Building A Life of Love IV, Moving In the Presence of the Lord

This is North Way tape number 425. This message is the fourth in the series on building a Life of Love and continues the theme Learning to Live in His Presence. This message was delivered by Pastor Jay Passavant of North Way Christian community on August 25, 1985. The text of this message is taken from 2 Samuel chapter 6. Follow As I read, beginning in verse one, David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel 30,000 and David arose and went with all the people who were with him from baal, Judah, to bring up from there the Ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts, who sits enthroned in the cherubim. And they carried the Ark of God upon a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab which was on the hill. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart with the Ark of God. And Ohio went before the ark, and David and all the house of Israel were making merry before the Lord with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets. And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the Ark of God and took hold of it. For the oxen stumbled and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah. And God smote him there, because he put forth his hand to the Ark, and he died there beside the Ark of God. And David was angry because the Lord had broken forth upon Uzzah, and that place is called Perez Uzzah to this day. David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, how can the Ark of the Lord come to me? So David was not willing to take the Ark of the Lord into the city of David, but David took it aside to the house of Obedidom the Gittite and the Ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obedidom the gittite three months. And the Lord blessed Obadidom and all his household. It was told, king David, the Lord has blessed the household of Obedidom and all that belongs to him because of the Ark of God. So David went and brought up the Ark of God from the house of Obedida to the city of David with rejoicing. And when those who bore the Ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling, and David danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was girded with a linen ephod, and so David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with a sound of the horn. We've been talking about the presence of the Lord we began last week. And actually in my own heart, I believe this is an extension of the series that we began earlier in August on Building a Life of Love. Because I believe with all my heart, Church, that God wants us to learn to love him above everything else. In the presence of the Lord is that which enables us to break forth in love of God. When we see God for who he is, the response of our hearts is to love Him. Today I want to talk to you about how you can bring the presence of the Lord where you live, not just your household today. I've heard so many reports this week of people who said, I'm going to go because of the word of the Lord last week to my home and begin to set it apart as a place for God's dwelling. How many of you have found yourself doing at least one tangible thing to begin to change that? Anybody? Bless the Lord. I trust that that continues, Church. But all of us need to live in the presence of God, don't we? If there's one thing that I yearn for as a people, for us, it's that we would understand that God just doesn't inhabit this place as I believe he is right at this moment. But he wants to be with you. He wants his presence where you are. Isn't that exciting? He wants to be where you go and a manifestation of his own life. He wants to be, through you, redemption and healing and deliverance to the nations. He wants to be, through you, the light of the world. Most people think that God's presence is just something that they experience maybe once in a glorious mountaintop. But God says, I want my presence to be with you. Now, this story that we're looking at this morning is illustrative of a couple of very significant principles as to how you can bring the presence of the Lord where you are. That's what we're looking at today, how to bring the presence of the Lord where you are. Now, most of us are familiar with the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant. When I say the Ark of the Covenant, how many of you know what I'm talking about? You want to know why that probably is? Because Indiana Jones found it right? Now you know really what it's all about. I'll tell you. There was some measure of enlightenment because of that film. There really was. Some people for the first time realized that There was such a thing and what it stood for. But I can assure you today that it's not locked in some government warehouse somewhere. It was for the people of God, not just the symbol of God's presence, but because it was ordained of God and set apart by God and direct commandment to Moses. It then became the literal place where God manifested this presence that we've been talking about. Now, the ark was a little box about four feet wide and about two feet deep and long or whatever. Two by two by four, roughly. And inside of it were three things. The Ten Commandments on those tablets of stone, the pot of manna and Aaron's rod. But more, or at least as importantly as those items in the ark was the lid of the ark, which was called the mercy seat. And you see the beautiful picture of that is that God looks down upon us, realizing that we have not been able to keep those 10 commandments and move in obedience to the law. But he sees us through that mercy seat. And because his presence is given to us, it dwells on the mercy seat, not. We could never earn it by keeping the ten Commandments. There's a beautiful story there of how God, a picture of how God then in Jesus, you see, comes to dwell among us. And through him, with that sacrifice blood, he sees us as being acceptable in his sight. It's all a picture of Jesus, but that's another teaching. And I want to talk today about what David then did. Knowing how much he wanted to that presence that the ark represented, he really wanted that presence. Now, he had just taken over as king and the Ark of the Covenant had been stored away. Remember, the Philistines had stolen it when Saul thought it was like a rabbit's foot. And he took it out into battle and thought, well, I figure if I have this, I'm going to win. What happened? Well, he didn't have any faith. He just was using it as a charm. The Philistines destroyed him, took the ark and walked away with it. Remember what happened to the Philistines, though? That wasn't their best move. They took the Ark of God in their temple, their God Dagon. And bit by bit, he was destroyed. And then finally he fell over in his face and blew apart. And then they kept the ark a little longer. And you know what happened to them all? The Bible tells us they all got sick. The very uncomfortable disease which. How do you say this? Well, it was preparation age. Would have had a field day. That's what I wanted to say. Okay. Nonetheless, the Philistines got rid of the Ark. They said, this is going back to where it came from. And so they sent it back and it ended up at the home of Abinadab and what we just read to be Baal Judah. And it was there for about 20 years, forgotten, neglected, because of all the turmoil that was in the kingdom of Judah. So David has just captured Jerusalem. And he said, I want the presence of the Lord in this city of God where I have been called to rule. How many of you want the presence of the Lord where you are called to rule? Beloved, I believe that what the Lord is saying to us here, this picture, as I was saying, Jerusalem, you see, was David's place of rule, the capital city. And the Lord just quickened me to say to you today, where do you want the presence of the Lord to rule in your life? Is it where you work? Is it where you go to school? Is it in a relationship that's very important to you? Is it in your home? Where do you need the presence of the Lord to rule so that you can rule that situation? Well, David knew that the presence of the Lord needed to be in Jerusalem. And so he set out to retrieve the Ark. And I believe that we'll see here a couple of principles today that will help each of us understand how to bring God into our situation. And how many believe that's a practical thing, if you can know how to release the presence of the Lord where you are. Listen, I was sharing with one of the elders yesterday saying, I know the struggles that many of you have, problem wise financial things, relational, marriage problems, decision making problems. And I turn on the radio and I hear some teacher say, eight steps to financial liberty and all these things that we could get off on. But you know, beloved, more than anything, I believe God wants us to learn how to live in his presence. He wants us to learn what it's like to commune with him. Because in that all of our needs are met, all the practicals of the Christian life get worked out. And I praise God for gifted teachers who can help you do that as we move together as his people around here. So let's just see what David did to bring the Ark of the Lord into the city of Jerusalem. Now, this town is only eight miles away, okay, baal, Judah is only eight miles from Jerusalem. And even in that, I see a little picture that's pretty close, isn't it? The presence of the Lord on the Ark of the Covenant was pretty close to Jerusalem. And a lot of believers that I know get close to what God wants, but they Stop short. They don't press on past closeness to communion. And I want to exhort some today that you've been walking with the Lord for a while and you're pretty comfortable because the Lord's always there and you know he's there. But if you were honest with yourself, you don't really court his presence. You don't really seek his face. The Ark of the Covenant, the presence of the Lord is about eight miles away, just down the road. God wants you to bring it right where you ruled today, right into your heart to live there with. Now, there's a way to do this that results in frustration. This is the first thing I want you to just jot down how to move the presence of the Lord in frustration. Okay? What David did was to get a cart to move the ark those eight miles. And look what the Bible says. It says it was a new cart, not some old used cartoon, brand new cart. So he puts the ark of the Lord up on top of that, and he gets some people to drive it, and he gets Uzzah and Ahio. That's an interesting combo. They were Abinadab's sons. They'd been around this thing for some time because it had been in Abinadab's house. And so they get this procession going. There's a lot of people. Because it was supposed to be a real festive occasion. Look at verse five. So they're moving down the road. They got the ark on the cart. They've got Ahio in the front and Uzzah in the back. And they got all these people playing instruments and just sort of rejoicing along. It's supposed to be a real holiday. Well, something happened. It rained on their parade. The cart, as they drew near to the threshing floor of Nacon, hit a bump. The oxen stumbled and the cart wrenched back, and the ark of the Lord began to slip off. And Uzzah reached out his hand and stopped the ark from going off. And God struck him dead. What a bummer. What a way to ruin a good parade. And there he is, dead right in front of him. And he was doing a good thing. Well, this caused David two emotions. What were they? Anger God, why did you do that? And fear God. I don't want this thing anywhere near me. Have you ever felt like that about the presence of the Lord, wondering, why did God let that happen? Well, if that's the way you are, God, then I don't want anything to do with you. And so here's David, frustrated in moving the presence of the Lord to his city. And I want to tell you just why that happened, beloved. Because God had a way that he had prescribed for the ark of the covenant to be moved. And David had nothing to do with what God had planned. And I want to just mention three things that David did wrong. Number one, he put the ark on a cart. A new cart, 19 or whatever it was, 1000 BC model. That's about when this took place. But you know something? God had never said to put the ark on a cart. David had gotten that idea from the Philistines. And so he put the ark on a cart because he saw the Philistines get away with it. God had never said that. He had prescribed that the ark would only be moved on the shoulders of the priests. Secondly, David involved two men who weren't priests in moving the ark. Ahioh in the front and Uzzah in the back. And when Uzzah reached out and touched the ark, he violated the clear commandment of God In Numbers 4, 15, Thou shalt not touch the ark of my presence. And so God just kept his promise, because if you touch it, you'll surely die. He had sinned. And then the third thing that I see that David did, David was absolutely sincere. Church. But he had not acted according to truth. And if you combine those things, I don't care how sincere you are, sincerity is no substitute for truth. And I want to say many of us have labored in a bondage of a vague, cloudy relationship with God because we've done it our way, all so sincere. Many people are filling their lives with substitutes for truth out of all sincerity. And God has prescribed a way to come into his presence, and he's given us a pattern for worship. And it's here in the book, and it won't work any other way. You see, David did what the church is doing today. He built a program to move the ark. And so there it was. Here's the cart, there's the ark, there's God on it. And then here's Ahio in the front and Uzzah in the back. You know what their names mean? Ahio means brotherly, like chummy, happy, outgoing, PR man. And azah literally means strength. And isn't that the way most of the programs that we know about get carried along? You get the person up front who can make it work, and then you have the program right there in the cart and you're carrying it along. And then you've got Aza back there pushing it, just in case. I see A lot of you grinning because you know what that's like to make some religious program work. And I'll tell you, it's the most frustrating thing in the world because it'll work for a while. But ultimately, if God's not in it, what happens? What happens? Death. Death. It just brings death. It does not minister life. The Bible says there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death. Proverbs 14:12. How many times, beloved, have you been part of something that's just a new cart? How many times in your life have you done something just out of good old sincerity but with no leading from the word of God? You just did it some way that seemed right. Well, it was just. I really meant it. I mean, I was sincere. But it didn't work. Why? Because God has a pattern and a plan. And if we don't keep that, then we can count on it falling, we can count on it tumbling. That pattern has been revealed in the Word. And I'm talking now about every ministry that we're involved in. I'm talking about the presence of the Lord coming according to the word of God. Alright, now let's get back what happened in the story. Well, David leaves the ark of the covenant. In fact, he goes over and he puts it at Obedidum's house. Can you imagine Obedidom's response to that? Oh great, here's this thing, people are running from it. Someone just touched it and died and now it's going to sit at my house. David leaves the situation and I believe what he did is he went back and he was just frustrated and here's Jerusalem and he wants the presence of the Lord and the ark is sitting at Obedidom's house. Not even a Jew, a gittite. Well, word comes back to David a couple months later. Hey David, Obedidim's house is prospering. Look at the word. It says there remained there three months and the Lord blessed Obedidom and all his household. And the word there for blessed has to do with crops. He was getting a real harvest. The goods were coming in Obed Edom's house. Fascinatingly old David is a softy for blessing and he says, wait a minute, then maybe that means that God isn't all that mad at everybody. He just didn't like what we were doing before. And so I bet he went to the priests. That's my guess. In fact, if we read 1st Chronicles 15, which is a parallel account of this, it says that he discovered what he'd done wrong. And what he'd done wrong was that he had put the thing on a cart in the first place and he'd not employed the priests in the second place, and he hadn't followed the pattern in the third place. And so he went and looked up in the Torah what God had said to do. And he got the instructions from the priests and he went back and he found the Ark. Look what he did. David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed Edom to the city of David with rejoicing. And look at verse 13. So you know he's doing it right. And when those who bore the ark, you see, he got the priests in place. And the ark was to be carried, beloved, on two wooden staves. King James Word is staves, wooden poles. May I share with you that if your heart's desire is to bring the presence of the Lord into a situation, whether it's a relationship, a place of work, a place of ministry, a place of education, the very first thing that you need to do is to see that the presence of the Lord is born on two wooden staves. And if you do a study of that word, you'll find that those poles were made of a particular kind of wood called shittim wood. And that wood was symbolic of the humanity of God when he came in the person of Jesus. And what those two wooden staves signify is that God's way of getting something done was to allow his Son to bear our sin on two wooden staves. It's always been God's way, the way of the cross. The number one thing we need to come to terms with is that if we want God in our situation, we need to yield our will to his cross. That's why Jesus said, if any man would follow me, he must take up his cross once a week on Sunday morning. He must take up his cross. When? Say it again. When? Daily. Follow me. Because the cross, those two wouldn't stay or the way that God's ordained for his presence to be carried in any situation, yielding your will to the purpose of God. And I don't care what relationship, what workplace, what school you're talking about. Beloved, if you want God's presence with you there, then you need to begin by saying, lord, I yield to you my will in this situation, and I desire yours. You see, that's the beginning point of carrying the presence of the Lord, the cross of Christ. Paul said, God forbid that I should boast in anything save the cross of Christ. In which I glory. Galatians 6:14. There's two other things that I see that that bring the presence of the Lord. The first is to carry it on those two wooden staves. The second is, as we see here in verse 13 and 14, those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six paces. They sacrificed an ox and a fatling, and David danced before the Lord with all his might, and was girded with the linen Ephod and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with sound of the horn. Beloved. The other, the second way that you bring the presence of the Lord where you are is through worship. Let me show you something here. Do you see that they also worshiped when they were carrying it the wrong way? Look up in verse 5 they were still dancing with all their might, but it was the wrong thing. But I noticed one distinguishable difference in those two. See if you catch it with me. I believe that in verse five there's no real indication that they were singing and using their voices, but just instruments were playing. Later on down in verse 15, it's clear that they were speaking and shouting and declaring. All this to me says that what God wants of us in worship is to participate, to use what he's given us. I don't know if you sense that I do, but God is doing a new thing in our worship life and I believe he wants to do that. I believe his heart's desire is to make his presence known to us in worship. And we could talk a lot about that today. But I just want to give you one suggestion if you find it difficult. I notice that when we begin to verbalize, some of you are able to go for about five seconds. Praise your name, Lord. Praise your name, Lord. Praise your name. And it gets hard. You start getting distracted. Let me just make a suggestion. How many of you were here when we had the teaching on the names of God? This was in April. Well, if you'll just allow your mind to go through those eight covenant names of God, Jehovah, Sidkenu, Jehovah, Mekedesh, Jehovah, Rophe, Jehovah, Jireh, and so on, and just praise his names, that will begin to fill your mind with things that God is is to you and things that he's doing for you. And worship can begin to be released just on the basis of those eight names which are his nature. And I found that really is enlivened my own worship life. Worship is just expressing what you feel about God. And if you sit here and look around and say, boy, this is really strange. Then I would have to question, what are you feeling about God? You say, well, faith isn't emotion, beloved. This book is full of emotion. The book is full of joy. It's full of love. It's full of shouting, it's full of clapping, it's full of dancing. It's full of gentleness and peace and quietness. Emotion. God's teaching us how to move unfettered in worship. And if you want to bring the presence of the Lord where you are, begin to worship there. I want to just challenge you. Go in that place or in that situation and just begin to worship the Lord before anyone gets there. Or if someone's there when you get there, just use the language of praise that God's given you and just begin to praise Him. I have found transformation in situations where I've done that. Anyone else found that you begin to praise his name and worship him? It brings his presence, number three. And finally today, you bring the presence of the Lord through sacrifice. Now, how many know that we don't do anything to sacrifice for our sins? We don't go and slice up some lamb somewhere or a bird or anything like that. God has done what needed to be done for our sins, and that is he sacrificed the spotless Lamb of God. We have been redeemed, the Bible said, not with silver and gold, but by the precious blood of the Lamb. And so we don't add anything to what God did. And I'm glad for that, aren't you? You know what that allows you to do? Church? It allows you to never question in your mind whether or not God has forgiven your sin. You don't have to wait until you die to wonder whether or not God is going to forgive your sin. How many of you know today? How many of you know today? Go ahead, put your hand up. I know today that my sin is forgiven. Now, if you're here today and you don't know this, listen to me, you just saw 6, 100 and some hands go up. But if you don't know that today, if you're not convinced in your spirit that your sins are forgiven, then you can know that today. When we conclude here, I want you to come up by those partitions and the elders and some other folks who are going to be there to pray with you, to know that your sins are forgiven because Jesus made a way. But that doesn't put an end to sacrifice. And one of the things that I've begun to discover in American Christianity Is. We don't like that word. Just say it once, would you? It doesn't even sound too good, does it? Sacrifice. Webster just says that sacrificing is giving up something for the sake of another. It's just simply laying aside something you would want for the sake of another. But you know, something beloved. The Bible is full of sacrifice. And I just think of situations where people moved out in a sacrifice and God blessed them. Think of Mary of BETHANY In Mark 14, who came to Jesus. Remember what she did? She took their most precious, prized treasure, a 300 denarii vase of perfume. Very expensive, the best thing that she owned. And she tipped it and began to pour it over. Jesus, anoint him. And you know, all the Pharisaical disciples at that time, particularly Judas, said, what are you doing that for? Wasting that that could be given to the poor. Remember what Jesus said. I love these words. Remember what he said. Leave her alone, for she has done a beautiful thing for me. When's the last time you did a beautiful thing for Jesus? When you just simply poured out something of yours for him. Not for anybody else, but just for him. Maybe it blessed somebody else, but it was for him. We need to learn the wisdom of sacrificing, of giving up time, perhaps. Of giving up maybe some kind of material thing, of giving up our own way of doing something. Perhaps. Let me suggest another one today. A sacrifice that really frees is the sacrifice of a fast. Laying aside a meal or several meals for the sake of bringing God's presence into a situation. There's someone here today that I won't mention their name, but I know for a fact that some years ago God put a burden on their heart for a person that they worked with. And this believer wanted to see this friend who was not a Christian, come to know the grace of God in his life. And he didn't know what to do. And he was praying. And God said to him, if you'll fast, if you'll bring a sacrifice, then I'll move. And that man's life and the brother that I know fasted for two weeks. A substantial sacrifice of his own comfort. Two weeks later, I believe the story has it was within a few days of the end of that fast. The man who had no interest really in the things of God was gloriously saved. And that story stuck with me because it was an illustration of sacrificing personal comfort for the sake of another. That's what God wants, beloved from time to time, an expression of sacrifice to bring this presence. So I just say to you today in conclusion, how are we going to move the presence of the Lord where we are? Are we going to devise a nifty program of passing out leaflets and slipping things under plates and stuff like that? Some of those things are fine, but are we going to devise something that's a new card? Are we going to put brotherly in front and strength behind and push it through? Or are we going to come bearing the presence of the Lord on those two wooden staves applied to our life, the cross of Christ worshiping with our lips and bringing a sacrifice? Hear me today as I share with you. If you'll purpose to do those three things, God will come in where you are and manifest his presence and move in power and set you free. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you right now that you have given us a way, Lord. You've given us a pattern in your word. And right now, in Jesus name, Father, I pray for this pattern of moving your presence to come alive in many hearts, Lord, that as we even in these next minutes begin to apply this message that you show us, Lord, it's by the cross, by our worship, by our sacrifice, that we'll see your presence brought into that most important situation of our lives. Thank you.