Wednesday Night Service 7PM -1 Chron. 13-15 - Pastor Ryan

All right. You can go ahead and mute me again. I'm going to tune up. I did stick one in case of emergency for me in there. So welcome to the back door church. Hopefully that doesn't mean anything that I don't know that it means. Good to see you all this evening. Glad you all made it. You want to stand with me and I'll open up in a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, I just thank you for God giving us some time just to set aside to just focus on you and just reflect on everything that's going on in our lives and to hear from your word and to sing praises to you, God.

Lord, I just pray that you would meet us here. God, I pray that you would just help align our hearts to yours. God, that we would that you would just soften our hearts and that we would just have your ears to hear. I pray that. All the songs that we sing this evening would just be a sweet sound to your ears in your name. You can be seated for a minute if you'd like.

God, I just thank you that no matter what we're going through, God, you're there with us and you will never fail us.

Lost without hope with no place to begin. Your love made a way to let mercy come in. When death was arrested and my life began.

Ash was redeemed. Only beauty remained. The orphan heart was given a name. The morning grew quiet. My feet rose to dance. When death was arrested. I just thank you for washing away our old nature, God. Our nature where we just wanted to be in sin. God, I just thank you for not just washing the outside of us, but washing the inside of us. And making us new and letting us start over with a clean slate.

God, I just pray that with Pastor Ryan this evening as he's proclaiming your word, God, that it would just pierce straight to our heart. I pray that your spirit would be here with us. God, just give us wisdom and understanding of your word and your name.

Good evening. Well, we're making it, right? It's a little bit complicated tonight, but you all made it in here. So, to the, what do we call it, the backdoor church? Is that what, I like that. Feels like a very modern, feels like a very modern term for a church. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of 1 Chronicles chapter 13. 1 Chronicles 13. We're going to cover again quite a bit of ground tonight, but these chapters very much flow together.

And really they all, all three of the chapters, the chapters that we're going to cover tonight have to do with the return of the ark of the Lord. Just to build a little bit of background. Of course, the ark of the covenant was the visible representation of God amongst the people. As a matter of fact, within the text tonight, at least in some of the translations, it calls it the ark of the name, which is kind of interesting because it was to be that representation of God's presence with the people.

It was where they sought the Lord. The mercy seat sat on top of that. And so that was where they were to seek the presence and the name of the Lord. Well, if we were to go all the way back to 1 Samuel, and we're not going to, but you might in the margin of your Bible next to 1 Chronicles 13 there, you might write 1 Samuel chapters four through six. 1 Samuel four through six, because that tells a story that introduces where we are tonight.

Because in 1 Samuel chapter four, the children of Israel had gone into battle. And the battle wasn't going very well. So they decided to go to the battle. They decided they would bring their good luck charm, not the name of the Lord, but the good luck charm in their mind, which is the ark of the covenant. And they take this ark into battle against the Philistines.

And of course, God was against the children of Israel at this point in time because they had been living in sin. They needed to repent of their sin. And so God caused them to be given into the hand of the Philistines. And the ark of the covenant fell into the hand of the Philistines. It was captured that day. As a matter of fact, it was in that moment when Eli the priest,

the one who Samuel served, when Eli the priest heard that the ark had been captured, he fell over backwards in his chair and ultimately died of a broken neck from falling out of his chair. And that was when Samuel began his rule, if you will, as the prophet of Israel. Well, the ark had been captured by the Philistines and it lived amongst the Philistines for a few months, but they started noticing some issues. The first issue that they noticed is they put this ark of the covenant in the throne room of their God, Dagon.

And so the first thing that happens is that the next morning they come into their throne room of their God and the God Dagon is bowed down, if you will, it had fallen over in front of the ark of the covenant. So they stand it back up and it fell over again the next night. And this time it broke its hands off. And so they said, listen, this thing's kind of cursed.

We got to get rid of this thing. So they took it over to another city of among the Philistines. And there they started having both an issue with rodents and an issue with what they, simply called tumors, which most agree were some sort of massive hemorrhoids. So, which is, I think, one of the funnier portions of the, God has an amazing sense of humor. Listen, if you don't bow down to him,

he will become a major pain in your rear end, right? So, that's a terrible joke. So they decide we've got, after seven months of basically being tortured by this ark of the covenant, they're like, we got to deal with this thing. We got to get rid of this thing. How do we know if this is really like God doing this or if this is just happenstance? What do we do?

So they make up this plan. And the plan is that they've got to get rid of this ark. So they're going to put it on a brand new cart that is pulled by two young oxen who have never, or two oxen who have young calves. And so they decide if the oxen that have these young calves whose natural tendency would be to take care of their calves, if they continue walking and they walk away, they will know that this ark needs to go back to the children of Israel.

And that's exactly what happened. Two oxen, brand new cart, carries the ark of the covenant back to the children of Israel. But it doesn't go back to the tabernacle. It just goes to some random guy's house and he's being blessed by the Lord. And it stays there for years. It stays there all the way through the time of Samuel. It stays there all the way through the time

of Saul and his reign. And now we come to David being established in his kingdom. And he decides while he's established in his kingdom, it's time to bring the presence of God back to the nation of Israel. So that brings us to chapter 13, verse one. It says, Then David consulted with the captains of the thousands and the hundreds, even with every leader. And David said to all the assembly of Israel,

if it seems good to you, and if it is from the Lord our God, let us send everywhere to our kinsmen who remain in all the land of Israel, also to the priests and the Levites who are with them in their cities with pasture lands that they may meet with us. And let us bring the ark of our God back to us. For we did not seek it in the days of Saul. And all the assembly said that they would do so for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people.

So David assembled all Israel together from Shihur of Egypt, even to the entrance of Hamath to bring the ark of God from Kirath-Jerim. David and all Israel went up to Baala, that is Kirath-Jerim, which belongs to Judah, to bring up from there the ark of the God of the Lord who is enthroned above the cherubim where his name is. David has this fantastic idea. And he does the right thing.

He consults with the leaders of the people. And he says, if it's from the Lord, and if you all seem to agree, we should bring the ark of the covenant back. And they all say, that's exactly what we should do. That's a fantastic idea. It's time to bring the ark of God back to where it belongs. Remember, David had established his capital in Jerusalem. That's where he's going to set up the tabernacle.

And he says, let's bring it back where it belongs. That's a great idea. And so it presents this ark. And I just love, if you're an underliner, I love what it puts in the end of verse six there, where it says, the ark of the Lord who is enthroned above the cherubim where his name is called. This is such a beautiful thing that he wants to do because he wants to bring back the presence of the Lord.

He wants to bring back the opportunity for the people to call on the name of the Lord the way that God had intended it to be done. Everything that he wants to do is right. It's right in the eyes of the people. It's right in the eyes of the Lord. It's the right thing to do. There's only going to be one problem. And that comes to us in verse seven.

Now, those of you that have been with us for a little while when we went through the book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, you remember there was a specific way that the ark of the covenant was supposed to be carried. And it did not involve a cart. It didn't involve oxen. It involved the Levites. And it involved the poles that would go through the holders, the sockets that were on the side of the ark

because no one was supposed to touch the ark. No one was supposed to touch it because that was a holy sacred thing. The only one who could even really go into that presence was supposed to be the high priest because it dwelt in the holy of holies. And so it was supposed to be treated in a very consecrated sort of way because again, this is the presence of God among the people.

Only what does David use? He uses a cart. Why did David use a cart to haul the ark of the covenant? Because it's what he saw the Philistines do. See, there's one major problem that David has. What he wants to do is the right thing. It's good in the eyes of the Lord. It's good in the eyes of the people. He sought wise counsel about what he wanted to do. He did not seek wise counsel on how he needed,

but he sought wise counsel on how he needed to do it. Because what he should have done is he should have taken the law of God, which by the way, every king was supposed to write down a copy of. He should have taken the law of God, researched it and said, Lord, how do you want the ark to be carried? What is the right way for us to go about this? What is the right way for us to handle this?

Because what we find here is that David wants to do the right thing, but he does it in the wrong way. He wants to do the right thing, but he does it in the wrong way. And I want you to notice the consequences of doing this. He's doing it the wrong way. It says in verse eight, David and all of Israel were celebrating before God with all of their might, even with songs, with lyres, with harps and tambourines,

cymbals and with trumpets. And when they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzzah put out his hand to hold the ark because the oxen nearly upset it. And the anger of the Lord burned against Uzzah. So he struck him down because he put out his hand to the ark and he died there. Before God. We have to understand that when we do not do things the way that God wants us to do them,

there are consequences. And sometimes those consequences are detrimental. We are reminded of a truth and that's that everybody wants the presence of God, but not everybody wants to surrender to God. Everybody wanted the presence of God amongst them. They wanted the ark of the covenant to be amongst them, but they didn't want to surrender to God in seeking how he would do it.

In seeking how he wanted that to take place. Everybody wanted the presence of God among them, but they didn't want to surrender to God in the way that he wanted things to be done. Everybody wanted the presence of God, but they didn't want to surrender to the holiness of God and realizing that in a sinful man, you are unapproachable to God. And so they wanted the presence, but they didn't want to surrender.

And so Uzzah, thinking he's doing a good thing, again, doing the right thing, but doing it the wrong way, reaches out his hand to steady the ark. You can kind of picture it in your mind, right? Like you can kind of picture the cart rolling along and it maybe hits a bump and all of a sudden the ark starts to do one of these things because it would have been top heavy. Remember, there's two angels sitting on top of this thing.

There's a statue of two angels on top of this thing. That's the mercy seat. And it starts to tip one way and then it starts to tip the other. And his natural instinct was to go, whoa. And before the word whoa could come out of his mouth, he was dead. Isn't it interesting? That it was the very mercy seat that killed him. Because we are reminded of another truth here.

Jesus, who is our mercy seat, will be one of two things for us. He will either be our savior or he will be our judge. If we don't approach him in the proper way, he becomes our judge. If we approach him in humility, the way that his word wants us to, he becomes our savior. And in this way, this is what Uzzah finds out. And here is David. David, who is left with the consequences of his decision.

I want you to know how he responds. It says in verse 11, then David became angry because of the Lord's outburst against Uzzah. And they called that place Perez Uzzah, which means outburst against Uzzah to this day. The second thing it says is that David was afraid of God that day, saying, how can I bring the ark of God home to me? And the third thing it says is,

so David did not take the ark with him to the city of David, but took it. He took it inside to the house of Obed, Edom the Gittite. David was angry. David was afraid. David abandoned the mission. Why? Because he did not seek the Lord. He wanted to do it his way. He did the right thing the wrong way. And when God's consequences fell, who did he blame? He blamed God.

He was angry with God. He was scared of God. He abandoned the mission of God. All because he did not first seek God. And so the ark is taken to this guy's house, this guy, Obed, Edom, and we should know what happens in verse 14. Thus the ark of God remained with the family of Obed, Edom in his house for three months. And the Lord blessed the family of Obed, Edom

with all that he had. Again, there's a beautiful thing to pay attention to here. And the beautiful thing to pay attention to is that in the presence of God, there's always blessing. When you truly seek the presence of God, and you do it in a proper way, there's always blessing that comes from it. And so that sort of ends off the story of his first attempt to take the ark there.

And then we've got a three-month time period. And all of a sudden now, chapter 14 doesn't have anything to do with the ark, but it does have to do with this three-month time period. And I want you to notice some learning that takes place on the part of David in this three-month time period. It says in chapter 14, verse one, it says, Now Hiram, king of Tyre, sent messengers to David with cedar trees, masons, and carpenters to build a house for him.

And David realized that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and that his kingdom was highly exalted for the sake of his people, Israel. Now I love this because David has abandoned the mission. He was angry with God. He was scared of God. But listen, God was not done with David. Even though David had an area of weakness in his life, we're gonna read about,

one more area of weakness in just a moment. Even though David had an area of weakness in his life, God was not done with David. And can I just say, after you read a chapter like chapter 13, it's really good to read the first two verses of chapter 14 because we are reminded that just because we make mistakes doesn't mean that God automatically says, I'm done with you. It doesn't mean that God automatically says, that's it, I can't use you anymore.

You have made too many mistakes because even though he did it the wrong way, his heart was still to obey God. And God was gonna use these, the next three months in the life of David to get him back on track where he needed to be, to get his heart lined back up with seeking the Lord, to get him back where he was fully surrendered to what God wanted. But there's gonna be one more area of mistake that we see in David's life. It says in verse three, then David took more wives at Jerusalem and David became the father of more sons and daughters.

And these are the names of the children born to him in Jerusalem. Shemua, Shobab. Those are terrible names, by the way. Nathan, Shemua may win. That's probably not how you say it, but that's how I say it. And it's fun to say. Say it to yourself later, you'll smile. Ibhar, Elishua, El-Eppelet. Not sure I said that one right either. Noga, Nefeg, Japhia, Elishama, Beleda, and the other guy.

So he has all of these sons, but the real problem comes in that third verse. David added to himself, more wives. Again, we see a little bit of an issue in the life of David. It's gonna be an issue in the life of David that's gonna be magnified in the life of his son, Solomon. And that is the adding of wives. Now, I'm gonna point something out to you about this

because I always get questions about this and I try to address it every time it comes up. How on earth could David be called a man after God's own heart? If he added so many wives, if he was a polygamous individual, how could that be a man after God's own heart? And it's a big question. It's a big question. And rightfully so, especially young women come to me

and they have this issue. As well, they should. We have to understand something. God is always patient with us in our weaknesses. We need to know that. Just like he's patient with you in your weaknesses. I always say the culture at that point in time was that men added wives, especially kings. That didn't make it right. As a matter of fact, while he is in direct violation of God's law,

and I'll tell us about that verse in just a moment, he is acting like the culture around him. And I always have one question for people that say, how can God be okay with this? I always say, what do you suppose in our culture do we excuse that God is not okay with? What do you suppose that 100 years from now, people will write about our culture and say, how could they say that they're Christians when they allow fill in blank here?

You know why we can say that we're Christians? Because we are Christians. We are not saved by our works. We are saved by God's grace. And God's grace is enough to not only correct us when we're wrong, but to continue to love us when we're wrong. And what God is so good at doing is allowing natural consequences sometimes to play themselves out. Because while God allows David to continue to be king,

he also allows the natural consequences of his decisions to take hold in David's life. And you see that the longer it goes in David's life. And the Bible is so good. It's presenting not only the victories of its greatest men and women that are used by God, but also the greatest failures of the men and women that are used by God. And it gives the rest of us hope to know

that if God can continue to use David, in spite of the fact that he violated a specific command of God, which by the way, again, if you want to write this down, Deuteronomy chapter 17, verse 17, is the specific place where it specifically says, when you get a king, he is not to multiply. He is not to multiply wives unto himself. God was very specific about this. And this was a direct violation of God's law.

And yet God still called David a man after his own heart. Just like with you and the weaknesses that you have in your life. And God can still say, they're one of my kids, even though they have areas of their life that I'm still working on them in. And so David unfortunately has this area of weakness in his life and God in his mercy actually allows some of these sons to be the ones that will go on.

To be the ones who continue the kingdom, specifically the sons, Nathan and Solomon. So we pick up in verse eight, it says this. Now, when the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, all the Philistines went up in search of David and David heard of it and went out against them. And when the Philistines had come and made a raid in the valley of Rephaim, David inquired of God saying, shall I go up against the Philistines and you will give them into my hand.

And the Lord said, the Lord said to him, go up for I will give them into your hand. So they came to Baal-perazim and David defeated them there. And David said, God has broken through my enemies by my hand, like the breakthrough of the waters. Therefore they named it Baal-perazim and they abandoned their gods there. So David gave the order and they burned them with fire.

Here's what I love about this is that the Philistines have heard that David is the king, right? And he's one of the guys who fought them the most. And they're like, let's see what we can do. What can we do to absolutely wipe out one of our greatest enemies? And so they bring the fight to David. And you know what I love about David? When they bring the fight to him,

he brings the fight right back. Did you notice that? It's a great line here. It says, when the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king, they went up in search of David and David heard of it and he went out against them. Sometimes I think we allow too much of the fight to come to us and we don't take enough of the fight to them. Sometimes I think we allow too much of the fight

to come our way and we're not ready and willing to launch a counteroffensive. I think one of the most unfortunate things about the church today is we have become scared to ask questions. We have become the ones who are scared to ask, well, what if somebody asks me a hard question? Listen, you've got the hardest question that anybody ever has to answer and that's what are you gonna do with Jesus?

When did we stop taking the fight to the people? When did we stop asking hard questions? When did we stop asking things like, why do you think abortion is okay? Why do you think same-sex marriage, what do you might be able to do if somebody asks a hard question to you, why do you think abortion is okay? Why do you think that that's not a violation of what God has to say?

Instead, we shrink back and we say, but what if they ask me a hard question? They're going to ask a hard question of them. We have got to stop being weak as believers in Jesus Christ and realize that the very power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead flows through us, the very power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead is active in us, but in a spiritual sort of way where we say, you know what? I've got a question for you.

Why don't you answer one for me? Because I guarantee the minute that you do, they're going to have to think. And when the world has to start thinking, that's when you can start hitting them with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so he takes the fight to the Philistines. Only he does it the right way. Did you notice this? What did David fail to do with the Ark of the Covenant?

He failed to ask God, what's the right way for me to do this? But now that the Philistines have come against him, this is how God's using this three months in his life. Now that the Philistines have come against him, what does he say? Lord, do you want me to go against them? Are you going to give me victory if I go out to battle against the Philistines? Brothers and sisters,

one of the greatest things that we can do is to take direct, specific requests to God and say, what do you want me to do in this moment? What do you want me to do in this situation? How do you want me to handle it? And then wait and see what God has to say. Wait and see, Lord, what do you want to do with this? Because sometimes I think we say, I'll pray about that,

and then we move forward with whatever we want to do. Because we didn't really want to pray about it. What we really wanted to do was God to approve it. Instead of saying, Lord, what do you want me to do? You see, David had learned that if he wants the presence of God, he's going to have to learn to surrender. He's going to have to surrender to God. And so he learns this lesson in a very important way.

And God says, go, I'm going to give them into your hands. And not only does he give them into his hands, but they abandon all of their idols. And again, if you're an underliner, I think this is a really important thing for us to pay attention to. He burned all of their idols. You know why I think that's important? Because what is the issue that the children of Israel

have always had? Idolatry. What makes David a man after God's own heart? The fact that he is willing to burn all of the idols. He's willing to burn all of the idols. He's willing to burn them all down because he doesn't want anything to be between him and God. So he wins this first victory. And you think, yay, battle's over. Verse 13. Then the Philistines made yet another raid in the valley.

Again, this has to be said. Brothers and sisters, there is no such thing as the enemy's going to be done with you on this side of eternity. We just got to know that. There's always going to be another fight. God will give you periods of rest. God will give you moments where you can catch your breath. That's kind of what happens in between these two battles.

But you just need to know another battle's coming. That's one of the biggest lessons I've learned in ministry is that when one battle's over, there's another one coming. And the period of rest that God gives me, the period of respite that God gives me is to prepare me for another battle. And this is what happens with David. And the reason I tell us this is because we have bought into an idea

as a Western culture church that our lives are supposed to be easy. We've bought into an idea as a Western culture church that we're supposed to have paradise on earth, right? One famous preacher always says, you can have your best life now. Listen, if you want your best life now, then you don't get it in eternity, right? Jesus is pretty clear about that. You can either have your best life now

or you can have your best life in eternity, but you can't have both. And so we have to understand that the battle's always coming our way, but the victory is always ours in the Lord. And so another battle, another battle's coming, another raid takes place. And I love it. David's learned the lesson. Verse 14, David inquired of God again. Could we just say that that's an important phrase

for us to use in our lives every day, that we inquired of God again? And so David again inquired of God. And God said to him, you shall not go up after them. Instead, 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 go out to battle. For God will have gone before you

to strike the army of the Philistines. And David did just as God has commanded. And they struck down the army of the Philistines from Gibeon, even as far as Gezer. I love this because David so wisely once again says, if I ask God for the wisdom the first time and he gave it to me, I should probably ask God for wisdom. I should probably ask God for wisdom the second time

and he'll give it to me. And this time God says, I'm really glad you asked because I want you to do it different this time. Listen, if there's another thing we really need to learn as the church is that sometimes God wants to do things different. You know how you kill a church with one statement. That's how we've always done it. That's how you destroy a church.

That's how you stop a movement. That's how you stop growth. That's how you get rid of it. That's how we've always done it. Because you know what you find in scripture? God is never doing it the same way twice. God is always changing things. If you read the miracles of Jesus, he healed blind people at least three different ways. God's always doing something new.

I just read this in Isaiah here recently. He says, behold, I am doing a new thing. Do you not see it? Because that's what God's always doing. That's why we've always got to stay tuned into the Holy Spirit. We've always got to stay tuned into God because God's like, yes, I'm going to give you victory, but I'm going to do it different than I did last time. I'm going to do it a little different.

I'm going to do it a little different. I'm going to do it a little differently than I did the time before. Here's what I want you to do this time. And this is, again, where you've got to stay tuned into the Holy Spirit. Because if God says, I want you to do it differently, we have to hear the whole plan. Can you imagine if David didn't hear the whole plan? God just said, I want you to do it differently.

He's like, got it, different plan. And he goes off and does his own thing. He finds himself defeated because he didn't do it the way God wanted. He had to hear the whole thing. This time, circle around behind them. Wait till you hear the sounds of the marching and the balsam trees. And then you'll know that I've given them into your hand. Brothers and sisters, we've got to stay tuned in

with what the Holy Spirit has to say and everything that he has to say. Because he'll lead us step by step if we'll allow it to happen. And that's what he does. And so David did, again, if you're an underliner, you might just underline this front of verse 16 there. David did just as God commanded him. He did just as God commanded him. Oh, I think he's almost ready to bring the ark back.

It says in verse 17, and then the fame of David went out into all the land. And the Lord brought fear of him on all the nations. Chapter 15, doing things the right way. Now, David built houses for himself in the city of David. And he prepared a place for the ark of God and pitched a tent for it there. And then David said, no one is to carry the ark of God but the Levites.

For the Lord chose them to carry the ark of God and the ark of God. And the Lord chose them to carry the ark of God and to minister to him forever. You know what else David did, I think, in these three months? Not only did he learn the lesson that he'd better seek God for everything that he does, every decision that he makes, every step that he takes, he's gonna have to seek God's direction for it.

I think he also got into the word. He got into what God's law had to say because he said, I was scared of God. I was angry with God. I abandoned the mission of God. But now I need to figure out where I screwed up. I screwed up with God. And the only way you can figure that out, the only way you can figure it out when you have blown it big time is to get back into the word

and let the word not only be the mirror for your soul, but also the light that guides. Because do you notice what he said? So first of all, he's got blessings with those around him because he's building houses for himself and a place for the ark. And he builds kind of his own version of the tabernacle there in Jerusalem. And then he looks at them all and says,

it's time to go get the ark of God. It's time to go get the ark. Only this time, only the Levites can carry it because they're the ones who've been chosen by God to bear the ark. He goes on from there to say, David assembled Israel at Jerusalem to bring up the ark to its place, which he had prepared for it. And David gathered together the sons of Aaron and the Levites,

the sons of Kohath, Uriel, the chief of 120 of his relatives, the sons of Merari, Asaiah, the chief of 220 of his relatives, of the sons of Gershom, Joel, the chief of 130 of his relatives, and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shemaiah, the chief and 200 of his relatives, and the sons of Hebron, Eliel, the chief and 80 of his relatives, the sons of Uziel, Amminadab, the chief, and 112 of his relatives. And David called for Zadok and Abiathar, the priests, and for the Levites, for Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab. And he said to them, you are the heads of the fathers' households of the Levites. Consecrate yourselves before the Lord, you and your relatives, that you may bring up the ark of the Lord God to Israel,

to the place that I have prepared for it. Now he's on the right track. He says, I've got the right people in place. But now it's time that you are the right kind of people in place. Because if you're going to be the ones that are going to carry the ark, you need to consecrate yourself. There was not only physical, washings that were supposed to take place for the Levites,

but there was ultimately spiritual washings that needed to take place for them. Sacrifices, abandoning of sin, purity in their lives. Because if they are to bear the presence of God before the people, then they need to be the right people to bear the presence of God before the people. And so they not only need to be the right ones, but they need to have the right hearts and be prepared for it.

So he says, consecrate yourselves before the Lord. Then notice what he says. Next in verse 13, he says, Because you did not carry it at first, the Lord our God made an outburst against us, for we did not seek him according to the ordinance. You know what we call that? We call that repentance. We call that repentance. You see, David took that time to search his own soul,

to search God's word, to find out, what exactly went wrong. Listen, there's going to be moments in our lives when we will do the right thing the wrong way, or quite frankly, we'll just do the wrong thing. And we'll see the consequences of what's taken place because of doing the wrong thing. And that consequence that we go through will first of all cause us probably to be angry.

And then perhaps that consequence will cause us to be scared. And then perhaps that consequence will cause us to say, I don't want anything to do with it for a little while. But then the best thing that you can do in that moment is go, okay, Lord, it's you and me now. Where did I go wrong? What have I done wrong in my life? Where am I wrong? Because we have to understand something.

If there's a choice between us being wrong and God being wrong, it's always going to be us. And so we need to dive into God's word and let it reflect the truth of our hearts. Let it reflect the reality of who we are and let it be the cleansing that begins to take place. I was just reading in John chapter two this morning. Jesus goes into the, when he goes into the temple,

he sees all of the money changers and all of the things taking place. And you know what Jesus did with the temple? Jesus took a whip and he cleansed that thing. He drove out the money changers. He drove out the animals and he took care of all of those things. And it made me think, you know who we are? We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. And sometimes, sometimes there's some things in us

that have gone wrong. And the best thing we can do is say, Jesus, it's time for you to come back. It's time for you to come back. It's time for you to come back. It's time for you to come back. It's time for you to come back. It's time for you to cleanse the temple again. I don't care if you have to make a whip. I don't care if you have to flip over some tables

or clean the temple because I don't want there to be anything between me and you. And this is what David did in those three months is he took time for God to cleanse his own temple so that he could know exactly what was to take place. And in a repentant, humble sort of way, he says, we have to do it the right way because that's the reason we got in trouble the first time. The first time is we didn't do it the way God wanted us to.

And you have to appreciate anytime someone is willing to repent and say, this one was on me. We didn't do it the way God wanted us to. And so he says, because of that, God broke out against us. And so verse 14, so the priests and the Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel. And the sons of the Levites carried the ark of God

on their shoulders with the poles thereon as Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord. Oh, there's more of that homework that he had done. More of that homework to say, Lord, how did you want that ark to be carried? Not on a cart, not with a bunch of oxen. That's the way the Philistines do it. No, I want you to use the poles that were set apart.

I want you to slide them through those rings so that nobody touches the ark. And I want you to do it as I commanded Moses. Because God's pretty specific about those commands. And so they carry the ark of the God the way that it's supposed to be done and what she knows what it says in verse 16. David spoke to the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their relatives, the singers,

with the instruments of music, harps, lyres, loud sounding cymbals to raise sounds of joy. So the Levites appointed Heman, the son of Joel. I love that the worship leader's name is Heman. That just feels right. And from his relatives, Asaph, the son of Berechiah, and from the sons of Merari, their relatives, Ethon, the son of Cushiah, and with them their relatives of the second rank,

Zechariah, Ben, JZL. Why can't it be more like Ben? Uni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maasi, Mattathiah, Eliph, Elihu. I think I said that right. The rest of those guys. And so the singers, Heman. I just love that guy. Asaph and Ethon were appointed to sound to sound a loud cymbals of bronze. You expect a guy named Heman to play cymbals. And Zechariah. Zechariah, Aziel, Shemirameth.

Those guys all tuned to Alamoth. And the rest of those guys all sang music. Verse 22. Chinaniah. That's a tough one. Chief of the Levites was in charge of the singing. He gave instruction in singing because he was skillful. And Berechiah and Elkanah were gatekeepers for the ark. And the rest of those guys were gatekeepers for the ark. And so it was. David with the elders of Israel and the captains over thousands

who went to bring up the ark. The ark of the covenant of the Lord from the house of Obed-Edom with joy. I love that the way that David had this led was with the worship leaders. Because what a beautiful way to usher in the presence of God than with praise to his name. It's interesting when you start looking through the children of Israel and what God did through the wilderness to bring them into the land

and different battles and things like that. And you find just how many times the worship leaders were who led the whole thing. When they crossed the Jordan River it was the priests who were singing praises to the Lord. When they marched around Jericho it was the priests singing praises to the Lord. When they bring the ark back it's the priests or the Levites singing praises to the Lord.

And I just think that there's something kind of interesting about the fact that every time something wonderful happens when they're ushering in the presence of God whether it's through a victorious battle or whether it's through the bringing in of the ark what ushers it in is that singing praises unto the Lord. There is just something about that that truly sets our hearts right when we sing praises unto the Lord. There's something powerful about music. Can we all agree with that?

Like it's amazing how a song can get stuck in your head. I was singing a song from the Trolls movie earlier, believe it or not. The one that says hair up and I don't know why because I don't have any. But that's what I was singing anyway. It was in my head. And it's amazing how songs get stuck in your head because music is powerful. Music is powerful for evil because the evil songs get stuck in your head.

But music also... It's amazing how a praise song can so set your heart right when those lyrics hit you with that with the music that carries it that space from your head down to your heart it just takes that truth of God's word and impacts your life through it. And there's just something powerful about it. And I don't know if that's because I grew up in the home of a worship leader or if that's just because it's all over scripture or maybe a little bit of both.

But it's kind of amazing. How often times God leads things off with praise. And it has caused me to think about something today. How often is your home filled with praise? How often is your life filled with praise? Because it's kind of amazing how when you fill your life, when you fill your home with praise, how it has a tendency to change the tone of everything that goes on.

I've talked to several people in the last about three months that have said, I just sent a spirit of oppression. Or I sent some demonic feeling of some things going on. And the first thing that I always tell them, well, I always tell them three things. Number one, you should be praying over your house. You should be praying over areas and even maybe anoint your doorpost with oil.

I don't get too crazy with it, but I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think it's a really good thing to do. Walk through your house and pray over it. Second thing I tell them to do is you should read God's word out loud. You should walk around your house reading God's word because it's just powerful. The word of God is like a sharp two-edged sword.

But the third thing you should do is you should just play praise music in your house because it's amazing how that just invites that extra measure of the presence of God. God's with us everywhere, but it invites that presence in. And you can just sort of feel that, that presence of the Lord when praise is what fills your home. And this is what happened with these Levites.

This is what happens with these guys. You can imagine what this procession would have been like, full of joy, right? So you've got the Ark of the Covenant of God in the middle and you've got all of the worshipers, all of the worship leaders out front. And they're not just kind of playing music. These guys are banging cymbals. They're, I don't know what a liar is,

but they're playing harps and all this crazy stuff, right? You just have a worship team out in front of this whole thing going crazy. And everybody's excited. And alongside of them is David. Notice what it says, verse 26. Because God was helping the, oh, excuse me, verse 25. So it was David with the elders of Israel and the captains over thousands who went to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord

from the house of David. From the house of Obed-Edom with joy. Because God was helping the Levites who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. They sacrificed bulls and seven rams. And David was clothed with a robe of fine linen with all the Levites who were carrying the Ark and the singers and Shaniah, the leader of the singing, with the singers.

And David also wore an ephod of linen. Thus all Israel brought up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord with shouting. And with the sound of the horn and with trumpets and with loud-sounding cymbals, with harps and with lyres. And there's David. And we read in another account that David was literally leaping and dancing before the Lord. And this linen ephod. Now, we don't think too much about that.

But basically, David took off his kingly robes. He wasn't like undignified in that. He was in his underpants or something like that. But imagine he's just in a plain old pair of shorts and a t-shirt, right? Here's the king of Israel. He took off all of his robes. He took off all of his royal robes. And he's dressed just like the average person. Because he's just an average man in the sight of God,

praising God with all of his heart. Because he doesn't care what anyone has to say. He has one goal and one goal only. And that is to sing praises to his Lord because he's bringing the presence of God back into the city. And isn't it amazing how when we do God's thing, God's way, and we're living in obedience, that it sets us free to praise God with all of our hearts.

And this is what happens. This is what happens with David. And man, what a great day. I want to be able to watch this scene when we get to heaven and be like, hey, let's replay that and see how all of this plays out. But unfortunately, there's one bad thing that happens. And it happened when the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord came to the city of David. That Michael, the daughter of Saul,

looked out the window and she saw King David leaping and celebrating. I don't know why he's always clicking his heels in my mind, but that's how it looks. And she despised him in her heart. I think we have to know something. There's always going to be a critic. There's always going to be somebody who sees you getting really serious in your walk with Jesus and maybe becoming a little bit undignified in your worship.

I love that statement that David uses in 2 Samuel when they bring the Ark back and Michael gives them a hard time. And she says, my, wasn't the king very dignified in the way that he handled himself today? And David looked at her and said, I'll become even more. I'll become even more undignified than this. I just love that statement. It's like, you ain't seen nothing yet, right?

David Crowder had a great song where he says, I will become even more undignified than this. Some may say it's foolish. It's a great song. And I just imagine David being like, listen, we're going to keep doing this thing. And when you allow yourself to really, truly be surrendered to God, whether it be in your worship or in the way that you obey him, there's always going to be someone who says,

aren't you getting a little bit radical about this? And when you allow yourself to really, truly be surrendered to God, and when that happens, you'll have a choice to make. You will either allow that spirit of criticism to dampen your spirit, or you allow that spirit of criticism to inflame your spirit, to get you a little bit more excited. And like David say, listen, I'm going to become even more undignified than this.

You ain't seen nothing yet. I pray that we don't have those critical spirits in this church, that when we see somebody really praising God with all of their heart, we don't just come and say, what are you doing here? You're acting a little silly here, aren't you? But instead that we say, man, I love seeing you get excited about your walk with Jesus. I love seeing you become

what the rest of the world will call radical because you are fully surrendered to your savior. And so we now see him do the right thing the right way. And next week, when we get into chapter 16, we'll see them dedicate that tabernacle and that ark to the Lord. But for now, let's bow in prayer. Father, go for you. And I just thank you for your word and Lord,

I thank you for your presence here among us. And so Lord, I pray that we would find ourselves fully surrendered to you at every part of our lives. Father, that we would not hold any part of ourselves back. And Lord, if there are areas where the temple needs cleansed, that you would cleanse the temple of our hearts so that there's nothing that stands between us and you.

So that we, like David can say not seeking you as what, God got me here. So from now on, we're going to do what you say. Become even more dignified in our praise to you. And so father, move in our hearts. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed.