When The Music Fades - Week 1

I want you to know that we've been praying for you all week in expectation

of you being here today, for you to get your miracle and have an

encounter with Jesus. And you're surrounded, just like that song says, by

people that love you, and you're surrounded by a God who has searched the

universe and planned a meeting with you here this morning. You're not here by

accident. Come on, somebody. Amen. Amen, Amen, let's pray

together. Father, thank you for your goodness and your mercy. Lord,

We thank you that you've already done miracles in this place. We give you

glory and honor and praise in Jesus name. Amen, Amen, and Amen,

Welcome to to the second week of our series. When the music fades,

Although this is the first sermon in the series, we're going to we're

going to extend this series probably a week or so as well, but we

want to talk to you over the next few weeks about your personal worship relationship

with the Lord. M not about not about corporate worship, although that's where

we're gonna start today. But I'm about your personal worship relationship with the Lord,

because I believe that personal worship relationship is so much more vital for the

overcoming believer than our corporate worship. Time with the Lord. Come on,

somebody, because listen, he wants time just with you, don't. He

don't want you to. He don't want to always have to share his time

with you and Terry and Ted, and he wants sometimes it just to be

you and him in a room together and um. And that's where we want

to go with this series. When the music fades, If you have a

Bible, we're gonna start in Second Samuel, chapter six, Second Samuel,

chapter six, starting in verse three, Second Samuel six, verse three.

If you're there to say amen. If you're not, all the Omiyas follow

along on the screen. So they set the Ark of God on a new

cart and brought it out of the house of a ben Adab which was on

the hill. And Usa and Ohio, the sons of a Benadab, drove

the new cart, and they brought it out of the house of a ben

Adab which was on the hill, accompanying the Ark of God, and Ohio

went before the Ark. Then David and all the house of Israel played music

before the Lord on all kinds of instruments, of fir wood, on harps,

on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on systems, and on symbols.

And when they came to Nakan's threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to

the Ark of God and took hold of it. For the oxen stumbled.

Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Usa, and God struck him

there for his error, and he died by the ark of God. And

David became angry because of the Lord's outbreak against Uzzah, and he called the

name of that place perez Uzzah. To this day. David was afraid of

the Lord that day, and he said, how can the ark of the

Lord come to me? So David would not move the Ark of the Lord

with him into the city of David, but took but David took it,

took it, but David took it aside into the house of Obaddam to get

tight. The ark of the Lord remained in the house of obed Edom to

get tight three months, and the Lord blessed Obadidam and all his household.

Father, thank you for your word. It's the only change agent on the

face of the planet. And I pray that you plant the seeds of your

word deep at the fabric of our being, at that place Lord, where

we are, where we exist, where you desire to reside, and then

it bring a harvest of life that is absolutely transformational. We give you glory

and honor and praise in Jesus name. Amen, this is Ah. This

is a powerful, powerful story from the life of King David. King David

has become the king of Israel. And when you read the other account of

this, he inquires of the people. It's important to know that that he

went and inquired of the people. He talked to the people, and he

said, hey, what should we do? And the people said, hey,

I want you to go. We want you to get the arc,

we want you to bring it to Jerusalem. So this was not a personal

decision for David. This was a This was a decision made by the corporatocracy.

It was made by the group of Israel, the people of Israel.

And he designed and fashioned a cart to carry the presence of God. Now,

now listen, there is no man made object that can ever carry the

presence of God. There is nothing designed by us that can carry and transport

the presence of God. There's not a guitar that can transport the presence of

God. There is not a set of drums, as well as they were

played today, that can transport the presence of God. Those are instruments to

prepare the heart of the people, the worshipers, to transport the presence of

God. It's the presence of God has to be transported on the shoulders,

on the backs of those who worship him and those who believe him, the

priests of the kingdom. That's who transports the presence of God. And the

arc represents God's manifest presence. The Old Testament, this mercy seat represented the

manifest presence of God where he was more where that arc was than he was

everywhere else. Now, don't get me wrong, God's everywhere all the time,

but there are times he's a little more present in one place than he

is somewhere else. It's it's more manifest. It's it's kind of like when

you take that powdered drink mix and you and you mix it into a bottle

of water and you just put a little in there and it tastes bad.

Come on, somebody, But then when you put the court pack in a

twenty ounce bottle of water and you shake it up and it comes out like

syrup. It tastes real good. Come on, somebody, that's that's manifest,

that's concentrated, and God is a little more concentrated in one place than

he is in another place, and it tastes good. And David was a

worshiper from the beginning. But but but David lost track here and he decided

that he was going to please the people. So he created this cart.

And they went and they put the presence of God on the cart, and

they begin to sing and dance. And that sounds healthy, right, I

mean singing and dancing before the God on all the instruments, and that sounds

just like it looks like what we do. And the presence of God began

to be moved, and they got to Akin's threshing floor, and the ox

stumbled a little bit, and the cart that never should have had God's presence

on it a man made system to transport the presence of God. Now,

listen, you hear us talk about systems all the time here. But systems

are about people. Systems are about moving you from one place to another.

It's not about moving God from one place to another. Only you can move

God God from one place to another. A system can't do that. And

as the ark began to shake us, a stuck his hand up and he

touched God as if to help God, because God needed his help. I

want to assure you of one thing, if you don't take anything else away

from my message today, God doesn't need your help. Being God, he

can do that just fine on his own. And when he stuck his hand

out and angered God, and God dropped dead, and then people began to

to turn their eyes and I need to stop right here and let you know

something. This was last week's message. This is the message I prepared to

preach last week and didn't get to preach it, okay, And because people

disappeared after the presence of God was attempted to be helped because of an encounter

that didn't go the way other people look then some people chose to leave and

not get mad and get mad and not understand what was happening. I want

you to understand that the move of God that's coming to this place is something

we've never seen before. It's something that will be a deep move in the

hearts of men, women, boys and girls, and it will shake people

to the very core of their being and who they are, and people will

come and they will be saved and set free and delivered and healed in all

of the things we've been praying for for years and years and years. But

if we have a response the way David had, then we won't get where

we're going. David became afraid, and this is what he said, How

could I ever now? Listen, This journey started because the people wanted God

brought to Jerusalem. But the moment something happened that David wasn't happy with.

Oh, the moment something happened that David wasn't in control of. Oh,

the moment it looked like God was interfering in David's business. David got afraid,

and this is what he said. How could God's presence come to me?

How could how could I handle God's presence? How it's just it's just

too scary, it's too powerful. There's there's too much packed into this one

little place. And how could I ever contain that? How can I be

part of that? How can I function in that? I just don't know

how it's possible for me to have God's presence. I don't know where you

are today. But sometimes I think we look around and we see the things

that confound us in our finite minds. Come on somebody and we think,

why why listen? I get this question. Why would a God who is

absolutely love allow that to happen? How could a God that is that is

love and kindness and all of those things? How could he allow all of

the violence that we see, all of the poverty that we see, all

of the filling the blank with the thing that bugs you? Amen? How

could how could he allow those things to happen? He didn't allow those things

to happen. Humanity caused those things to happen because the world is sick with

sin. Bad things happen to good people. But God is all powerful,

and God is love, and the magnitude of his love cries out to humanity,

and he says, come to me, because I have set aside a

place for you where those things don't exist. And in that process we have

to get comfortable with God doing things that we don't understand or that upset us.

In the process and in the journey of getting to our destiny, and

your destiny is not a destination, It is a journey from where you are

to the place that God wants you to be. Let's keep reading. Let's

pick up in Second Samuel six, verse twelve. Now it was told King

David, now three months have passed. Let me tell you what happened in

these three months where David was afraid of the presence of God. David started

doing his own thing. What David did in those three months is he built

houses for himself. That's what scripture says, he built houses for himself.

No other time did we see David becomes self centered and do things only for

David, except for these times when he was afraid of the presence of God

and he stopped the worship process and he got fixated and focused on himself.

When he had his fall with Bathsheba, it was the spring of the year

when kings were out to war with their armies, but David was fixated on

himself, and he wasn't where he should be celebrating God's presence even on that

battlefield. It was in these lapses of time where David stepped back from those

moments of powerful, intimate worship that we see that mark his life, that

his greatest mistakes and failures happened. And now we see David. Three months

after the Ark of God had been left at Obadiedam's house. It says now

it was now it was told King David, saying, the Lord has blessed

the house of Obadidam and all that belongs to him because the arc because of

the ark of God. So David went up and brought the Ark of God

from the house of Obededom to the city of David with gladness. Let's stop

right there for a moment. David David is a master of being motivated by

blessing. Come on, somebody. You know, everywhere we lead we read

King David doing his exploits. There's usually some kind of blessing that entices him

to do it. We talk about this righteous act where he slayed Goliath,

this young boy taking on a giant with only a slingshot. But Goliath was

out there barking, and David was there listening, and he turned and he

said, hey, what does the person get that kills that fellow? In

other words, I don't know if I want to do it for free,

but if the price is right, come on, somebody. Now I'm doing

it for God, but I want something. Did you know where God's presence

is where God's presence fully lives. There's blessing, there's fullness of joy,

there's peace, there's blessings that can't be bought. And once again we see

David and and somebody comes and says, all right, David, there's some

blessing going on at Obendedam's house. He's never been able to grow a garden,

and man, his squash are incredible. He's got watermelons as big as

cars. We gotta do something. And David gets motivated, and he remembers

the God that he wrote about in the Psalms. And we pick up from

here with a king in a very different mindset. So David went and brought

up the ark of God from the house of Obededom to the city of David

with gladness. And so it was when those bearing the ark of the Lord

had gone six paces that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep. Then David danced

before the Lord with all his might. And David was wearing a leniny fod.

Let's let me let me give you a picture here. So from Obadiadam's

house all the way to the city, the priests are now carrying the presence

of God on their shoulders the way it was designed to be done. And

every six steps he said, stop, I gotta offer a sacrifice. David

shed the blood of Oxen. Then he said, all right, stop,

and he did it again every six paces from the home of Obadidum to the

city of David. What a bloody mess, a trail that could be followed

by anyone anywhere, that attracted things that feast on the flesh of the dead.

When we truly enter into a place of worship, God kills things in

our lives, those things that are not supposed to be part of us,

those things that are not part of our holy assignment and our holy mission,

and those things began to die, and the carcass of the dead things in

our lives draw the people that are trying to be set front. See,

when you truly enter into that worship life and things begin to fall off of

you, it's a testimony to people who are trying to be free, who

had feasted on the flesh of those same things, and they're drawn to it

so that they can enter into that worship experience and be drawn to the feet

of Jesus. Then David danced before the Lord with all his might, and

David was wearing a lenity fod. So David and all the house of Israel

brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, with the sound of the

trumpet. Now was the ark of the Lord came into the city of David.

Because Saul's daughter looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling

before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart. Now I've heard

I've heard a lot of people preaching say that David was dancing in his underwear,

but literally, what it means is that he had stripped off his kingly

garb. But he felt no separation between him and anybody else. That he

looked just like everybody else. Come on, somebody, that there was no

stature, that he didn't feel like his money and privilege elevated him to a

different level. That he didn't think just because he had idol of king,

that he was above everybody else. He was with some folk. Come on,

he was with some folk, and while he was with the folk,

he decided to worship like the folk, and he didn't need to look like

a king because he was worshiping the king, and he just wanted more of

God because something had captivated his heart in the corporate worship experience that was bloody

and nasty and passionate. And as he walked into the city, his wife

looked out of the window and saw David looking like everybody else, and she

despised him in her heart because she didn't want to be married to a warrior.

She didn't want to be married to a worshiper. She wanted to be

married to a king. There are people who are going to despise you because

they want you to be something else rather than what God created you to be,

and that is a worshiper. If you were a worshiper, first he'll

position you in the position you in the palace as a king, but you've

got to come out of the palace and worship as a common person in order.

She despised him because she was religious. Now I'm not gonna read the

passages Christian, but there's something stuck on the end of this passage that's it

just baffles me. It says that recall after this moment, after she despised

David, and then she makes a comment that, hey, you really showed

yourself in front of all the people today you really showed yourself and you dancing

around like a common based person. And he said, let me tell you

something, I'll be even more undignified than this. And then it ends that

and it says that that McCall had no children and doesn't make sense and the

rest of the story. So I just asked the Lord, I said,

Lord, why, why? Why would why is there Ernie? I was

just puzzled, why as her reproductive activity mentioned in this story? And I

believe the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and he said, because I don't

want people who refuse to worship to reproduce, because I already have enough of

them. He wants churches to worship with a reckless abandon He wants churches to

dig in and to press through and to be free. And churches that worship

and press in and are free and worship during this age, during this time

of the church, are going to be those churches that reproduce that that grow

multiplied times over and over again. Because the world is looking for something.

Everything that the world is looking for can be found in Jesus. They just

don't know that's who they're looking for. But when we have the atmosphere that

draws the herd and the broken from the north and the south. I almost

pointed in directions, and I wasn't gonna get it right. So y'all saw

me stop right, because somebody's gonna email and say, man, you pointed

north and you were really pointing south when you said north. From the north

to south to east and the west. He's gonna draw people from all over

our community because of the testimony you have, because things died in your life

as you worshiped. And listen, this is one of those This is one

of those times that worship leaders love. Everybody was dancing, everybody was playing,

everybody was killing oxen. It was like a Pentecostal church day. It's

when we leave and we don't say, boy, what't God good? We

leave and say God was good. Yeah. But here's the most remarkable thing.

We're about to get there because as all, I'm not gonna call it

hoop law because that when all of the demonstrative part of the corporate worship experience

past and the music began to fade. Alan you can come to the keyboard

and all all of that was stripped away, and David has danced his dance

and he had given to the people, and that most epic moment that certainly

Israel would remember forever. David does something that most of us in the modern

church miss what calls for us. When the music fades and the church service

is over, we go about our way, because, after all, we

all have important things in life. I mean, Carrie, I'm sure that

when service is over you have a couple of things to do. I mean,

I know, Randy and Elaine. All y'all have to do is just

stay in the sanctuary. Y'all don't have anything else to do except just dance

before the Lord. Right, life begins to take over, and we forget

until we come together the next week and we have this other demonstrative time.

But watch what King David does in verse seventeen. So they brought the ark

of the Lord and set it in its place in the midst of the tabernacle

that David had erected for it. Then David not they, they are gone.

It's David and God's presence. It's him and him. It's that moment

that David writes about that I shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty,

that as the light shine through David's tabernacle, that that presence of God.

The art created a shadow on the other side, and David would crawl up

the very base of God's presence with nobody else around. Then David offered burnt

offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. After this magnanimous display of worship,

hundreds of cattle sacrificed exhaustive dance and travel with the presence of God. When

all that music faded, David went right back to God and he said,

I still got life to live. Man, I'm glad. Let me make

an afflicques man, I'm glad church was good. I'm glad that I'm glad

that church experience was good. Boy, they sang my favorite songs. I

don't know what the sound man was doing, but he turned the right knobs.

I'm excited because it was good. But now I'm at home and he

still like you was when I left and went to church. My kids still

act like they have lost their mind. Right. I picked him up from

the nursery and they told me how good they were, and they tore the

back seat off the floorboard before we even got home. I checked my bank

account and then that number is still read. Jesus, thank you that you're

not just at the tabernacle, because I need you right here, right now.

Jesus has a conversation look broken, confused, hopeless woman that he'd been

in a will, and he says, there's coming a day when it won't

be about the mountain or the temple. It's just gonna be about me.

It's just going to be about celebrating the presence of God right there in your

home, right now, the church. It's time for you to create those

times of worship for you. Not the words of a highly skilled psalmist and

a recording studio that has written and written and written until the words are just

right and the chords are just right and the tempo's just right and the base

drop is just right to get your heart going. Not no, no,

no no. I'm talking about those moments where you're on your knees in your

living room and you don't have the words, so you just say Jesus,

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. You

know when when you call me when something's going wrong in your life, I

usually can muster some kind of intelligent prayer. I can put some words together

but I'm telling you, when something happens to me, this is the way

it comes out. Lord. I don't know what I'm gonna do, but

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, you didn't leave me where you found

me. You didn't let them destroy me then. And if you brought me

through that, I know you can bring me through this. I just love

you, Lord. Everybody, stand to your feet. This worship life that

I'm talking about, it only comes when you're in love with him. When

you are in love with him, you know when you're When you guys started

dating your husbands or wives, you know y'all would go to the movies.

You'd go out to each you. You know you you'd practice what you were

gonna say. You put on a clean shirt, want somebody, take on

a damp cloth and wipe out from underneath your arms. Put on the best

possible that's public. But you know she loves you when you're sitting there and

your hair's messed up and you've got sauce down your shirt. Come on,

somebody, and you're just sitting there on the couch together spending time, and

it's not about a thing, It's just about being together. That's how you

create this kind of worship. You fall deeper in love with him than you

have ever been. And you cannot fall deeply in love with Jesus if you

don't allow him to cleanse your life. You know, maybe you're here today

and you've never asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins or to be the

lord of your life. You've never asked him to save you. But today

something is tugged on your heart and you want to give him your life.

Or maybe you're here and you want this intimate experience, this intimate relationship with

Jesus, but it just don't seem to be able to get in there because

you have open sin in your life, you're struggling with with addiction, your

you're doing things, you're in a repeated pattern that you know those things are

not right, and you want to get free of those things. You want

to lay those things down either one of those I want to meet Jesus for

the first time, or I want to come back to Jesus. The way

worship over their starts when the music fades is to make it right here in

the altar, surrounded by people who are cheering for you, who have already

been praying for you, who love you and will stand with you. So

this is what we're gonna do. On the count of three. If you're

here, you want to ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins, be

the lord of your life for the very first time. When I get to

three, I want you to come. If you're here and you got sin

in your life, you want to lay that sin down. On the count

of three, I want you to step out, and I want you to

come. Don't look around. This is about you and him being clean in

his presence. One, two, three, Step out and move right now,

say pastor, I've got to give my life to Jesus today. I've

got to make things right with Jesus today. There are things between me and

him that have to be made amen altered him. Come. I love you

somebody else, You're far from God. You've got sin in your life.

You want God to wash you clean. Come on, come on, come

on, there's somebody here. You've never asked Jesus to forgive you of your

sins. You've never asked him to be your lord. Today. You want

to give your life to Jesus. Come on, where are you? Come

on? That feeling you feel, that that drawing that you feel, that

quickened heart rate, that's the Holy Spirit drawing you. So come on.

Look at the person you came with and said will you go with me?

Ask them will you go with me? If you came when nobody look at

the person said, he say, will you go with me? I don't

want to go by myself. Somebody will come with you. Come on,

come on, come on,