“Good-Luck-Charm Religion” – FBC Morning Light (5/1/2023)

Well a good Monday morning to you, and welcome to the month of May. I'm glad to see

May dawn today. I trust you are as well. I thought about finding an audio clip of the song,

The Merry Month of May, but then I figured that it's a little cheesy and decided not to do it.

Well anyway, we're starting off this week in the book of 1 Samuel. We're reading in our Bible reading plan today 1

Samuel 3 and 4, John chapter 18, and the 86th Psalm. I want to zero in on the first half of 1

Samuel chapter 4. Here's the background. The Israelites and the Philistines are going to battle.

Verse 1 tells us that Israel went out to battle against the

Philistines. Verse 2 says the Philistines put themselves in battle array against Israel. So here are the people of God versus the pagan

Canaanite people, the Philistines. Who's going to win this battle? Well, the verse goes on to tell us that when they joined battle,

Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed 4 ,000 men of the army of the field.

4 ,000 men lost their lives in that failed attempt to defeat the Philistines, which caused no little consternation on the part of the

Israelites. Why have we lost? Why have we been defeated? You know, God is supposed to be our God, we're supposed to win over these pagan people.

Why have we not won? And they come to the conclusion in verse 3 that they lost because they didn't have the ark.

They said, 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.

Did you notice the pronouns? It. That the ark, when the ark comes among us, the ark may save us from the hand of our enemies.

There is an Old Testament example of what we might call good luck charm

Christianity. Their thinking is, if we just have the good luck charm of the ark, then we'll win.

We'll defeat the Philistines. They didn't stop to think about, are there other factors involved?

Is there sin in the camp? Do we have the Achan problem to hark back to the book of Joshua? Have we not been trusting in the

Lord? Have we been trusting in ourselves? What's the spiritual problem here? They don't address the spiritual problem, they consider the problem simply to be a physical problem.

We don't have the talisman, we don't have the good luck charm of the ark.

So they send to Shiloh, fetch the ark, the ark comes, Eli, the priests, sons

Hophni and Phinehas, who are also priests, they're bringing along the ark of the covenant, and it says in verse 5, when the ark of the covenant of the

Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly that the earth shook.

They were thrilled, they were confident, now that we have the good luck charm, now that we have the ark, we're sure to win, we're sure to defeat the

Philistines. Is that what happened? Well, you go on to read that in verse 10, the

Philistines fought, and Israel again was defeated, and every man fled to his tent.

There was a very great slaughter, and there fell of Israel 30 ,000 foot soldiers.

So in battle number one, Israel lost 4 ,000 men. Battle number two, they lost 30 ,000 men.

What's the difference between those two battles? The good luck charm. The good luck charm didn't work.

I think their problem here was the whole mentality that they were trusting in the charm and not trusting in the

Lord. They didn't need the ark of the covenant there, but they did need the

Lord. Now, Israel's problem a few thousand years ago still persists today.

I know people who have this same mentality, that if I just have the good luck charm, then

God will surely bless me. The good luck charm can be quite a variety of things, and it can come from people who know the

Lord and people who don't. For example, there's a drive from our home in Stirling, a drive up to Rockford, and there's one particular route

I take, and on a corner of this piece of property, there's this shrine, this big shrine to Mary.

I don't know who owns it, I don't know if it's a subdivision -owned thing or what, but it's clear that the mentality is that with this shrine,

God will bless us. I've seen that in other people's homes as well. Their private home, out in their front yard, they've got one of these little, kind of looks like a half -buried bathtub, you know what

I mean? I don't mean to be disrespectful to people who mean well, but nevertheless, this is what it looks like when you drive by, this little thing, and a statue of Mary inside of it, and sometimes other little accoutrements around it.

What are they thinking? Why would somebody put something like that in their front yard?

Because their mentality is, if I have this shrine, God will bless me. It doesn't have to be so obviously, shall we say, pagan, to have a statue in the front yard.

I know Christians who have the mentality that as long as I do the good luck charm thing of going to church,

God will bless me. If I just have a Bible in my home, God will bless me.

I know a person who said one time, if I miss my devotions some morning, if I miss my

Bible reading some morning, I know my day is going to go bad. That thinking can very easily flip around, can't it?

I've got to have my devotions, I've got to read my Bible today so that my day will go well.

What is that person trusting in? Trusting in the reading of the Bible, not the

God of the Bible. Wearing a cross around the neck, or a bracelet of some kind with certain charms.

People can look at all kinds of things and consider them to be talismans, good luck charms.

If I just have this, if I just do this thing, then I know God will bless me.

We don't need good luck charms, we need the Lord. We need him. We need to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our

God. That's what the Lord requires of us. He doesn't require of us a necklace, or a statue, or even a ritual.

He requires our heart. So let's be aware of that kind of mentality today, okay?

So Father, we thank you for this challenge from your Word, and the vivid example of the failure of a good luck charm way of thinking.

Thank you for it. Bless us now as we begin this new week, this new month, in Jesus' name,

Amen. All right, well listen, you have a good start to your week and month, and may the