Harbor Church - Mid City

If you’re here this morning, then one thing is for sure—you at least have some interest in spirituality.  Now many of you are not yet Christians, but you don’t step foot into a church unless there is, at the very least, some curiosity about spirituality.  Well, this morning I am going to give you        2 sure-fire ways to become spiritually frustrated.  You’re thinking, “What kind of pastor is he?”  Giving a sermon on how to become spiritually frustrated.  Here is the method to my madness—sometimes the best help anyone can give you is to say, “Hey, learn from my mistakes—I have been there and here is what I did wrong.  I don’t want you to do the same thing.” 

Well, this morning, in our text, we have a classic case of what not to do, and if you repeat it you will be guaranteed to have a spiritually frustrating life just like the Israelites in our text.  So, we’re going to look at the 2 critical errors in our text that lead to incredible spiritual frustration:

1. Mistake #1:  treat God like a jeanie

You heard the story.  The Philistines route the Israelites and the elders of Israel ask in v3, “Why did the Lord bring defeat upon us today before the Philistines?”  This is like the Charger’s coaches sitting around on Monday morning and saying, “What happened to us?  We have more talent and we got whipped?”  The elders of Israel come up with a plan in v3, “Let us bring the ark of the Lord’s covenant from Shiloh, so that it may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies.”  No prayer, no fasting, no repentance, no worship.  Nothing is mentioned. 

And notice how silent Samuel is.  We left off in the story with ch 3 talking about how finally a prophet is on the scene to give them the word of the Lord, but they don’t seek him out.  In chapters 4-6, which is this long story about the debacle of handling the ark of the covenant, Samuel is never mentioned.  Why?  B/c they want a jeanie to give them want they wan, not the living God who may call them to do things they don’t want.

So they go get the ark, rub the jeanie, and say, “We’re putting you before us in battle, now you’ll make us successful.”  Wrong.  They get routed and the ark is captured.

Now treating God like a jeanie wasn’t just a struggle for the Israelites.  We’re constantly doing this in our world today.  Let me give you a few examples.  When I was playing football at the University of Virginia. I played for a coach named George Welsh.  Coach Welsh was admittedly agnostic.  And he was also incredibly superstitious.  Our routine was always the same, but my guess is that it was much different than what you would imagine.  The picture you have of college coaches is of them giving this rousing speech that is firing all the players up before the game, somewhat like Lou Holtz does on ESPN on Thursday nights.  But rather than giving us a pregame speech, do you know what my agnostic coach did—he had the entire team kneel down and say the Lord’s prayer in unison together out loud.  As a Christian, I enjoyed it, but at the same time, I always remember thinking, “This is just odd—when you’re at a public school and you’re coach is encouraging you to pray to a God that he doesn’t believe in.” 

But see the reason he had us do that is because he wanted us to rub the jeanie.  Hey, I don’t really believe in this stuff, but it can’t hurt, right.  Maybe a little good luck will flow our way.  It is the same thing as Clemson rubbing the rock before they come down the hill or Michigan tapping the Go Blue sign.  Our coach was hoping to use God as a jeanie or good luck charm.

But think about how common this is, unfortunately, for all of us at times.  If you say, “God, if you will just help my company turn a profit this quarter, then I will serve you.”  Or, “God, if you will just get me out of this mess, then I will worship you.”  Or, “God, if you will just provide a mate, then I’ll know you’re real and believe.”  Don’t you see, that is treating God like a jeanie.  He is the tool you’re using to help you get what you really want.  You rub him, he pops out and grants your wish.  See your god, the thing you want most, is the thing your using God to get.  And the God of the Bible doesn’t work that way.  He says, “I am God—I am ultimate.  I am not just a pawn to be used to get other things.”

You see why it is offensive when we treat God like this, don’t you.  Imagine that you met someone for the first time and they said, “If you give me $25,000, then I’ll know you’re a true friend and I’ll be your friend for life.”  You would look at them and either say or think, “Get lost.  This person doesn’t want a friendship, they just want to use me for money.”

Or let me give you another example.  In the community group that I am in we were talking this past Wednesday about our experiences with church in the past.  And several people mentioned stories about cruising along through life, going to church because it was what was expected in the family, and then all of a sudden you get out of high school, and life starts hitting you in the face.  Whether it is a tragedy that occurs or your life circumstances just get tough and you say, “Huh, well, if there is a God, then he must not be good, b/c he certainly isn’t being good to me and a lot of other good people I see around me.”  When the jeanie stops delivering, then you stop going to Him b/c you say, “Well, I guess he doesn’t work after all.”

See, in reality, you feel no different than the Israelites who put the ark out front and still got wiped out.  You’re saying, “I go to church and I even pray from time to time.”  You’re ark is your religiosity.  But see don’t make the same mistake the Israelites did.  They thought of this whole thing with God in terms of form, ritual.  They didn’t see it as a matter of the heart, but rather a matter of routine.    They didn’t have a personal God who was trying to communicate with them and shape their heart to be like His, they had a jeanie.  You see this in v3.  After they get routed they say, “Why did the Lord bring defeat upon us today before the Philistines?”  Ahhh, I know, we forgot to rub the jeanie.  We messed up the routine.  If we put the ark out front, then the jeanie will pop out of the box and destroy everyone.  No prayer, fasting, worship, repentance.  See, they didn’t wait on a personal God to answer this question for them, they concluded they made a procedural mistake of failing to put the ark in front.  

I love what Eugene Peterson has to say about this.  He says, “They…thought that possession of the ark of God would provide them with supernatural advantage.  They…thought of it as a spiritual tool, a device for prying power loose from divinity." I love that imagery—prying power loose from the divinity.  Crow-barring loose what you want.  That is what is going on, and, if we’re honest, we all do this with God from time-to-time.

But here is the critical question---How do you know when you’re treating God like a jeanie?  Ralph Dale Davis put it this way, “Whenever (we) stop confessing "Thou art worthy" and begin chanting "Thou art useful," then you know that youre treating God like a jeanie, like a piece of spiritual technology to be used.  We don’t come to Him for who He is, but we come for what we can get singing Thou are useful, not thou art worthy.

So, let me get practical.  For those of you whose lives are falling apart or  who are going through intense suffering right now or who just aren’t getting from God what you want, then the Bible says one of 3 things is going on:

The suffering or brokenness in your life is either (1) your fault, (2) it is the fault of your environment or the world you live in, or (3) it is the fault of a powerful spiritual enemy (called the Devil) who wants to destroy you and the world.  And before you pray about this to determine which of the 3 is going on, I want you to remember the God that your praying to.  Is. 9:6 says that God isn’t a jeanie, but he is a Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  Think about that.  If He is an everlasting Father, then if the brokenness in your life is your fault, then know that what your experiencing is the loving hand of an everlasting Father who is disciplining you to help you realize that your heading down a destructive path.  In fact, according to Hebrews 12, His discipline is how you know you’re a son and He is your Father. 

Let me explain how discipline proves your sonship.  If my neighbors child who I don’t know all that well wanders into the street, I may run out to save them, but I am not going to discipline them.  That is up the parents.  Unless you don’t like the parents---no.  But if Ford or Milly wander into the street, then they know that their Daddy will discipline them.  Why?  B/c I love them and I don’t want them to ever make that mistake again b/c the consequences could be fatal.  See—this is one of the ways that Ford and Milly know they’re my children—that I discipline them.

So, in the same way, God at times allows us to feel the consequences of our sin, and in doing so is lovingly disciplining us and reminding us that we’re his son or daughter.

But in the 2^nd and 3^rd cases, if you’re suffering  for things that aren’t your fault, then know that you not only have an Everlasting Father, but you also have a Wonderful Counselor to help you deal with the problems, you have Mighty God who can do something about them, and you have a Prince of Peace who can bring a peace to you in the midst of the storm. 

TRANS:  So that is the first way to live an incredibly spiritually frustrated life—treat God like a jeanie.  Eventually, he won’t grant your wish and you’ll be frustrated and ditch him.

Mistake #2:  worship something besides God

In this story, both the Israelites and the Philistines suffer from this.  We’ve already talked about the Israelites failure, now lets look at the Philistines.  You have this somewhat comical story about Dagon the Philistine god.  In Philistine culture, they used literal wooden objects to signify different gods.  It was standard procedure in the ANE for the victorious country to carry off the gods of their enemy and put them at the feet of their gods to show their inferiority or subordination, which is what the Philistines did here.

And look at what happens.  After the first night, Dagon is toppled over so that he is prostrate before the ark.  Then, after night 2, not only is he prostrate, but his hands and head are cut off.  To have hands cut off was to lose power in Philistine society.  Ironic, isn’t it, b/c shortly after our printed text what you see happen at the end of chapter 5 is that plagues begin to happen to the Philistines, which was believed to be from the hands of the gods, yet Dagon was handless/powerless, to do anything about it. 

See the point of this story:  worship anything besides God and it will lead to spiritual frustration and all sorts of other problems.   But this seems really removed from our culture here in San Diego in the 21^st century?  In the west, we typically don’t have wooden structures that we bow down to, but we have all sorts of idols nonetheless.

Your work, your spouse, your reputation—all good things that become bad things when we make them ultimate things—things we must have or else.  See the first Commandment is to “have no other gods before me.”  Translation:  don’t make good things bad things by making them ultimate things.  

John Calvin put it this way.  He said, ““The human heart is a factory of idols...Everyone of us is, from his mother’s womb, an expert in inventing idols.”We manufacture them—we crank them out. 

Let me illustrate from the classic film Chariots of Fire.  1:37:26-1:38-43 In the film you have the story of 2 runners.  Harold Abrams is a Jewish boy who is trying to make it in high society in Britain.  To win the gold medal in the 1924 Olymics will mean that he has made it, that he has arrived into the top tier of British society, that he’ll be somebody.  So he runs for fame and fortune.  In many ways we can all sympathize with his plight, b/c as a Jewish boy in Britain in the 1920s, he suffered extreme prejudice.  There was a glass ceiling that would only let him rise so high, unless he could win the gold medal.

On the other hand you have Eric Liddell, a Scottish missionary who runs b/c God made him fast and when he runs he feels God’s pleasure.  He doesn’t run for fame.  In fact, his life isn’t about his fame, but about God’s fame. 

Let me show you a clip from this film that I think captures this idolatry theme pretty well.  (this has been movie month for me recently hasn’t it).  And now in one hour's time, I will be out there again. I will raise my eyes and look down that corridor; 4 feet wide, with 10 lonely seconds to justify my existence. But will I?

See has says that has 10 lonely seconds to justify his existence.  He gets his sense of self, of who he is, from winning.  See, he has made a good thing (winning a gold medal) a bad thing by making it his ultimate thing.

Eric Liddell, on the other hand, is just the opposite.  He is every bit as talented and competitive, he loves to run and is passionate about it, but winning isn’t ultimate for Him, God is.  So in this movie when the event that he has trained his whole life for—the 100 meters—is scheduled for a Sunday, he pulls out b/c he won’t run on Sunday.  Do you see how loosely he holds this event?  The 100 meter dash has a gripping control on one runner—Harold—and it has absolutely no control over the other—Eric, because one has made God his ultimate and the other has not.

Politics—we have a very important election coming up.  And it is good to get involved and to care deeply, but don’t let good things become bad things by putting your ultimate hope in them.  How do you know if you are doing this?  Are you demonizing John McCain or Barrack Obama?  Are you demonizing the democrats or Republicans?  Are you making statements like, “How could anyone be a Christian and be a Republican?  Or Democrat?  If so, your creating a political god out of your party or choice for President.  You see, at the end of the day, our real hope and trust isn’t in Barrack or John, but in the King of Kings.  Don’t lose sight of this in the election, whichever side you sit on.

Economy:  Here is another example that you can’t get around right now—the economy.  When the stock market is swinging up and down like a yo-yo, losing 700 or 800 points in a day, then gaining back 500—it is crazy, and of course it will impact you.  Your job very well might be hanging in the balance as lay-offs occur and stores close and of course that will impact you.  The thought of your home being foreclosed is real and it will weigh on you.  The thought of being evicted is real and it will weigh on you. 

But think about it.  The Israelites in our text were in the same situation.  Their stock market crashed as well.  I mean what is the difference?  All of your money being taken by an invading and uncontrollable economy like we’re experiencing or having an army routes you and take your gold and silver.  So don’t miss the message here in our text:  worship God alone, not the financial prosperity that God provides.  Don’t allow the good gifts he gives you to become bad things by making them ultimate things.  Things that, if lost, send you into despair, anxiety, anger.

I have some bad news—none of you will do this perfectly.  None of you have done this perfectly, even today, and we’re not even at lunch yet.  We’ve all taken good things and made them bad things by making them ultimate things in our lives.  But I also have some really good news:  there was one whose heart was different.  It wasn’t an idol factory, like ours.  Rather, when asked what the Greatest Commandment was he said simply in Mt. 22, “'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'   Throughout his life, you then see him taking good things—like power and fame, and not making them a bad thing by making them his ultimate.

 
Take power for instance.  Pilate shouts at him in John 19:10, “Don’t you realize I have power to either free you or crucify you?  And Jesus responded, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.”  See He doesn’t worship Pilate’s power and do everything he can to get it himself.  Or when the Pharisees shouted at him, “If you’re really the Christ, the King of Israel, come down off the cross.  He save others, but he can’t save himself.”  See, he doesn’t clutch on to power and the reputation that were rightfully his as king, nor does he display his power when they’re testing him, but instead, he takes these good things and lays them down b/c the Father asked him to.  “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."  And the Father’s silence said it all.  He couldn’t take this cup of suffering from Jesus—there was no other way.  So, Jesus didn’t make the good gifts of health and even life bad things by making them ultimate, but rather His Father’s will was ultimate, so up to Calvary he went to make amends for you and for me and for all our idol producing hearts. 

You see, the Philistines thought they had captured God in our text when they captured the Ark, but in reality God, in the person of Jesus, allowed himself to be captured on the cross, that we might be set free.   Whereas in our story Dagon’s hands and head were cut off before the true God; Jesus hands were pierced and his head had a crown of thorns placed on it before the true God.  Why?  B/c he took the punishment for our idol producing hearts so that we might be treated not as a criminal, like He was, but as a Son.  So that we can prostrate ourself before the true God in worship and be welcomed as Sons and Daughters.  In Christ, we’re made new.  We’re not like this handless and headless idol, but rather He gives us new spiritual hands to serve the Father.  He gives us a new spiritual mind to think about our life and our world differently.

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