Stay Hungry

0:13 Thank you for being here, being faithful to show up after a late night. I'm so excited to bring the word to you today. If we haven't had the chance to meet yet, my name is Caden, and I get to be the high school pastor here at Calvary. And thank you. Yeah, thank you. I'm honored to be bringing the word today. Hey, Pastor Skip asked me to fill you in on this. He's currently away writing his book on biblical prophecy. So get excited for that. He's gonna bring that one back to you. I'm sure he's already got it done. and I'm just putting the finishing touches on it. He's a prodigious writer. But I do wanna let you know, high school parents, if you sign your student up for summer camp today, we've got a table of people out in the amphitheater that'd love to help you get signed up and get you a deal on that. But did you bring your Bible today? Good, come on, that's what I like to hear. Bible-believing, Bible-preaching church. Would you turn in that Bible to the book of 2 Samuel chapter six? 2 Samuel chapter six.

1:08 That's where we're going to be reading and studying today. And I've got some exciting news to share with you that on May 14th at 4 p.m., my incredible wife, Annie, and I, she's in the family room, shout out, Annie. We got upgraded. We got upgraded to the family room because on May 14th at 4 p.m., our daughter, Athens, Renee, Richie, was born and came into the world.

1:35 And we've been so blessed. We're figuring out what it's like to be parents. You got the first time parent anxieties. We still got the training wheels on. We're trying to figure all the things out. Yes, I'm sleeping, glory to God. She's a sleeping baby, praise the Lord. But I have some vivid memories of being in the hospital waiting for our daughter Athens to be born. And one of those memories is right when we're about to be discharged, getting ready to head out the door. And it suddenly dawns on Annie and I that we're actually responsible for this new life. Remember that realization, parents? You're like, oh, it's on me now. Okay, got it. And I remember sitting there and so we're starting to get nervous. We're starting to hit our nurse with questions left, right, and center. You know, well, what happens if the baby does this? And what happens if she looks like that and says this? And how normal is it for her to cry for this long?

2:29 And so we're getting all the questions in that we can. And our exasperated nurse looks up at us with a very thick accent that I'm not gonna try to imitate. but she looks up at us through a very thick accent and she said, you had baby, hard part over. You figure the rest out, amen? So whether you're parenting a teenager or a toddler, I just feel like I need to bring that advice to you, right? You had baby, hard part over, hard part done with. You just figure the rest out. And every parent was like, no, the hard part is not over. Maybe the hard part for my wife, I just stood there. She did all the hard work, right? The hard part is most definitely not over because just a few days later, we're up at 3 a.m. and we're just looking at each other. Baby's screaming, baby's crying. What do we do? We're going down the checklist. Is she tired?

3:22 Is she gassy? Does she need to eat? She just ate five minutes ago. There's no way she needs to eat again, right? So we go down the list. We're trying to check off all the boxes. Do we need to just give her a new outfit? Will that cheer her up? Like, what do we do? you know? You have weird thoughts at 3 a.m. And so we're trying to figure out how to solve this. And sure enough, the problem was that she was hungry again, even though she had just eaten. And this went on for hours, where she would eat multiple times in the hour for hours. And I'm just sitting there, it's 3 a.m. And it's 4 a.m. It's 4.27 a.m. Never seen that on the clock before in my life. It's 5 a.m., right? We're sitting there and I'm just like, oh my gosh. I had no idea that this baby could be that hungry, that she could be that starving all the time. And this is called cluster feeding. If you've heard of it before, it's actually very healthy. And any doctor or nurse would tell you that cluster feeding within the first few hours of life helps the baby to settle in so they know how to feed. It helps them settle in and kickstart their growth. So that hunger, that screaming and crying for that food is actually a sign of health. It's a sign of life.

4:36 And I just think that this is the truth for us as believers, that the worst thing that can happen to followers of Jesus is that we lose our spiritual hunger for God. The worst thing that could happen to us is that we lose our hunger for the Lord. So I've titled today's message, Holy hunger. Holy hunger. The truth is that when we're infant, baby, new believers, we have this holy cluster feeding, this holy hunger for the Lord. Think about it when you first said yes to Jesus. There was never enough sermons. There was never enough chapters. There was never enough verses. You know, I remember being a new believer and I was at every worship night. I was there constantly. I was serving. I was doing all the things because I was so overcome by this holy hunger. It's hunger for God.

5:30 And I get to see this often as a youth pastor, this desperation. I gotta tell you, the young generation is hungry for the Lord. I get to see this hunger, this deep desire, this desperation for Jesus. and I just wonder today if maybe we're at risk of losing that spiritual hunger. You know, Jesus taught on spiritual hunger in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. To hunger and thirst for righteousness is not just to hunger and thirst for liberty and freedom in our nation, although that is an incredible blessing, amen? To hunger and thirst for righteousness is not just to want justice, it's not just to want equality, it's not just to want a good life.

6:25 To hunger and thirst for righteousness is to be hungry for Jesus. Here's what I mean. 2 Corinthians puts it this way, that God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God. What does that mean? On the cross, Jesus exchanged his righteousness for our sinfulness. So we became the righteousness of God through relationship with Jesus. So to hunger and thirst for righteousness is to be hungry for him. To have a holy, fervent hunger. This is the truth. As we age in our relationship with the Lord, that might be a few days for you. Maybe you just said yes to Jesus at Freedom Celebration. glory to God, but maybe you've been following Jesus for a long time. As we age in our relationship with the Lord, we start to believe that what a mature believer looks like is someone who has independence. Because maturity in the world is what? It's becoming more independent. But this does not apply to our relationship with Jesus. Because the truth about our walk with God is that as we age in him, we do not become more independent. We become more dependent on him.

7:44 Maturity in Jesus is becoming spiritually hungry. Spiritual formation is having a holy hunger for God, for him. Here's the truth. We will never grow beyond our need for God. We will never grow beyond our need for him. And we will never be able to grow unless we're hungry for him. So I want to take you to this text today in 2 Samuel chapter 6 because I think this text shows us what holy hunger for God looks like. First, that holy hunger is being presence-minded. Second, holy hunger is being fear-formed. And third, holy hunger is being joy-filled. Presence-minded, fear-formed, and joy-filled. Let's read our texts together. 2 Samuel 6, verse 1, it says, David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, 30,000, and David arose and went with the people who were with him from Baal Judah to bring from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts, who sits enthroned on the cherubim.

8:55 They carried the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. And Uzzah and Ahio, you could say Uzzah and Ohio, whatever's easier for you, you could put that in there. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart with the ark of the Lord on it. And Ahio went before the ark, verse five. And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord with songs and lyres and harps, castanets, tambourines, and cymbals. Let's pray. Lord Jesus Father we invite you today to speak to us we believe that you are here that you're present and so Father we open ourselves up to you we ask that you would speak over me Lord that your word would just touch us that you would reach out to us Father I pray today that we would leave changed Lord that we would not leave the same God we just ask that you'd remove any distractions from this place let your word sink into our hearts in the name of Jesus and everyone said, amen, amen.

10:00 You know, I wanna give you some context for what's happening today because we are diving into the middle of one of the most important narratives in the Old Testament. We're talking about King David. David has recently become king in 2 Samuel chapter six and he's conquered the city which will become known as Jerusalem or the city of David. So David has been winning with God, win after win after win in 2 Samuel 5, 10, it says that David became greater and greater because the Lord was with him. So David is on this high with God and he goes to get the Ark of the Covenant and bring it into the center of Israel. He wants the Ark of the Covenant to be at the center of the Israelites' lives. Now, what is the Ark and why is it important? Well, if you've seen Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark, You can skip to point two.

10:56 Just kidding. Don't get your theology from Indiana Jones. It's a bad idea. Come to Wednesday night Bible study instead. No, the Ark of the Covenant was the visible symbol of God's presence with his people. It was a gold-plated box that had two angels carved on the lid. It was made according to God's direct instructions to the children of Israel. It contained the tablets of the covenant that God had made with his people, the ones that Moses brings down from Mount Sinai that was contained in the Ark of the Covenant. And it represented God's holiness. It represents God's throne. It represents his mercy and it represents his presence. This is how David would view the Ark. The Ark is the meeting place between God and humanity. Once a day, or sorry, once a year on the day of atonement, a sacrifice would be made and the blood of a bull or a goat would be sprinkled across the lid of the Ark of the Covenant and then God's presence would literally dwell with his people there.

12:02 The blood of a sinless sacrifice and the presence of God met right there on the Ark. Now, why is that important to us today? Why does that matter? The Ark was significant to Israel because it's the meeting place between God and man, but the Ark is significant to you and I because it points towards Jesus. How? Because it is only through the blood of the sinless sacrifice that is Jesus that you and I can meet with God. So Jesus today is the meeting place between God and man, just like the ark was the meeting place between God and man in the Old Testament. So why is David so eager to get the presence of God back into the city? Because he has a holy hunger for the Lord. He knows that God's presence is what has made him successful and he wants God's presence to be central in Israel. He wants God's presence to be central in his life.

12:59 Now I wanna pause here and give you a warning because sometimes we read the Old Testament and we're like, wow, David, great guy, just awesome, right? I wanna be more like David. Well, you know, not so much. Not a whole lot. David is a human, and the Bible is very honest about humanity and our weaknesses and our failures. If all you take away from this text is be more like David, that interpretation falls apart when you get to 2 Samuel chapter 11. Because David loses his holy hunger for God and develops a hunger for somebody else's wife. And not only that, he kills the husband of that woman. So by the time you get to 2 Samuel chapter 11, you no longer wanna be like David. His holy hunger has left him. So what's the important lesson in this text today? The question is not, how do I be more like David?

13:54 The question is, do I have that same holy hunger for the presence of God? And how do I keep it? And so I told you, holy hunger is being presence-minded. That's our first point for today. If you're taking notes, you can write that down. If you're taking notes, we can be best friends. there's a parallel account to what we're reading in 2 Samuel chapter six. And this is important. It's why it's essential that you study all of your Bible and not just the parts that are easy to read. Because in 1 Chronicles chapters 13 through 16, we get essential details about this event. We get some context. We get some background details about David bringing the ark into the city. To us, it seems kind of sudden. David's winning battles. He's winning battles. He's winning battles. Pause. Let's go get that golden box, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord.

14:48 We need to bring it back into the city. It seems kind of sudden to us. But David actually in 1 Chronicles 13 reveals his motivation behind wanting the presence of God to be back with his people. In 1 Chronicles 13, three, David says, then let us bring the Ark of our God to us, for we did not seek it in the days of Saul. I love this because David is admitting the nation's sin. He's admitting their failure and their shortcoming. He's admitting that their hunger for God had been diminished under Saul. And he says this, the ark of our God. What he's saying is we have the title, that's our God. We're God's chosen people, but we forgot about God's presence. So they wanted the title, they carried the title, God's chosen people, but they had no presence. I want you to keep that in mind.

15:43 You know, Annie and I, we were married in 2022, so we're celebrating four years of marriage. So come ask me if you need marriage advice. I have so much to give to you. That is a joke. No, we're still learning. We're still getting the wheels on our marriage, but four years, it's been incredible. It's been amazing. It's flown by so quickly. But I still remember a lot of things about our wedding day. And one of the things I remember about that day is how hot it was. It was July 22nd. It was very warm outside. And I remember wearing that suit. I'm starting to get very sweaty. I'm starting to get nervous. I'm starting to get anxious. And I don't know why, but the thing that made me the most nervous in that moment was the marriage license that was sitting on the other table. I'm like, man, I'm gonna drip sweat all over the marriage license and then we won't be married and it's all gonna fall apart. And I also have terrible handwriting, okay?

16:36 I'll just be honest. It's the house of God. That confession is safe with you. I have terrible handwriting and I'm a lefty. Any lefties in the house? Come on, shout out. Love you guys. Knew my people were in the room today. I'm a lefty. And so lefties, we know this. When we write on thicker paper with those gel pens, here's a recipe for disaster. We smear it, right? You have to gotta write over the words unless you can write backwards. And so I remember being so nervous that I'm gonna smear this important document. This is the title of a marriage. It says husband right there. And you're gonna read it, husband. And I'm terrified. So I go, I sign the marriage license. sure enough, I'm hot, I'm sweating, and I smear the lettering. And I don't know why I was so freaked out. I guess in my mind, I thought that like the marriage license is something you like hung up in your living room, like proof, married. I guess I was nervous. It turns out you only see that if you're like rifling through old documents, you're like, oh yeah, that's there.

17:32 I've never needed the marriage license to remind me that I'm a married man. Never needed that. And here's why. What makes my relationship with Annie real is not the title, it's her presence in my everyday life. You following? Annie is with me. We live together, we share a home together. We're raising our daughter together. We work through things together. We talk together. Her presence in my life is what makes the relationship real, not the title. And Christian, what makes your relationship with Jesus real is his presence, not just the title. It's his presence in your everyday life. That is the sign and sealing of your relationship with Jesus. To take us back to the text, symbolically, Israel has kept the title, God's people, but they left the most important artifact just on a hill in some country, Bumpkin Village.

18:32 They literally left the Ark of the Covenant where God's presence dwelled just in a village on the edges of the city. Why would they do that? Because they had forgotten, they had lost their holy hunger for the Lord as David admits. The Ark has been on a hill in a small town at the house of Abinadab is what we read in verse three. What had happened is the Ark had been taken captive by the Philistines. That was bad news for them. they try to place it in the temple of the false god of Dagon. The statue of Dagon falls and breaks before the Lord because God is all powerful. The Philistines who mock God begin to get sick because the ark is in their presence. So they kind of push it off into other cities. They're like, give it to that city, give it to that city. And the people continue to get sick. So at some point the Philistines go, we gotta get rid of this thing. We have clearly angered the God of the Israelites. So they put it on a cart, they tether it to some oxen and they just say, all right, wherever it goes, if it goes back to the nation of Israel, then we'll know that we're satisfying the God of the Israelites and he won't be mad and we'll stop being sick.

19:36 And they tie it onto the cart and immediately the cattle go straight to the Israelite territory. And they end and land at the house of Abinadab. But the ark has been there for years. One of the most significant things, the people of God, and they had completely left his presence on the peripheral. But now David goes to make his presence central in their lives. He is presence-minded.

20:02 Christian, Jesus did not save you just to carry a title. He saved you to carry his presence. This is what 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20 says. It's beautiful. It says, or do you not know that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit? Who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own. for you were bought for a high price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. God no longer dwells in the ark today. God dwells in you if you are in him. His presence is alive in us. So let me just ask you the question, do we live in the spirit? Or do we sometimes feel tempted when our hunger is being diminished to leave God on the peripheral of our lives? when in reality, he wants to be central in you.

20:58 You are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Come on, I believe this today, that God has called us as his people, not just to carry the title, but to carry his presence forward. Can we be the ones in our families and in our cities who say, you know what? God has been neglected, but I wanna bring him back to the middle. God needs to be at the middle of my work. God needs to be at the middle of my education. He needs to be at the middle of my finances. He needs to be at the middle of my family. I do not want God to be peripheral. I want him to be central. This is what holy hunger is. This is what a mature believer does. They take God's presence. They make it central in their lives. So practically, I wanna leave you with this. If you're taking notes again, you can write this down. Practically, how do we become presence-minded? Well, here's what I have for you. If you wanna be presence-minded, invite God into the ordinary places.

21:49 Now, some of you shrewd theologians are going, well, wait a minute. Invite God. But is God not omnipresent? Doesn't that mean God is everywhere always? And you are correct, shrewd theologians. God is everywhere present always. So the question, well then why do we need to invite him if he's everywhere always? Here's why. Because we forget that he's everywhere always. The invitation is more so for us to become aware of his presence, to be presence-minded. I am fully capable of convincing myself that the presence of the Holy Spirit is only there when Hillsong is playing. Man, that's the worship song for me. Spirit is here. I'm fully capable of convincing myself that the Holy Spirit is only present in goosebumps, that the Holy Spirit is only at this church or that church. The Holy Spirit is only in the word. He's only there on Sunday.

22:42 That is incorrect theology. God is everywhere, present always, but we can invite him into the ordinary places and remind ourselves that he is everywhere always. You know, when you actually start believing that God is with you, that you're the temple of the Holy Spirit, you live differently. You drive differently. just let that one sink in. It's for me. It's mainly for me. I'll confess. You live differently when you believe that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit. All of a sudden, the constant traffic on I-25 where you're stuck at a standstill is not an obstacle. It's an invitation because God is present with you.

23:26 The Holy Spirit is actually here. And if that's the case, than the conversation I have with my unbelieving friends or my unbelieving family members. It's an invitation for him to move. So I remind myself, Lord, you are here. Lord, do what you wanna do. Father, speak, I'm listening. That's the prayer of a mature believer who is presence-minded. That's what holy hunger looks like. There is no part of my life that is off limits to the Lord of the universe. When you realize how present God is, it should stoke up in you a holy hunger to hear from him. So number one, holy hunger is presence minded, but number two, holy hunger is fear formed. And I just wanna submit this humbly to you today, that maybe the reason we start to lose our holy hunger for God is because we lose the fear of the Lord and we forget exactly who we're dealing with.

24:25 Let me take you to verse six through 10. It says this, And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand and took the ark of God, for the oxen had stumbled. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error. And he died there beside the ark of God. And David was angry because the Lord had broken out against Uzzah, and the place is called Peres-Uzzah to this day. Verse nine, and David was afraid of the Lord that day. David is experiencing now the fear of the Lord. David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, how can the ark of the Lord come to me? So David was not willing to take the ark of the Lord into the city of David, but took it aside to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. Now we're going to get to Obed-Edom the Gittite in just a second. What happens in his home is significant to this story, but David's response at what happens to Yuzah is the correct response when sinful humanity comes into contact with a perfect and holy God without covering.

25:39 Here's what I mean. There was a covering that was provided by God in his word that allowed sinful humanity to approach the ark of God. There was specific rules, preferences that God had. If you're going to approach me, this is how you must do it. But David neglects this covering. David neglects the word of the Lord, which is never a good idea. To have the fear of God is to recognize how uncommon, how holy, how good he is, and then still come up short in our explanations because words cannot do his goodness and his power justice. God is morally and substantially perfect. God's substance and his morality are perfect in every way. So sinful humanity cannot exist in his glory without a covering.

26:35 You remember the story of Moses in Exodus? Moses has this bold request. Lord, I want to see your glory. I wanna see you. And the Lord is very honest with Moses. He says, no one can see my face and live. So what does he do? He takes Moses. He puts him in the cleft of a rock and he covers him with his hand. The Lord covers Moses with his hand, passes by with all of his goodness and glory. And he tells Moses, you can only see my goodness from the back because if you saw me face to face, you would die. That is how terrifyingly good God is, that if all his goodness was before us, we would just melt away. As good as you think you are, as good as I think I am, we would melt in the presence of our holy and good God. But God provides a covering to be approached. God had provided a way for his presence, the ark, to be moved. The Lord had said in the book of Exodus 25, Numbers 4 and Numbers 7, that only the Levites, the people of the tribe of Levi, could move the ark.

27:43 And only a subdivision of the Levites called the Kohathites could actually take poles and move the ark of God with those poles, but they could not touch it. If only Uzzah had read that part of the word of God. Uzzah pays the price for approaching God without a covering. So here's what I want you to see. Moses cannot see God without the covering. Uzzah cannot touch God without a covering. And you and I, we cannot approach God without a covering. That's how good he is. But the good news for you and I is that we have a covering. And his name is Jesus. And his blood is the covering that allows us, sinful humanity, to have a relationship with God. It's only by the covering that is Jesus. and recently at surf camp which you you saw and heard about i i got to experience a student discovering the fear of the lord for the very first time okay so we take all these desert dwelling teenagers out to the ocean some of them camps can swim we found out some of them couldn't swim as well and so we go out to the ocean and it's it's beautiful it's amazing we we preach every day and worship every day, overlooking the ocean from these bluffs, like two, 300 feet above. You can look down and see the waves. You can hear it. And one day I tasked the students with this. I said, go sit with 15 minutes in complete silence and listen to hear the voice of the Lord. Just listen, which is terrifying. If you're used to having a phone in your hand and your mind is never quiet, 15 minutes of silence is utterly terrifying. And one student came back after that 15 minutes and she just had this existential dread in her eyes. And I was like, what's going on?

29:31 And she's like, I am terrified of the ocean. The ocean freaks me out. It is so big. It spans everything that I can see and it keeps on going. And the waves are so powerful. And God is even bigger and more powerful than that. And I said, that's the fear of the Lord that you have right there. And of course, we go out to California and they have the biggest swell in like the last 20 years. Because why not? Why not endanger the lives of the high school students? That would be fun, right? Make more memories that way. All the surfing pros are standing on the beach watching the waves. And we're like, yeah, we got that. So I go and I start paddling out. Boom, wave. Okay, Keep going, keep going. Boom, another way. Okay, keep going, keep going. Boom, I'm kind of drowning, but just keep going and keep going.

30:26 Finally get up there to where all the impressive looking, seasoned old surfers are. They know what they're doing. I'm like, man, I'm up with the big dogs. Like I figured it out. And then I proceed to get hit by three eight foot waves back to back to back, right? I'm like in the washing machine, just under the water. I don't know what's up. I don't know what's down. I'm swimming. I'm just like, the top is hopefully up here.

30:49 Seeing the power from the distance was one thing, but being in it and experiencing was altogether different. From a distance, power can look manageable, but when you get close, you experience the truth. Underneath the waves, I'm realizing I am not in control. And if I die, my wife will kill me. But I'm not in control. I am at the mercy of the powerful ocean. and how much bigger and how much more powerful is our God?

31:24 The fear of the Lord is what Yuzuf forgot. The fear of the Lord is what David forgot. The ark was not cargo. The presence of God was not manageable. Holy hunger is fearing God enough to come, but on his terms, not ours. With his covering.

31:48 The covering for David and Uzzah was the law, but they did not fear the Lord to approach him enough with that covering, so they approached God casually. The covering for you and I is Jesus. The book of Hebrews puts this into such great focus. One of my favorite passages, Hebrews 10, 19, and 20. And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven's most holy place because of the blood of Jesus. The covering for us to go into the holy place, this is ark talk. What's the holy place? It's in the worship of the children of Israel of God. The holy place is where the ark was kept. So what the author of Hebrews is saying is the presence that killed Yuzah dead in his tracks is approachable for you by the blood of Jesus. We can approach the infinite, good, just, and powerful God boldly because of the blood of Jesus.

32:43 That's how good he is. the fear of the Lord is not cowering. It's not hiding. It's not, oh, I'm a worm. The fear of the Lord is knowing how good, how great he is and coming to him on his terms, being formed by fear, having our approach to him, changed by our reverence and our awe for him. So let me ask you a difficult question. This convicts me. This hits me hard. Is my personal worship of God fear formed or is it casual?

33:22 Do I worship on my terms or do I worship on God's terms? When we sing of him, are we fully aware of who we're singing about? Are we keeping in mind his greatness that our minds can't even comprehend? Are we considering him or do we think that the worship of God is just a song that can be sung with our hands in our pockets? Or do we believe that we approach the throne room of the great, perfect, and powerful God of the universe? proper worship is not sensational. I want you to hear me. I'm not just saying worship bigger. Make it more impressive. Be more emotional. I'm not trying to say, just make it look better. Just jump around and dance.

34:15 That's not the point of what I'm saying. Proper worship is not sensational, but proper worship is also not casual. We aren't standing in line to get our coffee. We're in the throne room of God before his presence. proper worship is fearful. It's fear formed, it's respectful, and it's reverent. Maturing with God is being formed by fear, allowing our approach to God to be shaped by him. So holy hunger is presence minded. Holy hunger is fear formed. And finally, holy hunger is joy filled. Let me read to you verses 11 through verse 18. It says this, and the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-Edom and all his household.

35:09 Real quick, a note here. Isn't it so cool that the blessing from God comes when the presence of God is in the home of Obed-Edom? Sometimes we think blessings are like Amazon packages that just show up on the doorstep. Ooh, look at that. Isn't that so cool? The Lord blessed me. No, no, no. I love this. the blessing of God comes when they're in the presence of God. So you get to meet the sender of the package. When you get a blessing in your life, you get to meet with the person who sent that blessing to you that is the Lord. That's good. Verse 12, and it was told King David, the Lord has blessed all the household of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him because of the ark of God. So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the city of David with rejoicing. with rejoicing. And when the Lord, sorry, and when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal. And David danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was wearing a linen afad. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn. I love this about David. After meeting and experiencing the fear of the Lord, after Uzzah dies, he goes back to the house of Obed-Edom and he's not shy.

36:28 He's not bashful. What you don't see is that in between those verses, David goes back and probably does a little Bible study and he goes and he reads the book of Numbers and he reads the book of Exodus and he's formed by fear so he knows how better to approach the Lord. And when you know that you can approach God with covering, the response is joy. When we know that we can approach the Lord of the universe with the covering of the blood of Jesus, the response from us is a joy that we rejoice in him, in his goodness.

37:02 And David celebrates. He goes all out. The city is celebrating, the house of Israel, the house of David, they're all behind him, worshiping, and there's music, and there's instruments, and it's beautiful, and he's dancing with all his might before the Lord. And lest you think the worship of God is this stale, contained, stuffy expression, It is not. It is an act of joy to worship the God of the universe. church the worship of God church is not a funeral it's not this is not the host of the frozen chosen this is the host of those who have experienced the glory of God and his forgiveness I am not saying make it bigger make it more emotional. You know, sometimes I think there's Christians who look down their nose at other believers. I see them raising a hand in worship, swaying back and forth. And I hear this narrative a lot. Oh, that's just emotionalism. That's just emotionalism. No, that's a proper knowledge of how good God is. Because Jesus held his arms wide out on the cross, the least that you and I can do is take ours out of our pockets.

38:21 That's the least we can do. That is not emotionalism. That is properly acknowledging how good he is. Thank you, Lord, for the covering. If I was here and there was no covering, there was no sacrifice, if I was here and Jesus did not give his life, I would melt right here. I would cease to exist.

38:45 So how's your joy in God? You know, I think our joy is in danger when we expect the world to give us what only God can deliver. God offers us peace even in suffering, but the world offers us distraction. God offers us satisfaction and the world offers us more cravings. God offers us peace and the world offers us prime day. Like that's gonna make a difference. The joy of the Lord is better than packages on your porch. It's better than things you can hold. It's better than the money in your account. the joy of the Lord is satisfying.

39:24 And God offers us joy. A mature believer is not this stoic, ivory tower, looking down your nose at other people, judgmental. A mature believer is joy-filled. A mature believer has a holy hunger for God and an acknowledgement of his presence. At this celebration, David's joy is completely in the Lord. It's 100% in the Lord. and it reminds me of a psalm that he will write, Psalm 69 verse nine. He says, for I endure scorn for your sake. Shame covers my face. I'm a foreigner in my own family. I'm a stranger to my mother's children for zeal for your house has consumed me and the insults of those who insult you fall on me. We don't really know if David is writing this psalm about his journey with the ark, it could be, but he is essentially saying that his holy hunger, his zeal for God has brought on him the judgment of the world.

40:28 Come on, can we be the believers who worship God because of how good he is, regardless of the judgment of the world? David's joy in God brings on the scorn of others. In fact, David's wife, Michal, just call her Michael. David's wife, Michael, scorns him for his extravagant worship before the Lord, scorns him and David says, what I did, I did before the Lord. Plain and simple, the attitude of a lot of believers can be to look down their nose at those who worship God more extravagantly.

41:14 But since when was the worship of an uncontainable God perfectly contained? It is orderly. It's orderly worship. But who said it's perfectly contained? Who said it fit our preferences? It fits his preferences. It's worship of him. But in this Psalm, it's not the last time we read it we actually see it again in the gospel of John chapter 2 not when David enters Jerusalem but when the son of David Jesus Christ enters Jerusalem and upon his arrival there in the city of David Jesus goes into the temple and it says this in the temple courts he found people selling cattle sheep and doves and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip of cords and drove out all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle.

42:11 And he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold dubs, he said, get these out of here. Stop turning my father's house into a market. And his disciples remembered that it is written, zeal for your house shall consume me. There's Psalm 69 right there at the end. David's zeal, his hunger is for the presence of God, but Jesus is the better David. David went to bring the ark of the presence into the city, but Jesus walks into Jerusalem as the presence of God in flesh. David's hunger fades, but Jesus's zeal consumes him. He overturns the tables that are set with greed. And I can tell you this, I have personally lost my hunger for God because I have chosen to sit down at the buffet table that the world sets full of greed and try to satisfy myself with what it can offer.

43:15 I've sat down and I've tried to feast on this and we lose our holy hunger when instead of hungering and thirsting for righteousness and being satisfied in Jesus, we look to satisfy our hunger elsewhere. When we aren't fed by his presence, when we aren't fed by his holiness, when we aren't filled with his joy, we start feeding on what's available. In Christian, it is time to be hungry again, but not for what the world can offer, only for what Jesus can deliver. It is time to become hungry again. And here's why. One day, Jesus is going to come back. He's going to return. And instead of sitting at a table set with greed, Jesus will set a table for us called the marriage supper of the lamb. This is why we are still hungry to this day.

44:08 This is what we look forward to, that Jesus will return and dine with us at a table where we will be fully satisfied in his presence. But until then, keep your hunger for the holy. Do not be satisfied by what is set out on the table. And if that's you, and you're just acknowledging in this place today, I had a hunger for the Lord. Man, when I was a new believer, I was presence minded. I was always aware of what the Lord was doing. When I was a new believer, I was fear formed. When I was a new believer, I had that joy, but you're acknowledging today, I don't have that hunger like I used to. My friend, there is hope for you. There is hope for you. And I believe God wants to reignite that holy hunger in you today. I wanna invite you to just close your eyes and bow your heads. And if that's you in this place, this is not a call for salvation.

45:04 Just asking that if that's you in this place and you've noticed your hunger for the Lord has been diminished, you're trying to be independent instead of dependent. You're leaning on what the world can give you. You're trying to be satisfied elsewhere. If that's you in this place right now, you're just acknowledging I need that holy hunger again. Would you just lift up a hand so I can pray for you? Come on, so good. There's no shame in that. I just wanna know who I'm praying for. So good, amen. Come on, you just lift up that hand. You're saying, I wanna be hungry again. I want the hunger of God, hunger for the holy back in my life. Would you keep that hand up while I pray for you? Lord Jesus, I thank you for these with their hands raised, Father. Lord, we acknowledge like David did that we maybe have not been seeking your presence. We maybe have not been fearful and maybe we've lost the joy. But Father, right now in this moment, I pray that your presence would meet us, that you would reignite in us a hunger for you.

46:01 Lord, only a hunger for righteousness can be satisfied. Only a hunger for you can be satisfied. Lord, keep us hungry for your presence. Keep us hungry for you, Jesus. If greed is crowding out the table, then Lord, turn it over. If a full schedule is crowding out your presence, then Lord, flip it over. God, if substances, if alcohol, if anxiety, if bitterness is crowding out our hunger, Lord, would you overturn the table in our lives right now?