Now David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, 30,000, and David arose and went with all the people who were with him to Baal Judah to bring up from there the Ark of God, which is called by the name, the very name of the Lord of hosts, who is enthroned above the cherubim. They placed the Ark of God on a new cart that they might bring it from the house of Abinadab, and Oza and Ohio, the sons of Abinadab, were leading this new cart. They brought it with the Ark of God, meanwhile David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord. But all kinds of instruments made of furwood, liars, harps, tambourines, castonettes, cymbals. Now when they came to a threshing floor, Oza reached out through the Ark of God and took hold of it for the oxen nearly upset it, and the anger of the Lord burned against Oza, and God struck him down there for his irreverence, and he died there by the Ark of God, and David became angry because of the Lord's outburst against Oza, and that place is called Perez Oza to this day. So David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, how can the Ark of the Lord come to me? David was unwilling to move the Ark of the Lord into the city of David with him. He took it to the house of Obid, Edom, the Githite, and the Ark of the Lord remained there three months, and the Lord blessed that household. It was told to King David of that blessing, and David went and brought up the Ark of God from the house of Obid, Edom, and so it was that when the bears of the Ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling, and David was dancing before the Lord, all his might, wearing a linen effort, so David and all the house of Israel were bringing up the Ark of the Lord with shouting and the sound of the trumpet. Then it happened as the Ark of the Lord came into the city of David, that Michael, the daughter of Saul, looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised David in her heart. They brought the Ark in the Ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent, which David had pitched for it, and David offered burn offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. When he was finished, he blessed the people, in the name of the Lord of Host, and he distributed to all the people, men and women, cakes of bread and dates and the raisins, and all the people went to their homes, and when David returned to bless his household, Michael, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet David. She said, oh, how the King of Israel distinguished himself today. He uncovered himself today in the eyes of his servants, maids as one of the foolish ones shamelessly uncovered himself. So David said to Michael, it was before the Lord who chose me above your father and above all his house to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel, therefore I will celebrate before the Lord, and I will be more lightly esteemed in this and will be humble in my own eyes. But with the maids of whom you have spoken with them, I will be distinguished. And Michael, the daughter of Saul, had no child to the day of her death. May God bless this reading of his holy and infallible word. You may be seated, please. We don't do royalty very well in America. We don't get it. We don't understand it. It's not our experience. We don't have any practice with it. I remember a reading of, I think it was Jim Thorpe in 1924, Stockholm, Olympics, winning a number of gold medals and appearing before the King of Sweden. It was going to award these medals, you know, King Gustaf or something, and there Jim Thorpe prepared when the King presented the medal, his response was, oh, gee, thanks, King. Americans don't quite get the whole royal thing, the whole dignity of royalty. You see it after Wimbleton, when Americans play tennis there, and then they have to try to force themselves into the curses, the protocol, and their turn to the royal box and in courtesy, right? And they try their best, but they have no practice at it. We don't quite know what to do with royalty in our country. Second Samuel chapter 6, there's an encounter with royalty, and we get a disparate experience. In fact, when the pathway of the King and the people are crossed, we find that one dies in that experience, and another dances. What a diverse response. One ends up, when the King comes, one ends up dead, and another ends up dancing. It can't help but ask this morning, which is it going to be for your soul? For in this very hour, the Bible says, God is here, he comes in the midst of this people in worship, yes, we forget that, yes, we are dulled to it, yes, we, those of us particularly who do this all the time, have lowered our expectations, and we forget with whom we have to do. It's as if, before you day, I have a live electrical wire, and I don't mean some little flinzy wire that might mean like a, from an electrical pole, you know, a big wire, and it's filled with all the power of electricity. And if I were to walk over and touch you with that wire, it's as if some have respirators and those respirators are failing for lack of electricity and they're gasping for breath, and the touch of that wire would bring them to life. And for others, the touch of that wire will simply what? It will end their life. There's something powerful, extant, here, and we forget it. Annie Billard wrote this of worship, she said, why do people in churches seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the absolute? Worship is dangerous. Does anyone have the foggiest idea of what sort of power we sublipely invoke? Did anyone in church believe a word of what they're saying, let's tell the truth, we're dull. We are dull to the awesome power of royalty. But we are crossing paths with the sovereign this day. You may not have done that. You may have just said, I'm just doing church. Somebody invited me to church, I'm going to church with them. There's a life-altering moment to cross paths with the almighty God. That's what's happening here. My prayers, when all said and done, you'll dance. Take your sermon out line. We don't know how to treat a king, David, who helps us in 2 Samuel 6. It's clear that David believes that a king deserves a place of prominence, a throne to be high and lift it up, a place of honor and respect. David moves to bring the throne of God to Jerusalem. Where has the throne of God been? It's been in the house of a binadab for the last 20 years. It's been in cold storage, it's been in the garage, gives you some idea of Saul's approach to God. The first thing David sets forth to do is to restore God to a rightful place. The center of the life of the people of Israel. Let's bring the throne of God and set it in a place where it is high and lift it up. What's the throne of God? It's the arc of the covenant. The arc of the covenant was a box. It was four feet long and two feet wide and two feet deep. It was wood, it was plated with gold, and it had a solid gold lid. That lid, on either end of the lid, were a golden cherubim and jellic figures hovering as it were over the arc. And the area in between those angels, the lid of the arc was called the mercy seat, where the blood was sprinkled on the day of atonement. Here was the place of mercy. And it was believed that God's throne, his invisible throne, was above the arc so that the arc served as the footstool of Almighty God. David brings the arc. This is a powerful moment because of what the arc represents. It represents the very presence of God. This is not a... Their view of God wasn't as some sort of power, may the force be with you. Some distant, unknowable, faceless power in the universe, no because inside that arc were three precious objects. The rod of Moses that was used to leave the Israelites, reveal the God of salvation. Take the Israelites at a bondage in Egypt inside the arc was manna. This is a God of provision and care for his people inside the arc with a stone tablets of Mount Sinai. This is a God who reveals himself. This is a God who speaks to his people. This is a God who makes himself known. And so the God of this arc is not a distant, unknown God. He has history with us people. And the arc reveals his character, who he is, what kind of father, what kind of God, what kind of king he is. So David goes to get the arc and put it in the place of prominence. This is hugely symbolic because in the ancient world it was understood who was to be worshipped by the people. In any ancient country who was worthy of the worship of the people. It was the king because the king declared himself to be divine. It was understood that if anyone rose to the authority of being a king it was because they were God. The kings were God. They deserved all the difference and honor of the God. And so here at this key juncture of David's ascension to leadership over Israel he very publicly declared, as for me and my people we will what? We will serve the Lord. We will submit ourselves to the Lord. I am not the king. There is a king. There is a sovereign above me. And just as you are subject to me, I am subject to that sovereign. I do not have a sovereign authority. I bend my knee in front of the true king of the heavens and the earth. Powerful. David doesn't view the ark as a talisman, a good luck charm. Let's get God into Jerusalem. It is a very tenuous thing to be king. It would be a good thing to have God on my side. Now David understands it is not about getting God on his side. It is about him being on God's side. It is not about getting God to help his kingdom. It is about taking his life, his rule, his reign and subjugating it for the good of God's kingdom. Now the question comes to us this morning. Have you given God the place of prominence in your life? This last week I met with those folks who were here Wednesday night in our church and I asked them this question, what is the main thing? If you had to describe seven rivers church and you could only pick one thing. What is the main thing? We are about in this place. This morning I want to ask you, what is the main thing in your life? What is the main thing in your life? When you may be confused or muddled to quickly answer that question, but I bet if I assigned someone to follow you for a year, a month, maybe a week, they would be able to come back and tell me without any question, I have watched them, I have watched the way they spend the money, I have watched what they think about, I have watched what their passion is about. I can tell you what the main thing is in their life. So what is the main thing in your life? David understands that a king deserves the place of prominence, deserves to be at the center. Bill Bright's funeral was in Orlando this week, Bill Bright founded a ministry that spanned the globe and had great influence and one of the things he did was help people talk about Christianity in very simple terms to other people and he had a little booklet and inside that booklet had a picture of a throne and he would lead his students to ask people who is on the throne of your life. Yes you may have invited, what did Steve say? He prayed a prayer when he was in high school, remember? He prayed a prayer, he didn't want to go to hell, it would be a good thing to get God, you know, everybody needs a little religion, a little religion is good. But the question is, it's not his God in your life, but is he on the throne of your life, is he the center of your life, is he the ruling authority in your life, have you submitted your life to him? He in the place of prominence in your life, you know the two years ago, the Boeing Corporation and the big celebration because they had taken an old airplane, I understand it to be the only one still in existence, a 307 straddle liner, which I guess was the first passenger aircraft used by Pan-American Airlines in a recondition the whole plane and I mean they did it to just write. I mean they found an old loom in England where they could remake the material that Pan-Am had used in the interior of the plane. They got leather from Scotland to make the seats of the crew just like they were, they used engineers, original engineering drawings for the bulkheads and the lighting fixtures and from top to bottom, from carpet to paneling, they made it just like it had been originally a painstaking restoration, a few months after they'd restored it, it crashed in Elliott Bay in Seattle. You know why? It wasn't a control, it wasn't the engine, they forgot to fuel it. And you know I read that story and I said, that's it, that's the illustration, I tell people you can get your physical self together, you can get your body together, you can get your portfolio together, you can get your relationships together, you can get your job together. You can get all of life looking just right but if you don't have God in there, you're going to crash. But you know that's a horrible illustration because it feeds right into the American perception that it's a really good thing to have God because we need to get God on our team to make our kingdom work. I need God to be the gas in my life. I need that little bit of God to make the whole thing work. Now Christianity is coming to a whole different understanding, not on to nail work, not on to us, but on to sign on self, be glorious about God, it's about your kingdom, it's about what you're doing in this world and how do I become a part of that, how do I get on that team so that you're at the very prominent place in my exercise, you're in the prominent place of finances, you're in the prominent place of my marriage, you're in the prominent place of my work and my family life, my future, my past, every part of me, it's all centered around you because it's not about me ultimately, it's about you. Now all of us are struggling to get there, none of us can say, I've got that point, fast to move on. Do you have a soft heart this morning to say, God, I want you on the throne of my life? I want to know what that's like, I want to go there. See, I've said Christianity, if it's false, is of no importance. Christianity is not true, you are a fool to be here. Christianity, if it's false, is of no importance. Christianity, if it is true, is of infinite importance. What it cannot ever be is moderately important. I want a moderate dose of God. David says, let's get God out of storage. Let's put the throne of God where it belongs. Start of a new school year, the start of a new year for many in this room. It wouldn't be a great day to say, God, I don't even know what it looks like exactly, but I want to ask you to be in, I want to submit, I want you to be in that place of prominence in my life. I want the song of my life to be Lord, you be glorified, glorified, I self, glorify your name in my life. David understands that King deserves the place of prominence. Secondly, I King deserves our obedience. Deserves reverence from his subjects, respect, honor, obedience. When the King is treated casually, there's always a price to pay. When David goes to fetch the ark, they put the ark on a new cart pulled by oxen. The Bible says that the oxen is going to make their way towards Jerusalem cross the rushing floor. The uneven footing clearly causes the oxen to stumble. The cart lurches, the ark of the covenant begins to slide and it was the priest, the son of the priest reaches to study the ark, the old King James version says when he touches the ark, God smote him and he died. Well, that kind of ends the party. And they put the ark back in the garage and they all go home. And what do we learn from that? We learn from that that God is a holy God. It is costly to trifle with God. God gave David clear instruction, God gave his people clear instruction on how to transport the ark. That he is holy and that the ark is not to be touched with human hand, is not to be touched with that which is impure and sinful. And so built into the side of the ark where rings and the Levites were allowed to transport the ark and they were to slip poles through those rings and carry the ark on their shoulders so that the ark would not be touched with human hands. And so the very thing that happened wouldn't take place. But guess what they did? They knew better than God. They ignored the way of God. We see in David a presumption, David could have made his theme song in life. God has what? smiled on me. God has been good to me. I'm a nothing little shepherd boy and he chose me to be what? He chose me to be king. I go to meet this monster warrior, Goliath. And God takes my little stone and makes me super warrior. God protects me from Saul. God has smiled on me. He's been good to me. So now I can be a little casual about my relationship with him. There's a presumption here on the part of David when the people of God presume on the grace and mercy of God in a way in which they do not respect God as their king, then people pay a terrible price. Verse 9 is a powerful point in this passage in which David frustrated at the death of Uza and the failure of his plans, asked what question? The ark represents the presence of God. So what does David say? How can I get God close to me? How can I be close to God? How can I do what I want to do? How can I be close to God? A sinner. We can't do anything right. We can't even move the ark without losing people's lives. How does a sinner get close to Almighty God? Let me tell you something. It's a crucial question, because if you think the answer is, well, I just should have been more careful. You know, they just should have been more careful because that's the key to Christianity. You've got to do everything right. I want to ask you something. Do you think that you can satisfy the holy and righteous God by doing everything right in your life? Do you think that? Do you think your life is worthy to offer what it would say you wanted to live moderately decent life, moderately decent, do you think you can take moderately decent, or just one step above moderately decent, and offer it up to God, and that'll be acceptable, that'll be enough for a holy God. What does this passage suggest? That's where the Bible, where the gospel is so precious. God says, I've done for you what you cannot do for yourself. You cannot live in such a way that your life will be pleasing to me. Somebody did it for you. I came and did it. Jesus came and he always put the poles through the rings in the ark every day of his life. He kept every law of God. Why did he do that? So that it could be attributed to you so that you get all the credit for his perfection. That's why that's what it means to put your faith in Jesus' life and stop trusting your own effort. So the Bible says, we're set free from legalism. Legalism says, it's up to me. I teach the law to please God. And the church many of us knew in the past was, be set with legalism, wasn't it? And people were told, you may not wear lipstick and be a Christian. You may not wear makeup and be a Christian. Believe me, there were people in those churches that needed makeup. And they needed. And you may not go to the movies and you may not play cards and you may not dance and you may not, you know, you guys know all this, right? And if you, you know, if you square the line and all that stuff, then you'll be right with God. And we've been set free from legalism, but let's tell the truth about something else. We've allowed the pendulum to swing to licentiousness. Licentiousness says, not, I have to live in a certain way to please God. Licentiousness says, God doesn't even care how I live. The gospel is set in the freedom of grace means, I live how I please, our sense of, there was a day in which we said the way to keep right before God was to divorce yourself from culture. Now we know that God calls us to be in the world, assault and life, living as a as a redemptive agents in culture. But we know that our our sense of discretion is not very healthy as it. We drink from soiled fountains all too easily. Is this what, is this, you know, somebody said to me recently, my definition of what grace allows is more expansive than yours. What is it just subjective like that? Is it just that I have my standards and you might have different standards, or do we have to go back again and say, there is a father. What he has for his children is that he doesn't leave us where we are. The Bible says that God, whom the Lord loves, he what? He chastens, he disciplines, he instructs, he transforms, not so that he says, I'm not going to let my children do any of the fun things. No, I've got a good life for them. And so when they wander from it, I'm going to chase them because I love them. There's a relationship with Christ that brings ultimate joy in life and when they wander from that, of course, I'm going to chase them because they're precious to me. That's what obedience is, a longing to please the father. The issue isn't what your definition of what grace allows, what's my definition of what grace allows, what's God? What's his direction? Well, this isn't easy for us either. The Titus, the book tells us, for the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age. Now, the problem is, if I start being specific in my illustrations, like I said, you would not believe how many people make a regular diet of watching crap on MTV. The minute I say that, you know what a lot of people in this room will say? Yeah, that's right, pastor, you'll go get them. I'm talking to you. I'm not talking to them. Everybody in this room, every one of us knows what it is to steadily, you know, to either make our consciences keen to God's word because we have a desire to, you know, there's an intimacy to grace. Jesus said, when you talk to God, you say to him, hour what? That's what we've longed for all our life, to know God is dad as father, the one who will never reject us, the one who embraces us and welcomes us. He says, when you talk to God, you say, our father, and then he says, say what? Oh, dad, may your name be what? Honored. And how has God's name principally honored or disgraced in this world? How's the father's name principally honored or disgraced by the behavior of their children? Oh God, you're giving me a new heart that really longs for your name to be honored in this world. And my dad, I want to honor you, I want to honor you with my life. Oh, brothers, sisters, look, face it, we got a repent, say, God, I want that. I want a soft heart to want to honor you. Time back, we called the garage door repair people to come out and they said, your garage door opener is toast. You need a new one. And it's going to be $X dollars, about $300, and we said, okay, we should go ahead. And when I got home from work that day, my wife showed me the bill and it said $299 right in the bill for the garage door opener and an intact, and on the bottom it said, all this added up to $206. And I thought, you know, these guys are pretty good at installing garage door openers, but they don't add real well. And my wife didn't know anything about it. She just said, what do we owe you? And I said $200 and she wrote out the check and gave it to him, but, you know, I keep the books. I tracked this stuff and I saw right away that we got a good deal. So the justifying process began in my heart, you know. I bet they just wanted to cut us a break. We're some of the better customers. They work for a lot of nasty people. And inside the voice telling me you need to call them up, they made a mistake. They're out of that money. Well, then I began to say, it's their mistake. Their mistake. We didn't pay one dime less than what they asked us today. And then I began to say, well, they'll catch it. I'll just wait for them to call. I mean, I don't want to humiliate them by pointing out their inability to add.
You know, I finally came the day of God saying, aren't you going to, is your heart, is your conscience submitted to me or not? You're a thief. You're a thief. Pay what you owe. Yeah, they missed it. They don't even know. Call them up, tell them, and pay what you owe. Well, I did it. And before you applaud me, you'll have no, it took me six months.
And I thought about, why did it take me so long? Because in those little miserly ways, you know, we don't believe God. We don't believe we have a father. We don't believe he's good. We don't believe we can trust him. We don't believe that his direction for our lives is really sweet. The king deserves a place of prominence. The king deserves our obedience. He's wise. He's good. He's a good dad. And last, and with the time that I don't have left, let me just tell you that the king deserves the light. Can't finish the passage without telling you that. We see the great, the great delight expressed in the coming of the ark. You understand that this passage in 2 Samuel 6 is the Old Testament account of what New Testament account? Palm Sunday. This is Palm Sunday in the Old Testament. Jesus comes into Jerusalem and all the crowds line the streets shouting what? Hosanna. Blessed isn't the one who comes in the name of the Lord, the coming king. This is what's happening in 2 Samuel 6. The king is coming into Jerusalem and they are making sacrifices and they are eating and they are drinking and the king leads the procession doing what? He's dancing, he's jumping, he's leaping, he's hiking up his garment and he's filled with joy and delight at the awesome glory and royalty of the king. Now, everybody's in the party but the Bible tells us somebody doesn't join in. Her name is Michael. Michael is Saul's daughter, David's wife and Michael, the Bible says, looks at David and his dancing and she despises him in her heart and when David comes home, she gives him a piece of her mind and you know, remember she grew up in the household of Saul and so she says to David, you don't know king. You don't know how to do king, right? That's not the way a king acts. A king receives the adoration of the people. A people come and dance in front of the king to entertain the king, to honor the king. The king doesn't dance, the king doesn't make a fool out of himself but what he doesn't understand is the one who humbles himself is what is exalted but the one who exalts himself, the ancient world, the modern world, all believe, oh, you get people to worship you. That's the good one. David understands in some small way that he's to make his life of no account before the true king. He's to make a fool out of himself, a fool for Jesus. That's what worship is. People calling someone else great. What worship is seeing what God is worth and giving him what he's worth. Worship is taking the preoccupation off of ourselves that everyone of us struggles with and making God and his greatness and his character are preoccupations to be deliberately attentive to God. I just say that our problem is that we are deliberately attentive to ourselves even when we come to church. A friend of mine said in about two months he received all these different comments from people in his church about their worship and this is a church of big church of many people. I want more theology and less singing on Sunday morning. Another said, we enjoy the choir, can we get rid of the praise man? Another, get rid of the choir, we're going to lose the kid. If I hear one more rimshot in the snare drum, I'm changing churches. Where written prayers are too wordy. We sing too many wavy hymns, I can't think that fast. We sing too many cheesy choruses. Do you dye your hair as a senior pastor, that would be a bad example. Could you just stand behind the pulpit and stop walking around so much? You lift your hands in worship. Why don't the other pastors do that? I'm changing churches. I need more charismatic worship. I'm changing churches. I need more traditional worship that takes reform theology seriously. What's consistent in all those comments? I come because worship is about me and I want what I want and I want what satisfies me. True worship is to say, I am not a consumer. I am consumed with the glory of God, what he wants and what honors him will be my passion. Listen, the normal way of locomotion is called walking, right, until we get from place to place. But not when something delightful happens. When something delightful happens, we do what? We skip our pace increases, we jump, we dance, somehow our body expresses that we're engaged. So it is in worship. I don't know what it'll be for you. Pastor, we're Presbyterians. Pastor, I grew up in a Scandinavian culture. Pastor, we are more reserved than that. Liars, liars, liars, I've seen you at football games. You shout, you raise your hands, you jump up and down. I've seen you at concerts, I've seen you at your children's events. I've seen your faces, I've seen your raptor attention. It's just not true. And I don't know what it, you know, I don't suppose that we'll, well, we watched seed disc at the other night, went to the movies, and there's a point in which, in that race in which there's a unmomentous occasion which causes great joy. And when that happens in the movie, how do you think the crowd responds to it?
If they were Presbyterians, would they have gone, hmm, good, hmm, they kissed, they jumped, they cheered. Now, I don't think that's really what I want on Sunday. And I don't want people break dancing in the aisle, you know, because it was a good solo. And that's scripture reading, people throwing their bibles in the air, but you know what I mean, you know when your heart is engaged. You know that when your affections are engaged for your God, will you pray that God would give you a heart that dances? That when you hear truths expressed about your God, something inside you leaks. John the Baptist left in the womb of his mother. At the very, you know, at the very word of the coming of Jesus who saved her, that's something inside of you. I think when I see the mission participants from Belize come back and they're bubbling over with excitement, something leaps inside of me. When I see Bob Spangler for years now taking care of his disabled wife, the picture of beautiful fidelity of a husband, to a wife, something leaps inside of me. When I see children worship in this place, they're getting it. When I see adopted children worship, something inside of me says maybe we're getting it. Alexander White said of Michael, the death, not only don't dance, they despise those who do, they despise those who dance, they just don't understand because they don't hear the what. I don't hear the music. I always join in the prayer, Father, with the music of the gospel, it's so sweet. And may we hear it. And if not with dancing feet, may we at least have dancing hearts.