One Step at a Time

Text:

2 Samuel 6:1–8 “Again, David gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. And David arose, and went with all the people that were with him from Baale of Judah, to bring up from thence the ark of God, whose name is called by the name of the Lord of hosts that dwelleth between the cherubims. And they set the ark of God upon a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in Gibeah: and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drave the new cart. And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab which was at Gibeah, accompanying the ark of God: and Ahio went before the ark. And David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instruments made of fir wood, even on harps, and on psalteries, and on timbrels, and on cornets, and on cymbals. And when they came to Nachon’s threshingfloor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook it. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there…”

2 Samuel 6:12–18 “And it was told king David, saying, The Lord hath blessed the house of Obed-edom, and all that pertaineth unto him, because of the ark of God. So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom into the city of David with gladness. And it was so, that when they that bare the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed oxen and fatlings. And David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. And as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal Saul’s daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart. And they brought in the ark of the Lord, and set it in his place, in the midst of the tabernacle that David had pitched for it: and David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. And as soon as David had…”

Announce message (Make sure to turn to this passage in your Bible)

Introduction

2 Samuel 6 brings us to a time in David’s life where he had witnessed great tragedy and tribulation. Not only had David ran from his Father-in-law for many years at this point, but he had just experienced the death of Saul and Jonathan through the hands of the Philistines.

However, David had also experienced some victory throughout his turmoil:

David was anointed King of Judah - 2 Sam 2:1-4

2 Samuel 5:5 “In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months: and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty and three years over all Israel and Judah.”

David was anointed King over all of Israel - 2 Sam 5:1-3

To say David had experienced peaks and valleys, highs and lows, good times and bad times would be an understatement at this time. We should note that David had lived a full life and at this very moment it would seem like David’s promise and fulfillment as King had finally come to fruition.

The reality, however, was his story was far from over. A city had to be taken!

2 Samuel 5:6–7 “And the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land: which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither: thinking, David cannot come in hither. Nevertheless David took the strong hold of Zion: the same is the city of David.”

You see initially when we read this - we fail to understand what it means. We think of it in our Politically Correct minds as being insensitive to those who are handicapped, but that is not what is being implied by Scripture. Instead, it is a play on words:

Israel was to take the land known as Jerusalem from the Jebusites. Further, Israel was also at a tactical disadvantage. Jerusalem was in a wedge and higher formation putting the Jebusites at a place where the lame and blind could literally defend the city by throwing stones off the city’s edge.

In other words, even the blind could hit their target.

You could also think of it as those who were against King David were spiritually lame and spiritually blind…

I would advocate that we have a deeper meaning found in this passage later on in Scripture though! Jesus would also minister to the lame and blind in the same exact place. 2 Sam 5’s portrayal of the blind and lame isn’t actually keeping them from entering the temple:

2 Samuel 5:8 “And David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, that are hated of David’s soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.”

However, we should note that there was a limitation on the lame and blind being priests. In other words, they were not allowed into the holy of holies!

Leviticus 21:18–21 “For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded, Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken; No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God.”

The answer to this problem is JESUS. You see Matt 21 tells us of how such people could be returned to what God had in store for them - they could return to a royal priesthood through Jesus Christ!

Matthew 21:14 “And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.”

The lame and blind came to Jerusalem for restoration. At this time, Jesus restored eyesight to the blind and allowed the lame to walk once again.

When Jesus comes on to the scene things are restored not broken.

With that being said - if you are filled with the Holy Ghost - you are called to bear the Spirit in Covenant!

1 Peter 2:9 “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:”

Movement 2: Bearers of the Ark

Numbers 4:15 identifies that it was the Levites job to bear the ark. Specifically, there were jobs within the levitical priesthood. In other words, people were anointed to minister in certain ways. It didn’t make them better, it just meant they had a specific role and responsability when it came to serving in the Kingdom (Exod 25:14-15; Num 4:15).

The Kohathites were to bear the ark of God ONLY after the sons of Aaron had secured everything. They bore the Ark on staves that went through the rings in the Ark.

If the Kohathites were to “accidentally” touch the Ark - they would die

Today, everyone wants to be known as the ‘top dawg’, the one in charge, but few want the responsibilities of that individual.

Pastor, I don’t feel the problem in our churches today is God allowing for titles, positions, or advancement. All those things are natural aspects of growth in a Kingdom.

The problem is:

Promotion without process, which comes from prideful circumvention

Wandering roles because someone’s not happy where God’s placed them in the Kingdom.

Ultimately, it’s due to spiritual sin - Pride. (1 Jn 2:16)

YOU WANT ADVANCEMENT, BE FAITHFUL WHERE HE’S PLACED YOU!

The “I” mindset instead of the Kingdom mindset - in otherwise we’ve become so focused on ourselves as individuals we’ve forgot about the family of God. We’re supposed to be moving forward as a family not just as individuals!

There’s a difference between love and tolerance.

People in the church think that love means accepting every wrong thing someone does. If a person’s called to bear the Ark, but never shows up for church - how can they do what God’s called them to do?

I love them as a Brother and Sister, but I don’t see their behavior as acceptable.

However, not tolerating someone’s disobedience is one thing. Not showing grace to people when you yourself also desire grace is a complete other.

We love to use Luke 6:38’s verbiage of “pressed down shaken together and running over” for financial stewardship. While - yes - this is a biblical principle, that specific passage has less to do with tithes and offering and more to do with showing mercy to people.

Sometimes showing mercy and grace to people will be one of the hardest things you ever do. It, however, is one of the most biblical things you can do according to 1 Cor 13. Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast. All that is hard to do.

The reality is when we’re not present for church or ‘being the church’ - we are failing at our spiritual jobs. God calls us to minister to specific people in our lives and when we fail to show up to church, it’s like:

Trying to take the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem without first going and getting the Ark in the first place.

You can’t take the Spirit to people that you don’t have yourselves

Yeah, I know you can pray at home, but do you! Do you intercede? Do you wait on God’s Spirit?

We’ve got to have the Ark before winning the lost. And not a Burger King Ark at that. We’ve got to die out to our will and take up His.

The New Testament Ark is called a cross!

Matthew 16:24–26 “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Movement 3: Uzzah and the Breach

Anyways… let’s go back to this guy called Uzzah.

Uzzah made the mistake of touching the Ark. Nowhere do we know if Uzzah was a Kohathite or not, but we do know that he was part of the levitical priesthood.

Regardless of whether or not he was a Kohathite or not, God was clear that most priest were never to touch the holy things. Uzzah, however, became the tragedy of men not bearing the ark.

God didn’t instruct Moses to have oxen bear the cart. It is quite possible that He could of, but He did not. Instead, priests were to bear the ark.

This is the problem with many of us today, we want revival - but we don’t want to bear the ark.

Someone else will do it for me

Someone else has more charisma than I do

People never come to church when I invite them…

I don’t have time to teach a Bible Study…

But you had time to go out to eat with them

You had time to talk about everything else besides Jesus with them

You had time to watch the game with them

Do I need to go on…

I’m not saying we have to become so heavenly minded we’re no earthly good. I am saying it’s way too easy to become so earthly minded that we’re no heavenly good.

Movement 4: From Obed-edom to Jerusalem

You see when David watched God smite Uzzah for touching the Ark, I believe that the King was discouraged. I believe he struggled and probably wondered if he had done something to displease Yahweh. What does he do?

He finds a man called Obed-edom who was a Gittite, which means he was a man from Gath. He most likely was a converted Philistine. So you know what happens with this converted enemy of God, similar to the gentile nations and Paul, God blesses him while the Ark is with his house.

When David sees this, he then returns the procession to travel toward Jerusalem

Paint the eschatological picture from there

Revelation 21:2 KJV 1900

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Rev 21:2

As a church getting ready for her groom, we’ve got to make sure everything’s just right. We can’t become so down and out about Uzzah that we fail to move the covenant toward it’s promise.

God is coming back for a bride that has made herself ready for him!

We make ourselves ready by salvation first and then living a holy life

Living a mission driven life is part of that holiness thing. Getting others ready for Jesus is a part of who we’re called to be

We’ve got to get rid of the “My four and no more” attitude.

You want the church to grow, befriend someone and show yourself as kind. Be willing to fellowship with people outside your normal circle.

We would miss it if we failed to realize the praise and worship, as well as sacrifice happening. Scripture says that every six paces - David sacrificed oxen and fatlings.

In other words, every time you fail, you ought to remind Satan and everyone around you - I’m going to apply the blood. I might have fallen short today, but I’m going to get enough Jesus to keep me moving forward!

David didn’t just get the blood applied to his life, but he put on a linen ephod and worshipped God!

The linen ephod represents the priests garment, which indicates holiness unto God or separation. You might have to do things a bit differently than everyone else. They’re going to ask why you do what you do.

That’s where you introduce them to the blood of Christ and how good He’s been! He pulled me out of miry clay. He set my feet on the rock to stay.

Satan you’re not dominating my work place today!

I wish someone would get a little fire back in their heart. Things might not be going as planned, but I want to challenge you - as these altars are open - to be an Ark bearer. You are called to move the Ark forward in Jesus name!