Fruit That Remains | Don't Clap. Carry | 2 Samuel 6:1-9 | Lonnell Williams

My name is Lon L. Dawson Williams, and I'm the executive pastor here at 2819 Church. And just so grateful for the opportunity to be able to speak on this morning through the mighty word of proclamation really quickly. Let's just shout out all that you other main communicators in this room. Elder Milton and elder Eric, they're consistency to the gospel. I'm telling you right now, it is not easy to do this. We've got nine to five responsibilities, children, family. And then to stay up and study all week to prepare for these opportunities. It's very taxing on the line and on the body, so I'm just grateful for you. And while we are still in the moment of celebration, I want us to stand and honor the lead shepherd of this house pastor, Philip Anthony Mitchell. >> [APPLAUSE] >> All right, whose absence, >> [APPLAUSE] >> Hey, man. >> [APPLAUSE] >> He and I had a meeting on Friday, he was like, well, everything good, yeah, they straight. I said, hey, listen, people are coming, loving God, serving, giving, we're good, man. Enjoy this moment of rest. And when you come back, which is very soon, you're ready to go. We have such a strong and amazing last two quarters of this year. I do not want to let the cat out the bag, but I am just so excited about the world change that we are about to engage in. And some of the great things that we have coming down the pipeline, so praise God. And to all of our digital disciples online, I want to just acknowledge you. We see you, we love you. This is your digital home. You may not be physically in the room, but you are in our hearts. I want to celebrate and shout you out to all the people from around the world who are engaging in the chat. Some of you have your own home churches, and still call yourself digital disciples at 2819.

And so for that, we welcome you. And for those who do not have a church home, or who call this place, your church home, we welcome and we love you. And to all of those who are watching this gathering from the Pando app, which is the app that is being used in prisons all across the United States. I want you to know that we love you, and thank you for being a part of this. We see you in the thousands of inmates that have actually given their life to Christ because of this amazing application. And so we just want to let you know, you may be behind a prison cell, but whom the sun sets free, is free indeed. And so I just want to let you know that we love you, and we thank you. Listen, I'm going to jump into the proclamation shortly as we move into the next part of our series, series, bearing more fruit, right? The fruit that remains in this house. But before we do, I just want to make a brief, brief, brief announcement, and then we'll jump right into the proclamation. You know, family, we recognize that we are dealing with some AC challenges, air conditioning challenges. Yes, I saw the Netflix posts. Let's not don't share it to me anymore. I've seen it, all right? Yes, we acknowledge it is hot. We are not oblivious to it, trust me. And the situation at times is outside of our control. But we are actively, and when I say actively, I mean daily, sometimes multiple times a day, speaking and working with the landlord to try to mitigate this situation and resolve it. But I am happy to say that by next Sunday, Oobah, the wind, the ruach, will flow through here, and the situation will be solved in Jesus' name. Holy Spirit, blow.

That's all I got to say. That's it. Just blow in this room, because I'm already hot. All right, let's get into the proclamation. I want you to turn, if you can, with your Bibles to the book of 2 Samuel, book of 2 Samuel, we are actually going to go to the sixth verse. I want to say this because I heard this earlier today. If you ever get an opportunity to go to the middle of your Bible, you'll see the chapter of Psalm. Don't call it Psalms. Psalm. Revelation, not revelations. John had many dreams, but he had one revelation. All right, sorry, that's the only Bible lesson I have for you all the day. All right, let's go to it. Second Samuel, chapter 6. Listen, we're going to walk through verses 1 through 15 to some degree, but for the purposes of right now, I'm only going to read 3 verses, verse 5, verse 6 and verse 7. And then we'll just jump right in. And I will say that the one o'clock is actually one of my favorite gatherings. I just had to throw that in there. Like, I love y'all. Y'all be partying. They got my spits back there. Like, it's just-- this is where the young folks come. You know what I'm saying? Let's read, and the Bible says, "And David and all of the house of Israel "were celebrating before the Lord,

"songs and leers and hearts and tambourines "and cassinets and symbols. "And when they came to the threshing floor of Nikon, "Oza put out his hand to the ark of God and to cold of it, "for the oxen had stumbled. "And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Oza. "And God struck him down there because of his error. "And he died there beside the ark of God. "If I could append a title to this message "for this preachment, I would call it, "don't clap, carry him, don't clap, carry him." I'm so proud to say, and I say it whenever I can, that I am from the west side of Compton, California. Thank you, shout out to the west. And just proud to be from a native, and when I grew up, I grew up in a household with my little sister, and my dad and my mom. My dad's name is Craig Williams, Craig Williams. My dad has a very strong personality, very strong personality, but he was very strict about certain rules, and one of those rules were when you come into the house. So you leave a room, make sure that the room is always clean. Make sure that you do your chores, take out the trash, clean up the kitchen. But one of the things he always told me and my little sister were, "Whenever you leave a room, "make sure you turn off the lights." And me, I rarely turned the lights off. Rarely turned the lights off.

I was just going to the house, and I would get what I had to get. I'd leave the lights on, and then I'd go about my day, and the lights would be on for hours, and my dad would come in, and he'd say, "Lonil, "I thought I'd turn these lights off." And I was like, "Oh yeah, I forgot my bag." And he would grab me, and he'd say, "Lonil, "money does not grow on trees." Now, that is absolutely incorrect, but that's another story for another time. So, he would say, "The money doesn't grow on trees." And I'd be like, "Okay, my bad, you know, "we'll just turn the light off, it's not that serious." And it wasn't serious until I got about three years older. And then I had my own children, and somehow, some way, the mantle of God, the anointing of leaving lights on, just fell from heaven, from my beard down to my kids, 'cause they don't care. I mean, they just walk in the house, every light is on, shoes are kicked off, microwave is open, refrigerator is open, air conditioning is on, at 22. I don't know how an air conditioning can go to 22. It should be at 68, but my kids, they love to do it. And I find myself walking through the house this morning at 4 a.m., I walked into my daughter's bedroom and I saw the closet light on.

I said, "How is the closet light on in the middle of the night? "It don't make no sense to me." And I was sitting there, and I'm talking to my kids, and I'm like, "I gotta turn these lights off." You know what I'm saying? I understand, you don't get it, but you gotta turn these lights off. You know, you know, at the end of the day, money does not grow on trees. And my son said, "Well, you know, Daddy, "actually, I said, wait, you don't get out here. "Don't sit down somewhere." I said what I said. And see, this is the thing I realized as I reflected on that moment, especially the moment as a child, see, it's one thing when you understand the value of something, because you have to pay for it. I'm already preaching. See, see, see, if you ain't gotta pay for it, you don't know what it costs. So you have the liberty and the ability to just turn on something and just keep moving. But see, when you have to work for something and then you have to pay for that thing, you treat that thing with a little bit more sensitivity and respect. See, it's one thing to get it free. It's another thing when it costs you something.

It's like a fire, right? It's like if we were in the mountains and I show up late, and you spend hours and hours and hours collecting wood and trying to start the fire on your own, and you've got to imagine, you've got the embers, and you're blowing into the wind to try to get the fire up, and I show up out of nowhere, and I am experiencing the joy of the heat of the fire. I'm making s'mores with the fire. I'm sitting by the camp. I am enjoying myself in that moment. You see, the fire was already burning before I got there. See, I felt the warmth. I enjoy the experience, see? And when you enjoy the fire, but never gather the wood, you can start treating warmth like it's automatic. Okay? That my brothers and sisters is how the culture and churches like ours die. See, I'm responsible for Tay to preach about carrying somebody attacks it. Sometimes it dies because somebody stops carrying it. And when a culture dies slowly, the people inside of it are usually the last ones to notice. And before we take a step further, I need to define what I mean when I say culture because I'm going to use that word quite often throughout the entire sermon. So I don't want you to feel the gap with your own definition, culture, as Elder Ayard preached last week. He preached and he said that it is a behavior and characteristics of a group of people. It is the way that this

house does what it does. See, you can have good culture, you can have bad culture, you can have toxic culture. So culture is not automatically holy. See, our culture here at 2819 is how this church handles what it values the most. And what we value above all other things is him. See, Daniel Coyle in his book called The Culture Code, and I encourage you to read it. He says this. He says that culture is not something that you are. It is something that you do. So culture is not just what we say we value. Culture is what we are willing to carry. In this church, I don't want you to leave these values to guesswork. I don't want you to assume or think that you know what they are. So I'm actually going to give you the values of our church. I'm going to give them to you and you can write them down. They are very simple. You can actually find them on our website right now 2819church.org. It is under our beliefs and they are teaching prayer, worship, community, generosity, service, honor, and excellence. These are the values of this church. This is the culture of this house. Now, show our hands how many people knew those? Amen. That's all that matters. Now watch this. I'm not testing you to condemn you. I'm testing you to challenge you. To carry the culture and not just clap about it. See, carrying culture is living out the values that this church stands on in your Christian walk daily. Not just in this room, but every day. For example, if you pray more on Sunday than you do Monday through Saturday, we've already got a problem. Right? Because our culture is a culture of prayer. Right? So last week, Elder Eric did a phenomenal job communicating to us about protecting the culture. He showed us about the wolves and the bears and the lions and David who was charged to protect the flock. That word was correct. That gate got guarded. But this morning, I want to talk to you about another danger, not the danger outside of the house. It is the danger that could grow inside of this church. Because the attack from a wolf is not the only way that a culture dies. Sometimes, culture dies in the hands of people who enjoy their fruit but refuse the weight. Sometimes, culture can die in the hands of people who are willing to see other people struggle and not give them help. So here is the question I want to sit on your lap today. How does a church lose the weight of God and not realize that it is gone? It keeps the language of reference by practicing the habit of familiarity. This narrative that we're going to walk through today, it is not just a history lesson. It is not just some ethereal thought or assumption. It is instructions

because our culture at this church is built on the word, the word of God. We carry the culture by carrying the word of God and God. That's going to show us how to carry what he is given to this house. He's going to do it through four words. Let's go to chapter 6. I'm going to give you my first point for those who take notes. And it is carry it God's way, even when your way works. Let's look at this next. David historically has just been anointed king. He's beaten the Philistines and saw is no longer in charge. And so he now takes and decides to move the Ark of the Covenant from one city into the main city. And he is so excited and he's got all these people around him and he says, let us go and take the Ark of the Covenant and make it right there in the center of the nation. So look at verse 1, it says, "And David again brought together all of the able young men of Israel." 30,000. All right. So in this room, we can fit about 2,000 combined, right? So if that's the case, imagine 15 times the amount of people in this room. I mean, picture that, 30,000 people, now watch this. And David arose and went with all the people who were with him, right, from Bela Judah, to bring up from there the Ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord, a host who sits enthroned on the cherubim. Now watch this, I'm going to ask them to put the picture on the screen. They actually do not know where the Ark of the Covenant currently is. We do not know. Some assume that it's actually in Ethiopia, but we have no idea. So we only can depict what we think it looks like based on what Scripture says, okay? So this is a depiction of the Ark of the Covenant, all right?

So I want you to just pay attention to the structure in and of itself, right? So you have a box. And inside of there are three things, right? So number one, it is Aaron's Rod, right? Number two, it is the chalice or a cup full of manna, all right? And number three, it is the two stone tablets that they believe were the Ten Commandments, all right? So all three are inside. You see the two rings and the poles, and then you see the cherubim, those are two angels, their faces are covered, and they're creating what the Bible calls the mercy seat, right? That's where they say Jesus is sitting on the mercy seat, all right? So this is the Ark of the Covenant as we interpreted to be so. It is not church decorations. It is not furniture. It is not an ottoman. It is not just something that you move around as you see fit. This was a holy piece. This was the place where God had chosen to make his presence known amongst his people. See every other nation, they had idols. Every other nation had symbols and emblems and all these wonderful things and they had buildings and they had noise and they had all this stuff, but nobody had what Israel had. The presence of God. Now watch how they move the presence. Verse number three says, "And they carried the Ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab." I want you to remember that ever coming back to that, which was on a hill. And that, my brothers and sisters, is the problem. Not that they wanted something wrong. They wanted to do the right thing. They wanted the presence of God in the center of the city, but they put it on a new cart.

And the cart is very new. I imagine with my mind that it looked new. It looked well prepared, probably decorated. It was probably excellent. It was probably clean and probably had jewels on it. I mean, it was carrying the Ark of the Covenant, but new does not always mean obedient. New carts can still break old commandments. God never told them to put it on a new cart. God gave them poles. Put the picture back up. God gave them shoulders. God gave them priests. God gave them a way to carry what was holy. You see the poles. It was never meant to be touched. It was meant to be carried. So where did the cart come from? See, you have to go back to first Samuel chapter 6 where the Philistines had captured the Ark and at that moment it was wreaking havoc in their cities. And so they sent it back on a new cart. But the Philistines did not know the law of God. They did know about the Levites, but they did not know about the poles and the purposes of the shoulders and the covenant order and the liturgy that was associated with the Ark of the Covenant, but Israel knew better. At that time, they only had a couple of books, not even all the books, they only had a little bit of the law.

And so at that time, they would just consistently read the very same text over and over and over. And so the law was ingrained in their heart. They had the word. So when the Philistines used a cart, it was ignorance. The cart is what happens when holy things become familiar enough to handle it without fear. And here is the crazy part. It actually worked. I mean, look at the text. It said that it rolled out of a being a dad's house. It rolled down the wheel, down the hill, and the people kept singing and celebrating and shouting and dancing because nobody died yet. And the people started calling it progress because the cart was still moving. But do not call it approval just because God hasn't interrupted it yet. See, some of us will say, if it works long enough, we just start calling it favor. I just got the favor of the Lord when you don't even realize that fruit is not always approval. A crowd is not always confirmation. The cart worked, but they were still wrong. See, a rolling cart can still be rejected by God. Let me make it plain. Say, some of you have watched somebody else's child. I imagine a niece, a nephew, a friend, they've come over to your house.

And when you keep your own child, you can feed them whatever you want. You can let them do whatever they want. They want to look at the iPad, they can look at it. You can take the off the screen. You can look at, you know, you got fructose. You know, you can get your fruit. Snacks going, your pop tarts going. You know, you can get lemonade as much as you want. It doesn't bother you, but when you are watching somebody else's child, they may have a different set of instructions. They may say no fructose corn syrup, no screen time whatsoever. My baby got to be a bed by 2 p.m., right? No red dye, no yellow dye, no soy, no peanuts, no water, no milk, all right? Just sleep in Jesus. Now watch this, you might think that it's extra. You might do differently at your house, but that child is not yours. So you honor the instructions of the parents that the child belongs to. Church, this culture is not our child. It belongs to God, and he left instructions. This culture is not ours to improve or to do what we want with it. It is his to own an ours to carry. And I know what you're thinking. I can hear it in your mind right now, I hear you.

Well, you know, I'm trying to understand why 2819 don't have a dance ministry. Where's the men's ministry? Where's the women's ministry? Where's the trustee board? Where's the deacon's ministry? I'm trying to get the flags going. I'm trying to get the mimes going. You know what I'm saying? For Christ alone. You know what I'm saying? Like, you want all of that? Why my email's not getting answered. I need this, and I want that. You know, I really do think we need a balloon ministry. I just feel it in my spirit that the Lord, the Helium that's gonna lift us up. Listen, I'm telling you, we get it. And that is okay, we're not demonizing those ministries. We're not demonizing those opportunities. There's nothing wrong with churches that do those things, but at this house, we don't do that. Prayer, presence, and proclamation. That's it. Prayer, presence, and proclamation. There's nothing wrong with those things, but this house is different.

So let me press into your week just a little bit. I wanna get into your business just for a second because obedience is not a concept. Where have you replaced obedience with strategy? Where have we edited God's instructions to fit our preferences and then called it wisdom? Where are we doing what works instead of what he said? Because deep down we trust speed more than we trust surrender. See, some of us are praying over our cart right now. We are asking God to bless a method that he'd never authorized. A relationship he never sanctioned. A shortcut he never signed. And we are frustrated that heaven is quiet, but can I tell you that heaven is not quiet. Heaven has already spoken and we are just asking for a second opinion. See, obedience means that when God's way and my way disagree, my way always loses. Even when my way is newer and nicer and cleaner and it draws more clouds, but obedience is better than sacrifice. (congregation applauding) Look at verse number five. It says this and David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord with songs and leers and harps and tambourines and castanets and symbols. This was a straight up party. I mean, they were having a praise party.

I mean, they was dancing and shouting and sincere and just celebrating the presence of the Lord and the whole time it was on the wrong cart. Yeah, this is the thing. We can shout and still be in disobedience. Yep, you can dance and sweat your weave out and still be in disorder. Bus down to look at a hot mess. I'm telling you. See, you can be moving fast, gathering people, making noise and still be carrying holy things the wrong way. And some churches call it revival when God calls it foolishness. (congregation applauding) So the question is not do you love this culture 'cause everybody out there love the ark. Amen. The question is not just what we are carrying. The question is what we are carrying it on because the right thing on the wrong system is still being handled wrong. And the road, my brothers and sisters, is about to get a lot more rough. Point number two for the note takers is this, take time to understand what you carry. Look at verse, the next verse, verse number six. And when they came to the threshing floor of Nikon, Azah put out his hand to the ark and God and took hold of it for the oxen stumbled. This is so powerful, okay?

The oxen stumbles on the threshing floor. What is the threshing floor? All right, the threshing floor is where, if you've ever seen wheat, they collect the wheat and what they would do is they bundle it and they would smash it on the ground, like they would smash it on the ground so that the two items, and I'll talk about this in a second, the wheat of the wheat, it's the chaff and the grain, they separate, all right, they separate just through the pressure of hitting it on the ground, right, through that force. And so what happens is after that, they would also step on it. And so the ground would be extremely uneven, extremely uneven, right? So here we are, the ox stumbles, the cart shakes, the ark tips, and Azah reaches forward, okay? Verse number seven, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Azah. And God struck him down there because of his error. And he died there beside the ark of God, man. Music stops, tambourine goes silent. 30,000 people, all sitting there quietly. David turns around and sees a body in the dirt next to the ark of God. And I know what you're thinking because I thought the same thing when I read it,

like, man, my sucks, God, why are you gonna kill this man? He saw the ark of the cover, it was tipping, he put his hand out, he was trying to make sure that the holy thing doesn't hit the ground. He wants to protect this, he wants to make sure that it is covered and taking care of. So why would you do that? But see, you over read, like I over read it the first time because the answer is actually in verse number three. in the text. So slow down when you read his word because the answer is always there. Look at verse number three. "And they carried the Ark of God, a new card, and brought it out of the house, out of the house, out of the house, out of the house of Abinadah," which was on the hill. "and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadah, were driving the new card. Uzzah was the son of Abinadah, and whose house did the Ark of the Covenant come out of Abinadah's house." See, if you look in the history in 1 Samuel 7, 2, you'll read that the Ark of the Covenant was in Abinadah's house for 20 years. See, the Ark was in the same house that Uzzah grew up in. So Uzzah did not meet the Ark that morning. He grew up around it. He walked past it. He ate meals knowing that it was in the other room. Twenty years of proximity, but proximity did not produce reference. And that is the danger. The danger is not that Uzzah had never seen the Ark, the danger is that he had seen it so much that he stopped trembling about it. Jesus, because familiarity can put you in the house with holy things and still leave you casual. So you can grow up around the language and you can know the songs and you can know when the shout and know when the dance grew up around the presence and still not know how to carry what God entrusted to this house. When I was in college, my roommate, his name is Shenaidu, shout out Nadu. And we were in school, our dormitory called A.I. It was actually about 400 feet from where our classes took place. 400 feet from our class took place. And so every morning, I would wake up, I put on my clothes, I'd get on my razor scooters, the silver-rated scooter, the one I bet you my ankles are messed up to this day because of that scooter. But I would get on my scooter and I would go down the road and I would go to my classes. But every time I would wake up, for some reason, Nadu was always asleep. Eight o'clock in the morning,

Nadu's asleep. 11 o'clock in the afternoon, at night, Nadu's up writing raps. Two o'clock in the afternoon, Nadu's asleep. And I'm like, "Yo, Nadu, how in the world are you going to graduate, bruh? If you're always asleep when it comes to school." And I was always concerned. Now, he graduated. He's a successful young man doing a lot of amazing things all around the world. But my concern was that, Nadu, we are 400 feet from the classroom. And yet, I don't know if you're going to graduate because being near something is not the same as being formed by it. See, God had already spoken to them about the ark. See, in Numbers chapter 4, it says that they must not touch the holy things lest they die. And God did not just give them this rule. He built it literally on the ark. The pulse was meant to be carried on the shoulders so that they would not touch it. Reference was already engineered in the system. See, even if you go to Numbers chapter 7, and you can get all this when you go home, says Moses gave the cart to the Levites, but he gave no carts to the sons of Coaff because the holy things had to be carried on the shoulders. So these instructions existed. Uzzah heard them his entire life. So we don't have to speculate about Uzzah's heart to see the problem. The issue is not that he knew privately. The issue is what he practiced publicly. And that's the word for everybody in the house that has inherited something holy. God does not have to expose every assumption in our hearts before he holds us accountable for our handling of it. You'll get it when you get home because culture is not proven in what we call value. Culture is proven by what we keep practicing. they had the language, they had the celebration, but somewhere along the way they lost the weight. And when the weight is gone, holy things start looking manageable. They start looking like cargo. And this is the second way that we are called to carry culture. It's called understanding. You cannot carry what you've never took the time to understand. You can be near something for 20 years

and never learn the weight of it. You can be in the house and be oblivious to it. Familiararity feels like knowledge, but it is not. Some of us know what that feels like. You got people right now around you for years and still don't know the real you. They know your face, they know your birthday, they know your mama name, they know where you live, they know your job, but they do not know you. The real you. If I can take a pen out of the prophet, T.I. tip himself, he said, "You might see me in the streets." Don't, don't you do say it, don't you say it. Thank you, tip. When you're holler in the street, remember, you don't know me, thank you. Amen. Familiarity is just repetition without revelation. So let me ask this church, both online and in the room a few questions as you think about it, have you ever asked why this church does what it does? Why do we teach the words verse by verse instead of only picking the parts that make us feel good? Why do we pray before any and everything that we do, right? Why do we worship and give room for a to breathe and not feel like it has to be locked into a certain amount of time, right? Why is community not optional and honor is not negotiable?

Teaching, prayer, worship, community, generosity, excellence, service and honor. Those eight values are not decorations, they are poles. They are how this house carries culture and the presence without dropping it. And some of us have been in the house for years and never asked why. We know the rhythms, we know where to stand and where to clap and where to smile and where to praise, but we don't ask the questions. And to all of my TikTok testimony fact checkers and my thread, theologians that are out there, I want to give this to you and those of you who are in the room who just wanted to view and say 10 out of 10, I'll try again. I want you to hear me right now. It is easy to critique a culture from a distance when you have never submitted yourself to the weight. Some people call it strange because they've never stayed long enough to learn why it's sacred. But do not let people who have never grabbed a pole become experts on how the arc should move. They can critique in seconds what faithful people have had to carry for years. Take the time, ask the questions, study the patterns because in unexamined culture is a culture you will mishandle the first time it shakes. See, when I was coming up, we had our first daughter Ivy and I told my wife, I am not a diaper changing kind of guy.

I was like, mm-mm, I don't do that, that's not, I don't do that. She was like, okay, no problem, here you go. And then she walked away. I had to very quickly get over the nauseating feeling for the first time of changing a diaper. But after six months, I became an expert at it. I could change the diaper and text message in two different hands, right? Like I had the ability, right? Now watch this, Ivy did not change, but my sensitivity did. And the funny thing is this because some of us have been around the present so long that what we used to stop us does not stop us anymore. The glory did not get lighter, our senses got dull. Let me ask you this, have you ever driven home? I had a million things in your mind. You're like, man, I got to email this person. I want to text that person back. Oh, I got to pick up some groceries. Oh, the kid's got soccer practice. And then you pull into your driveway. You're like, what else did I get here? Crazy thing is, you stopped at every light. you were just on top of model driver, but you were not there. See your body completed a journey that your mind was absent from. And some of us have worshiped just like that.

Some of us have commented in the comment section just like that, served, just like that, led, just like that, hands moving heart absent. (audience applauds) The God is not just after hands, they know the motion, he is after hearts, that understand the weight. And I cannot just look at you and point to you and say this is what's going on with you, I have to be introspective with myself, I have to ask myself the question, right? Am I preaching this out of my own? Has there ever been a season when I was not carrying the weight but watching other people carry? And I know what it's like to stand up and preach from a platform and not pray about it. I'm being real with you. I know what it's like to preach and tear a house down and know that it had nothing to do with God and all was about talent. I know what it's like to be in the room with preachers who drink Hennessy before they preach just so they can get the feel. I know what it's like to be in rooms when the preacher comes down from the platform and says I killed it, I slayed them. Where it becomes a game of support and not a game of reality and spirituality. I know what it's like to be in a room where preachers come down after doing the work of God

and look me in my face. And I'm talking about a preacher in Atlanta, look me in my face and say, I can't wait 'til that girl come back to my hotel room. Married! ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ We're creative, put that on social media. I'm gonna see that one this week. (laughing) I'm telling you, I know what it's like to see other people carry and say I'm too good for that. I had to ask myself, when was the last time I sat under the weight of what God has given this house? Instead of just moving around through it. And here is why the threshing floor mattered. I told you about the threshing floor. Then let me show you what it looks like. See the threshing floor, if you could put it on the screen, the threshing floor is where the wheat gets separated. So you've got the chaff, which is the image that we see all the time. So that's the chaff, that's the grain. So there, when you hit it on the ground, it separates 'cause the wheat is heavier. It has weight, the chaff just looks attached until the wind blows, right? So I don't want you to miss this. The arc stumbles, but it stumbles at the place of separation. The stumble did not create the problem.

It exposed it, right? The bump did not make them careless. It revealed that they were already carrying it the wrong way. And when the moment got urgent, other did not have an understanding to fall back on. He only had instinct, an instinct without understanding, grab what God said, don't touch. You can take it off the screen. And this is what happens when we come to church on autopilot, when the shaking comes and it will come. We don't rise to our intentions. We fall to our own understanding. And Azah was never closer to the arc than the moment it killed him, because proximity does not automatically equal purity. Now let's get back to the road. I want you to look here at verse number eight. It says, and then David was angry because the Lord's wrath had broken out against Azah. And to this day, the place is called Perez Azah. Now his first emotion was not, Lord, search me. I am sorry, I am wrong. I had made a mistake. His first emotion was anger. He was mad. How could you? And some of us know that feeling. You remember the first time God's holiness

interrupted our desires? We didn't bow, sometimes we got attitudes. We wanted a God who had blessed the parade and not stop it. But then the anger for David cools into fear. And then David asked the right question. Look at verse number nine. He was afraid of the Lord that day and said, how can the arc of the Lord ever come to me? Watch what happens there. He stopped looking at the crowd, and he looked at himself. That's called introspection. That is a man with enough humility to start prosecuting the room and start examining his own hands, because you cannot repent for what you keep blaming on somebody else. And then David does something that takes more humility than dancing. He stops 30,000 people, and he holds the whole thing. See, sometimes humility is a stopped parade. See, pride would have kept the party going. Pride would have buried Azar very quickly, killed the oxen, attached to the new one, and kept rolling, because pride would rather arrive wrong than stop and be embarrassed. And see, and some of us are still marching, because we're too proud to admit that God is correcting the moment. We would rather keep clapping than confess we mishandled something holy. We would rather protect the appearance of momentum than pause long enough to recover the reverence. But mercy stopped the parade. Blessed is the leader who can say we're not moving another step until we find out what God said. Blessed is the church that would rather be delayed

and obedience to celebrate and error-blessed are the people who can survive the awkward pause, the confused faces, the questions on why we don't do that, and why we don't say that, and why doesn't that happen every month from the crowd and still say we love his presence too much to carry it our own way. Because a humble pause can save what pride would have destroyed. And that was on the end of David's worship. It's amazing to see it was the beginning of his correction. He was trying to recover the reverence. He was not rejecting the desires to bring the art home. He was correcting the way they were had to carry it. See, don't let applause talk you out of correction. Don't let momentum make you allergic to examination. Don't let the sounds of the parade and the people and the celebrations and the paths on the back. And all that was amazing and the shares on Instagram and on TikTok and all the stuff on Facebook who celebrates and praises you, convince you that God is pleased with the direction of your parade. Because momentum is not always proof of obedience. Sometimes it is just pride with a soundtrack. A proud man keeps moving so nobody knows he's wrong. But a humble man stops because God already knows. The mercy of God is this. He will stop what is moving wrong because he still loves what he called. He will interrupt the parade before the parade becomes a funeral. So if God has stopped you, do not despise the stop. If God is slowing down your cart, do not curse the delay.

If God has interrupted your movement, maybe it is not punishment. Maybe it is his mercy because the delay is not defeat when obedience is being restored. Three months. The text says that they placed the cart in Obed Edom's house for three months. And the Bible says during those three months, Obed Edom and his house was blessed. Now what's interesting about this? If you understand the history of Obed Edom, the individual he was from the tribe, the Philistines, specifically the same portion of the tribe that Goliath was from. That's interesting. God allowed David's enemies and that lineage to be blessed because he mishandled the moment. You mad because they went in. God's like, but I couldn't even trust you with the little that I gave you. I told you how to handle the holy things. And you chose to do it, as Usher said, my way. So they corrected it. Not my feeling, not my innovation, not be creativity, not some strategy. David didn't call a consultant. He didn't call a board meeting. He didn't have all these people give their opinion. The Levites carried the ark on their shoulders with the poles, as Moses had commanded them. See, they didn't improve it.

They killed the cart. They consecrated themselves. And then they got underneath the weight of it. See, one thing about this church that I love is that we are not too proud to get off a horse that is taking us in the wrong direction. We're not gonna keep riding somewhere because it looks great or because there's familiarity or because there's popularity or people are talking about in how amazing it is. We're not going to keep moving in a direction just because people are watching. We refuse to stay committed to a method that God is no longer breathing on because we are afraid of looking wrong. See, some people will dismount because they fear embarrassment more than they fear God. See, they would rather die the wrong, die with them, ride with the wrong thing, with confidence than step down in humility and say this is not leading us into obedience. But at this house, we worship God. We would rather lose the appearance of progress than lose the weight of His presence. And the ark was taken out by Obed Divim's house and every six steps, they sacrificed a bull and they praised. Took another six steps, they sacrificed a bull, they praised. Another six steps, sacrificed a bull and praised over and over and over.

See, that's two trips, both trips, one on a cart and a one on the shoulder. Both trips had music. Both trips had music. The shout was never the problem. The cart was. So now let me come back to your house because accountability is not a church word, it's not a Sunday word, accountability is a Tuesday word. When it shakes and it will, when the cart stumbles at your job, in your marriage, in your emotions, in your home, do the values hold up when they cut you off on 75 or do we grab control? A shaking is not permission to abandon the pattern, the shaking is where the pattern proves that it is real. When you are corrected by church members, do you get angry as David did first or do you come with humility and introspection the second time? When leadership corrects you, when a brother or sister pulls you to the side, it says, "Hey man, I don't know if that's the godly way, "that's not how we do things here at 2819. "I love you and I wanna coach you, "I wanna mentor you, I wanna disciple you." When the word steps on your toes, well you're flesh, it's gonna naturally file for an appeal. But culture, it files for a confession. When we are unsure, do we guess, or do we go back like they did with the Levites?

See, unsure is not an excuse to improvise with holy things. Unsure is an invitation to lean in, to ask, to learn, to be open, to understand the pattern before you ever touch the weight. I want you to hear me. We exemplify these values in this church. I can't just end this church in the world. Yes, the world is watching. The whole world, people are talking about 2819, all over the world. Your children are watching. Your parents are watching. People on your job are watching. People on your feed are watching, but most importantly, God, and this is where culture stops being a slogan. Because anybody can name values when the room is calm, but we find out what truly happens when life begins to shake. It's not proven in your shout, it's proven in the shake. 30,000 people, all on David's word. See, we only know three or four people's names in this story, but there are 30,000 people there. God knew every single person's name. The reason why is we don't carry culture for the audience. We only carry it for the author, the author, and the finisher of our faith. So this week, when life shakes, when you are corrected, when you're unsure, when the question is put before you, not what do I want to do. The question now should be, what will God ask of me to do? Will I clap? Or will I carry? What does that mean? So I know you're wondering, well, how do I carry? I carry the values. I serve. I give. I show up. I evangelize. I engage in outreach. I find opportunities to plug into community. I don't necessarily have to, I would want you in a squad, but if there is no room for one, man, just go love on people. Take them to dinner. My wife and I took a couple of dinner on Friday, just because, to get to know people, to love on people, to be discipled and to disciple, that is the values of 28, 19. That is what we just stand on. That is who we are. We're not just some church that's viral, that's the new hot thing right now.

Because when no one was watching, we were the same. And when everyone's watching, where she steal the same. Doesn't matter. But there was an appropriate response that once you have, when it comes to carrying the weight, because there are people in this room that are doing it, but we're tired. We've been carrying this thing for far too long. And we need your help. Because this thing is heavy. Some people go to work Monday through Sunday and just still serve in ministry. This is not a cry for help because we are doing our thing, but we need you to help carry the vision forward. Help us carry the word until the ends of the earth. See, here's the thing. I wake up usually five out of seven days, about four a.m. in the morning, and I go to, I start working. See, my days are usually somewhere between 16 and 18 hours, sometimes even 20 hours. On Mondays, when Pastor Philip is in the office, I promise you, I could get home at eight, nine o'clock at night, still be answering phones, come into the house on the phone, taking text messages, things that we've got to handle, right? I don't know why people think just because you work at a church, all you do is pray. Like, that's not true. We actually have things we have to do, legal and accounting and all types of stuff. Like, this is a real thing, right? But when I come into my house, I look around and my house is clean. I got four kids. They all have food, clothes are out, homework done, ready for school. I mean, I'm like, wow, this is amazing. All the clothes are washed and folded. Everything is immaculate. And I could assume that because I'm the one that's working right now, that it's because of my money, that that's why we're able to do it. But that's not true. I can't take credit for something I didn't do. See, my wife is the one that handles those things. My wife makes sure that my home is taking care of my life. And she was that our family has covered. My wife does all of it. So privately, I can say thank you, but publicly, I can say thank you so much. [BLANK_AUDIO] but I am grateful because there is no me and there is no us without you. That my life is better because of you and I will spend every waking moment of my life while here on earth ensuring that you are safe and loved and cared for, seen and heard

and empowered. (audience applauds) And I wonder if God is in heaven and he heard what I just said and was like, yeah, that was good, that was good. But then he looks at you and says, why aren't you saying the same thing? I mean, there is a way to respond. (gentle piano music) Don't clap, carry, help us carry the weight of this ministry and this mantle. Step up and help. I'm not rebuking you, I'm challenging you because this is a holy thing. He who shall ascend the hill of the Lord he who has clean hands and a pure heart. Don't clap, carry. There's one thing I want to show you that I thought was just absolutely fascinating and then I'll be done. If we could put the Ark of the Covenant back onto the screens, there's something I saw that was just, it blew my mind. I told you already inside of the Ark of the Covenant, you had Aaron's rod, you had the chalice with the manna inside of it and then you also had the Ten Commandments, right? That's what it is. I also shared with you that the cherubim on the top, right? The Bible says that it is the mercy seed of Jesus, right? So that is where we believe Jesus is. Now here's the thing, every year, every single year,

it's the day of Atonement, they call it Yankapur, on the Jewish calendar. It is the day historically where they would sacrifice a lamb, baby lamb, and they would take the blood of the lamb and they would sprinkle it on the front of the lid of the Ark of the Covenant as a sign to say that the blood protects us. So you didn't even realize that Jesus was being preached the whole time. The law that we break every single day, the law that we sin against every single day, the things that we do to not please God inside of the Ark. The blood covers it by the mercy of Jesus Christ. Some people who say the Bible is not real. How is that possible? Jesus was literally sitting in the Old Testament right before our eyes. Azza, who reaches out his hand to catch the glory and to try to protect the Ark. This is another hand when Jesus took his hand and took a nail through it for you and my sins. Where one man dies in the dirt next to the Ark of the Covenant. Another man dies in the cross for your sins, his name is Jesus. And yes, there is and there was a parade when they moved the Ark of the Covenant, but there would be a greater celebration in heaven. When we are around and enthroned and in a numerous amount of angels, singing glory, glory, glory, hallelujah to the highest. And the greatest reward we will ever have is not what we do here, not within our 401k, not what we take vacations, not our children, and not our homes. It is when we take the crown of our heads and we bleed at the feet of Jesus. And some of you walked into this room and you were probably wondering, man, I didn't realize that when I came in that I would see such an interesting narrative

of the story because God sets you up for a moment just like this. He wanted you to hear about the Ark and the power of when you do things your own way and how that could be a fallacy in and of itself. But when you lean on him, when you trust him with your heart, when you open up your mind and you say, "Lord, I let you in that I am no longer going to do things my own way. I am going to submit to you." You'll get something that we call from the old church, blessed assurance. Songs that blessed assurance, Jesus is high. Oh, what a foretaste of glory. See, I know that there will be a date when I'm not here. It's very possible that I will not be alive tomorrow. All of us could be not here. It's very possible. We don't know what day or what time. We just know that the clock is ticking down. But I'm confident that when I close my eyes on earth, I will open them in glory. I had that assurance as some of you do too. So we are confident, but some of you are not. But you have heard the gospel preach. And you were saying, I don't know what's going on, but I want that. He says, when you hear my voice harden not your heart. That means the voice that you hear is not the enemy. The voice that you hear is the Lord. And he's saying, come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. You're tired, but God has given you the moment that he can embrace you in his arms. The yoke is easy and his burden is like. If I'm talking to you, eyes, clothes, heads potted.

If I'm talking to you, I just want you to lift your hands up really quickly in this room. If you feel like that gospel, I see that gospel is for you. I see you, I see you, I see you. I see you, God bless you. I see you, God bless you. If I'm speaking to you, do not be embarrassed. Do not be ashamed. Because he said, if you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you. This is the moment and this is the hour for your life to change from talking to you. Raise your hand right now. They're raising up all over the room. Hallelujah, hallelujah. I see you, I see you, I see you. God bless you. You can put your hands down. (gentle music) After the gathering, the doors over there will be opened and I want you to go outside of there is a tent, a connect tent. And there they will give you a Bible. They will give you information about how that you can understand the decision that you just made. And I promise you, you give it to six months, six months. I am not saying that your life will be perfect, but I am saying that your life will be better. And I want you to lean in and keep coming back and keep coming back because I promise you,

your life will change. I need to ask for one more call and then I'm gonna be done 'cause I'm tired, Lord, I'm tired, but I wanna say this to you 'cause this is pressing upon my heart. Some of you have been with God. You walked and at one point in time, you had the arc on your shoulders. You were carrying the vision. You were carrying the culture and one day you put it down. You walked away, you said it got too heavy. You got tired of seeing other people fake the funk. You got tired of fake church and deconstruction and reconstruction and all that jazz. And you said, I can be bad all by myself. But you walk away and God is saying, I have been with you the entire time. Where you went, I was there in the club. I was there on the street. I was there hot boxing in the car. I was there by yourself thinking of my committed suicide. I was there. I was with you the whole time. I will never leave you nor forsake you. So you're like, future, I'm already safe. I'm going to heaven. I know I am, but I have not been in right relationship with him, I'm backslid. And for some reason, God pressed upon my heart to the last gathering and I wanna do it here today.

That if you feel like that issue, you have walked away or you do not have a home, a church that you can be planted in, that you can plug in, that you can carry the vision what does carry the arc with this. If I am talking to you, this is an amazing church. We're led by an amazing leader. We're here to serve God. We don't always get it right, but we're trying to do things God's way. If I'm talking to you and you need a home, you need to come back to him. I want you to raise your hand right now. This is the moment and this is your hour. This can be your church. (gentle music) God bless you. Let's pray Father. I thank you for these, your sons and daughters, those who have truly understood and heard what it takes to carry this culture. I pray God that as we protected and that we carried and we discussed the fruit that remains, I pray that we as sons and daughters do as you called us to do, to take on the things that are holy and not treated like it's familiar. I thank you for the sons and daughters who've walked into the kingdom, who have said that they wanted to give you their yes, they're the empowered to know strong give us the grace to continue to the end for it's in Jesus name that we

pray amen if you've been blessed by the word put your hands together the vision God's was calm