What's The Meaning of Life? | 2 Samuel 6

Good morning, brothers and sisters in Christ. Welcome to Watermark Community Church. My name is John. I'm one of the teaching pastors. Recently, Laura and I went to Nashville, Tennessee, because there's a church that comes to every Church Leaders Conference. They and their team come down and visit, and they had asked if we would come up there and teach on Sunday, so we were there last weekend.

While we were there, on Saturday, we pop into this coffee shop, and we're sitting there. I've never been there. I'm talking to the waitress. This is a sit-down menu situation at this coffee shop. They take their coffee very seriously. I usually drink it black, so I'm looking at this menu, and I'm like, "I don't know what to do." So, I tell the waitress, "I've never been here. I'll probably never be again. What should I get?"

Someone who was not even sitting at our table, this young adult woman, was like, "You should get the Havana." I was like, "All right. Cool. I'll take the Havana." So, I get the Havana, and we're drinking it and enjoying our stuff. We'd brought in some doughnuts from this crazy doughnut shop that's there near the coffee shop.

As we were sitting there, Laura got up to use the restroom, or something, and the woman who was there… I was like, "Hey, by the way, the Havana…that's legit. Thank you. Great recommendation." She was like, "Yeah, of course. Where are you from?" I was like, "Dallas." She was like, "Oh, I'm going to be in Dallas in, like, two weeks." I was like, "Cool. For what?" She was like, "For work. I'm in the sex industry." I just kept drinking my coffee, trying not to…

Then she started telling me what she does in the sex industry. "Yeah. We throw these parties. We invite people. [Blah, blah, blah.]" Some of your eyebrows are raised, like mine were. Laura walked up at that point in time and sat back down, and the woman was sharing about sex as I was sitting there listening. She was like, "You know, I leave for two minutes, and this is…"

Then the woman was like, "So, what do you do?" I was like, "Uh, I'm a pastor." She started choking on her coffee. She was like, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. That probably really offended you." I was like, "No. It doesn't offend me. God invented sex. He made sex. He invented it as a gift for his people. It's just people get hurt when we misuse it, but, no, that doesn't… My God made sex." She was like, "Huh." I was like, "Hey, you surprise me. I'll surprise you."

We started talking. I was like, "I'm a recovering alcoholic. I was a drunk. I was an idiot. Jesus saved me and changed my whole life." She was like, "Well, I actually… I don't know about sin, really. I believe that we're actually divine." She said this, because I was telling her about Jesus. She said, "I believe that I'm actually as close to God as Jesus."

I was like, "Well, Jesus is God in flesh, so, that's probably not the case." She was like, "Well, no, it is. I believe I'm divine and you're divine." I was like, "No. So, what the Bible teaches is that we're made in the image of God, but we're not divine. He alone is God. As we trust in Jesus, then we can be filled with the Holy Spirit, but we're still not divine. The divine comes and dwells within us."

She was like, "Yeah, I don't believe that. I believe all people are right with God no matter what they are, no matter what their lifestyle, no matter what you've done in your past or in your present, that everyone is right with God because of his love." I was like, "Well, I believe that because of his love everyone can be forgiven. We need to repent and trust in Jesus. Then we can be forgiven, not because of what we've done but because of what he did."

We started to have these divergent paths as we were there. Then she goes, "Well, let me ask you one thing. You know, you're talking about your past a lot. Have you forgiven yourself?" I was like, "That's a great question. Here's the deal. I can't forgive myself." She was kind of nodding, like, "I can tell. I can tell you're living in shame." Laura, truly, was like, "She was about to go counselor therapy on you."

I was like, "Well, here's the thing. I haven't forgiven myself." She was like, "Yeah, I can tell." I was like, "Because I can't. I'm the one who committed the sin, so how in the world could I forgive myself of the very sin I committed? That would be like a murderer on trial saying to the bailiff and the judge, 'You know what? Time served. I forgive myself' and walking out of the courtroom."

At that point, the whole conversation changed, and she was like, "Huh. Thank you for that." I was like, "I think that's what you need to wrestle with. Can you actually be forgiven? You can't by forgiving yourself." It was a rock in her shoe. It got her attention. It got her attention because what she had done was she had been like, "Well, I'll take a little bit of 'God loves.' I'll take a little bit of 'Everybody is okay just as they are.' We're all broken, and we're okay. I'll take a little bit of 'We're all divine.'"

She had constructed her own god that she desired. As a result, she was not living a full, abundant life. She was being used and mistreated all under the veil of joy, but it was false, fleeting pleasure and poison. I think we do the exact same thing. I think we have created God and conformed him into the image that most appeals to us, that appeases us, that's comfortable to us, instead of taking God for who he is and conforming ourselves to him, that he is holy, righteous, just, and altogether perfect, and as a result, he is full of love, mercy, and truth, and gives us hope.

We can't conform God; we are to be conformed to God. What you'll see in the life of David today are three questions we can pull out of David's story. These three questions are so important to our very meaning of life. Not that we would shape God into our lives but that we would shape our lives to God.

The three questions are these. Do you want God?Augustine said we are restless until we find our rest in God. If you want him, do you fear God? Do you understand his holiness, and do you fear him? If you want God and you fear him, then, as a result, do you worship him? Do you worship him with your entire life?

We're going to be in 2 Samuel, chapter 6. What you're going to see here in the life of David is that when those three questions are answered, he lives in the fullness of joy. This is the most joy-filled historical account you will see in David's life. When he is in the presence of God, he's incredibly full of joy. That will be where we'll spend our time. So, 2 Samuel, chapter 6. We're not going to walk through it right now. We're going to look at it individually as we get to our three points, but here's the situation.

The ark had been left. It was left in this no-name, backwoods town, guarded by one person. God resided over the ark of the covenant in which were the Ten Commandments, the budded staff, the manna, the holy cherubim, the presence of God, the mercy seat, the holiness of God, and there was one cat, one guy, guarding it in some no-name town. They'd just put it aside. They were like, "We'll call you when we need you. If we get in really bad trouble, maybe then we'll come ask."

As TA shared last week, David establishes Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel and Judah, joining together this nation, and as his very first act, he's like, "We have to get God here." Wasn't God omnipresent? "We need the manifest, personal presence of God." So, David takes 30,000 men, marches nine miles away, gets the ark of the covenant, and puts it on a brand-new cart with oxen to drive it to Jerusalem. As they do, the oxen stumble at the threshing floor. This guy, Uzzah, puts out his hands to try to stabilize the ark, and when he touches the ark, he drops dead.

David is like, "Dude, then how can God come to me? If that's what happens in the presence of God, then get the ark away again." They put the ark again with this no-name person, Obed-edom the Gittite. They put it at his house. He gets blessed like crazy, so David is like, "All right. Well, maybe it is good, because now he's getting blessed, and I'm not blessed, and he has the presence of God, but I don't have the presence of God." They flip back through the Scripture. They're like, "Oh! We did it wrong. We're trying to conform God to what we want versus living according to his way."

So, they realize, "Okay. We brought God, the ark of the covenant, in the wrong way." So, now they do it the right way, and it results in overflowing praise through the streets of Jerusalem. There's blessing. There's giving. There's sacrifice. There is joy because of repentance. Without repentance, there would never have been the rejoicing there was, and there wouldn't have been the manifest presence of God. So, do you want to know God? Do you fear God? And if you do, will you worship God?

1. Do you know God? This is 2 Samuel 6:1-4. "David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale-judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who…" Who, not what. "…sits enthroned on the cherubim." _

Enthroned…a title, a verb, for a king. David the king goes and gets God the King. He's like, "If we're going to have a capital city, it is you who will rule. I may be a human king; you are the eternal King who sits enthroned." "And they carried the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab…" There's the one guy who was guarding it. "…which was on the hill. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart, with the ark of God, and Ahio went before the ark."

Now, why did they have to go get the ark? They had to go get the ark because they had put it aside. In 1 Chronicles 13, you get a more expanded, detailed picture as they retell the story of Israel in Chronicles. When you look at 1 Chronicles 13, David says, "Let us bring the ark of our God back to us, for we did not inquire of it during the reign of Saul."

A lot of times we think, "Well, Saul didn't inquire of God. Saul just kind of ran his own offense." Here we see that because of leadership, all of the laity, all of the people, were like, "Well, if you don't follow God, we're not either. If you're going to do what's good in your own eyes, then we will too." So, Saul didn't follow God. He didn't seek God. He didn't inquire of God, and neither did the people. It's not just that Saul did wrong; the entire nation had fallen astray. They had put away the ark.

So, David now, as king, with a new capital city, is like, "My very first act will be to bring God here." You should probably be thinking, "Wait. Isn't one of the attributes of God omnipresence? Isn't God present at all places at all times with all people?" Yes. He is omnipresent, filling all of creation. He is as present here as he is in Australia, Saudi Arabia…everywhere. God is present. It's his omnipresence.

So, what are they doing bringing the ark with the presence of God, who sits enthroned, to Jerusalem? Well, there's a difference between the omnipresence of God and the personal, manifest presence of God. So, they're like, "Yes, God is everywhere." Psalm 139: "Where can man flee from your presence?" But he's like, "But I know you dwell, you sit enthroned, above the ark of the covenant, so we want you. We want you with us." The question begs…Do we?

My in-laws took us skiing this past spring break. We came off of a lift. We were going down one run down to the next lift, and I was like, "Hey, when we get to the bottom, there's a good view. Let's stop and take a family photo." The kids had just learned to ski. Laura had been skiing all her life. So, we were trying to keep track of the kids. I didn't think I'd have to keep track of my wife, but when we got to the bottom, this was the picture.

The kids snowplow down. I stop. We're there, and Laura just wobbles and crashes. It wasn't the first crash. This was happening on repeat the whole time. I was like, "What in the world? Have you really been skiing all of your life?" She was like, "It has been a while." I was like, "Clearly." The reason we have that picture… When we got there, I had handed some lady my phone. I was like, "Hey, will you snap a family photo?" She was like, "Yeah."

Laura careens down and falls, and I'm like, "Take the picture." She's like, "Your wife has fallen." I'm like, "I know! I know! Take the picture! Take the picture!" She's like, "What are you…? Your wife is on the ground." I'm like, "Please take the picture. Please take the picture. We've got to document this." Even in that moment, that lady knew, "Dude, you're sick. Kick off your skis and go help your wife."

She knew, "There's a problem here. Aren't you all in covenant together? Why in the world are you not with your wife? Why do you want a picture without your wife who you're in covenant with?" It's the same case with us. You see, when Saul was reigning, God wasn't in the picture. He was way, way, way, way in the background in some no-name town, guarded by some dude, one guy. He was not in the picture. So, where is it in your life that he's not in the picture?

If you're in Jesus, you're in covenant relationship with God, but I think, so often, when people look at our lives, when we look at our lives… You know, standing there, and it's like, "Where's God? He's not in your dating. He's not in your finances. He's not in your marriage. He's not in your work. He's not in your studies or in your sports. Isn't God supposed to be in the picture? You're a Christian, right? I've heard you talk about being a Christian. Where is God in your life?"

We start to make compromises, and we start to be like, "Well, I don't need you in this area. I'll let you know if I need you to bail me out, but…" So, it begs the question…Do we really want God? In our heart of hearts, do we want God? It says in Romans 6:23, "Christ Jesus, our Lord." He's given two titles. It's not à la carte, like the woman in the story. It's not à la carte. He has two titles: Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One, the one who saves) and Lord (kurios, our Master). He is Lord. I think we want him to save us. I'm not sure we want him to rule us.

Here, David is saying, "Hey, if we're going to have a city, and if we're going to be a nation, and if you're going to make me king, then you be King. We're not going anywhere without you. We want you in the picture, all of the picture." But there was a problem. The way they brought God in was on a cart, a new cart at that, but they weren't supposed to have brought him in on a cart.

The Philistines, when they took the ark of the covenant, sent the ark of the covenant back on a cart, so I think they thought, "Well, that worked out well. The ark of the covenant came right back to us. God didn't seem to have a problem with the cart then. And it's nine miles away. It's going to be really taxing to carry that gold-covered ark with all of its contents all the way back to Jerusalem. Let's just put it on a cart. You know what? Make it a new cart."

In that, they made a compromise, because the Scriptures said the ark of the covenant was to be carried by Levites on poles. It was a compromise. It was a compromise of convenience. It was a compromise of preference. It was a compromise of ignorance. It was a compromise that negated the holiness of God. What you'll see in the next part is that a guy died because of that compromise.

My question right now for you, every single person in this room, is…Where is there compromise in your life? We say we want God, yet where is there compromise? Where is there, like, "I want you. I want your forgiveness. I want you to save me from the eternal fire of hell. I want to worship you, but in this area, I'm going to go my own way. I'm going to put you on a cart, so to say. Even though you've told me otherwise…I know you have…with my sexuality, with my friendships, with my whatever, I'm going to go my own way."

I was installing a ceiling fan last night…well, taking out an old one and replacing it with a new one. The components were totally different, which was really, really, really sanctifying, as I took the old one out, and it had different wires, a different structure, a different mounting kit. I was like, "Oh my goodness!" It was driving me crazy. But I finally got it in. Laura was praying. The kids were praying. I was like, "I need help. This doesn't add up in my mind."

I was literally Googling "Which wire is hot?" Like, "Is it the black or is it the white? I don't know what I'm doing." It was that bad. But I finally got it working. I turned it on. The fan spun. The light turned on. I was amazed. Laura was amazed. The kids were amazed. I went to pick up my tools, and I was like, "Oh no!" I saw this little stainless-steel bar. It was tiny. It probably cost 5 cents. It's about the size of a paper clip. I was like, "Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!"

Laura was like, "What?" I was like, "I have to take it apart." She was like, "No! It's great. It's working great, and you have to prepare for tomorrow." I was like, "I have to." She was like, "Why?" I was like, "It literally could fall out of the ceiling with live electricity. This is really bad." It's over our bed, by the way, so it could have been very chaotic. She was like, "Well, what is that?"

I was like, "That's the bracket that holds the thing to the ceiling. All that's holding it right now is this tiny, little quarter-inch screw that's really just supposed to keep it all aligned. It has no load-bearing capability. I've left it out." I had to take the whole thing apart, to great expense to myself, to a huge amount of pain, to a loss of time, all because there was a compromise. There was a small but huge compromise.

I wonder what that is in your life. Ask the Holy Spirit. You're not here for information; it's for transformation. So, right now, be like, "What is it?" Maybe he has already brought it to mind. You're like, "I know exactly what it is." I'll go first. This last week, Laura rebuked me. I got home, and she was like, "Hey, you've got to change. This is eating you up. You've got to change. I can't bear this anymore." Do you want to know what it was? It was complaining.

In my mind, I was like, "Well, I'm just telling you about how things are. I'm just telling you about the negative thing that happened or was said or that may come to pass." I was reading this book. I didn't hear it from her at first, but I'm reading this book about the fear of God, and he talks about 1 Corinthians 10, how the Israelites, when they were brought out of Egypt, dropped dead in the desert. It lists five reasons, and the very last reason was grumbling…complaining.

People died because of complaining. God was like, "Hey, I brought you out of slavery. I've provided for you. I've protected you. I've delivered you. I am taking you to a promised land, and you're going to complain?" And they died. That was the small compromise in my life. That was the piece where I was like, "All right. At expense to myself, at a loss of time…" So, I had to thank Laura and ask her forgiveness. "You were right. You were totally right. I couldn't hear it from you at first. I came across this Scripture, and you're totally right." So, where is there compromise?

In the New Testament, there are over a thousand commands. A thousand commands in the New Testament alone. That's more than the Old, by the way. The instruction manual on my fan… I mean, no wonder I forgot one little piece. There are so many instructions. There are so many instructions here, and you would not be able to memorize them.

What are you going to do? Wake up in the morning and be like, "Okay. I've got to follow all a thousand commands"? You can't. It's the role of the Holy Spirit. Ours is to trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. Then we're indwelt by the Spirit. Then the Spirit is going to lead us to follow those commands, but he's going to bring the ones that have been broken to our minds that we can repent from them. Do you want God?

1. Do you fear God? If you want God, do you fear God? This is 2 Samuel 6:5-11. "And David and all the house of Israel were making merry before the Lord…" They were worshiping. The ark had come into Jerusalem for the first time ever.

with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. 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 struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God. And David was angry because the Lord had burst forth against Uzzah.

And that place is called Perez-uzzah, to this day. And 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 Obed-edom the Gittite. And the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household."

Now I want to talk about the holiness of God and the fear of God. I'm not great with home projects and all that. The electricity, when I was working with the ceiling fan… It's a little nerve-racking, because you have wires coming out of the ceiling. I don't even know which are which. You know, there's red, black, and green. I have these components that don't add up, and I'm touching the metal of the wires. You know, kind of like jelly, like, "Okay. I hope this thing is not hot."

I had turned off the switch. I didn't turn off the breaker, even though you're supposed to, but I didn't. I hit the switch, because I was like, "Eh, no power is going to go to it." There I am, touching these wires, and I have a soberness of spirit, because I had Googled previously, "Can a 110 charge kill you?" Laura didn't know these things. She was like, "Turn the breaker off." I was like, "Well, I need the other light to shine on this so I can fix this light." She was like, "You're crazy."

Anyway, 110 can kill you, by the way. So, here I am, touching these wires, and I have a true reverence for these wires. Like, "This could go really bad. This is very serious." Now, I wasn't afraid of the electricity, but I feared the electricity. You might be like, "That's the same thing. You're being redundant." It's not.

If I was afraid of electricity, I would live off the grid in a log cabin with no electricity and make my own jam. That would be how I'd live. Instead, I live in a house that, frankly, is surrounded by electricity. There's electricity in the walls. There are outlets that are there. All of the appliances have electricity. There are things running lights. It's full of electricity. The whole thing is… And I want the electricity.

If I was afraid of it, I wouldn't have it. If I fear it, I live with it, and I live with it in a way that reveres, stands in awe, knows the power, and I handle it accordingly. So it is with God. To be afraid of God is to not want God. To fear God is to want him, to know him, and to live with him according to his will and his ways.

Here's the deal: you can't. The holiness of God, that Uzzah would reach out and touch the ark and drop dead… Well, then, how in the world can we approach God, sinful as we are? Thanks be to Jesus Christ our Lord. This is why Jesus came. If God is infinitely holy and we are innumerably sinful, then how in the world could we be together?

Only because of Jesus Christ who came and died in our place, absorbed the wrath of God, was dead and buried, and then rose again, showing that he had overcome sin, death, and Satan, and built a bridge to reconcile us back to Holy God, though we were unholy in our sin. That is the way. It's why Uzzah died and you yet have not. If you are in Jesus, you're forgiven, so you can boldly approach the throne of grace. Only because of Jesus.

I think about Uzzah dying, and it's like, "Man! Dude. God was pretty amped up in the Old Testament. Uzzah died. The earth swallowed people up. There were fiery serpents that would bite people, and they would die. People complained, and they died in the desert. I complain. I don't drop dead. That's an Old Testament thing. It's not a New Testament thing." It's not an Old Testament thing or a New Testament thing; it's a God thing. God is holy.

You get to the New Testament, and you see Ananias and Sapphira who lied to try to make themselves look good. They dropped dead. Or you get to Herod, and they're like, "Behold! The words of a god!" Because Herod wasn't like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! There is a God, and I am not him," he dropped dead in a moment and was devoured by worms.

Or maybe you get to 1 Corinthians 5, where it says a man is in sexual sin, unrepentant sexual sin. Some of you need to hear this…unrepentant sexual sin. Paul says, "Turn him over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his soul might be saved on the last day." Like, "Wait. What? Turn him over to Satan that his flesh would be destroyed?" Yes, because of the holiness of God. He says a little sin will work through the whole batch. A little leaven will go through the whole lump. He's saying a little sin, if not repented from, in the holy body of Christ, will work its way through, so turn him over to Satan.

Or maybe 1 Corinthians 11, where it's talking about the Lord's Supper. You're like, "I didn't know the Lord's Supper was dangerous." It is. He says, "Some of you, because you have not examined yourself under the holiness of God, the sinfulness of sin, and the only way is through the blood of Jesus Christ…" It says, "This is why some of you are sick or have even died, because in a brazen way and a disregard of sin, you have come and taken Communion and been like, 'I'm right with God,' though you may not have Christ." The holiness of God. To fear the Lord.

Now we have tee shirts that say, "Jesus is my homeboy," or you have a Jesus bobblehead sitting on your desk at work. God is holy. That same Jesus who you have a bobblehead of… When John was writing Revelation, when he was given this vision of Jesus… It says that when he saw the glorified Christ, he fell to the ground as though one who was dead.

The Lord's Prayer begins, "Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be thy name." We don't say hallowed a lot because there is only one who is hallowed. Hallowed means to revere, to be in awe. It is the case. Oswald Chambers says, "Am I becoming more and more in love with God as a holy God or with the conception…" I would say invention. "…of an amiable Being who says, 'Oh well, sin doesn't matter much'?"

I don't think it's insignificant, and I don't think it's accidental that it says at the threshing floor of Nacon is where the oxen stumbled and Uzzah tried to stabilize the cart and dropped dead. It was at the threshing floor. The threshing floor is where you take wheat and smash it, smash it, and smash it. You take it and flip it up into the air, and the chaff is separated from the wheat kernel and blows in the wind as the heavy wheat falls back to the ground. It's a separation of the chaff and the wheat. It's a separation of the profane and the holy. It's a separation of holy and sin.

So, here we have a threshing floor where God separates Uzzah and his sinfulness from the holiness and presence of God. He separates them at the threshing floor, and it means something to us, because here we have a threshing floor. The church is a threshing floor…not unto death but unto repentance, unto holiness…that here we would receive a threshing to separate the evil from the good, the sin from the holy, that we would come back together.

Hebrews 3:13: "Remind yourselves, encourage one another, as long as it is called 'Today,' so you will not be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." The body of Christ is a threshing floor meant to help separate the evil out of us, just like Laura was like, "You've got to stop complaining," and she was right.

Or the threshing floor of the Holy Spirit that, hopefully, earlier in the message, reminded you of some compromise. Like, "I've got to turn from that. I can't neglect a sin, no matter how small it may be, like the compromise of the cart. Whatever it is, I've got to turn from it." The Holy Spirit reminds you of that. And we have the threshing floor of the Word of God that shows us again and again and again. It says, "Sanctify them by truth; your word is truth."

Then the fear of God. It says David was afraid. He was afraid, so he put the ark aside. It wasn't a fear of God; he was afraid of God. Like, "Whoa! If that's how you roll…you kill people when they touch you…then I don't want to be with you." Think about the words, the difference between scared and sacred. Look at the words…scared and sacred. It's the exact same letters. There's one letter that's in a different place, one singular letter. It's the letter C. The letter C is in a different place, and the letter C being in a different place changes it from being scared to being sacred.

So it is with Christ. Where you put Christ in your life will determine if you should be scared of God and the wrath that is to come and eternal judgment and separation from him in hell or if you have been made sacred, holy unto God, because you've trusted in Jesus. Like, "No. I am no longer afraid of him, though I still fear him, but I draw near to him because he loves me, because I've been made sacred."

Listen to the words of Luke, chapter 12. "I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!" Listen to the change. "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows."

You're like, "Well, God, which is it? You just said, 'Don't fear those who can kill the body. Instead, fear the one who can kill the body and cast into hell forever. Fear him.' Then you said, 'But fear not. Are you of not much more value?'" So, fear, revere, and fear not. You know, I used to be afraid of cops because I was a drunk. I was an idiot, so I was afraid of them. I would run from them, lie to them, and hide from them.

Now when I see cops, I walk up to them. I thank them. "Can I buy you a coffee? Can I buy you a meal? Can I put my hand on your shoulder and pray for you? You're the Romans 13 sword protecting the city." There's a difference. I was afraid. Now I fear them and love them. So it is with God. So, if you want God, you'll fear God, and if you want and fear God, you will worship God.

1. Do you worship God? This is in 2 Samuel 6:12-23. What you see here is that there's repentance. Instead of bringing the ark in on a cart, now the Levites are bringing it in on poles, as they should have in the very first place. No one is touching it. It says in Numbers 4:15, "If you touch the ark of the covenant, you'll die." God had told them. They were being cavalier with him.

Now they're like, "Okay. We're going to follow you your way and worship you in holiness." So it says in verse 12, "And it was told King David, 'The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.'" Just three months living with God, and everybody had noticed, all the way up to the king. So it will be with your life.

If you start worshiping God with all of your life in every area of your life because you want God and fear God and worship God, it will not be even three months before people are taking notice, like, "Dude, there's something different with you. The joy of the Lord is on you. You have peace. There's provision. You're not worried." Just three months, and everybody all the way up to the king knew.

"…to the city of David with rejoicing. And when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal. And David danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn."

There was this overflowing, effusive worship of God as they repented and were following God in the way of God and received the joy of God. It overflowed to them. It's the greatest amount of joy we see, historically, in the life of David, when he wanted God, feared God, and was worshiping God. It was like fullness of joy poured out on this brother.

But there's death again. First, there was death with Uzzah. Uzzah touches the ark and dies. Now there's death again, but this time, there's death as an act of sacrifice. They go six steps carrying the ark, and they're like, "And now we stop." They sacrificed an animal as an offering to God to show that they were sinful and God was holy, as a fragrant offering to the Lord.

It says in Hebrews that the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sins. It was altogether insufficient. So, here we stand before a holy God, and we're like, "Well, then, what about me? We're not offering the blood of bulls and goats." It's Jesus. It demanded the death of Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. This is the reason for which he came. He came for you because he loves you.

It's the reason he came. There was no other way. There had to be a sacrifice in order for us to enter into the presence of God, and not just to enter into the presence of God but to receive the holiness of God, his holy presence now dwelling with us. From omnipresence to dwelling with Adam and Eve, then to the ark of the covenant and the tabernacle, and then you see Jesus. He tabernacled with us…Immanuel, God with us. Then the ascension, and then the coming of the Holy Spirit.

You talk about the holiness of God. Listen to this in 1 Corinthians 3. Think as if God does not think that he is holy and now, thus, you are holy if you live according to and with him because of Jesus. "Do you not know that you are God's temple…" You are God's temple. His holy presence, his Holy Spirit, dwelling within you. "…that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?"

Listen. Listen to how seriously God takes his presence and his holiness. "If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple." Oh! It's unbelievable. All because of Jesus. I've said before we're unworthy. We're unworthy. We're unworthy servants. We're unworthy because of our sin. We never could stand in the presence of God, yet we are of great worth. Unworthy and of great worth. Which is it? Those feel incongruent.

Here's the deal. We're unworthy because of our sin, but we're of great worth, made in the image of God. You have an immortal soul that's going to spend eternity either separated from God in hell or together with God in heaven, and it all depends on what we do with Jesus. You know the value of something by what someone is willing to offer for it to get it.

In the case of you, God said, "I'll give my Son, my sinless, perfect Son, fully God, fully man. I'll give him in exchange for you." So, you're unworthy, but you're of great worth. That is why he sent Jesus as a free gift. You can't work your way to God. God has come to you, and he has done the work, that we could be in the holy presence of God, knowing the fear of God, and respond with a life of worship to God.

So, it says in Romans, chapter 12, "Therefore, in view of God's mercy…" In view of the gospel, in view of all that God has done in sending the Son…death, resurrection, and giving the Spirit. "In view of all of his mercy toward us (while we were still sinners, Christ died for us), offer your bodies as a living sacrifice." All that you are. All that you are in worship. All that you are.

You're going to see a bad example now from David. We saw a good example of dancing and rejoicing and shouting unto the Lord. He gives gifts to everyone. Giving is an act of worship. He has debased himself. He's in a linen ephod. He's not trying to make much of himself. He's making much of God. He's dancing before the Lord, like, "I don't care how they see me worship. I've got my hands up. I don't care if they judge me. I'm worshiping the Lord in the fullness of it." Then he goes home.

Oren Martin pointed this out to me. He goes, "You know, he worshiped corporately, but privately, he didn't worship. Privately, he goes home, and his home is a wreck." He goes to Michal and starts saying to Michal, who's Saul's daughter, "The Lord made me prince over all of Israel, not your dad…your dead dad, by the way. And you're just one of many wives at this point in time, and I have concubines too. So, you know what? I don't care if you don't like the way I worship, because I have other women. And I know I just took you from your other husband as he wept."

So, David worshiped corporately, and then he goes home privately. It says, "To bless his own household." Instead, he brought cursing on it. That's a question to leave here today with too. Will we worship corporately…? And we will. We're about to stand and worship corporately again. We're about to stand, hands lifted high, covering our faces, rejoicing before the Lord.

Then are you going to stop worshiping in private when you're before a computer screen, when you're with your girlfriend or boyfriend, when you're dealing with your finances? He is holy. If you're in Christ, you are his temple. "Therefore, in view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to the Lord. This is your spiritual act of worship." Your logical act of worship. To want God is to fear God is to worship God.

The girl who was in the coffee shop, at the end of the conversation… We had these gourmet doughnuts, and I was like, "Hey, we have one more doughnut. Do you want a doughnut?" She knew where they were from. It's world renowned. She was like, "Really? Yeah, I'd love to have one." It was in a box. I said, "Hey, before I give this to you, let me ask you something. Do you know what this doughnut tastes like?" There are a lot of different flavors. She was like, "No."

I was like, "You're right. You don't. The one who made it knows what it tastes like, and those who have tasted it know what it tastes like, but you can't tell me actually how this doughnut tastes because you haven't tasted it yet. But you're about to. When you do, you're going to see how amazing it is. Can I tell you something? That's what you've done with Jesus. You've told me you know what Jesus tastes like, but you've never tasted Jesus. I've tasted him. I know who he is."

I wrote on the top of the box John 14:6: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through the Son." Laura wrote on the box her cell phone number, like, "Hey, reach out to me. When you're in Dallas, reach out. I'd love to meet up again." Taste and see that the Lord is good. Let's pray.

Y'all, the band is going to come out, and we're going to get to sing a response in worship, but, first, just take a moment and ask God, "Where is it that I have compromise in my life? Show me. I want to walk holy as you are holy."

Now that he has brought that thing to mind, repent of it. You have no ability. The Spirit is the one who kills sin. Jesus is the one who forgives sin, so repent of it. The compromise that was just brought to mind… Speak it to God and say, "I confess this, and I repent of it by your power."

Now, lastly, just tell him you want to worship him. He's so good. He's so good. To worship God.

I want to worship you. We want to worship you in spirit and truth. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.

Y'all, stand to your feet, and let's worship the Lord one more time.