The Lord is great. People see all gods as the same. But Jesus and His Presence are different. Everything falls before Christ. The idol of the Philistines lost his head and hands before the Ark of God. Can we forgive and let go of resentment? (1 Samuel 5:1-5)

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12521
11:00 AM on 6/4/2023

P. Schaller –

For our devotional or introductory thought this morning, turn to Acts, please, chapter 9. Wednesday night, we had a
sermon here on the gifts of the Spirit. And how we need each other. We have a need. We are
independent of each other in one sense. We have our own relationship with God. We are living
in the Spirit. The Spirit of God in you and the Spirit of God in him. We have these gifts of the
Spirit that are given out as God pleases. So, not one person has all the gifts maximum degree,
but Jesus did. Jesus had all and was of course essentially divine. But we are many members,
and we are members of his Body. So, that message really still resonates with me in my mind
and heart.

Now, as you come to this church, you will find that there are bits and pieces that you take home
with you. You hear a teaching from the Bible. This is important and it’s from the Bible. And I have
my own Bible. I have my own relationship with God. I read my own Bible. I’m looking at it. I’m
learning it. Memorizing or taking a mental picture of the page.

So, here we have Acts 9. This is the Bible I have been using for decades. I like it that I have it. I
have it on my phone. I have my Bible, too. But that’s different for me cause I’m attached to, – I’m
an older guy. There are things that I’m not like – handwriting, notes, you know, books. This is
part of my life, and I keep it. I like it. It’s part of my good habits. My habits. You have to develop
your own. But have them. Develop them. And you will learn, because who does God teach
doctrine but those that are drawn from the breast it says in Isaiah 28:9.

What does that mean? There is a time when a child is feeding from the breast, and then it eats
solid food. This is called weaning. Weaning from the mother. Removing from breast milk to solid
food. This is who God teaches doctrine. You have to get beyond the ABC’s. You have to learn to
listen and grow in your faith and apply. Listen, pay attention, and apply. So, I want you to be
edified this morning. I want you to learn. But I just want to make a point here. I’m going to say
one simple thing about the text. This is not the message, but this is something I want you to take
note of.

A woman died, chapter 9:36. She has two names: Tabitha and then she had the name Dorcas.
Okay. She was full of good works and alms deeds. She was a quality woman. She was a saint.
She got sick, vs. 37, and died. And they washed her body, and laid her in an upper chamber.
And then the ladies gather around, and they look at the things that she had made. Coats and
garments. vs. 39. Now, when you lose a loved one, of course, there’s weeping. And when you
are very close to the person, it’s very emotional and devastating. She also was remembered
here by the coats and garments which she made.

I think all of us had a grandmother that maybe made quilts or our great grandmother or
something passed down in the family. Linens. These different, you know, different things that
can decorate a house. So, this woman, she’s remembered by these things, and there’s a lot of
emotion in the room.

vs. 40. This is my point. Just simple. There are things around us that happen that are very
compelling, very natural, and very normal. But there’s also a discipline where you are able
actually to focus on something else. There’s something else happening here. There’s something
else going on. There’s something important. But if we focus on the tablecloths and the different,
the minutiae, and the sorrow, we might miss it. The sorrow, the minutiae, the details, things she
did, the biography of the woman. The biography. She died, and we have her biography. But God
is here and Peter is here. And remember, Peter has it in his mind, because he has met God
many times. He’s been in a room with a dead person. Remember Jesus with the daughter, and
Jesus put everybody out of the room. It was only Peter, James, and John and the parents and
the dead girl. And Jesus was there.

Maybe that is in Peter’s mind in this story. And I would like to say I think everyone in this room is
capable of this. You are capable of something more. You are capable of something beyond this
stuff that is happening that is very real. We are not living in denial of it. But God’s not done.

God’s not done in the story. He’s not done in the story. That’s a very important part of your life.
Like there’s something more that’s happening here. Peter knows it. He carries it in him in the
inner part in his heart, and he’s saying this is not going to happen with all these people here.
We’ve got to put them out, cause God’s going to do something here.

I don’t know exactly how that applies to your life, but be careful with the devastating things that
happen, with a broken heart. Be careful with disappointments, the confusion. Be careful with the
weeping, the tendency to revenge or resentment or bitterness or anger or fear. Cause you have
the Holy Spirit in you. The Holy Spirit is there. The Holy Spirit is going to say something to Peter.
Let’s finish it. vs. 40. Now, you know, just saying just something to think about, cause if the
chatter and the weeping and the talking continues and continues, we end up burying the
woman. If the chatter and the talking and the emotion and the feeling and everything goes and
there’s not a man of God or a woman of God – I don’t know how to, I cannot define this that
well. I just want to suggest to you that this is a story that we could observe and say maybe we
are missing something.

Maybe if we quiet ourselves before the most Holy God, maybe that
means at work maybe there is a lot of gossip and chatter and talking and a lot of tension. But
maybe I can find God in it. Maybe I can find God and help. Maybe I can find God and bring
something to the table that’s different. So, there we go. Amen.

Beautiful. Isn’t that beautiful (the song). Okay. In our opening devotional thought is in a word,
God’s not done, right? God’s not done. Something is going on but he’s not done. So, that’s a
good word for us. So, would you stand with me, please? Thank you. Alright, in your heart say to
yourself, God’s not done. Not finished. There’s more. There’s more. So, now, turn to your
neighbor. Go to your neighbor. Move from your seat for a moment and go to your neighbor.
However you want to move around, little or none. But just go to them and say, God’s not done.
There’s more. Okay. You may be seated.

Our church reading is 1 Samuel 5. So, this sermon is broken into a couple small pieces, and it’s
profound. My prayer is that you have a capacity to hear me. You are able to hear me and what
we have to say from this story. It’s a great story.

We were in India a couple weeks ago, and this was the message that we shared. It was about
the ark of God being in a pagan temple. When the ark of God which is speaking of the presence
of God was in the pagan temple, the pagan God fell over. Should I change my microphone, Ed?
Is that from me? Okay. I don’t want that to happen, so I’ll change it to the hand microphone if it
happens more. So, the pagan god fell over in the presence of the ark of God. That’s such a
profound story. The first point we want to make is God. God. The presence of God. The nature
of God. The holiness of God.

When someone touches the holiness of God, it affects them. When anyone in the Bible is in the
presence of God as God and they see God or they are in the presence of God, it affects them
deeply. The same way when you accept God into your life and the Holy Spirit comes into your
life, it affects you. You start to understand things. You are in connection with the holiness of God
which is extremely unique to the world that we live in. The world that we live in is made by God,
but it is not God. In a word, when a painter paints a painting, that painting is an expression of
the painter, but it’s not the painter. It’s the painting. And there’s a big difference between the
painter and the paint, the picture. That’s, that’s a beautiful thing, but it’s not the painter.

Creation is beautiful, but it’s not God. God transcends it. God is from everlasting to everlasting.
The universe is not from everlasting to everlasting. And the world we live in is not holy. This
world is beautiful, but it’s not holy. It should be. One day it will be, but it’s not. It’s in a word
profane or common. We are familiar with it. We learn about it. We touch it. We handle it. And we
worship it. We are idolaters by nature. We worship it.

Let me give you an example. A man could say, a man could say I would like a woman. I want a
woman. I’ll put hair here. Here’s a woman. And she’s got a beautiful hairdo. I want the woman. I want the woman. Or you say the man wants money. I want money. So, when we hear about
God, we might hear a story about God. I find God, and I got a great wife. Well, I want a great
wife. So, I will follow God. I will believe in God also, cause God will give me a wife. So, which is
God? The woman and I’ll use God to get the woman. I heard that Christians they’re generally,
their family’s are blessed. They make money. They have jobs. I think I want to be a Christian.

Well, which is God? The good life or God? What if you accept God and you don’t have the good
life. When you find God or God finds you, you find something more than a good woman or
money or career. You have found God. That’s a big difference. It’s like the painting is one thing,
but the man who made it who is infinitely perfect, wise, powerful, that’s who we have found. We
have found God. In his presence the idols fall down. That’s a key. In his presence, the idols tip
over. In his presence, the woman idea, the money idea, the career, the good health, the good
life; it falls over in the presence of God. Those cannot, those are good but they lose their head
and their hands. Let me write that down here. Is it coming up? Yeah. A little bit. And hands. I
think I got it. Okay.

Let’s go to the text. 1 Samuel 5, okay. vs. 1. Oh, no. The ark of God! We need to protect the ark of
God! No, God can handle it. God made the Philistines. God made the building they call a
temple. God made the fish and everything in it, everything in the universe. God is in charge.
God is God. You cannot make him unholy. You cannot defile God. You cannot violate God. You
cannot destroy God. This whole idea God is dead. The very thoughts that you have to think that
God is dead, those thoughts have been given to you as a gift from God. The fact that you can
reason and argue against him is actually coming from him. Is he intimidated by it?

I love it in the Bible when we do something stupid, and God talks to us. I love it how kind he is. I
love it that he is not flexing his muscles, and saying how dare you! I am God. No, he’s more like,
Adam, where are you? Where are you? Well, you are God. You know everything. I know where
you are. But I’m telling you something. I lost you, and it breaks my heart. Where are you? Isn’t
that beautiful.

When he talks to Job. In a word, if you want to be rough with Job, you could say, Job, who do
you think you are? Like, I mean, really. You small person you. But God says to Job this way
when he appears to Job in the whirlwind and he says, Job, where were you when I made the
universe? Can you make lightning? Can you say to the ocean, here shall your proud waves be
stayed? Like I made Cape Cod the way I made it, and can you do that? Can you make the
islands and the ocean and the lightning? Have you been where death is? Have you been to the
mountains where the goats calf and can you make rain? He asked him 81 questions to humble
Job. He never explains to Job why he’s suffering. Job is suffering, and he never explains to him
why. He only says who are you? Who are you? Beautiful.

Not to, not in any other reason but to help Job, to draw Job to humility. And in the presence of
God, this is what happens to us. We get real quiet and we get humble, and we get on our face,
and we say we are in the presence of God like Isaiah 6. Woe is me. I’m a man of unclean lips.
By the way, he was a preacher. He was a prophet, but he said I’m a man of unclean lips. And
then but it’s coupled with amazing, amazing passion in Isaiah. God says, who will go for me?
And Isaiah says, I will go. So, there’s a combination of lowness and confidence. Holiness does
that to us. It has our idols fall over. And then it empowers us with God and passion for God.
Okay. Let’s read the story.

vs. 2. Dagon was a pagan god. I read that it was half fish and half man. Something like a
mermaid. Half fish. The Philistines were on the sea. They were fisherman. They had a god that
was half fish and half man. So, the top was a man and it was set up in the temple. And the ark
of God comes into that temple, because that’s the way people are about gods. You can put them
all in the same garage. Put them all in the same cellar, in the same attic, in the same temple.
They all do different things, and you can put Jesus into the group, too, if you want. But the real
Jesus, the Christ, the one on the cross, the one raised from the dead, the one that’s alive, seated at the right hand of God, when we touch him and he is real in life; then all the other gods
they lose their head and their hands.

Let’s read. vs. 3. Probably, they said something like, you know, how did that happen? Well, he
fell over. You didn’t fasten him tight enough, Jeremiah 10:7. We fasten our gods with nails so they
don’t fall over. By the way, I think even in academia they do it. Once they get on a road, it’s hard
to turn back. They have to fasten it with nails.

Honestly. I think about the theory of evolution in those terms. Even though science has
progressed so far, and brings the whole theory into question; they’re very busy fastening it with
nails. Like DNA, where did it come from? Where did the DNA come from? It had to come from
somewhere. Information science teaches us that. That information must be sent, transferred. It
must come from somewhere. Information is sent, and it has a – it’s present in this world. This
world is filled with DNA. Filled with information. Where did it come from? Did it just come from
nowhere? Does DNA come from nowhere? That contradicts the science.

Okay. So, anyway. That’s one of my little things, like fastening it with nails. The world will fasten the idols, so they
don’t fall over. They get away with it. And people worship them. And they get away with it.
How about money? Why not fasten this. Money. Fasten it with nails so it doesn’t fall over. Be
sure your investments will endure the times we are living in. How about relationships? Fasten
them with nails, so they don’t fall over. What we’re saying today is when you have God, not the
painting but the painter, the Creator as your God, then all these things are okay however they
go. And if they lose their head, and they lose their hands, then so be it. Cause I’d rather have
God as my head, and I want my hands to be hands that God can use for his purpose and for his
glory. Okay. That’s a good word.

Go to the text again. vs. 4. Listen. Money is important, but I only need the stump. I’m going to
pay my rent with the stump. It doesn’t have hands that’s going to control me or a head that’s
going to dominate my life. How about a woman? A woman is a great gift or a man is a great gift,
but where are the hands and the head that really affect my life? Who has the head and the
hands of the living God that would give me the ability to love my wife when she is not loveable?
Who? Dagon? God is saying, no. Dagon’s hands and head are not enough for you. The whole
idea of a woman or a man making my life is very weak and very fragile. You don’t need that. You
and I need God.

I’m just preaching. I’m just sharing with you, and I’m just leading you in thinking how it is for us.
Cause we have found Jesus Christ. He said I am the way and the truth and the life. Yeah, you
will have a woman in your life perhaps. And even if in the Apostle Paul’s case he didn’t have, but
he still had sisters and brothers in the Body. He still had a life. He had a life, because there are
many people in the world that do not have a family, but they have an amazing life. There are
many people in the world that may not have the securities, the money, the security, the health.
There are many people, but they have the living God. God is enough for us. Jesus said it many
ways. And I would like you to think with me about that, and we can say a couple closing
comments on it.

So, here we have vs. 5. We’ll finish with this. The priest recognized, they interpreted it. They
didn’t know if this was from the god. This ark is in their mind the idols that the Jews had. This is
their God. So, they had the Jewish God, the ark in the temple. The idol falls over one day. The
next day it loses it’s hand and it’s head. And so, now they’re interpreting what has happened, but
they still don’t know what they are handling.

And the story goes on. Very good story by the way. They put it on a cart with two cows that are
calving. The cows are back here, and they let the cart go. They say if it goes back to Israel, let it
go. And the cows go and it says they are lowing as they are going. They don’t want to go.
[Sound of cows lowing]. They want to go with their calves. They want to go back to their calves
to feed on them. They want to go back. They can’t cause God is bringing the ark back to Israel.
What a great story.

Let’s finish here. I would like you in a few words here to think of it this way. This is your life, and
you have an internal life. Internal. You have the holiness of God in you. You have the Spirit of
God in you as your teacher. You know the difference when you want to use God as a tool to get
what you want versus he’s not a tool. He is God. And he’s the one that you desire, that you love.
He is the one that has loved you, and draws you to himself. And this holiness – I don’t know if
you have experienced it. I want you to. I cannot explain how it works except it does.

It happens to us that we are filled with the Spirit. We are actually touching the reality of God, and
it affects us inside in our hearts. You are able to say the things that we are saying now. That
yeah, money is a big part of my life, but it’s not that powerful. I can lose it. It’s okay if I have
God. Another man could say, you know, how I live is very important to me. Especially as we get
older, I think I’m much more sensitive to the practical things of eating and sleeping and having
comfort and convenience and these kinds of things. But I have to also say in my heart there is
such a thing as when you and I are finding the reality of Christ, that those kind of things get kind
of dim. They are important, but they are not – they are important. I don’t want to say they’re not.
But I’m trying to say they’re not. Excuse me. They’re not enough. They’re not God. You have
found God. God has found you, and he is holy and you enjoy that.

One of the characteristics of it is satisfaction. This amazing sense of peace. Satisfaction. Now,
here comes the catch. Outward things, outward things. We can make a list. I think I will here.
Outward things. And I’ll put here relationships. We have positive relationships and negative.
Positive. I love my wife. I love my wife so much. I don’t want to live without her. My wife. I mean,
47 years we’ve been together. We’ve known each other 50 or more. It’s beautiful. But the inward
life is telling me I don’t have it. We’re going to be where things change. We’re not possessive
idolaters. We’re not fastening it with nails. We got to let it go. Good and bad.

The good one could be a human love, and a negative one could be a hatred or a better word is resentment.
Resenting people. Resenting a person. A bad boss. My boss, a person could say, my boss is a
real problem to me. He’s foolish. He’s abusive. He’s a problem for me. I resent him. I’ve been
working for him let’s say for three years. The last year is a nightmare, and I resent him. That
resentment becomes a big part of my life inwardly. But I have to process that. I need to learn
how to not resent him. I have to learn it.

I have a little piece here. Dr. Swane who has been helpful “examining patients who have these
health problems with arthritis and other stress-producing health problems and he tries to expose
resentments and fears and conflicts.” He had one case. “A woman I the hospital began vomiting
every morning after breakfast. It was discovered she was full of self-pity and resentment
against others in her ward who had visitors and she had none. She was blind to her jealousy
which was back of her emotional upset causing her illness. Repentance freed her and an
apology restored friendly relations with her neighbors.”

Yes. “Resentments can slip in under the cover of something else.” Let’s see. “Perhaps you feel
disappointed with life, what it has brought to you. Self-pity sets in. Perhaps you have been
denied for one reason or another a life partner. It is no use to fight against that fact. Surrender it
to God. Let him help you make something out of it. Here are the triumphant words of one that
just said I am one of the old maids you have helped to see take life and love it. Don’t fight your
resentments. Surrender them. A doctor says there was a time I held a strong resentment against
an individual for nearly a year, but almost the moment my letter of apology dropped into the
mailbox, the resentment vanished. It has never returned.”

I have one last illustration here. Corrie Ten Boom, many of you have heard of her and know
about her. She’s a Dutch woman who is gone, but her family in the Netherlands in World War II
before the war, her family had morning devotions. Loved Christians. They had fellowship, loved
the Jews, and the family decided to hide Jews from the Nazis. Eventually, at the end of the war,
the Nazis found and discovered that they were hiding them, so the whole family went off to a
concentration camp in Ravensbruck, Germany. Corrie Ten Boom after the war was preaching around the war about forgiveness, but she never went to Germany. Then, she was invited to
preach in a, speak in a church in Munich.

Back in that little church in Germany, the camp guard stands before Corrie. This was the camp
guard who was at Ravensbruck where her sister died. “The camp guard at that meeting in
Munich stood before her and said I became a Christian after the war. You’re message about
forgiveness touched me very much. You told about camp Ravensbruck. I was a camp guard
there. I’ve always wanted to ask forgiveness of someone who personally, so I ask you would
you forgive me? Corrie said it feels like by blood is freezing. Suddenly, stands a man before me
co-responsible for the slow, horrible death of my dear sister, Betsy; and he dares to ask me for
forgiveness. All those beautiful sermons about forgiveness, but now I have to forgive myself,
and I can’t. The man holds out his hand, but I won’t take it. I pray softly to Jesus. I don’t want
this. You have to help me.

Then, I realize forgiveness is not an emotion. It is an act of the will.
The feeling is not there, but I can move my hand. Almost mechanically, I place my hand in his.
Something extraordinary happens. I suddenly feel a warm wave through my body. From my
shoulder to my arm to my hands, I have a cry I forgive you brother with all my heart. There we
stood. The camp guard and the prisoner. For a long time we held hands. Never before have I
experienced the love of God so deeply.”

Then, she says this counsel from a priest, because she’s honest. “Forgiving remains difficult.
Forgiveness is not one moment, but often time after time you choose to make it.” I think we all
know this. I forgive. You say to the person, I forgive you, and then the next day or week or
month it comes back. I can’t forgive them. But she says this is called the ding dong principle.
“Not just the war, but also when friends hurt you, you have to make a choice. She also shares
the ding dong example she once heard from a priest. Imagine a clock tower. When someone
hurts you, you hear the bell ring. Ding dong. Ding dong. And often we keep pulling on the rope
for a long time, so we keep hearing the bell.

But only when we let go of the rope will the bell stop. But it’s also true when we let go of the rope, the bell doesn’t stop right away. It will continue to chime for a while until we hear the last dong. It’s the same with forgiveness. As long as we
keep pulling on the rope, the thing will remain palpable. When we forgive, we must let go. Let it
go. Let it go.” Isn’t that – let it go.

Now, notice something. Dagon had arms, right? And maybe that idol that you have in the
presence of God has arms pulling the rope. I’m not forgiving them. I’m rehearsing it in my mind.
Everything they did to me. The money they stole from me. The words they said to me. The
abuse of my father or my uncle or the hatred that I have in my heart for some person that hurt
me. And I’m just pulling on the rope. Ding dong. Ding dong. But in the presence of God, listen.
God is a holy God, and the only thing that matters in life is him. Him. He’s God. And if he
forgave us of all our sin, how much we must forgive others. And when the ark of God is taking
the idols down, let them go. Don’t put them back up. Let him go. When you find out, when you
find out in your heart that God is great, that God is the only God in my life, the only one I want,
then you know you will love your wife, but she will not be God. And you may have some money,
but it will not be God.

I’m always amazed at people that make a fortune in life and maybe have huge amounts of
money, and they die and wherever it goes, I don’t know. But I think it makes a lot of sense to
check with God about that. Cause that money isn’t theirs. That money is God.

I’m not telling you anything. I’m just telling you a philosophy to question. Like just because your
family thinks this way, it doesn’t mean it’s God’s mind. You know how it might go. And there’s
many things in life that are like this. I am like looking to God for it myself in various areas of life.
Like I would like to have the living God in my life. I mean it’s not natural to forgive. It’s natural to
resent and hate and cut them off and say bad things about them and try to destroy them, but
that’s not God. Jesus said, I didn’t come to destroy. I came to save. I will die for you, and you
are wrong, but that’s not moving me because I am God. And we are here in his place to find
something different. Not the natural, normal way that people live in, and they are refastening their idols with nails. Make sure that doesn’t fall over. And no, it’s like let it go.

Let it be found out that it’s a lie. Let it be found out that all that garbage is meaningless. Let it be found out that
pornography is not an answer for your life. And lying and cheating or any other thing that is
wrong before God. That’s not the answer for life. There’s a better life, and it’s the living God that
came into the world to give us this new life. Amen. That was so, that’s so awesome. What a
blessed – thank you, Jesus. Would you pray with me, please.

 

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