Suffering a Setback on the Road to Your Destiny 7/25/2021

The rough road

2 Samuel 6:6–12 NKJV

6 And when they came to Nachon’s threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. 7 Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by the ark of God. 8 And David became angry because of the Lord’s outbreak against Uzzah; and he called the name of the place Perez Uzzah to this day. 9 David was afraid of the Lord that day; and he said, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” 10 So David would not move the ark of the Lord with him into the City of David; but David took it aside into the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. 11 The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite three months. And the Lord blessed Obed-Edom and all his household. 12 Now it was told King David, saying, “The Lord has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.” So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with gladness.

Illustration driving through Texas doing ministry and hitting the hidden drop in the road. Tore our vehicle up. But God had planned for us, a few weeks before a church we were ministering in the Pastor received an offering for us. That offering covered the expense of the damage.

Large bump on Northbrook Parkway that always surprises me. I constantly forget that it is there.

Life like a road has some unexpected bumps. The road of life can be rough sometimes. Today I want to preach to this subject, the rough patches of life that we think are setbacks.

Suffering a Setback on the Road to Your Destiny

God has a will for your life, a purpose, a plan, a destiny. God has a destiny for every persons life. You are not hear by happenstance, mistake, or by chance. God has a plan for your life. Purpose for you to fulfill. Knowing this should cause us to reevaluate the living of our life.

For every person, it is a blessing to recognize they have a destiny.

David ask the question: What is man that you are mindful of him?

Why is God interested in me?

Because He has a plan for your life. God never created anything without a purpose.

Ephesians 1:5 NKJV

5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,

Predestined means that God planned, it does not mean that you don’t have a will and choose, it means He foreknew and planned.

Ephesians 1:11 NKJV

11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,

Romans 8:29 NKJV

29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

foreknew is the key here, He foreknew and His plan is that you would be conformed to the image of His son

Romans 8:30–31 NKJV

30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

God already knew you! God already planned for you a purpose, what can get in the way?

God has a plan for your life then you must be somebody!

The Lord knows us and has a plan for our lives, let us not waist our life with riotous living, carnal pursuits, a sinful life, chasing after empty pleasure that does not satisfy and miss the will of God for our lives.

THE WILL OF GOD AT ANY COST!

God sees who we are, where we are, but He also sees what He wants us to become.

2 Timothy 1:9 NKJV

9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,

Before time began He worked out to save you, call you with a holy calling according to His own purpose.

God sees you from way far down the road. Saw you before you got here. Sees your coming in and going out. Sees what you will be tomorrow.

God called David a man after His own heart when David was just a boy. Called him a man when he was just a kid. Could have called him a boy after His own heart, He’s going to be a man after my own heart.

Called Simon Peter a rock when he was nothing but a person who would bend under the pressure of a young girl saying “aren’t you one of them?”. A lot of things had to happen in Simon Peter’s life that would make him strong enough, daring enough to stand up under pressure.

God can see you far down the road of destiny He is calling you into.

Unexpected things happen to every one of us.

In the text if you went and read the entire history, Israel lost the Ark of the Covenant to the Philistines in a crushing defeat when Saul was King. They lost the thing that the presence of God tabernacled in or above inside of the temple.

Through miraculous events the Ark had returned back to Israel and was being kept in Kirjath Jearim. Twenty years it was not where it belonged, in the Temple at Jerusalem the city of the King. Saul had no desire to pursue the presence of God, he was satisfied with his position as king.

But David desired God’s presence before any position. So God gave him both.

David’s desire to have the presence of God, he gathered thirty thousand choice men and went to Kirjath Jearim to fetch the ark of the covenant.

He was God’s anointed king.

He was doing the will of God - bringing the ark home.

He was fulfilling his own desire, to have the presence of God.

He had made great preparation for doing the work. Gathered thirty thousand men, got a new cart, loaded the ark of God in the cart. Had the sons of the man who had been caring for that ark of God for twenty years driving the cart. He has the musicians playing, they are praising God as they go doing the will of God, doing the right thing.

He was on the right road. He was headed the right direction.

When they come to Nachon’s threshing floor the unexpected happens. The oxen stumble. They hit a rough spot on the road and stumble. David hits a bump in the road on the way to his destiny. Trouble while doing the will of God.

Doing the will of God will not keep trouble from you.

Real trouble: Death of a loved one, divorce, financial stress, sickness - the kind of sickness that you wish you would die, long drawn out sickness. Pain, change, losing a job, watching and worrying about your kids terrible life scarring decisions when there is nothing you can do but pray for them. Sleepless nights of stress and anxiety facing some trouble that you just don’t what you are going to do or why God has allowed it to happen.

David - God’s man, chosen, a King, sent by God, on a mission, doing what is right, and all of that did not exempt him from hitting a rough place in the road.

Uzzah, a good man, trying to stop the ark of God from falling, with good intentions but in error grabs the ark and is struck down.

David gets angry about it, gets afraid. Maybe God is against me. “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” So all the progress stops! David quits because of what happened.

But notice where David was at when he hit a rough spot - Nachon’s threshing floor.

Threshing Floor - the place where the wheat is crushed.

Beaten until the grain separated from the husk. The husk had to be removed for the grain to have any value to the one who wanted to use it. (explain the process)

All that would be left was the useable, valuable part of the wheat.

God separates us from the parts that He cannot use. To fulfill His purpose in our life.

Your trouble on the road to your destiny may be God stopping you at the threshing floor. Taking out all the chaff in your life.

Three months David and the ark are held up near Nachon’s threshing floor. God knew that rough patch was coming, God knew there was going to be a bump in the road. But God chose to use it instead of smooth it.

2 Samuel 6:12 NKJV

12 Now it was told King David, saying, “The Lord has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.” So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with gladness.

Obed-Edom is getting blessed. His fields are blessed, his kids are blessed, his animals are getting blessed.

David could have heard about how Obed-Edom was getting blessed and thought God must prefer Obed over me. God I go to bring you home with me and you kill one of my people, you allow all this trouble… but your blessing Obed-Edom? Fine I am done with trying to have your presence here with me.

David said, if Obed-Edom is getting blessed… I want that blessing too. I am going to get that ark and bring it here.

In those three months of trouble, David learned how the ark of God should be moved.

2 Samuel 6:13 NKJV

13 And so it was, when those bearing the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep.

“Those bearing the ark of the Lord”

The presence of the Lord is going to be carried on the shoulders of people, not on an ox cart.

The presence of the Lord is brought with praise and sacrifice.

The trouble was allowed by God for doing His purpose.