The Conviction of the Presence // 1 Samuel 4-6 // People of the Presence Pt. 4

This week, Ryan Patrick Murphy shares a message from 1 Samuel 4–6 titled “The Conviction of the Presence.” Continuing the People of the Presence series, Ryan traces the Ark of the Covenant into battle and into the temple of Dagon. He shows that hosting God’s presence means walking with conviction, because we are hosting a holy God.

Ryan starts with Israel carrying the Ark into battle like a good-luck charm, borne by Eli’s wicked sons, and losing anyway. He warns against treating God’s presence as a superstition to sprinkle over our lives, or mistaking emotion for encounter. In his words, God is not your goosebumps. Drawing on A.W. Tozer and G.K. Beale, he argues that God’s kingdom is established through submission to His Word. Then comes the comic image of Dagon falling face-first before the Ark again and again. From it, Ryan names three idols that still rule our city: sex, money, and power. He calls each one to bow before Jesus.

Ryan anchors the sermon in the holiness of God. Holiness is not just one of God’s attributes. It is who He is. God doesn’t conform to a standard; He is the standard. So allegiance to Jesus can’t follow our own feelings and preferences. It has to follow His ways as revealed in Scripture. And because even God’s joy is holy, Ryan calls the church to a “happy holiness,” not a somber one. Freedom from lesser loves is the pathway to pure joy.

This sermon is an invitation to repent and run in the opposite direction. That might mean fleeing compromise, giving generously in secret, or choosing the lowest seat at the table. It also means finding two people to confess to, not for forgiveness, which is already ours, but for healing. Recalling Charles Finney and the Hebrides revival, Ryan casts a hopeful vision: a church so marked by God’s holy presence that the streets, classrooms, and workplaces of Boston feel it too.