Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of David bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, marking a pivotal moment in Israel's history. This act symbolizes the establishment of God's presence in the city, which would later be recognized as the city of the great King, Jesus. Bickle highlights the importance of approaching God's presence with reverence and following His prescribed ways, as seen in the tragic incident with Uzzah, who died for touching the Ark. The sermon also reflects on the need for a generation after God's own heart, drawing parallels between David's life and the church today. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a return to honoring God's presence and understanding the weight of His glory in our worship and lives.

We're in session 19. We have 28 sessions in this series on the life of David. In our last session, we were in 2 Samuel 5, just to remind you that David had conquered the city of Jerusalem. First time the city of Jerusalem is fully conquered by the people of God, the nation of Israel. Then he built the city up, the city of David, that 11-acre piece of property that David would make his own residence and make it his governmental center called Zion, or the city of David. You can use those terms interchangeably. He built up the city of David and the larger city of Jerusalem. Then after that, the Philistines, they were stirred up. They were threatened by this godly, holy momentum of prosperity and blessing happening in David's life. They said it's now or never, so they went full force attack, two different waves of attack against David to wipe him out. They knew that if he got established in Jerusalem and the north and the south kingdoms of Israel, Israel and Judah, if they became unified and established in Israel, I mean in Jerusalem, it would be very difficult to uproot David later. So he secures the city after he builds it up and conquers it. Paragraph B, now the first thing he does after the city is secured, it's the first act of David as king once the city is secure. It's an epic event. It's unprecedented. I want you to grasp the weightiness of what's going on here because at a just a casual read, you might not grasp it. The ark of God is coming to the city of Jerusalem for the first time. The city of Jerusalem is the chosen city that Jesus would call a thousand years after David because David was a thousand years BC. Jesus called Jerusalem the city of the great king. It's his city. It's Jesus' city because Jesus, he's the king of the new Jerusalem and he's the king of the earthly Jerusalem. He's going to bring both Jerusalems together around his throne in the days to come. And the ark of the covenant, it speaks of the throne of God. The ark of covenant also is a type of Christ. So here it is bringing a type of the throne of God, the representation of the throne and of the Messiah, a type of the Messiah into Jerusalem for the first time. Not only that, the throne of the ark of the covenant was the only place on the earth where the glory of God would be manifest in a regular way. I mean the Shekinah glory of God rested on the ark. And it's the only place on the entire planet where the glory of God would be manifest in a continual basis, the very presence of God. I believe that David understands what's going on. My assumption is most of Israel, they do not. They're excited that the nation is now unified after Saul's death, after a civil war for seven years. They like David. They see the anointing of God on him. He has military victories. He loves God and they think that's really good. And he's making Jerusalem the new capital. But David, I believe, saw so much more than just things are going well in Jerusalem. Now David grew up in Bethlehem, only five miles away from Jerusalem. All of those years when David was playing that harp out on the backside of the hills of Bethlehem as a boy, a shepherd, just down the way, I mean five miles, you know, like from the prayer room to IHOPU. I mean it was quite, quite, quite close. These foreigners, these idol worshipers, the Jebusites, they had control and they conquered this city. And I have this assumption and this idea that David understood what that city was about. And I think that many years he would ponder on it and the Holy Spirit would whisper in his heart. Now it says here in Deuteronomy chapter 12, God told Moses, now this is 500 years before David, 1500 years BC approximately. God said, Moses, there's gonna be a place. I'm gonna choose a place. He goes, you don't know where it's at yet, Moses, but I'm gonna tell one of my servants. Now I believe that David received understanding from the Lord. I'm gonna put my name in one place in the earth in a unique way. But not only that, I'm gonna make it my dwelling place. My manifest glory will be in that place where my name is put. Now for 500 years from Moses to David, nobody knows where that place is. But I believe that David understood it. And look at paragraph 2. After David had died, his son Solomon, the Lord speaks to Solomon audibly. And he says in 2 Chronicles 6, he goes, Solomon, he goes, from back in the days of Moses 500 years ago, when I brought him out of the land of Egypt, I've never chosen a city to build my house, which means his temple. But I've chosen this city. And I chose your father, and you know that. And my assumption is David knew that city was chosen. That's why the very first act after becoming king and securing the city, he wants to bring the Ark of the Covenant, the representation of the throne of God, the type of the Messiah. He wants to bring that into Jerusalem and establish it right away. Let's go to paragraph D. Now I believe that David actually understood some of this from his youth. One of the reasons I think that, I just mentioned he grew up five miles away, and he would have those long nights with the sheep, you know, singing before the Lord by himself, and you know, the lion and the bear would attack the sheep, and he would rise up in the grace of the anointing of God and deliver the sheep. I mean, he had this presence of God in his life. And I think he was stirred as he looked just down the way. Undoubtedly, it's only five miles away. He probably walked around the city a few times in his teen years wondering, Lord, when? When? Now here's one reason why I think he grasped it, is that after David killed Goliath in the valley of Elah, only ten miles away, he kills Goliath, he cuts Goliath's head off, singular, but the strangest thing happens. He takes his head, I mean, that's an odd thing to cut someone's head off and carry it, but he carries it ten miles to Jerusalem. Somebody could say, why are you doing that? He goes, I'm taking his head to Jerusalem. Well, the Jebusites are over Jerusalem. You can't get in Jerusalem. He goes, I'm taking the head of the giant to the city that I understand. I believe it was a prophetic act, and I believe that David actually grasped what was going on, and nobody around him probably understood it. It was almost like a prophetic statement of one day the great giant, the eschatological giant, the Antichrist, will be absolutely destroyed in the city of Jerusalem by my great, great grandson, the Messiah, the greater David. In Jerusalem, he will take him down, and I have this idea that David grasped some of that, because David had more understanding of the Messiah that shows up in the Psalms than any other man in his generation or even before him. He had this living understanding about the Messiah that was before the times by the spirit of prophecy. Paragraph E, David had made a vow about Jerusalem, a vow about bringing the ark. This is before the ark is in Jerusalem, so we know it's got to be in David's early days, and we're going to look at this vow in the next session, Psalm 132. It's so critical to David's life and understanding who he is, but it's also very important for a church after God's own heart, because as the ark of the covenant, remember the ark of the covenant had the glory of God associated with it, aiming at a manifestation of power like no place in the earth. Well, in the generation the Lord returns, it's not going to be a city that has the glory of God, a geographic city. It's going to be a generation across the earth. The church will walk in the glory of God in an unprecedented way, where there will be a display of the manifest glory in an unprecedented ongoing way, like the ark released the glory of God in Jerusalem in an unprecedented way, but this will be in a global way. Therefore, God is raising up a church after his own heart, and the life of David, the values of David, the lessons of David are so critical for that generation, and as I've said many times over the years, I believe we're in the early days of that generation. I believe that God is raising up young people as a David generation. That's why it's critical that they cultivate this heart after God like David, and they understand David's life, and the life of Jesus, the life of David, and they see how the whole thing comes together. Well, David, he vowed. Verse 1, the psalmist says, and I don't want to go into this too much, because we'll look at it at the break, but I just wanted you to catch the weightiness of what David felt about Jerusalem. That's what I'm wondering, and to see that he received this even in his youth. The psalmist says, this is not David writing, it's a psalmist, it's a man writing about David. He says, Lord, David's already died. It's after David's life. He goes, remember, remember how David vowed to you. Remember the vow David made to you, that he wouldn't live business as usual. His, he wouldn't embrace the everyday comforts of life and business as usual life until, verse 5, until there was a place, until the ark of the glory and a temple for the ark to be in it was established in Jerusalem, and a manifest glory of God would be there in a regular, ongoing way. David said, I can't rest. I can't just be, have a normal, even anointed life and ministry until, until there's a place where the glory is manifest in an ongoing way. Now listen to this, verse 6. Catch this. Behold, we heard of it in Ephratah. Now Ephratah is another name, in essence, for Bethlehem. Ephratah was a family name. It was like a very prominent family that lived in Bethlehem long before David. So Bethlehem and Ephratah became almost synonymous. The name of this noble, prominent family in the name of Bethlehem, they became used almost interchangeably throughout the Bible a number of times in the Old Testament. It's called Ephratah-Bethlehem, Bethlehem-Ephratah. But here's the point. It's while in Ephratah they heard stories of the ark. Because the ark had been tucked away back in, in the forest, in this city, right here it says in verse 6, Keriath-Jerom. That's a city only 10 miles, Keriath-Jerom is only 10 miles from Bethlehem. And David's, and it says about David, they heard of the ark. Even in the Bethlehem years, David heard stories of the ark. It's only 10 miles away. It's in this little village, this little village in the forest. And for 70 years, the ark was not in its proper place. It's in Keriath-Jerom. And David grew up hearing stories 10 miles down the road, the stories about the ark of God, the stories of the glory of God related to the ark. Now I have a little bit more of that in paragraph F, but go ahead and turn to page 2. I'm going to give you a snapshot here in paragraph, well first I'm going to mention G. Now I want to give you a tip-off, that is we're going to go through 2 Samuel 6 and we can lay the foundation and we can go through the story. It's a very dramatic story. It has a couple turns and twists. It starts off very exciting, a national gathering to bring the ark of the covenant. Then it goes bad because the judgment of God breaks into the procession because the people did not honor the Lord when they were handling the ark. So the great celebration of bringing the ark, the epic event, it's delayed. The judgment breaks out. Well David learns the lesson. He understands what God was saying through the release of his judgment. So then he recovers the plan and brings the ark in. So it's quite a story in 2 Samuel 6. It has a couple turns and twists. It starts off high, goes real low, but it ends up high and then it has a little confrontation between Michael, David's wife, and David related to the bringing of the ark into the city. So here's what I want you to pay attention to. Kind of one of the main lessons of this chapter is that the end does not justify the means. Meaning David is saying I'm bringing the ark in. Lord, I mean how wonderful is that? But the Lord says you've got to do it my way. Because you're sincere David, the ark is holy. The presence of God is holy. You can't treat it in a trivial way. It's me. It's my presence. I've given you instructions on how to relate to my direct presence. And you've got to do it my way. And if David, the beloved, the anointed, the chosen one experienced the judgment of God, the message is the Lord says you know even in my love and my goodness, my holiness and my presence related to my direct presence, you must do it my way. Because God is still God even though he brings us into deep fellowship with himself. So if the message of this chapter is if God did this even with David, we know that God does not change. He says I will not treat my presence in a trivial way. And this is a much needed lesson in the body of Christ. Particularly I believe as we are in the early days of that generation, that David generation, where the ark won't be in a city, but there'll be an unprecedented display of the glory of God in a church after God's own heart like David on a global dimension. So we want to learn these lessons. Paragraph H. I'm going to give you just a snapshot of what happened with the ark. And you can read this more on your own. And the story is in 1 Samuel 5 and 6. And today we're in 2 Samuel 5 and 6. So it's the same chapters. But 1 Samuel 5 and 6, a most remarkable story. You can read it on your own. It was 70 years plus before David in this situation. What happened? The Philistines, the nation right next to Israel, they defeated Israel in a battle because Israel was in sin in the days of Eli. Right when Samuel was just a boy. Samuel the prophet. And the Philistines, they won the battle because God's judgment was on Israel because of the gross sin. But they had the ark of the covenant. So the Philistines took the ark of the covenant. They go, ah, we got their magic, their little magic piece of equipment here. It's on our side. And for seven months, the Philistines had the ark of the covenant. But it was disastrous. And it was very dramatic. The first thing that happens, they bring the ark of the covenant into their national temple. The temple of Dagon. And they bring the ark of the covenant. And Dagon, the big statue, the big idol, I mean the national shrine, it falls over on its own. They come the next day and they go, what happened? They set the big statue up, the idol. The next day it crashes down again. And tumors broke out in the whole city. That's in Ashdod, one of the main cities of the Philistines. They go, ah, let's get rid of this. So they bring the ark. They go, this thing is hot, you know, hot to handle. So they bring it over to Gath, another Philistine city. Great destruction falls on the city. Tumors break out again. The leaders of Gath go, get that thing out of here. So they bring it to Ekron, another Philistine city. Great disaster falls on the city. Tumors break out again. They go, let's get rid of this thing. So it took them seven months to figure it out. That this wasn't a little magic, you know, article that would ensure, you know, the blessing of God. Because that's how Israel treated it. Would bring it to battle and say, we can do no wrong. And the Lord says, wrong. This thing only works when you're living under My leadership. So they took the ark after seven months, the Philistines, and said, they brought it over and gave it to Israel. Look at here. It's in paragraph H to Beth Shemesh. It's a city in Israel. They go, hey, you guys take it. But the point I want you to see is that the Philistines put the ark, this doesn't seem significant right now, but it will in a moment, on a new cart. And they had these oxen, actually these cows, they brought the ark and the Philistines said, we're not touching it. Put it on a new cart. Let the cows take it wherever they take it. We're out of this. And the city of Beth Shemesh, the Israelites, they go, cool. The ark is here. No, guys. Go slow. This is a picture of the throne of God. A picture of the Lord Jesus Himself and His power. Don't touch the glory of God in a casual way. And so the Israelites at Beth Shemesh, they go, cool. So they take the ark, because the ark's only about the size of this pulpit. It's just a little bit bigger than that. And they open it up to see what's inside, because the tablets, Moses is, you know, the Ten Commandments, the two tablets are in there. They open it up to look in there. And God says, I told you never to touch the ark and never to gaze at it. And 50,000 people died in this Israelite region. 50,000. The Lord says, my presence, you cannot treat my direct, unmediated presence of God, meaning this is direct contact with sinful people, the glory of God. This is before the cross and all that was, all the provision made. But even now, the very direct presence of God, when it's manifested in an unusual way, ask Ananias and Sapphira in the age to come. Say, hey, what was happening in Jerusalem when you told a lie you used to get away with? When the glory of God is manifest that way, people die. Even in the New Testament. Well, the guys at Beth Shema, they go, get this thing out of here. So it goes to Kiriath-Jerum, just this little town, Kiriath-Jerum, 10 miles from David's place, from Bethlehem. And it's in this little village in the forest. And for 70 years, the ark is there. And Israel goes, we're not touching it. It's powerful. Whoever touches it gets in trouble. So in Kiriath-Jerum, in this little forest village, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, over 70 years. David, again, grows up 10 miles away. He goes, we heard about it in Kiriath-Jerum. And I know it belonged to Jerusalem, but the Jebusites are there and the five miles from Bethlehem and the ark is 10 miles from Bethlehem. I'm going to bring the whole thing together under the glory of God. So David is excited. So, Roman numeral two, we can now pick up the story, now that you kind of got the context of the weightiness of this season of David's life, this epic event. I mean, this is the ark going to Jerusalem for the first time. And Jerusalem, the city of the great king, Jesus is going to join the new Jerusalem in heaven and the earthly Jerusalem together forever with his throne. I mean, and the ark is the down payment of this. Wow. What a glorious event. I mean, nobody gets to do this, lead this process, besides the man after God's own heart. But again, there's a generation after God's own heart in which the church will walk in the glory of God in an unprecedented way. And right now, I believe there's a sifting going on. A lot of folks are deciding they don't want to be a person like that and walk before God like David. A lot of people professing the name of Jesus are just handling the word of God and the grace of God very lightly, very trivially. And it's going to bring great, great trouble at the end of the day. There's going to be a great falling away, the Bible talks about that. There's going to be a great engathering and the church is going to be filled with the manifest glory of God. So both of those things are happening in the same generation. Well, let's look at this epic event so that we can learn from it and apply it to the church and the kingdom of God in our own day. Well, it starts off very exciting, very positive. Again, we're 2 Samuel 6. Now, just so that you can read a little bit extra, the first half of 2 Samuel 6. First, I don't have this written in the notes. The first half of 2 Samuel 6, 1 Chronicles 13 adds a lot more details. The second half of 2 Samuel 6, 1 Chronicles 15 adds more details. So the first half, 1 Chronicles 13. The second half, 1 Chronicles 15. So you want to read 2 Samuel 6, but you want to read Chronicles 13 and Chronicles 15 to add more detail to get the fuller picture of what's going on. It's a phenomenal story. And again, it's unprecedented in what's happening in David's life. I mean, not just in David's life, in history. The ark is coming to Jerusalem and this is remarkable. The manifest glory will be in a city in an ongoing, long-term way in manifest glory. Well, verse 1, it starts off so positive. It's a national gathering. 30,000 men. I mean, the city doesn't have restaurants and hotels and maybe not bathrooms for 30,000 people to all gather to the city of Jerusalem. Like, where's the infrastructure for 30,000? I mean, they're just building the city up. But David said, this is big. 30,000 of the choice leaders of the nation all gather. David's this young king. He's 37, 38 years old, maybe 38 years old at this point in time. He's a new king. He's just secured the city of Jerusalem. He's called all the leaders, the economic leaders, spiritual leaders, political leaders, military leaders, all the top leaders gather. 30,000. And they're there like, okay, now what? I mean, look at a football stadium full. I mean, I don't even know how they communicated without microphones to crowds like that. David says, here's what we're going to do. Verse 2, we're going to go up to Bel Judah. That's the Kiriath Jerum, the 10 miles away. We're going to go to that little forest village. We're going to bring the ark back. We're going to put it in Jerusalem. These 30,000 men and, you know, all this, the nation. I mean, it's the national event. Here it is. We're going to do what? We're going to go to Kiriath Jerum and we're going to bring the ark to Jerusalem. And the 30,000 are like, oh, wow. Why? Oh, this is amazing. This is really important. This is the glory of God coming to the city. This is a type and shadow of what's coming down the road in Jerusalem. Well, okay. Whatever you say, David. I mean, you get in that singing and that spirit of prophecy comes on you. We don't fully understand what you're talking about, but hey, we're with you. So what happens? Paragraph B, they set the ark on a new cart. That's the key phrase. Where did they get the idea to set the ark on a new cart? They got it from 70 years ago. That's how the Philistines did it. That's how they moved the ark. They put it on that new cart. They go, well, it worked for the Philistines. So let's do it that way. It's like, no, no, no, David. This is the direct manifest glory of God. We got to do it God's way because in Numbers chapter four and other places, but that's the most detailed place. There are five major clear details about moving the ark. God says, number one, you can only move the ark if the Levites move it. Okay. David goes, no problem. Number two, you can only move the ark on poles, not on a cart, on poles. Number three, the poles are to rest on your shoulders. And there's reasons for all of that. They're all statements about the glory of God and His partnership with His people and His holiness. Number three, you have to cover the ark and never look at it. Never look at it directly. The inside, cover it. And number four, whatever you do, don't touch it. Pick the poles up. A consecrated priest, the four priests, you know, carry it on the, you know, to the front, to the back, but don't touch it with your hand. This is the glory of God. This is the the raw power of God. Don't touch it. So God told Moses, tell him that. Levites, number one, carry with poles, number two. On your shoulders, number three. Cover it, number four. Don't gaze on it. Don't touch it. Whatever you do. And number five, don't put your hand on it. Carry it just by the poles. Well, David was so excited. He just said, we're going to do it. We're going to do it the other way. I mean, the Philistines brought a cart and says like the angels are bending over the balcony of heaven. Don't do it, David. Not, no, no, not, don't learn from the Philistines. Learn from what God said. This is the glory of God. Beloved, this is such an important message because in this hour where we're approaching that time where the church is going to walk in a glory, unprecedented in history, it is not a time for freelance. Anything goes. My way, I'll just do it kind of any way that I want to. We need to search out what the word of God says and the order of God that's so clearly established in the New Testament. The Old as well, but I'm talking about the New Testament church, the body of Christ. Jesus is building a church and we need to do it His way or there will be tremendous setbacks if we don't. That's the message from this chapter. Well, verse 3, they set the ark on a new cart. No, no, not a new cart because I already know the end of the story. And they bring it out of the house of Abinadad. He's in the Kiriath, Jerum city that, you know, 10 miles away. But that house where that ark has been in that little forest village, it's on the top of a, it's on a hilltop. So Abinadad's sons, one's at the front, Ahio's at the front, and Uzzah's at the back. And they're walking it and a cart is, you know, with an oxen pulling it. And they're, and what happens is they're going down a hill and the ark in the, you know, the ark is moving. They're, you know, bumpy hill. And so what happens? Where are we at? Let's go to bottom of the page. Nope, top of page, page 3, top of page 3. Well, they're, they're going down the hill, but things are okay for a moment. Verse 5, paragraph D, top of page 3. David and all of Israel that's there. I mean, it's a quite a procession. It gets about a 10 mile procession. It's the biggest national event. I mean, it's, it's a parade plus the most holy event, plus the biggest celebration, plus the power of God, plus history, plus three or four more things. Add a few more things on the list. That's how big this event is. Verse 5, David and all the house of Israel, they're playing music before the Lord, all kinds of instruments. Now this is unprecedented here as well. Never before have such an array of instruments, stringed instruments, percussion, trumpets, singing. I mean, there's a few times in the Old Testament, some singing happened, like three times in Moses's entire ministry, three times it says they sang a song. The only instrument was a tambourine. You know, another time or two, somebody played an instrument, but here's this whole symphony. It's David. Where'd you get that idea, David? I mean, you didn't go to music school. I mean, you played the guitar out in the wilderness, but that's it. Where did you know how to do all this? I believe this was Revelation 2, because around the throne of God, there is music night and day, and the first thing David wanted to do when he brought the ark to Jerusalem was to put music before it night and day, so it would be worship on earth like it is in heaven. Nobody'd ever done this before. Nobody ever had the idea of a whole array of instruments and singing before the ark of God, again, which was symbolic of the throne of God. So David says, we're going to, I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to put singers in front of this ark night and day, so we're going to, the whole 10 mile procession, we're going to do it right all the way, but they're already doing it wrong, because they're on a cart. They're not carrying it with poles, covering it. They're touching it. What, what are you doing? Well, I mean, God understands, you know, it's a new day, and we're excited, and our hearts are sincere, and the Lord says, I know you're sincere, and I know that you love me, but this is my holy presence. You must do it my way. I still love you, but I am the holy God, and you must do it on my terms. Touch that measure of the direct glory of God. Well, they're dancing and celebrating. Romans number 3, verse 6. Well, they come to this particular threshing floor as they're going down the hill. The cart is shaking. You know, the oxen are stumbling, and Uzzah, he's the younger brother, he's behind, and Ahio is, he's leading it, the two brothers. I mean, the ark's been in their house for years. They're a bit over familiar with it. They're thinking, well, it's been in our house. I don't think they've touched it, but you know, we, we're used to it. We know about the presence of God, and like again, the angels bowing over the balcony of heaven. No, you're not used to the presence of God. Actually, you're not. You don't really grasp what's going on here. So, the oxen stumbled here in verse 6, and Uzzah, he puts his hand, he touches it. No! Numbers 4. Don't ever touch it. Don't look at it. Keep it covered, carried on poles by consecrated priests. It is the presence of God we're talking about. Well, he touched it. Look at verse 7. The anger of the Lord stirred up against Uzzah, and God struck him for his heir. He died there. He's saying, you can't get familiar with me. You can love me. You can be intimate, but my leadership is paramount. My ways are paramount when you're touching the glory of God at this level of manifestation. Again, on the, in the early church, when the glory of God in Jerusalem is breaking out in an unprecedented level, signs and wonders, when people lie, they get struck dead in the church meetings. Those days are coming back. A lot of folks go, oh, I want the glory of God. Really? You want the manifest glory like in the books of Acts? Yeah. Well, the folks that are living double lives, coming into the communion table, telling lies, living in immorality, lying about their finances, coming into the communion table when the manifest glory, and you think it's just going to be like church growth 101 and just kind of happy times. The Lord says, you don't grasp what's going on. This is my presence. This is my glory. So the anger, the anger of the Lord struck him because it was presumptuous. It's not that God was, was suddenly harsh and cruel because it's the Old Testament, because God is, God respects, I mean, He wants His people to reverence or respect His authority and His presence. I mean, the angels bow down. They cover their eyes. The, the living creatures cover their eyes when they're near the very presence of God. It's overwhelming in its glory. It says in Revelation 20, the day is coming when heaven and earth will flee from the presence of the Father when His face is shown. That's who we're dealing with. That's who we're relating to. That's who we call our Father who art in heaven. Paragraph B. Well, He struck dead. They, this young man was familiar again with the presence of God. He thought he knew it. He hadn't searched the Word of God. And he says, well, He's been in my house. I kind of know how this works. Wrong. Nobody gets so familiar with God, they know how it works. Paragraph B. Now, obviously, in the New Covenant, believers, we don't get, we don't die, get killed for touching a article that's quote holy. But the principle for this hour of history is clear. We want to approach ministry to the Lord, whether worship or ministering in the power of God. We want to approach it in a way that the Word of God describes. Not how the latest Christian TV show or magazine or YouTube says it, but how the Word of God says it. Not how the megachurch does it, but how the Word of God says it. Because there might be a whole lot of big and popular different models out there of approaching ministry to the Lord. But beloved, a church after God's own heart, they want to search it out God's way and not make the mistake David did. That's why this story is in here. Practically speaking, I have written here that the platform ministry style, what I mean is what people do on platforms, whether it's the preachers, whether it's the people leading ministry, whether it's the worship leaders, in many settings today you look at what goes on in the platform and they're just, they resemble what happens in the secular world. A lot of, not the majority, but a lot of worship leaders look like secular rock stars. The way they act, the way they carry themselves. Preachers look like Hollywood, you know, showman cultural icons, you know, popular and gaining all the popularity and trying, I mean, all these little antics that are working in the world and preachers and ministers and worship leaders, they go, hey, you know, if the people are applauding and the crowds are coming, why not learn from the guys that have the crowds? Because the guys that have the crowds aren't obeying the Word of God. That's why we don't learn from them. We want to search out God's way, because the day is coming when we, the Lord is going to release a greater manifestation of His glory. I mean the glory of God's already in the church right now, or you wouldn't be born again sitting here right now. It's not like the glory of God's all future, but there's a new measure of the glory coming that is going to be dramatic, and I tell you that, I tell our worship leaders all the time, I don't want to find out what the cool popular worship groups do down the road, that they're imitating the pop stars. I want to do that humble, God-centered humility, draw attention to Jesus, not to us. Let's do it the biblical way. That's where the glory of God is going. Though you can look at a whole lot going around the world, and a lot that's big and a lot that glitters and a lot that people are applauding isn't in the style or of the character and the values that are clearly in the Word of God, Old and New Testament alike. Well, paragraph C, verse 8, David, after this man dies, he's angry, because Uzzah dies. He gets killed suddenly, this young man suddenly dies, and there's 30,000 choice leaders that are endorsing this big procession, and it's going to be the new day in Jerusalem. It's the most historic day, and a man that's sincere and walking with God, and we're bringing the ark back, he dies. He died, God. The whole thing, I mean, you rained on our parade. The whole thing is messed up now. David's angry. Now, the commentators are divided. Some believe he's angry at God, and that's a very wrong attitude. He ought to be humbling himself, repenting. Others believe he's angry at himself and his leadership team that didn't search out the Word of God, that they were so presumptuous, and we're not sure which one he was angry. I want to lean on, because I know David's heart from the Scripture. I'm thinking he's angry at himself and his team that they didn't take time to consult the Word of God, because in 1 Chronicles 15, I have it early on page 2, I have the passage there, 1 Chronicles 15, verse 13, where it says, they didn't consult God's ways in bringing up the ark, and that's why the judgment came. I think David's angry for that reason, not angry at God and saying, how dare you, God. He's saying, why didn't we become more careful? Why didn't we stop and remember who it is that we're relating to? Then, verse 9, he became afraid. After he's angry, he became afraid. He goes, wait, we touch the ark and it kills a man. We bring that ark 10 more miles. 50,000 died in that one Israelite city. Beth Shemesh, remember 70 years ago, 50,000 died. David goes, what if I bring that ark into Jerusalem and it all goes bad? He goes, tumors broke out in those three cities in the Philistines, cities, when they had the ark, tumors and great destruction. David's afraid. He goes, wow, man, I'm going to bring your manifest glory into Jerusalem, but so far, in the last 70 years, three cities of the Philistines are wiped out. One city of Israel has been wiped out, or a whole region, 50,000 people. The one guy that touches it is dead, and we're going to bring this into Jerusalem? This is going to be destruction for us. We're not dealing with a God that we're going to control, or we're not dealing with a God that is intimidated by all of our opinions. See, some folks think that if there's a popular idea out, and there's a million hits, and a lot of Christians applauding it, it must be right. I tell you, God is completely un-intimidated by the popular opinions of believers or unbelievers. He is God, and He never changes, and He's right, and He's good, and He's tender, and He's holy, and there's no contradiction in any of that. David said, verse 9, how could I bring it into the city? He goes, this is going to be bad. Verse 10, paragraph 4, I'm in Romans number 4, there's a pause on the whole plan. David says, whoa, verse 10, I'm not bringing the ark into the city of David. I'm not going to bring the ark into Jerusalem. I'm not going to do it. So, there's this man, Obed-Edom. I don't know if they're halfway on the journey of that 10-mile journey to Jerusalem. They're a little bit down the way. We don't know exactly how far, but there's this man, Obed-Edom, and David says, can we put this in your house? Obed-Edom, I mean, David says, I'm not going to risk Jerusalem, but would you do that? I mean, that's strange that Obed-Edom was willing to take a risk, but David didn't want to risk the entire city of Jerusalem. He goes, I don't know how this works yet. I don't know what God's saying just yet. Verse 11, the ark remained in Obed-Edom's house for three months. You know, again, the 10-mile journey, they're probably about halfway there, maybe. We don't know exactly, but they put the ark, and they find out, they get reports. Verse 11, God is blessing everything Obed-Edom is touching, his entire house. Everything is prospering. David says, well, that's what I want to happen in Jerusalem. I want the whole city to prosper in the glory of God. So David, undoubtedly, because of 1 Chronicles 15, 13, they are, now they're consulting the Word of God, and they're finding out what God said through Moses back in Numbers 4. Again, I have all this on the notes here, top of page 4, Roman numeral 5, so they get it clear. They know how to celebrate, but they also know how to honor the presence of God and to reverence His leadership and His ways. And I don't mean just His subjective leadership, where they hear by the Spirit and obey it, for sure I mean that, but His written Word. I mean, the Word of God is becoming more and more unpopular in the church. But I tell you, the Lord's going to have a total reversal. The Word of God is going to be absolutely central to the church after God's own heart. David brought up the ark. He says, okay, I know God's way. The message is clear. He could bring it up with gladness. Now David was dancing, verse 14, with all of his might. Again, they probably have 3, 4 miles, 5 miles to go in that 10-mile journey. Maybe Obed-Edom, I'm just guessing, it's halfway in between. I'm just saying that just to kind of get the word picture in your mind of what it looks like. So they got, you know, 3, 4 mile procession. David's wearing a linen ephod. Now an ephod was like an apron. It's larger than an apron. Go down to the knees or the thighs. It'd cover both the front and the back. The priests wore ephods. It was kind of like a vest, apron-type garment. But others wore ephods as well when they were ministering to the Lord. So David puts on this linen ephod, verse 16, and as the ark is coming into that 11-acre piece of property, the city of David, Michael, David's wife, looks through the window. Now David has several wives at this time, and she has got, in my opinion, is really entrenched in bitterness towards David and towards the Lord at this time. What's happened in her family? Her father has died. All of her brothers have died. There's been a civil war, and her family has completely been ousted in terms of prominence and prestige and honor in the nation. And the rebel, the criminal, the outlaw, the fugitive David wins. She's already married another man. Now she comes back to him, and she's bitter at David. She's bitter at God. This is my opinion. She's bitter at how things have unfolded. She looks at David coming into the city. She's leaping and twirling, and she despises him. She looks at him. Now here's what happens when somebody gets offended. The way they interpret, whatever event's happening, they're going to interpret it in a bad light. So she's looking at one of the most glorious, epic events in the history of salvation, I mean it's not because she's angry at the ark, or doesn't believe in the power of the ark, because she knows she's an Israelite woman, and she gets it. But she's offended at God and offended at David in my opinion. Now it tells us here, 1 Chronicles 15, remember that's the passage, 1 Chronicles 15 elaborates, gives a few more details. Verse 27, it's the same story, but it adds a different line in verse 27, that David was wearing a robe. But all the Levites, a whole bunch of the people were wearing that linen robe like David. I mean many of them had it. So what David's done is he's taken off that royal robe. And you can read the notes later, as she's despising him, what she is despising is the fact that he's taken off his royal status, and he's acting like a commoner, an ordinary man, one of many. And she goes, this is ridiculous. Look at the way you're carrying on, you're a king, and you're acting like a common man, which really meant, the dignity that I have as your wife, and the royal family is being demeaned in the eyes of the people. When you took off that robe, you were saying you're like one of them. And David says, when I'm in the presence of God, I'm not a king. When I'm in the presence of God, I am one of them. I'm just a weak man before a gracious, pure, and holy God, and that's what I plan to be all of my days. That's the message of what's going on here. Well let's go on to Roman numeral six. Roman numeral six, just to kind of get a little bit more on Michael, then we'll bring this to a close. Verse 20, because in the verse before that we're skipping over, David blesses all of Israel, I mean, blesses the city, because the message is that when the presence of God is released, though there's holiness, though there is judgment that appears, there is celebration, and gladness, and goodness. It's like a snapshot of the marriage supper of the Lamb ahead of time. The city is enjoying food, and they're celebrating, but they've just seen judgment three months earlier, and God is saying, this is an event of celebration, but I don't change my character, though I want the celebration and the gladness to be in context of what I'm doing. So now David, verse 20, returns to bless his own household. He's already blessed the city in the verses that we skipped over. He goes in to bless his own household, and of course one of the principles here is, you don't want to get so busy in ministry that you don't keep your commitment to your own household. I like this point here, that the emphasis of the anointed man of God is bringing attention to his own family. This is a big point. I'm not going to develop that right now, because we're out of time. So now, the next time Michael's mentioned, in verse 16 she's mentioned, now she's mentioned again in verse 20. This time, she's not looking out the window. She comes out to meet him. Now David's in the city of David. Remember this 11 acre piece of property. She's been looking out the window, despising him. Now she comes kind of, I can picture her, full of energy, venting. How dare you carry on like this? You took your royal robes off and acted like a commoner. Look at you. Now she exaggerates and charges David. A lot of folks have taken this in a completely wrong way, because what she's doing in her bitterness is accusing him, and he answers her exactly opposite, because he wasn't doing what she exaggerated, and what she falsely charged him up. He goes, oh how glorious you look today. Sarcasm. She's venting with anger. Uncovering yourself. Some people say that David took all of his clothes off. That's not what he did. He took his royal robe off. David was presenting himself as a commoner. That's what's happening. But she's exaggerating. What's happened so often, somebody gets bitter, the whole storyline of what happens changes. He goes, in all the eyes of the maiden, you look like one of the base fellows. David answers. He brings the truth, the storyline, the narrative right back to what really happened. He goes, I'll tell you, verse 21, what's really happening, Michael. This is what you're talking out of. The Lord chose me, not your father. I know what you're talking from right now. I know where this story, this twisting, this perverting of what happened, this misrepresentation, I know where it's coming from. He goes, I didn't choose me. God did, and I go with God. He goes, I didn't touch your father, but the Lord chose me and replaced him. He didn't choose your house. He made me ruler. David's not gloating, but he's trying to bring her into reality as to why she's so troubled. She thinks she's troubled because he was dancing before the ark. He goes, therefore, he goes, I play music. He goes, I wasn't indecent. He goes, the indignity is I took my royal robe off and I played music. No king has ever done this before. Joined the band, so to speak. Celebrating, you know, over the years, every now and then a president ends up on one of those talk shows and they play an instrument and the whole nation's like, whatever. You know, the president gets all kinds of opinions about it. David goes, there was nothing wrong with that. I don't need to boast in my royal robes and fight for my position. We're in the presence of God. We're all down before the Lord. He goes, you think I was undignified because I didn't insist on my titles and my pomp and ceremony? You think that you were insulted by me demeaning our royal status before the city? He goes, well, I'll be humble in my sight. He goes, I know who I am. I'm a weak and broken man. I might be a king in the eyes of man, but I'm a sinner in the eyes of God that needs his grace. He goes, as for the maid servants that you think won't honor me because I don't push forth my royal robe status and my kingly status and flex my muscles, meaning my kingly power is the point I'm making. He goes, the nation will respect me living before God in humility. I'm not concerned about that. They will receive me as king and still see me as a weak man before God. And therefore, Michael, the daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death. Now, she is struck with barrenness by the judgment of God. Now, this passage has been misconstrued a number of times, a number of ways. Number one, a lot of people, I mean, this is a very painful passage to some women who long to have children. Can't they go, you mean I'm under the judgment of God? No. Remember what's happening. The ark of the covenant, the glory of God one time ever is entering into the city and she's accusing it. So that's a huge statement. This isn't a judgment of God on a woman who doesn't have a child. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about she is standing in the spirit of her father in direct opposition and the Lord says, there's not going to be a child in that family line coming out of your womb, the family line of Saul. It's not going to happen. That's the spirit you're still operating in. So this isn't a statement about women being judged because they're barren. But it is a statement about believers being barren spiritually because they disregard the presence of God and they have no time or value for it. Another misapplication of this is this idea that David acted undignified. And I've seen a lot of guys over the, you know, my 40 years of pastoring and they think the undignified was the fact that he took off his royal robes and he was playing with the band and he was dancing for the Lord. So some people think the way to really be David is to have the most eccentric, crazy behavior in a public service to prove they're David. That is not what's going on here. That's a complete misrepresentation. And I've seen some real bizarre behavior in the name of this passage. And I just want to encourage that that's not the spirit of what David's about. This was genuine humility, not eccentric behavior, making everybody wonder why he's so crazy. Because his wife wasn't really doing that. She was actually mistelling the story because she was so angry at her husband and at the Lord. Well, amen and amen. There's a lot to learn from this passage. I tell you, I look over this passage often and say, Lord, I want to be like David instructed. I want to love your presence, pursue you with all my heart like David. Amen and amen. Let's stand before the Lord.