Good evening to Calvary Chapel and those watching online, we welcome you. Father, we thank you for this opportunity this evening to come and worship in song and to study your Word. To all the activities here in the chapel this evening, we thank you so much, Lord, that our hearts in turn that we may minister to one of the foundations of the world.

You sent your Son, Jesus, to fill out the plan to die for our sins, and then the Holy Spirit to keep us, to seal us in that salvation. And so we're living here on this earth, serving you and walking with you until that day you take us home to be with you. May we be faithful servants, looking for your coming, as it could happen any time, but serving as if you will do it at a later time that we obviously have no idea. It could be quick, it could be later, but you will come and we thank you.

In Jesus' name, we ask for your anointing on Pastor Line as he comes up and teaches your Word by your Holy Spirit. Speak through him and give us ears to hear and hearts to perceive, Lord, what you have tonight. In Jesus' name, amen.

Good evening. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of 2 Samuel, chapter 5. 2 Samuel, chapter 5, when last we left David, everything was in position now for him to become. He became the king of all of Israel. He'd been ruling over Judah for about seven and a half years. And Joab, excuse me, Abner, decided it was time to make a pact with David, to make a

covenant with him because of false accusations that had come down from Mishposheth. And he said, you're the rightful king. It's time to surrender to what God has done here. And of course, there was that terrible plot that Joab had against Abner and Joab murdered Abner in a terrible turn of events. And yet still the situation. The situation was in place for David to become king.

And so tonight in chapter 5, we see that take place for David. And so I've entitled the message tonight, Good King David, part 1, because really this middle section of 2 Samuel carries a lot of the really good things that David did while he was king. And so the first thing that we see in chapter 5 is we see David anointed as king over all of Israel. It says in chapter 5, verse 1.

Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron. And said, behold, we are your bone and your flesh. Previously, when Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel out and in. And the Lord said to you, you will shepherd my people Israel, and you will be a ruler over all Israel. So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant

with them before the Lord at Hebron, and they anointed David king over Israel. David was 30 years old when he became king. And he wrote, So the elders of Israel, they had already made this decision with Abner, but now it was time to put into place what they had decided to do. And so David meets with them and they say, hey, listen, first of all, you're one of us.

God has already made you the leader. You were already the natural leader. We just want to recognize you. We just want to recognize what always has been taking place and what God has done in your life and make you king over all of Israel. And so they anoint him there. And it's interesting to take note of how old David was when he became king, because David was 30 years old when he became king.

Interestingly enough, Jesus was 30 years old when he started his earthly ministry. I don't know if there's anything magical about the age of 30, but it seems like it happens that way several different times in scripture. Of course, he reigned for seven and a half years over just Judah and Hebron. And for another 33 years, he'll reign over all of Israel for a total of 40 years.

And really, despite some mistakes that he made, it was a wonderful rule and reign that David had over the land of Israel. But you may have noticed that it said, where does he reign from? He reigns from Jerusalem. And so the second thing that we see in this chapter is we see Jerusalem conquered. It says now, verse six, now the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites,

the inhabitants. And they said to David, you shall not come in here, but the blind and the lame will turn you away, thinking David cannot enter here. Nevertheless, David captured the stronghold of Zion, that is the city of David. And in just a moment, he'll tell the story of how that took place. But I want to point something out to you. Jerusalem is kind of an interesting place.

As a matter of fact, I just listened to a teaching by David Jeremiah about Jerusalem. If you have the chance to listen to it, I would encourage you. Listen to it. It's Jerusalem, the golden city, I think. You can just look it up on YouTube and watch it. That's what I did. Actually, I went to his website and watched it. A great teaching. But he talks a lot about Jerusalem because Jerusalem is such a key city in the land of

Israel, such a key location for the time of the Bible because David will establish the capital of Israel in Jerusalem. Jesus, of course, will ride into Jerusalem at one point in time as the suffering servant. He will be crucified. In Jerusalem, he will rise again. In Jerusalem, he ascended from just outside of Jerusalem, and we're told that that's where he will return to.

So it's a pretty fascinating city, and this is where we see it become actually a part of Israel's territory, one that they had actually conquered back in the book of Joshua when the land was being allotted to the tribes. We're told that Jerusalem was given to the tribe of Judah, and at first they were able to conquer it. But it says that the Jebusites were determined to be there, and they drove out. The inhabitants of Judah, and they remain there to this day.

That's the commentary that we're given in Joshua. As a matter of fact, if you want to write in the margin of your Bible, Joshua 1563. Joshua 1563, that's the kind of reference to that place where he says that. And so they were unable to drive out the inhabitants from Jerusalem. Now, Jerusalem was absolutely built to be an impenetrable city. It not only had walls around it, but it sits higher than any other location in Israel.

So it's a perfect spot to defend, which is why any time that you read in Scripture about them going to Jerusalem, it always says they went up to Jerusalem, because whether it was north or south, it sat higher than any other city in all of Israel, and so they always went up to Jerusalem. So it made it a very difficult place to conquer, not only because the Jebusites were determined to be there, according to archaeology, apparently the Jebusites were some of the oldest inhabitants, some of the original Canaanites, the oldest inhabitants of the land. Not only were they determined to be there, but it was a difficult place to take over. It was a difficult place to be able to wage war against because of its situation.

It's kind of interesting because if we look at some spiritual parallels here, if we draw a little bit of spiritual application here, we can start to kind of think of some areas in our lives, can't we? Areas in our lives that we might call, just like the writer of 2 Samuel does, we might call them strongholds. Areas in our life that are determined to stay there. Areas of perhaps sin, maybe failure, maybe weakness in our lives that are pretty determined to live in the land because they're the oldest part of who we are.

They're the oldest part of our flesh, the oldest part of our nature, and they're pretty determined to stay there. And because of their determination and because they seem to occupy this high place in our lives, they seem like they're impenetrable by nature. Can we all agree with that? Sometimes we have those areas. Maybe for you it's some sort of a life-dominating sin.

Something. Something that you've dealt with since you were a teenager and you just can't seem to overcome. Maybe it's some aspect of anxiety in your life that you feel like is never going to be done away with. A worry that you always hold on to. Maybe it's depression for you. Whatever it is, we all have these areas that are like strongholds in our lives. And those strongholds do exactly what the Jebusites do here.

They say, you shall not come in here. The blind and the lame will turn you away. In other words, the weakest of our members. And the city of Jerusalem can get rid of you guys. We don't have to worry about you. And that's what these strongholds tell us in our lives, right? They say, no matter how hard you try, you're never going to be able to get rid of us. No matter how hard you try, you're never going to be able to overcome this.

I will always be a stronghold in your life. Can anybody relate with that? Well, I want you to notice what happens. It says in verse 8, David said on that day, Whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him reach the lame and the blind who are hated by David's soul through the water tunnel. Therefore, they say, the blind or the lame shall not come into the house.

So David lived in the stronghold and called it the city of David. And David built all around from the millow and inward. David said, you know what? You may look like a stronghold. You may think that you are indefeatable. You may think that your city is impenetrable. But I'll tell you, I can always find a way. As a matter of fact, there's a water shaft that we can find ourselves climbing up.

And we will absolutely come in and take you out. And you will be exactly who you claim to be. Those that are weak and can never drive anyone out. And that's what Jesus does for us. Jesus takes those strongholds that we think are impossible, that we think are impenetrable, that we think we can never overcome. And he says, in your eyes, you may not see a way,

but I can always find a way. I can always find a way into that stronghold. I can always find a way in to defeat that. I can always find a way in to overcome that. And even though the inhabitants of Judah for years and years and years could not drive out the Jebusites because they were determined to be there, David, an Old Testament picture of Jesus, he finds a way.

And he finds a way to drive them out. And not only does he drive them out, but he inhabits the city and builds a structure. And he goes on to call it the city of David. Isn't that great? And so I don't know what stronghold it is that you have in your life. I don't know what it is that you feel like, hey, this is established itself and I'm never gonna overcome it.

I'm never gonna be able to deal with this. This is just something I'm gonna have to live with. The inhabitants of the land are determined to be there. This habit is determined to be there. This worry, this fear, this anxiety, this depression, whatever it is, it's determined to be there. And I just have to decide to live with it. Jesus wants you to know he will always make a way.

He will always make a way to overcome that. And when he makes a way to overcome, not only will he defeat the enemy, but he will call it the city of Jesus. And it will belong to him. And it will be a place where he will find his greatest glory, amen? And so that's what David does here with the city of Jerusalem. He drives them out, drives out those inhabitants.

And then I want you to notice what it says in verse 10. It says, And David became greater and greater, for the Lord God of hosts was with him. And then Hiram, king of Tyre, sent messengers to David and cedar trees and carpenters and stone masons and the city of Jerusalem. And he said, And they built a house for David. I love verse 10. Matter of fact, if you're an underliner,

I have this underlined in my Bible. You do whatever you want to do. But I think it's a great verse to underline because it gives us a little bit of a summary of the life of David. Because it says, David became greater and greater. I want you to take note of one word that's in there. And that's the word became. That would indicate that for David, it was not just a one-time thing for him.

It was a process that he was actually going through in his life. It was a process that began as a shadow of God. As a shepherd boy. Continued on as a warrior. Continued on as he was anointed king. Continued on as he became the king over Judah. Continued on as he became the king over all of Israel. And now as a king over all of Israel, he continued to become greater and greater

because it was a process that he was going through in his life. I tell us that because I want to always keep in mind that you and I are in the midst of a process. We like to think that there's going to come this point that says, this happy point in our life where it's like, hey, we've arrived. And it's just going to take one thing and then, oh, that'll be it, right?

And then we'll go riding off into the sunset with our Bible and our wife and everything's going to be perfect, right? And no, you're in a process of becoming. You're in a process of becoming who God wants you to be, of becoming greater and greater. Becoming greater and greater in your relationship with the Lord and in the position that God has you in your life.

But the thing that will allow you in this process, the thing that will work in you in this process of becoming greater and greater is the same thing that did in David's life. Because did you notice what made David become greater and greater? It says, for the Lord God of hosts was with him. The Lord God of hosts was with him. Oftentimes when that phrase, the Lord God of hosts is used,

it speaks of God as a warrior. It speaks of him as the one who leads in battle because the hosts speak of the armies of God that are alongside him. And the reason why David was able to become greater and greater and greater in his life, greater and greater and greater as king and even greater as a psalmist and in his relationship with his God is because his God was with him everywhere that he went. The Lord God of hosts was with him.

And I will remind us that that's true for you and I as well. Again, it's been a little bit of a scary week. Can we all agree with that? There's been some kind of crazy things that have gone on over the last about seven days. We've seen a hurricane, absolutely decimate parts of our country and continue praying for those people. But sometimes when you see those things

and you realize the power of these things, you kind of go, wow, that was one big rainstorm and it took out entire towns. I think the scene that got me, well, two scenes got me the most. Both of them had to do with things floating away. The one is where I saw a U-Haul truck floating down a street. And I thought, well, that's not normal. That shouldn't be able to happen

in Asheville, North Carolina. And then to top it all off, I saw a house completely get lifted off of its foundation and float away. And I thought, what must that be like? And sometimes you see those things and you can kind of go, oh man, that's kind of scary stuff. And then we saw an unprecedented attack on Israel yesterday. I was listening to a thing by Amir Sirfati today.

If you have a chance, go look him up on YouTube and watch his update today. It's kind of fascinating. But he said, it is the most ballistic missiles that have ever been unleashed. On one country in the history of planet Earth. His words, not mine. The most ballistic missiles ever. And the most ballistic missiles that have ever been shot down by a country in the history of planet Earth.

Right? You know why? Because the Lord God of hosts is with them. Just like that same God is with us. And he's with us. We don't have to fear all these things. And it's easy to fear. And then all of a sudden, the dock workers are like, hey, you know what? We don't want to go to work today. We want to strike. I have no idea where they're striking. I've not looked up enough to know

if it's a validated strike or not, but it's happening. To which the rest of the economy is probably going, hmm, well, that's not good. Right? And so all of these things happen. And you go, oh, no, I'm a little bit nervous now. I don't need to be scared. Because the Lord God of hosts is with us. And he is becoming, or he's continuing to help us become greater and greater

in our walk with Jesus Christ. And we can find ourselves resting in this Lord God of hosts. Because I'm reminded of what Jesus did when the wind and the waves were tossing the boat around and the disciples, and the disciples were saying, and they were going, aren't you scared we're going to die? Do you remember where Jesus was? He was asleep. You know why? Because those things don't stress him out.

The things that stress you out don't stress God out. Because the Lord God of hosts is with us. And we can rest in that. And he continued to make David greater and greater. So great that Hiram, king of Tyre, one of the neighboring nations just to the north, sent all kinds of stone masons and woodcutters and lumber, and they built a house for David. Right? So I'm not saying anyone from Winfield

is going to come down here and build you a house. I'm just saying I think that's really cool that God did that for David. So it says in verse 12, and I love this too. I underline this too. Again, let the spirit lead. And David realized that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and that he had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.

I love this because it's like there's this moment for David where he kind of sits back. And we talked about this last week, what it must have been like. What it must have been like. What it must have been like. What it must have been like. What it must have been like. What it must have been like. What it must have been like for him to sit back and go, wow, the thing I've been waiting for

for over 15 years now is finally taking place. And he could just kind of glory in this, kind of bask in this for just a moment, right? Sort of just let the reality of it sink in. And as the reality of it sank in, the writer of 2 Samuel says that what David realized was is that this was what the Lord had done. That this was God's work. And I love that because

how many times in our lives can we sit back and we can say, that was God's work. How many times in our lives can you sit back and you can look back and you can say, I am where I am today because God did this. I am where I am today because God was at work in the midst of this. And that's what David did. It's almost like he kind of sat back and said, this was God at work

in the middle of all these things. He's the one that did this. And he knew that God had made him king over his people of Israel, not David's people of Israel, but God's people of Israel. Because God will always make sure that his people are taken care of. So it goes on from there to say, unfortunately, the weakness in David's life. Meanwhile, David took more concubines

and wives from Jerusalem. He'd come from Hebron and more sons and daughters were born to David. And these are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem. I don't know if I'm gonna say these right or not. Shemua, which is a great name, by the way. Shobab, maybe better. Nathan, Solomon, Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Jophia, Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphaz. They let, I think Shobab wins in that whole thing.

I don't think I said that right, but it sounds good to me. Now, meanwhile, war with the Philistines. When the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to congratulate David. Nope, not what it says. All the Philistines went up to seek out David. And when David heard of it, he went down to the stronghold. Again, sidebar, we need to realize something

about the enemy that we face. Because I think the Philistines represent a whole lot of the enemy that we face today. Because the Philistines heard that David had become king. And so they decide it's time to go attack David. It's time to go take him out. The ancient enemy of the Philistines, right? David, who had killed one of their greatest warriors. David, who had pretended to be on their side

and then ultimately went back to the other side. They want to kill David. And I'm reminded of something. Sometimes when God does his greatest work, the enemy comes at us as strong as possible. Sometimes when things are going better than you can imagine, the enemy comes in harder than you can imagine. With great success comes great opposition. And sometimes we can rest in that.

You ever had things going really good in life and man, like God's just working, things are clicking on all eight and you're just like, if God's at work, why do these things keep happening? Because God is at work and the enemy wants to destroy you. I watch it happen all the time. I think I've shared this with you before, but I remember one of the very first times I ever taught at a youth camp up in Bethany, Missouri.

And God blessed and it was a great time and we had a great time. And we had a great time. And we had some kids really be moved in their walk with the Lord. And I come back to work on that Monday and it was one of the worst Mondays I'd had in years. And I remember going over to the youth pastor's house because that's where we had youth group and college group.

He said, how are you doing, Ryan? And I said, not good, man. Probably one of the worst weeks I've ever had in my life. And he goes, yeah, I probably should have told you. I said, told me what? He goes, when God uses you greatly, the enemy comes after you mightily. And I was like, yep, that's pretty true. That's what happened. And that's what happens to us. So you can rest assured that when God's at work,

the enemy wants to come against you as well. And so that's what happens. So they come to seek after David and David finds himself in the stronghold of Jerusalem. It says, now the Philistines came and they spread themselves out in the valley of Rephaim. And then David inquired of the Lord saying, shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hands?

And the Lord said to David, go up for I will certainly give the Philistines into your hand. So David came to Baal. Baal, Perazim and defeated them there. And he said, the Lord has broken through my enemies before like the breakthrough of waters. Therefore, he named that place Baal, Perazim. Now, David, of course, uses the source of his strength and he seeks the Lord.

Every time David is doing what he's supposed to do, every time he's clicking on all eight cylinders, when something happens, the first thing he does is he seeks the Lord and says, do you want me to go out? Do you want me to go attack the Philistines? And God says, go, I'm with you, I'll defeat you. And so he does, he defeats the Philistines. And I want you to notice what he names it.

He names it Baal, Perazim, which literally means the God of breakthrough, or the master of breakthroughs. The master of breakthroughs. Matter of fact, it may even say that in the margin of your Bible. If there's a little letter next to you, Baal, Perazim, take you down to a little footnote, probably says master of breakthroughs. Isn't that great? And I love that that's what he calls God.

In that situation, he calls him the master of breakthroughs because that's who God is. God is the master of breakthroughs. You need to be able to break through whatever situation it is, and God is always the master of that. He's the God of your breakthrough. You're like, oh man, I just gotta break through this situation, break through this thing, break through this block that I have.

And that's what God's the master of. He's so good at that. Well, the Philistines aren't done. It says they abandoned their idols, and so David and his men carried them away, and the Philistines came up once again, and they spread themselves out in the valley of Rephaim. When David inquired of the Lord, he said, you shall not go directly up. Circle around behind them,

and come at them in front of the balsam trees. And it shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then you shall act promptly. For then the Lord will have gone out before you to strike the army of the Philistines. And then David, did so just as the Lord had commanded, and struck down the Philistines from Geba as far as Gezer.

Now, I love this, because the Philistines come at him again. Why do I love that? Because have you ever noticed that every time you have victory, you think, oh, finally, I'm done with that. And then the Philistines come after you again. Have you ever noticed that? It's almost like they just don't give up. I was reminded as I was reading this about Jesus and his temptation,

when he went through those 40 days of fasting in the wilderness, and then he faced the temptation of the enemy. And as he faced the temptation of the enemy, he fought against the enemy with the word of God. He used God's word to defeat the enemy in that situation. It says the enemy departed. But do you remember what else it says after the enemy departed? Until a more opportune time.

Because listen, Satan is never gonna give up. Your flesh is not gonna give up. There's always gonna be another battle, and that's okay. Because every new battle that comes up is a new opportunity for God to show himself faithful on your behalf. Now, there was a real danger for David. And that was for him to think, here's the Philistines again. I'll do what I did before.

Because we like to formularize God. Have you ever noticed that? Well, this is what God did this time, so this is what he's gonna do every time. You know, it's kind of like, well, God spoke to me in my devotions, and I was sitting in this chair, and I was holding this cup of coffee, and I had my feet up just like this, and I had my Bible in my lap. So I know if I want God to speak to me,

I have to sit in this chair, holding this coffee cup, putting my Bible in my lap with my feet up just like that. Because we think God's always gonna work the same way every single time. It's a little bit of a basic example, but that's kind of what we tend to do, right? Well, Lord, I've seen this situation before. I've seen this tree before. I bet this is what you want me to do.

Only here's the thing about God. God's always doing something new. And he always wants to do things in a different way because he doesn't want us to put him in a box. He doesn't want to be formularized. Have you ever noticed how many different ways Jesus healed people in the New Testament? He was always doing things different, right? Like, some people, when they were being healed of maybe blindness,

he touches their eyes. One time he spit in a guy's eyes. I never would have wanted to be that guy, right? Ah! One time he spit on the ground in the middle of the mud and wiped it on the guy's eyes. One time he sticks his fingers in a guy's ear. That's my favorite one right there. He's just like, boing! The guy can hear, right? He uses all kinds of different ways.

Why? Because God never wants to be put in a box. And in the world that we live in, where there's three easy steps to growth in Jesus, sometimes I think Jesus, sees some of the books in the bookstore and he's just like, that's dumb, right? And I think that's exactly what he says. He's like, eh, probably not. Probably I'm gonna do it different this time. Because that's what God likes to do.

And we can't ever think, this is the way God's always done it, so this is the way he wants me to do it again. No, we have to see God fresh every single time. Every single situation that comes up, we need to see God afresh and say, what do you want me to do this time? What do you want me to do with it this time? Because God had a different plan. David seeks the Lord,

and God says, this time what I want you to do is I want you to circle around behind. And when you hear the marching, the sound of marching, and the tops of the balsam trees, then you'll know that I have gone out before you. I think the reason why God did that is he wanted to remind David of who was actually bringing the victory. It was the Lord God of hosts.

Because most rabbis say, and every conservative Christian commentator says that we don't know if this is true or not, but this is what the rabbis say, that the sound of the marching and the treetops is none other than the angels themselves going out before them in battle. Now, I found it interesting that I heard that from so many different Bible teachers over the past two days, because when I was watching this thing by Amir Sirfati today, he went on and on and on about how the angels of God had to have been at work yesterday in the defense of the nation of Israel. Because do you realize that an unprecedented amount of rockets were sent into the nation of Israel and there was only one casualty and it was a Palestinian man who refused to take cover?

That's it. That was the only casualty. You know why? Because God had gone out before them. The sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees. Because that's what God does. He said, when you hear that, when you hear that sound, you'll know that I, I have gone before you. I don't know that we always fully grasp the spiritual war that's going on around us.

I don't know that we always fully grasp the work that God is doing in that spiritual realm around us. But let us never grow weary of fighting on a spiritual plane because that spiritual battle is always at work. I always tell people one of my favorite stories is about Elisha. And there was an enemy army that continued to come against the nation of Israel. And Elisha would go tell the king,

this is where they're going to attack. And the king would meet them and be able to defeat the enemy army. And finally, the king of the enemy army says, who of you keeps telling my plan? And they're like, it's none of us. It's Elisha. He knows what you're gonna do before you do it. He knows what you say in your bedroom. That's basically what they say. And so he says, well then let's go get Elisha

because I'm tired of dealing with it. So he sends his army against Elisha and they surround Elisha. And they surround Elisha's house. And Elisha's servant comes out and says, we got a problem. Do you see the enemy army all around us? And Elisha goes, it's really not that much of a problem because there's a lot more on our side than there are on their side. And Gehazi looks at him and he goes,

I don't know what kind of girl math you're using right now, but that's not true, right? And so Elisha goes, hold on. Lord, would you open his eyes to see the forces of heaven all around us? And God opens his eyes and he sees the host of the angels all around him. He says, like I said, there's more of us than there are of them. We need to remember that that spiritual battle's going on

and keep fighting on that spiritual plane. He says, when you hear the top, when you hear the marching in the tops of the balsam trees, know that I've gone out before you. And when God went out before him, David went in and they won the battle because David obeyed the Lord. And so wonderful things that we see there in chapter five, but now we move on to chapter six.

Not bad things, just not doing things maybe the way we were supposed to. It says, now David gathered all the chosen men of Israel, 30,000, and David arose and went with all the people who were with him to Baal Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name, the very name of the Lord of hosts who is enthroned above the cherubim. So David decides it's time to move the ark back to Jerusalem. If you remember all the way back in 1 Samuel, the children of Israel had gone to battle and as they went to battle against the Philistines, it wasn't going very well.

Eli was high priest at the time and God was judging the nation of Israel, in particular, the household of Eli because of the sins that he had allowed to take place. And so they said, the battle isn't going very well. Let's take the ark into battle and maybe our good luck charm of the ark will help us out. Only, even though they took the ark into the battle, the God of the ark did not go into battle with them.

So they lost the battle and the ark ended up in the Philistine hands and that's that great story of the fact that Dagon kept falling over and first his arms fell off and then his head fell off and then people were getting tumors. They were getting really terrible hemorrhoids. It was a real pain in the rear end for them and there were rats everywhere. And so finally they're like, get rid of that thing.

And so they put two oxen that have never been, or two oxen whose calves were over here crying. They tied them to a cart and they put the ark on there along with a bunch of golden hemorrhoids. It's the funniest thing in the world. And golden rats and they send it off. And finally it goes back to this house in Israel and it stays there, right? And so the ark has been away from the tabernacle

all this time. All this time the ark hasn't been there. So David says, you know what? We have a good capital for Israel. We have a good capital for Israel now. The city of Jerusalem, let's bring the ark. And I love what he refers to the ark, what it refers to the ark as. It says to bring up, middle of verse two, from there the ark of God which is called by the name.

I don't know why that really stuck out to me. It just did. The fact that it says which is called by the name. They don't even say the name of God there. They just say the name. It says the very name of the Lord of hosts. Who is enthroned above the cherubim. The ark of God. The very symbol of the presence of God amongst the people. The very thing that God promised,

I will dwell above the cherubim in that most holy place. He says, let's bring it back to Jerusalem. It's a great idea, okay? It's a wonderful thing to make sure that everything is established the way that it's supposed to. But we're gonna find that there's one problem. Notice what it says. And they place the ark. The ark of God on a new cart that they might bring it to the house of Abinadab

which is on the hill. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab were leading the cart. And so they brought it with the ark of God from the house of Abinadab which was on the hill and Ahio was walking ahead of the ark. Meanwhile, David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord with all kinds of instruments made of fir wood with lyres and harps and tambourines, clarinets.

and cymbals. But when they came to the threshing floor of Nican, Uzzah reached out toward the ark of God and took hold of it for the oxen nearly upset it. And the anger of the Lord burned against Uzzah and God struck him down there for his irreverence. And he died there by the ark of God. And David became angry because the Lord's outburst against Uzzah. And that place is called Perez Uzzah to this day.

So David was afraid of the Lord that day. He said, How can the ark of the Lord come to me? And David was unwilling to move the ark of the Lord into the city of David with him. But David took it aside to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. Thus the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite three months. And the Lord blessed Obed-Edom and all his household.

Did you notice what David and the men put the ark on? They put it on a cart pulled by oxen. Where have we seen that before? Well, that's what the Philistines did. So they, if you will, copied the world in the way that they tried to handle the worship of God. Now, again, I think there's a parallel that needs to be drawn here to us today. We have to beware as 21st century Christians

who want to make sure that we make a church and worship palatable to the world around us that we don't take the ideas of man to worship God. That we don't say, but that's what the world does. So that's what the world does. So that's what the world does. That's what we need to copy in here so that we worship God that way. Because the problem with that is when you try to worship God

with the ways of the world, God's never honored. And when you try to worship God with the ways of the world, it always ends in faith being destroyed. And we see it all the time. Because people get led astray. They get led away from the truth of God. Because when we copy the ways of the world, we have to soften the stance of what God's word has to say. When we copy the ways of the world,

we have to pull back on the purity of the word. And we have to make sure that everybody likes it. We have to begin to focus, group test everything that we have to say. And that's just not really the worship of the Lord. Watch this clip by Francis Chan. And I'm not always a huge fan of Francis Chan. I know that's not always the right thing to say, but sometimes he's a bit much for me.

But this particular clip was kind of interesting. He goes, I'm always fascinated when people walk, walk away from worship and they say, I didn't really like it. He said, the funny thing is, we don't care if you liked it. We weren't worshiping you. And sometimes we do that, don't we? We go, you know, I really wasn't all that into worship today. I didn't really like the songs.

Bald guy talked too long. I just didn't really get into the worship service today all that much. And it's like, well, well then you missed the point. Because the point was not about you. The point was about God. Because the point of a worship service is to focus on God. And if you are too worried about it, then that means your focus is wrong. See, I don't make it about me.

We make it about God, right? Because that's who ultimately we want to worship. But you see, David and his men, they didn't seek what God wanted in this situation. As a matter of fact, again, you might write in the margin of your Bible, 1 Chronicles 15, 1 Chronicles chapter 15. Because in 1 Chronicles chapter 15, we see an even greater expansion of this story.

And in 1 Chronicles chapter 15, David says, God was upset with us because we did not seek him in his word. You see, David didn't seek how God wanted him to move the ark. He didn't seek how God wanted him to do it. He copied what the Philistines did. And what the Philistines did was put it on a cart. You can imagine how it went. We need to move the ark of God.

Okay, well, how are we supposed to do that? I don't know how to get here. Well, it showed up on a cart, a bunch of golden hemorrhoids and golden rats, on it. Well, let's leave those off. That seems weird. But I like the cart idea. But let's do it up big, right? Let's make it a brand new cart. We'll have the best of the carpenters make it. And we'll make sure that it's the best wood,

that it's painted as best as it can possibly be. And they will be the best oxen in all of the community. Matter of fact, let's make sure they're pure oxen. That feels like the right thing to do. No issues with the oxen whatsoever. Only the best for God. And nobody ever said, but is there a way we're supposed to do? Is this, does it say anywhere in the Torah

how we're supposed to do this? No, they were just like, seems like a great idea to me. Just like we can do sometimes, right? Kind of like we talked about last week. They did the right thing. They did it the wrong way. Because of that, Uzzah was put to death. And you go, man, that's such a simple thing. All he did was see the oxen start to do this. The cart starts to do this, right?

And he puts out his hand to steady it. And the moment he puts out his hand to steady it, he's put to death. Why? Because of his irreverence. You say, but the Philistines put the box on the cart. Matter of fact, they put a bunch of other junk on it too. Why weren't any of them struck dead? Because God expected less of the Philistines than he did of his own people.

Because his own people should have known better. With knowledge comes responsibility. So Uzzah's life was ruined, destroyed because of this. And then David gets all huffy, right? He's just like, why? Why would God have done that? Only in 1 Chronicles 15, we find that David finally realizes there is a blessing in the ark of God. And this was on me, not God. So notice what it says.

Now it was told King David, verse 12, saying, the Lord has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him on account of the ark of God. And David went and he brought up the ark of God from Obed-Edom into the city of David with gladness. With gladness. And so it was that when the, take note of this word, when the bearers of the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an oxen and a fatling.

The bearers of the ark, remember? The sons of Kohath, the Kohathites, were the ones that were supposed to do this. And they were to put the poles that were covered in bronze through there and they were to carry it the way that they were supposed to. And that's what you read in 1 Chronicles 15, that he found the right people to do it. The ones that Leviticus said were supposed to do it.

And he did it the way that God, his word said he was supposed to do it. And now he does all of the same things, only he does it the right way this time. He does all of the same celebration, but he follows the word and the way that he does it. And as he follows the word and the way that he does it, David goes massively over the top. And I love it because sometimes it's good to be over the top

in the way you worship the Lord. They'd go six paces and he'd sacrifice an oxen, a fatling. Real talk, how long did that walk take, right? I don't, I forgot to look up how many miles it was. I think it was three, five miles, something along those lines. Can you imagine how long that walk was? So when you leave here today, walk six paces and think, now I'm going to stop and sacrifice an ox and a fatling calf.

Don't actually do that. That's how we get ourselves in a whole lot of trouble. But just think, that's what they did. That was an all day affair, right? And so everywhere he went, that was what was going on. And notice what it says. So David, excuse me, verse 14. And David was dancing. He was dancing before the Lord with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod.

And so David and all the house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouting and the sound of the trumpet. And it happened as the ark of the Lord came into the city that Michael, the daughter of Saul, looked out the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord. And she despised him in her heart. So they brought in the ark of the Lord and they set it in its place inside the tent.

Which David had pitched for it. And David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. And when David had finished offering the burnt offering and the peace offering before the Lord, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts. Further, he distributed to all the people, to all the multitude of Israel, both to men and women, a cake of bread and one of dates and one of raisins to each of them.

And the people departed each to his house. Now I love this scene that we see with David here, right? When it says that David danced before the Lord with a linen ephod, it means he took off his kingly garment. He didn't want there to be anything between he and the Lord. He was not naked. He just, I think in the King James it says he just robed himself or something.

He took off his kingly garment so that he was just another one of the humble members of society. He was just one of the people of Israel that day. He was just a sheep and God was his shepherd. And it says that he leaped and he danced before the Lord. And usually there's one of two ways that we take this, right? So usually there's two reactions to worship. Some people,

some people make it all about emotions and they think we should be dancing in the aisles today. That's what we should be doing. There should be, there should just be absolute freedom and we should be dancing in the aisles. I don't know that I agree with that because the dancing that David did was in the proper context. It was probably very simple in nature because if you've ever watched a Jewish

dance, you know that there were particular steps that they followed. And, and it was something that he did before the Lord, but it was also something that everyone else was doing at that particular point in time. So I don't think that that means that we need to make a show. Of ourselves here. But, but some people make it all about emotions. But then to the other side,

some people say, no, no, we've got to just be very liturgical in our worship and emotion shouldn't be involved. It should be all about the knowledge of God. It's somewhere in the middle of that is the balance that we're supposed to have. We should not be ruled by our emotions, nor let our emotions be the thing that carries an entire worship service. However,

emotions have been given to us by God and it's okay to let them out. Sometimes clearly I'm okay with that. It's okay to let those emotions out. Sometimes it's okay to really let loose and let God know what's going on to, to really pour out our hearts to the Lord. Sometimes one of the greatest things you can do and surrender to the Lord is to forget everybody else's around you and to just really pour out your heart to the

Lord and worship. I actually think if there's one thing that we could probably do, it's that, that we could, we could tend to let our inhibitions down. Just a little bit every now and then throw those hands up in the air every now and then let that voice loose and let everybody in the world hear that you can't sing either and just really pour out your heart to the Lord. And I know that that looks different for everybody, but I think one of the greatest things we can do to truly express who we are in the Lord is just to let those inhibitions down.

Usually the reason why we don't want to do it is because we think somebody else will see me. But remember, it's not about who else sees you. It's about if he sees, he sees you. It's not about if you're going to be embarrassed in front of anyone. It's about whether or not your heart is really poured out to the king. And that's what David was doing. He poured out his heart in the fullest way possible to the king.

And he did so in a way that humbled him before everyone else and yet exalted the God that he loved with all of his heart. And he danced before the Lord and he leaped before the Lord. And I always have a question for anybody that wants to do that in the middle of it. If you're willing to do that in your own bedroom, then we can talk about you doing that here, but but maybe do it in your house first and then we'll figure it out from there.

And so he leaps and he dances before the Lord and notice what happens. It says, but when David returned to bless his household, Michael, the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said how the king of Israel distinguished himself today. He uncovered himself today in the eyes of his servant. He said, his servant's maids as one of the foolish ones shamelessly uncovers himself.

Remember when Saul gave Michael to David and he was like she'll be a stumbling block to him. I think this is what he meant. And so David said to Michael, it was before the Lord who chose me above your father and above all his house to appoint me ruler over the people of Israel. Therefore, I will celebrate the Lord and I will be more lightly. Esteemed than this and will be humble in my own eyes,

but with the maids of whom you have spoken with them, I will be distinguished and Michael, the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death. This is one of the places where I don't prefer the new American Standard translation. I prefer the old King James translation because David says I will become even more undignified than this. Ever thought about that in your worship of the Lord,

that sometimes it's okay for the rest of the world to think you look as undignified as possible when you're pouring out your heart to the one who created you when you're pouring out your heart to the one who keeps your heart pumping and keeps breath in your lungs on a daily basis when you're pouring out your heart and worship to the very one who has saved your soul that sometimes it's okay to become a little bit undignified and David said, I'll become even more undignified than this in your eyes, but in the eyes of everyone. Else I will be honored because I'm honoring the one true King. So God is really at work in the life of David. He has some things he's growing in, but remember,

he's becoming greater and greater because of the Lord God of hosts was with him. So let's close in prayer father. We come before you and I thank you for these examples and your scripture Lord. I thank you for your word and I pray that you would continue to use it in our lives to draw us near to you Lord with everything going on. We do want to pray for the peace of.

Jerusalem father. We want to lift up the nation of Israel right now and Lord as they are your chosen people. May you protect them with these things that are going on and Lord, would you be with our nation right now? Father be with us that revival would be poured out in this land so that we can be brought back to you so that we can be a people who honor you not only with our lips Lord, but with our hearts.

We just thank you father for who you are Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed. Amen.