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Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.
Moreover I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth.
Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.
Now I call upon God as my witness that I am telling the truth. The reason I didn’t return to Corinth was to spare you from a severe rebuke.
But that does not mean we want to dominate you by telling you how to put your faith into practice. We want to work together with you so you will be full of joy, for it is by your own faith that you stand firm.
Helpers of your Joy
Helpers of your Joy
I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.
Church should be a place that our joy is made full
Church should be a place that our joy is made full
“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
A few years ago the Pew Research Group released the findings of a survey of happiness in America. The survey found that 43% of Evangelical Christians who attended church weekly claimed to be very happy compared to 36% that attend monthly and 26% who claim not to be religious at all.
This doesn’t mean that Church is the equivalent of a carnival, filled with cotton candy preaching and tilt a whirl worship…No…that doesn’t produce true joy.
Listen to what the Psalmist said in
When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long.
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no guile.
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no guile.
When I kept silence, my bones waxed old Through my roaring all the day long.
Blessed is the man who transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!
When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long.
Psalms 32:3
Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone. Interlude
He concludes the Psalm in vs. 11
Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: And shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.
There is Joy when we are being held accountable by the Word of God!!!
God designed the church to be a helper of our joy!
God designed the church to be a helper of our joy!
Very quickly this morning, I want us to look at the Life of David…We could focus on so many aspects of the life of David:
David the shepherd
David the giant killer
David the worshipper
David the warrior
All of those are certainly bold themes in the chronicled life of David!
Yet, if there were a theme and a quality that stood out concerning David, it is unequivocally and undeniably, his live for the presence of God!
Yet, if there were a theme and a quality that stood out concerning David, it is unequivocally and undeniably, his live for the presence of God!
Without question, David loved the house of God!
There is no controversy in the claim that David loved the assembly of the righteous
It is not an exaggeration nor an overstatement to consider that David had an obsession for the house of God and the people of God.
it was David that said
I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
It was David that penned the poetic verse:
For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, Than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
it was David that declared
I will declare thy name unto my brethren: In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
Emphasize that it is more than the building to David…it is the assembly...
My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
I don’t know if you are getting the picture yet…but
David loved the house of God!
David loved the assembly of the righteous!
David loved to worship in the congregation of the upright
In 1 Chronicles chapter 29, as David is turning the leadership of the nation of Israel to his son Solomon…David reveals that through the years, he had been setting aside a small nest egg to finance the building of the Temple of the Lord. If you do the math and combine all of the figures together, the small stash that David had stored away, amounted to roughly 112 tons of gold and the 262 tons of sliver…in addition to the various other precious and costly stones that he had gathered. I recently read an article where the gift that David gave Solomon to go toward the building of the temple were estimated in todays dollars. The writer estimated that in todays economy the gift would have been roughly $900 million dollars.
David didn’t view the House of the Lord with reluctance.
David didn’t look at the congregation of the righteous as religious duty!
Somewhere, something had taken place that David didn’t worship and attendance to the House of God as duty…but he had found that the church was a Helper of His Joy!
Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee?
And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place.
Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present.
And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women.
And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel.
So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken from before the Lord, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.
Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord; and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul.
And David said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.
And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take it: for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it me.
David didn’t store up such a nest egg to help to build the temple because he shook the pope’s hand. But David had been through some things.
This love and even obsession for the House of God had been developed in Davids life as a result of situations and circumstances that he had been through.
This wasn’t some hand me down love for the church…we don’t find evidence that David’s daddy Jesse had ever danced before the Lord…that David’s siblings ever worshipped in the congregation of the righteous…
This love for the Church (if you would)…for the house and the people of God…was the result of realizing that there’s only one place that you can find help when others betray you!
Only one place that when your world has been turned upside down…if I can just get there, everything is going to be alright.
He had encountered some situations that had led him to put pen to paper and declare “I’d rather be a doorkeeper in the House of God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked”
Point 1
Point 1
Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee?
Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee?
And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place.
Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present.
And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women.
And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel.
Focus on “then came David to Nob…to Ahimelech the priest”
if you read the previous chapter, you will find the context of this first first of 1 Samuel chapter 21 is David running for his life.
Saul, the king that David has faithfully and loyally served, announces his intentions to kill David.
David has nobody…he has no army. He has no provisions. He has no supplies. He has no friend, no armor bearer…He’s got nothing....
But then he came to Nob…the Ahimelech the priest.
Nob is a type of the church…And it is there that David finds refuge.
When theres nowhere else to go…nobody to give him shelter…nobody to give him refuge....David finds refuge in the house of the Lord!
Hear my cry, O God; Attend unto my prayer.
From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
For thou hast been a shelter for me, And a strong tower from the enemy.
I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.
Point 2
Point 2
Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee?
And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place.
Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present.
And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women.
And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel.
So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken from before the Lord, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.
David is running from Saul....he is faint…he is weary. He’s got nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. His strength is almost gone....but then he comes to the city of Nob…a city of the priests…and there he given bread. Not just any bread…but shewbread…the “bread of the Presence”.
I know there are some folks here that you can relate with David…when you came to the Church, you were broken. You had nowhere to run and nowhere to hide!
Your past had overwhelmed you and sin had become a dreadful taskmaster....You were starving..unable to be satisfied by the empty promises of this World…Your soul thirsting for something that would bring life…and then you found Nob....you found the House of the Lord…the church...
You found bread!
Not just any bread…Not wonder bread…Oh, its a wonder alright…but the bread of His presence!
The Lord is my strength and song, And is become my salvation.
The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous: The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.
No wonder David
David found his strength in the tabernacle of the righteous!
point 3
point 3
But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the Lord’s oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.
But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite:
And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill before the Lord: and they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest.
Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord; and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul.
And David said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.
And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take it: for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it me.
Helper of my joy!
The church is a helper of my joy!
2. David enters into the city of Nob, the city of the priesthood running for his life. He’s got nothing going for him, and everything is turned against him.
2. David enters into the city of Nob, the city of the priesthood running for his life. He’s got nothing going for him, and everything is turned against him.
But then he enters into the House of the Lord.
I’ve got no way to fight this battle!
I’ve got no way to defend myself from the attack of the enemy!
I’m a sitting duck…I’m easy pickings...
But then he enters into the house of the Lord....
and he asks Ahimelech the priest…do you have a spear or a sword?
And the priest says…well…yes I do…I just happen to have the sword of Goliath…and I like the way Ahimelech phrases it… “whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah”!
There’s nothing like a reminder of your potential and who it is that you can be when the Hand of God is upon you, when you are feeling hopeless and helpless.
Let me tell you why David set aside 900 million dollars to build a church…because he found that when you’re at your lowest point, the House of God is going to be a helper of your joy! He found that the House of God was where he could be reminded of His potential!
When he was overwhelmed, had been betrayed, had no defense and no way to fight for himself…it was in the house of the Lord that he found how he would fight his battle!!!
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.
Closing point
Closing point
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
For the body is not one member, but many.
If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
Paul refers to those that make up the church as MEMBERS!
one body…many members.
These are some of the excuses that were provided on actual exit interviews of people that left churches. Many of these were recurring excuses:
“The worship leader refused to listen to me about the songs and music I wanted.”
“The pastor did not feed me.”
“No one from my church visited me.”
“I was not about to support the building program they wanted.”
“I was out two weeks and no one called me.”
“They moved the times of the worship services and it messed up my schedule.”
“I told my pastor to go visit my cousin and he never did.”
These are consistent with a country club member. Country club members pay a fee to be a part of a social community where others will do all of the work and cater to them.
This is not the sort of member that Paul was speaking of when he said that we are one body but many members…in fact in the context of , Paul never addresses what the members should receive…but by the ministry they should give...
Vs. 17, if the whole body were the eye…who would do the hearing? if the whole body were the ear, who would do the smelling?
The reason that often times churches are revolving doors are people coming and going is that we are in it for what we can get and not what we can give.
We become consumers rather than contributors!
We become browsers rather than buyers!
God intended the church to be the helper of your joy…just as Paul said…we aren’t here to dominate your faith…we can’t make you live for God! We can’t force you to have faith in God…but we want to be helpers of your joy!