God's Calling In Our Lives

Good morning. Let's pray. Lord, just invite your spirit to continue to work among us and to help us. Lord, as we seek to do your will, that we wouldn't be sidetracked, turn to the left or the right. We fix our eyes on you. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Second sermon. Chapter 6. You know, there's a process in which God has a call on our life. And then when you realize that he's called us, or he's called you, and it comes in your heart that you want to do something for God. It came into David's heart in chapter 7 that he wanted to do something for God. But on the journey, you begin to realize that God wants to do something for you. You're not trying to do something for God. He's trying to do something for us. He wants to make us a house. You want to build God a house. In the process of the journey, you know, this one Saul, he became king. He was made king in a day. Started leading the people of God. He got himself into pride. He was humble when he started. He was hiding among the equipment when God called him. He was humble. Little in his own eyes. But soon he got elevated to a position and he got puffed up. And he was even making a monument unto himself. And he wasn't obedient to what God had said to the prophet Samuel. And God tore the kingdom from him because he was disobedient and because pride had filled his heart. We can start well, but we can get puffed up with pride and come under devil's condemnation. That's why it says don't let new converts or young brothers lead in a fellowship. Because it can get to their head. And it can get to all of our heads, not just young brothers. So we have to be careful with it. We allow the Lord to shape our character as Dan shared. To produce in us the kind of hope that doesn't disappoint. So God anointed David. Well, he was the youngest of his brethren. His dad didn't even see it in his heart to include him with his brothers when he brought him to the prophet. To anoint him and left him in the field looking after sheep. God doesn't look at the outward appearance. God looks at the heart. It doesn't matter whether brothers acknowledge you as being spiritual or they don't see you as having much value in the work or whatever. It's not what man sees and it's not how a man puts you in a position. It's what God does. God looks at your heart. It doesn't matter what age you are. David was a youth. And God chose none of the sons of Jesse and Samuel. I said, do you have any more sons? And he said, well, one more. The youngest one was taking care of sheep in the field. He said, you better get him here. And as soon as he came, the spirit of the Lord came on him. David was a man that God had called. Hard after God. From a young age, you know, we need to have a heart after God. You know, we're involved in all kinds of activities, but do you have a heart after God? You know, and here's this guy you would think he got anointed king and Saul would be out and David would be put in the same position, but it didn't work that way. David was seasoned in a different way. You know, we talk about seasoning firewood. You know, you just burn green firewood into smoke. Don't burn it. But, brothers, we need seasoning. You want to get on fire for the Lord, you need to be seasoned. You know, I see a lot of guys get on fire for the Lord up at the creek. When they got no roots, they're like a flash in the pan and they're gone. Then there's some who just kind of seem to just come along slowly and you wonder where the fire is. What's seasoning down there? The process of time, the Holy Ghost will come on and they'll catch fire. They'll burn hot. We don't want to find ourselves burning out. We want to continue to burn bright for the Lord. It says our Father is an all-consuming fire and he wants us to be refined in that fire. So David goes through some encouragements. He defeats a Goliath. He finds himself, you know, battling the Philistines and gaining some victory. He gets Saul who seems to be still king, but God had left him. A distressing spirit had come upon him. He gets the daughter of Saul and all of a sudden the jealousy of Saul causes him to chase David. And all of a sudden David becomes hunted. And through all this time his father was hunting him to destroy him because he knows that they're singing now, Saul is slain as thousands and David as ten thousands. And what more can he have but the kingdom? So he got to take out the competition, the spirit of jealousy, which was a bad thing for him. And he's just seeking to save his life and hiding in the caves and in the mountains, in the wilderness. But you know who found him? Four hundred disgruntled men who didn't get along with the people of God. People who were in debt, people who had social issues. They found David in the wilderness and David trained them and they became the mighty men of God. David became like a father to them. He loved them, he trained them in all aspects. These were worthless men who became the mighty men of God, who were David's mighty men. Through the process of time David became discouraged. At one point he says, I think it's in 1 Samuel 27, he comes into unbelief. And we can struggle in unbelief. But he says, now I know, this is what he said in his heart, now I know one day I will perish at the hand of Saul. He doubted the promise of God. He lost hope. We don't always lose hope. We lose hope and we got nothing. You know, we start in faith but it has to translate into hope. That hope has to translate into love. Faith, hope and love, these three, the greatest is love. He lost hope and he said, I'm going to go now and join myself with the Philistines. He joined himself with the enemies of God. He found himself over there even to the point where he was willing to raise up with his men that were with him, now 600, and fight against his own brothers with the Philistines. God didn't allow it. He shut it down. So when he went back to that city, that city of Sidra, there it was burned with fire. He was living there for some time and Saul stopped hunting him. He seemed to have a peaceful life. But God flushed him out of there because that's not where he was supposed to be. God had a purpose and a call of God in his life to make him king over Israel. And so it was shortly after that that they received their family back. David learned to strengthen himself in the Lord. Saul was defeated in the battle. And it happened that the people of Judah came to make David king. He became king over Judah for a period of time, eventually king over Israel. But the ark of God was not in Jerusalem. David was in Jerusalem in the process of time. He'd heard that this man, I think it was Obed-Edom, I'm not sure exactly, but the ark was there for a period of time. And the guy was blessed and the presence of God was there. And he said, man, we need to bring the presence of God here into the city of Jerusalem, the city of God. And so this is where I wanted to read about this time in David's life where 2 Samuel 6 says, again, David gathered all the chosen men of Israel, 30,000. This was going to be a big event. He grabbed 30,000 men and he said, David arose and he went with all the people who were with him to this place. Well, here it says Baal-Judah, but it's also referred to as Kirath-Jerim. And he brought up, he was going to go there to bring up the ark of God, whose name is by the name of the Lord of hosts who dwells between the cherubim. And so they set the ark of God on a new cart and they brought it out of the house of Abinadab at that point, which was on the hill. And Uzzah and Eho, the sons of Abinadab, they drove the new cart. So the process here is that this ark was in this Abinadab's house at this point and he's now going to bring the presence of God back into the city. And he's got 30,000 men. They've got a choir. They've got instruments that they're working with. They've got the joy of the Lord among them. It seems everything is going to be going well. And these men had put that ark on a new cart to take it into Jerusalem. There were probably oxen that were pulling the cart. And what had happened was the Philistines in the time of Eli had captured the ark and when they sent it back to Israel, they sent it back with oxen on a cart. That's not how it was originally. Originally, God had commanded that they would carry this ark with bulls. Poor men would carry this ark. There was a certain pattern and a way in which it was supposed to be done. But the law had been lost in regards to how things were to be done in a proper order. And so it happened that the Philistines sent them a new way in which the ark was moved back and they had kind of just kept on with that tradition. So as they're bringing this ark back, they stopped here at this one fellow's threshing floor and it says, as they came to Nishan's threshing floor, Uzzah put his hand out to the ark of God and he took hold of it for the oxen had stumbled. And he just went to go steady the ark so that it wouldn't tip over. And verse 7 says, then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Uzzah and God struck him down there for his error and he died there before the ark of God. And David became angry because the Lord's outbreak against Uzzah. So David's first response would be angry with the Lord. And then it says, how can the ark of God come to me? So David would not move the ark of the Lord with him into the city of David. But David took it aside to the house of Obed-Edom to give thanks. That's how it ended up at Obed-Edom's house. And the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom to give thanks three months. And the Lord blessed Obed-Edom and all his household. So what can we learn from this? David first was angry with the Lord and then he was fearful. He was fearful of this ark, the presence of God. Well, one thing we can learn is that God is a God of order. And we have to do things according to his ways. There's a scripture that says there's a way that seems right to a man. But the end of it is destruction. And so we can have the best intentions, but do it the wrong way. And find ourselves not ending in the result that we look for. Because the scripture also says that we should not be wise in our own eyes, but we should choose the fear of the Lord. And if we're ignorant according to God's ways, then we need to seek the Lord. We need to be seasoned and to learn his ways. David did not know these things, that this thing should not have been moved on a cart. He did not know that this thing should not be tied up to oxen and hauled back. It seemed a fantastic idea. I mean, why carry it when you can put it on a cart? The wisdom would tell you. But that's not what God had originally had said. And so they had to go back and to figure out what went wrong. If we read in another passage, we can learn that after three months, and it comes into David's heart that they're going to bring this ark back into Jerusalem. And David, they took six paces, they made sacrifices of animals to the Lord, and the men were carrying it, and they came back a proper way, and it was a blessing. But if you handle the word of God in a wrong way, you know, people can die. And it comes to mind that we can have the best intentions to lead people to Christ, and we can do it according to the flesh. We can do damage. And we can kill people. The Scripture says the letter killeth, but the Spirit brings life. And so unless we come to understand and know his ways and the order of things according to the Scriptures, according to the way of the Spirit, we can have the best intentions. We can get a whole crowd together of 30,000. We can have the choir and everything. We can make a joyful noise. But as soon as the thing goes south and somebody puts their hand on the ark to steady things because, you know, some church boss has got to get in there and make sure that the things don't get out of hand, that's when the bad things start to happen. We want to make sure that we allow the Holy Spirit to have his way and let God be God. You know, I remember a time when I was young in the Lord and I was really zealous to keep the order and, you know, spent too much time steadying the church. And it didn't bring life in the people. I gave them all the orders like bacon and cake. I had the full recipe and everything perfect. But, you know, you put it all in there and the thing just goes flat on you. It's because you don't have that loving touch. There was something missing. You have the recipe, but it's not mixed in faith. It's not faith working through love. You know, there's a lack of grace. And the reason being was when we were brought up from young, we heard this word grace. You know, and from the way that I live, that grace was a license for sin for me. And I didn't know any different, but it led me on a lifestyle. And this grace did not save. It gave me a false security. You know, we can have a false security thinking that things are good. And so I found myself in this ditch where I would be struggling with sin all the time, not overcoming, but I had my grace card. And it was a deception. Grace is not a license to sin. It's the power of God to live free from sin. And so when I got light on that, you know, I went the extreme. I said, well, we need righteousness. And then, you know, we've got to keep the order of things. And so we went away from grace and we started in faith. We went away from faith, and we found ourselves doing all the right things. But some had life, but most didn't have life, even though we had the recipe and everything seemed right. I think of a time when we had life insurance, and the payments, the bank had shut the payments down because a deposit went in that they thought was suspicious, and when the payment for the life insurance was automatically withdrawn, it didn't come out. A number of months went by, and I thought, oh, well, it must have been a whole life, and the payments must have caught up, and now it's paying itself, and the payments. I started to believe this lie that everything was good, and I had this life insurance for my family, and they weren't taking payments anymore, and six, seven months had gone by. And I started to think that, you know, everything's great. But then I had to check in my spirit, and I said, well, when you look into this thing, well, the life insurance was cancelled. You know, they tried to take it out a couple of times, and it just kept bouncing or went NSF, and so there's no policy at all. But in my mind, I believed that there was a policy. This is this kind of false grace. You start thinking that heaven is your destination and Jesus is your Lord, and all of a sudden, if you have a check in your spirit, you need to examine and test whether you're actually in the faith or whether you really have a hold of the true grace of God or whether you even believe in lies. So in the process of time, I came to despise the word grace, which was totally wrong, but I despised it because my understanding of grace was the way that most of us had understood grace as a license for sin. And so I didn't preach grace anymore. I preached obedience. Obedience to the word of God, which is true, but it says, as Dan read, you've been justified freely by His grace through faith. This not of yourselves, it's a gift from God, lest any man should boast. And what it began to produce in us is boasting and self-righteousness. But we were blind to this thing. You can get yourself into a ditch on the other side of self-righteous pride. But it says the gate is small and narrow, the way that leads to life, and few that find it. So we've got to fix our eyes on Jesus. Yes, our salvation is through the shed blood of Christ, by grace through faith, not of ourselves. It's a free gift. But the result of it is obedience. And that leads to a highway of holiness, which we need to get our eyes on Jesus so that we can cross over. We can have all the best intentions, but people can die. That's what happened in David's time. Who's to die? Because he had a wrong understanding, and he was ignorant about it. Why did God require his life from him? Because God is holy, and those who come near him must be regarded as holy. And they, in their lack of seeking out the Lord and the truth of God's word, ignorance was not an excuse, just like when I called the insurance company. Well, I thought, well, I thought, well, I thought. Ignorance is not an excuse. No, we need the truth to make us free. You know, when you come to your senses, and you start to examine and test whether you're in the faith, and you see that you're weighed in the scales according to the word of God, according to God's standard, you're found walking. Then we need to get a fear of God, and we need to say, Lord, I'm going to repent now. And I don't want to turn to you with a whole heart. Brother Eddie shared it. You know, we can think that we're in a good way, but it's easy for us to deceive ourselves. We're deceived too that we're not deceived. Deception can come easy because our hearts are deceitful, and they can be easily swayed. Not just women, all of us. Somebody comes and dangles something a little shiny, we can go after it and get it out of the way in a hurry. I was sharing with a brother the other day about a story that Chad Warren shared with us a number of years ago. A man who was hunting coons, and they would put something shiny in a bottle, and that coon could get his hand in, and he'd grab that shiny thing, that thing was fastened down, and he'd get ahold of that shiny thing, and he would not let it go. And he'd try to get his hand out of there, and they would come to take him, but he would not let go of that thing in his hand, and he'd give his life for that thing, which was worthless. And a lot of people get caught up chasing after things that are worthless, and they won't let it go, and they'll give their life for it, and it's perishing while it's in their hand. What could that coon do with some shiny thing? Absolutely nothing. I think he had said, like, go in these electrical boxes and punch out of those things, those shiny gold little things, not even a quarter, and he just had to have it. There was a lust in his heart to have that thing, and he got that thing in his hand, and if he would just let go of it and open his hand, he'd get his hand out and just be able to get free, but no, he would not let go of that thing. This thing's a trap unto us. The Scripture's very clear not to love the world nor the things in the world. We live in the world. We use the things in the world, but we can't allow that thing to get in our hearts, otherwise you'll die hanging on to it. I have a false sense of security, but that's not the way of the cross. We have to die to what we're held by. If we don't die to our passions and our lusts, then those lusts and passions will destroy us. God gives us all things richly to enjoy. Things in themselves, if they're not evil, are not evil, but when it gets a hold of your heart, it becomes evil unto you. It becomes idol. Where do these idols come from? Do we bow down to them? We were moving a fellow yesterday. He had some small Buddhas that were there watching over his house. I thought, oh, that thing's an idol. Yeah, absolutely it's an idol, but you know what? It says that the children of Israel, they set up idols in their hearts. This is where the idols are, and you can find out where a man's heart is by what's coming out of his mouth, and so we have to be careful, as our brother Eddie shared about the piece of the pie and how much time and devotion we allow our heart to have in these things. We live in the world, but we're not to be of it, and we need to be honest. If things are getting a hold of our heart, then what you'll find is when you go to spend time with the Word, the Word is not speaking to you. It's not speaking to you. You're doing religious duty, but if you let go and let God, if you surrender all to Jesus, and that's a daily thing. You say, well, when were you saved? Well, I was saved 20 years ago. That's maybe when God called you, and you had an encounter with the Lord, and then I hear people talking. I mean, you get around family, and it's like, well, you know, in 1998, or in the 1980s, the Lord did all these wonderful things. What has he done this week for you? Because he showed himself faithful. You know, when you got into a struggle, or when you cried out to him, did he deliver you? What has he saved you from lately? Has he saved you from so great a death? Did he keep you when you got diverted in the way from taking a bad decision and ending up into a ditch? You know, where would you be when you get into a ditch? Sometimes you get into a ditch, it's not so easy to get out. You think, well, I'll just shake off like Samson, and I'll just shake off like every other time. No, it can cost you your eyes. It can cost you your spiritual discernment. You know, and this is what happens, is we start fooling around with the flesh. We start playing the harlot with the things of the world. You know, it says, you adulterers and adulteresses, in James 4, 4, friendship with the world is hatred toward God. Anyone who wants to become a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Do we want to become enemies of God through spiritual harlotry? May it never be, brothers. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Jesus set us free from these things, so we want to make sure that we don't set up idols in our heart. You know what the other thing we can do is we can have a form of godliness, and we can call it in. You know what, we can start a little denomination right here. This is a brand new denomination, right? The Cronites, right? We just started the denomination, right? And it could go from here, maybe in 200 years from now, maybe it's a thing. But that's not the intention of God. The intention of God is that we don't make a form of godliness and call it in. You know what you build then? You build a tower under heaven. Everyone speak the same language, everyone think the same, and you can make something that you can be proud of, make an image. We're not to make an image of any kind, even a religious image, become an idol. But we're not to neglect fellowship because it says, don't forsake the gathering together as a matter of song. So much more is to see the day approaching. And the days are evil, my friends. What days are approaching? The days when we get our eyes off of Jesus, we get out of fellowship. Some of us, we have no regard for fellowship. We think, well, we can just watch some sermons, we can sing a few songs, and that's fellowship. It's not fellowship. Fellowship is where two or three get together in my name. He said, there I am in the midst. When people love the Lord, they get together to talk about him, the Lord hearkens in and he listens to the things we say about him. Them that fear the Lord, we call upon his name. When we get in fellowship, the Lord is with us. But if we neglect fellowship and we just start to pursue all the other things that are in the world, it can be even good things, then the day is coming as a thief in the night for you. It says in Hebrews 10, 26, for if we go on sinning willfully, we neglect fellowship, we don't stir one another up to seek the Lord, and we start practicing sin, we start loving money, we start loving the world, the things in the world, and we have a form of godliness and no power. You know what, the word says we've got to stay away from brothers like that. Such worrisome of you. But the Lord washed us and he cleansed us and he set us apart that we would be his own special treasure, his own people, prepared for good works. Good works have to follow genuine faith. If you don't have genuine faith, you won't have good works. But you can have good works apart from saving faith, and you can boast in them works. One brother says, show me your faith without works from James, and he said, I'll show you my faith by what I did. But yet it's a fine line because if we don't understand that it's all grace and it never was us, it always was him, then we've missed Christ. We've missed the mark. David had every intention to do something for God. He wanted to bring the presence of God back into Jerusalem in the process of time. When trying to do something for God, he misunderstood God and things didn't work out the way they thought and he got angry with the Lord. It was a mighty thing you did putting it in my heart to bring the ark to Jerusalem, but three months later, he learned the proper way to do it. He gathered all the people together again. They got the ark going. The men had it on poles, and David danced before the Lord with all his might, and he twirled and he danced, and he took off his royal robes, and he said he would be even more undignified because he had come to understand that the joy of the Lord was his strength. And if the Lord was with him, then he would do well, but if the Lord wasn't with him, then he could have all these things, wonderful things, the blessing of the Lord, but the Lord was not with him. You know, Moses, God was so thoroughly frustrated with the people, he said to Moses, he said, I'll bring you into the land, and I'll bring the people into the land, but he says, I'm not going with them. I'll send an angel to go with them, and Moses said, you know, Lord, if you're going to send an angel to go with us, then I'm not going. He says, if you're going, I'm going. We have to come to know the power of God and to walk with God. You know, it says of Enoch that he walked with God. Do you want to be a man or a woman or a child that knows his God and walks with God? That's what I want. I want to walk with God. So when you're driving down the road, you're having fellowship with the Lord, you're talking to the Lord, and he's talking back. You're at home. He's speaking through his word. He's speaking by his spirit. He speaks in our minds, and he tells us this is the way, walk in it. He said, my sheep hear my voice. They follow him. But if we love other things, then the voice of the Lord will grow dim. But if the things of the world are growing dim, then the voice of the Lord will be clear. We will hear his voice and we'll follow in his footsteps. May the Lord give us understanding in these things. I'll finish with this passage here, 2 Samuel 7, verse 1. Now it came to pass when the king was dwelling in his house, the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies all around, this is David, that the king said to Nathan the prophet, see now I dwell in this house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells inside tent curtains. God had commanded the ark of God to move among the children of God in a tent. They built this tent in a certain pattern, in a special way, it had to be exact. And there the ark of the covenant would be inside this tent. And David felt guilty because the ark of God, the presence of God was living in this humble type of dwelling, this tent, and he himself had built himself like this place, an elaborate place, living in a house of cedar, our place, our house of fervor. That's what we get at. And so he decided I want to build a house for God. And so the prophet Nathan said do all that's in your heart for the Lord is with you. But it happened that night that the word of the Lord came to Nathan saying go and tell my servant David thus says the Lord would you build a house for me to dwell in? For I have not dwelt in a house since the time that I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt, even to this day, but I have moved about in a tent and in a tabernacle. And wherever I have moved about with all the children of God, have I ever spoken a word to anyone from the tribes of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people, Israel, saying why have you not built me a house of cedar? Now therefore, thus says the Lord, say to my servant David, thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from following the sheep to be ruler over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you, and I have made you a great name like the name of the great men on the earth. Moreover, I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and I will plant them that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more, nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them any more as previously. And since the time I have commanded the judges to be over my people Israel, I have caused you to rest from all your enemies. Also the Lord tells you that he will make you a house. David wanted to build a house for God. But God says, listen, I take you from when you were leading those little sheep and I anointed you king over Israel, and I have been with you every step of the way even when Saul was hunting you, even when that Goliath was mocking me, I put it in your heart to rise up in faith and go after him. When that big Goliath chased after you with his shield bearer and all his armor, you tore after him with a sling and five stones. When you took his head, I delivered him into your hand. I was with you even when Saul hunted you. And even when you went to the Philistine, I flushed you out of there, brought you back, and I established you as king over Israel. When have I ever asked for a house? You know, we have to understand something for God. He dwells in tents not made with ants. He says, heaven is his throne and the earth is his footstool. Where is the house he'll build for me and where is the place of my rest? He said that we are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them. I'll walk among them. I'll be their God. They shall be my people. So, where is the house of his rest? He wants to make us a house. He wants to make us He wants to prepare us a room. He wants to come into our stable. He wants to be born inside us and make us into a king's palace, so to speak. He wants us to become a vessel of honor, sanctified and useful to the master, fit for every good work. He dwells in the high and the lofty place and with him who is humble, who is contrite, he trembles at the word of God. You tremble at the word of God. You want to do something great for God, I'll tell you right now, God wants to do something great for you. If you'll let him, if you'll be humble, and you say, have thine own will, do the part of an undertaker, mold me and shape me after thine will, and while I'm waiting, help me to remain still, yield it, that's the Lord's plan for you. Yeah, we have ambitions, but like we sing this song, all of mine. Ambitions, hopes, and plans. I have I surrender thee into your hands. Are you yielded into his hands? Are you allowing him to have his own way? Are you allowing him to make you a vessel of honor? Are you cleansing yourself of all the filthiness of the flesh and in your spirit, the self-righteousness and the pride? Perfecting holiness in the fear of God. David wants you He wanted to make a house for God and God said, one coming from your own body, he'll build a house for you. He'll bring rest to the people of God. Speaking of Jesus, not Solomon. Solomon built him a house, but Jesus, who's priest in the heavens, is making us a spiritual house, made without heavens. So, may the Lord encourage you that the Lord has spoken to David. If we kept reading, he'd say, you've spoken great things for many years to come about your servant. David was humbled by it. May we understand that we need to be humbled by the things the Lord has done for us. He's still working in our life. And if you go through an experience that seems as though there's only destruction or death that's coming, God's not done that. That's just a season. He's not done that. He's just trying to show us that we've done things not according to his pattern. We've done things according to the work of the flesh and self-righteousness of the bride, but in him is life. And that life is the light of man. And so, when we're walking as children of light, you know, then the light will shine in this darkness and people are going to see Jesus through your face, through your testimony, and the joy of the Lord will be your strength. So, wherever the Holy Spirit leads you and guides you, keep going with the Lord Jesus. Don't look back. Don't allow the enemy to deter you through discouragements. Keep going with God, and God will finish the work that he begun. He promised he will finish it. And he'll bring it forth and make it beautiful in his time.