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1st Chronicles 15
1st Chronicles 16:1-2
Introduction:
We see in 1st Chronicles where David who has recently became King of Israel is preparing to bring the Ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem from which it has been missing for 20 years.
The Ark of the Covenant represented the presence of God among his people.
The Ark was held in the home of Abinadab where it resided for 20 years at the command of the former king, Saul.
When David was anointed King, he established Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. His next step would be to bring back the Ark of the Covenant and place it in Jerusalem to restore worship and bring the presence of God back to the nation.
The home of Abinadab (where Saul kept the ark) was 9 miles west of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was at the center of the nation.
David wanted the ark placed in Jerusalem because he wanted everyone to know that God should be the center point for our lives.
Everything we do should revolve around his presence.
There’s a lot of things that we can afford to lose, but we cannot afford to lose his presence.
We can’t afford to go through the remainder do this service without his presence. We can’t afford to wake up tomorrow without his presence.
We cannot afford to go through life with an absence of the presence.
So now that Jerusalem is established as the capital, Davis is seeking to bring back the ark of the covenant. So David gathers his men and he goes to the home of Abinadab where the ark is.
They load the ark onto a new cart and they began moving toward Jerusalem. The ark had been neglected during the reign of Saul but David was understanding of the importance of worship.
It was not important to Saul but to David it was everything! He knew that God was the heavenly king who stood behind his earthly kingship. It was God who spoke to the prophet Samuel and told him to go to Jesse’s house and anoint one of his sons who he was to reveal as the king.
It was God who stood with him as he knocked down a 9ft tall champion of Gath.
It was God who delivered him from the hands of Saul.
Therefore the ark coming back to Jerusalem was not an option but a necessity. There’s some people in the room today who will testify and say that his presence is not an option to you but a necessity.
Had it not been for Jesus, you would have been gone a long time ago but because he stood beside you. You lived to testify another day of his goodness and his mercy.
While they were moving the ark something happened. As they were crossing Nacons threshing floor, the Ark began to fall and Uzza reached to grab it and God struck him and he died.
David got messed up. He first got angry at God and then became fearful of God. Yet in the process of the meeting of the minds, trying to decide what to do with the ark, a man by the name of Obededum stepped forward and said “You can leave the ark at my house.”
The ark stayed at the house of Obededum for 3 months and while it was there he and his family were blessed as well as his assets.
When his presence is not limited to just the walls of the Sanctuary but is welcomed into your house, you won’t have to worry about your children going haywire, and your money disappearing, and your marriage being on the rocks.
I came to tell someone in the house today…
Don’t leave him here, take him with you when you leave!
I wish I had some people in the room today who would let heaven know that there’s room in your house for his presence.
Come on! Lift a shout of praise and let him know, “Jesus, you can have this house!”
David stepped back for 3 months and he began to study. What do I need to do to bring the ark back to Jerusalem. How can I get the presence back?
- PREPARATION TO BRING THE ARK BACK
A. The first thing David did to prepare for the presence is he makes room for it.
He begins to build a house for himself in the center of Jerusalem and he throws up a tent in the middle of the city for the ark to be placed under.
Nothing fancy, just 4 post and a blanket over the top. No walls. No fancy decorations. No gold. No rooms.
Just A Tent.
Compared to the previous temples we see, it looks poor. Moses tabernacle had an inner court and an outer court and the Holy of Holies. Solomon’s tabernacle was so elegant that the Queen of Sheba said that “the half has not yet been told.”
Yet David is about to park this ark under a tent where it is exposed to the elements.
It is never about the building where the presence resides as much as it is about the sincerity behind the one who seeks the presence.
B. Just as David prepared for the Arks arrival you and I must make proper preparations for his arrival in this house.
Some of y’all are coming to church every Sunday and you ain’t prayed up nor praised up yet you expect the presence to show up.
The worship team is not your warm up for the preaching. It is your opportunity to welcome the Holy Spirit, the presence of God into the room that you may be changed and transformed by the renewing of your mind.
No one should have to beg you to lift your hands and offer praise to Yahweh. You should have a praise on your lips at all times. You might not always feel like it, you might not always have it all together….but he’s still worthy!
You should be preparing for the arrival of his presence long before your tires ever touch the edge of the driveway.
If you expect heaven to invade this room, then you to need to be ready to receive what heaven is willing to pour out.
I’m sick and tired of hearing people complain about not being spiritually fed. Listen to me, if the only time you eat is on Sunday, then you’re going to starve today death. If the only time you have an appetite is on Wednesday, then you don’t have a true hunger for God.
I don’t need him just on Sundays, I need him every day of my life!
I came to tell someone…MAKE ROOM FOR THE PRESENCE OF GOD!
C. His last step of the preparation was a meeting. The ark was not to be loaded up on a new cart but to be carried on the shoulders of the levites who were consecrated and separated from the world.
The cart may have been easier, but it was not the right method of transportation for the ark.
The presence of God was meant to be carried by those who have consecrated or separated themselves from the world to be a holy people.
It may not be easy, but consecration is still the method of transportation.
God has not lowered his standard. It’s still the same! Separate yourself from the world so that you can carry the presence of God!
D. Every six paces David would slit the throat of an oxen and a fatted steer. The blood of those animals would flood the streets and would be walked on by the Levites who were carrying the ark of the covenant.
You cannot get the presence unless you first walk through the blood!
The blood would be what they walked on all of the way back to the tent in the center of Jerusalem.
- The Jerusalem Council
A. When they arrived back to the tabernacle, they brought the ark and they sat it in the center of the tent.
David began to dance in the presence. He began to dance and worship and his wife was watching and she began to be embarrassed because of the actions of King David.
She was the daughter of Saul who did not value the importance of the presence of God.
Mommas and Daddy’s listen to me…if you treat his presence as optional then your children will not value it at all.
David began to invest in the worship department. I read online that in the 33 years of the ark being in the tabernacle, David paid out the equivalence of 8 Billion dollars in today’s money. 30 million dollars a year to 4,000 gate keepers and 4,000 musicians and 280 worshippers.
B. As we fast forward to Amos 9, the Tabernacle of David has already been destroyed. Yet there is a prophecy in which God said he would rebuild the tabernacle of David.
This prophecy comes to fulfillment in Acts Chapter 15 during the Jerusalem Council.
A meeting in which there were Elders and Apostles gathered together because there is great confusion regarding the gentiles and if they can be saved or not.
Elder in the Greek is Presbyters
(Pres-boo-ter-os)
It simply means forefathers or people with experience.
But because God was doing a new thing, no one had ever seen anything like this before. People were getting saved who had never been afforded the opportunity before. People were coming into the synagogues and they didn’t look holy or act churchy.
Apostle in the Greek is Apostolos which means a delegate, messenger, or one sent forth with orders.
Because the Elders had never seen anything like this before they remained in silence while the Apostles, the ones who had been active in the field, began to tell what God had been doing in their ministries.
Peter would stand up first and tell how God made the choice for the gentile people to hear the word of God. Paul and Barnabas began sharing the signs and the wonders they saw.
After they sat down the youngest apostle, James “the lesser” stood up and he said “I HAVE THE ANSWER.”
900 years prior to this Amos gave a prophecy that said God was going to rebuild the tabernacle of David.
- Rebuilding The Tabernacle of David
If I were God, I would have rebuilt Solomon’s Temple. It was elegant. Had gold accents, it even took the Queen of Sheba by great surprise.
But God didn’t choose Solomon’s temple of stone. He didn’t build Moses’ tabernacle of wood. Instead he chose David’s tabernacle.
4 poles and a Blanket
No walls, No Holy of Holies, No courts, and No High Priest.
Why would God choose this over the others?
Because he wants a people who are more hungry for his presence than they are interested in a building.
It may be the largest or the nicest, but if his presence isn’t there, I don’t want to be there!
A. No Walls
There were no walls, therefore anyone could worship and he would not be contained within the walls of the temple.
Some of us are wondering why all Hell is breaking loose in our home, community, government, and so on…
Because we have people who profess with theirs lips that they love him yet the only time they visit with him is on Sunday.
God prefers Habitation over Visitation.
He doesn’t desire to visit with us, but to dwell within us!
B. Continual Worship
David’s Tabernacle bore continual worship.
The focus was not on an individual, the focus was on God and his presence.
I am thankful for our lights and our resources that we have to enhance our worship service. But listen to me when I say this…
We must never been interested in the resource more than the source!
His house shouldn’t be about me or you, it should not revolve around our preference. It should be about him and his desire for how he prefers to be worshipped!
C. No Courts
Solomons Temple had a court for the levites, a court for the priest, a court for women…inner court, outer court..
Galatians 3:28 says “There’s neither Jew nor Greek, neither Slave nor free, male nor female for all are one in Christ Jesus.”
Two things.
First- If a woman can brith Jesus, a woman can preach Jesus.
Secondly, we have so much churches looking to fill their pews with people who look like them, smell like them, act like them, and talk like them…
Yet the harvest that is coming in will be the greatest challenge to the religious spirits in the modern church. Because God is doing a new thing, we have a group of people in the church who are judgmental in their thinking because the harvest doesn’t look as if they thought it should.
My brother and I stay on flint creek, right up the road in hartselle. We know what we need to use for the species of fish that we want to catch.
If we want to catch a bass, we know what to use. If we are crappie fishing, we know what to use.
We have a lot of churches who are trying to choose the harvest due to the preferences.
So we have some who are fishing for the white fish and some that are fishing for the brown fish. Some are fishing or the rich fish and others for the poor fish. Some are fishing for the republican fish and others for the democrat fish….
But Jesus didn’t fish with a pole, he fished with a net because he didn’t have a preference on the harvest.
This house, will not be a house of preferences when it comes to the harvest!
If you are hungover from last night, come anyway! If you smell like the joint you smoked before you got here, come anyway! If you are attracted to the same sex, come anyway! If you are living with someone you aren’t married to, come anyway!
Come as you are, but leave transformed by the renewing of your mind!
There are no courts in the temple he is rebuilding. No segregation, no separation. Just open air and opportunity for everyone to come and experience the authentic power of God!
We will not withhold the name of Jesus from anyone regardless of their lifestyle for it is by that name that all are saved! He came not into this world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved!
This is not a museum for the saints but a hospital for the broken!
Jesus said in Luke 5 that the healthy does not need a doctor but the sick do!
It may look different than it’s ever looked before. It may warp your religious theology. But tare down the walls of all our tradition, break down the walls of all our tradition.