You have to go down to get up

Pastor Max opens with a story from 2015, when he flew into Iraq during the war on ISIS to scout operations for an anti-trafficking organization his London church was funding. Stuck in an underground car park, he asked three locals how to get out, and all three pointed down. Only when he drove to the third floor did he find the ramp that led up and out. He uses the picture to make his point: there are things God wants to lift us up and out of, but first we have to go down in submission. "Everybody wants God's power, but only a few want to live under God's authority," and we cannot have it both ways. Our culture wants blessing without obedience, presence without holiness, and resurrection without crucifixion. 1 Samuel 4 shows where that leads.

Israel at war and a passive high priest

Israel is fighting the Philistines under Eli, a high priest and judge whose sons are corrupt and whom he refuses to discipline. After losing 4,000 men, the elders ask the right question, why has the Lord defeated us, but give the wrong answer. Instead of seeking God and doing what He wants, they send for the ark of the covenant to make God save them. Pastor Max pauses to be clear that not every hard thing is God punishing us; we live in a fallen world. But there is a difference between suffering in a broken world and reaping the consequences of going our own way, and we have to discern which is which.

Toxic attitude 1: Manipulating God instead of surrendering to Him

Israel wanted God to back their plans without any interest in achieving His. Drawing on his college baseball days, Pastor Max describes the difference between hitting the ball on the handle, getting jammed, and hitting the sweet spot. Forcing God to serve our agenda is a life of getting jammed: all effort and little distance. Surrender is the sweet spot, where there is an ease even when it isn't easy. This is the gap between gifting and anointing. God's gifts and call are irrevocable, but when we rebel, as Samson did, the anointing lifts. God anoints people for His purposes, not ours.

Toxic attitude 2: Replacing obedience with emotion

When the ark arrives, Israel shouts so loudly the earth resounds, and the Philistines are terrified. Yet Israel is routed and 30,000 soldiers fall. Pastor Max points out that our problem is rarely knowledge; it is obedience. We have the gym membership and the broccoli in the fridge; we just don't use them. He loves an engaged, worshipful room, but emotion alone does not mean God is moving. Jesus said we are known by our fruit (Matthew 7:16), and we are perfectly positioned for the results we are getting. If we don't like what is coming out of our lives, we must change what is going in.

Toxic attitude 3: Rejecting God's holiness and expecting God's presence

The ark is captured and Eli's sons, whom 1 Samuel 2 calls scoundrels who despised the Lord's offerings and slept with women at the tabernacle, die. The real tragedy is not the lost battle but the lost presence. Pastor Max tells of giving his life to Jesus at 18 with no Bible knowledge, then ignoring the Holy Spirit's conviction in college and feeling God's voice grow quieter. He distinguishes conviction, which says "there's more in you than that," from the enemy's shame, and distinguishes making a mistake from living in open rebellion. Eli's passivity let his sons lead a nation astray, so the church must be committed to personal holiness and willing to address sin in ourselves and in those we love.

Toxic attitude 4: Assuming consequences will never come

A messenger reaches Shiloh; Eli falls backward, breaks his neck, and dies; his daughter-in-law dies in childbirth and names her son Ichabod, the glory has departed. Israel wanted God's victory while rejecting His authority. God also dealt with the Philistines in the next chapter when their idol Dagon fell and lost its head, but He dealt with Israel first. Galatians 6:7 says God is not mocked; we reap what we sow. Compromise works for a season, but it catches up. The root of Israel's downfall was a high priest who feared man more than God and tolerated evil.

A better high priest

Pastor Max closes by asking what would have happened if Israel had a high priest who was perfect, who laid down his life in full submission to the Father. Cue Jesus. Hebrews 7 says He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, holy, blameless, and exalted above the heavens. Israel became like Eli and his sons; when we surrender to Jesus we become like Him. Before God builds a powerful church, He builds a surrendered one.