Get Undignified

Today on Summit Life with Jiddy Greer. Like David, there are things in this book that honestly, they bother me, they confuse me, and sometimes make me mad. But I've learned to trust God, despite those things, because I figure if God is God and I'm not God, then there's a lot of things about my thinking that are going to have to shift over the years. Welcome to another week of solid biblical teaching here on Summit Life with pastor, author, and theologian, J.D.

Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovich, and I'm grateful to be here with you. We're continuing our brand new teaching series on the life of David, and today pastor J.D. encourages us to honestly evaluate our worship of God. Though different cultures and different personalities can often exhibit differing styles of worship, our intention should always be the same, putting the worthiness of God on display.

And it's important to remember that even though we might not always feel like worshiping, we can and should resolve to do so anyway, out of obedience and love for our great God. So grab your Bible. It is about to get undignified in here and turn to second Samuel chapter six. Second Samuel six has always been one of my favorite Bible stories. Y'all, when I was a teenager, the subtitle heading over this section of my King James version of the Bible was simply David dances naked before the Lord.

What is not intriguing for a seventh grader about that? By the way, have y'all noticed that the author of first and second Samuel seems to have a flare for the macabre and the risque. We've had stories in first and second Samuel, people getting hacked to pieces, stories of David getting trapped in a cave with Saul while Saul, how do you say it, did number two. Stories about Samuel's ghost coming back from the dead and telling Saul that he's going to be beheaded and eaten by vultures. Well, today second Samuel six is no exception.

This is an amazing, amazing story. It's very colorful and it teaches us some really, really important things about worship. Now before I begin, let me just acknowledge worship is a strangely controversial subject in churches. Have you noticed that?

I get more constructive criticism on this subject than any other. Some people come to our church because they love the worship. Others leave our church because they don't like it. Strangely, the question of do I like the worship style is for some people the most decisive factor in where they choose to go to church. It's more important than what the church believes. It's more important than the preaching content.

It's more important than the church's mission or even the community. Now let me just say right from the outset, one of the things that I love, love, love about this church is that you guys come from all kinds of different backgrounds. I'm not sure we have a majority background in this church when it comes to these kind of like denominational thing. We have people that grew up in church context where worship was solemn and reflective. You grew up frequently being told when you were in church, right?

Some of you like that. Others of you grew up in backgrounds where quiet was never a word that you would associate with church. For a lot of my Pentecostal friends, worship wasn't really good unless somebody passed out. In fact, you can tell who the Pentecostals are here because they're the ones out in the lobby stretching before worship starts because they don't want to pull a hammy while they're while they're worshiping. Weirdly, worship style is a big deal even for those who don't consider themselves Christians at all. I know lots of people here who were drawn to Christ through our worship. A friend of mine who became a Christian here last year, she's brand new to the whole church thing, at least churches like this, and she said our worship service each week was like getting a loud hug from the Lord.

Not a great description, a loud hug. God said it should be like that. First Corinthians 14, 25, Paul says that unbelievers ought to come into our worship service, experience the presence of God through us in our midst, fall on their faces and say I can't explain it, but surely God is among you. A lot of people I know point to worship as instrumental in their conversion, no pun intended by the way. On the other hand, I know a lot of non-Christians for whom our worship has been an obstacle. I know of another spiritually curious man who was not a believer, who came here regularly but always timed his visits so he would get here right when the message started after the worship was over. Eventually this guy accepted Christ, but for a while our worship was a real obstacle to him.

I had a Muslim family that was coming with me for a while that during the worship, the wife would get so bothered she had to get up and leave. All that to say that there is a lot in here for us to think about when it relates to worship. So let's dive in. Here's what's going to happen this morning. We're going to walk through the story and that's going to set us up for a couple of really important worship principles we'll get to at the end.

But first we're just going to work our way through this story, okay? Second Samuel 6, let's begin in verse 2. David arose and went to bring up from there the ark of God which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who sits enthroned on the cherubim, the ark of the covenant that hosted the presence of God.

It was basically a gold box. You'll see the cherubim up on top representing the throne of God. Inside of it were three things, a preserved jar of manna representing God's provision. Then there was a copy of the 10 commandments or the 10 commandments that Moses got from God representing God's rule. And then there was this staff that Aaron led the people with that had budded like it was a living tree branch representing God's miraculous power. That was what was inside the ark. On top of it there that flat portion is what they call the mercy seat where once a year a high priest would offer the blood of a sacrifice as an atonement for sin. David goes down to retrieve the ark of the covenant.

You say, well where has it been? Okay, if you recall from our study of first Samuel five, and I know that you do because you're excellent Bible students, you recall that Israel had lost the ark in a battle against the Philistines. They had taken that ark of the covenant into battle with them thinking that it would guarantee them victory like it was a good luck charm when they fought the Philistines even though they weren't really walking with God at the time.

But y'all know of course that God will not be manipulated by anybody and he's not anybody's good luck charm. And so the Israelites lost not only the battle against the Philistines, they lost the ark itself. The Philistines captured it and carried it to the temple of their god Dagon.

The next morning however the city was overrun with mice and all the leaders woke up with tumors and the statue of Dagon had fallen on his face with his hands chopped off. That seemed like an odd coincidence. So just to be on the safe side they took it to a different Philistine city and the exact same thing happened there. So they took it to another city and this happened a few times and eventually they're like we don't want this thing. And so they put it on a new cart pulled by a couple of young cows with a with an I'm sorry gift to God of golden images of the tumors accompanying it which is a really really strange I'm sorry gift if you ask me. I'm not even sure what that looks like I don't want to see it but they put the images of the tumors and the ark of the covenant on this new cart and the young cows who were pulling the new cart miraculously turn in the exact direction of the Jewish tabernacle and they start to walk the ark of the covenant home. When the cows lumbered across the border into Israel a guy named Shemesh recognizes the ark and takes it into his house I mean free ark right right who's not going to take that but then some of the people in his house got curious about the ark and so they looked inside of it and they died instantly. Bottom line Shemesh says this thing's dangerous I don't want it in my house either and he sends for some Israelite priest from the next city over to come and get it and they take it to the house of a guy named Abinadab.

Abinadab puts it in one of the guest rooms in his house where it sits undisturbed for 20 years. Visitors to his house are like hey man what's in that room and he's like I wouldn't go in there if I were you. That was all from first Samuel 5. Please tell me you remember this at least nod your head and pretend like you do okay. Now here we are 20 years later second Samuel 6 and David says the ark of the covenant belongs at the tabernacle which brings us to verse 3 and so they carried the ark of God on a new cart that's an important detail and they brought it out of the house of Abinadab and Uzzah who was the son of Abinadab so in other words the son of the guy that had kept it in his house for 20 years so Uzzah feels pretty familiar with the ark of the covenant was the one driving the new cart verse five and David and all the house of Israel were making merry before the Lord with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and the Hammond b3 organ and the electric guitars and the kazoo and all these other instruments they are having a flat out praise palooza verse six when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon the oxen stumbled and Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God to steady it no he didn't want it to fall on the ground verse seven and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah and God struck him down there because of his error the Hebrew word there for error implies irreverence a casualness an over familiarity and the Lord struck him down because of his irreverence and Uzzah died right there beside the ark of God now watch this next verse and David was angry because the Lord had burst forth against Uzzah y'all one of the things I love about the Bible is how honest it is David was offended by God David was like come on God he was trying to do you a favor listen I want to say this gently but very clearly we are not the first generation in history to be offended by the Bible I say that because people seem to sometimes assume that we are like now we're all enlightened we're all so smart we're all so progressive now we have the moral sense to be offended y'all the Bible has been offending people for centuries even some of its writers like David y'all if the requirement for belief would be that nothing in the Bible offended you I would not be a Christian neither would David like David there are things in this book that honestly they bother me they confuse me and sometimes make me mad but I've learned to trust God despite those things because I figure if God is God and I'm not God then there's a lot of things about my thinking that are going to have to shift over the years look at this next verse verse 9 and David and David was afraid David was afraid of the Lord on that day and he said how can the Ark of the Lord ever come to me it's too dangerous so David was not willing to take the Ark of the Lord into the city of David but David took it aside to the house of Obed Edom the Gittite David in other words left the Ark of God in the home of man who was not even a Hebrew if you are taking notes here's what we're going to see today in this story number one we're going to see the problem of God's presence then we're going to see number two the Ark as God's answer to that problem and then we're going to see number three the only our only logical response to that answer here we go number one the problem of God's presence let's talk for a minute about what actually happened to Uzzah you say I don't get it what was Uzzah supposed to do just watch it tumble onto the ground I mean he's trying to do God a favor and keep the Ark from getting dirty at the very least you would probably say you know the punishment feels a little bit more severe than the crime in fact if I asked you to raise your hands this morning if you think that this punishment is more severe than the crime was I bet 99.8 percent of you would put your hand up and the 0.2 percent of you that didn't would be lying and I get that y'all I really do but here's the thing and this is going to be hard for some of you the whole point of this story maybe the whole point of the Old Testament is that the punishment was not more severe than the crime here is why first God had given very specific instructions in Exodus 25 about how the Ark was to be carried just to avoid a situation like this it had been constructed with little loops on the side so that you would run poles through it and you would carry it that way a little special covering to go over it so that nobody would accidentally touch it the Israelites chose to ignore those biblical instructions and just do it their way in fact did you notice that they were transporting it on a new cart remember I kind of called your attention to that where did they learn that technique from from the Philistines they just decided that the Philistine way is easier y'all listen you don't get to decide the way that you worship God I know that's difficult for a 21st century American to hear because you're like it's my way this is who I am this is what I want to be this is what I prefer you don't get to make that choice God decides those things and you and I have to heed his word thanks for joining us today for summit life with pastor JD Greer we'll be back to today's teaching in a moment but first did you know that each month we offer a featured resource for all of our gospel partners and financial supporters we create them first of all to say thank you for your support but more importantly they're provided to help grow your relationship with God and this month's a perfect example it's an eight-part study through the life of David that expands on the teaching series we've been in here on the program it's designed to take you through key passages in second Samuel asking thought-provoking questions to deepen your faith and your understanding of God's word this makes a perfect resource for your own spiritual growth or to use as a discipleship tool with someone you're spending time with to get your copy give a gift of $35 or more or become a monthly gospel partner by calling us at 866-335-5220 or by giving online at jdgreer.com now let's get back to today's teaching on summit life once again here's pastor JD the second and bigger issue was this Uzzah was totally unaware of his own sinfulness Uzzah saw the ark about to touch the ground and Uzzah thought I should keep the ark from touching the ground because the ground is dirty but Uzzah doesn't realize that his hand is far more filthy than anything on earth as the late R.C. Sproul said the dirt had never rebelled against the authority of God only sinful man had done that it wasn't the dirt on the ground that would defile the ark it was the touch of man that would you see our sin makes us infinitely more offensive to the holiness of God than the filthiest filth on the planet you say well I mean I'm not that sinful I know I'm not perfect of course but but compared to other people I'm a pretty good person yeah but see that's because you're not thinking about how holy God is God is of such purity that imperfection is more revolting to him than than than any kind of bacteria is do you imagine you were drinking for example a glass of milk and I told you as you were on your second gulp that a few droplets of some lethal virus or maybe just urine a few drops of urine are mixed into it you don't go well at least it's 99 pure no at that point the whole thing for you is defiled and you want to vomit multiply that emotion times a billion and maybe you're getting close to God's revulsion that our sin the prophet haggai said that God was of such pure eyes that he could not even behold evil or look upon wickedness coming into God's presence with sin on you would be like a a piece of tissue paper trying to land on the surface of the sun sometimes like Uzzah we seem blissfully unaware of this you can hear that we sing these glib little songs like Lord I want to see your face y'all realize that if God suddenly answered that prayer and ripped the roof off this place and looked down on us a bunch of us might die but see that brings up a question doesn't it Uzzah touched the ark and he died here's a question how many of you are holding the bible right now should be all of you by the way how many of you are holding the bible you're touching the word of God why are you still alive why am I still alive that's a great question and that's number two the ark is God's answer if the ark presents us with the problem of God's presence it also gives us God's answer look at verse 11 and so the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom to get tight three months I just left it there three months because they were afraid of it now watch this the Lord though blessed Obed-Edom and all of his household and it was told King David the Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him because of the ark of God it was like God was sending a message to David that his intention was to bless David's faith is rekindled and so David sends for the ark David goes down and brings the ark of God up from the house of Obed-Edom to the city of David with rejoicing he brought it to the capital verse 13 and when those watch this who bore the ark those who bore the ark of the Lord you see that those who bore means the ark is now being carried by people just like Exodus commanded when Uzzah was carrying it he was doing it in the Philistine way just ignoring God's instructions now they're doing it God's way verse 13 and when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six steps he David sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal every six steps six is the number of man they made a sacrifice God had provided a way for his people to be in his presence with safety and that was through sacrifice like I said the most important feature of the ark was a mercy seat on the top where the high priest once a year would sprinkle the blood of a sacrifice you know in our sanitized world we tend to think of animal sacrifices like this as traditional and quaint y'all they are not I have seen one I've been live in person for one they are in a word horrible they are bloody they are difficult to watch it is supposed to be revolting to you you are not supposed to get used to it because see that lamb is dying for their sin a death like Uzzah's is being reenacted at each sacrifice now see friend that's the gospel because Jesus one day would come like one of these lambs it wouldn't take every six steps he would do it one time once for all and he would die the death of Uzzah once for all in our place he was struck down for our irreverence he was struck down for our filthiness in the presence of God on the cross all the wrath of God directed at our sin was absorbed into his body Tony Evans tells the story true story of a man who was out hiking with his wife one afternoon in the middle of an open field when they got caught in a terrible hell storm now y'all this was a massive hell storm one of those rare storms where the hell is as large as baseballs the man realized that if he didn't do something quickly his wife was going to get severely hurt so he draped himself over his wife covering her with his own body and his jacket so that the hell stones would hit him instead of her he thought the hell storm would only last for a few seconds the way they typically do but the hell stone seemed to just get bigger and bigger and come down harder and harder after a couple of minutes his ears were bleeding along with several spots in his head his face was bruised his arms had bruises on them he tried to get to cover but he was so weakened by the onslaught that he finally just collapsed over his wife only able to shield her from the danger as she lay as she lay underneath him after a few minutes the storm finally seized for the hell stones had taken their toll now they both survived but he was left with scars from head to foot where the balls the hell stones had battered away to him scars that remain to this day he carries around with him visible reminders of the day that he saved his wife on the local newscast later the man's wife was asked how she felt about their experience and all she said was she said well every time i see the scars i love him more every time i see the scars i love him more did y'all know that according to the book of revelation there will only be one person in heaven with scars all the scars of your pain will be taken away you and i will have perfected bodies and jesus will have wiped away every tear but jesus will permanently have holes in his hands and his feet and one on his side those scars will be our eternal reminder that the only reason we're there is because he stood between the wrath of god and the judgment headed our way he covered us with his love and kept the hellstones of judgment from hitting us he died the death of usa in my place and when we see the scars it'll make us love him more and see that leads me to number three our only logical response verse 14 and david danced before the lord with all of his might what else do you do before a god who saved your life like that who was struck down in your place david was wearing a linen ephod some translations say naked there that's where we get the idea from but hebrew scholars tell us that the phrase really means david stripped down to his underwear which for a jewish man consisted of a linen ephod that they wore under their robes it's the hebrew version of adult underoos all right i'm actually wearing one right now it's quite comfortable i'm just kidding okay that's not true verse 15 so david and all the house of israel brought up the ark of the lord was shouting and with the sound of the horn watch this verse 16 but michael the daughter of saul looked out the window and saw king david leaping and dancing before the lord and she despised him in her heart when david had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings he blessed the people in the name of the lord of hosts and he distributed among all the peoples the whole multitude of israel both men and women a cake of bread a portion of meat and a cake of raisins to each one then all the people departed each to his own house we're going to come back to that but first let me finish the story verse 20 and david returned to bless his household but michael the daughter of saul came out to meet david and said oh how the king of israel honored himself today just dripping with sarcasm uncovering himself the day before the eyes of his servants and his female servants as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself in other words david you look like a fool you didn't look like a king your behavior doesn't be fit a king you're acting more like somebody from the peasant class we're royal that's not how we're supposed to act verse 21 david said to michael no it was before the lord who chose me above your father and above all his house to appoint me as a prince over israel the people of the lord and i will make mary before the lord indeed i will make myself even more contemptible some translations say undignified there i will make myself even more undignified than this and i will be abased in your eyes but by those female servants of whom you have spoken by them they'll actually hold me in honor for what i'm doing let me translate all that for you for good david said michael god chose me when i was nothing and now that i'm something i'm going to show everybody else that it's not because of something special about me it's because of something special that god has done for me powerful teaching about true worship here on summit life with jd greer pastor jd we're working through your sermon series in the life of david which took you about half a year to preach since we're camped here for a while can you again give us the big picture well you say that like it just seemed like it went on and on forever is that what i pick up i remember you know david represents and this is what's so amazing about it is he represents the best of israel and he also represents the heartbreak of israel in fact if you look at one thing in the old testament that made people ask like there has to be more because here's david the best of the best and even he ends up committing adultery and his best friend's wife and then you know having him killed and we need something more and it kind of sets you up who is this king that is greater than david so you know it's yes we're going to take some time to work our way through this uh slowly because literally every page there's just such gospel richness on it and as always molly we want to give you a resource that will help you go deeper in this series um and i could not imagine anything in the old testament exception maybe of the book of genesis that you'd want to go deeper in uh than the books of first and second samuel so we want to provide that in this and so i would encourage you i mean i know that a lot of our listeners reach out for these resources regularly this is definitely one you want to pay attention to so just go to go to jdguere.com and we'll get you started thanks jd to get your copy give a gift of 35 or more to this ministry by calling us at 866-335-5220 that's 866-335-5220 or you can always give online at jdguere.com i'm molly vidovich thanks for joining us today and stay a little undignified until we finish up tomorrow we'll see you tuesday on summit life with jd greer today's program was produced and sponsored by jd greer ministries