1 Sam 4:3, When the people came into the camp, the elders of Israel said, "Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us take to ourselves from Shiloh the ark of the covenant of the Lord, that it may come among us and deliver us from the power of our enemies." 
	The reading today highlights something that needs our immediate attention with respect to our daily walk with the Lord. We need to take to heart something that was inherently expressed in this decision of the elders of Israel. Note how they partially recognized that something was amiss in their situation in regard to the Lord. They saw that they were defeated because something was missing. They took it upon themselves to try to fix things by bringing forth the Ark of the Covenant, falsely putting their hopes into a thing and thereby missing the truth of what that item represented. 
The great issue highlighted was that they chose to hope in the works of the hands of man, rather than in the person of God. Jehovah was merely represented by the Ark of the Covenant. They thought they could use the Ark of the Covenant with the attachment of the name of Jehovah as some kind of magic token which would then give them the means of overpowering their enemies. They glossed over the real reason that the battle was lost. They were not looking to the Lord as their salvation. They were resting on their ideas of using God to meet their desires, rather than on humbling themselves before God and seeking His desire for their lives. 
This is an arena of practice in which we are often ensnared without even understanding the folly and the utter abhorrence that it brings before us and God. So often and so subdued is the shadowed out-working of this lie in our actions and thoughts. We tell ourselves that we are doing the work of God as we do the things that we want to do, rather than the things that God wants us to do. 
We try to tack His name on the real motivation of what we are doing and think that we will succeed. We muster up the reasoning that it would bring some honor and glory to God as a by-product of our success and our being enriched by those things that work to satisfy the utterly insatiable cravings of our minds and thoughts. We bring forth that Ark of the Covenant of our imaginations and put it forward as the reason by which we should be successful in our endeavors to enrich the figments of our self-centered thoughts. 
Let it be clearly and succinctly understood that God will not tolerate something that is centered in the work of the hands of man just because His name is attached to it like a note stuck on a box with a thumbtack. God will not tolerate having His Precious and Wonderful and Glorious and Awesome Name sullied by the efforts of humanity! It will always be a vain and tragic effort to bring forth something spiritual from anything that is vile and sinister and unholy! 
God is not mocked! God is not pleased any time we try to use Him and His Glorious Name in an attempt to achieve our goals and our aspirations after human success and fortune! He will not be used! He will not countenance the abuse of His mighty and awesome Name!  
The Prophet Isaiah clearly pronounces the doom that is upon those who so try to manufacture human success through the use of the Name of the Lord God Almighty. Please open to Isa 1:10-20, and let us read and consider what the Lord has to say about this entire concept.
Isa 1:10-20, Hear the word of the Lord, You rulers of Sodom; Give ear to the instruction of our God, You people of Gomorrah. "What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?" Says the Lord. "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams, And the fat of fed cattle. And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. "When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts? "Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies - I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. "I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have become a burden to Me. I am weary of bearing them. "So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you, Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless; Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow. "Come now, and let us reason together," Says the Lord, "Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool. "If you consent and obey, You will eat the best of the land; "But if you refuse and rebel, You will be devoured by the sword." Truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken. 
	Notice immediately, the Lord refers to those who are only using His name and His Law for their own purposes as Sodom and Gomorrah. These two cities were annihilated from the face of the earth by God because of their overwhelming wickedness. There were not even 10 righteous people found in those cities. As a result, The Lord rained down fire from heaven to utterly destroy them with His Holy Judgment. 
Thus are considered those who pervert the Holiness of God with the insertion of human effort and human goals. They only practice a form of godliness in order to puff themselves up as more spiritual and more able to understand how to get things done by trying to use the elements and the tokens and the trappings of godly endeavors. They do not know God! They just know how to look like they know Him. Thus they feed their own selfish goals and aspirations, all the while soiling and smearing God’s Holy and Majestic and Awesome Name! 
	These people present themselves as worshippers of God, while all they do is adore and covet the riches and the fame of this earth. Then, when they are faced with loss and with defeat, they put the blame on God, Whose wondrous Name, they have dragged through the mire and the filth of this defiled age! 
They have no use for the truth and the purity and the Sovereignty of God! They only want those things that they can achieve with the means of the attachment Jehovah’s Name. They only consider God as useful to their own ends and as the scapegoat for why they fail to achieve anything of lasting value in the short course of their time on this earth. 
	As Isaiah points out, directly from the mouth of the Lord, He will have none of it! They can offer all the sacrifices they want. They can voice all the correct words. They can pray and pray and pray, but God will not listen to them. He will not allow His Name to be abused without the severest of consequences! He does not tolerate those who think they can make their lives better through all the work of their own hands without the actual submission and repentance and obedience to God, Himself!
	This is where many of us may find ourselves if we intensely scrutinize the course of how we have lived our lives to this point. Be very aware of the fact that all our motivations and all our reasons for this and for that are open and revealed without any shadow of hiding before the Lord. We can argue and we can put forth all manner of excuses for the way in which we have abused our relationship with God, but none of it will stand the test of His Holy and Righteous examination of the deepest recesses of our essential beings! 
	What is really the reason that we do the things that we do on this earth? Whom do we truly serve as we come before the assembly of the saints of the Lord? Consider very carefully the reasons that we pray, that we tithe, that we sing those songs of worship, that we say the words that others hear! How many times are we in danger of bringing before God and His church those sacrifices of worship which will never be accepted by God because of the pride of our hearts and the abomination of our minds? What is the genuine reason that we find ourselves using the Name of God as a talisman as we seek after the vile cravings deep in the innermost tissue of our beings? 
	Oh that we would …"Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless; Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow. 
That we would heed the call of the Lord to …"Come now, and let us reason together," Says the Lord, "Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool. "If you consent and obey, You will eat the best of the land…
	The Prophet further continues with this line of consideration throughout this Book. There is the constant beseeching of the Lord to change the course of how we, His people, conduct ourselves on this earth! We are to come before the Lord in humbleness of mind and spirit. We are not to bring our haughtiness in the recounting of all those things and efforts that we have put before the Lord through the work of our hands. 
We are to surrender our lives unto Him! We need to listen to Him! We must learn to obey Him! We are to cast aside all those goals and aspirations which flow forth as the means of elevating ourselves! Rather, we need to seek Him to elevate Himself in lives that are fully dedicated and consecrated unto Him!
	Again, hear the caution of God, succinctly in Isa 58:3+4. This is to us as we put before Him those elements of our spiritual life which are only for the showcase of what we think He would like to see in us, rather than the fruit of His work in us.   
	Isa 58:3+4, 'Why have we fasted and Thou dost not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and Thou dost not notice?' Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire, And drive hard all your workers. "Behold, you fast for contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high. 
	We need to be very circumspect and searching the core basics of our spiritual life. So much of what we try to do in the House of the Lord is only a smokescreen for our truest intentions of making things better for ourselves on this earth. We want the blessings of God, not for the purpose of returning them unto Him in multiplied measure. We crave them in order to make our lives smoother and easier and enriched with the worldly desires of our hearts. 
We try to manipulate God into being our Heavenly Sugar Daddy, for lack of an even baser manner of expression! We do not bring before Him our best, but reserve it for the ease of our time on this earth. Rather than coming unto Him to give, we are here for what we can get, how it will benefit the defiled manner of our selfish and corrupt motivations.
	The Prophet Malachi highlights exactly the heart that many of us have, when we are completely honest and with ourselves and the Lord. Please open to Mal 1:6-14, so we can ask the Holy Spirit to reveal anything that might be so true of you and me as we come into the presence of the Lord as His people on this earth.
	Mal 1:6-14, "'A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?' says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. But you say, 'How have we despised Thy name?' "You are presenting defiled food upon My altar. But you say, 'How have we defiled Thee?' In that you say, 'The table of the Lord is to be despised.' "But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil? Why not offer it to your governor? Would he be pleased with you? Or would he receive you kindly?" says the Lord of hosts. "But now will you not entreat God's favor, that He may be gracious to us? With such an offering on your part, will He receive any of you kindly?" says the Lord of hosts. "Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you," says the Lord of hosts, "nor will I accept an offering from you. "For from the rising of the sun, even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations," says the Lord of hosts. "But you are profaning it, in that you say, 'The table of the Lord is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food is to be despised.' "You also say, 'My, how tiresome it is!' And you disdainfully sniff at it," says the Lord of hosts, "and you bring what was taken by robbery, and what is lame or sick; so you bring the offering! Should I receive that from your hand?" says the Lord. "But cursed be the swindler who has a male in his flock, and vows it, but sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord, for I am a great King," says the Lord of hosts, "and My name is feared among the nations." 
	Oh, how often have we come unto God with less than the best of our hearts and beings to present to Him offerings and sacrifices that only represent the pitiful measure of our consideration of Him? Know the lack of honor that we present when we come to the assembly of the saints with tired bodies and spirits! When we are filling our minds with those things of this age, maybe not vile in themselves, but not focused on the awesome power and reality of to Whom we are presenting ourselves as His living sacrifices! We engage in those thoughts of lunch after church or the chores that we need to still get done today. Maybe we even just skip coming to church to seek after the delights of the day as we see them in our mind’s eye. 
	We can read this plea from God through Malachi and declare that the Children of Israel were so corrupt in the manner in which they had perverted the testimony that they were to be unto the world, but they are us! We are fully shown in this horrible description of not honoring God as we should! 
	We need to hold to the truth that we are to ask the Lord to make us His people with a heart after Him. We dare not looking at the works of our hands as any means of showing others how spiritually mature we think we are! We dare never try to manipulate God to do our bidding! 
Rather, we are to lay down our entire essence unto Him for His will to be done in us. We must beseech the Holy Spirit to bring forth, from the innermost depths of our beings that worship, that praise, that sacrifice of honor and adoration that the Lord God Almighty, Alone, deserves! 
	"For from the rising of the sun, even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations," says the Lord of hosts…"But cursed be the swindler who has a male in his flock, and vows it, but sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord, for I am a great King," says the Lord of hosts, "and My name is feared among the nations." So be it and amen!

This morning’s benediction is Rom 1:16+17. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "But the righteous man shall live by faith." Amen.