Today I wanted to talk to you about Idolatry of the heart. Specifically from 1st Samuel 7. The Israelite people had just gotten the Ark of God back from a disastrous defeat by the Philistines. The leadership had also changed from Eli the High Priest to now Samuel a judge and priest over Israel. God had called Samuel to bring the people from their backsliding into the loving arms of their God once again. He told them that "if they would return to the Lord with all their hearts, and put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among them, prepare their hearts for the Lord and serve Him only; that God would deliver them from the hand of the Philistines, their longtime enemies.