Today on Real Life Radio, we come to worship him. When we do that, he is blessed.
Now watch. In response to our blessing him, He speaks to us through his word. This is real life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's Word, the Bible.
Have you ever ignored a warning only to regret it later? What if the warnings we so easily brush aside are exactly what we need to live a life full of purpose and protection? What if instead of seeing warnings as obstacles or interruptions, what if we embrace them as the love and wisdom of a God who wants to protect us from destruction? How often do we dismiss the warnings in our lives because they challenge our comfort, our convenience, or our pride? In this month's featured resource called Words of Warning, Charles Spurgeon calls us to wake up to the seriousness of the spiritual battles we face every day.
Words of warning, listen to the subtitle everyone, for those wavering between belief and unbelief. You need this book. Everyone needs this book. If you're struggling with belief and unbelief, Get it. Get words of warning by Charles Spurgeon for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio.
That's jackhibbs.com slash real radio. On today's edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack continues his series now called First Samuel and a message titled When the Glory Has Departed, Part 2.
Now, Samuel of the Old Testament was a man dedicated to God as Israel's last judge, and the first of the prophets who is now called by God to warn Israel. of its impending judgment. You see, as we learned in part one, Israel's extreme poverty toward the things of God has caused spiritual decay in the hearts of the Jewish people. It's a critical condition that starts with the individual, then the family, and then finally, A nation.
So today Pastor Jack teaches that when we have no appetite for the Bible, we end up investing in our own desires. Samuel experienced this firsthand while dealing with a corrupt priesthood.
So just as God led him to do, so Samuel warned the people to come back to worshiping God. or face the consequences.
Now with his message called When the Glory Has Departed, Part 2. Here's Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs. Ask you right now, Lord, that you'd bless the going forth of your word to our hearts. Father, as we pick up, Lord, in this Uh study. Regarding when the glory departs, we pray, Father, that by going through this portion of Samuel, we might be.
of people who learn how not to allow the glory to depart. That we might be a church that is very well equipped to bring you honor, praise, and glory. And Lord, that we might be a people who you find in this world able to use. We pray, Father, if there's anything that is venturing into our lives that would keep us from becoming usable by you or somehow render us. Disqualified, God, we pray that you'd remove that thing from us.
And Father, we pray that In the last days, you would not build a church to build a church. But Lord, you would build a church to build a people. Father, that as we soon see foundations laid and metal going up and rock and concrete flying and things happening. May it only be, Lord, an outward indication, of an internal spiritual growth among your people. Father, we pray and we ask, Lord, that you would take this study.
and make it reality in our lives. For the better. In Jesus' name. Amen. When the glory has departed, 1 Samuel chapter 4.
Verses 1 through 11, and rather than take the time to read through it, As we have earlier, what we want to do is look at highlights as we've selected in this chapter things that would rob us From the glory of God. We're looking at ten key Steps On how you and I might experience the glory of God departing in our lives. And by learning, we want to stay away from that happening in our lives. A very quick and brief overview: we've got 1 Samuel 4. And in this chapter, this is where God is now beginning to speak.
And Samuel is God's tool. Eli tragically Not passing on. Spiritual depth and knowledge to his children. His sons now have grown up to be. Base men.
Reprobate men, and yet they're in the priesthood, they're in the ministry. and they are altogether idle. concerning their commitment to God. They have allowed things Listen, of the ministry to become extremely common. That's a dangerous thing.
When you and I get up to go to church or to do our thing for the Lord and it's a common thing, we don't treat it special, it's no longer a passion of our heart. That is a dangerous place. And Eli's sons were in that place, tragically. And we remember that As a person goes in their relationship with God, so goes the family. And as an old proverb goes, As the family goes, so goes the nation.
But it all begins with one person. And we know that this is true. We've seen it happen in our own lives. But God is going to turn a nation around through Samuel. The Bible tells us there in 1 Samuel 3 and 4 that there is a great poverty for the Bible.
that the Word of God was not going out. And so, because of that, there was a dearth in the land for the Word of God. There was not a revelation clearly given to the people. And so, when the Bible is not presented before people, That they can take and digest and know for themselves What happens next is that people begin to invest in their own way of living, their own path. And as the scripture says, Where there's no vision.
My people perish. And so we want to be careful. As we advance through this chapter, we're not going to complete it tonight, so you can. Breathe easy. We will pick up probably next week or the week after.
That cry of one of the sons of Eli His wife. Eli's daughter-in-law, she's pregnant. When she hears that the ark of God has been taken captive, that Eli is dead, that his two sons have been killed, she in her pregnancy goes into early delivery. The child is born, and just before she dies, she cries out, Ichabod! And Ichabod means the glory is departed.
In Israel, Has fallen from grace. How tragic it is when the glory has departed. Listen, last time together we saw, and we've got those 10 steps, but the last time we were together, we saw the first one, and that was when there is no spiritual word. In 1 Samuel chapter 3, verse 1, we read there before, then the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was rare in those days. There was no widespread revelation, that is, of the Word of God.
So the first step to spiritual decay are the 10 steps. That leads to the glory departing is that there's no spiritual word. There may be a lot of words, but nothing spiritual. There may be a lot of things in the sermon. There may be a lot of fun in the church, but if there's not Bible verse, If there's not study of the Bible, listen, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book, God's people will begin to perish.
They'll begin to go off the course. Listen, when the Bible says And Jesus sat and taught them. When you read that in your New Testament scripture, The word in the Greek is Jesus sat down and taught them verse by verse. That's where we get this uh teaching or uh expositional teaching verse by verse. Word by word sometimes.
Why? Because if the spiritual word is being presented and given forth, Jesus said it clear in John chapter 10, my sheep hear my voice and they'll follow me. When the Bible goes out, God's people will respond. I found it interesting yesterday in that we did a funeral. Yet another funeral of a Young man who has lost his life And you give out the word of God, and some people reject, and some people accept.
And you know, that's an amazing, wonderful power. The Bible has when it's presented. Every time the Bible is given, decisions will be made.
Some decisions will be yes, some decisions will be no. But decisions will be made every time the Bible is presented. Because it's a spiritual word. God says in Isaiah 55:11 that He has sent out His word, the Bible. And his word will not return void, but it will accomplish that very thing for which he has sent it.
God's powerful word. We saw last time also under this first point that there will be no appetite for the Bible. They may look religious, they may be in church or like Israel. They've all gathered together. You've got Eli there, you've got Samuel, you've got a priesthood, you've got sacrifices, but the fact of the matter is there'll be no appetite for the Bible.
That's a very scary time. If you and I have no appetite for the Bible, we are in fact backsliding away from God. And then we saw last time that there will be no personal application. The Bible will go out, the teaching will come, and yet someone who is slipping away. Because there's no spiritual word that they're hanging on to, they won't apply it to their lives.
Tragically, many people might even hear a speech. spiritual word a God-ordained Bible study, but they don't take it to their heart. They don't even care about that. And one of the telltale signs of that is five minutes after the sermon, they're talking about how the, you know, the rams beat the lambs and All this stuff and No talk about spiritual things. It's gone.
No appetite. No personal application. And then finally, under this point last time together, we saw that there'd be no change in life. A person can traffic in and out of church all their life, and yet there's no change going on. In their life.
That is a terrible and scary place to be.
So tonight we pick up where we left off, our second step. To spiritual decay, and when the glory is departed, is that there will be no spiritual worship. No worship. Coming forth. In 1 Samuel chapter 2, verse 16, it says, the priesthood was corrupt in those days.
And they would rob the sacrifices of the Lord from the people, saying, Give the offering to me now, or I will take it by force. And so the sin of these young men, the son of Eli, were very great. In the eyes of the Lord, for they treated the people's offerings to the Lord lightly and with contempt. People would come to make an offering to God in worship, and Eli's sons had so corrupted the priesthood that what the priest would do is steal the offering from the people. who had come to sacrifice to God and they would take it for themselves.
There was no spiritual worship, only carnal worship of their own belly. They would take that meat that was offered to God and they would seize it for themselves. Very, very terrible. No spiritual worship. In John chapter 4, verse 23.
The Bible says, but the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father is seeking such to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
So when the glory is departing, there will be no true spiritual worship. Listen. There'll be a lot of noise. There can be a lot of music. There can be a lot of stuff going on.
We can have skits and dramas and all the stuff. We can have words up on the screen. But unless the worship is spiritual, It's nothing. And if we come in and we get entertained by the quote music. We're in a dangerous place.
When we begin to look at one another and say, oh, wasn't that neat? Oh, that song, that was a fun song. There's nothing wrong with fun songs. But listen, understand what spiritual worship is. It is our.
Collective? giving to God from our hearts. His praise and worship. It is what we give him. I I I love the convocation, the gathering of God's people for this reason.
It's very cool if you understand the very simple dynamics of it. We come to worship him. When we do that, he is blessed.
Now watch. In response to our blessing him, He speaks to us through his word. That's why, and for those of you who teach the Bible, you'll recognize immediately what I'm about to say here. That when the worship is spiritual. When we enter into that spiritual worship of giving unto the Lord our praise and our adoration of Him.
I get to come behind the pulpit, open up the Bible, and learn with you. When I say, what do you mean? No, uh I understand I've got my notes, though they're kind of vague. I've got my Bible open, I've prepared, but let me tell you something: there is a joy. There is an awesome power of God that when we have worshiped Him, He cannot stay out of the service.
He, like when Solomon had completed the building of the temple, what happened? They came. There to go into the temple, all the priests were lined up and they couldn't get in because it was so. Great. That God jumped into the temple.
Before anybody could get in there, his glory began to emanate out of it, and the priests couldn't even go in because of the glory of God. Can you imagine? They tried to go in. They try to go and vmm. The glory of God.
It was so grand. It's like God was waiting for the house of worship to be completed. It wasn't that it was a building. David made that clear: God doesn't dwell in a building, doesn't need a building. It was what the building was dedicated to!
Worship. That's what we're dedicated to. Our building. No, not this building and no not the building to build This building, made out of flesh and bone and blood, right? It's to be a temple of worship, of praise.
You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. And for now, let's get back to our teaching. Once again, here's Pastor Jack.
When there's no spiritual word There'll be no spiritual worship. A horrible sign of decay. And where there's no true worship, my friend, you can bank on false worshiping. Systems to arise, an imposter type of worship. It will arise.
In John chapter 4, verse 22, Jesus said, There, you worship that which you do not know. The woman from Samarita had Said, where do we worship God? In Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim here in Samaria? What do we know? And Jesus says, You worship that which you do not know.
Listen, were they involved in worship? Yes, outwardly. Were they committed? Absolutely. Were they excited about it?
Yep. But Jesus comes on the scene and says, listen, you know what you're doing. And he says, I tell you this. Worship is not in some geographical location. It's in spirit and it's in truth.
That is, it's got to be from the Bible, in the Bible, rooted in Scripture. And anointed by the Spirit of God. Jesus said concerning the Holy Spirit that when the Holy Spirit comes, he will teach you, that's us, whatsoever Jesus has commanded us. And one of those great things is that the Holy Spirit uses the Word of God. And the Holy Spirit uses the Word of God in the life of a believer, and when that begins to happen, that believer must worship.
It's a glorious thing. A worshipper. It's been said is a conqueror and a conqueror is one Under orders to serve. What a beautiful thought that is. You know, have you ever seen those little wind-up toys?
They're basically antiques now, I guess. Maybe you might see some sort of a. Or one restored, or whatever, but you wind them up. And it was like the little guy, he plays the cymbals. His foot hits the pedal, it hits the big drum, his other foot is playing a violin or a bass, and the one little guy, everything's going on around him.
Have you seen those little things? That reminds me of the Christian. That's how my life is supposed to be. That when I get out of bed There should be. In the spirit, As I move, Not a, you know, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, but uh.
But uh Every moment of my, every movement, every being of my life should be something of worship to God. As though I had cymbals in one hand and a guitar in the other hand and a. As that little guy moves along praising the Lord. That's how the Christian ought to be. That's how God would have us to be.
We certainly have a reason. Worship. God, why you can, Christian, because Realize We have a rare opportunity until Jesus takes us home. Listen, the opportunity will cease the moment He takes us home. Say, what do you mean, man?
I'm kind of saving up all my worship till I get there, you know. No, no, no, no. You had to practice here. But worship while you can. And do you understand, worship is not only singing.
It's existing. is offering everything up. To the Lord. If you come to my house tonight, not tonight, it'd be too late, but if you come to my house sometime, As people do. When we open the front door, We have this five-pound Yorkshire Terrier.
And when you open the door, someday I got to take a picture of this because you won't believe it. I don't see how she does it. She stands straight up. Then she arches her back so far back, and she lifts her paws so high like this that they go back like that. And she will stand there and look at you like you're God.
And she'll stand there and every time I see her, I should be like her in the presence of God. I walk in and she's like, praise you, Jack, praise you, hallelujah. And she's so Pentecostal, it's hilarious. She's just like this with her paws way up. in the air And so many times the Lord has reminded my heart: you need to walk into my sanctuary like that.
You need to walk into my presence like that. You need to learn something from this dog. Worship God while you can because you know what? There's no witnessing in heaven. And worship Is also witnessing for God.
Did you know that? There's no witnessing in heaven. No Crusades. There'll be no crusades in heaven. Everybody's saved.
Everybody's there, no crusades. No reaching out, no witnessing, no homeless people in heaven. You can't worship the Lord if you're blessing the homeless. That's going to be. Impossible to do.
Listen, no counseling. Thank God. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. But you can't worship God through giving and counseling.
That's a form of worship. You're giving out the word of God? There'll be no funerals in heaven. We gather together at a funeral, we're preaching the word of God. Ministering to people who are hurting, that's all going to be gone.
Worship God here now while you can. There'll be no more funerals there. Listen, are you ready for this? There'll be no more prayer meetings in heaven. None.
Isn't that weird to think? We've all lived in prayer meetings. In heaven, there'll be no prayer meeting. You can't worship God in prayer. In heaven?
You just walk up to him and say, Hi, Lord, can I have a drink? I mean, it's all there, right on the spot. That's going to be great. But no prayer meetings. Worship God here while you can.
Because the day is coming when we'll be in his presence, and all of our worship and all of our dedication to God and for God will all be done at that point. It's all over. It's been said that you can't take what you have. with you after you die. The Christian has the rare opportunity To take what he does have though and send it up ahead.
And dedicating all that he or she has in worship to God. Whatever it might be. But be careful because whenever there is no true worship, false worship must fill the gap. The human soul, the human spirit, The human emotion demands some sort of entertainment. If we're not going to worship God in spirit and in truth, then the unconverted or the wayward heart will pursue entertainment to fill a void.
And they'll call it worship because that's what you're supposed to call it. False worship will arise. Look at verses 2 through 4 here in 1 Samuel. Chapter 4, it says, Let us, they say, let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord. From Shiloh to us, that when it comes among us, it may save us from the hand of our enemies.
So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from there the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of hosts. who dwells between the cherubim. Did you hear that? Hey, we just lost the battle. The Philistines are beating us up.
Somebody, go get the Ark of the Covenant and bring it among us so that it might save us. False worship. Did you get that? Not the God of the Ark of the Covenant. But get the covenant get the ark Get it out here!
False worship. See, Jack, how can you call that false worship when they've got the very holy thing of God, the thing that Indiana Jones has been looking for, man? I mean, it's a holy deal. It's all covered in gold. It's awesome.
And it's got the Ten Commandments in there, and Aaron's rod, and the showbread, and the manna, all its holy. How can you listen, false worship? Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hubbs. Here on Real Life Radio, with his message called When the Glory Has Departed, Part 2. Thanks for being with us today.
You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called First Samuel. It's a series highlighting the prophet Samuel who was called by God during one of Israel's darkest ages to bring the people back to the heart of true worship. and will continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Did you know there's an easy way to stay informed on the latest biblical events shaping our world today? Check out the Happening Now section at jackhibbs.com.
Now, these live events feature Pastor Jack Hibbs alongside special guests. Diving into current events, cultural shifts, and how they align with biblical prophecy. It's a unique blend of Bible teaching and real-time analysis that helps you make sense of today's headlines through the lens of Scripture. Happening now. It's not just about information.
It's about equipping you with the truth and encouraging you to stand firm in your faith. No matter what's happening, around you.
Now these discussions are eye-opening, they're thought-provoking. and they're a great way to stay spiritually grounded in a rapidly changing world. Whether you watch live or catch up on past events, Happening now will help keep you connected to God's Word and what's going on in the world today. Visit jackhibbs.com and click on Happening Now. Don't just watch the news, understand it from a biblical perspective.
Did you know that along with the radio program, Pastor Jack also has a TV show with more of the Pastor Jack Hibs content that you like? Called Real Life TV. If you enjoy Pastor Jack on the radio, you're going to love him on TV.
So check out your local listings or visit jackhibbs.com and catch the latest episodes. That's jackhibbs.com. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com.
Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
