[0:00] Turn with me to 2 Samuel 24. I just will skim the chapter with you, and then I want to talk to you about repenting and worshiping, and I want to show you what's going on in David's life.
[0:10] So in verse 1, the anger of the Lord is kindled against Israel because something's made God mad, and we don't know what it was. We're not told in the passage.
[0:21] So he moved against David. He had David go ahead and count the people. And David told his men, I want you to go number Israel and Judah. And so the king told Joab and the captains, and he said, in verse 2, he said, that I may know the number of the people.
[0:37] I want to know how many we got. Well, it was okay to find out under certain circumstances at certain times for the temple offering and taxes and so on. It was okay. But Joab knew he was only doing this out of an egotistical way of knowing how many is he running.
[0:54] He must have been an independent Baptist preacher counting everything by numbers. And so Joab said to him in verse 3, you know, we don't really need to count them. Let God make our army worth 100 times what it is.
[1:05] You don't need. Why does this delight you so much? Why does this excite you? And David's word prevailed in verse 4, no matter what the captain said and what Joab said.
[1:15] And so they went out and they began to number the people. It took them nine months and 20 days. And they finally came back in verse 9. And they had 800,000 valiant men in Israel and 500,000 valiant men in Judah.
[1:29] And as soon as that was over, David's heart smote him. That's an interesting thing that we'll look at tonight. David's heart smote him. And David said to the Lord, I have sinned greatly.
[1:41] Take away the iniquity of thy servant. I've done very foolishly. And then God sent a prophet named Gad who was David's private preacher.
[1:51] And he came to him and he said, you know what? God's upset and he's offering you to pick your own spanking. You get three choices. You can have God do this, this, or this. Pick one.
[2:03] And that's in verse 13. You'll see that there are seven years of famine or you can run for your life for three months. Or you can have three days of pestilence. And David's like, man, I don't know, just let me fall on the mercies of the Lord.
[2:16] Let him do whatever he wants to do. I certainly don't want a man getting a hold of me. So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel. And there were 70,000 men that died.
[2:28] And then the Lord repented of the evil. Lord's like, man, this breaks my heart to watch these people hurt. Because he's a tender and sweet and kind God. If you know the Bible, you know that God is tender and sweet and kind.
[2:42] And it broke his heart and he told the angel, stop. That's enough. That's enough. And then the preacher comes up to him and says, you know, you need to make an offering. You need to say thank you to God.
[2:54] You need to take a step about this. And verse 18, Gad came that day to David and said, go up and rear an altar. And so David goes to this fellow named Arunad or whatever, how you say that.
[3:06] And he said, hey, I need to buy some land. I need to buy all the stuff I need. I want to make an offering. And the guy said, you don't have to pay anything for it. I'll just give it to you. David said, no, that wouldn't be right. And I won't do such a thing.
[3:18] And in verse 24, David said, neither will I offer burnt offerings, which doth cost me nothing. So David paid for it, built an altar. And God heard his prayer.
[3:30] There are a whole lot of things in this chapter I think apply to me and to you and to where we live. And I will go through them with you. But one thing I think is very, if you're God's, you just can't do what you want to do and get away with it.
[3:50] You have the option of sinning. And if you read the Old Testament, you'll know this is true all through it. You have the option of sinning. But when you have that option, he has the option of bringing you enough chastisement to make you come back and do right.
[4:04] God's people will either be chastised or they'll be changed. Probably have to be chastised even if we are changed. It's because once you're his, you will, you will grow in grace.
[4:17] Maybe not that I can see. Maybe not that I'll know. But God's going to be at work in your life. Go with me to 2 Samuel chapter 24, verse 1. First thing, kind of a part, we could have made a whole message of this and that is that God is in control of every situation.
[4:32] There's a little bit of a concern here. The Bible says that the Lord is angry with Israel and he moves David. He tells David to go do something that he's going to end up punishing David with.
[4:46] Something's happened that angered God. It would be some sin or some way that the people of God weren't obeying him. And he decided that it's time for them to suffer the consequences of their sin and rebellion.
[4:58] You do wrong, God's going to spank you. You do wrong, God's going to spank you. I think people don't like to think that. And I think in 2016, we're kind of separated from that. I grew up knowing that.
[5:10] I grew up hearing that all the time. I knew if I did wrong, God would let my sin whip my backside and make me come back. Sometimes I think it doesn't seem to sink in today. God sometimes waits a long time before moving.
[5:24] But he will eventually cause his people to suffer or allow them to suffer the consequences of their sin. So here's what happened. God moved David's heart to number the people when God didn't really want him to number the people.
[5:41] In Proverbs chapter 21 and verse 1, the Bible said, So that's a good example of how God touched David's heart or God allowed David's heart to be touched.
[5:55] I'll show you that in a minute. And he did something. Do you understand? You're asked to pray. You can pray because you know God's bigger than a king's heart. God's bigger than a president's heart.
[6:06] You're concerned about our country. You're concerned about our future. You're concerned about our politicians. You know a God who's big enough to change things. You should be praying people. In a parallel passage in 1 Chronicles 21.1, I want you to read this verse.
[6:21] I hope you'll write it down in the margin of your Bible. In 2 Samuel 24.1 because you could easily read this and say, It looks like God made David do something and then spanked him for doing it.
[6:32] But thank God he gave us a parallel passage, which is another story where it tells the same story, but he gives us more details so we can put those together and get the idea.
[6:43] And here's what happens in 1 Chronicles 21.1. The Bible said, And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number the people. So what's the answer to the dilemma here?
[6:55] You can know that God is in control. See, what happened is David calls to number the people and Satan provokes him and God touched his heart.
[7:05] The Bible says, So what's really happening? Well, you can know this. Nothing ever happens that God doesn't allow or cause. Nothing ever happens that God didn't know about because God knows everything.
[7:19] There's no contradiction. God allowed Satan to provoke David to do something that would bring judgment on his people. God is in charge. That should give you comfort to know that nothing ever happens to you without God's prior approval.
[7:38] Nothing ever happens to you without God's prior approval. Satan may be the culprit, but God is still in charge. God allowed Satan to mistreat Job, but always within limitations.
[7:51] You remember that story? The devil goes up and he talks to God and God says, I have a guy that loves me. And the devil said, Who? And he said, Well, it's Job. And the devil said, Sure, he loves you because you protect him so much.
[8:04] And God said, Well, I'll tell you what I'll do. You can go do this and this and this to him. The devil goes out and does all that to him. He comes back up and said, Yeah, but you don't let me touch his health. You don't let me touch his body. All his stuff is gone, but you don't let me touch his body.
[8:19] His kids are gone, but you don't let me touch his body. God said, You can touch his body. We read that story. We're confused. Instead of being confused, I can know this. God loves me. God will take care of me.
[8:30] And God will always do what's right. And I can trust God. Junk happens in your life. God allowed Satan to mistreat Job, but always within his limitations.
[8:40] So here's a lesson before we go further in this. All your temptations, testings, and trials are God-approved and God-filtered.
[8:51] All your temptations are God-approved and God-filtered. You can know that. In the story, God provokes David.
[9:02] In the story, Satan provokes David. In the story, Job is mistreated by Satan, but God allows it to happen. Satan is not able to do to you what Satan wants to do to you.
[9:13] God is the king. God is in charge. And so when junk happens, you can know this. You don't need to get bitter.
[9:24] You don't need to get distraught. You don't need to want to kill yourself or end it all. You need to realize God is doing something. God's allowing this to happen. God's at work in my life. You can know that God will never do anything to hurt you.
[9:38] God will never do anything to hurt you. He'll only do things to help you. If chastisement comes your way, it will be to help you. So in the story, Israel's going to be chastised.
[9:51] They need to be chastised. David's going to be chastised. He needs to be chastised. We need discipline that gets us in the way to doing what's right. I won't turn out right just on my own.
[10:05] Can I get an amen there? I am not going to do right if you don't make me. Let me just explain something to you about me and school. No kids in here. They're all supposed to be upstairs. I guess I'll just tell you, I hated every day of it.
[10:18] I did not enjoy school. I went to public school. I did not excel, and I did not fail. I just was in the middle. I just got enough to do to get by, and I was like a high C, low B student.
[10:30] I didn't care. I didn't really like being there. The facts are, I'm sure glad they sent me. But if they had given me an option, I would not have gone. I'll just be blunt and honest with you.
[10:41] I'll be totally illiterate today. I didn't want it. But I needed somebody, and I need somebody to work in my life for me to turn out like God wants me to turn out. If he doesn't do it, it ain't going to happen.
[10:53] So go with me, if you would, to 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 31. This is a whole sideline in the chapter, but I still want you to see it. Do you understand that if you're doing wrong, if you understand if you're growing cold, if you understand that when you're not handling your money right, do you understand that when you're not handling your marital relationship right, do you understand when you're not doing what you ought to do, God will shake up your life to bring you to where you're supposed to be.
[11:26] He will provoke you to number Israel and then whip you for doing it. Or he'll let the devil, however you want to word it, here's the deal. God's going to bring you to where he wants you to be. This is the verse that always interests me.
[11:37] 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 31. 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 31. This is about the Lord's Supper. And this is what the Apostle Paul told the church. This backslidden, carnal church that didn't know how to take the Lord's Supper right, he said, if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.
[11:57] If I would take the time and examine my life and get things right with God and confess my sin and get my life right where it ought to be and do what I ought to do, I won't be judged.
[12:08] Verse 32. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world.
[12:22] That verse is like thrilling to me. Look at this verse. When I don't do right and when I don't judge myself and when I step out and do what I'm not supposed to do, I don't get away with it like a lost person does.
[12:36] A lost person can commit adultery and pretty well get away with it. We got plenty of good proof of that. You can make it to the presidency doing that. When you're a lost person, you can about do anything you want and you seem to get away with it, but somehow God told the Corinthians, you don't get away with it.
[12:55] If you would judge yourself, you wouldn't be judged. But when you don't judge yourself, you will be judged. But even when you are judged, I'm doing it for your good because you'll be chastised, but you won't be condemned.
[13:06] Look at the verse. That should bless you. I'll spank your backside, but I won't send you to hell. Say amen right there. You know what? You know what?
[13:16] Your daddy might grab you by the arm and jerk you up and jerk you out of a place and pull your ear and set you down and say, sit down, you're not going to do that. Well, everybody else is doing it, daddy, but you're not.
[13:27] Because he loves you and he don't want you condemned with the world. Could I get an amen? That's just good stuff. Now go with me, if you would, to Romans 8 and verse 28.
[13:39] God will work in your life to take even bad things to bring good in your life. Romans 8, 28. We know that all things work together for good. That doesn't mean he brings all things to good, but he can take anything that happens in my life, anything that happens in my life, and he can bring it to do good.
[14:01] To them that love God, to them that are called according to his purposes. But who is that? You know who loves God? Saved people love God. Who are called according to his purposes. Called people are saved people.
[14:13] You know who this verse is about? It's about us. It's about born-again people. We are the ones who love God. The ones that don't love God aren't saved. We're the ones called according to his purpose. That isn't about a preacher.
[14:24] That's about, we've been called to salvation. And he said, guess what? All things work together for good. I'm going to bring all this junk in your life, and I'm going to take everything, and I can turn that for something good.
[14:39] I can turn, David, by the end of this chapter, buddy, bad things are going to happen. 70,000 people are going to die. Your sin is going to cause others to suffer. But by the end of this chapter, you're all going to be walking with me in a sweet way.
[14:53] And Zephaniah, I probably didn't help you understand it, but it's thundering, loud, and screaming, bloody, terrible darkness is coming on you.
[15:04] You're all going to suffer. And then he said, but come, come. And by the end of the chapter, he's saying, I've got a special place for you. I'll sing over you. I've got special stuff for you.
[15:15] That's exactly what's going on here. Look, if you would, at Romans 8, 29. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestine to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
[15:30] So God's like, Austin, I saved you on May the 6th, 1962, buddy, and I am going to make you like my son. So my son will be the number one guy, and a whole bunch of guys just like him.
[15:41] But to get you from here to there, I have begun a good work in you, and I will carry it through, and I'm going to spank you and form you and shape you and move in your life until I get you all the way to heaven when you're looking like Jesus.
[15:55] Every day we live, we ought to look a little more like Jesus. Not physically, but we ought to be, we'll never get there, but I'll be working. So God's people in the Bible knew it's a good thing to have bad stuff happen.
[16:11] I didn't say that, he did. So let's look at your Bible at James 1 and verse 2. You see, in the story, we've got a horrible story here. Before the story is over, 70,000 people will die.
[16:24] That's probably more than live within the city limits of Alpharetta. More than that, people are there going to die. It's a horrible chapter. David, you've done wrong.
[16:37] Look at James 1, 2. James knows the Lord. James has written, he's writing the word of God. The Holy Spirit's directing him as he writes it. He says, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptation.
[16:49] Different, diverse temptations. Different kinds of temptations. All these testings and all these trials and all these troubles. It's all happening to you. How many of you are going through some junk right now?
[17:00] Well, you know what? Count it all joy. Underline it. I didn't say this. This is the word of God. And in our church, we respect that. Amen. That's what the word of God says. Count it all joy when you fall into all these temptations.
[17:13] Why? Verse 3. Knowing this. Because you know that the trying, the testing of your faith, works patience, endurance.
[17:25] The trying or the testing of your faith works patience or endurance. God is forming you and getting you strong and getting you ready and getting you able.
[17:37] Verse 4. But let patience have her complete work, her perfect work. That you may be perfect, complete, entire, wanting nothing, not lacking anything.
[17:48] So God's at work in my life. How many of you are going through something? And you're like, God doesn't love me. He's letting me go through bad stuff. Of course he is. You won't grow without going through some bad stuff.
[18:00] And when you step off the path and there's some rough times, that's okay. God wants you to know when you don't follow him, it's bad times. God wants you to understand following him. But even following him, there's going to be some stuff that happens to us.
[18:12] Look at verse 4. Patience or endurance has her perfect work. That we might be perfect, mature, complete. The word explains itself.
[18:23] You may be perfect and entire, complete. Wanting nothing, nothing missing. God is at work.
[18:33] God is at work. I've got a whole chapter to preach, so I'm going to leave this. But can I just say this? Right now, you're in the middle of a mess going on in your life.
[18:44] And you've got a bitter and bad and anxious and desperate attitude because of all the junk going on in your life when the Lord God of heaven is saying, I am just trying to drive you to me and your knees.
[18:56] I am just trying to bring you to me and bring you to your knees. And so what you're all mad about and shaking your fist at, God is saying, it's all for you. Will you trust God to work in your life?
[19:10] It's time to realize that things are not simply coincidences in life. You should now recognize God's hand at work in your life, bringing you to a place of more faithfulness and service.
[19:23] You need to lift your eyes and see God at work in your life. Just let me say this before I go to the rest of the message. We all go through hard times, but God doesn't want you to hurt.
[19:39] In this very chapter, he is going to say they're dying, and he is going to repent or feel the pain of the people. He's going to say, stop, angel.
[19:49] Just stop. Just stop, angel. I don't like seeing them hurt. You're his child. He wants to sing over you. That's out of Zephaniah. He wants this sweet relationship with you.
[20:03] But you get so cocky, and I get so cocky, and we get so arrogant, and we don't worry about, we don't keep the sexual purity in our family, and we don't keep the mind control of not thinking thoughts that don't honor God, and we don't keep our eyes off of money.
[20:19] We let the money take over, and we let the world attract us, and we slowly draw away from God, and we get cold and hard, and all of a sudden, things start happening in our lives. We're like, God, what's wrong with you?
[20:30] Everything was going so good. And God's like, yeah, but you're drifting. 2 Samuel 24, 2.
[20:45] So David's pride causes him to sin. In 2 Samuel 24, verse 2, now we know behind the scenes God's doing something. He's punishing Israel, and he's shaking up David. But that's all behind the scenes.
[20:55] You can't see that. Now down here on earth you can see it. We can see it because it's in the Scripture, but if you'd have been there that day, you wouldn't have understood. When David stood up and looked at Joab and said, Go count the boys. I want to know how many soldiers I got.
[21:06] Joab would have been like, What in the world got into you? And back in the back behind the scenes, you know that God and the devil have had a talk, and I don't know how they did it, but they decided to go ahead and provoke him. We can't see that part happening if we're living there.
[21:19] And so in his pride, he says, look at verse 2, I may know the number of the people. Man, I'm a king, and I like to know how many people I got. Now God had reasons for counting his people, but David didn't need to know there.
[21:30] God didn't tell him to do it, and there's not a census time, and it wasn't for a purpose that God had given him. Joab believes that David's got an ulterior motive. In 2 Samuel 24, verse 3, Joab said, Now the Lord thy God add unto the people, how many soever they be, a hundredfold, that the eyes of my Lord the king may see it.
[21:53] Let God help you know that you don't need to count your army. It's not your army that wins the battle. And you need to remember, if you know anything about the Old Testament history, when his people went out to fight, God would rain down hailstones from heaven.
[22:06] God would make it look like there was blood all over the field. God would send earthquakes. God would drop walls of a city. It was never the power of their army.
[22:16] It was always the power of God. And David should have known that. Joab's like, David, you know better. We don't count them because if we count them, we'll begin to think we got money in the bank and we got stuff for us and you shouldn't be doing that, David.
[22:30] But David said, I want it. 2 Samuel 24, 4, Notwithstanding, the king's word prevailed. And so they went to a number of the people.
[22:41] If we're honest, most of the time when we want to do wrong, we have advisors that are warning us to be careful. Just like old David. Here David is and people are going, Dave, you're making a mistake. Just like David, I go, I don't care what you got to say about that.
[22:53] This is what I want. We're smarter than seven men that can render a reason. Our wife or our friends or even the voice of God or devotional time or preaching, God might speak to us, but we don't care.
[23:05] Ten months later, they come back with the numbers. There's 1,300,000 soldiers. It's kind of like us. I just want you to understand about David counting his men.
[23:15] It's kind of like me and you when we count our money, our possessions and our retirement fund. We check out the market to see how things are going. We forget that it's God that takes care of us, not our 401k, not our savings account, not the U.S. government.
[23:30] We take pride in the fact that we can take care of ourselves to our detriment. Could this passage of Scripture be calling on us to trust God and not ourselves?
[23:42] In Psalm chapter 20 and verse 7, some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
[23:55] Could it be time to get our eyes off ourselves and out onto the God of heaven? Psalm 49, 6, they that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in a multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him for the redemption of their soul is precious.
[24:15] So no matter how much money you got, no matter how big your army is, you still need God. That's the lesson. Oh man, let me check out the stock market.
[24:26] Man, I think the market's going up. My 501k or 401k or whatever it is, looking good, I'm doing good. The God of heaven's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, don't you look at that junk. Nothing wrong with you having some money.
[24:38] Nothing wrong with you having a retirement program. Nothing wrong with you having all those soldiers, David. Just don't look at them. Let God multiply them 100 times more because God will take care of you, Dave.
[24:49] You don't need to count them. What are you trusting in today? In Psalm 52, 7, And lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and strengthened himself in his wickedness.
[25:05] Are we ready to turn our eyes for material things to our great God? Is the Holy Spirit convicting you of your love for other things instead of your love for the Lord and Savior?
[25:16] Here's the thing. God didn't have a problem with having soldiers. God just didn't want them counting soldiers. Not now. God was like, you don't trust your soldiers. I'll always take care of that. The fact is, I'll let one or two of your soldiers put 1,000 soldiers to flight.
[25:30] I'm a good God. I'll take care of you. Don't count your soldiers. Don't count your money. Don't tear down your barns. And build bigger barns and think the money's going to make the difference.
[25:41] So the Holy Spirit convicted David that he was doing wrong. 2 Samuel 24, 10. To me, this is a perfect picture of what happens to me so many times.
[25:52] I don't know if it happens to you. Maybe I'm the only one in the room. David's heart smote him. He had numbered the people.
[26:04] And he said, Lord, I have sinned greatly. And what I've done, please, take away the iniquity. I have done very foolishly.
[26:17] Do you know what it's like to feel the conviction of sin? David's heart smote him. David had done wrong. David could be referring to his conscience. He might be referring to the counselor speaking to him.
[26:28] I don't know what happened, but I know this. God made David know you did wrong. Have you ever felt that? Have you ever said something, did something, been somewhere in your heart, hit you, struck you, shook you?
[26:47] I like what the Bible says. In Hebrews 4, verse 12, the word of God is quick. That means alive. It's powerful. It's sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow.
[27:03] And here's what I like. Listen to this. It's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Now that, that ain't right.
[27:14] That's not natural. How can this book know what I'm thinking? But if I'm reading that right, it is, it is, it is, it discerns my thoughts.
[27:28] And it discerns my intents. So when you come to preaching service, you go to Sunday school and the teacher opens the Bible and you read your Bible when you're doing it alone or you're in foundations and whenever it is, all of a sudden you're reading the Bible and you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
[27:42] Hmm, that's uncomfortable. Man, I, what a verse. You ever have that happen? I have many times. Here's what he's saying. This thing's alive and powerful and sharp.
[27:55] You get in the Bible and the Bible and you. And David wanted that sin off of his account. He realized he'd done foolishly. We should be sensitive to the Lord and desire to please him.
[28:07] I beg you to never come. You know, I was just sitting there before I got up to preach and I thought to myself, they hear so much Bible here. They're probably tired of me and tired of the Bible. But every time we've got to come and we've got to say, I'm here to hear what God's word says.
[28:20] I don't care about Austin, but I'm here to hear what God's word says. I want to be sensitive. I want the Holy Spirit to speak to me. You have to come as spiritually prepared as you expect me to come that God would do a work in your heart and show you when you're doing wrong.
[28:36] 2 Samuel chapter 24 and verse 11. So God sent his man to tell David the consequences that were coming. Verse 11. The word of the Lord came unto the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, Go say to David, Choose one of the three.
[28:53] And he offers him three horrible consequences. Three horrible consequences. One, he could have seven years of famine or he could be on the run for three months or he could have three days of pestilence.
[29:05] And David can only say, My goodness, this is horrible. What's happened here? Can I just be honest? What little things you're going through right now are very small consequences compared to this story.
[29:19] Think about that. So far, I don't think anything I've ever done has caused the death of 70,000 people. Verse 14. David said to Gad, I am in a strait.
[29:32] Let us fall into the hand of the Lord for his mercies are great. I know God's good. I know God's kind. I don't want to have to pick. I just don't. And I certainly don't want a man messing with me. Let's just let God do what he wants.
[29:44] And so God sent a pestilence in verse 15. It says, So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning to the time appointed and there died 70,000 men.
[29:57] Can you hear it all over the country? Can you hear it as the newscasters say in San Francisco, 10,000 just died and in Austin, Texas, 10,000 more just died and in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 10,000 more just died and death is coming from Dan to Beersheba and people are just dying like crazy.
[30:18] Three days of it. David's sin affected others. Don't you dare think that when you do wrong, it doesn't hurt anybody else.
[30:28] I ain't hurting nobody but me. My sin doesn't affect anybody else. That's not what happened here. It was David that numbered them, not Joab. Joab didn't want to. Thursday night he's a bad guy, but tonight he's a good guy.
[30:47] And David saw the horribleness of his sin. 2 Samuel 24, 16. The angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it. The Lord repented him of the evil. I love that. Underline that. And the angel that destroyed the people, he said, it's enough.
[31:02] Stay your hand. And the angel stopped. God sees people hurting and he's hurting for them and he stops the suffering. He told the angel to stop.
[31:14] Do we know enough Bible truth to understand that sin has consequences? I'm afraid that in our society, we think that it's all just coincidence.
[31:25] My business is failing. I'm losing jobs. I'm in Haggai, Sunday morning, he's going to say, y'all made good money, but it wasn't ever enough.
[31:41] In other words, God is going to say, listen to me, people. Everything's looking good, but I'm not letting it be good. That's not a coincidence. That's God at work in our lives.
[31:57] 2 Samuel 24, verse 18. So David decides to worship because the Lord tells him to through Gad. Gad came that day to David and said, go build an altar. And Gad went up as the Lord commanded and told David.
[32:11] So David builds it. He immediately proceeds to do what God has commanded him. David doesn't run away from God, but he runs towards him. Now listen to me. Are you ready?
[32:21] You want to hear something? When things start falling apart in your life and God is disciplining you, you know what you do? Can I just tell you what you typically do? You run. You don't come to church.
[32:32] You don't read the Bible. You don't pray. You don't get right with God. You're like, my life stinks. I think I'll just get alone. That's not what David does. David's like, my life stinks. 70,000 people have died.
[32:46] I'm going to go seek the Lord. So in 2 Samuel chapter 24 and verse 21, he came to buy the threshing floor to build an altar and that the plague might be stayed.
[33:07] The guy says to him in verse 24, I'll give it to you. And David said, no, I'm not taking it for free. This guy's name is Ornan in another chapter, another part of the Bible. That's easier for me to say.
[33:19] And he said, I'll pay you what it's worth. You see, he refused to sacrifice to God flippantly. He wanted this to be his sacrifice. He messed up. He wasn't looking for a quick and easy way out.
[33:31] He wanted to humble himself. I don't know if you can see what I see here. Maybe I see it foolishly and I don't mind being corrected.
[33:44] But there's pomp and circumstance here. This is the Queen of England. This is the President of the United States. This is a person who doesn't lift a glass by themselves hardly. And he comes to there and the guy comes out and says, hey, I'll build an altar for you.
[34:01] I'll do it all. You don't have to do anything. David said, no, no, no. That's not how it's going to be. And I'm not sure if David literally built this altar, but I kind of think he did. Because it says, David built an altar.
[34:12] I know he could have said, y'all built it. Maybe that's how he built it. But I got a funny feeling. David said, step aside. By the way, when the bad boys start trying to take over David's kingdom, they always send 50 men running in front of them.
[34:25] David said, y'all men get out of the way. Hand me a trial. Hand me some rocks. Give me some wood. I messed up. I'll pay for this.
[34:37] Y'all just stand back. I'm the idiot that caused all the hurt. I'm the one who did wrong. And I'm going to pray. And I'm going to pray. And I'm going to ask God to forgive us. And to forgive me.
[34:49] I see a proud Alpharidian on his knees at an altar. When that goes against everything in him.
[35:03] In poor country, people I grew up with, they didn't mind going to an altar. You get rich enough people, I'll pray right here in my seat, bless God. But David's like, hey, just step back, guys. I can build an altar.
[35:15] I still remember my days when I was a poor boy before I became a king at such a big shot. Let me build an altar. Have we learned to worship? Real worship that's between you and God, even if it happens in public?
[35:30] Because I don't know if you have any picture of this, but I see David. He doesn't go anywhere without the Secret Service. He doesn't go anywhere without all the people traveling with him. But David built an altar.
[35:42] Real worship cost. Real worship's more than a music program. It's sacrifice. It's an offering. It was seeking God and seeking God's blessings on David's life.
[35:53] Have you come to worship today? Are you living a life of worship? Interesting fact. The spot where this offering takes place seems to be the same spot where Abraham offered a sacrifice to please God.
[36:12] It's the place where the Jewish temple will be built by Solomon. 1 Chronicles chapter 22 and verse 1. It's the place of forgiveness and sacrifice that will one day be the place where God would be worshipped and the temple would be built.
[36:24] Isn't that crazy? In Romans chapter 5 and verse 20, you know, David's big mess up seems to be taking place where they're going to build a temple. 1 Chronicles 22, 1.
[36:35] You can look that up later. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Isn't that sweet? Every time you mess up and every time you get away from God, here's the beautiful thing.
[36:48] God said, come here, David, buddy. I love you. I'm going to forgive you. He was entreated of David. David heard his prayer and God heard his prayer and God forgave him. Blood was shed here.
[36:59] The way of salvation was won by the shedding of the blood of the Lamb. It was our sin that caused the great sacrifice to be made. It was the great love of God that provided himself a sacrifice for us. So I quit with this.
[37:12] Number one, you can trust what's happening in your life to be from the hand of God. We've got health issues, financial issues, marital issues, personality issues, all kinds of junk going on in our lives, and we think it's just junk, but it's God might just be working in your life.
[37:36] It might just be God saying, isn't it time to humble yourself? Isn't it time to humble yourself? Because you know, when you get sick enough, broke enough, or poor enough, you know what you'll do, don't you?
[37:51] You'll humble yourself. Is it possible that God's at work in your life right now? And then pride's what gets me all lifted up and causes me to do all this sin because I want to know how much money I got.
[38:04] I want to know how many soldiers I got. And my sin hurts other people. My sin hurts other people. Husband, your family will suffer because of you, sir.
[38:17] You let porn creep into your life and it'll hurt your wife and it'll hurt your kids and you'll say, I only look at it in private. It's still going to come out and hurt your family, buddy. You let that flirting with that person at work, you let that getting drunk over here at this place over here, you let that hunger for money and you say, I'm just trying to provide for my family.
[38:39] I'm not hurting anybody. I'm just trying to... But the second you start counting your soldiers... Read the story. See if I'm right.
[38:51] It's time to come to an altar and humble ourselves and say, boy, God, I need you. I want to trust you to take care of me when I'm old. I want to trust you to take care of me when I'm sick.
[39:02] I want to trust you, Lord. I want to look to you. I want to trust you. I want to believe you. I want to honor you. I want to worship you. It's not a game. Where is it?
[39:16] Does your heart smoke you? Does it hit you? Does the word of God shook you? And by the way, if it hadn't, I'd be more worried about that.