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00:01 Blessed morning church. Today the scripture reading is from 1st Samuel chapter 5 verse 1-5
00:10 and from 2 Samuel 6 verse 1-15.
00:16 So I read from 1st Samuel 5 verse 1-5.
00:24 After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer
00:29 to Ashod. Then they carried the ark into Daron's temple and set it beside Daron.
00:37 When the people of Ashod rose early the next day, there was Daron fallen on his
00:43 face on the ground before the ark of the Lord. They took Daron and put him back
00:49 in his place. But the following morning when they rose, there was Dargon fallen
00:55 on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord, his head and hands had been
01:01 broken off and were lying on the threshold. Only his body remained.
01:07 That is why to this day neither the priests of Daron nor any others who
01:12 enter Daron's temple at Ashot step on the threshold.
01:18 Second reading is from 2 Samuel chapter 6 verse 1-15.
01:27 David again brought together out of Israel chosen men,
01:33 30,000 in all. He and all his men set out from Bala of Judah to bring up from
01:40 there the ark of God which is called by the name the name of the Lord Almighty
01:46 who is enthroned between the cherubim that are on the ark. They set the ark of
01:52 God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab
01:58 which was on the hill. Usuza and Aayo, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new
02:05 card with the ark of God on it. And Aayo was walking in front of it. David and
02:11 the whole house of Israel was celebrating with all their might before the Lord with songs and with harps,
02:18 liars, tambourines, cyrums, and symbols. When they came to the threshing floor of
02:24 Nakon, Usuza reached out and took hold of the ark of God because the oxen
02:30 stumbled. The Lord's anger burned against Usuza because of his irreverent
02:36 act. Therefore, God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God.
02:42 Then David was angry because the Lord's wroth had broken out against Usuza. And
02:48 to this day that place is called Paris Usuza. David was afraid of the Lord that
02:54 day and said, "How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?" He was not
02:59 willing to take the ark of the Lord or he was not willing to take the ark of
03:05 the Lord to be with him in the city of David. Instead, he took it aside to the
03:10 house of Oat Adam the Gitite. The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Oet
03:15 Edom the Gitite for three months. And the Lord blessed him and his entire household. Now King David was told, "The
03:24 Lord has blessed the household of Oet Edom and everything he has because of the ark of God." So David went down and
03:31 brought up the ark of God from the house of Oet Edom to the city of David with rejoicing. When those who were carrying
03:39 the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. David wearing a linen ephod danced
03:48 before the Lord with all his might while he and the entire house of Israel
03:54 brought up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets. Blessed be the reading of his word.
04:08 Thank you, Gina.
04:15 Well, this morning we're going to be looking at the life of
04:21 David, King David. Uh, as we've mentioned before, there u no figure in antiquity that has got more written
04:28 about him than King David. And we've been going and see how the gospel works
04:33 in his life. And today uh title of my sermon is uh Raiders of the Lost Ark,
04:40 searching for the presence of God. How many of you actually watched this before?
04:46 Yeah, I'm speaking to a bunch of people who know what I'm talking about. So, if you remember, this is Steven Spielberg's
04:52 uh classic uh in those days. And they're actually looking for the ark which David
04:58 now is describing in 2 Samuel and 1 Samuel. Uh it's a golden box uh which
05:06 Harrison Ford and the Nazis are trying to fight over. Everybody's looking for it because it's got some marvelous
05:14 intrinsic power. What kind of power is it? Actually don't realize that the ark
05:19 actually is a symbol of God's presence. Uh this is David. He gathered all chosen
05:25 men of Israel, 30,000. Now, they're going to gather 30,000 people just to
05:32 accompany the ark to Jerusalem. David arose and went with all the people who
05:39 were with him from Bal Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the
05:47 name of the Lord of hosts, who sits enthroned in the cherubim. Now he wanted
05:53 to take the ark. Now the ark this is been stored in this place called uh Bal
05:59 Judah for the last 20 years. It had been captured by the Philistines before and
06:04 now he had just captured the capital of Jerusalem and he wanted to bring the ark
06:10 to Jerusalem to make it central to the life of the people, central to the life of society, central to the life of their
06:17 culture. He want to bring it to Jerusalem. Now what is the ark? If you
06:23 look here, this is a mockup of the ark. It is a the Hebrew word of ark means
06:31 chest. It is a chest made of acacia wood overlined with pure gold. And the top of
06:38 the ark is a solid gold cover. It's
06:44 called the mercy seat. On top of the mercy seat are the two cherubims which are basically technical words for uh
06:51 angels and they're pointing toward each other. And once a year the high priest would come and sprinkle blood and offer
06:59 sacrifice to the Lord. And what on top of this ark would be the glory of God,
07:07 the cabode of God, the heaviness of God, the weight of God. And as you come, what
07:13 David wanted was not just belief in God in general or obedience or or ethical
07:19 compliance or inspiration, but what David really wanted. Why did he want the ark? because he wanted the actual
07:26 presence of God, the experience of knowing God, the spiritual reality of
07:31 God's approval, the joy of the Lord that comes with having his the presence of
07:37 God in the capital, central to the life of the people, central to his life. This
07:43 is what he wanted. And why did he want that? Now, if you you look in the newspapers today, life of being a leader
07:51 Najib is not easy, you know. All right. People have dog petting also. You got trouble. You know, the lawyers are
07:57 marching against you and you got pressures from all over the place. But if in David's time was much worse, there
08:03 are people trying to kill him all the time. They're not just going to character assassinate you. They're going to kill you. And he's facing pressures
08:10 all the time everywhere. And he needed to have something solid so that when the
08:15 pressure got worse, that joy, that strength, the actual spiritual reality of God would grow even stronger. so that
08:22 he could be the king that he is supposed to be. And um so this morning we're going to
08:29 take three points from the story. And one is we all need a real spiritual presence of God as David had. Number
08:36 two, the wrong approach is lethal. Number three, the right approach uh
08:41 brings blessing. Now let's start off with we all need a spiritual presence. Lord, look at David, look at Israel, and
08:49 look at the Philistines. There are three parties in this story that want the ark.
08:54 And the first one is David. Why did he want the ark? This is Psalm 27 and it
08:59 describes his feelings towards the presence of God. One thing I have asked of the Lord that I will seek after that
09:06 I may dwell in the house of the Lord of hosts uh house of the Lord all the days of my
09:12 life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord to inquire of his temple. So here he he's
09:20 wanting God in the center of his life for God's own sake. He sees beauty in
09:26 God. He wants to be mesmerized by God. He wants to spend time in the temple. He
09:32 wants to fellowship with God. Um and uh the and if you look in this the rest of
09:38 the psalm for he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble. He will conceal me under the cover of his tent.
09:46 He will lift me up high upon a rock. These words describe the presence of God
09:52 in his life. Provides protection, real tangible protection against his enemies.
09:58 Uh victory. Now my head shall be lifted up above my
10:03 enemies around me. I will offer in his tent sacrifices, shouts of joy. I will
10:09 sing and make melody of the Lord. And what he wants is confidence. What he wants is assurance. What he wants is
10:17 joy. He wants to have a situation where his joy and the spiritual reality of God
10:22 is not dependent on circumstances. He wants a joy that is so deep that when
10:28 pressure comes in that joy even grows deeper and stronger. You know we all can
10:33 have joy because you have got success. You can have joy because you have fame. What happens when the success goes away?
10:40 What happens when the fame goes away? What happens when the security goes away? No, that then your joy goes away.
10:47 But he wants something deeper. So that when the success goes away, when the the the the accolades go away, when the
10:54 money is all dried up, that joy is stronger. That that that's a spiritual reality of God which you cannot see. You
11:01 you can't look at a bank account and see all the zeros and say that's my security because one day that will be gone. So he
11:06 wanted to be God's real spiritual presence in his life. But where was the
11:12 ark? Let me tell you a story of the ark. The Israel also wanted the ark. Um this
11:18 is 20 years ago. 20 years ago, Israel went out on a battle against the Philistines. They encamped at Ebenezer.
11:24 The Philistines encamped at Afk. The Philistines drew up with a line against Israel and the battle spread. Israel was
11:30 defeated before the Philistines who killed 4,000 men on the field of battle. And when people came to the camp, the
11:36 elders of Israel said, "Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? says, "Bring the ark of the
11:42 covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh so it may come amongst us and save us from
11:47 the power of our enemies." Israel wanted the ark in the face of defeat because
11:53 they know that this is the nuclear option. When all things fail, you bring God, right? Is God's going to fix the
11:59 Philistines because Philistines don't have God. So they they brought up God. In fact, they were so confident. So the
12:05 ark of the covenant came to the camp. All Israel gave a mighty shout. Whoa. Just like the youth like to shout. All
12:11 right. And the earth resounded. Huge thunderous shout. And what happened? So
12:17 the Philistines fought. Israel was defeated again. They fled every man to his home. And there was very great
12:24 slaughter. 30,000 foot soldiers of Israel fell and the ark of the Lord was captured and the two sons Eli Hopnney
12:31 and Phineas uh Eli two sons of Eli Hopney and Phineas died. A disaster. You
12:37 bring up your nuclear weapon. nothing happens. In fact, they wall up the nuclear weapon. They came and took the
12:42 nuclear weapon away. And so, if you look at uh Israel, their desire for the
12:48 presence of God was an expedient desire. You that might sound familiar. They
12:53 never sought the Lord before the battle. Only when they lose, they ask of where's
12:59 God. Only when in trouble, you start praying where is God. before the trouble at least the form five students asked to
13:05 be prayed before before the M SPM right so I think they're a bit better than the
13:12 Israel Israel failed the exam then only asked for God you know um and then you've got uh they only look at him for
13:19 the as as a last option we always call this the Hail Mary pass the Hail Mary pass in American football is when
13:25 everything else going to die you know everybody is gone and you only got one quarterback and what he does as almost
13:33 upon him. He'll throw this ball all the way to the front and some bright fellow will be there. He'll catch it. Instead of losing, they will win. It's a God is
13:41 always taught as a hailmary pass. It's the last option. It's the one that you think of you in a foxhole. You're going
13:47 to die. Uh that is Israel's requirement for for the presence of God. I I wonder
13:54 this morning if some of us have that kind of attitude towards God. Uh then you've got the Philistines. What is
14:00 their desire for God? Why did they want the ark? Then read. When they had
14:05 learned that the ark of the Lord had come into the camp, the Philistines were afraid. They said, "Oh, God has come
14:11 into the camp." And they said, "Woe for us. Nothing like this has ever happened before. Woe to us. Who can deliver us
14:17 from the power of these mighty gods. These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in
14:23 the wilderness." The Philistines recognized that the God of Israel is a powerful God. This is the one that
14:29 brought 10 plagues. Egypt was a superpower and so therefore when the ark comes to the camp of Israelites they
14:35 were shaking. So they knew that they wanted the ark because the ark had great power. Um and so they had a big battle.
14:43 They they won the battle and so therefore they took the ark to Ashdod their capital uh and kept it there. So
14:52 they had a superstitious desire for God. The ark was nothing more than war booty.
14:58 After all it's gold. It's a symbol of the triumph. It was a talisman. Maybe I can use it next to my god is your god. I
15:06 got more gods. The more gods you have, the better, isn't it? Right? So, they've got a superstitious idea of god. Uh, and
15:13 their aim is actually to control god. Many people want religion in their lives
15:20 not because they want to follow religion but they use the religion for their own gain. You want to get married, want to
15:25 have a good uh family, but you go to the temple and then you you know those jostick you throw throw throw ah then
15:31 you pick a good one if it's no good you pick another one until you pick a good oneh right because
15:37 you want to have God in your life religion in your life so you cover all your bets right and so therefore you can
15:43 control God so here you've got three kinds of people you got David you got Israel and you got Philistines and all
15:50 three have a different motive for the presence of God in their lives Uh, of course the the movie is the one
15:56 the third one when you want the ark for its power. Um and that's no different
16:02 from uh many of us if you go up to Ging Highlands before you go up there you see plenty of this why you are to win and
16:10 you want to win because very isn't that very get the power of the gods or for many of us when I was young before every
16:16 exam I will having this I'll be praying you know the rosary many many many many times why because you I had an expedient
16:24 desire for God only is relevant to me during my exams Now, we all need a real
16:31 spiritual presence of God. The problem is the wrong approach is lethal. You thought you all want God and I could
16:38 just snap my fingers and God will just have to come. He's always waiting like a waiter. No.
16:43 But the wrong approach, if you look in the life of David, is different. They carried the ark of God on a new cart,
16:49 brand new cart up on the hill on the house uh uh uh and out of the house of
16:55 Abin Abinadab which was on the hill and Usuza and Ao sons of Abinadab were
17:01 driving the new cart with the ark of God. Driving means walking next to it.
17:07 You don't sit on top of the ox. All right? They're always walking with it. And uh
17:13 David and all the house of Israel were celebrating with the Lord with songs and liars and harps and tambourines and
17:20 castanets and symbols uh electric drums and all sorts of things. You know, they're all getting all excited. A
17:25 fantastic atmosphere, right, of of bringing God's presence to Jerusalem.
17:31 What it's not a bad thing. It's a good thing, isn't it? Your heart is sincere, isn't it? You're all happy. I'm sure
17:36 everyone is sincere there. And then they came to the threshing floor of Neon. Usuza reached out towards the ark of God
17:43 and took hold of it for the oxen nearly upset it. So the oxen stumbled. It was
17:48 going to fall. He put his hand out and you know what happened? The anger of the Lord burned against Usuza and God struck
17:54 him down there for his irreverence. He died there by the ark of God. They beca David became angry because of the Lord's
17:60 outburst against Usuza. And that place is called Paris Usuza to this day. And some of you sitting down there thinking,
18:05 you see, that's why I don't like about religion. That's what I don't like about Christianity. What does God so terrible? Wonder. I mean, the ark going to fall
18:11 down a nice guy. If you were there, wouldn't you be the one to try to save
18:17 God in case God crashes to the ground, got himself dirted?
18:23 Did a good thing, right? So, why did God have to smite him, you know? And and
18:29 David anger burned against God at that time. Uh and so, this is a very
18:34 troubling episode in Christianity. If you remember the story of the uh uh
18:40 Steven Spielberg's uh Raiders of Lost Arc, they they got the ark out and then
18:45 the Nazis were there. They tied up Harrison Ford and his girlfriend. I forget the name. Uh irrelevant
18:54 a and then they start to open the ark and open the ark sort of apparitions
18:59 came out and and zoom zap. The Nazi guy got all stung. You know, I'm thinking he's dead. But Harrison Ford and his
19:06 girlfriend were were tied up. They looked away and they managed to look away and then they didn't get stung. Haha, clever.
19:12 And the show is accurate in that extent that um you see the anger of the Lord burned against Usuza. God struck him
19:18 down for irreverence. The issue here why he got struck down is irreverence and he died there by the ark of God. Uh the
19:24 prohibition is very clear. This is numbers 4:15. And he says, "When Aaron and his sons have finished the covering of the sanctuary and all the furnishing
19:30 of the sanctuary, as the camp sets out after the sons of Kohart shall come and carry these, but they must not touch
19:37 holy things, lest they die." These are the things of the tent of meeting that the sons of Kohhat are to carry. There
19:43 are specific Levites that are able to carry the ark. Carry the ark. And then
19:49 only carry art, you carry with the pole. It's all covered. You cannot touch it.
19:54 The prohibition is absolutely clear. All right. It's a picture of how the and
19:59 what did they do? They actually put the cart on ox cart the the the ark on ox cut. They didn't carry it. And so what
20:05 happens is that same thing happened to the Philistines when they actually
20:12 beat the Israelites. They took it to Ashdod and there they put it in a temple
20:17 next to their god which is Daron. Uh which is a fish kind of god. Looks like a merman. All right. And they put him
20:23 there. And the trouble is when they put him there the next day Dagon fell down alo. Oh my goodness. Wow. Did Dagon huge
20:32 monument Dagon falls down. Then they put him up again. Next day come back. Oh, fall down again. This time the head came
20:38 off, the hands came off, the legs came off. They got very scared. Right. And
20:43 after that then you've got everybody in town got Ebola virus.
20:49 All right. Not really Ebola but they got this tumors you know coming a cancer of breast cancer of prostate cancer of
20:55 backside everything come out and it was terrible it was a disaster there u and
21:00 then they tried to move it to Gath and G move it to echron everywhere they move
21:06 this ark the tumors followed it was an absolute epidemic of biblical
21:13 proportions they say we got to get rid of this thing so they put it on an ox
21:18 cart and with lots of gold to persuade God to go away. And so God went away.
21:26 The the ark went all the way to Bet Sheamesh. Okay? And they went to B Sheamesh. They thought a Philistines bad
21:32 people, right? Can wallop here and there. Go to the good people, right? Israelites are good people. So he went
21:39 to Israelites. And what did the Israelites do at Bamesh? Ah, he looked he struck some of the men
21:46 of B Sheamesh because they looked upon the ark of the Lord. He struck 70 men of
21:51 them. Good people die, bad people die, everybody dies. You go near God's
21:56 presence, they all die. Why? Because Numbers 4 says, "They shall not look on
22:02 holy things even for a moment, lest they die." But this is very random. Some look, didn't die, some look die. I don't
22:08 know why. It's a very odd thing. uh you know religion all over the world we've
22:14 got all sorts of religion and variations of of Christianity and in every religion
22:19 now you actually have people wanting to touch holy relics you go there and and
22:25 touch holy relics right everywhere you want you want to touch God all right religion such that is man reaching out
22:30 to God and if you look at the uh I was recently in in Barcelona and you go up
22:36 to this Monserat mountain called serrated mountain and there you've got a
22:41 how many thousand-y old monastery and you've got a relic there where you line up 45 minutes. It took me 45 minutes
22:48 anyway. Uh and you go there, you see a magical black Madonna. You see that,
22:55 right? Because they found this in the cave at some stage and it was associated miracles. So, everybody's lining up to
23:00 to to including me. And that's my wife's hand.
23:08 Can't resist. We got to touch the Madonna, right? Otherwise, you fly all the way to Barcelona, you didn't touch
23:14 the Madonna. Well, I just touched that, you know. So, I didn't get a chance to touch Madonna. But, you know, everywhere
23:20 you go, religion is such that you you have to reach out with your hand and touch and maybe something come across
23:27 and you'll be blessed. Right? We all want to handle God. We all want to
23:33 manage God, isn't it? That that's what religion is about. uh if you look at the ark and and Judaism is completely
23:41 opposite. You actually have a situation. This is the tabernacle and the people
23:46 come before you enter here. You have to give sacrifice and you can only enter if you Israel you only enter to here. You
23:53 can't go in if you go in only the priest can enter here. You got to give
23:58 sacrifice. It's like toll. Everywhere you go you must have told. All right. And then the last one, only one fellow
24:04 can enter the high priest once a year. And so this tells you as far as God is
24:09 concerned, he doesn't want you to touch him. The ark is telling you he's very very far. He's very very distant from
24:17 you. It's like a huge chasm, right? It
24:22 is very far away. You are separated. And so the ark tells you there's a
24:27 difference between God and you. God isn't your body. The problem in our minds is that God is our body. God must
24:34 be what I want him to be. If you have a God that that is what you want him to be, you know what is called technically
24:41 idol. Looks exactly you. Your face, the China man face, your Indian face, your African face, it looks exactly like you.
24:48 So how can you worship something like that? Usuzah's folly. What is Usuza's
24:53 folly? Usuzah's folly is not just touching. He believed that the gap
24:58 between man and God is not far away and all just like that only. And then
25:04 perhaps he can jump across this chasm by himself. It's not too far apart. He can
25:11 bridge the gap. And so therefore when the oxen stumbled, okay, he grew up with
25:17 the ark in his house. It was in his house all the time. All right. Nothing
25:23 but a bit of a box. Don't know whether he touch it or not in those days. And it was put on a cart and an ox cart.
25:31 So undignified. This is an ox cart. Nobody carries it. And after all, this is the ark that got captured. You know,
25:38 if God is so great, how do you get captured? My goodness, I've got a captured God. Secondhand God other
25:43 people touch already. And then the third thing is that I'm doing God a favor. After all, God is
25:49 going to fall onto the ground and so dirty. So my hand is cleaner than the
25:55 ground. The hand of a sinful human being is much cleaner than the ground which God made. What utter folly. And so when
26:03 he put his hand on God on God's ark, he was killed. There's a immediate
26:09 lethality. He immediately died. Now God's a bit different. Sometimes you you
26:16 you you touch or you sin, you die straight away. Ananas, Safia both found
26:23 out in the New Testament when they lied against the church, deceived the Holy Spirit, they died straight away. Other
26:29 people when they approached God wrongly die later on. Let me give you Matthew. Uh many will say to me, on that day,
26:36 which is when the day they die, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? In your name, cast out demons. In your
26:42 name, perform many miracles. Then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice
26:48 lawlessness. This is delayed lethality. You're actually dead but you die only
26:53 when you die 10 years later on, 20 years later on. So you either die immediately, you die later on, but there is a
27:00 lethality involved and we don't know. Some will die early, some will die later
27:06 on. Um you know you recognize this one? Anybody? You live today and you don't recognize
27:12 this? Come on. That's a Ebola virus. Everybody knows the Ebola virus. In case
27:18 you're walking around PJ, you see this, you must run away, right? Everybody knows the Ebola virus.
27:24 Why? Because it's killing people. There are about 4,000 people who have died. They reckon by that by January there
27:31 will be 10,000 a month who will be uh uh infected by this. You recognize this
27:36 one? You don't recognize it. But actually, this is more dangerous. This is the
27:42 H1N1. In 2008 to about 2012, it killed 284,000 people, far more than the Ebola
27:50 virus. Ebola virus goes very quick. It kills you almost immediately within a day or two. But this one takes a long time. You get pneumonia from your from
27:57 your H1N1 and you slowly die. And people don't know much about this one. So you actually have a situation where it is
28:04 lethal, but you don't know when it's going to be lethal. U so here we actually have a situation Usuza is
28:10 immediately lethal. He tries to approach God but the wrong way. Now if you think that you could approach God and you were
28:17 a moral person, you're a religious person, you're it's the wrong way. You know, you could be morally upright
28:24 and very successful in life. You know what? You'll be
28:29 church leader or temple leader, right? Because you're morally upright. You're very successful.
28:36 Probably a doctor.
28:41 Right? And then and then you become cold and hard. You say, "Why other people can't be as good as me?" Uh, and then
28:48 you become judgmental and proud. And people who are very morally upright
28:54 think they got leverage with God. Good. Kaching upstairs. How much I sacrificed for God? I got leverage. So therefore,
28:60 my family deserves to be looked after. My wife is supposed to be looked after. My children cannot fall sick. Nothing
29:05 will happen to me. I'm almost bulletproof. You see that? That's what morally righteous people feel, isn't it? When
29:12 you reach out to touch God on your own, uh, which is actually little, you're
29:18 blind. You're actually blind to the chasm between God and you. You could be morally upright and unsuccessful. Oh my
29:25 goodness, that happens to a lot of people. uh Philip Yansy wrote in his book an
29:31 invisible God of a story of a young woman who is a daughter of a pastor
29:37 and and both family husband and wife died leaving the daughter to be looked after by the grandfather who's also a
29:44 pastor but she and she married a fine Christian young man the word is called
29:51 fine Christian young man who then after three months cheated on her got
29:56 veneereral disease got her pregnant, she delivered and she
30:02 delivered a child which is an capellic which is born without a brain only got a
30:08 brain stem left behind and the worst thing the child doesn't die the child does not die he was in Oregon and a
30:15 child is taken back and he only got brain stem function lives for a little while and she's been drained looking
30:21 after her and she's morally upright right morally upright and yet unsuccessful Because want to marry a
30:28 good husband, good Christian. He was and it didn't turn out. There's no guarantee you marry a good Christian husband,
30:34 it'll turn out. Anything can happen. And then you get a child and you're unsuccessful. And what do you become?
30:42 What do you become? You become bitter and confused. Why? Because you think that with your moral actions that you
30:49 could have some leverage with God. And when that doesn't quite work out, you become bitter and confused. uh and and
30:56 she had to pray through that difficult period of her time. Or the other one that if you try to reach out to God and
31:02 you're not successful, oh my goodness, every time you fail, every time you sin, but you try your best, you try to, you
31:08 know, always sit in church at the back or the back benches, you know, that would be the one, the front benches are
31:15 are the the other one. But all three sinners, all three sinners, the only thing they don't know, they're all dead.
31:21 They're all lethally dead, far away from God. Some are uh and because they're all
31:26 trying to bridge that gap by their own effort. And so therefore, the wrong
31:31 approach is lethal either immediately or later on. The right approach connects us
31:38 to God. And let's look at the right approach. The two-step process in the right approach. One is that you need to
31:44 realize there's a chasm and two that God provides you a way to bridge that chasm.
31:51 Now you look at um the verse. David became angry because the Lord's outburst
31:58 against Usuza and the place was called Paris Usuza to this day. Why was he angry? He was angry because God owes me,
32:06 isn't it? I took 30,000 soldiers. I took a holiday, made a public holiday, got my
32:12 whole army there. We got everything ready to bring you back to Jerusalem and you whack one of my men. Wouldn't you be
32:18 angry? Yeah, you'd be angry. And and Usuza is an innocent fellow, isn't it? Put his hand out there and he got struck
32:25 by God. After the anger, he thinks about it. And what comes in? Afraid. Fear strikes in
32:34 that day. And he said, "How can the ark of the Lord come to me?" Now, the moment
32:41 you start moving from being a very religious person to being a person who can be actually in the presence of God
32:47 is when you start having the fear of God. The fear of God sings in to him
32:52 because how can it ever come? I mean everybody dies, isn't it? The good people die, the bad people die. Usuza
32:58 dies, everybody dies. How can you handle God? Now if you come to a place in your
33:04 life when you're sitting, you're confused. I don't know how to handle God. Then there's a good place because that's the place where God will be able
33:11 to save you. You know, he realized the chasm is very wide and the holiness of
33:18 God is very great and the sinfulness of man is very great. He smites good people
33:24 and bad people. Philistines he smites, Israelites, he smites everybody. He
33:30 smites. And the road to salvation is a recognition that you and God aren't buddies. You are very, very far away.
33:37 And the moment you realize this, then you start to change. You ride your bicycle a little bit more circumspectly
33:44 at the side with a great deal of respect and there's fear. All right. The Lord
33:49 spoke thus to me with a strong hand. This is Isaiah. And warn me not to walk in the way of the people saying do not
33:55 call conspiracy all that these people call conspiracy. Do not fear what they fear. Do not be in dread. The whole
34:03 issue where Isaiah brings to the table is that we should fear and fear the
34:08 right things. Isn't it? You know according to most studies the number one fear in people you know what is what
34:15 anybody want to guess number one fear is public speaking
34:21 that I'm shaking here then number two very very close
34:27 to is is is actually death. So technically is that correct? Does that
34:32 sound right? That means to the average guy going to a funeral you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.
34:37 Right. Yeah, because you're more scared of of of public speaking than death.
34:44 We're all scared of the wrong things, isn't it? Isaiah says you you fear and you fear. You do not have to fear the
34:50 things that they fear. You got to fear something else. We fear the wrong things. You know, in this country, we
34:56 fear this fellow. We fear the stock market. We fear GST. We fear Ebola. We
35:01 so many things that we fear. Uh and they're not necessarily the right things in life to fear. We fear most
35:07 importantly what other people think of us. Yes, absolutely. What other people think of us. This drives us all the time from
35:15 from very young. I remember uh uh living in a good suburb in town when I was young and when my father who was
35:21 actually quite high up assistant director of the meteorological department died at the age of 40 and
35:26 suddenly we were cast into poverty living in a big house in the middle of a suburb where everybody's rich
35:32 and if you are a child living in that situation you know what it feels because everybody's got money and a position and
35:38 you got actually you shouldn't be there you should be in the flats outside and we and I had a huge low esteem him
35:46 self-confidence aspect. You got friends coming by. You see my car has got red plate a red plate communism. No, that
35:52 one is the diplomatic core. And then you know everybody's rich and and and and
35:57 you you live and you're afraid of what other people have to say and think of you. We all fear the wrong things. Look
36:02 at Saul. Saul says because he sinned. He said to Samuel, "I sin for I have
36:08 transgressed the commandments of the Lord because I feared the people and obeyed the voice." Many of us are
36:13 gripped by what other people think. You know, you come back for holiday. Oh, I
36:18 was where was I? I was in Spain. If you go to Kapong, you won't tell anybody,
36:24 right? But I was in Spain. I was in Kashmir.
36:29 Come back. I went to Jing Jang. Paul Dixon al say all I say is La Paris.
36:39 But the Lord of hosts, you shall honor him as holy. Let him be your fear. Let
36:45 him be your dread. This is the one that you should actually fear in life because
36:51 this is the God of the universe who gave you life and every breath that you draw now actually comes from him. You should
36:57 honor him. If you honor him, then he will become and he will become a
37:03 sanctuary. If you don't honor him, he cannot be a sanctuary to you. If you want God in your life to be kind of the
37:09 kind of joy that grows deeper and stronger when the winds of tribulation assail you, then he has to be the
37:16 sanctuary. And the only way he's going to be a sanctuary is that you fear him. You have a healthy respect of him. And
37:23 so you look, David was not willing to take the ark into the city of David. But David took it aside in the house of Oet
37:29 Edom the Gite. Haha. Put it in the fella's house. My goodness, the guy is
37:34 toast. Imagine he kills everybody. Get ready. I hope you got a good good health
37:39 insurance plan. All right. Uh and then the ark of the Lord remained house Oet Edom the gite for three months. And the
37:47 Lord blessed Oet Edom and all his household. How do you get this? He usually kills off everybody near him.
37:53 Now he he blesses him. It was told to King David, the Lord has blessed the household of Oet Edom and all that
37:58 belongs to him because of the ark of God. And so David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Oed
38:04 Edidom to the city of David with rejoicing. Suddenly this ark not only kills but
38:11 also gives life and blessing and there's God's provision. All right? And so
38:16 therefore David did it the right way. He he sought the Lord. The fear of God
38:22 makes him ride his bicycle right at the edge but in the right way because then he consecrated the priest. 1 Corinthians
38:29 15:11 says, "Consecrate yourselves and brothers that you may bring up the ark." So he prepared it. He because you did
38:36 not carry it the first time, the Lord broke out against us because we did not seek him according to rule. And the Levites carried the ark of God on their
38:42 shoulders with poles as Moses commanded, right? And the third thing they did was they sacrificed. And those who were bore
38:48 the ark of the Lord had gone six steps. He sacrificed an ox and a fattered animal. Every six steps
38:57 an ox and a fattered animal. 16 kilometers 2,600 ox.
39:05 Long time you know every six steps kill one. Every sixacks kill another one.
39:10 Huge huge two. It was a sacrifice. Now if you look at this issue of sacrifice
39:15 if you look at the ark you have a sacrifice here.
39:22 You have a sacrifice here. And you have a sacrifice here. Everywhere the ark
39:28 tells you there is a sacrifice. Uh something has to be paid. This is the
39:34 nangyang sampo. I only read the anglicized version. In Hanan two weeks
39:40 ago there was a story very interesting story of a um a love relationship where
39:45 a boy met a girl on internet chat room which most of you nowadays are involved in. They got hooked up in terms of uh
39:53 you know a relationship and and after a while she got very fed out of him because you know used to go out to eat
39:59 after a while he says cannot go out to eat are very unhygienic outside so we come to my place and we eat actually
40:05 he's cheapkate all right so and then the bottom line was fish finally broke up with him you know why one day you only
40:11 he brought to my house one roast chicken and I was so insulted the girl said and
40:18 so the boy's heart was broken Uh that's the roast chicken.
40:23 And you know what? He sued the girl for breaking my heart. I want 10 roast chicken. It was a judge a big huh. All
40:31 the families are fighting because he insisted his heart was broken. He must have 10 roast chicken. The police had to
40:38 intervene. Real story, you know, China. Really weird. Those are you from China?
40:43 So in the end uh um they settle for five roast chicken.
40:51 You see whenever you've got sin whenever you got sin sin is a debt a heartbroken there's
40:59 a price to pay. If I if someone has hurt you very very deeply you you you just
41:06 can't forgive. You see when you hurt someone very very deeply it's like a debt
41:12 either they pay or you pay correct isn't it there's a innate sense of justice
41:17 inside our hearts we're all built we're all wired like that how is it when right from the young he took my bunny away he
41:25 took my doll away beat him pa we have a in innate sense of justice in us that
41:30 tells us if any wrong is being done we can't just simply forgive either they
41:35 pay or I pay Now if they pay means revenge. I wall up them. Yeah. Good. And
41:43 the evil spreads. If I pay means what? I forgive. Well,
41:49 who pays? I pay. I suffer the consequences. And the cycle of evil is broken. Either way, whether they pay or
41:57 I pay, there must be payment. And that's why the ark has a golden tablet on top
42:03 where once a year the high priest will offer blood because this is the justice of God that is implanted to us that we
42:10 sin against him we have to pay. Either we pay or he pays. Isn't that
42:17 right? You can't just God even God can't blink his eye and say the sin goes away.
42:23 It's either God pays or we pay. And this chasm is huge. And the second step of
42:29 this uh solution is that God provides a blood sacrifice. And here we have
42:35 thousands of years later on the lambs and the and oxen that were killed are only a symbol of the true sacrifice and
42:42 provision of God thousands of years later on 3,000 years later on or thousand years later on from David where
42:48 by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
42:56 The death of Jesus Christ is the one that brings us into the presence of God.
43:01 And therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, only sacrifice
43:07 someone's going to pay. It's either you pay or God pays. And in sense, the gospel is God paying the price for us.
43:15 And then David danced before God with all his might. And the David was wearing a linen ephod. David and all the house
43:21 of Israel brought up the the ark of God with a shouting and with the sounds of the horn. And here is the result of the
43:29 solution because you realize the chasm, you have the fear of God and that drives you to the provision which is sacrifice.
43:36 And so therefore the difference between the gospel transformed man and the religious man is only joy.
43:43 If you're morally upright and successful, you're morally upright and unsuccessful or your moral failure, you
43:49 have no joy. It is only when you realize you're so far from God and God gives you
43:54 grace and that joy overtakes your life. Let me end with this last story from the
44:02 New Testament of two women who invited our Lord Jesus Christ into their house.
44:09 And this is Mary and Martha. And when they were on their way, Jesus entered the village and a woman named Martha
44:16 welcomed him into her house. Uh Martha welcome her. She had a sister
44:23 called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. Two women,
44:29 one of them invites Jesus Christ to the house and one of them the sister who
44:34 didn't do the inviting winds up sitting at his sitting at feet means listening to the teaching. Uh it is a technical
44:41 word for being the disciple. In fact, there's a saying that may you always be covered by the dust of your rabbi. Which
44:48 mean you follow your rabbi so closely as he's walking walking all the dust calls on your head and your clothes. The more
44:54 dust you have, the more authentic a disciple you are. That's a saying, you know, in Jewish culture. So therefore,
45:02 Martha invites uh uh uh Jesus and Mary becomes the
45:07 disciple. And you know often never have women as disciples. This is a paradigm shift. This is a break. And Mary winds
45:14 up benefiting. And and you know what? Martha was distracted with much serving.
45:21 The word distracted means you had an initial intention, right? You bring Jesus to lie on him. You wind up what
45:26 are you doing? Cooking curry, chicken, bakut. You're doing all that and you're distracted. You're distracted. Horrible.
45:32 You know, and then you you you see what is happening here? Why is ma upset? And then she went up to Jesus and said to
45:39 him, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell
45:44 her then to help me." And Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you're anxious and trouble about many things." Look at this
45:50 situation. She's she's chopping the chicken. All right? And then you know what? It's like most
45:56 husbands, you know, watch TV. You know, the moment the moment your how the the wife is doing the work, you your hand
46:02 touch the remote control, suddenly become deaf. Right. And then you chop loudera
46:09 and then you bang all the pots. Why? Because you want your husband to to
46:15 real. Oh, yo, you're very hardworking, isn't it, Susan? Uh,
46:20 come and help. Right. Some more. He turn the TV set louder.
46:27 So, you bang bang bang louder. Because what you want him to do is to come in the kitchen, fall at your feet, say,
46:33 "I'm sorry, lutonu." And then help you out. Right? And so therefore, we call in psychological terms, this is called uh
46:39 uh um uh amplification phenomenon. All right? There is actually a psychological term. So some of you ladies will feel
46:45 like that your husband amplification phenomenon. Don't switch up the TV loud.
46:51 Okay? Uh and then she's upset with Jesus as well as the you know, she's actually
46:56 upset with Jesus. She says, "Lord, you don't care." What a uncaring ungodly person you are. She comes up to Jesus
47:02 taroh him. Let me serve alone. My goodness. Tell her to help me. How many
47:08 of you have been in that situation before? And the Lord answer, "Marth, ma, are you anxious and troubled about many
47:14 things? Many things trouble you." If you look at ma, you're distracted. That's you're anxious
47:22 and you're trouble. You know that describes all of you. All of us have this problem. always distracted.
47:28 Something I want to go on Wednesday night to listen to the gospel of Mark and somehow I got distracted. Huge rain,
47:34 flood, all sorts of things. My house uh uh somebody broke in uh anxious,
47:39 troubled, and you can't let go. You can't let go long enough to sit at God's feet to experience his presence. You
47:47 can't let go. You're like those people who go bowling. How many of you been bowling in your life? Oh, you so few. So
47:54 this analogy when I go bowling I've got this bad habit you take the ball big big huge ball and then you you do all sorts
47:60 of thing you wind it up right and then you throw what happens after you throw you
48:09 and how many of you do that be honest you
48:15 you think does anything it doesn't do anything
48:20 it doesn't do anything and yet we all doing it Because we cannot let go. We cannot let
48:28 go in our lives. The problem is you want the presence of God in life, but you don't want to let go. You're distracted,
48:34 anxious, and trouble. Everybody's distracted, anxious, and trouble. You go to a mental institution.
48:41 They're all distracted, trouble, anxious. The doctors also distracted. How do you tell the difference between the staff and the patients? How do you
48:48 tell the difference? Anybody know? The staff had the key.
48:53 The patient's got no key. That's the only difference. It is a common phenomenon in life. And so Jesus turns
48:60 to Martha and says, "Mr. Ma, you know when God calls you twice, you better worry.
49:06 Other places call you one time." You know, Rama, if it's Rama, Rama, then you are in
49:13 trouble. All right? Just Rama is good enough. One
49:18 thing is necessary. See, there's only one thing. Mary has chosen a good portion which will not be taken away
49:25 from her. You see you know cooking is good, ironing is good, housework is
49:30 good, sending children to in you know tution is good but only one thing is
49:36 necessary in life. The one that will give you life. You know what the thing is is to seek the face of God. In Hebrew
49:45 do you know there's no word for presence of God. Do you know that if you
49:50 translate presence in Hebrew, there's no no equivalent. You know what the presence is? Face. The word is panin.
49:56 The face of God. And so therefore, what Mary had done, which is clever girl, she
50:02 sits there at the feet of Jesus to look at his face to enjoy the presence of
50:10 God. That is the only thing that is necessary
50:15 for her life. All of us are so distracted. All of us are so anxious.
50:21 But you don't know that the more you do this with the bowling ball, it doesn't help the bowling ball. The answer is
50:28 spending time with God. God, you know, David makes a huge hue and cry spending
50:35 time with God. He he sends 30,000 troops down. It is a public holiday and he
50:40 keeps on offering every six steps and sacrifice 16 kilometers. How long will that take? But the whole nation stands
50:48 still because they want to experience the presence of God.
50:55 How do we experience the presence of God? John Piper says by constantly setting our minds towards God in all our
51:03 experiences to direct our minds and hearts toward him through the means of his revelation. That means always in see
51:12 Jesus not saying to Martha you shouldn't cook you shouldn't go to tution you
51:17 shouldn't fetch your kids you should do all that but include Jesus Christ in
51:23 that process where you fetch your kids because you love him you do your job and
51:28 you do it well to glorify him it's all transferred and your mind is constantly geared towards God CS Lewis mentions
51:36 that it's difficult he says It comes the very moment you wake up each morning.
51:42 All your wishes and hopes for the day rushed at you like wild animals. And the
51:48 first job each morning consists of shoving them back listening to the other voice. So every day
51:56 you see God has come into your house. You can either be like a Martha or you could be like Mary. Isn't it? You got a
52:03 choice. And every day you wake up all the troubles, the distraction, the anxiety can distract you. But CS Lewis
52:08 says they all rush at you like wild animals. And the first job is to shove them back and say listen to that other
52:14 voice and spend time hearing, listening, meditating, working.
52:21 Now Michelangelo paints this most beautiful picture on the roof of the cyine chapel at the
52:28 Vatican. If you go there, and I've used this illustration before, but I think it's appropriate today. You see God
52:35 which is depicted on the wall rushing towards Adam and you can see the the
52:42 urgency in his face. He's stretching out all his strength. If you look very closely, very carefully and you can see
52:50 God's finger is stretching out all the way. You know what Adam's finger is doing
52:57 like that? He's just
53:04 That's a truth situation. You see if you take one step towards God, God already take 15 steps towards you. It's a
53:11 wonderful powerful beautiful God who's
53:17 the king of the universe rushes towards us and we have our finger like that limp almost
53:23 and all we have to do this morning is just lift it up a little bit and ask God
53:29 for the longing. Mr. Ekhart says the soul must long for God in order to be
53:34 set a flame by God's love. But if that soul cannot yet feel this longing, then
53:41 it must long for the longing to long for the longings also from God. This morning
53:46 I want to challenge us. Do we actually have a longing for God? Are our souls
53:54 set ablaze by the love of Jesus Christ? is sitting at his feet, looking at his
54:01 face. The most important thing that will transform your life is the spiritual presence of God. A reality that gets
54:09 stronger. The joy becomes even greater when more pressures come upon us. You see, that's the only thing that will
54:14 keep us alive. 1,000 years from now, nobody's going to bother whether you are the CEO of Microsoft or whether you are
54:21 Alibaba. You know, it doesn't matter. 1,000 years from now, the only person that's going to matter to you is the
54:28 most beautiful person in the universe. And that's Jesus Christ. And looking at his face, sitting at his feet has to be
54:36 number one. Has to be the thing that you have to for to forsake everything else
54:42 in order to be blessed. And Echart says the long the soul must long for God in
54:50 order to be set a flame by God's love. We need to pray this morning to set that longing in our hearts. Or are we like
54:58 the Israelites very expedient? When I in trouble, I look for God. Or are you like the Philistines where it's like a
55:04 superstition? God plus everything else. And this is the challenge to us this morning. And if
55:11 you are non-Christian here and you're sitting here among our midst this morning, you have to realize God is just
55:17 not your friend. He may love you, but there's a big difference between you and
55:23 God. In fact, if I ask you, there's a big difference between you and the prime minister. Can you simply walk into his house? Can you walk in the house of the
55:29 sultan of Jeho today? You can't. There's a huge gap. And you have to realize you
55:35 can just can't walk into the house of God because God is God. He's
55:40 unpredictable. He's powerful and yet loving. He's got
55:45 this huge chasm that separates you and him. And yet, he's provided a way. And the only way you're going to come to God
55:52 is through Jesus Christ because he paid the debt of sin that you owe.
55:58 Let's bow our heads, have the team to play the last song as we meditate upon
56:04 this.
