Now, last week I began a message, a
series of three messages on spiritual authority.
The second message is going to be on
Tuesday night, won't be this morning, and I'll
be speaking Tuesday night on the purpose and
limits of authority, what to do in response
when authority becomes abusive, questionable, or unjust.
And so we'll be speaking on that on
Tuesday night.
It's going to be part of a three
-part set that will be available when all
of the messages are finished.
And then the following Sunday, Lord willing, I'll
be speaking on authority and faith, inseparable link
between authority and faith, that is being under
godly authority and having the eyes of faith.
Today I have a message that the Lord's
put on my heart called Six Paces and
a Shout of Glory.
And it's not a new play for college
football, this is really in the Bible.
Nehemiah chapter 6, please, if you'll go there,
in the Old Testament you'll find Kings, first
and second, and first and second Chronicles, then
Ezra, then Nehemiah.
Nehemiah chapter 6, Six Paces and a Shout
of Glory.
Now that's in the Bible, I will prove
that to you eventually, you'll see it.
How many know where that is in the
Bible, Six Paces and a Shout of Glory?
I see that hand, that's...
it is in the Bible.
Six Paces and a Shout of Glory.
We won't get there for a little while,
so don't try to figure it out too
fast.
Father, I stand before you and I have
no desire but to stand as an oracle
of God.
I pray, Lord, that this thought that you've
given into my heart, which I believe is
from your heart, Lord, that you will enable
me now to bring it out clearly, and
that every heart may understand this.
Lord, your kingdom advances when our hearts are
open, and your word finds a dwelling place
in our innermost being.
And it's not just something we learn, but
your word becomes the very foundations of our
life.
Jesus, I ask that you be pleased today,
at the end of this service, that your
kingdom will have advanced.
You told us clearly, the kingdom of God
does not come without your display.
You said, behold, the kingdom of God is
within you.
Let your kingdom come now.
Let your will be done in us, as
it is in heaven.
Father, we ask this.
I ask for a quickening of my heart,
mind, and my spirit.
I ask, Lord, that you push away every
enemy that would come and try to obstruct
this message.
And I pray, Father, that Jesus, you be
lifted up and absolutely glorified, be loved, be
longed for in this sanctuary.
I thank you for reaching out and holding
my hands today, Jesus, that in turn I
may be a vessel that is a revelation
of your heart.
And I thank you for it in your
precious name.
Amen.
Nehemiah chapter 6, beginning at verse 1.
Now it came to pass when Sanballat and
Tobiah and Yeshim the Arabian and the rest
of our enemies heard that I had built
the wall and that there was no breach
left therein, though at that time I had
not set up the doors upon the gates.
Then Sanballat and Yeshim sent to me, saying,
Come, let us meet together in some one
of the villages in the plain of Ono.
But they thought to do me mischief.
And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I
am doing a great work, so that I
cannot come down.
And why should the work cease while I
leave it and come down to you?
Yet they sent unto me four times after
this sort, and I answered them after the
same manner.
I don't normally do this, but I'd like
you to say something after me.
I'd like you to say these words.
I am doing a great work.
Now, Nehemiah was an ordinary man who was
called to do an extraordinary work for God.
And that's, in effect, what all of us
are.
We're ordinary people.
We are, as Paul says, we're not skilled,
we're not royal, we're not brilliant.
At least I'm not anyway.
I don't know about anybody else here.
But we are called by God.
And God's life comes in the form of
the Holy Spirit.
And he empowers us to understand God's word
to us.
And as we believe the word of God,
he makes this word a reality within us.
And calls each of us into an extraordinary
work.
Now, Nehemiah was given obvious giftings from the
Lord.
In chapter 2, we see that Nehemiah is
a man who could see what needed to
be done.
He came into the ruin that had been
the wall surrounding Jerusalem and the gates.
Of course, the wall was down, the people
were in reproach, and the gates were burned
with fire.
But Nehemiah could see what needed to be
done.
And that's one of the evidences of the
giftings of the Lord.
You have a ministry that God's entrusted to
you.
And part of the evidence that you are
in the right place, that God has placed
you in the body, is that you can
see what needs to be done.
When all others around you might be confused,
you're not confused.
You have a gifting of sight that God
will give to you when he calls you
into where you're supposed to be in the
body.
His life and obedience to God's calling inspired
others to take up the cause of God's
heart.
This is a man who, as we travel
through the book of Nehemiah, you'll see that
people have become accustomed, as it is, to
the ruin.
They've become accustomed to the reproach.
There had been a disgrace, as it is
over Jerusalem, perhaps for dozens of years.
But yet, Nehemiah comes, and through an anointed
servant of God, called to do an extraordinary
work, there is this infusion, as it is,
of inspiration into the lives of others.
And that's another sign that you and I
are in the right place.
When we're in the right place that God
has called us to be in, there will
be an inspiration that passes through our lives
and into the lives of others.
And they'll be inspired to take up the
cause of Christ, to take up the work
of God, because they will see something in
us.
I believe that that is the number one
thing that children in our homes need to
see.
They need to see moms and dads who
are content to be where God has placed
them, who are walking in divine order and
walking with the anointing of God flowing through
their lives.
And just by virtue of that very place
that they're in, children begin to be inspired
to say, I want to live this kind
of a life.
Nobody wants to live a life of religious
works.
But when the divine life of God is
what is in us and animating us, it
becomes extremely attractive to those that are around
us.
We see that Nehemiah was a man who,
through prayer, could organize and defend, even against
the most fierce enemies of the Lord's work.
There were conspirators, and there always will be,
powers, principalities of darkness, sometimes who get a
hold of the hearts of those who are
not surrendered to the things of God.
And they came against this rebuilding of the
wall.
The enemy will always come against that which
represents the kingdom of God.
And they came, and they threatened violence, and
they threatened to come in during the night
times when people were weary.
And Nehemiah recognized, through prayer, that God had
a specific defense.
And he was enabled to bring these people
into that organized defense to stand against even
the most fierce attack of the enemies of
the Lord's work.
And when we see such a man, a
man who is gifted, a man who can
see, a man who is inspiring others, a
man who can organize and defend against the
power of the fiercest enemies that oppose the
work of the Lord, we ask ourselves a
question.
How could the enemy defeat the purposes of
God through such a man?
If that is you today, now you might
not be in a ministry that's high profile,
but nevertheless, the very same life and giftings
that were on Nehemiah could be given to
you.
You are a person who can see what
needs to be done.
Your life is inspiring others to begin to
take up the cause of Christ.
You are a person who is enabled, through
prayer, to organize and defend.
Your prayers have weight, they have authority.
And you're able to stand against the most
wicked onslaughts of darkness, not against just your
ministry, but against your own family, your own
home.
And you're standing in this place of authority.
It seems that you're in a place where
you really can't be defeated.
But the Bible tells us, if you go
right back to Genesis, that the devil was
more subtle than any other of the created
things that would come against the purposes of
God through his creation.
And they tried to draw him.
You see in Nehemiah chapter 6, they tried
to draw him away from what he was
doing or what God was doing through him
to another place.
And that's exactly how the enemy will come
and try to defeat an anointed man or
woman of God.
They'll try to draw you away from where
you're called into another place.
Now that's exactly what Satan did in Eden.
In Genesis chapter 3, he drew Adam and
Eve away from a place of walking in
unity and unison with God into a place
where they thought they could profit by acting
independently of the life and direction of their
Creator.
And he did so by infusing into their
minds the thought that where God had placed
them was somehow a place that lacked complete
fulfillment.
It's amazing.
His devices never changed.
Adam and Eve are walking in absolute divine
life.
They are in the presence of God.
And it may not have seen...
You know, this is the first time the
enemy comes and just infuses that.
And he's done this, I don't know how
many times over the centuries.
He infuses into the mind and heart of
somebody who is placed exactly where God wants
them to be.
And it's not an argument.
Nobody could argue that Adam and Eve were
not exactly in the place where they were
to be.
They were co-laborers with God.
They were involved in tending the garden as
it is.
They were naming certain animals that were being
created and such like things.
And most importantly, they were in divine and
complete unity of fellowship with God.
And so Satan comes and says, no, this
is not complete, there's more.
There's more things that need to be done.
There's a greater dimension of fulfillment that you
are lacking in the place where you are.
And so the enemy comes to try to
lure those who are actually in the place
where God has destined them to be into
another place.
In Nehemiah 6, verse 2, tells us that
Sanballat...
Now, these are people who are really in
opposition to divine order.
They're in opposition to where their life and
work of God really is.
And they sent to me saying, come, let
us meet together in some one of the
villages in the plain of Ono.
And they thought to do me mischief.
Now, the scripture says in verse 4, they
sent to me four times after this sort
and I answered them after the same manner.
Four times they tried to draw Nehemiah away
from his divinely appointed place.
Matthew Henry, the commentator, says that Ono is
a place of mutual concern.
It might even be portrayed as a good
place.
A place like...
Here's the best way I can explain it.
There's greater fulfillment over here.
Or you are such an anointed person.
It's obvious the giftings of God are with
you.
And there are other needs, not just the
wall, not just where God's placed you, but
there are other ministries.
There are other needs.
There are other places you need to go.
There are other people you need to speak
to.
You cannot contain this gifting that is in
your life to just this one place at
this one time.
And it may have been portrayed as a
good place.
You see, this is how the enemy defeated
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
In Genesis chapter 3 and verse 1 says,
The serpent was more subtle than any of
the beasts of the field which the Lord
God had made.
And then in verse 5, he says, You
know that in the day you eat thereof,
then your eyes shall be opened, and you
shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
And when the woman saw that the tree
was good for food, it was pleasant to
the eyes, and a tree to be desired
to make one wise, she took of the
fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also
unto her husband with her, and they did
eat.
And see, this is the way the enemy
will come against you.
If you are in the place that God
wants you to be in, he will convince
you that it is a good thing to
go where he's suggesting you should go.
He will draw you out of the place
that you are in and say, no, there's
something over here that you need to consider.
And in this place, you'll be more fulfilled.
Your sense of destiny will be achieved as
it is in a greater way.
So move from where you are and move
to this other place.
And this is a good place.
You see, this is how the enemy came
against God's creation in the first place, convincing
them that where they are was insufficient.
You're unfulfilled here.
Move from this place and go to another
place.
And I can't help but wonder how many
people in the church of Jesus Christ are
in the wrong place today.
How many in the sanctuaries this morning, meeting
all over, let's just say, the United States
of America today, are doing something, but they're
in the wrong place.
They're in the wrong ministry.
They're doing something they were not called to
do.
They were called to do something else, but
the enemy came and said, no, you're not
fulfilled here.
Your potential is not being realized here.
This is a place, but I have something
very, very good for you to consider, and
draws them out.
And folks, when you and I are drawn
out of where we should be, it's as
surely as I stand here, the giftings, the
empowerment of God is lost.
And we are now relegated to a place
where we have to come up with plans
out of our natural mind and schemes out
of our natural spirit.
That's why so much of the church of
Jesus Christ today, folks, listen to me on
this, is being led by committees, being led
out of the minds of men, being led
in the devices of men, because those that
are doing these things are in the wrong
place.
Now, Nehemiah responds in chapter 6 and verse
3 of Nehemiah, and he says, I am
doing a great work.
And folks, this is really the issue that
I want to speak to you about today.
The tactic of the enemy is to get
you to leave a great work for a
good work.
And he says, why should I leave it
to come down to you?
Why should I leave a great work to
come down where you are, even if the
invitation is apparently to something good?
Now listen, go with me, put a marker
here, and go ahead in your Bible to
Psalm 111.
We're talking about a great work.
What is the definition of a great work?
Because Nehemiah said, no, I'm doing a great
work, and I'm not going to leave a
great work for a good work.
I'm not going there.
Psalm 111, the psalmist says in verse 1,
praise ye the Lord.
I will praise the Lord with my whole
heart in the assembly of the upright and
in the congregation.
The works of the Lord are what?
Are great.
If you're reading from the King James Isaiah,
the works of the Lord are great, and
they're sought out of all them that have
pleasure therein.
In other words, what God does is great.
How God does it is great.
This manifestation of his life through my life
is the greatest place I could ever be
in, in the body of Jesus Christ.
If I'm in a place where I'm losing
this sense of the divine, I have to
stop what I'm doing.
Find out why I'm losing this awareness of
his presence.
What is it that I'm doing?
The psalmist says, the works of the Lord
are great, and sought out of all them
that have pleasure therein.
Sought out.
In other words, Jesus, I'm not in this
to live for myself.
I'm not in this to be relegated to
my own understanding, my own abilities and power.
I am called to be a divine ambassador
of the reality that you have been raised
from the dead and sit at the right
hand of all glory.
I am told by the Apostle Paul that
the same Spirit that raised Christ from the
dead is sent to quicken my mortal body,
to bring me into this divine life of
Christ.
The Holy Spirit is to give me a
new mind.
The Holy Spirit is to give me a
new heart.
The Holy Spirit comes and changes my very
motive and essence of why I live my
life on this earth, and intertwines me as
it is with the Spirit of Christ, and
I become a completely new creation.
I don't stand with ideas about God.
I stand with the very life of God
within me.
I live, Paul says, and I move and
I have my being in Christ.
I walk in divine order as it is
with God.
And God begins to manifest His glory through
my life.
This is the purpose of the church of
Jesus Christ.
In verse 3 of Psalm 111 it says,
His work is honorable and glorious, and His
righteousness endures forever.
And the word honorable in the original text
means His work displays the honor, the majesty,
and the glory of God.
And the word glorious means it is made
excellent, and it is something that is esteemed
and made to be desired.
Can I put it in layman's terms?
When I am in a place where God's
life is being manifested through my life, it
brings not me to glory and honor, it
brings Christ to glory and honor through me.
And others see, and they know, like the
Gadarene demoniac.
Imagine this man going back into his village,
and now preaching the freedom and the life
that can be for everyone who is in
Christ.
The people would have known the manner of
life this man lived before.
But now they saw that something greater than
his history, something greater than his own struggle,
something greater than his own ability had come
and was now animating him and walking him
towards an even greater freedom.
And this freedom that is found in Christ
begins to be desired by those who see
it.
I remember years ago, as a young Christian,
I walked into a church.
It was the first time, actually, I was
in this particular church.
And an usher greeted me.
It's strange how a person who is in
the right place can have such an effect
on you.
Just the manner in which this man greeted
me made me want to stay in that
church.
And it's like every Sunday morning I would
come in and he would seek me out.
And he would just, just a greeting.
You see, this man was in the place,
and I knew him for many years after
this, and I knew exactly, he was exactly
where God had called him to be.
He was actually quite content to do what
God had called him to do.
He had a gifting of God that was
on him, and he could perhaps discern those
that were weary coming in for the first
time, not quite sure of the whole procedure
and what's going on, and was able to
come.
And just the manner of how he dealt
with me caused my heart to want to
be in that place.
And even more, I remember thinking, I'd like
to be like this man.
This man has such a nice spirit about
him.
I was a young Christian.
You still have a whole wagon load of
baggage coming in behind you, and you see
somebody that seems to be at peace, and
they're walking in a divine order, although you
don't understand those terms in the beginning of
your walk with Christ.
And I can't help but wonder, what would
have happened had this man been in another
place than where God had called him?
You have to ask the question, would his
life have had the same influence on mine
that it had?
And how many are drawn away from where
they should be by something good, by a
thought that comes into the mind, this is
better than where I am now.
Folks, I have honestly lived this throughout my
life.
I know exactly what this is all about.
Go back to Psalm 92 with me just
for a moment, if you will, in your
Bible.
Psalm 92, verse 4.
The psalmist says, For thou, Lord, hast made
me glad through thy work.
I will triumph in the works of thy
hands.
O Lord, how great are thy works, and
thy thoughts are very deep.
How great are your works, O God.
You have made me glad through your work.
In other words, Lord, I know I'm where
I should be, and I know that your
life and love and power is flowing through
me, and I'm glad because I'm in the
place where you are able to work through
me.
You've called me.
Folks, do you understand this morning, really, in
essence, I guess what I'm trying to say,
is that we are placed, the Scripture says,
in the body of Jesus Christ, by the
Holy Spirit, as He determines it appropriate.
He places us where we're supposed to be.
You and I have a calling of God.
And not one calling is less than the
other.
We're just simply part of the body.
It's only humanistic thinking, getting into the church,
that makes people believe that the person who
cleans the floor and the person who preaches
the gospel are somehow in a different place
in God.
And that's not true.
We're in the same body.
The rewards that we get for faithfully doing
what we're called to do will be exactly
the same when we stand before the throne
of God.
Folks, there are no big people and little
people in the church of Jesus Christ.
There are just obedient people, obedient servants.
Folks, when we get there one day, Jesus
said, many who are first are going to
be last, many who are last are going
to be first.
He's simply talking about the way humanity in
their minds evolves and begins to understand what
they think the church of Jesus Christ is.
Big, big people are going to get big,
big rewards.
Not so.
It's the obedient in the body of Christ.
It's the man, it's the woman who just
simply heard God, said, Lord, wherever you place
me, if I'm a big stone in the
wall, if I'm a little pebble under the
stairs, I really don't care as long as
I'm in the right place in your body
and your life can flow through me.
That's what it's all about.
Manifest your glory through my life.
If I'm a cleaner, I'm going to clean
to the best of my ability.
I'm going to sing the songs of Zion
up and down the aisles.
Whether or not anybody ever sees it, God
Almighty, you see it.
You see it, you know it.
Verse 6 of Psalm 92 says, A brutish
man doesn't know this, and neither does a
fool understand this.
You go back with me, please, in the
book of 1 Samuel, if you will.
If you're back in Nehemiah, just go back
a little ways before Kings and you'll find
1 Samuel 10.
And I'm not going to labor long on
this, but I want to talk for a
moment about a man called Saul that most
of you are familiar with.
A brutish man who just doesn't understand.
A fool who doesn't know.
In 1 Samuel 10, Saul was anointed.
In 1 Samuel 10, verse 1, it says,
Samuel took a vial of oil and poured
it on his head and kissed him, and
said, Is it not because the Lord has
anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance?
He was anointed to be a leader as
it is in the body, as it was,
of course, then.
It's not the body of Christ in those
days, but the church as the church was,
the anointed people of God, Saul is called
to be a leader in some capacity as
it is in that particular body.
And then, of course, in verse 6 of
chapter 1, he was empowered by the Spirit.
Samuel said, The Spirit of the Lord will
come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with
them, and shalt be turned into another man.
And this very thing happened.
He was walking, and God gave him clear
signs, that as you walk in obedience to
me, provision.
Now, I don't have time to go through
all of this, but he told him, he
said, You're going to meet some men, and
you're going to get provision from their hands.
And God was speaking to this man.
If you will just walk in obedience to
me, if you will hold and cherish the
office that I've given you, all the provision
that you will ever need will be given
to you.
But he was not understanding it.
He was not learning the lesson.
And in chapter 11, in verse 6, it
tells us, The Spirit of God came upon
Saul when he heard those tidings, and his
anger was greatly kindled.
Now, Saul heard that there was certain groups
of his people that were under attack, and
he was enabled to be led and to
be moved by the Spirit of God.
And verse 7, at the end of the
verse, says, The fear of the Lord fell
on all the people, and they came out
with one consent.
Not only did God enable Saul, but He
confirmed his position by placing an awareness in
the hearts of the people that this man
is exactly where I have placed him.
Now, we go to chapter 13 and verse
8.
He was given specific instructions.
Verse 8 says, He tarried seven days according
to the set time that Samuel had appointed.
But Samuel came not to Gilgal, and the
people were scattered from him.
And Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering
to me, and peace offerings.
And he offered the burnt offering.
And it came to pass that as soon
as he had made an end of offering
the burnt offering, Samuel came, and Saul went
out to meet him, that he might salute
him.
And Samuel said, What have you done?
And Saul said, Because I saw the people
were scattered from me, and that you came
not within the days appointed.
And the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash.
Therefore, I said, The Philistines will come down
now upon me to Gilgal, and I have
not made supplication to the Lord.
I forced myself, therefore, and have offered a
burnt offering.
And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done
foolishly.
Thou hast not kept the commandment of the
Lord thy God, which He commanded thee.
For now would the Lord have established thy
kingdom upon Israel forever.
And here is really the bottom line.
Saul is walking in this place of divine
enablement and empowerment.
And in a moment of weakness, he left
something that was great, as it is, and
settled for something good.
Keep in mind, this is what I'm talking
about all the way through this message.
He had a great calling upon him.
Samuel said, The Lord would have established your
kingdom forever.
In other words, you would have walked in
this divine enablement all of your life.
Not just you, but your son and your
sons and others after you.
There would have been a lineage that you
would have left behind.
But you chose to step out from the
place that God had appointed you.
And you settled in your mind for something
that seemed good.
And you know, in effect, what Saul did
is he became his own priest.
And those who step out of the divine
calling of God quite often have become their
own priests.
They're the ones who are appointing themselves a
position in the body.
They look in the mirror and say, No,
you're better than to be this.
You're better than to be working in the
nursery.
You're better than to have such a low
position in the body.
And they appoint themselves.
And when we appoint ourselves a position that
God hasn't given us, we have in effect
become our own priest.
We've moved out of divine order.
And we've moved automatically into the realm of
the flesh.
And the Scripture tells us that a fool
doesn't understand these things.
Oh, folks, I would rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of God than to step
on the biggest platform in the world and
be preaching to hundreds of thousands and be
out of the will of God, out of
divine order, for the things in my heart
now are beginning to understand.
Later on, Saul was commissioned to slay the
Amalekites.
But now his heart was being firmly entrenched
in this lie of the enemy.
The Lord sent him.
I think I've often felt it was a
plea to see if this man would finally
obey me.
But once again, in disobedience to God, he
was told, slay everything, slay all the animals,
slay everything.
But he moved from a great work to
a good work.
And what seemed good in his own mind
began to lead him.
And he brought back home some of the
sheep.
And Samuel, who was a godly man, was
infuriated.
Not just infuriated, but he grieved in his
heart because of the loss of this young
man that he deeply loved.
And he said to him, you've done foolishly.
You've not kept the commandment of the Lord.
He would have established your kingdom upon Israel
forever.
But he said, now your kingdom shall not
continue.
The Lord has sought him a man after
his own heart.
And the Lord has commanded him to be
captain over his people because thou has not
kept that which the Lord commanded thee.
Now, God said, I've had to reject you.
It's a tragedy, folks.
This is not just about Saul.
It's about the person in this church.
Now, for lack of a better example, I'm
going to use ushers, not just because they're
more visible, perhaps, than other ministries.
But you can get like Saul and begin
to think that this place in the body
that I've been given is insufficient for me.
And you begin to move in good ideas
and end up where you shouldn't be and
inadvertently become your own priest, inadvertently become the
Holy Spirit in your own life, placing yourself
in the body.
Now, the evidence that you're in the wrong
place is there's no divine anointing.
There's a deep sense of frustration.
You're always pushing, pushing, pushing against a door
that never seems to open.
There's this deep inner sense of unfulfillment, which
is not stirred by human passion to be
great, but a sense that somehow I've missed
God in what I'm doing.
And the Lord says, you've done foolishly to
Saul.
I've sought a man after my own heart.
Now, seeking a man after his own heart
does not mean that David, the next king,
was perfect.
The principle of a man after God's heart
is that he can be moved from a
good idea to that which is great in
the sight of God.
Saul started at a position of greatness and
moved to what he thought was good.
That's exactly what the enemy tried to do
to Nehemiah, to take him away from a
great work and draw him into a place
that seemed good.
But now God found a man.
And this is the good news, I guess,
of what I'm preaching today.
If you're a man after God's heart, a
woman after God's heart, the evidence is that
you can be moved from something that seems
good into that which is great in the
sight of God.
Saul could not be moved in that direction,
and subsequently he was too entrenched in doing
things his own way.
He was too entrenched in a stubbornness in
his own heart that would not allow him
to be moved to what God had for
him.
Now, 2 Samuel, go ahead, just one book
in your Bible, 2 Samuel chapter 6.
We're getting close now to our title.
2 Samuel chapter 6.
Now, David has a good idea.
And his good idea was the whole time
that Saul was the king, we didn't seek
to the ark.
And the ark, of course, was a physical
representation of the presence of God.
And David said, we didn't seek to the
ark while Saul was the king.
And subsequently the ark ended up, later on,
captivated.
And David, in 2 Samuel chapter 6, verse
3, it says, set the ark of God
on a new cart.
Well, that's the way the Philistines had done
it.
That seemed like a good idea.
And brought it out of the house of
Abinadab that was in Gibeah.
And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab,
drove the new cart.
And they brought it out of the house
of Abinadab, which was at Gibeah, accompanying the
ark of God.
And Ahio went before the ark.
And David and all the house of Israel
played before the Lord on all manner of
instruments made of fir wood, even on harps
and psalteries and timbrels and on cornets and
cymbals.
And when they came to Nachan's threshing floor,
Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark
of God and took hold of it, for
the oxen shook it.
And the anger of the Lord was kindled
against Uzzah, and God smote him there for
his error.
And there he died by the ark of
God.
And David was displeased because the Lord had
made a breach upon Uzzah, and he called
the name of the place Perez Uzzah unto
this day, or a breach against Uzzah.
And David was afraid of the Lord that
day and said, How shall the ark of
the Lord come to me?
Now, folks, when we have a good idea,
and we set out, no matter how enthusiastic
we are about our good idea, what David
was doing was wrong.
It was against the word of God.
The law of God specifically said that only
the Levites are to carry the ark.
And not only are they to carry it,
but they are to be sanctified before God.
But now, he was taking this presence of
God, and he was putting it on the
ark, the cart, rather, which represented a good
idea.
And God is not in favor of our
good ideas, folks.
It's as simple as that.
And he killed Uzzah just to prove it.
And the best thing that God can do
with my good ideas and your good ideas
is kill them right on the spot.
That's the mercy of God that will kill
them.
No matter how we start out, instruments of
wood, and all the sincerity, and all the
wonderful way, we say, oh, isn't this good?
I'm moving in divine life.
I'm moving in divine order.
Then all of a sudden, bang, God just
kills the whole thing.
Now, so many people, when that happens, they
have an idea.
They're moving into what they think is a
new ministry.
They think that this is going to be
greatly honoring to God.
They're so enthusiastic about what they're doing.
And then all of a sudden, the whole
thing just dies.
It comes to a dead end.
And they get mad at God.
God, you know how sincere I am.
David was displeased with the Lord.
David said, God, you've made a breach upon
our sincerity and our human effort that we're
putting into bringing you back into your kingdom
where you belong to be.
God says, no, I want to come back,
but I don't come back your way.
I want to be glorified, but I'm not
glorified your way.
Flesh never glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ.
If I am to come back, and if
I am to dwell in the center and
the heart and the midst of my people,
it will be by the way I have
prescribed.
I am to be worshiped and I am
to be honored.
And later on, David realizes that the ark
has been placed in the house of a
man called Obed-Edom.
And God was blessing all of his house
and blessing all of his children.
And David looks at this and says, obviously,
it's not the will of God to kill
people.
Obviously, it's not God's will to stop our
parade.
And he stops and begins to consider his
ways.
That's what makes him a man after God's
heart.
When it's not prospering, stop and have a
look at it.
Stop and say, Lord, what are you trying
to speak to me?
When your ministry is, there's no sense of
the divine, stop when God's favor is not
with you.
Stop when it feels like you have to
hold God up in the midst of it.
Stop and consider your ways.
Take a look and say, Holy Spirit, come.
Show me, Lord.
Am I in the wrong place?
Am I doing the wrong thing?
Am I doing it the wrong way?
Have I brought something out of my natural
mind into what is a divine and a
spirit-led kingdom?
What am I doing, God?
What's happening in my life that there's so
little fruit?
And when I start out with all this
enthusiasm, you seem to bring it to such
an abrupt end.
And David gets back into the Word of
God.
And as he gets back into the Word
of God, he begins to see that he's
trying to bring this glory to God, as
it is, in the wrong manner.
It's not the way that God has prescribed
it.
And it's a type of the person who's
wanting to glorify Christ, but you are in
the wrong place.
You're in the wrong spot.
You're doing the wrong thing.
And you're subsequently left to human effort to
try to make it look like it's God.
And now David finds out what they did
wrong and sends down a verse 12.
He says, The Lord has blessed the house
of Obed-Edom and all that pertains to
him because of the ark of God.
Oh, it's the type of the person who's
struggling in ministry and says, Hey, how come
those that are doing it the right way
have such a sense of the divine?
And I'm struggling so much.
How come I'm sitting alone at home and
God is blessing somebody else or some other
ministry in such a powerful way and he
doesn't seem to be blessing my life?
He gets back into the Word of God
and finds out how the ark or the
presence of God will come home to him.
And so it says, David went in the
end of verse 12 and brought up the
ark of God from the house of Obed
-Edom into the city of David with gladness.
And it was so that when that bearer
of the ark of the Lord had gone
six paces, he sacrificed oxen and fatlings.
And David danced before the Lord with all
his might.
And David was girded with a linen ephod.
And David and all the house of Israel
brought up the ark of the Lord with
shouting and with the sound of the trumpet.
In Chronicles chapter 15 it says, with voices
raised with joy.
It's as if they couldn't go more than
six paces.
Folks, I want to tell you something.
When you are doing it right, when you
know that the fruit of the Holy Spirit
is in you, when you know that divine
life is flowing through you, when you know
that your life is in divine order, you
might be an usher in the church, you
might be cleaning toilets in the church.
I don't know what it is.
But you know you're in divine...
You know, you know, you know you're in
the right place.
I want to tell you, you can't go
more than six paces without stopping and giving
God glory.
You can't...
You can't go through your day.
The glory of the Lord will hit you.
You'll be halfway down the aisle with your
broom and the glory of the Lord just
begins to hit your life.
You begin to dance with joy and shout
to God with all your might because you
know that what you're doing is divine.
You know that you are enabled by the
Spirit of God to do what you do.
You step out of the subway.
You step off the bus.
You don't get more than six paces from
the door you just came out of.
And you've got to stop, even in your
heart, and give God a shout of glory.
Hallelujah.
Your children see it.
Your neighbors see it.
It's a great work.
It may not be much in the sight
of man, but it's a great work in
the sight of God.
And people see it.
It's the work of God's hands.
They see a man.
They see a woman walking home every day
after.
Content, they watch you walking into the workplace.
And your sense of identity is not by
how much money you make or how big
your job is.
Your identity is the fact that I have
Christ living inside of me.
I'm walking in divine order with God.
I know that what I do, I'm enabled
to do.
I know it's the Spirit of God in
me.
Hallelujah.
You can't go more than six paces most
days without stopping and giving God glory, thanking
Him for His mercy, thanking Him for His
greatness.
Hallelujah.
This is the fruit of a great work.
Not a good work.
A great work.
You can't go more than six paces.
That's about 18 feet, roughly.
And you have to stop and give God
glory.
It may not be a dance, but you're
just walking down the street, and in your
heart you're giving God glory.
Oh, God, thank You.
I know that that was divine, that appointment.
I know that the love that I felt
in my heart was not me, it was
You.
I know that I'm enabled to be what
I am and do what I do.
Oh, God, thank You.
God, thank You.
There's this parade that just goes on endlessly
in your heart because you're in the right
place.
You might be in the nursery, and all
it is is screaming babies all Sunday morning.
But you walk out and you say, Oh,
God, thank You.
I'm enabled to do what I do, and
I feel Your favor flowing through my life.
Hallelujah.
Thank You, Lord.
Like the Apostle Paul, I have learned to
be content.
Think about Nehemiah's day.
In Nehemiah's day, when the wall was finally
completed.
You know, folks, it was just at the
point where the gates, the last bit of
the work was not yet finished, and it
was at that point that the enemy came
to him and said, Come down to us.
Leave what you're doing and come here.
I remember back in, I guess, about 1993,
somewhere around there, I got very, very discontent
at one point of what I was doing.
And I made plans to leave and to
go to another place.
And I remember a friend of mine from
another city, just a burden of the Lord
came on him, and he drove for five,
six hours to get to where I was,
not even knowing if I was home, but
he drove and couldn't find me.
Then he drove through the town where he
thought I might be, and ultimately he did
find me.
And he said, The Lord has a great
thing for your life.
He said, If you leave this place, you're
going to miss it.
You know, where I was at that moment
was not a very desirable place to me.
It was a hard place that I was
in.
And everything in me wanted out.
And I had worked up a burden for
sand and sun inside.
Some of you know what that's all about.
The Cayman Island burden, you know, that comes
on people every once in a while.
You know, so many godless people there that
need the gospel.
And I took his word and stayed.
That was about 1993, I think.
And 1994 is when I began to travel
and preach here in New York City.
And the Lord said, I have a great
thing.
But if you don't see what you're doing
as great, and you are drawn off to
something good, then that's what it was.
I had to make the choice between great
and good.
Great was undesirable.
Good was very desirable at that point.
Great was killing me.
Good looked like it offered life.
Great was squeezing me.
And good looked like it was easy.
Great was tough.
Good looked like a nicer place to be.
You see, folks, Nehemiah said, I'm doing a
great work.
And why should I leave it?
And why should the work cease while I
come down to you?
And that's got to be the attitude of
every Christian's heart.
We have to look the devil in the
face and say, I'm doing a great work.
I'm right where God called me.
Why should I leave it and come down
to where you are?
Living in hatred of God and disobedience to
everything that is godly.
Living in a place of justice and judgment
that is going to come upon you for
all eternity.
Why should I leave a great work and
come down to where you are?
Folks, that's exactly what you and I every
day need to say to the devil.
Because the enemy came against Nehemiah four times,
the scripture says.
Four times came back to him.
And the fifth time, of course, came back
with a threat.
Don't leave the place of God's power for
a good idea.
He places you and I in the body
as he sees fit.
We're content.
When we are content to be where the
Holy Spirit has placed us, folks, the honor
and glory of God will be revealed.
Paul said, I've learned to be content.
We can't all say that yet.
But what we can do is give ourselves
to the work that God has established in
us and be thankful for where he put
us.
And trust him that where we are is
sufficient and that his glory will be revealed
with us and through us.
And it starts with our home, starts with
our family, carries on to our job, our
community, and our place that he has given
us in his church.
Oh, Jesus, thank you.
Jesus, thank you.
You've called me to something great.
God, deliver me from humanistic thinking that sees
success as numbers, sees success as influence and
authority and my slice of the pie, recognition.
All of these other things that the human
spirit craves in its fallen condition.
But help me, God, to see greatness as
being exactly in the place that you've called
me to be.
That means the home I'm in is the
home that you've placed me in.
The family I have is the family that
you've given me.
The wife I have, the husband I have
is the wife or husband that you've given
me.
Thank you, God.
This is not a mistake.
It's not a happenstance.
This is exactly where you placed me.
And even if it's a difficult situation, Lord,
I'm going to trust you because I'm going
to come under your authority and your life
as it is will emanate through mine and
you will give me the grace that I
need to be a testimony of your resurrection
power in this place.
Your job is the same thing.
It might be one of the most hateful
jobs in the face of the earth.
But I want to tell you something.
The glory of God, if you are in
the right place, especially in the church of
Jesus Christ, the glory of God can be
manifested through you in the workplace.
This glory that is a divine order, this
mind that can see, this prayer life that
can stand against works of darkness, this submission
to Christ that becomes an inspiration to people
all around you.
Whether or not they're telling dirty stories or
whether or not they're stabbing you in the
back, if you stay in this place where
God is able to use your life and
manifest His glory through you, they will see
it and they'll be drawn to it.
Folks, some of the people I've led to
the Lord over the years have been some
of the deepest devout enemies that I've had.
As I've walked with Christ, then finally, all
of a sudden, just without explanation, turn and
begin to ask questions about what is it
that is in your life.
Oh, I've known this.
I've walked through this.
I've been in places where people were so
red in the face and so absolutely angry,
they would have either beaten me or shot
me if they could, but ended up going
to church because the glory of God was
being manifested.
I was content to be where I was.
This glory is revealed in our community as
we walk down the street, step out of
the subway, get off the bus.
The man or woman who sees as God
sees.
Lord, yes, I'm a cleaner in a building
and I might even be still a cleaner
in your church, but oh God, I am
in a great place.
You are doing a great work through my
life.
And he walks down the street and people
look and say, I would never be content
to be where he is, but I see
this contentment.
It exudes from his very being.
And the glory and the honor of God
because of the works of God begin to
be manifested.
Really, the bottom line is that you and
I can both come to a place of
six paces and a shout of glory.
Six paces and a shout of glory.
God, thank you.
I wish it came easy, but it doesn't.
I wish we could all learn this in
New Believers 101, but we don't.
We're all like wild horses when we get
saved.
And eventually the master's got to teach us
some things.
And ultimately, after all of the breaking and
all of the learning that we are not
our own, we're bought with a price.
Learning that our journey is not our own,
but there's somebody else that has the right
to take the reins of our life.
And then ultimately, a truly usable and broken
horse, you can drop the reins, you can
walk away, and the horse will not move
until he's told what to do.
Paul, the apostle, says, when it's all over,
I will still stand.
Paul had learned to obey God.
He had learned to be content at all
things.
He had learned that it could even be
jail that God had assigned to him.
But even in that place, the word of
God could not be bound.
Paul, if you read his prison epistles, had
this shout of glory still in his heart,
even in a place of imprisonment.
Because even though confined by four walls and
perhaps as a guard or two, the life
that was in him was not confined.
And the life that was in him was
flowing through a pen onto some paper.
And we're still reading it today and we're
encouraged by it.
He was being divinely inspired because he was
a man who could not be taken away
from something great and brought into something good.
Agabus took his belt, tied up his own
hands and said, this is what's going to
happen to the man that wears this.
You're going to be bound.
You're going to be put into a prison.
And Paul says, you're trying to break my
heart.
Just like Nehemiah.
I'm doing a great work.
And you're calling me to something good.
And I can hear the people saying, well,
look at the good that could be done.
Paul, if you just move this way, if
you just get off center a little bit,
look at the good that could be done
through your life.
And just like Nehemiah, I'm sure Paul in
his heart is saying, no, I'm called to
something great.
It might not look great in the sight
of man, but it is great in the
sight of God.
When you and I get to that place,
our lives truly become a living testimony of
the grace, the glory of God.
I'm going to give an altar call today.
And it's for every person here that needs
to learn to be content.
In your home, your family, your job, your
community.
And most importantly, in the church of Jesus
Christ.
I'm looking for people today who have not
been able to shout because of the place
you've been put in the body.
And you're living in this place and you've
got you've got one foot out the door
and one eye out the window.
You see where you are is just a
stopover to greatness.
And God says, no, this is a great
work.
And I need people to come to this
altar today who are willing to learn the
lesson, say, God, forgive me for this foolishness.
Because your word says that the fool doesn't
understand these things.
God, it is a great place that I'm
in.
This is a great place.
And if you've not found that place yet,
you should come down here as well.
You need to find that place.
You need to find where it is.
Maybe your sights are set a little too
high.
Maybe you've not really understood what it is
that God wants you to do.
It might be time to pray and say,
God, please show me what do you want
me to do in your body?
Where have you placed me?
What is my calling?
What's what's where have you appointed me?
This is a great place.
Guide me to this place.
Let's stand together in the main sanctuary, the
balcony.
You can slip out to either exit.
Make your way to the altar, please.
In the education annex, you can go and
stand right between the screens so you don't
block the view.
And we're going to pray because I believe
today that you're going to experience six paces
and a shout of glory.
When you can walk away from this aisle
and say, God, where you have me is
a great place.
The wife you've given me, the husband you've
given me, this is a great place.
The family you've given me, this is a
great place.
The job you've given me, this is a
great job.
Hallelujah.
And you walk out of the house content.
You walk out of the house like David.
You just got to stop and dance every
18 feet.
You just have to give a shout of
glory to God.
You have no other way of doing it.
You just you have to do it because
you know the divine life is beginning to
flow through your life.
Now, don't look so sad making your way
down here.
This is not a bad thing.
You really are going to have a shout
of glory in your heart.
You're surrendering this ambition that drives these ideas
that are not God.
You're just giving them up and saying, God,
I want the best.
I want what is great.
I want what you have for me.
I don't want what I think I should
be.
I want what you have for me.
And the Lord says, this is a great
thing.
Nehemiah said, why should I leave a great
thing to come down to where you are?
And I'm not leaving.
I'm not leaving where God has appointed me.
And it was so that when they bear
the ark of the Lord, they that bear
the ark of the Lord had gone six
paces.
He sacrificed oxen and fatlings and David danced
before the Lord with all his might.
David was girded with a linen ephod.
So David at all the house of Israel
brought up the ark of the Lord with
shouting and the sound of the trumpet.
And, folks, that's your future.
When you and I learn to be content.
When we begin to understand that where we
are is a great place.
And we say, God, just be glorified.
You're not asking you to do it our
way.
We're doing it your way.
And you say that where you've appointed me
is a great place.
And you just head out to bring him
honor.
He is honored.
He's glorified.
And I can you can you imagine being
on the sidelines of this procession?
And you're somewhat out of the loop.
As most of society argued, you're looking at
the king and he's dancing and he doesn't
even care how foolish he looks.
He's so filled with joy because he's doing
it God's way.
And he now understands that the principle of
greatness is obedience.
And what God says to do, just do
it.
And where you're placed, just walk there.
And where you are, abide in him.
And you can see David coming through the
community and people are looking at the king.
And as he's dancing and this joy is
in him, it begins to spread around.
And maybe some people who have been outside
of that joy begin to maybe tap a
foot or snap their fingers.
I don't know what they're doing, but they
get caught up in it.
And our lives are to be a saver
of Christ.
We're to walk through this world and this
deep abiding trust, this sense that where I
am is great because God is in it.
It's not about education.
It's not about visibility.
It's not about anything but just obedience.
God, where you've called me is a great
place and I'm not leaving it for a
good place.
I'm not leaving it for people's invitations.
God, I want to be only where you
want me and only where you've placed me.
And Lord, if I move in another direction,
kill it.
Just kill it on the spot and bring
me back again where I'm to be.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
Thank you, Jesus.
Pray with me now.
Lord Jesus, thank you for setting me free
from wrong ideas about success and greatness.
Where I am is a great place.
What I'm doing is a great work because
you have called me to do it.
And God, I feel your presence and I
feel your power flowing through me to accomplish
your purposes for my life.
I thank you for releasing me from all
the invitations of the devil and my own
heart that try to tell me that somewhere
else is better than where I am.
Where I am is a great place because
a great God has called me to it.
And his life in a great way is
flowing through my life to touch the world
all around me.
Oh God, you've invited me to this parade
of joy.
And in the name of Jesus, I surrender
and I join this parade.
Six paces and a shout of glory is
in my soul.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
Hallelujah, hallelujah.
Thank you, God.
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
Hallelujah, Lamb of God.
Oh God, thank you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,
thank you.
Thank you, Jesus.
Thank you, Lord.
Mighty God, mighty God, mighty God, mighty God.
Mighty God!
Oh, Jesus, thank you!
Hallelujah!
Set free!
Set free by the truth!
Set free!
Set free by the truth of God!
Oh, thank you, Jesus!
Thank you, Lord!
Thank you, God!
Hallelujah!