David Acquires the Ark

Let's pray together Father, we thank you, Lord, for tonight, a chance to look once again into the perfect law of liberty And truly, Lord, it is perfect And truly, Lord, it does unveil for us the truth of Almighty God Today, Lord, tonight, may we truly be drawn closer to your presence, that no matter what the distractions may be from this day, they will be set aside to listen to the voice of our Lord as we examine this word together We pray this in Jesus' name Amen Second Samuel chapter six, second Samuel chapter six reads as follows Now David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, 30,000

And David arose and went with all the people who are with him to Baal Judah to bring up from there, the Ark of God, which is called the name, the very name of the Lord of hosts, who is enthroned above the Cherubim And they placed the Ark of God on a new cart, and they might bring it from the house of Abinadad, which was on the hill And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadad, were leading the new cart So they brought it with the Ark of God from the house of Abinadad, 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 firwood and with lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets, and cymbals But when they came to the threshing floor of Nikan, 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 And David became angry because of 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 And 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 Now it was told King David 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 brought up the Ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom into the city of David with gladness So it was that when the bearers of the Ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and fatling And David was dancing before the Lord with all his might And David was wearing a linen ephod So David and all the house of Israel were bringing up the Ark of the Lord with shouting and the sound of the trumpet

Then it happened as the Ark of the Lord came to the city of David that Michael, the daughter of Saul, looked out of 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 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, 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 the men and women, a cake of bread and one of dates and one of raisins to each one that all the people departed east to his house 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 servants, maids as one of the foolish ones, shamelessly uncovers himself So David said to Michael, it was before the Lord who chose me above your father

Above all this house to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord over Israel Therefore, I will celebrate before the Lord and I will be more likely 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 David acquires the Ark This is a fabulous story We just read it You understand a little bit about it You might not get all the, the, the, the, the details in it, but we're going to explain it to you this evening

There's two things I want you to see the first attempt and the second attempt to bring the Ark to the city of David This is David's second work since becoming king over all of Israel His first work was to capture the Jebusite city of Jerusalem, which he did And we talked about that last week That was the city of David That was Jerusalem That's a very significant city But now what he wants to do is he wants to bring the Ark of the covenant to this city Now that becomes very important because the Ark of the covenant was that box that was designed by God

Moses built it so that it would represent the presence of God to Israel So David having this city of David as king over Israel wants to bring the Ark that symbolizes the presence of God to the city It was about two feet by four feet by two feet with two golden cherubim, solid gold cherubim on top The top lid was called the mercy seat because on the day, on the day of atonement, when the Shekinah glory of God would come down in that holy of holies, then the high priest would sprinkle blood on that mercy seat

Because you see inside the Ark was the tablets of stone with the law of God written on them And what that did was demonstrate how the blood would satisfy the wrath of God against those who had broken the law of God And it began to symbolize not just the presence of God, but ultimately it would symbolize Christ Because inside that Ark of the covenant, according to Hebrews nine verse number four, there was the rod of Aaron that that budded There was a jar of manna and the tablets of stone representing Christ who came to fulfill the law, tablets of stone

Also the manna because Christ was the bread of life, the manna that came down of heaven to give true life and the rod of Aaron that budded representing new life Speaking of the resurrection of Christ, quite a symbol as to the identity and typology of Christ himself But David wanted to bring that Ark with him to Jerusalem, to the city of David Now, as you recall, that Ark was, was carried by the priest into the Jordan river, when Joshua and the children of Israel went to the land of Canaan

That Ark was set right in the middle of the Jordan and the Jordan dried up and all the Israelites walked across and they would use that Ark to walk around the city of Jericho, symbolizing the presence of God and the walls of Jerusalem falling down But during the time of the judges, there were some problems that erupted And then as they began to use the Ark as a little bit of a lucky charm, thinking they could take the Ark into battle with them, the presence of God into battle with them and therefore, therefore they would succeed in battle

So they would use the Ark as a little bit of a rabbit's foot kind of thing We got the presence of God, let's take the Ark into battle, we won't lose Lo and behold, the Philistines capture the Ark They lose the Ark And the Philistines, they take it and they put it in their temple And all of a sudden, their God, Dagon, falls over And they go in the next day and put his head back on, repair him And the same thing happens the next day Well, they become terrified of this Ark of the covenant So they move it around from city to city

And as they're moving it around from city to city, you can read about this early in 1 Samuel, that, uh, the pagans began to be sick Idols were toppled over They became fearful So ultimately, they would send the Ark away They would send it to Beth Shemesh And there, they would open the Ark and look inside And the Lord God killed 50,000 Philistines Wow They were deathly afraid of this thing We don't want it anymore We're gonna send it back to Israel They can have it So they took it to a place called the village of the, of the woods There it sat for over 50 years

Because Saul could care less about the presence of the Lord In fact, 1 Chronicles 13, 3 says that during the days of Saul's reign, he never sought for the Ark or the presence of God So there it sat But now we have a new sheriff in town We've got a new king It's David And David had a passion for God David had a love for his God Remember what it says over in Psalm 63? You know the verses Oh God, thou art my God. I shall seek thee earnestly My soul thirsts for thee My flesh yearns for thee

In a dry and murky land where there is no water, because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips will praise thee And all through Psalm 63, David would reiterate his passion for God And every one of us would know that, that David was a man after God's own heart And, and partly because of his passion, his drive, his desire to know his God, to live for his God, and to serve his God Right? And so David had a passion for God So what he wanted to do is get the Ark and bring it to the city of David Noble act Motives are pure His heart was right This is what he wanted to do

But there were several problems surrounding his ambition Holy zeal is a good thing But holy zeal without knowledge is a bad thing Romans 10 too, the Jewish people, they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge Right? Got a passion for God, but not according to the truth And whenever your zeal, your zealousness, your passion runs rampant without it being controlled by the truth of God's holy word, there will always become a problem And this story illustrates that

And so in the first attempt to bring the Ark to the city of Jerusalem, the Bible says in 2 Samuel chapter six, verse number one, David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, 30,000 You have to keep in mind what the Bible says in first Chronicles chapter 13, verse number one 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 Levites who are with them in their cities and pasture lands that they may meet with us and let us go bring back the Ark of our God to us for we did not seek it in the days of Saul. A noble ambition, but there was a problem And that is David consulted with the leaders, but he never consulted with God Remember when David last week in 2 Samuel chapter five, he would inquire of the Lord

The Philistines came out to the valley of a referendum and they, and they, and they wanted to fight against Israel So David went and inquired of the Lord, do I go out to battle and will I win? God says, go And yes, you will So out he went and he won They gathered together together together again He could have very easily went out and fought him again Why? Because he'd already prayed about it, but instead he prayed again He inquired of the Lord again and the Lord said, yes, I want you to go, but I want you to do it differently this time. I want you to go from behind, not from in front

So he inquired of the Lord He did exactly what God said, won the victory again You see, prayer is to proceed every act in our lives and is to accompany every act in our lives That's why the Bible says you ought to pray without ceasing, right? Prayer is interwoven in every aspect of our lives And David did consult the leaders of Israel And it's not wrong to consult with other people about a decision you might want to make concerning your passion and zeal and desire to serve God, but you can't do it excluding God And that's what David did

He did it excluding God because the Bible says in second Samuel six that they went and they got a new cart and they put the ark on the new cart That is, it was a brand new cart It was made specifically for the ark Nothing had been on the cart It was brand new, like a brand new truck It was, it was brand spanking new It was a new cart And they were going to put the ark on the new cart because that's what the Philistines did And they thought that putting the ark on the new cart would be the way to transport it because that's what the Philistines did

The only problem with that is that God said, that's not how you do it Turn back with me if you would to Numbers chapter four, Numbers chapter four, verse number four And God gives the instruction on how to carry the ark This is the work of the descendants of Kohath in the tent of meeting concerning the most holy things When the camp sets out, Aaron and his son shall go in and they shall take down the veil of the screen and cover the ark of the testimony with it And they shall lay a covering of porpoise skin on it and shall spread over it a cloth of pure blue and shall insert its poles

Verse number 15 And when Aaron and his sons had finished covering the holy objects and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, when the camp is to set out after the sons of Kohath shall come to carry them so that they may not touch the holy objects and die These are the things in the tent of meeting, which the sons of Kohath are to carry So what do we learn from that? We learned that the ark is to be covered We learned that the ark is to be carried with poles that are inserted on the side with the rings on the shoulders of the sons of Kohath They are the only ones who can carry the ark

Nobody else can That's God's instructions Nothing is said about placing it on a new cart and transporting it on a new cart But when you don't inquire of the Lord, no matter how sincere your passion might be to serve the Lord, you're going to be in for a lot of trouble if you don't follow the instructions of the Lord You see, one of the things about David is that he had a great zeal for God, but there are certain things he just forgot or just refused to obey The taking of the wives thing, that was an issue It always haunted him It will haunt him tremendously to the day he dies

This is another situation where he didn't go back and read what the law of God said, or either he did read it and just chose to ignore it We will see in the second attempt, he gets it right In the first attempt, his passion, his zeal caused him to forget about the instruction of the Lord This becomes pivotal in terms of what happens next Let me illustrate it for you this way People come to church and they want to worship the Lord They have a zeal to worship God, but they think they can worship God any way they want, and you can't You can only worship God his way

But people have all these newfangled ideas about worship God says he seeks two worshipers, John 4, 23, those who will worship him in spirit and in truth So in other words, worship, listen carefully, begins on the inside, in spirit, in the heart of a man, requiring a clean heart, requiring a consecrated heart, requiring a committed heart, requiring a cleansed heart, requiring a connected heart to God and God alone It requires a certain kind of heart Worship has nothing to do with being in the right place at the right time with the right people and the right music Those are all externals

You want to worship God, you worship him in spirit and in truth It all begins on the inside If the inside's not right, no matter what happens on the outside, it ain't right It's got to be from the inside out You worship God in spirit and in truth In other words, you can't worship God without the law of God Can't do it Without the word of God being preached And you can go to churches today where the word of God's not even open, and they call that worship Because they sang some songs that lifted their hands, and they cried a few tears, and they heard a few stories

They said, boy, we worship God today And I want to say, no, no, no, you didn't You didn't If God's word wasn't open, and God's word wasn't taught, and God's word wasn't expounded on, you can't worship him in truth And he demands you worship him in truth If your heart's not clean, if it's not consecrated, if it's not committed, if it's not right before God, you can't worship God Because you see, if it's right on the inside, it doesn't make any difference what the festivity looks like Doesn't make any difference what the music sounds like Because it all stems from what's on the inside

But we have all these people who think they come to worship God Because they come to a right place, with the right people, with the right atmosphere, the right music, they think that's worship And God says, I don't care how zealous you may be, how excited you might be about worshiping me, if you don't worship me in spirit and in truth, you haven't worshiped me at all That's just an example People in the church, they want to see people one to Christ That's a zealous ambition We want to see people one to the Lord We want to see people walking with the Lord

And so we will do whatever we can to gather them in, to make sure that they hear a message that's acceptable to them, that somehow they'll win, be won over to the gospel of Christ And all the while we put church on a new cart We put it on a new cart because it looks just like the cart that the Philistines walked around with, with the ark of God We put church on a new cart because that's what the world does And we want the church to look just like the world because that means the world will come to us, thinking that we're going to win the world to Christ, and you don't

See, it's so simply parallel when you understand the whole new cart thing in the Philistines, the pagan world David got lost in the new cart atmosphere We'll build a new cart That's what the pagans did They transported the cart all around and they seem to get by okay Let's do that So he consulted with his leaders That's a good idea Let's do that So they did And they went to the village of the woods and they got the cart and the ark and they put it on the cart And all of a sudden they began to cross over the threshing floor And the threshing floors have lots of grooves in them

And all of a sudden the oxen began to teeter a little bit and the cart began to teeter And Uzzah didn't want anything to happen to the ark of God that represents the presence of God He, like King David, had a pure motive He, like David, had a pure passion He, like David, wanted to do the right thing So what did he do? Don't let the ark fall So he goes up and grabs it He dies God kills him because God said in Numbers 4.15, you can't touch it If you touch it, you die That's what he did He died

And it just seems like, really, God, you got to do that? I mean, you have to kill the guy? I mean, his motives are pure He wants, he doesn't want the ark to fall and break and the taverns fall all over the place And then the gold beads, he doesn't want that to happen He's got a pure motive He's trying to do the right thing It's okay You got to kill him? I mean, come on, God, ease up But we forget God's a holy God He demands reverence and you best not seek to enter his presence in any way that's irreverent

And when you do something that violates his word, that's called irreverency and you deserve to die See, we forget about these things This is such a good chapter. I told you something This is good stuff Wait till next week It gets even better next week But this is good stuff because you see, it keeps you thinking, what am I doing? So get this This is where it gets really, really good Because remember verse five, meanwhile, David and all the house of Israel was celebrating before the Lord with all kinds of answers Boy, they're celebrating There's a big celebration going on

You know, they're singing songs They've got the tambourines They got the trumpets blowing They got all these things going on People are singing and everything And all of a sudden the cart begins to teeter and he moves the rugs up and stops and bang, boom, he's dead There goes the joy There goes the celebration Guy just dies right there And look what the Bible says Second Samuel chapter six, verse number eight And David became angry because of the Lord's outburst against Uzzah David was angry with God Imagine that He was mad He was mad

You know why he was mad? Because his plans had been thwarted His pride was hurt What am I going to do now? Here I am trying to do a good thing for God and this poor guy dies God, what are you doing? And he calls that place Perez Uzzah The Lord has broken through on Uzzah Remember last week he called it Ba'al Perizin, the Lord breaks through for me Because God had broken through for him and the goodness of God had came and the goodness of God had caused him to win the battle But now it's all about a memorial, not for the goodness of God, but for the holiness of God and the judgment of God

David's angry And what David did? He despised the chastening of the Lord What does Hebrews 12 say? Oh, by the way, who should have died? David David Not Uzzah David He violated Numbers chapter 4 So did Uzzah, but David led him in that direction David should have died, but that was the grace of God that allowed David to live It was the holiness of God that was exemplified in the death of Uzzah See that? And so what did David do? He despised the chastening of the Lord Isn't that what Hebrews 12 says? Brethren, do not despise the chastening and the discipline of the Lord

But have you ever found yourself doing that, getting angry with God because he decides to demonstrate his holiness and it goes against your plans and purpose? That you have erected in your own heart, even though they might be based on holy zeal, they might not be based on what God's word says And you become angry with God Let me illustrate it for you another way Turn me to book of Proverbs third chapter This is going to get rather really, really convicting So if you weren't prepared tonight in your heart to come, you're in for a heap of trouble Proverbs chapter three Verse number nine

This is what the Lord God says Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce So your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine God says, I want you to honor me with the first fruits That is when you first get paid, I want you to honor me. I want to be numero uno. I want your first check written to me, not your last check. I want your first check. I want you to honor me with the first fruits of your increase You wanted me for Samuel two 30 He wanted me. I will honor you Wanted me And I tell what I'm going to do

Your barns will be filled with plenty Your vats will overflow with new wine You will be blessed so incredibly that you won't be able to contain it all, but in a sovereignty of God, listen to the next verse Verse 11, my son do not reject the discipline of the Lord or loathe his reproof for whom the Lord loves He reproves even as a father, the son in whom he delights That's where the writer of Hebrews quotes from Proverbs chapter three And isn't it interesting? It follows honoring God with the first fruits of your increase

There are many Christians today, and maybe you're one of them who are being disciplined by the Lord because you have not honored God with the first fruits of your increase And you can be like David and you can get angry with God because you lost your job You can get angry with God because you have no money You can get angry with God because things just aren't working out financially for you You can get angry with God all you want, but God made a very clear promise in scripture You wanted me. I'll bless you You don't. I'm going to discipline you

And you better not reject the discipline of the Lord for whom the Lord loves He disciplines you He disciplines Folks, this is so crucial because the first verse says, verse 13, how blessed is a man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding for its profit is better than profit of silver and its gain than fine gold She is more precious than jewels and nothing you desire compares with her Long life is in her right hand In her left hand are riches and honor Listen, you're honoring me because you are being blessed, because you are adhering to the word of God

There is something more profitable for you than the money you hold in your hand And what is profitable for you is the wisdom of God, because the wisdom of God will bless your socks off It is life for you You must hold dear to me, God says Revelation chapter three says, those whom I love, I reprove and rebuke Repent therefore, God says If you're in that process of being chastised, being disciplined because you haven't honored the Lord, it best you repent now David didn't do that David just was mad He was angry He was mad at God God thwarted his plans

God stopped him from doing what he wanted to do He wanted to bring the ark to the city of God Listen, did God want the ark in the city of God? You bet he did But he wasn't going to allow David to disobey the word of God to get it there Think about that in your own life Think about that in your own life Because there's a lot of things you might want to do You might want to do because you have a holy zeal And your heart might be right before God, but you're not going to follow the instruction of the Lord And you can do it your own way It will cost you It will Just remember that And it cost Uzzah

It cost David So what did David do? You'd think he'd fall on his face and repent Instead, David was afraid Why was David afraid? Because he thought he was going to die next He wasn't sure what was going to happen If God kills the guy who touched the ark, what's he going to do with me? I'm the king. I just disobeyed the law of God What's he going to do with me? And then he says, he says he was afraid of the Lord that day He said, how can the ark of the Lord come to me? I mean, it's like a little baby How could I get the ark come to me? He's mad because he didn't get his way It didn't go his way

His plans were thwarted How can I ever get the ark to the city of David? Well, David, all you do is follow what God said That's all you got to do But see, he just wasn't there yet He will get in three months, but he'll get there. I'm not saying you got three months to disobey God. I'm just saying that's what it took David in the story And so he, it took him a while to get there, but this was his problem See, so 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 Obed means servant, the servant of Edom

Okay Some people think this guy was a Philistine because he was from the city of Gath Therefore he could have been a Philistine who believed in the Lord God of Israel Could be, or it could be the fact that he was one of the Levites, one of the line of the Levites, according to first Chronicles And he was truly a Jew who was the Levite And that's why David took the ark there Choice is yours You can make your choice on your own, whatever you want to believe But the ark went to Obed-Edom's house and guess what God did? God blessed Obed-Edom and his whole family

And David missed out on the blessing Moral of the story is when you don't follow God's instruction, you missed out on the blessing David missed out on the blessing So for three months, he was blessing-less, blessing-less Sitting back home in the city of David, figured out how I'm going to get that ark to the city And somebody comes to him in verse number 12 and says, Hey David, guess what? The Lord has blessed Obed-Edom and all of his family For the last three months, they are being blessed up the gazoo, man They get all kinds of blessings from God

And David says, Oh man, this isn't right. I got to get on those blessings because I'm missing the blessings Now listen to this First Chronicles chapter 15 Turn there with me if you would, please First Chronicles 15 says in verse 1, 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 Then David said, No one is to carry the ark of God but the Levites He's getting it right For the Lord chose them to carry the ark of God and to minister to him forever David, you're learning You got it Verse number 12

And he said to the heads of the fathers, the households, the Levites, consecrate yourselves, both you and your relatives, that you may bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel to the place that I have prepared for it Because you did not carry it at the first, the Lord, our God made an outburst on us That's saying the least For we did not seek him according to the ordinances 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, like they're supposed to, with the poles, like they're supposed to Thereon as Moses had commended them according to the word of the Lord Somebody got a hold of David and said, David, you got to read this in Numbers chapter 4 because you didn't get it right the first time And so if you read this, you do what God says, guess what? You're going to get the blessing and Obed-Edom, he can get the blessing out of your house and you can put it in your house David said, that's what I'm going to do

So he gathered the men together and he did it right He followed what the word of the Lord said And so you go back to 2 Samuel chapter 6, look at the second attempt Here we go And David went and they went and got the ark of God in the house of Obed-Edom into the city of David with gladness And so it was that when the bearers of the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed the locks and fattening And David was dancing before the Lord with all his might And David was wearing a linen ephod

So David and all the house of Israel bringing up the ark of the Lord was shouting in the sound of the trumpet Then it happened as the ark of the Lord came to the city of David, 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 Oh boy Here we go He's coming home and the wife ain't happy If the wife ain't happy, there ain't nobody happy Right? Oh, not so fast This is so good This is so good David's all fired up, man He's excited, man He takes off the royal garb, puts on the linen ephod

He's doing what the priest did because he's going to lead them in worship See, he wants to worship with them He wants to be among the people He doesn't want to be above the people, wants to be among the people and worship with them That's what he does He blesses them He worships with them He blesses the whole nation He gives them cakes He gives them gifts He just does everything he can because he is absolutely ecstatic that the Ark of the Covenant, having sat dormant for over 50 years, is now in the city of David in Jerusalem and the presence of God symbolically is among them

This would excite David This was his passion This is what he wanted to have happen And so this is what he did And so he blessed all the people and he goes home to bless his house Verse 20 But when David returned to bless his household, Michael, the daughter of Saul, doesn't say Michael, David's wife, says Michael, the daughter of Saul, came to meet David and said, how the king of Israel, not my husband, but how the king of Israel distinguished himself today He uncovered himself today in the eyes of his servants, his maids as one of the foolish ones shamelessly uncovers himself

David, you're a fool Remember now she was in her home looking out her window She wasn't a part of the worship of the nation She stayed home because like her father, Saul, she had no concern for the presence of God among his people And so she stayed in the house, looked out the window and despised her husband as he came down the streets with joy in his heart and dancing in those streets as unto the Lord So ecstatic about what has happened that God was among them symbolically by the presence of the ark of the covenant in the city of God, the city of David And you can imagine his excitement

He comes home to his wife because he wants to bless the family That's what it says in verse number 20 When David returned to bless the household, he came in to bless his wife, his wives Okay And his children to bless them And he's greeted with a bitter, angry wife You ever been greeted by that when you go home? David did How do you handle that? I want you to know something very interesting She might have dampened the celebration, but she never diminished the passion of David

She might've dampened the celebration of David, but never once did she diminish the passion of David because he did what he did for the glory and honor of the Lord He didn't do it for his wife He did it as unto the Lord He danced unto the Lord He shouted unto the Lord And she came home and he came home and she said to him, David, you acted like a fool out there Well, see, she was embarrassed because she likes the king with the royal garb See, she likes to be known as the king's wife He takes off the royal garb He puts on the linen ephod He's like everybody else, like the priest

And he's a commoner now among the people He's not above the people That embarrasses her She despises it You shamelessly acted in the streets today, David What is wrong with you? Have you no dignity? Have you no concern for royalty? Where is your heart? David's response, it was before the Lord who chose me above your father That's a hard one Chose me above your father and above all his house Wow To appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel, therefore I will celebrate before the Lord. I'm going to celebrate You know why? Because I know what God has done in my life

And what God has done, you cannot diminish And I will celebrate God. I will worship God. I will honor God And verse 22, I will be more lightly esteemed than this and will be humble in my own eyes In other words, you haven't seen nothing yet You think this is bad? You wait Because I'm going to do what I'm going to do based on my obedience to God. I'm going to serve God Verse 23, and Michael, the daughter of Saul, had no child to the day of her death God cursed her God cursed her because she tried to diminish the passion of the godly man

Ladies, be very careful about how you try to diminish the passion of your husband It will cost you She became barren She would not be able to have any children Also this, be careful who you marry Make sure you marry somebody with the same kind of passion and dedication to God that you have Because down the road, it will cost you Just because the other person's a Christian doesn't mean you should marry them You got to get this Because if they don't have the same passion and dedication that you have, it will cost you down the road

Don't think, well, you know, when I marry them, they're going to get more excited They're going to be like me No, they won't Because if they're not like you now, guess what? They're not going to change because you married them Now, God can do a great work. I understand that But I've been around a long time. I've done a lot of counseling over the years And most times don't work that way You got to have somebody that has the same passion and drive and dedication you have, the goals and agenda that you have Remember Michael? She was given to David by Saul because he defeated the Philistines

And then Saul took her away Remember that? Because he wanted to get at David and gave her to another guy So now David can't take her back because based on the law in Deuteronomy 24, you can't take her back because she's going to defile you You'll become an adulterer if you take someone back who is married to somebody else because Deuteronomy 24 says you can't do that But David took her back David said, when I become king of Israel, I want Michael back in my house So they gave Michael back to David, took her away from her husband We read the story earlier

And David violated scripture and it cost him again, again And that dampening cloth in his home, his wife, would now become barren and become even more bitter because of God's chasing her Folks, always be careful when you counsel your children on who to marry Just because they're a Christian doesn't mean they're the right person to marry That's important to understand that Because Michael never did have the same passion that David had

He didn't have the same love for God. I mean, all you had to do was look at her father, her family, and you can know that her family would influence her the wrong direction, not the right direction Blood is thicker than water And so surely that's what happened And so David though, David's passion and jubilation would not be diminished, although his celebration was dampened by his wife Because in his heart, he had a passion for his God It took him a while to understand all that, but the ark thing and Numbers 4 and Uzziah took a death of one of his fellow countrymen to wake him up

And I would pray for all of us that we would understand that 2 Samuel 6 is a story that's relevant to every one of us here tonight But don't despise the chastening of the Lord The Lord loves you enough to discipline you And if he's disciplining you, it's probably because you're in violation somewhere of his word So go to him and say, Lord, if I have violated your word, let me know, because I don't want to do that If your hand is heavy upon me because of its chastening discipline, then Lord, I want to be removed from that. I know that no discipline is joyous

Hebrews 12 talks about that, but it's necessary for me to follow your word and serve you So Lord, show me where I'm wrong Show me where I violated your word that I might serve you Three months earlier, David didn't do that He was just too angry at God to do anything until he realized that Obed-Edom was being blessed. I'm not missing that blessing What does God's word say? I got to do He went back He read it evidently According to 1 Chronicles 15, he got it right

And just when he got it right, just when he got it right, the person closest to him tried to dampen everything because that's the way it is It's relentless But if your heart is right before the Lord and you're following his word, that passion, that jubilation will be enriched because what you're doing, you're doing for the glory of the Lord, not for your wife, not for your husband, not for your sons, not for your grandsons or your granddaughters You're doing it for the Lord And when they're doing it for the Lord, then the joy of the Lord will never be diminished What a great chapter Let's pray

Father, thank you, Lord, for tonight, a chance to be in your word Truly, Lord, you are a great God and worthy to be praised Lord, you are so good to us There might be some here tonight that are experiencing the chasing of the Lord. I pray, Father, that they would see the hand of God upon them and they would know that you love them so They would seek to do the right thing And I pray, Father, that they've experienced the blessing of Almighty God because of what you do to those who honor you first

And Father, may we always be reminded that no matter how we serve you, even with a pure heart and a pure motive, and we do follow what your word says, there's going to be somebody, and usually those closest to us, who will try to diminish the joy of our heart But because we're serving you, that will not happen because you are our heart's desire In Jesus' name we pray Amen.