“Good Luck Charms” – FBC Morning Light (3/27/2024)

Well, a good Wednesday morning to you. Again, we're looking forward to Resurrection Sunday and tomorrow night at our church, Faith Baptist, at 7 o 'clock, having a Maundy Thursday service, commemorating the Lord's Supper together, and working our way through the evening to the cross in anticipation of Resurrection Sunday.

And then, of course, on Sunday, the sunrise service, 8 o 'clock, and then a brunch together, followed by Sunday school Bible study time, and then the morning service at 10 .30. It'll be a good Resurrection Sunday this week as well.

The Philistines, the Ark, and Israel’s Defeat in 1 Samuel 4

Well, today, in our Bible reading, we're back in the book of 1 Samuel. We're kind of jumping back and forth between Judges and 1 Samuel. There's a good reason for that. Yesterday, we read about how the Israelites were being oppressed by the Philistines and the Ammonites, and we read about their repentance, they were genuine in their repentance, and wanted to be freed from the oppression of the Ammonites in particular.

And then we read about Jephthah and how God used Jephthah to bring about deliverance from the Ammonites. That takes us to 1 Samuel chapter 4, and the other enemy that was oppressing Israel, the Philistines, come into the picture.

The Israelites come out to do battle against the Philistines, and we read about this in chapter 4 of 1 Samuel, verses 2 and following. And they think, you know, God's on our side, we're going to win, we're going to lick these Philistines, but that doesn't happen.

The Philistines defeat the Israelites in this first battle. And so they're licking their wounds, and they're wondering, what in the world is the matter? How come we couldn't win? And someone comes up with the brilliant idea that, well, we couldn't win because we don't have the Ark of the Covenant with us.

We've got to get the Ark. We've got to have the Ark with us, because if we don't have the Ark, then that means God isn't with us. And so they run back to where the Ark is, and they bring it, along with Hophni and Phinehas, Eli's two sons, they bring the Ark into the camp, and as soon as they bring the Ark into the camp, there's this great uproar, cheering and applauding, yay, you know, we got the Ark, we're going to win now, we've got God's on our side now, we've got God in the midst of us, because we've got the Ark here.

And then they go out to battle the next day, and they get defeated even more soundly. Not only are Eli's sons killed in the battle, but the Ark of the Covenant itself is taken captive, and the Israelites are left to flee for their lives.

Rejecting Good Luck Charm Christianity

What's the problem here? How come they lost? Well, I think among other things, one of the problems is that they had a good luck charm attitude toward God and the things of God. The Ark of the Covenant was nothing more to them than, or was primarily, we could say in this case, primarily a good luck charm for them.

Have the Ark, win the battle. No matter how they're living, they could be worshiping other gods, they could be terribly wicked, but we've got the Ark, so God is going to bless us now. And he didn't. And that mentality of a good luck charm Christianity persists, even into the 21st century.

There's some people who think if they have a cross around their neck, on a necklace, that God's going to bless them, because they have that charm. They have a cross hanging on the wall in their home or something, God's going to bless them.

Some people think that if I have my devotions every morning before I leave the house for the day, all right, now I'm going to have a blessed day, God's going to bless me, he's going to prosper me, because I read his Bible today.

Well, I'm not saying don't read your Bible, but I am saying, if that's all your Bible reading is to you, is you're going through those motions every day as a means to get God to bless you, that's good luck charm Christianity.

And on and on we can go with other things, even going to church and giving money in the offering plate, or tithing, whatever. We can look at all those things as simply charms, if you will. We look at those as tools, manipulating God to give us what we want, the blessing that we think we deserve, because after all, we have the ark with us.

I want to challenge us to get rid of that kind of thinking, not to think like that at all. God doesn't owe us anything. We don't read our Bibles to get things from God, to manipulate God. We don't go to church to manipulate God.

We don't give to manipulate God. We do those things because they're right, they're helpful to us to grow in grace and knowledge of Christ. We can do those things to honor our Lord, and so on and so forth.

But we don't do them and use them, employ them, to manipulate God. That's good luck charm Christianity. Avoid it. Like the plague, Father in Heaven, help us not to have such a mentality, we pray. And we ask this in Jesus' name, and for his sake, amen.

All right, well listen, have a good rest of your Wednesday. May the Lord bless you in it. Good day.