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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Keala Thompson

Bring Back The Glory

I bring to you greetings from the islands of Hawaii.

And a very warm aloha to you this morning.

This morning as we get into the word of God, I invite you to turn to me in the opening text as we get into it.

We will stay in the book of 1 Samuel, and go to our Bible study this morning as we open the word of God this morning.

It's an honor and privilege to be here this morning to worship with you, our brothers and sisters in Christ.

But before we begin, I ask that you bow your heads with me as we seek the Lord in prayer.

Father, as your word is open, we humbly ask that your spirit may open our hearts and our minds.

Sermon entitled is, Bring Back the Glory.

God's glory, whatever happened to his glory, As a minister of the gospel in God's remnant church, I've searched high and low and I still haven't found it.

I've explored numerous places and I'm still seeking.

I pursued many leads and I'm still hunting for it.

As a minister, I can tell you that I've yet still to discover it.

For I've seen the homes of our families torn apart by contention and hostilities within.

I've seen the movings of the Holy Ghost hindered by the decisions to follow worldly policies.

I've seen the forever dreams of our young people crushed by sin.

I've seen the only hope, glimmer of hope within the faithful extinguished by the politics within the church.

Oh, beloved, this morning I plead with you, if you could tell me, where is that glory?

Our churches this morning, beloved, are suffering.

Even though we're in a critical condition, it seems that no 1 even cares this morning anymore.

If there ever was a time where we needed God to deliver us, beloved, that time is now.

Now is the time to do something about it.

Now is the time to bring back that glory.

Oh beloved, how much we need that glory this morning.

So this morning as the creative power of God's word is open, May God's Holy Spirit lead us to understanding of His glory.

Let's look at the condition of the Jewish church at that time.

The Bible says, wherefore the sin of the young man was very great before the Lord, For men abhorred the offering of the Lord.

The Bible says here that the sins that they did for personal gain at that time, it was very great in the eyes of God, the Bible says.

And Because of the sins of the leadership of the Jewish church in those days, the Bible says that it turned people, people were abhorred and turned away and disgust from the offering of the Lord.

Because of the sins within a Jewish church, people despised the worship of God and moved away from it.

Chapter 2 verse 12, why were they evil and wicked men?

You know what The Bible says, now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial because they knew not the Lord.

They did wickedness and evil because the Bible says they knew not the Lord.

In other words, because they didn't know God or His character, His character of love, which is His glory.

Because they didn't know His glory, the Bible says for to know God is to love God.

If they understood His true character of love, They would fall in love with God and if you love God you will keep His commandments and be obedient to Him.

So the Bible says they're sons of wickedness and evil because they knew not God.

They didn't understand A true revelation of God's character, His glory.

Because they didn't understand that they didn't obey God.

They were sons of wickedness within a Jewish church in those days.

Why didn't they have a true knowledge of God?

The Bible says in child Psalm, you ministered unto the Lord before Eli.

And the word of the Lord was precious or rare in those days and there was no open Vision, no understanding.

The reason why I didn't have a true knowledge of God was because the Word of God was rarely spoken or understood in those days.

In other words, Eli's sons never true knowledge of God because the schools in those times were not teaching using the Word of God.

Instead, they were teaching using the vain philosophies of men rather than the scriptures in those days.

And without this knowledge of the Word of God, they didn't understand the true character of God's character, and thus they were not able to fall in love with God, therefore they were not able to truly be obedient to His Word.

Because we only worship what we appreciate.

If we appreciate the living God and His true character, we will fall in love with Him and we will show appreciation of worship to that God.

But if we see a God which we cannot appreciate, we will not fall in love with that God, thus we will not keep his commandments.

And thus the condition of Israel church was in a sad situation back then.

With this background, let's go into our story, chapter 4, verse 3.

Before Israel went out to fight against the Philistines 1 more time, They fought the first time and they lost and they went out again.

The Bible says in verse 3, and when the people were coming to the camp, the elders of Israel said wherefore has the Lord smitten us today before the Philistines?

Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us that when it comes among us it may save us out of the hand of our enemies.

This time before going out to battle, as the church of God in those days, they decided let's take the Ark of the Covenant with us.

For the Ark of the Covenant is with us, God will be with us also.

You see the Jewish Church had believed that since they had the ark, now what's inside of the ark of the covenant?

In other words, the Jewish Church believed that since they had the 10 Commandments, in other words, since they were the only ones who held all 10 Commandments, they were considered special.

Just because they had a truth And they held the oracles of truth.

What happened when the ark came into the camp?

Chapter 4 verse 5, the Bible says, And when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout so that the earth rang again.

They got excited because we were at that time, they were at that time, they felt God's only true church who had all of the commandments of God in those days.

They're excited that they now have a token of God's favor with them.

The Philistines, the enemy was watching this and they heard something.

The Philistines were afraid for they said God is coming to the camp and they said woe unto us for there has not been such a thing hitherfore.

The Philistines when they heard the camp of Israel shouting, were afraid.

When they found out the Ark of the Covenant was with them, they were so terrified that they almost retreated.

But then they regained their courage and said, no, we're going to go down.

We're not going to go down without a fight.

So they decided to fight against the Israelites.

Chapter 4, verse 10 to 11, the Bible says, and the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten.

And they fled every man into his tent, And there was a very great slaughter for their fellow of Israel, 30, 000 footmen.

And the 2 sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas were slain.

The Bible says that the Israelites were beaten that day.

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Bring Back The Glory

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