The Gift of Gratitude (wk. 5)

Good morning, CHURCH!

Welcome to FFM where we are here to connect people to the love of God through biblical teaching, loving community, and relational small groups.

(Introduction)

Are you ready to be equipped today?

Let me see your Bibles.

Pray

Lord, help us to see you as new and fresh through your word today.

Help us to see truth where we have believed lies.

‌

Help us to see where we have been deceived by the enemy.

Most of all whatever we learn today I pray it leads us to love you more and love people more.

‌

‌

Let’s go to the book of Proverbs 19:20 ESV for this week’s wisdom Vaccination.

This week we’re going to talk briefly about wisdom.

Have you ever wondered how we got around years ago without GPS?

-Could you imagine today showing up to a big city like LA, Chicago, Dallas or Houston without a cellphone and GPS?

-Maybe some of you remember going out of town and having to pull out a paper map.

-Or you had to ask someone for directions, and they had to be detailed.

Without GPS, maps or good instructions, you ended up lost, late or never making it to the desired destination.

That’s what wisdom is like.

It’s like having GPS for life.

Wisdom in the Old Testament described practical skills associated with living a successful life.

The skills might range from the ability to create highly skilled work, to the intellectual capability required to make choices that result in favorable outcomes.

It’s like the point of wisdom is not that you sound smart in discussions but that you have something that guides your decision-making process which helps you avoid trouble and end up successful.

This Week’s Wisdom Vaccination

Proverbs 19:20 ESV

Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.

So, the advice is not wisdom, and the instruction is not wisdom.

But if you follow the advice and instruction, you will gain wisdom in the future.

Why in the future because I have to see that through time you have been successful in something before, I can call you wise in that thing.

If you come to me after service and tell me how to keep a wife happy and how to have a successful marriage, and then I find out you have never been married, I’ll say you have some good information, but you haven’t walked it out.

So, it ain’t wisdom until it has legs.

Let’s get into today’s message.

Before we get into the lesson can we just charge the atmosphere with praise for about 20 seconds.

If, you didn’t participate in that opportunity, there are reasons.

-You don’t know him like that.

-You don’t love him like that.

-You only get that excited at Chiefs games or when your child scores a basket.

Today we are in week five of the series

The Gift of Gratitude

Today’s message title is:

The Dance of Gratitude

Our text of scripture for today will be 2 Samuel 6.

Let me set this up for you.

King David had gathered all the chosen men of Israel, 30,000 of them and they were taking the ark of God to the city of David.

Before we start reading, you need to know that the ark of the covenant was only to be carried by poles because it was never to be touched by anyone.

All of Israel would have known this important detail because they were familiar with the Hebrew Bible.

Point #1

The Details.

2 Samuel 6:3-4 NIV

They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart4 with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it.

I bet David thought he was doing something innovative or taking some initiative.

(My wife sent me to the store to buy a specific tea for a really bad cough and congestion she had. One problem. They had the brand of tea but not in her flavor. Also, they had her flavor but not in that brand.

So, I thought I’d take some initiative. Instead of coming home empty handed, I would grab the brand she wanted even though it was a different flavor. And I would grab the flavor she wanted although it was in a different brand.)

How many of you know that didn’t go so well.

She had an expectation of something specific and me taking some initiative and coming back with something different just didn’t work.

Well, David probably had good intentions.

I can only imagine David thinking that if I could put the ark on a cart and have it pulled by oxen, no one would struggle to carry it or come close to touching it.

So, they are on the move, and they are super excited.

They have the musicians playing and their singing and celebrating.

But how many of you know:

Good intentions without proper execution of God’s instructions, leads to disobedience.

2 Samuel 6:6 NIV

When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled.

Seems like a normal reaction.

You see the ark of God about to fall to the ground and you reach out to grab it to keep it from falling.

Seems like he was just trying to protect the ark.

Good intentions without proper execution of God’s instructions, leads to disobedience.

2 Samuel 6:7 NIV

The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore, God struck him down, and he died there beside the ark of God.

Uzzah’s actions were irreverent even though his intentions were good.

It was irreverent because of what God had set in order regarding the transportation of the Ark.

If God commands us to do something or not do something and we disobey, he sees that as an irreverent act.

And do you know that you can act in a way that is irreverent to God for so long that your conscious gets seared, and you think God is now okay with it.

He’s not okay with it.

But because of grace, you’re not getting what you deserve.

Though Uzzah’s intentions seemed pure, he violated the Law of God:

The ark was to be carried on poles and was never to be touched.

We see this in 1 Chronicles.

1 Chronicles 15:14-15 NIV

So, the priests and the Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel. 15 And the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles, as Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord.

We should have a picture that shows how it was to be executed.

📷

Now that Uzzah is dead, David is angry.

2 Samuel 6:8 NIV

Then David was angry because the Lord’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah.

I think some people assume that David was angry at God.

But David knew clearly that death was the penalty for anyone who touched the ark.

So, it is likely that David was angry that either Uzzah touched the ark or more likely that he himself didn’t follow instructions from the get-go.

You’re inability to follow the details might be the cause that leads those who depend on you to suffer.

You might be thinking that this was harsh of God, even though he said it from the beginning.

When people are no longer awed, respectful, or fearful of God’s holiness, the community is put at risk.

So, not only is David angry but he is also fearful.

And he abandons the mission to take the ark to the city of David and decides they’ll drop it off to the house of Obed-edom which was a lot closer.

Point #2

The Blessing.

2 Samuel 6:12 NIV

Now King David was told, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.” So, David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing.

There were clearly visible signs of the blessing of the Lord that coincided with the timing of the ark being with Obed-Edom for three months.

A clear sign that the blessing of the Lord accompanies his presence.

The Christian of today goes in and out of the presence of God when we have the opportunity to always walk with his presence.

There is a proverb that says it.

Proverbs 10:22 NIV

The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, without painful toil for it.

This says to me that we need to spend more time in the presence of God where the blessing of the Lord is, instead of leaving the presence behind while we try to make things happen ourselves.

And let’s bring this lesson home.

Point #3

The Praise.

In the church it seems that there has always been this extreme on one side or the other as it relates to how exuberant we get in our praise for the Lord.

Some circles seem to dance so much that it becomes a show or a performance for lots of people.

And in some circles it seems that praise is limited with a golf clap and a 5 out of 10 octave yell for God.

We know that the Bible says we should praise the Lord.

Psalms 149:3 says, “Let them praise his name with dancing! Praise him with tambourine and strings.

We don’t want to go to far to the extreme where it’s just emotional hype, but we don’t want football players dancing more in excitement for scoring touchdowns than we do for the God of the Universe.

2 Samuel 6:13-15 NIV

When those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf.

14 Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, 15 while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

When you look into this and the usage of words translated versus original language, it’s not likely David had some choreographed dance.

It’s more likely he was caught up in excitement for the ark being taken where it needed to be.

The original language leads to him twirling or spinning around energetically.

2 Samuel 6:20 NIV

When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”

It’s interesting to me that the writer didn’t say Michal, David’s wife came out to meet him.

By pointing out she was the daughter of Saul leads me to think that what she felt about David dancing was rooted in how she saw her father operate as King.

So, she would have trouble believing that this could have been a good thing.

Since her belief system was tainted by her father, she accused David of flirting before the women that were present.

2 Samuel 6:21 NIV

David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord.

Is there anyone here who has been chosen of the Lord for something special?

If it’s you then from time to time you should get so excited that you express that with singing and dancing vigorously before the Lord.

If you’re watching online or here in the building, I have a very important question to ask you.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you right now?