I think I mentioned earlier this week that I was saved on a Wednesday, and it's a Tuesday night, I know that, but this song asks a question to all of us. The fact that your name is on a church member roll, the fact that you give faithfully, the fact that you are a dear Sunday school teacher or deacon or what have you, none of those things guarantee you salvation, do they? It's all the decision that we make. So I'd ask you to listen to this song here. It's titled, Are You Ready? The hour is approaching when the souls of man will hear a mighty shout resounding in the sky. In power and great glory, King Jesus will appear and take his children home it will be a celebration for the ones who chose his name by total separation for the ones who turned away Are you ready for the trumpet? Are you ready for the call? Soon the angels will assemble to usher in the Son of God. Will he come and find you faithful? Will he know your name at all? Every moment brings us closer. The Bible speaks of two men who were standing in a field where one is taken and one is left behind. Two women in the kitchen One bowls and one remains So get your house in order While there's time In the cross there is salvation Through the blood there is a way To secure your reservation On that resurrection day Are you ready for the trumpet? Are you ready for the call? Soon the angels will assemble to usher in the Son of God. Will he come and find you faithful? Will he know your name at all? Every moment brings us closer. Are you ready for the trumpet? An urgency to reach the world We have no time to waste For within the heart of mortal man The burning question now is raised Are you ready for the trumpet? Are you ready for the call? Soon the angels will assemble To usher in the Son of God Every moment brings us closer. Are you ready for the call? Do it. Grab your Bibles. And 1 Kings, there we'll find our place. I have enjoyed the short commute I have from the conference chamber there. And I bring greetings from my wife. Of course wishes she was here, but I'm thankful, appreciate allowing me the flexibility to have the girls in school this week. If I can say to this, but please don't take this for granted, you have been very easy to speak to, very easy to preach to. That's a credit to you, that's a credit to your pastor. In truth, in truth, I can't say that everywhere. Some places, it's like swimming in peanut butter. That has not been the case here. I thank you for that. And I think, lest it bother me, I may not bother you, Is it alright if I play with this? I think my facial hair is a little bit more robust than your pastor's at the moment. And so I may be, let's see if we, we'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. First Kings in chapter 19, I'll find my place there as well. First Kings 19. I have enjoyed my time with each of you and Thank you so much to Brother Joe and his wife and Brother Gary and his wife for lunch today. And then they dropped off Subway for dinner. And I've been well taken care of. I found, for me personally, I've had a rep ever since my younger years, teenage years, that I can eat a lot. That has been the case, but my metabolism, you know how it goes? Starts to slow down. People tell you it's gonna catch up with you. And the way it's gone for me is I still eat a lot, but normally at one meal. And then I come to a dear place like this, and you folks just keep throwing food at me. Your pastor stops by earlier, and he drops off six massive cinnamon rolls. And what am I supposed to do with that? I mean, he's literally presenting a stumbling block. Lord said, there is no temptation taking you, but such is common man. I'll provide a way of escape. Well, they're in my room with me. What am I supposed to do? And I should have said, get thee behind me, Pastor Big Phillips. And I have, they're halfway gone, they're halfway gone, Pastor. We're doing our best with them. 1 Kings 19, and to the young people in Sunday school, I appreciate the time we had together there. I believe we started 1 Kings 19 in Sunday school. We're gonna look at a different part of the passage here. And if you would stand with me for just a moment, we'll stretch our legs. And 1 Kings 19, and we're gonna start in verse number, Verse number nine, if we may. 1 Kings 19, nine, the Bible says this, speaking of Elijah here, and he, Elijah, came thither unto a cave and lodged there, and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, God said unto Elijah, what doest thou hear, Elijah? Elijah said, he said, I have been very jealous, the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, slain thy prophet with a sword, and I, even I only am left, and they seek my life to take it away. He said, this is God speaking now, Go forth and stand upon the mountain before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by in a great and strong wind. Rent the mountains and break in pieces the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, a still, small voice." We're going to look at this passage of Scripture, and we're going to endeavor, as we have this week, endeavor to keep things in context, and we'll mine out another passage in just a moment But I'd like to speak to you for just a few moments today on this thought. Don't put God in a box. Don't put God in a box. We're gonna see how maybe Elijah was to some degree, or how we do a lot of times, at least I can speak for me. But I'm gonna ask you not to, don't. Put God in a box. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the privilege it is. What a deep well, what a blessing it is to mine the unsearchable riches you've given us in your word. We can preach every day for years on end, a whole lifetime, and never, never preach the same thing twice. Lord, I ask that you would, if you would, give us ears to hear tonight, hearts that are soft to what you have, and maybe, as Pastor has alluded to multiple times, may tonight be a reset, that we'd be willing and able to come to a place tonight that we would reset some things, and that we wouldn't take you for granted, and we wouldn't put you in a box. Lord, I ask you to speak through me tonight to your people and your sons, and we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Thank you so much for standing. Context for this passage, of course, in short, in 1 Kings 17, we're introduced to Elijah. He tells Ahab a thing or two about a drought. He goes to the brook Cherith, is fed by ravens. Isn't that an interesting thing? Think about that. If you could order food and it was delivered by ravens, I would wonder, did they grasp it with their claws, or was it regurgitated raven food? I don't think I want to know the answer to that question, but however he got the food, he got the food, and then the brook dried up, and God led him right on time to the widow of Zarephath. Remember, Elijah, you could make the case, was one of the first missionaries to a Gentile. That widow of Zarephath, she was not a Jewess, a Jew, and he ministered to her, she ministered to him, and the meal and the oil didn't fail. Her son is raised from the dead. First Kings 18, Elijah faces off against the prophets of Baal, and spoiler alert, he wins. Well, I should say God wins. Elijah gets to be his mouthpiece and Elijah prays and fire comes down. Wouldn't you like to have been there? There's a lot of episodes that I'm looking forward to watching on the IMAX screen in heaven. You know what I'm talking about? Sit there in the theater with some popcorn from the marriage supper of the lamb and just enjoy the spectacle. This would have been one I'd like to see. He kills the prophets of Baal, then 1 Kings 19. Jezebel, the wicked, threatens his life. He said, I'm gonna kill you, Elijah. I mean, he runs. He doesn't stand up strong like we might think he would have. No, he runs. Elijah reminds me, he's kind of a, please forgive me for conflating a Hollywood character with him, but he kind of reminds me of a Clint Eastwood type guy. Kind of a, you don't see Clint Eastwood run from a problem, right? He's always a man of few words and always takes care of business. Well, Elijah, He fails, he's a frail human being sometimes, just like you and me. We can be strong sometimes, but sometimes we fail, and Elijah runs. And that's where we find him here. He, like most of us, when we're hungry, and when we're hurt, when we're angry, is hangry a thing around here? Is that a thing? Yeah, all right. He gets a little hangry, Elijah does, and what does he do? God speaks to him. But we see here that God speaks to him in a very specific way. Look at verse number 11, and he said, Go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by in a great and strong wind, rent the mountains and break in pieces the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. Now, can you recall times in Scripture where the Lord was in the wind? Think about the book of Acts, remember that? 120 in the upper room, right? God was in that rushing mighty wind, right? But the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind and earthquake, can you think of a time that God got his people's attention with an earthquake? Do you remember a man named Korah? He spoke against Moses, and what happened? The earth swallowed him up. Aren't you glad God doesn't get your attention with earthquakes? Every time you get a little disgruntled, he doesn't just open a hole in the floor and take you down. God wasn't in the earthquake in 1 Kings 19. Not in the wind, not in the earthquake, and also not in, look here, verse number 12, and after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. Have you ever thought of, can you think of a time when God was in a fire and got his people's attention? One example, remember Moses and the burning bush? Maybe, just maybe, you're probably thinking, man, Micah, if you would stop by some burning bushes, you'd get some better messages than you've been preaching this week. But no, in all seriousness, that was a very individualized thing, wasn't it? The bush, the earthquake, I counsel you this evening, don't put God in a box because first, he is very individual with interactions. Here's how I treat God sometimes. Maybe you are guilty of this as well. We want God to work in our lives the same way every time, and we treat him like a fire alarm here. Now, I'm not going to pull it, okay? That'd be a very bad sermon illustration. Someone was telling me they appreciate illustrations and whatnot. That would be a not good illustration, okay? But we treat him like a fire alarm, don't we? We want God to be in a little box, readily accessible, there when we want him, waiting on us the way we want him to be. We want him to be like a fire extinguisher over here. I don't think it's gonna go off if I just pick it up here, is it okay? Let's see. You see this little tag right here? I don't know if it's an Illinois thing or a federal thing, but they have to come by, I think once a year or so, and they have to re-tag the fire extinguishers. and maybe once every six or seven years, they have to pressure test him. Brother, you probably know about that. And from what I understand, I'm no expert, but this little gauge right here, it needs to read in the green. There's a whole lot of red here. I guess if the pressure had been let out, we'd have a problem, but aren't you glad for fire extinguishers? You don't wanna use them, but you're glad when they're there. You know what we do with God sometimes? We want him to operate. the way we want him to operate. I'd counsel you, don't put God in a box. You see here in 1 Kings 19, Elijah, he had just seen God work through birds. He had just seen God work through a barrel of meal and a cruise of oil. He had just seen, no less, God work through fire. Sounds awe-inspiring, doesn't it? We often want God to work through shock and awe. You know, I could probably get Emma and Caitlin's attention if I were to pull this little pin right here, brother. But, my dear lady, I would probably get you in the crossfire. That wouldn't be a good thing. I mean, that would be a cool illustration. I mean, it would probably come out of my love offering, replacing this thing, but it would still be pretty cool while it lasted. But in all sincerity, we want God to work with big. We want God to work, like I talked about yesterday, with a cloud. Speaking of a cloud, you can make a cloud with that. The cloud is so thick, you could cut it with a knife. We want the goosebumps, but we don't do a great job listening for a still, small voice, do we? Sometimes, it's so interesting how the Lord puts things together, but Joe, you mentioned, you were talking, we were talking with Pastor just a moment about a fast from electronics. Can I tell you, after the withdrawal symptoms ended, you know, about 48 hours in, if we did that, I have a stinking suspicion we'd do a better job of hearing that still small voice if we weren't constantly getting that dopamine endorphin kick, you know? But God is always individual with his interactions. God speaks to different people in different ways. Let's look here at 1 Kings 19 for just a moment more. God is not just individual with his interactions, but he also has great talent with tools. You know, and maybe you don't know this, but not everybody's the same. Were you aware of that? Every one of us is different. A wise father, a wise mother, and I've tried to learn this lesson. I have two girls, Emma and Lucy. I won't tell you which is which. Maybe the Sunday school teachers that taught them on Sunday would be able to tell you this. One of them is very tender-hearted. If I look at her the wrong way, if I look at her with a stern expression, she might start to tear up. The other one is a hard head. She just doesn't quite, you know what I found? I have to speak to those two girls differently. Maybe it would be wise if we learn that God speaks, I'm not talking about 90-foot Jesus or too many anchovies on your pizza at night. But I'm telling you, God will get your attention in the way that you need your attention gotten, so don't put him in a box. But also, God has great talent with tools. God can use people that we don't think he can use, including the person that you look at in the mirror. God can use that person. I was joking. Again, I think it was in Sunday school. I am not a craftsman. I am not a builder. I'm not a home renovator. I am working on outfitting our new-to-us house. It was a fixer-upper. We've got work that needs to be done on it, and we're slowly, slowly chipping away. And if somebody would lighten up his schedule a little bit traveling, maybe I'd actually get some things done around there. But even when I am home, it doesn't get done fast. And you know why? And hopefully this doesn't offend anybody. But I have one of those green bags that say Ryobi on the side of it. My dad has Milwaukee stuff. He actually knows what he's doing. Me, not so much. I'm sorry, are you a Ryobi guy? I think I heard that, so this is no offense. You might know what you're doing with those. They told me, I forgot about that. I heard you're a Ryobi guy, so that's no offense to you. You might know what you're doing. I don't. But we all have, we have different affinities for tools, don't we? Some guys, they like Dodge trucks or Chevy or Ford. Did you know God loves using every tool. He wants to use you. And you might be thinking, well, you don't understand. I am a crooked stick. Did you know God has never had a choice to use anything besides crooked sticks? There are no, and I know it's cliche to say, but it's true. God can draw some pretty straight lines with a crooked stick. God has great talent with tools. I heard a man say, any tool is the right tool if you know how to use it wrong. You know, you can drive a nail with the back of your shoe if you had to. Were you aware of that? You know, you look at some people who say, I can't believe God would use that person. Well, first, it'd be wise if you took a look in the mirror and figured out the fact that God can use you, and you're not perfect either, but Sometimes God has used some unlikely characters to get some amazing things done. God has great talent with tools, and so I'd be very careful about putting our God in a box and telling him what he can or can't do. God is individual with his interactions. He has talent with tools. I mean, think about all the different people that he used in Scripture. A fearful man named Gideon, hiding. A felon named Moses, he killed a man. You know that, right? A fragile man like Elijah. Think of all the failures before the Damascus Road, spiritually speaking, Paul had, if you want to call them that. But yet God used all of them, and he wants to use you. God is also another reason not to put him in a box. God is careful with the clock. God's time is not our. We spoke about this actually, I think, yesterday. But have you ever noticed that kids' concept of time is not the same as yours and mine? My girls are five and seven. They are just now figuring out, when we get in the car, and I say it's going to be about, like coming down here, it's going to be about two hours. They are finally figuring out about what kind of length of time that is. Used to be that they'd ask every five minutes or so, how much longer we have, and they'd be astounded to find out it's still about two hours. But still to this day, Lord help you. If you tell my girls we're going to the zoo in two weeks, that's a bad move. It's a bad move. You've made a mistake. You will pay for that mistake every day when they wake up and ask, are we going to? So you have to speak their language. You have to speak in a currency they understand. You have to say something like, they'll wake up tomorrow, are we going to the zoo? You say, no, no, there are 13 more sleeps. That's what we call them. 13 more sleeps until the zoo. But you gotta be careful because if you don't specify, that doesn't include naps. They'll wake up tomorrow afternoon and say, 12 more sleeps left, we're getting there. They'll take five naps in a day just to get the zoo here quicker. No, no, no, that's not how it works. Have you ever thought about the fact that maybe, just like we spoke about yesterday, multi-generational ministry, have you ever thought about the fact that maybe we, as children of God, have just as bad an ability to conceptualize time relative to our Father as our children do to us? We quoted the verse, day is with the Lord, St. Peter 3.8, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years in one day. But you know Isaiah 55.8, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. If we keep things in context here, We've seen that God is individualist interactions in 1 Kings 19. We've seen that God is capable and desirous of using a tool like Elijah, even though in this passage, he's a little down and out by his own choice. But God's also careful with the clock with Elijah. Notice here in 1 Kings 19, look at verse number 18. Well, look at verse number 13. And it was so, this is after the fire, a still small voice, and it was so, 1 Kings 19.13, and it was so when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entering in of the cave, and behold, there came a voice unto him and said, what doest thou hear, Elijah? Do you notice the similarities between verse number nine and verse number 13? What doest thou hear, Elijah? And then notice the similarities between verse 10 In verse 14, Elijah is still a little angsty. He's still a little irritated. He's still a little bothered. And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy altars, and slain thy prophets with a sword, and I, even I only am left, and they seek my life to take it away. You notice that God Solves his pity party problem just a few short verses later Look at verse number 18 Yet this is God speaking yet I have left me 7,000 Israel all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal and every mouth which hath not kissed him and then verse number 19 so he departed thence and found Elisha a The son of Shaphat, who was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen before him, and he with the 12th, and Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him. Now, this Elijah character is interesting, and we don't have time to do a study on him. Elisha, he was potentially a mighty man of wealth. He had 12 yoke of oxen. He was at least a powerful figure of some kind. The fact that he had control over them, whether there was 11 other workers working, and he with the 12th, however it happened to be, regardless, this guy was not just a slouch. He was not a bum. But 1 Kings 19, this verse here, I want you to think about this. Did God conjure up Elisha in response to Elijah's whining? Or was Elisha there, ready and available for Elijah to walk by and throw his mantle on? the entire time Elijah was complaining. I tend to believe that Elisha was there the whole time, ready to go, and Elijah got stuck with his pity party just half a chapter too early. Have you ever gotten stuck in a pity party half a chapter before God was gonna reveal something great to you? Have you ever fallen to your knees and shaking your fist and said, why? And God's like, Go a little further. Some amazing things I'm gonna show you. But you get stuck right before. And we think it's a do not pass, go do not collect $200 situation. And we forget the fact that we gotta get out of jail free card sitting right there. Friend, oftentimes we forget that God's clock is not our clock. We forget the fact that there's an opportunity, even in suffering, but there's an opportunity to see the glorious, graceful hand of God at work in your life because we put him in a box and we want him to operate the way we want him to operate. Don't put God in a box. He's individual with interactions. He's careful with the clock. He's got talent with tools. We don't have time to really unpack this, but he also does miracles with minorities. We could think of the widow of Zarephath and many others through scripture who God worked through. For instance, just by way of illustration, if you had to think of the very first person in scripture that the angel of the Lord, the angel of the capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, The Angel of the Lord, what some would consider Christophany, a pre-New Testament appearing of Jesus Christ. Regardless, though, commentators may be split on that, but regardless, the Angel of the Lord was a pretty powerful messenger at the bare minimum. Guess who the first person the Angel of the Lord appeared to in all of Scripture? You think Abraham? You know, some patriarch? No, no. A little Egyptian gal named Hagar. You want to talk about God, God cares, and you realize the fact that you and I, we are the aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. We are the ones, we don't have time to get all through the book of Ephesians and just some amazing passages of what God has done with us as the minority, how we've been engrafted in. But I wonder, friend, do you realize what he's done for you? So why oh why would we see someone out here on the streets? When I was an assistant pastor, I served in Akron, Ohio. Akron is the heroin capital of the world. Now, part of that may be because many other developing countries, third world countries, don't report their heroin usage like we do. But at the same time, there was a lot of down and out folks there. We'd have them. We were right down the first time I pulled in to the church. Church, I'll tell you why in just a moment, had a very large fence all the way around with chain link. Chain link fence with barbed wire at the top. You think that doesn't sound very welcoming. Well, about a couple weeks before I got there, my first week as assistant pastor, pastor said, yeah, I know you're probably wondering about the fence. I know it doesn't look the most welcoming, but someone, stole the church van and used it to pull ATMs out of banks just a little while ago. And so we decided to protect some of the assets around here from vandalism and whatnot. But the church was, in spite of the appearance, was very welcoming. And oftentimes I'd be sitting in my office on a Tuesday morning. We'd have someone knock on the glass door. We'd let them in and we'd talk. And you know what they might be after. And there'd be times that we were gracious and we'd give them something and we'd watch them walk right across the way to the convenience store and walk out with a brown bag. But can I tell you, there are stories of changed lives from those people that walked through our doors looking for some booze. God can change lives. Where men can't, God can do amazing things. Don't forget the fact that you and I, biblically speaking, are the minority, and we've been grafted in to the family of God. But I've got to ask, what happens? What happens when you put God in a box? Very quickly, would you go to 1 Samuel chapter 4? 1 Samuel chapter 4, we're going to end here. 1 Samuel chapter 4, such an interesting passage. 1 Samuel chapter 1 and 2, and thereabouts, the child Samuel, and how he said, here am I in chapter number 3, speak, Lord, thy servant heareth. But chapter 4, after Samuel gets a word from the Lord in a time when there was no open vision, Look at verse number one of chapter four, 1 Samuel 4. The word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle and pitched beside Ebenezer and the Philistines pitched in Aphek. And the Philistines put themselves in array. against Israel, and when they joined battle, Israel was smitten before the Philistines, and they slew, get this now, they slew of the army in the field about 4,000 men. Now you realize, I know there have been times that the Israelites have lost battles, but still, this is somewhat of a strange occurrence. God's people are supposed to win, right? 4,000, I mean, think back to Achan and Ai. They only lost 36 men because of Achan's sin. 4,000, that's 4,000 funerals. That's 4,000 women without a husband. That's 4,000 families without a father. What would cause something like this? Well, the Israelites tried to figure that out. Verse number three, and when the people were coming to the camp, the elders of Israel said, wherefore hath the Lord smitten us today before the Philistines? Let us fetch, get this now, let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord. out of Shiloh unto us, that when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies." You know what I believe the Israelites said here? Go get the God box. Go get the box that is the physical proof that God's with us. Go get that. Now, it begs the question, why they'd ever go to battle without it in the first place? That's a good question. But regardless, they decided, oh, I know how to fix this. Go get the God Box. Have you ever been in a situation where you ran smack into a brick wall and you thought, oh, maybe I should go to church. Maybe I should, oh, yeah, it probably wouldn't be good if I actually prayed for my food every once in a while. Maybe it would be good if I, That's how I kind of see these Israelites. Oh, I had a dear Southern lady at a church I was at some years ago. I told you my dad was in the army. We moved eight times in my first 18 years. Dear Southern lady at a church in Virginia, she would say this. When someone got something they should have got a long time ago, she said, oh, the clue bird has landed. I think that was a nice Southern way of saying, hey, knucklehead, you should have got that a while ago. The clue bird has landed. Well, the clue bird apparently landed. The Israelites said, go get the God box. Look at verse number four. So the people sent to Shiloh that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims and the two sons of Eli. Now these aren't good guys, but Hophni and Phinehas were there with the ark of the covenant of God. And when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, watch this, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again. And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, what meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And they understood that the ark of the Lord was coming to the camp, and the Philistines were afraid. You know what happens when you put God in a box? Well, we see in verses one and two, you might leave him behind. That's not a good thing. Because if you can pen God up and put him in a human-sized box, you might leave him behind somewhere. We gotta remember that he shouldn't be in a box and he's everywhere and he's looking over our shoulders right now. But you know what else might happen? When you put God in a box. When you get in trouble, you might go get that box. And you might think because of the presence, you will tie God's, quote, presence to whatever your, understand me, whatever your God box is. And you'll think you're blessed just because of the presence. You're gonna thank God's with you because you go to church. Because you put money in the offering plate. Because You don't smoke or swear or you fill in the blank. Can I tell you, be very careful about tying deeds or putting deeds on a higher pedestal than being. Doing never beats being. Don't put God in a box because you might do what the Israelites did. You know what happened? The Israelites, I mentioned the other day, had a lot of sizzle. but not a lot of steak. I enjoy all types of food. I've said that three or four times when people asked, you know, where would you like to go? If it has calories in it, I'm a fan. It doesn't really matter what it is. I want full fat, full cream, full sugar, all this stuff. Okay. And, um, you know what I really love though? I love Asian food. I love Mediterranean. I love Mexican food. Walk that Mexican restaurant and you sit down, you eat your chips and salsa and all of a sudden, you hear that sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss But little to my knowledge, the table behind me has also ordered fajitas, and they ordered before me. And I've got my hopes up, and they walk right down this way. And that talented person has plates all up and down his arms. He's walking by, he's got fajitas, and he walks right by me. You know what? That's the sizzle without the steak. I can't eat the sizzle. And you know what these Israelites had? They had the shout, but they didn't have the substance. And I'm afraid, in a lot of Christians' lives, on Sunday morning, we've got a lot of shout, but we don't have the substance. Ain't God good? Amen, pastor, that's true. But we live like the devil the other 167 hours out of the week. But we have our little God box, and we think it's all gonna be okay. Don't put God in a box. Because, you might leave him behind, because you might put false assurance, you have a false perception of power. Look at what happens in verse number 10. When the Philistines got up the gumption to fight, the Philistines fought and Israel was smitten. They fled every man into his tent and there was a very great slaughter for their fell of Israel, 30,000. footmen. They lost 4,000 already, and now they've lost 30,000. And what ends up happening, Hophniath and Phinehas are dead. Eli ends up dying. It's a bad day for Israel all the way around. The ark of God is taken. You may say, Brother Micah, okay, we get the picture. We get the hint. I understand sizzle and shout and the show. The popularity without the presence is useless. But I wonder this evening, if you are in some way in your life putting God in the box, I wonder if you're telling him how to speak to you instead of just letting him speak to you the way he wants to. I wonder if you're telling God who he can and can't use because you don't think he has enough ability to use a crooked stick like you or a crooked stick like your neighbor. I wonder if you are frustrated and impatient with his time frame. We'll end here. I recall a man in the 1970s. His name was Gary Dahl. I think it was spelled D-A-H-L, if I'm not mistaken. Gary Dahl. He was a marketing whiz. And he brought a product to market that made him millions. Wanna know what it was? He took to market the Pet Rock in a Box. Now, we're not confessing our faults before all. I'm not gonna ask you if you bought one of them, but how many of you know what I'm talking about? A little box with... Get this, he was a real genius. He put holes in the box so the rock could breathe. Brightly painted, there was a place to put... You could name your rock. Now, I haven't talked much about this, but my dad... My dad, growing up, he was a bit of a tightwad. And I say that with great reverence, he would get a chuckle if I- out of me saying it. I've said it in his presence, he is not bothered by it whatsoever, but... I think every cent he didn't spend on me, he would put- he- he could put the offer in place, how he was thinking about it, and that- that's not a bad thing, I'm not saying that in a bad way, but... I can just imagine my dad... If I had been walking through Walmart... Hey dad, could I have a pet rock in a box? He says, son, I'll hit you in the head with a rock, I'm not buying you one! Not a chance! And you say, hold on a moment. That's ridiculous. No more ridiculous than putting God in a box. Why would you ever do such a thing to the creator of the universe? To put God in a box. Now, I am firmly convinced that the Holy Spirit is a far greater preacher than I will ever be. So I wonder, what is it he's speaking to you about tonight? In what way are you putting God in the box? Every head bowed and every eye closed. I won't belabor the point, I'll just ask you, are you in some way, maybe a way I did not even mention, are you putting him in a box of your own creation? Are you limiting? We'll talk more about this maybe on Thursday, but are you limiting God What a sad thing it would be for us to slow for us to stymie For us to suffocate God's work personally or at Grace Baptist Church because Put him in a box Just a moment, I'll pray and when I say amen the music will play We'll stand I'd ask you to talk to the Lord if he's talking to you Father, we thank you for this evening. Thank you for these dear folks and for the truths of your scripture. May we be very careful to not be like the Israelites and putting our trust in this box instead of directly in you. Lord, give us faith. Exercise our faith. May the greatest days, both personally and corporately, be ahead as we allow you to be unlimited. Bless these coming days in your son's name we pray. Amen. Head bowed, eyes closed, the music plays. Would you stand with me for just a moment? Have a few moments of invitation. Speak to the Lord if you would.