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100% Maybe
Welcome to 100% Maybe — a podcast from Community Life Church in Gulf Breeze, FL. We’re committed to exploring the truth of Scripture in context, and talking about what it looks like to live out our faith in practical ways. We admit we don't have it all figured out, but we see how transformation can happen when we study in community and grow in our walk with Jesus.
Each episode is an honest conversation about the Bible, life, and faith — with room for questions, tension, and discovery. While we may not know everything, we believe we can live with confidence in Christ and let our love for God overflow into our love for others.
If you’re looking for thoughtful, practical, and sometimes challenging discussions about what it means to walk with Jesus in today’s world, you’re in the right place!
100% Maybe
Ep. 42 - The Life of David: Moving the Ark & Psalm 24
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Why did God strike Uzzah? It's one of the most difficult and misunderstood moments in the Bible.
This week on 100% Maybe, we unpack the story of the Ark of the Covenant in 2 Samuel 6 (along with 1 Chronicles 13 & 15) and discover that this account isn't about an angry God looking for a reason to punish someone, it's about the holiness of God and what it means to approach Him rightly.
David's first attempt to move the Ark seemed practical and well-intentioned, but it wasn't God's way. After experiencing failure, David humbly returns to God's instructions, and everything changes. His story reminds us that success, leadership, and even good intentions can slowly pull our hearts away from dependence on God if we're not careful.
We also explore Psalm 24, where David lifts our eyes to the Creator and King of Glory. Understanding God's holiness doesn't push us away from Him; it produces awe, humility, worship, and ultimately draws us closer to the God who alone is worthy.
If you've ever wrestled with difficult passages like this or wondered what God's holiness means for your everyday life, this conversation is for you.
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I'm ready, man. I got my water regular propel. Nope. With the with the label peeled off. I like that. That's a good habit. So not advertise it for anybody that didn't pay you the charge. You're out there propel though. We could put that label back on there.
SPEAKER_00We can put it back on there.
SPEAKER_01If you want to pay for 100% maybe, just let us know. So well you've already got it. You got it down. I'm working on my marketing skills. Yeah. A face made for radio.
SPEAKER_00A face made for a podcast. Not a vodka, but a podcast. That's right.
SPEAKER_01That's right. Well, what's up? That's all gonna be in there. So welcome to 100% maybe. And uh we're glad to have you guys along with us. Jeff here, Pastor Scott here. We sit down, we open up the scripture, we talk, and then we I'm so anxious. We uh give you confusion.
SPEAKER_00You got me all shook up. This this text that we're gonna be in today is wide-ranging and obscure, and so I'm there's a lot. And and I'm I gotta I'll tell them because I've told you I'm four days off of Diet Coke. This is a detox in real life that you're watching here. I have no that's right. So um no headaches, which is interesting because everybody told me I'd have headaches. I just uh my ADHD is kicking.
SPEAKER_01What what was your Diet Coke habit? One, two a day? Where were we at? Was it more than two a day?
SPEAKER_00Oh, way more than two a day. Oh yeah, I'm a five or sixer. But some of them would be uh, you know, the the big uh go-to uh water burger. You know, water burger and they they give it into a gallon jug basically, so it'd be that. I look I but it switched from Diet Coke to you know Dr. Pepper Zero or I kind of bounced around, but I'm Diet Coke was probably my thing. It feels like a lot to me. It's a lot of anything, it would be a lot of anything. And I I've tried to switch it up and uh just sort of stopped. And um, it's been an interesting couple days. Well, I'm proud of you, man. I mean, pass out halfway through this thing. Or this is the best one ever. Yeah. That's that's what I believe. That's what I believe.
SPEAKER_01I choose to believe.
SPEAKER_00I don't remember, I don't know if I'll ever remember saying making this statement, but we'll see.
SPEAKER_01No, I don't think you have. Okay. If you do pass out, you guys will never know because I'm gonna edit that right out of there. We'll just kind of prop you back and keep you going. You just keep on going. That's right. Well, no, I think that's a good disclaimer. Okay. That uh, you know, do you want to say what what you can, what you say cannot be used against you in this podcast?
SPEAKER_00Because No, because it will be, but we're okay. All right. It's gonna be great.
SPEAKER_01Well, uh, if you haven't been with us, or if you have, you know, we're in the life of David part one. So I gotta ask. Uh last week we studied the conversation specifically between David and Saul and also Psalm 23. And now we're jumping like 20 years in time.
SPEAKER_03Big jump. Yeah. What's up with that? Great question.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Um the idea of sermon series planning. Uh, if we're gonna pick four Sundays, we tried to lay out um moments in David's life that some some that people would understand and remember, some that were obscure. And along with that was what's the point? Like we don't have the same point four weeks in a row. So this week has a vastly different point than most messages that we have at Community Life Church. And then so, so chronologically, it's not it, it we're tracking chronologically, but we just skipped 20-something very important years, right? Which is when David was on the run from Saul, not king, waiting to be king and learning lessons. Next year, part two, we'll we'll jump back into some of those um and and uh try and go back and recapture them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because you see the connection that David has with Jonathan, Saul's son. You see some really interesting moments where David has the opportunity to strike and take his throne, and because he just does not feel right about that, does not feel that that's the Lord's way to do that. Yep. So it's gotta be a weird, it's an interesting study to know, hey, you're you've been anointed as king, but not yet. There's already a king. Right.
SPEAKER_00So it's like, how is this gonna happen? Yeah, and I I think may I I I don't remember the exact conversation as to why we did that. I think we tried to in week four at least get them, get to we were trying to get to Besheba. Right. Because that kind of is the one that everybody sort of remembers if it's a big mistake. Sure. So then we just drop we drop these other two in there. But the if you think of the messages while he's on the run, uh don't touch the Lord's anointed. Um, you know, the thing with Jonathan, that friendship, the the bond that God made there for him and that relationship that he had. Uh, you know, those are those are lessons that would have, I feel like would have kind of paralleled maybe some of these other things that we had. Or they're gonna be great next time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Right or wrong.
SPEAKER_01It's just I don't exactly. Yeah. I don't know that there's enough. We just did it. Sure. Yeah. Um no, I think I think this is fantastic. I've loved the time uh that I've spent in this, wrestling through this. We had an amazing group last night discussion that um, you know, I'll pick your brain about too when we get into it. But um can you just kind of give us a recap of where we end up because we're in 2 Samuel 6, the first part of it, and then we're gonna be Psalm 24. Yep. Um give us in two minutes what happened in the lesson two.
SPEAKER_00But I here's your disclaimer. I'm still writing the sermon, which means I'm still doing the research. I don't want to pretend that I've known and there's outliers in this research. It's not just the life of David, it's the history of the ark, it's the history of all the things that happened. So there's a lot of work to be done between now and Sunday. So we have jumped ahead from David and Goliath, which is the last which was last week, to David now, has become king um of Judah, and then reunites Judah and Israel, the two kingdoms, and so now Israel is all together as one nation, and then he overthrows Jerusalem, and then he defends Jerusalem and holds on to it, and then he names Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel. And uh, and and all of that is uh those are all huge stories all along the way. Any one of them we could have looked at, but it would have been hard to there, most of it is historical in nature. So we've skipped over the 20-something years of lessons where he's on the run from Saul before he ever becomes king. Once again, don't get frustrated. We'll we'll go back to those next year when we kind of when we unpack them. To get to the text that we're looking at today, David has now said that Jerusalem is going to be the capital city of Israel. Which calls David. Which he calls the city of David, right? Nothing to Jerusalem. So in the city of David, Jerusalem. Um, and oh, by the way, hey, I want God to be in the city of David, so let's go get the Ark. So somebody in our Bible study asked the greatest question ever. What's the Ark? Yeah. And I hear on the other side, it's not a big boat. Right? Which is funny because if you've never studied anything and to do a Christendom or Old Testament history, the ark is a golden box about three and a half feet wide that has some very important things in it that represents and not just represents, was where the presence of God resided.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So inside the ark, so God has Moses and Aaron put this thing together, and it's got the tablets that the Ten Commandments are written on. It's got Aaron's rod, which is another story you can study that uh uh that that almond tree that buds for God to prove one of the things he wanted to do, and it also has a jar of manna that they collected to remember their time in the wilderness. They put it in there on top of the ark, is called what we would call the mercy seat. So it's a golden slab, three and a half feet, that has two, they call them cherub cherubim, but think of two angels that are facing each other with their wings, so facing each other with their wings and folded around this middle part of that thing, which is known as the mercy seat. And so whenever sacrifices were made, the blood would be sprinkled on it to make atonement for sin. That is a picture of go on through into the New Testament, Jesus being in the tomb and the angels showing up in the at the end part of the gospel stories, that would have been the mercy seat where Jesus became that payment for us, and the blood of Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, was made to make atonement for all of us. So the picture of the mercy seat in the ark, the picture of the ark of Jesus in the tomb, that's a lot more than what you want, but we're talking about the physical ark in the Old Testament, presence of God. David says, Let's go get it and bring it in. Now the ark has been out of circulation for about 70 years.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think it's important to note between Moses, it's about 400 years later. Yeah, that's right. So we're this week we're gonna have America 250. Think tack on another think about how long ago that was. So tack on another couple hundred.
SPEAKER_00That's a great, great point of context, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So it's easy to come in and think, how could they not realize what they had? But you're talking 400 years later. Yeah. So it's unknown how much this people really understood about it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and what they knew about the ark and how much and even how the ark got into obscurity is kind of interesting, and you'd think David would be more aware of it, but you know, they that one point they were using the ark as a uh the word semi-head is parlor trick, it's not, but they would go out to battle and they're like, hey man, whenever we bring the ark, we win. Yeah. And so at some point Israel puts the ark out in front of them and they lose because God didn't want to go to battle. And so the Philistines, they get the ark and they're like, Yeah, let's put it in our city. And next thing you know, they all have cancer. And so they're like, let's just move it over to the next city, and they all get cancer. And eventually the Philistines are like, We don't want this thing anymore. Yeah. So they put it on a I've I'm I'm vaguely remembering this, but they put it on a thing. They build a cart. And they put yeah, a cart, and they and they put some horses and they just say, Go back 'em and go. And the and the ark lands at Abinadab's house, or I don't know if it was Abinadab at the time, because it was there for a long time. Right. But it lands at someone's house and they just take it and they put it and they're very blessed. And it sits there for maybe 70 years until David's like the entire life of Saul, I'm guessing. So Saul doesn't have it, which is another interesting part that I'd never studied. Like, Saul never even thinks to go get this thing. Yeah. So it's just there in someone's garage covered up. Yep. And David goes, Hey, let's throw a party and yeah, let's remember the ark. I've heard about that. Let's go get it. And this story is that.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00And it doesn't go well.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00That was way more important. But but I but I also need to say this is important. This story shows up in 2 Samuel 6.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It also shows up in 1 Chronicles 15, 14, 13, 14, 15, like in that span is where you get the story. Um, and what you have to know is that the way Samuel writes, he does not hide the gory details of David's life. He tells you all the garbage, every bad decision that David made. Samuel's going to tell you about it. First and second chronicles, they whitewash David's life. They don't when they tell this story, they don't tell you that the guy dies. They're just like, we had a problem. It didn't go well, we're going to try it again. So it's interesting when you read scripture to know that when you read Chronicles, if you just read Chronicles, you don't know what we're going to be studying in church. This is a Sunday.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. What's funny about that piece in this is that I think the key to understanding 2 Samuel better is actually in Chronicles.
SPEAKER_00You gotta get the two stories, the two.
SPEAKER_01Because there are some details in Chronicles that you don't get here that I think is the turning point of what happens.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, to get you the insight. There's a conversation that happens between the two things that you don't get in Samuel, where they're like, oh, we better go do our homework. Yeah. And they did. Yeah. And then they change it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So let's talk about the actual scripture here. He's moving the ark, he decides to do it, you set that up. Um they put verse three picking it up. They placed the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from Abinadab's house, which was on a hill. Uzzah and Ohio. How do we say that? Ohio?
SPEAKER_00Ohio is what I've been saying. It's a it's spelled like Ohio but with an A.
SPEAKER_01They were guiding the cart, carrying the ark. Hayah walked in front of the ark. So basically, the oxen stumble, the cart shakes, the ark starts to fall out. Uzzah, the son and other son of Abinadab, reaches out, he thinks, Oh, it's about to fall, I better stop it. Touches the ark, dead. He's done.
SPEAKER_00God's anger spills out, knocks him dead, and it just so happens on a threshing floor. Which is another interesting detail. It could have been that they're just trying to tell you where it was at and in the in the landscape of things because they knew where it was. Yeah. But that threshing floor is interesting too because it's where you separate the wheat from the chaff, and God said, That's just where I'm gonna stop. So let's talk about Ozza.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Because upon first reading, you might think, well, that seems a little bit harsh.
SPEAKER_01That's harsh. Because maybe Uzzah he's just trying to help. He sees this thing falling, he's trying to be a good guy, doesn't want it to fall on the ground, on the dirt, and uh be dirty, and surely my hand is better than the dirt.
SPEAKER_03So upon first thinking about it, is it is it harsh? Uh that's a great question.
SPEAKER_00I I har I mean, it seems harsh. Can I can I I just thought of a parallel that is ridiculous. Okay. But I'm so clear-minded today. Um, when Tammy and I were in Orlando and we were gonna sell our house, we're living in St. Cloud, I thought, I'm gonna go clean this air handler because you know, we're about to sell this house and we want people to look at it. So I take a wet rag, I take the face off the air handler inside, and I'm wiping that thing down, and I run that wet rag across a capacitor. And I and it, the capacitor holds the charge because it helps jump the machine instead of just using straight power. So it's like a big volt, and it all discharged into my arm and into my chest so much so that like my arms collapsed together like this, and I fell on the ground. Uh-huh. That was harsh.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But you know why? Because I was wiping an electrical component with a wet rag, like an absolute idiot.
SPEAKER_01Your intentions were good. You wanted to do the right thing, but you went about it the wrong way.
SPEAKER_00I went about it the wrong way. So is this harsh? Yeah. I I love, um, I listened to a sermon this week, and and the and the pastor said, uh, we all everybody's praying for God to show up. God showed up in this story at the threshing floor, just not in the way they that they wanted him to.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because they didn't understand God. They were doing this all wrong.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That Uzza touched the thing he was not supposed to touch.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. If you go back to Exodus, the way that this was supposed to be carried was not on a cart.
SPEAKER_00I think 24 maybe. Uh, but because I've been bouncing around through all these. It was never intended, never on a cart. Never. And never to be touched. Never. There's poles that go down the side of the ark, and it's supposed to be always carried on the backs of not just men, a particular tribe of men, the Koaths, uh, so priests le in the of the tribe of Levites, but then a particular family. Yep. And they are the only ones that can do it. And guess who is not? Uzzah. Yep. So or and even if he was, he wasn't consecrated to be able to do this. Right. So it seems it seemed uh harsh, but it's correct. Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01There I read something this week that Uzzah basically was judged for the entire people. Like he was the the judgment that was on behalf of this this whole situation and the whole of Israel who had forgotten everything about what was supposed to be about this and what God had put in place for it. And you almost wonder, too, uh I I don't think we can assume Uzza's heart is pure and his intentions were good. We don't know that. And there is something about growing up in it that you lose sight of what is actually holy and you lose reverence for it. It becomes so commonplace. We joked last night in our group about, you know, these two guys, maybe they're throwing the football over it and run like this thing has no maybe no sentiment at all, no understanding in their heart about it. And so, you know, then we kind of come into the story, which I think maybe speaks to why you can't just understand scripture in a vacuum. It is all so connected to the bigger picture because you have you have to go back and do the work and understand what the ark represented, what it was, and why you couldn't just treat it however you wanted to.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I um I think it's interesting. So this so Uzzah and Ahio are the sons of Abinadab where the Ark had resided for 70 years. So more whatever, they don't know, but they think about that long. Yeah. So these guys were probably born into a a life in a family where the ark was already there. It was a piece of furniture to them. Now they they were blessed mightily, scripture tells us that that that their family was blessed and all of that, but it wasn't wasn't used the way that it was supposed to be. It didn't probably represent, maybe there was a reverence that was put to it, but they didn't understand it. So I don't know that they or Israel was under were understanding that whole piece. So they, you know, to reach out and to touch it, I uh I heard a wonderful thought uh that said, Uzzah made the mistake of thinking that his hand touching the ark was more sacred than the threshing floor that it was about to crash down on. And when you parallel this to the Psalm we're gonna read in Psalm 24, the lur the the earth the earth that God set the foundations of the earth, that was better it would have been better that that thing crashed down on the sacred ground that God created than for us that reach out and touch it. Didn't matter whether he had right intentions or not, according to what we're gonna read, none of us are holy. Yeah. Except that God except for the work that God does in us.
SPEAKER_01Mm-hmm. Yeah. Let's talk about David's response to it. Okay. And maybe what happens in him. Uh, because eight, if you pick it up, he was angry because the Lord's anger had burst out. He was now afraid of the Lord, and he asked, How can I ever bring the Ark of the Lord back into my care? So when you see that response, and we don't know if his anger was at the situation, was it at the Lord? Was it just with himself? You know, you don't you don't get that detail. You get the emotion, and obviously he's thinking, Hey, this is awesome. Uh look what I'm bringing back in. Now he's king. Um, what what sticks out to you about his reaction and what he does with with what happened?
SPEAKER_00I'm still trying to figure out what to do with it, and I don't know that we can fully tell the ang we always we hear anger and we think it's shameful. I do. Um but it's not that's not correct. Sometimes we hear anger and we're like, oh, that's that he shouldn't feel that way. I I'm quick to tell people it's okay to be angry at God. Um God's you're not gonna God's gonna be okay. And you'll get over it in the same pants that you got into it on. So David is is feeling an emotion, and you have to ask, what's the root of that emotion? So if David is angry because God had God did something and he wasn't expecting it, so that's what that tells you is that David thought his motives were right, God did something, and now David is angry at God's response. Back to your point, we didn't know this story doesn't tell you, but in Chronicles, David goes back and does his homework and realizes David blew it. Yeah. So, but but he's angry and he has fear. Those are two the fear, definitely is a good response. So they just drop it off at Obed Edom's house, right?
SPEAKER_01Which is how did did how did he volunteer for that? He just saw what happened, he's like, I don't know, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Dead gum at God, what are you doing? Uh well, what's what do we do with this thing now? Because the party ended. And there's man, this the text has all of these little details. David is is a part of the original party dancing, celebrating. They got 30,000 people that are going along. This is not a little right. I mean, so on the surface, it looks like hey, this is the right thing to do, man. We're gonna go get the presence of God and we're gonna bring the presence of God to Jerusalem. Except they did it all wrong. Right. So then he doesn't know what to do, so he just sticks it in Obed Edom's house. And and and the joke is who imagine that that ex exchange, and you don't know if Obed Edom's house was right there.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00You almost wonder if it was right there because David's like, I don't let's just they're not gonna take it that far. Who lives over there? Right? Like, hey guys, just pull it over there and park it in his thing. And so Obed takes it, and Obed's house is blessed mightily.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Which then means David circles back around and thinks we probably need to look at this differently.
SPEAKER_01Right. So he does do that. Do you think it's that question that that spurs in him when he realizes there's something a lot bigger here going on that maybe even more than I understand? How then can I be the one to bring the ark? Because he's well, so far, let's just take it in our series. We've seen a a very humble, a very confident in the Lord, a very young David. But now you have to wonder is he is he kind of feeling himself a little bit? He's now the king.
SPEAKER_00He's United the Kingdoms, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So now he's older, he's I I think it's telling if you go back and read um in some of the battles that he fights in a constant throughout David's life, he always asks the Lord first. He says, What do you want to do? So even a couple times, um, when he's fighting the Philistines, when he's taking these cities, he said, Lord, you know, should I do this? paraphrasing. Um, and there's a time the Lord says, Yeah, go, victory's yours. There was another time he said, Lord, you think and Lord actually says, No, wait. And then here's how you do it. So um, just because God says one thing one day doesn't mean that's always the answer. And so it's so important, I think, that that practice of David taking this before the Lord, say, Lord, what do you want to do with this? If this is your will, and you see what happens with the stories of Chronicles 2. He doesn't ask the Lord first about the ark. He says, if it's good for you guys and it's the Lord's will, then let's do this. So you see that shift in him about a guy who always sought the Lord first, and this time I think he missed it.
SPEAKER_00Yes, all that. I also, so I'm trying, I'm trying to come up with a way that's gonna make sense to us on Sunday. And I try to think of so, so my my my story, it's not like anybody other preacher's story I've ever experienced. Like, I just dumb my way into a lot of things. I know that sounds crazy, but just how I've just worked hard, been able to outwork everybody else. And so there's so much of my life spiritually where I'm like, okay, let's do that. You know, like let's I'm I've not been in that scenario. Let's go just jump into that scenario. I wonder if David were king. Let's let's go get the gold box. Right? No, think about it. How often do we look at Sunday morning like, hey, let's go spend some time in the presence of God? You know, like it, like it's a parlor trick or like it's a hey, there's let's just go do that thing. And we we lose sight of the creator of the universe, the, the, the one who fashioned and designed our souls. And man, it just and the presence of God becomes a thing that is just kind of over there, and we're gonna go do that, and then we're gonna go get lunch. And then, you know, and then we're gonna go do whatever. I wonder if David hadn't separated the idea of the presence of God from his kingship. And okay, we got Jerusalem. Now the only thing missing is to turn the machine on and let's bring God over here because it almost feels like that. Let's get that thing, put it on the cart, hook the cart up, take the two sons of Abinadab, yeah, put one on the front, one on the side, they're most familiar with it. Surely they know how this thing works.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And let's drive that thing down the road. And and man, worship would be good. Let's throw a party. Yeah. And the whole thing comes crashing down. So I, you know, in my mind, I'm trying to figure out how if it were gonna relate it to today, oh man, the presence of God is not to be trifled with. Yeah. It's not just a hey, let's go get a good feel, a good fix. Um God is sovereign, he's holy, he's righteous. All the things that we like to think we understand, I'm telling you, um we have no clue what the sacrifice of Jesus was. Like the level of that detail. How could we ever possibly recognize? I mean, we if I cannot tell you how many people I've sat with that are talking that are in stages of life and they're like, well, I just hope I was good enough to make it. That kind of thinking, for us to think that we could equal the righteousness of God, we aren't even in that ballpark. Or for us to do this works righteousness where I'm just gonna do good things. No, no, we're not even close. Us a man just boom, dead. So thank thank God for God, which is the the skip over to but go ahead, go. I don't I'm I'm all over the I'm all over the map. It's good though. These are open tabs on my computer. Sorry. Like do something with all that.
SPEAKER_01Well, I wanna I wanna prod a little bit in the holiness piece because you and I talked about a little bit this morning before we started rolling. It's not a message maybe we typically will dig into as much. Not necessarily bec like purposefully, like, hey, we don't want to, we're not talking about this, but maybe in some of the planning or some of the things that we feel like connect to that greater story, um, you know, we haven't dug into this as much. So the holiness of God, what is it about that? Or is that the as a believer or as someone who's contemplating faith or what that means, you know, how should I approach that or handle that? It's what I got to say yesterday in my group was on this side of the cross, we have a very different experience than what they did in this time. But it's the same God.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. How do you how do you even have this conversation? Right. I mean, I so so the strictest definition of holiness means to be set apart as in unto itself. Like there's nothing like it. It's something that is completely different. The the thread that runs through scripture is that the presence of God was such that no one could stand in the presence of God, that they would die. So and that's not because of um God doesn't like us, right? But there is an understanding of sin and righteousness, and we as sinful beings, to find ourselves in something in pr in the presence of something that has no sin, it it's murderous. That's murderous, that's a bad word. It kills us. Like it just we can't be in the presence of that. How do you even articulate that? It's completely lost on us. It's completely lost on us. That that's why that's why it it is I I I still think it's so ridiculous that, hey, let's go spend some time like that's a part of our conversation. Let's go spend some time in the presence of God. Like those kind of things, I know what they're meant for, um, but it has desensitized us to what it means. If you sp if if you are so blessed to have spent time in the presence of God, you will walk away changed and different because you can't not, right? Like it is transformative, it changes you. I'm not answering your question because I don't have words for it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But but it's but it's a part of Old Testament. That's why when Jesus became the one that that that figured out, not figured out a way, figure out figured it out. Figured it out. When Jesus um reconnected our hearts back to the heart of God or gave us a way to be able to do that, it's by his grace. Because the only one who did not have sin that walked this earth became that sacrifice so that as we believe in him, so God gave us a workaround or a work through so that we could believe in him. And now, I said this at the end of last week's sermon. We now have the ability to believe in Christ and to have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. David had the Holy Spirit settle on him. We now have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit because of the forgiveness that we have. But our righteousness, our righteousness is still filthy rags, is what scripture calls it. Um, so we still are flawed humans and we won't understand until we get to the other side. In this world, we still work on transformation, we still work those things out, still flawed. But something in that, I'm trying I like my words will never get to the place to where we can understand the true holiness of God. Spend some time processing that. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I think I think you have to.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. As much as I love your answers, I don't know. You have better answers? I don't have better answers, but I and I don't think there's like an all-sufficient answer givable. No. It's exactly what you said. It's it's something that we'll spend the rest of our lives, you know, wrestling through and and trying to understand. I I read something years ago that stuck with me, but um the sun will burn your eyes out if you stare at it from 93 million miles away, but you expect to stroll into the presence of its creator with whatever. You know, I got questions. Okay. Yeah. See how that goes. That's a that's a great point. Um, and I think it ties into this psalm, like uh, so we can jump to Psalm 24. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it. So you have to look at those pieces, the things he's created, us being created beings, um, we we shouldn't ever think we have all the answers or understand all of the things.
SPEAKER_00Once again, it's comical that we trifle with God. If we absolutely understood God and his place, but we we would we would recognize the point of last week's sermon, which is we God is if if we believe in God and we give him the place, he's our shepherd, and our lives are to glorify him. It's not I mean, we're on this ride. It's not our ride.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Period. Yeah. Uh but but but everything about this world shapes it to think that this is our kingdom. Our and and our hearts betray us that way. So I so it's not I'm not, man, I'm chief among sinners in this whole thing. That's that's that's the daily battle. But that yeah, that first phrase does set the context for for what we're looking at. That the the earth is the Lord's and all that's in it.
SPEAKER_01Let me ask you about the connection to this story. If you continue on in Chronic, you jump to Chronicles, understand David realizes his mistake. He says, We didn't do this the right way. Levites, you guys should have been the one carrying the ark. He corrects.
SPEAKER_00Not just the Levites, he says the Kohitites, Kohites, Cohet, Koites, whatever. That that that particular family line, right? Which is Obed Edom.
SPEAKER_01Yep. So he gets it right. He says, You got he understands like we did it wrong. You guys should be the ones to do this, consecrate yourselves, do it the right way. So he understands, he corrects, and it works out. You know, the ark is is is returned.
SPEAKER_00And David puts on a priestly garment. Right. He dances not as the king, he dances as a person that's worshiping. Right. So his heart's different, Israel's different, they do it the correct way, they move the ark into Jerusalem. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So what about that experience then do you think translates to this and maybe his heart being shaped in in that experience to this psalm?
SPEAKER_00This psalm is perfect for this story. I mean, I I I felt good about it when we picked it, and I feel better about it now. Um, but but but really to me it's it's verse verse three, which is a rhetorical question, but he answers it. Yeah. So who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place? And the answer to that should be no one's got a chance. Yeah. Not anyone has a chance. But then he gives this insight, and I'm and I'm I'm still rest. I did it again through the entire beginning part of this podcast, and I'll tell you what I did. I'm trying to look to to recognize our wrongs when really I think the only thing we can do is to find our place and do the thing we're supposed to do. So, because I'm I'm trying to say, okay, I don't want to be Uzza, so what what am I doing that's Uzza? But but he goes on in verse four to answer it, and he says, Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, okay, that's that's not anyone who who did not lift up their souls to what is false and do not swear deceitfully. Once again, that's not anyone, but it gives us a picture of something to attain to or something to move towards. They will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from the God of their salvation, such as the company of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob, which is the which is the peace that says that you can't, right? So the God of our salvation and the God of our vindication. So you have the work that we do, which is this uh clean hands, pure hearts, souls uh that that don't lift up your your soul to something false, but that's something that we can attain to that we'll never be able to reach, but the fact that we're vindicated by God and that we've been saved by God. So God makes this is a foreshadowing of salvation, it's a foreshadowing of the work that God's gonna do, or a foreshadowing of the sacrificial system, which was imperfect and was only to point towards what Christ was gonna ultimately do. Yep. So David in this is capturing no one can stand his presence, but here's the goal of what we can attain to. So the mistake that I'm making in this podcast to start off with, and what I'm trying to get myself to not do when we get into the message, is to say, so who's getting it right, who's getting it wrong? That's wrong, that's wrong, that's wrong. When really the answer should be, here's my role. My role is to not lift up my soul to this, is to have clean hands and a pure heart. So that's to be consecrated. So there's the daily work of learning and growing and understanding the holiness of God and the lack of holiness in me.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I think. Yeah. Somewhere in that message, which is really the marker of David.
SPEAKER_01Right. In the question of who may climb the mountain of the Lord, who may stand his holy place, to you, does that resonate that same kind of heart posture that he when he asked, How can I be, how can I bring the ark of the Lord?
SPEAKER_00I think he asked the question too late. But yes, but at least he asked the question. Yeah. And he eventually moved the ark. If he would have asked it on the front side, it would have been better, but who does? You don't know. I mean, they hadn't had he hadn't had any experience with the ark. Right. It's been nice if somebody around him would have said, Hey, there's a rule book. Yeah. Let's go check it out. And maybe he did.
SPEAKER_01And I think I I think it goes back to he was a person who asked the Lord first and then he didn't in that moment. I think I think he slips. Obviously, there's times and next week we'll cover it in great detail, times where he That's not a slip. Yeah. Yeah. Right? So that, yeah, I mean, that was very intentional. But you know what I'm saying. Well, I don't know. They're both, yeah. Slip slip mini it slip minimizes minimizes it, which I I'm not doing. But um, yeah, you see that heart doesn't always get it right, even a heart after God, which I think speaks beautifully to your whole point, is there's nobody in scripture that's called a man after God's own heart like David is, and yet we see the mistakes he made and the times that he took his eyes off the Lord.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and maybe the idea that and uh maybe a good delineation is it's a heart after God, it's not a heart that has completely captured God. So he's so his desire is to know God, but it's sometimes he missed it, uh missed it royally.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. No pun intended, royally. That's good. See that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that is good. See, if you had been on Diet Cokes, your brain wouldn't have thought of that.
SPEAKER_00I am all over the map, and this message is about as clear as I don't because just like the last two weeks, five thousand messages, but this one has to do with holiness. Has to be.
SPEAKER_03Um last couple things, and I think we can wrap it.
SPEAKER_01Um you know, do you think the holiness of God can scare us or we don't know what to do with it, make us uncomfortable? Or is it something you feel like we actually should really lean into wrestling with? I think we uh we talked about earlier. There's not a there's not a super clean answer to those types of things.
SPEAKER_00That's a conditional question, because I I I um I I always start with the premise that God wants to be known. But God is holy. That's his attribute. So God wants to be known, but you can't you just you just don't wake up and just walk into the presence of God. Um uh but we have we've so mishandled what it means to be in the presence of God or to be understood by God. Well, Jesus is with you, he is with you. This is a it's so wow, what do you do with all that? Right? Like I just opened up another 17 tabs. The way that we talk about God, the presence of God that's in our lives, um, you can open up your heart, you can believe in Jesus today and be saved and have the presence of God living in your life, and you'll spend the rest of your life trying to understand what that means. To your to your ability and hopefully your desire to do that, maybe you can attain that. I would say, oh man, what do you do with the holiness of God? Is is it as you understand the holiness of God, you have a proper respect for that, for the fact that God is holy, and then we make adjustments in our life. But but yes, it's so that we can be in connection and relationship with God, but I I I still am convinced that if you go back to last week, we do what we do to bring glory to God, and bringing glory to God and the fact that we represent God to this world. So if we understood the holiness of God, we wouldn't be buffoons. We would live in a different way that would allow people to see God correctly. Yeah. Um, this is why God has been God is not just now judging the church. God has always been judging the church. It just seems to be that he's shaking the heck out of that tree right now. Um, and uh and and big names are are having struggles and things are falling, just like the televangelists or whatever. But yeah, man, uh so it was a whole nother topic I'm about to.
SPEAKER_01No, that was just the whole thing. Like that was a thing when I was a kid growing up, the televangelists and the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00Anytime somebody's gonna set themselves up to receive the glory that God is rightly due, God judges that, and it happens every single day. And I, you know, um worship leaders, pastors, yeah. Well, that's a that's a fine line to draw. And um, you know, most people that find this is the other piece. Oh man, we're way down a rabbit trail. Most people that find themselves in that spot, they're predisposed to like in that spot. False humility, true humility. I've got it myself. I have to deal with that. I'm I I like I like being the senior pastor of a church, but man, it it had I'm I'm wired a little, maybe hopefully I'm wired different in that I've I've always felt like studying that I'm not the guy that's showing up on stage. This podcast is a prime example of that. I'm not gonna show up on stage and say, Let me tell you what this means. For me, it's man, what do you see here? And let's talk about it and let's push it out to everybody. And so many of you guys are kind enough to reach out and go, Oh, you missed this, you missed that. Think about this, consider that. How do you feel about this? Scripture is to be understood in a plurality of voices. Um, God was revealed in Christ, but then it was an oral tradition, and then it was a written tradition, and now we're still understanding it in scripture. So I just ran down seven different rabbit trails, and I don't even remember what we were talking about. Well, that's okay.
SPEAKER_01Is it? Yeah. That's what we like here on 100%, maybe. We just get you get you going.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. We gotta be careful, not careful, because I don't know that God is gonna strike any of us dead, but we don't we don't wanna be that church, and I'm not uh not casting shade on anybody. We don't want to be that church that mishandles the presence of God. And this is not about emotionalism. Right? Our church has a unique marker of multiple denominations, and we've got everything from the stoic all the way to the reckless abandoned. And this the there's a there's a teaching in here with David on the first story, reckless abandoned, except he's dressed like a king. The next story, he is now fits into the context. So this is not about emotionalism, and and I'm not saying that some denominations get lost in emotionalism, there's a balance between the two. It's about the appropriate type of worship. You know, I have a saying that if you are worshiping in church and what you're doing draws more attention to you than it does to what God is doing, you you've missed it, right? No matter what denomination you are. Yeah. If you are a sour puss and you're sucking all the attention because you're ticked off and people are looking at you and they're trying to see what's going on, great. And if you're running laps around the building, nothing wrong with that. If you're in a room full of people that are running laps around the building and that's understood and it's well, if you're, you know, people often ask Tammy if it's okay if I just free for all of the no diet coke, Scott. Um, we come from a denomination that believes in speaking in tongues, and I have my prayer language, and Tammy does too. But scripture and Paul are very clear about better to speak a word that people can understand than a thousand words that they can't. It intended to be done in context with the red understanding in a way that people can be able to articulate. So in our congregation, it would cause more division for people. So, so I I still pray in my prayer language at home as I'm studying, as I'm doing those different things, and that may cause a lot of you some some challenges, but let's have those conversations. Um, but but it's about doing David in the second part of the story was dressed appropriate to what was going on. He wasn't the king that was drawing attention to himself while they were moving the presence of God.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Second part of the story, he was dancing with reckless abandon with all of the rest of the priests doing the things that they were doing. Fit into context with what was happening and and the sacrifices that were going on. That's good.
SPEAKER_01Give me a close to all of this because I could just talk for days and I That was good. And I did not have on my bingo card speaking in tongues today.
SPEAKER_00Speaking in tongues. Yeah, once but I need to take the other side of that. So eat either side of that coin, there is a balance to both of them, right? The lack of emotion versus uh, you know, because I've seen people use both in a way that's manip manipulative, and I'm not saying anybody's manipulating anybody, just saying appropriately worshiping God in a way that honors God and and the context of the people.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So um well, those are some real life examples of what what the key of the story is. I think David's posture in the presence of God is the most important thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, don't take away from that and honor that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and God, and God cares about his holiness. Yeah, he absolutely does. That's right. Yeah. Good, man. Great stuff.
SPEAKER_00Be because because oh are we okay? I got 30 more seconds. Yeah. Because the next verse after the story we're gonna read is Michael sitting in the window looking down at Saul at David and going, You disgust me because of the way that you're so so the very stoic person. Yeah, both examples. Both were running this. In the same marriage. That's right. In the same marriage. That's right. So, anyways. Which often happens, funny enough. I love y'all. Thank you for chasing squirrels with me today. Maybe I should maybe I may start drinking Diet Coke.
SPEAKER_01No, we're proud of you.
SPEAKER_00No. I actually have blonde hair, but all the Diet Coke is stained the roots of my no.
SPEAKER_01We're gonna find out. I am not a doctor. Man, hope you guys will be able to join us this week as we continue on and study of the life of David. Love you guys. Thanks for uh being here with us. Love y'all.