“Don't lose the Glory”
By
Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.
SCRIPTURE: 1 Samuel 4:19-22 “And about the time of her death the women that stood by her said unto her, Fear not; for thou hast born a son. But she answered not, neither did she regard it. And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in law and her husband. And she said, The glory is departed from Israel: for the ark of God is taken”.
OPENING: - Right now, it’s a time of hope as well as a time of anxiety, we hope of a better day after Covid-19 yet we are anxious because of the unknown. According to the CDC website on Tuesday 5/11/2021 58.5% of Americans have had at least 1 shot and as a result we are thinking about gathering in new ways and we find ourselves getting increasingly excited trying to figure it out how we can get back to normal. Yes, more people are getting vaccinated and according to the CDC and all the news reports the numbers of Covid-19 cases and deaths in America seems to be getting smaller. There are less and less restrictions in place and we find ourselves able to experience certain freedoms that have been gone for a while now. We can be outside often without masks and if we’re vaccinated they are saying that groups can gather more now in greater numbers than previously. Sporting events are allowing fans in the stands, restaurants have sit-down dinning, cruise ships are preparing to set sail again and things seem to be getting a form of normalcy to it. The sad thing about normalcy is it is often followed by complacency and mediocrity.
Understand the virus has not disappeared people are still getting sick and dying but we are beginning to be able to envision what life after the pandemic might look like.
The important thing that we must remember never to do is to become so comfortable that we fall into a situation like this again. If we stop for a minute and look back at this past year sure there are a lot of things that we were not able to do, but there are a lot of things that grew exponentially during this pandemic.
The pandemic forced churches to move from the four walls and the eloquent edifices to online sermons with an escalated determination to ensure influential and doctrine-based content because the new pandemic church demanded we do so. It seems to me that when sickness, death and darkness descended on the world it was the catalyst that caused many people to reflect on what was important. Because of the virus, there began to be a greater hunger for the word of God. People began to understand that Revelation is pure, interpretation is good, application is a necessity, and timing is everything. Gone was the entertainment and concert type atmosphere that made people happy and feel good for the moment but rarely ever produced a life changing relational experience with God.
Now I am not one of these people that say like some people say Amazon has made the brick-and-mortar stores nearly obsolete so is the church after the pandemic. We must clearly understand that the church is not a peddler of products and services. The church is the Body of Christ, a body made up of many members fitly joined together. That is the light of the world and the salt of the world, light shows the way salt preserves if the light has gone out then how can we show people the way, if the salt has lost its savor, it is good for nothing but to be trodden under the feet of men. Don’t lose the Glory!
Glory as a verb, is used to describe what we give God, We, give God glory, we give God praises by shouting Glory to God in the highest. One song writer said it like this when I think of the goodness of Jesus and all He has done for me my soul cries out hallelujah – that’s glory, the fruit of our lips, the sacrifice of praise is glory. When I lift, my hands and say Thank you Jesus that’s glory. In sign language when you raise your hand from one side to the other that’s glory. What we must learn is that Glory is an adjective and a verb at the same time. Glory as an adjective describes one of GOD’s attributes, meaning powerful, majestic, and greatness. God is glory or God’s glory. So as clarity when I say Don’t Lose the Glory it has nothing to do with the adjective but all with the verb and that is what we do.
PRAYER: -
TEXT: - In our text we see that the Glory had departed from Israel because of their lack of obedience to God and because they had become a superstitious and an idolatress nation that was complacent and mediocre at best.
Let me give a little background of what was going on here. Understand the children of Israel were at war with the Philistines. Basically what we see on the news going on there right now is yet a continuation of this war – that’s another Bile study however.
In the first three verse of Chapter 4 we see that the Philistines killed 4,000 Israelites, and they asked themselves vs 3 “Why has the Lord smitten us today”. During this pandemic we have often asked Why has the Lord smitten us with this pandemic – remember I said the Israelites were disobedient, complacent, and mediocre at best – WELL I believe one reason for the pandemic is because of disobedience and the church being mediocre at best -Just Saying. So, someone came up with the idea that we need to bring the Ark of the Covenant into battle with us.
Let me talk about the Ark of the Covenant for a little bit. The Ark of the Covenant was a beautiful symbol of God’s presence and His glory. It was made from Shittim wood, which is an extremely hard wood and was overlaid with Gold. It was a symbol or typology of Christ in the Old Testament.
The top of the Ark of the Covenant was covered by the Mercy Seat. The Mercy Seat was a solid plate of pure gold, and there were two cherubim facing each other this represented God’s throne in Heaven.
The ark was so full of God’s glory and was not to be touched by human hands and when transported it had to be carried with staves/poles. In 2 Samuel 6:7 when Uzzah reached out and touched the ark when they were transporting it incorrectly died. People will say that God was cruel because he was just trying to stabilize it and keep it from falling, but what you need to understand that God said it could not be touched that was the command of God and when he reached out and touched it he was disobedient to the command of God. Sure he may have had good intentions but like the old saying goes the pathway to hell is pathed with good intentions.
Let me explain this: - Uzzah was the son of Abinadab. WATCH THIS: - The Ark of the Covenant was in Abinadab’s house for 20 years Uzzah was comfortable being around the Ark and because of his comfortability he acted in a mediocre way and touched the Ark which was disobedient to the Word of God and that is way he died.
Now during this battle someone came up with the idea that we should bring the Ark of the Covenant into battle with us. First, God did not tell them to bring the Ark into battle. What they really needed to know was that their safety was not in the Ark of the Lord, but it was in the Lord of the Ark.
This act only shows how, superstitious and paganistic they had become. And that’s the way we have become about some of our churches. Our safety in not in the house of the Lord but instead our safety is in the Lord of the house. Read Jeremiah 7 temple of the Lord, temple of the Lord temple of the Lord and not Lord of the Temple truly representative of the pre-pandemic church.
As a result of taking the ARK of the Covenant in battle, 30k men were killed including Hophni and Phineas Eli the High Priest sons and the Ark of the Covenant was taken by the Philistines. WATCH THIS: - Because the Israelites operated out of tradition and superstition instead of relationship and relational experience, they lost a massive amount of people, the Ark of the Covenant was taken, and Hophni and Phineas the priest sons were killed. WHY: - because the felt their deliverance was in the Ark and not in God Himself.
Sadly, many today try to carry God around and let him out of the box when they want too. So many put all their faith and trust in magnificent edifices, superior sound systems, and stages that will put Carnegie Hall to shame, preachers that are more worried about how much money they can raise the souls they can win for the Kingdom of God. We must understand the glory is not in the buildings. The building is not the Church, the Church is right here.
Now when the word was brought to Eli the High Priest of what happened, his sons killed, and the Ark of the Covenant taken Eli fell backwards of his seat and broke his neck and died. His daughter in law, Phineas’ wife went into labor, gave birth to a male son and called his Ichabod meaning the Glory has departed.
Now let me inject this here WATCH THIS: - the Ark being captured was not the reason for the glory to depart. The glory had already gone the capturing of the Ark was just the manifestation of the fact that the glory had departed.
This shows that the glory can depart, and we not even realize it until much later. It is sad but true the glory had departed from so many churches pre-pandemic but we failed to realize it was actually gone until much later.
When worldliness and sin become manifest in our lives or in our churches it is clear to that God has departed.
However, the decline actually happened much sooner. It is not so much that we mean to let things go so far but as I stated complacency and mediocrity are fast moving weeds in many churches and people have become complacent and will not talk against it because they strive to be seeker friendly.
For much of what church had become before the pandemic it can be said that the glory had departed. The Church building represents God, but when the Glory of the Lord has left the building, then the Church is no longer a place of deliverance, healing, miracles and breakthroughs. It simply becomes a place to go for entertainment.
When the glory of God has left the building, then the building becomes a place for social gathering and habitual Sunday morning routines. We had Ichabod choirs that could sing wonderfully, Ichabod praise teams that made us want to Jump Jump but had not substance, there were Ichabod preachers that gave sugar coated sermons filled with lollipop fairytales and so on. Going to Church had become more of a religious activity than a relational experience, because that is what we always do on Sunday Morning.
The pandemic exposed that the glory had departed making us realize that if the churches existence was essentially one of just social gatherings an invisible virus is way more powerful than that type of church.
In the post pandemic church, we must make sure we Don’t Lose the Glory and literally change the way we do church more now than ever before.
We need to be the church and make that more important than going to church! NOW I KNOW some will jump on Hebrews 10:25 “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” and say see Bishop the Bible says. However, this scripture is not talking so much about as coming together to have a church service but abandoning God and turning away from sound doctrine. Sure, gather together is important but more important is becoming incarnational and not so institutional.
LET ME EXPLAIN: by incarnational I mean getting more to the people instead of the people coming to us. Not trying to make the church seeker friendly or a social gathering place but making the unadulterated Word of God accessible to all. We must understand that the Kingdom of God is at Hand and we need to focus more on people sure in the congregation but more in the community beyond the walls of the edifice. Being the church will cause us to not appreciate the building as much the mission of the church.
We must make church less Sunday centered, and more concerned about spiritual growth than physical appearance. Less guilt ridden and more Love filled, with the healing, deliverance power of a God that wants and desires a relationship with His people and not a condemning fearful adherence.
I want my wife to fix me a dinner because she loves me WATCH THIS: - and say I love to do this for my husband because I love him, and he treats me right not because if I don’t he will beat me! So many times, we preach a vengeful punishing God and leave out the loving savior that gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life John3:16.
DON’T LOSE THE GLORY!
UNDERSTAND: - Coming to Church is not enough. You say I come to every worship service, so what. I pay my tithes and offering so what, God is looking for more from you. He said that I am tired of your old sacrifices Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service”.
So often pre-pandemic church we would go to church just because but post-pandemic we must get beyond just coming to church and learn how to get into the very presence of GOD.
The Glory of the Lord is needed in the church because when the Glory of the Lord has left the church. People will come to church and don’t feel anything, not be change, delivered, they will leave out the same way that they came in. They will have the same attitude, demeanor, and down trodden spirit they had when they came in the doors.
When the glory is gone no prayers are being answered, cries are not being heard, no tears are being wiped away.
No healing is taking place.
When you have a church and you don’t see the Glory of the Lord in it, then you have a church that does not give GOD the praises that he deserves.
Don’t let nothing separate you from the Love of Christ and the Glory of GOD.
Romans 8:35 says “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”
I am not going to let no pandemic, no depression, no money, no person, I don’t care how crazy things might get, I shall not let nothing separate me from the Love of God, from the Glory of GOD which is in Christ Jesus.
CLOSING: - We must understand that crisis brings transformation. We as the church must be transformed from old ways of church to becoming the church. Paul said I become all things to all men that I may win some to Christ.
There are many people out there that will give 5 steps, 12 steps, 20 steps to a post-pandemic church and some have some very valid points. However, the best advice I can give is Don’t Lose the Glory.
We can’t go back to church as usual. I know that the world seems to going back to what they call normal, getting rid of mask mandates, gather together, and literally forgetting what we just went through this pass year. But the church can’t afford to lose the glory. We can’t go back to mediocre complacency.
The pandemic forced churches to move from the four walls and the eloquent edifices to online sermons with an escalated determination to ensure influential and doctrine-based content because the new pandemic church demanded we do so.
Why would we want to go back into bondage after being set free?
Don’t Lose the Glory!
Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.
