Good morning and happy new year to you. I was listening as it was mentioned of Esther's father who's gone home to be with the Lord. I was reading a little bit that David had posted on Facebook about this man's testimony. Something that struck me and has often struck me.
I don't think we grasp what it means, and this is in the sermon, this is the pre-serm. What it means when we say someone's gone home to be with the Lord. Because you know, should the Lord Terry and I go home to be with the Lord through death? And somebody makes that announcement, and any of you who happen to be here, actually hear that announcement, do something for me, I want you to shout praise the Lord.
Because you know what? The most absolutely wonderful, blessed, incredible event after our salvation from sin that we experience is the moment when we go home to be with the Lord. So we say that, and of course, we're feeling those feelings of grief because we're missing the person in the daily contact with the person, but sometimes I think we lose sight of the fact that the person is home with the Lord. And that should be deep in our hearts, the desire of every believer for that day when we can be home with the Lord.
So we need to rejoice, even as we think of those who will be missing him for a season, we need to rejoice that he is with the Lord. And look forward to the day when we can be too. We are still in the Old Testament, we are still following David, if you have your Bibles with you, and you want to open up please to 2 Samuel, 2 Samuel, as I was preparing the message for this week. There are certain stories that I've been burdened to bring out, and that means missing certain others, and I always encourage you to please read all of them, read all of them and see what God has.
I was looking over some of the parts that we won't be looking at this morning and thinking, oh, there's a good sermon in there, and maybe I'll just be doing this for the next year or two. But we're in 2 Samuel, chapter six this morning, looking at the journey of David. As we were looking in the Old Testament, I was talking with one of my sons yesterday and asking him how his daily Bible reading was going, and he was commenting how he's plowing through Deuteronomy, and quite literally plowing through Deuteronomy, because Deuteronomy sometimes is a bit of a plow to get through. And I said, well, yeah, I know it's hard.
And he made a comment, and I didn't get his permission to say this, but I'm not throwing it out anyway. It's the curse of being the child of someone preaching. He said, well, one of the hard things is, Dad, there's all this stuff there, and it's like, Jesus died on the cross, and he paid for a sin, and we don't have to do all these things anymore, so why do I have to keep reading about it? And I said, well, Andrew, the reason is because we often lose sight of certain things that we only learn as God takes us through the Old Testament.
It's like one of those things that we often lose sight of is the holiness of God, that we cheapen God. We take away his mystery and his majesty, and we make him something small and cute and convenient and safe, and that is not the God of the universe. Another thing that we can do is we often cheapen grace by simplifying and reducing sin, and making this thing called sin, something that is selective and evaluative and more a mistake than an intention. The Old Testament doesn't let us do that.
As you read through books, like the books of the law who are aptly named, we see what sin is, and the consequences of it. And that's why we need to look through all of scripture. And some of that we'll see today. But first, let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Our Lord in our God, we thank you this morning. As we gather here in this place, this thing praises to your name, for you are worthy to be praised, for there is none like you, Lord, we thank you this morning, for your glory and your majesty, for your power. We thank you Lord, for your attributes. You are just and holy and true, that you are perfect in all your ways, and we thank you for love, mercy, and compassion.
Lord, we understand these but in a small fragment, but this is who you are. You are all of these. Lord, we praise you for the way that you order all things in this universe, that you order all things in human history, that nothing occurs outside of your sovereign power. Lord, we praise you this morning for your son, Jesus Christ, born of a woman born under the law.
He who knew no sin had become sin for us, so that you might become the righteousness of God in hand. Lord, we praise you for salvation from sin. We praise you for new life in Christ. We praise you for the privilege of being part of the body of Christ, every blood-bought believer.
We praise you for your Holy Spirit that seals us and indwells us and leads us into all truth. We praise you for your word that is living and active, like that two-edged sword. Lord, we praise you that you've given us a mission and a purpose in this world. For this moment, and for all moments to come, if we are in Christ Jesus.
Lord, now we're looking into your word and you need to illuminate it for us. You need through your spirit to speak to us. Lord, if you don't do that, this becomes an academic exercise. And Lord, we don't need an academic exercise.
We need transformation. So Lord, be at work in us in this place. For your glory and yours alone in Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. So we have David.
When last we left King David, he wasn't King David at that point. He had been promised to be King David years before. He had served King Saul, he'd been hunted by King Saul. Now the last time we were together, King Saul had died.
So, David's King, eventually. One of the things, and we won't be looking at it this morning, but I always want to bring it to your attention, is that God's timing is not our timing. This is probably one of the greatest frustrations of the human condition, is that our timing generally is now. I have a wonderful little three-year-old and her timing is always now.
Daddy, I need my legos. Okay, Hannah, I'm doing the dishes. Daddy, I need them now. Well, as soon as I finish these last few dishes, I'll go get them for you, Hannah.
Daddy, please, I need them now. You're looking at it and going, no, it's not a life support system, you don't need it now. But in her world, she needs it now. And that's just like us.
At work, we were talking about computer systems. Remember the day, some of you with computers, when you wanted to download something from the internet. So you click download, and then you go and you make yourself lunch, you'd make it, you'd eat it, you'd clean up, and you'd go back and go, oh look, another 20 minutes, it'll be done. Now we click download, and go, what, 15 seconds?
What's the matter with this? So David is supposed to be king. Saul is dead, the people around him, rally around him, and declare him king, and he becomes king all over Israel after seven years of civil war. God's faithful to his promise, he preserves David, he protects him, he gives him victory, and eventually David becomes king, but it's another seven years.
How many times in our life do we say, God, do this in my life? What, no results? God's timing is perfect, because God sees a bigger picture in his inner workings in us and in those around us for his purposes, and it's a hard thing for us to deal with. That's not the sermon either.
Second Samuel, chapter six. David is on a mission, he is now king. Seven years of civil war have ended, he has now been declared king by all the elders of Israel, he is undisputedly the ruler, he's established himself, God has given him victory over the enemies of Israel, he is now in a position of power and authority and majesty. And David is burdened to begin to solidify things in his kingdom, one of which is to get the Ark of God, the Ark of the Covenant, and bring it to his capital city, established now in Jerusalem.
David again brought together out of Israel chosen men, 30,000 in all, he and all his men set out from Bala, of Judah to bring up from there the Ark of God, which is called by the name, the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim that are on the Ark. They set the Ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of a binadab, which was on the hill. Yuzah and Ayo, sons of a binadab, were guiding the new cart with the Ark of God on it, and Ayo was walking in front of it. David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with songs and with harps, liars, tambourines, systrums and symbols.
When they came to the threshing floor of Naikon, Yuzah reached out and took hold of the Ark of God because the oxen stumbled. The Lord's anger burned against Yuzah because of his irreverent act. Therefore, God struck him down and he died there beside the Ark of God. Take a moment and let's just consider the events of the story in our sanctified imaginations.
Here is David, he is king, God has placed him, where he promised David desires to bring the Ark of God to Jerusalem and establish Jerusalem as the capital of this kingdom and have God's presence in the capital. So he gathers together the best of his army and he goes to the place where the Ark has been resting all this time. They bring out a brand new cart, they take the Ark, they set it on this brand new cart and these two men who are given the responsibility to look after the Ark are traveling with it and the people are celebrating it. The music is playing.
It is better than a soundtrack. 30,000 plus people are celebrating as the Ark is making its way toward the capital city of the kingdom. I am sure it is a highlight moment. And as they are traveling along, everything is going so well.
They're celebrating, they're praising the Lord and all of a sudden the cart, as it's going across the threshing floor, the kids are odd stone and the ox and stumbles and the cart shakes and uses a walking alongside the wall and he grabs hold of the Ark. In that instant, the Lord God of glory kills him on the spot and the party stops. Then David was angry because the Lord's wrath had broken out on use into this day, the place is called Parez user. David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, how can the Ark of the Lord ever come to me?
Now I don't know about you. But the first time I read that story, first dozen times I read that story. I always got a little bit ticked at that moment. Because you see, I immediately welled up with a great degree of sympathy for this poor user guy.
Here he is, he's doing his part. He's going along, he's looking after the Ark. Here it is, the Ark of the Covenant of God made under the instructions given to the metal workers that were passed on through Moses. This has been a center point of God's relationship with his people where the blood of the atonement was placed on it, where the tablets of the covenant were placed inside.
This is a huge centerpiece. And it was about to fall off the cart. And so he stops it. And he dies for trying to do the right thing.
Now if you ever thought like I thought, of course my thinking and you're thinking is flawed. Because you see, there's something very great at work in the story. It's about the holiness of God. You see, the Lord God of heaven and earth is described throughout his word as being holy.
And his holiness is portrayed through creation, his holiness is portrayed through his covenants, his holiness is portrayed through the articles that he gave to the children of Israel. And he calls his people to show their faithfulness to the covenants of God by being obedient to his commands. And when the people of God are obedient to the commands of God, they regard God as holy. So what's the problem with keeping the Ark from falling over?
You'll turn back to the book of Numbers. Numbers chapter four and verse 15, as God is laying out to the children of Israel how the tabernacle was to be dealt with, how the articles were to be prepared to be transported. Because of course, this wonderful place of meeting that was designed by God for the children of Israel had to be able to move through the wilderness with them. He gives them this instruction, verse 15 of Numbers chapter four.
After Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy furnishings and all the holy articles. And when the camp is ready to move, the coathites are to come to do the carrying, but they must not touch the holy things, or they will die. The coathites are to carry these things that are in the tent of meeting. God said to the children of Israel that the articles in the tabernacle are to be carried.
They were all designed to have poles that would fit into them so they could be lifted on these poles and carried without touching the articles, because the articles have been sanctified to the Lord and to touch them with human hands was to defile them. That was the teachings of God. That was the teachings that had been passed down through the Levites, that that was how they were to be transported. Yuzah would have been taught that too through the law of God.
But instead of taking poles and gathering carriers and carrying the ark, what did they did? They did what was convenience, sensible? They got a cart. The Ark of the Covenant was a heavy box.
If you look at what it was made of and the amount of gold in it, it was a heavy carry. They put it on a cart, a new cart. It spared no expense. And brought it along on a cart, being pulled by oxen.
Very expedient, works very well, moves at a good pace. Everybody can enjoy it and celebrate as it's going by. Little problem with stability, but we can cover that. Somebody's walking alongside just in case.
And he dies because he touches the Ark of God. It becomes a question of obedience. When God says, this is what you'll do. And we say, oh, but I think I'd rather do it this way.
We are in fact saying, God, you are not as important as I am. You are not as knowledgeable as I am. Therefore my way will be the way that we will proceed. And the Lord God of heaven and earth says no.
So in that moment, on the threshing floor, Yuzah reaches out to touch the Ark. And he becomes the focal point of what is in fact an entire display of a disregard for the holiness of God. In the midst of this great worship celebration, the focal point of all their worship is actually a display of a disregard for the holiness of God. Yuzah dies because of it.
And it makes us uncomfortable. And it should. There should be a tension there between our flesh and our spirit. Because our flesh says, oh, come on, God.
I mean, a little more accommodating. There's another story where we say that. This fellow named Moses, 40 years dealing with the children of Israel. I dealt once with a congregation for seven years.
My sympathy for Moses just shot through the roof. And then one day in his frustration, God tells him when the people are demanding water and how God's not providing for him. And God says, go and speak to the rock. And Moses goes down.
And goes, how long we have to put up with you? And said, speaking to the rock, he hits the rock twice with his staff. God still supplies the water. And we, of course, speak about all the types of what the rocks symbolize.
And everything that basically comes down to God looks at Moses and says, you didn't regard me as holy. You're going to die in the wilderness and never see the promised land. How many people, when you encounter that story, there's a part of you that goes, no, come on. But then I realize it's because I don't always regard God as holy.
The Lord God of the universe said, do this. And Moses in his action said, no. I won't. I'll do something different.
And God says, you will regard me as holy. Why is this important? Because brothers and sisters, we live in an age where people are constantly saying, we can worship God. We can hold up the name of God.
We can say this is what God is like. But we can disregard parts of his character and his word. We can do that. And we can have great times of worship.
And we can have churches that are busting at the seams. And we can have all these things. And the Lord God of heaven and earth says, you will regard me as holy. And what I say is right is right.
And what I say is wrong is wrong. It becomes a question of obedience. My brother shared a while back. And I couldn't remember the reference, but a recently installed president of a large seminary in the United States was asked a question, what do you think is the biggest issue facing Christian education in the seminary in the 21st century?
Is it the issue with homosexuality? Is it the issue with this or is it the issue with that? And his response was very powerful. So I think the issue for the seminary and for the church today is this, obedience to Christ or not.
It's obedience. Obedience to God or not. One of the great greevings of my soul right now is former students of mine that I taught through school for years. And we talked about God.
And we looked at his word who are now adults in some and influential positions who are beginning to twist the truth of God. One who is very vocal, who's talking about all the new sexual agenda and how all of this is acceptable in the church. When you really look at the character of God as love, all of these things have to be permissible. But holy God says no.
I don't have the choice. I don't have the choice to say, well, what about this? Because God says no. Years ago, at a senior high camp, we had a discussion time with a group of high school students.
Most of them had been former camp workers. Almost all of them were professing believers. We're talking about dating relationships. We always talk about the poor teenagers.
And the subject came up about sexual intimacy and relationships and what was acceptable in a dating relationship and what wasn't. And some say, well, what about this? And what about that? And some say, well, really?
What does the Bible define? What is fornication? Really, how far can you go? And it just kept going and going.
And one young lady stood up in the midst of the discussion and said, is everybody was trying to define the terms of how you could go? And she said, with tears in her eyes, isn't it enough that God says no. Isn't it enough that God says no. This you can't do.
And the consensus around the room was people were honest. There's no that wasn't enough of them. Do we regard God as holy? What does that mean?
Looking at what God says we are to do, then we do it. Looking what God says what we can't do, we can't do it. Another example that came up that has caused a lot of people to wrestle in their minds. There was an incident now several years old in the United States where a Muslim group lost their mosque.
And one group, different Christian groups, were berating them and such. And then one Christian group reached out to them and said, come, you can have your services in our church. And it was applauded among the Christian community of what an example of love. Except the Lord God of heaven and earth says, you will have no other gods before me.
So to open up their building and say, come and worship another God because Allah is not the God of heaven and earth. They could come alongside, love, and encourage the people. But God does not permit us to say, come and have your services in our place. We're not allowed.
But there's two parts to this story. And yes, we're going to go over time. So David stops. In verse eight, it mentions David's angry.
And it's important here that the sense isn't that David is angry at God, David's angry at the situation, and what has occurred. And he's angry with himself because he thought everything was going as it should. And now in the moment of use as death, he realizes that they are seriously out of step with God. So he stops everything.
And he's afraid of the Lord. You know what? That is not a bad thing. It is one of the paradoxes of the Christian faith that we can both be totally in love with God and frightened of him in the same time.
That is not a bad thing. I remember someone once talking about the fear of the Lord. And someone said, well, what does that mean? And someone explained it, well, it means like a reverential fear.
Like Sean Respect, the one dear older brother says, well, actually, if you really look at the words meaning the original languages, it means best to find scared spittless. My God loves me with an everlasting love. My God has an anger that is fierce. My God never tolerates sin.
My God never compromises his holiness ever. He will not excuse my sin. He will forgive it through Christ when I repent, but he will not excuse it. This is the Lord.
And David is afraid of the Lord in this moment. He is not willing to take the Ark of the Lord to be with him in the city of David. Instead, he took it aside to the house of Obed Edom, the Gittite. I've often wondered what Obed's reaction was when all of a sudden there's a Obed comes to the door.
It's the king. I need to leave something here with you for a while. It's the Ark of the Covenant. We just had an incident.
Somebody touched it and died. So we're going to leave it here with you. Obed obviously knew what it meant to care for the Ark. So it stays at his house.
The Ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed Edom, the Gittite for three months. And the Lord blessed him and his entire household. Now, King David was told the Lord is blessed, the household of Obed Edom, and everything he has because of the Ark of God. So David went down and brought up the Ark of God from the house of Obed Edom to the city of David with rejoicing.
When those who were carrying the Ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fatten calf. David wearing a linen ephod danced before the Lord with all his might while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets. Something changes here. The Ark of God is in the house of Obed Edom.
It's important to realize at this moment that there is nothing intrinsically special about the Ark of God, say that God has sanctified it to himself. So we can throw away all the action movies of yesteryear where the Ark of God is some powerful talisman. It is a box, but it's a box that God has associated his holiness with. So well, Obed Edom has it in his house.
Obed Edom is caring for it as God has instructed. God blesses Obed Edom because he's regarding him as holy. David hears it and realizes, okay, it isn't just going to bring death. So now David comes, but it appears in the three months from the first time David went to move the Ark till now, David has learned something because this time he regards God as holy.
He acts in obedience. They come with the poles, they carry the Ark. As they walk along every six steps, they stop and offer a sacrifice to the Lord. Another six steps and they stop and they offer a sacrifice to the Lord.
And I often thought about that picture to realize that meant that entire path all the way from the house of Obed Edom to Jerusalem was lined with blood, you know, obedience to God regarding him as holy because he is holy and we are not. But as that Ark is moving along, that symbol of God's holiness and is covenant with Israel, the people are still celebrating. As a matter of fact, David is dancing. David's dancing so much that you can't do the king thing and dance.
So David takes off his heavy, kingly apparel and all he has on is a sleeveless tunic that goes down to about here, that the priests wore when they were offering the sacrifices mainly because it was very practical. It was easy to clean and it had no sleeves to get caught in things. David's wearing one of these with the priests who are probably wearing them too who are offering the sacrifices as they go and he just starts to dance. And I know as conservative evangelicals that makes us confused.
But anyway, there are times where you just got to dance. And I'm sorry if you've ever jumped up and down and twirled around and screamed and shouted because your soccer team or your hockey team won, then guess what? You should dance more at the glory of God. And so he's dancing and they're celebrating and it is a greater celebration now because they are walking in obedience to God than it was the first time when they were walking in their way.
But as he comes to Jerusalem, as he approaches, as the Ark of the Lord is entering the city of David, Michelle, daughter of Saul, watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart. Here is David and he knows that he's walking in obedience. He knows that they are acting as God, as called them to do.
And he knows that the Ark of God is coming into the city, the capital of Israel. And that God has honored his covenant with David and given him the kingship. And he is going to dance. And he is going to celebrate.
And as he's doing this and he's dancing, I'm sure that as chosen men are dancing and the people are just so excited up on the wall, looking out the window as his wife. And she looks at him in the right air of conservatism, despises him at the spectacle he has made of himself. Because there is a proper way to conduct oneself. And that is not it.
He comes into the city. He and his position of king is permitted to offer sacrifices. The people rejoice. He gives gifts to the people.
And he blesses them in the name of the Lord. And he goes home to bless his household. Verse 20, when David returned home to bless his household, the Kyle daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, how the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would. David said to Michelle, it was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house.
When you appointed me ruler over the Lord's people Israel, I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this. And I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.
See, there's a powerful second half to the story, which is equally important for us today, especially as conservative evangelicals. Because you see, when we are walking in obedience to a holy God, in obedience to his word, and following in his character, there is incredible power and freedom in the Christian faith. And too often we have tied that up and created false parameters and expectations on them. And people look at it and we're very quick to go, shouldn't have done that.
One time I was at a church service and a young man got up to lead a time of worship and singing. And this young man was so enthralled with their time of worship and singing that he kicked his shoes off. And he's up there leading and he's moving around and the people are singing and he's sort of leading them in the songs and he's sharing scripture. And at the end of the service, the first comment that was brought to me was this, that man was barefoot on the platform.
That's not right. We had praised the Lord. We had shared his scriptures. We had prayed together.
And one dear saint's first item of concern was that the person didn't have footwear on the platform. And I looked at the person and said in all compassion and humility which probably wasn't enough. Moses didn't have it and the president didn't have anything on his feet and the presence of the Lord either. In fact, God told him not to.
I think God's okay with it. This person wouldn't accept that. You see, we, in its again a struggle of our flesh, have the nasty habit of ignoring what are the holy standards of a holy and perfect God while creating our own. I wear this because it's culturally acceptable.
And I call with that. I do not believe this is a necessity in order to stand up and share the word of God. As a matter of fact, if you were to see me at camp when I share the word of God, I don't look like this. I can tell you that.
Matter of fact, I never have anything on my feet because I can jump around more. That's the freedom that we have. I remember once sharing with a group of kids at camp and we were reading the story about how Jesus calmed the storm. And we are sitting as we were supposed to do in the chapel and we're doing the story, well, outside a hurricane is raging along the coast of Nova Scotia.
And all of a sudden it came into my head. What in the world are we doing, sitting inside, talking about the power of God over the elements when right now the waves slamming into the beach are now about 10 feet high. We went outside. We stood there and I screamed over the wind to talk about the power of God greater than nature itself.
And I can tell you that 20 years later those guys still remember the time we spent out on the beach and the impact it had on them. And someone came to me afterwards and said, that wasn't appropriate taking that out and putting it on the beach. What would have been inappropriate is if the word of God wasn't taught. That's inappropriate.
So in the story that we've looked at this morning, there are two important elements regarding God of holy, by obedience to him. Must, must, must be paramount. But when that is done, when the rest doesn't matter. And you know what?
When the rest doesn't matter, it is guaranteed that we will appear more undignified. We will. We will appear lesser. You'll hear it.
The intellectual people will look at you and say, you actually believe all that is true. And there's a small partner of flesh goes, oh wait, let me intellectualize it somehow. Well, well actually if you look at it this way and we'll try to defend it and say, yes I do, I believe it's true, yeah. Sorry.
Actually I'm not sorry, it's the way it is. It is. I've seen it true. I've seen it played out.
Back in December, we were in our house and we were talking about a debt that we had and we were talking about it one evening and the next evening we're standing, we're in our living room, it was a knock on the door and I went to the door and I opened the door and there was a man standing in the door step. I've never seen in my life and he said, are you Stephen? And I said, yes I am. And he goes, the Lord laid this on our hearts, take this and bless you.
And he handed me a Christmas card and he got in his card and he drove away and I opened it up and there was $300 in it that paid our debt. I have no clue who this man is. Do I believe that the Lord of the universe is real? Absolutely.
Do I believe his word is true? Yes I do. Do I need archeologists to prove it? Cool, and they find me things but I don't.
Need their proof. Bit by bit, step by step, the Lord shows things to me. But we become more undignified. We become more humiliated.
We don't fit in. Last week I was, actually on Friday I was teaching a class and communications that I get to do and it was a hard class because I was teaching about verbal communication, this sort of thing. And I was saying at the wrap up, I said, you need to learn how to communicate well verbally because at some point you might have something that is so true and so important that you just wanna be able to say it. I looked over at my instructor and he was giving me the eyeball because he knows me and he knows what I wanna roll into.
And I sort of looked and said, I could give you an example, I look at him and he shook his head. I do the second half on Monday so pray for me because the examples are percolating and that will in one sense be bad for me but not because there are things that are more important to this than this and brothers and sisters. This year and however many hours the Lord gives us, let's be more undignified. Let's be so caught up in the holiness of God and the truth of his word and the power of the resurrection that nothing else matters, that we speak as the Holy Spirit moves us to speak the truth of the word of God in any circumstance.
Let the chips fall where they may because our God is bigger than that. Don't let the naysayers who come up alongside and say, well that wasn't very dignified. If the Lord God of the universe is pleased, who else matters? If the Lord God of the universe is pleased, who else matters?
I can say that because as I told you before, I'm a coward. So the Lord and his grace and his mercy is slowly pushing me and pushing me along to say, that's true, Stephen. It doesn't matter. What matters is what I hold as valuable.
Their souls matter. So rejoice in the Lord, in obedience to him, become more undignified, more humiliated in your own eyes. But as David said, but of these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held an honor. Of the people who see the living God lived out day by day in his holiness and his love, they respond to that.
See, because the world doesn't need another wishy, washy statement, the world needs the truth. The world doesn't need a standoffish message. It needs a love that goes right to where the hurt is. That says, this is sin.
Christ died for it. Yes, you are broken. The Christ is ready to give you a new life. How do I know it because I'm broken to the redeemed by the blood of Christ?
What, you think that this is my thing and what's your thing? Well, guess what? There is only one thing in it's this, the gospel of Jesus Christ. No, it won't be acceptable to do it this way.
If God says it has to be that way. So if God says this is true, then it has to be true. If God says this isn't true, then it can't be true. If God says this is how you present the gospel, then this is how we present the gospel.
And everything else becomes secondary. So if we want to do it and stand in front of a big wooden box to do it, that's fine, but don't let it limit you. Because God says that my heart needs to be right before I come before you. Doesn't say what sort of pants I have to wear.
And then see what God does. See what God does this year. Be in prayer for one another this year. And if I'm saying all this to you, and you're sitting here this morning, you don't know any of this.
You don't know what it means to be connected to Jesus Christ, to be transformed by His power. You know what it means to meet a holy God, to be so loved and in love with the God of the universe at the same time afraid of Him, because He just is the God of the universe. Then look into His word and talk to us about it. Because nothing else compares to this.
Let's pray. Our Lord and our God, Father, what I pray in the days to come and what hours you choose to give us in your grace, Lord, that you would impress upon us the magnitude of your holiness. That when we look into your word and we see what you say, that we would hold it as indisputable truth. That what you say is right is right and what is wrong is wrong.
That we would know what sin is, that we would not reduce it or dismiss it. But Lord, to the power of your spirit as we walk in your ways through Christ. Lord, that we would cast everything else aside. Lord, let the people laugh, criticize or ridicule.
As long as we are true to you, that then you will do your work and drawing people to yourself. Lord, let us just dance before you. Let this be the day, this week, this year. Lord, you need to do it in us because we will draw back.
We'll look for approval. I know I will. So Lord, make yourself so real before our eyes that you are all we see. And then we just wanna dance before you in this dance of life.
In Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.