1Sa 7:1 And the men of Kirjathjearim came, and fetched up the ark of the LORD, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the LORD.
1Sa 7:2 And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjathjearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD.
1Sa 7:3 And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the LORD, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.
Make sure that we don't turn our backs from the Lord.
Make sure that we always keep the presence of the Lord.
Stay on fire with the Lord.
Don't let anything hinder your walk with God.
Don't let anything hinder your desire to make it to heaven.
20 years without the ark of the Lord. The ark of the Lord represented the throne of God on earth.
It represented the presence of the Lord in the camp.
Wouldn't it be sad to go 20 years in church without the presence of the Lord
...without the power of the Lord
...never see the great miracle
I would like to submit to us that if we come to church,
we can have programs,
we can have great singers,
we can have great musicians...
but if we don't have the presence of the Lord, we are not going to succeed in life,
we are not going to win the battle
we are not going to overcome our adversities.
(Verse 3) Their lives began to deteriorate when they turn away from the God.
Their lives began to fall apart when they turn away from the Lord.
All they did was to lament after the Lord and talked what it used to be.
Sometimes we come to church and it's all our conversation of what it used to be.
I remember the miracles of yesterdays.
I remember the healing of yesterdays.
I remember the revival of yesterdays.
Their hearts were empty.
Their hearts were full of worship but not to the one true God.
- but it was cluttered with idolatry.
You can continue to the place you go.
You can go to the church.
But until you know the Spirit of the Lord in your life,
You will never overcome adversity
- never live victorious
- never have a victory shout
Verse 3 states the condition of the people who for 20 years did not have the presence of the Lord.
It was changing them from being the people of God to being people that were worldy minded.
You see, when you got no presence of the Lord there will be something happening in your spirit.
It will start in your heart and it will move into your spirit.
And the next thing you know, you don't resemble as a child of God.
The world doesn't see anything wrong.
The only wrong it can see is the people of God.
In the last days, they will call good evil and evil good.
It's not what the world calls us that makes us what we are. It's what God call us that what makes what we are.
We must understand that the presence of the Lord and the Spirit of the Lord in our life is the thing that we need to keep our sanity and keep going in the right path because without the Spirit of the Lord we open up aour life and our families to some ungodly stuff.
When you don't have the Lord in your life, we have no restriction, no restraint.
Without the spirit of the Lord, they will be drawn into sin and they will not know what is right and what is wrong.