where? The glory of God left. And you know it.
That addiction started. That habit started. That bitter spirit showed up. That critical spirit began to. pop up.
And right about that time, you know as well as I would. But only you will see your life. You know something left at that point. We got critical, got a bad spirit, got whatever. Got discouraged, got angry.
Whatever the case is.
So, I wonder if today there might be some that need to return to the place. where the glory of God left.
Well I guess that's three of us. Second, he says you don't just return. Second, he says you need to remove. Look at verse 3. If you do return unto the Lord with all your hearts and put away the strange gods.
and Ashtaroth from among you. You not just need to return. But you've got to remove. You see, these things in your life are what's taking you away. He says Ashtaroth, which is a specific false idol god but He also says strange gods.
And by the way, can I tell you something? We as Christian individuals can still have strange gods in our life. Things that take us away from our Bible, take us away from church, take us away from devotion to Christ. Those strange gods can cause the glory of God. God never leaves, but we're talking about his glory.
We're talking about the joy of our salvation. Samuel says, You not just need to return, you need to remove. I would ask each of us today, are there some things that need to be removed? And this little altar series. Are there some things that need to be put on the altar?
I've gone. Notice third, he says you need to repent. Look at verse 3. He says, if you do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, Put away the strange gods, notice this. and prepare.
your hearts. Unto the Lord. Prepare your heart. What does it mean to prepare your heart? It means to get your heart right.
It means to get your heart clean. It means to make sure your heart. is clear before God. It means to make sure your heart is in tune with God and His Word. And that takes repentance.
It means that not only do I need to get back to where I was, get rid of this junk that has caused this, but I've got to get my heart right. Because that's where it all started. It didn't start when I took the strange God. It started in my heart.
Something was wrong in my heart, and that gave me a desire for a strange God. Everybody with me say amen. It's a hard issue. Your pastor has it sometimes. Hey, my heart gets hard sometimes too.
And my heart gets critical sometimes too. And my heart gets discouraged sometimes too. I tend to be the kind of person that is long-suffering and long-suffering and long-suffering and long-suffering, but then when I hit my limit, Watch out. Ask my staff. The big joke with them is, you don't want a preacher to say, hey, do you mind meeting me down at Mills Hall?
That's what they said, that's where I chew them out. I won't do it at the office, I'll do it down at Mills Hall.
So, some of you, if I say, hey, let's meet at Mills Hall, you'll know. I hate to even hurt the name of Dr. Mills on that one. That's the place where I chew them out. Dr.
Mills was the nicest man in the world, the sweetest man I've ever met, and that's where I chew people out, apparently. I don't really chew people out. I don't know why you're laughing at that, but. I do in the car. When they're in front of me, I chew them out.
Samuel says you've got to return. you've got to remove You've got to repent. Notice last thing he says you've got to renew Verse 3, and serve him. Only It's one thing to serve God, but then you're serving yourself too, and you're serving the flesh, and serving. No, no, no, no.
This is not just serve God, but serve him only. Gotta get back to work. I wonder if there's some of us that need to get back to serving. Deep in your heart, you know that's what you need to do, you know it's missing. and you know you're missing part of yourself.
But you're tired and you're worn out and you've been hurt. And man, you don't think I've been hurt too? All of us have been hurt. All of us have faced stuff like that. But here God had been good to this nation and what had they done?
They had distanced themselves from God. They had gotten other gods. Their heart had been turned away and now they were serving idols and serving this and The greatest news that anyone can receive is the news of the free gift of salvation found in Jesus Christ. It is our desire for you to know him personally. Would you take a moment to hear this to-day?
Every man is born with a sin nature. Romans 3:23 says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. No matter how hard we try, We're not good enough to obtain God's glory. or to get to heaven. Because of that sin carries the penalty of death.
Romans 6.23 says, For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life for the through Jesus Christ our Lord. The wages of our sin, or the payment of our sin, only equals death and separation from God. But it's only through God's gift salvation through Jesus Christ that we can accept Him as our Savior. Jesus Christ paid for your sin debt.
The Bible says in Romans 5:8, But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. All you have to do is receive Christ. by faith as your Saviour. Romans 10.9 says That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Verse 13 continues, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
It's as simple as admitting that you're a sinner believing that Jesus is the only way. and calling upon his name. Bible says whosoever that's anyone can call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. Have you accepted Christ as your personal Savior? There is no greater day than today to take care of this.
Would you accept Christ as your Saviour? If you have any questions, please give us a call at 336-993-5192 or visit our website at Crowin Baptist Church. Dot com. or visits that person at one of our three service times. We hope you have a great rest of your day.
God bless you. Mm-hmm.
