 How are we doing this morning? We're alive in Christ, amen. And man, I'm excited to be bringing the word this morning. My name is Caleb Culver. I'm one of the worship pastors here. And we're going to be continuing our series on David, or sorry, excuse me, we're going to be continuing our hero series. This is the ninth week. I'm going to be talking about King David. I've been really excited to preach on David when I found out that he was going to be the person I was going to focus on for my hero. I knew we were preaching the hero series. And I asked Pastor Lee if I could preach a sermon on my wife Rachel because she's my hero. It's our 12-year anniversary today, so I got to say something to shout out. She's not here. She's actually flying back from New York, so she's watching online. So that was for you, baby. I love you. But no, I actually asked if I could preach on David and Pastor Lee said yes. And I've been preparing for the last few weeks and I had a couple other sermons that I had prepared and I felt like the Lord gave me a unique message for this weekend, something I'd never preached on before. So I kind of threw away all my notes and started to prepare what the Lord was speaking. So I really have a lot of faith and expectation for what the Lord is going to do this morning. And David is an amazing character in Scripture. And it's unique because we actually know more about the life of David than any other person in the Scripture. We actually have more details on David's life than even Jesus in Scripture. And we know so much about his life because we were meant to find our story in David's story. There, at every season of David's life, we can find ourselves in that. And I believe this morning the Lord is going to show us how he is speaking to us through David. And so I want to start out and kind of give some context for what was happening in David's day. And then we're going to kind of hone in on one specific story when David brings the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem. So we know that right before David was born, the time that Israel lived in were dark days. It was said in Scripture that the word of the Lord was rare in that day. That means that there weren't hardly any people that were listening to the voice of God. And Eli was the high priest and the judge of Israel. And he wasn't that bad himself, but he was a weak leader. And so his sons, Haphne and Phineas, who were priests, they would go into the temple and they would eat the sacrifices that were prepared for the Lord, which was an abomination. And then they would also intercept women on their way to worship and they would use their power and their priestly ministry to manipulate them for sexual favors. It was a dark, dark hour. And so the Philistines attacked Israel and they were like, well let's just grab the Ark of the Covenant and put it out in front of everybody because then the Lord is going to give us a victory. We have guaranteed victory because we have the presence of God. But they wanted to use and weaponize the presence of God in the moment of need but they didn't honor it in the place of everyday life. And so the opposite happened. They got routed. Eli and his sons were killed and the Ark of the Covenant was captured. And so Samuel took over as judge who was the prophet in that day and the people were afraid. You know, they had their confidence was shaken. They're like, yeah, we're God's people, we're good, we got the presence. Well, they just got routed in battle. And so instead of looking at this moment of judgment and saying, man, we should return back to the Lord. Instead they say, man, we need to dig ourselves out of the hole we just created. We want a king. And Samuel comes and he pleads with the people because God said, I want to be your king. I want to be your leader. And Samuel says, you don't need a king. And he first starts with kind of the spiritual argument. And he says, man, you guys don't need the king. We have the king of kings. And the people are like, boo, we want a real king. And so then he comes with a more natural approach. He goes, man, if you have a king, they're going to tax you. They're going to take and take and take and take. We know that the bigger government grows, the more that paycheck goes to Uncle Sam. And the people of Israel say, we don't care. We'll pay whatever tax. We're sick of just, you know, God being our king, we want a leader that we choose. And it broke the Lord's heart. But God ultimately gave Israel what they asked for. And it's a beautiful and a terrifying truth about who God is that he gives every single person what they ultimately ask for. It's beautiful because if we ask for God and we live our lives with a hunger for more of him and more of his presence, he always gives himself to us. But if we over and over again ask for ourselves and what we want, he will ultimately give us over to those desires. And so God, who honors free will because he's a God of love, honors their choice. And anoint Saul. Saul was the son of a great warrior in Israel's day. And Saul was just massive. They said he was head and shoulders taller than anyone else. He was good-looking. He was everything that you would think in a king. Man says, man, we need somebody strong to protect us. And man just looked at the outward at Saul and saw strength. They didn't see. There was an inner coward inside of him. He was fearful. And he feared man and not God. And he started to disobey the commandments that the Lord had given him because he was afraid of how the people would respond. And God speaks this phrase to him. He says, I'm taking my anointing away from you. And he says, because I have found a man after my own heart. Talking about David. He speaks this amazing phrase that David is a man after my own heart. He doesn't say, I sought for myself a man of perfection. He didn't say, I sought for myself a man who has it all together and who will just be a great leader because he's a great communicator or he's a great military strategist. He said, I sought a man who's after my own heart. It's how God measures success of our pursuit of who he is. And so God tells Samuel to go and anoint one of Jesse's sons. And it's interesting to me that he didn't tell Samuel to go and anoint David directly. But he says, go to the house of Jesse. And I'll highlight whom I'm wanting to anoint. And the Lord wanted to show Samuel something in the process. And I think he wants to show us something this morning in the process because he shows up to Jesse's house. And the first dude he sees is the firstborn. And he is, you know, he just looks like Chris Hemsworth. He's just ripped out of his mind. He's tall. You know, he's got an Australian accent. Okay, he probably doesn't have an Australian accent. But he's everything that you would imagine in a leader. He's electric. And he has skill. And Samuel goes, oh, God, great choice. This guy's going to be awesome. He's the next soul. And the Lord says, no, actually I've rejected him. And then the Lord speaks this phrase that to me is one of the most liberating phrases in all of scripture. He says, man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord peers into the heart. See, Samuel was looking for the next soul. He was like, oh, this king failed. It's just kind of next in line. We got Saul 2.0. God wasn't looking for the next king. He was looking for a new king. He was looking for a king who was not consumed with the thoughts and opinions of man, but was consumed with the presence of God. And poetically, David wasn't at the anointing party. Because he was the only one. He was positioned in the assignment God had given him. He was worshiping on the back hills of Bethlehem. And he didn't even know there was anointing going on because he was so consumed with serving and ministering before the Lord's heart. So David is anointed as king. And what we see next is just a perfect example of David and how he was different than every other leader. See, David was anointed as king, and that would probably be our moment where we'd be like, all right, we're anointed, done with the sheep, done with the guitar stuff. I'm either running my house here, or maybe we'd go up and knock on the palace door and be like, hey Saul, it's me, David. I don't know if you heard, but I'm kind of the new king. I don't know if you felt what happened back there, but that was the anointing. It lifted off you. It's now on me. And yeah, so I know this is a little awkward, but if you could just kind of show me around the palace and, you know, show me a few of the ropes. And I know what you're thinking. Don't worry. I'm not going to fully replace you. I'm going to find a job for you. You can like screw in light bulbs because they're real tall or you can open cans for us in the kitchen because you're super strong. But I'm anointed. I'm ready to go. I'm ready to go. Get out of my way. I'm God's anointed. No, what would have happened? He would have got killed, right? He would have got struck down with Saul's spirit in that moment. David, even though he's anointed, he knows that God has a due season and he goes back to the assignment that God has given him. David waits for God to open the door of opportunity in his life. And Revelation 3-8, it's God speaking. He says, I will open a door that no man can shut. And in our own lives, we can rest assured because God doesn't look at the outward circumstances or the outward appearance of life. He peers into our heart. He sees us where we're at. And he says, you don't have to fight for yourself or make your own opportunity because I will open the door in due season. And when God opens the door of opportunity, no man can shut it. If you open your own door of opportunity after you're anointing before it's time, that door can be slammed shut in your face with your own failure. If man opens that door for you, then man can slam it shut in your face. But if God opens the door, there's no principality or power. There's no man. There's nothing in the creative world strong enough to close that door. What God has opened, no man can shut. And David waits for the timing of the Lord. And what we see happen is Saul because the anointing is lifted off of him. He's susceptible to the spirit of his own sin that he is in. And so Saul has a distressing spirit and someone says, hey, there's this guy named David. He's a gifted musician. He's talented and the Lord is with him. So David is brought into the palace a few years later after the anointing and he plays. And there's an anointing that's on David's life. And when David plays, the distressing spirit leaves Saul. But what we see in the story, something the Lord highlighted to me, is that Saul missed the point and the purpose of the anointing. And we don't want to miss the point and the purpose of anointing when the Lord is moving. See, Saul knew what that anointing felt like to be king, right? Because God anointed him the moment that he was king and the spirit of God fell on Saul. Well, when David played that same anointing that the Lord had previously anointed Saul with, would enter the room and Saul would feel that anointing and say, ah, there we go. I knew I was still a king. I knew I was still the man. I knew I didn't need to repent. See, God is still for me. I don't need to repent. I don't need to humble myself. He sensed the anointing on David's life and he assumed that it was favor of God on his own life. When really the anointing was there, God in his mercy, he's so kind, even to Saul. He said to Saul, I'm gonna put someone in front of you who plays and the anointing will fill the room and I'll drive back the oppressive spirit and I'll give you a chance to repent. And when we gather together, there is an atmosphere of anointing when Cori and Anna are leading us in worship or Pastor Lee is preaching. There's an anointing in the room and Isaiah says that the anointing breaks the yoke of the oppressor and so we come together and we're bound and fear or anxiety or whatever's happening and we start singing and that lifts in the moment. And what we're tempted to do is we're tempted in that atmosphere to be like, ah, man, I knew I didn't need to love God more. I knew I didn't need to repent of anything. I'm right exactly where I'm supposed to be. The point and purpose of the anointing is not so that we can feel better. It's not so we can have goosebumps. It's not because he wants us to have a little bit more fun in our services. The point of the anointed, the purpose of the anointing, I should say, is to point to the anointed one, Jesus. The anointing always draws us in and draws us closer to the Lord. It drives back oppression and gives us an invitation to peer into and to give the Lord our heart in a new way. And I believe that if Saul had responded to the anointing and repented, the Lord would have restored so much of what he took away. There could have been a peaceful transfer of power from Saul to David. I think it would have gone so differently, but he refuses. But David uses the anointing and the gift that he has to draw closer to the presence of God in his life and we see that over and over again. And so moving along in the story, Goliath, just this tiny little story. Some of you guys might have heard it. Maybe you haven't, but after that, Saul gets even more jealous of him and banishes him from his presence and kind of give him the short abridged version. But David is on the run for almost 20 years. Eventually, Saul is killed because of his rebellion. He doesn't repent. And David begins to capture Israel and then eventually he takes Jerusalem, the northern part. At around 37 to 40 years old, David is finally anointed king. 20 years after being anointed in private, he is appointed before man. And David, every step of the journey, refused to open the door of opportunity for himself, but he waited on the timing of God. And what we see, what is David's heart to be king? David was this amazing... I mean, for us, if the moment that we were king or we stepped into a prophetic destiny, we'd be like, man, this is what our life is all about. What we see, David says in Psalm 27.4, he says, one thing I desire of the Lord, that will I seek to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold his beauty and to inquire in his tabernacle. A lot of scholars think that David wrote that when he was on the run, when Absalom had usurped his throne. So here's how incredible David was. David's not on his throne and he's not saying, man, I wish I was back in my palace. I wish I was on my bed. I wish I had my servants and the comfort and the food and the important job. He goes, man, the thing that I miss most about being home is going to the tabernacle and worshiping. He was a man after God's own heart. He was after the presence of God. And so what's the first thing that he does when he's king? He says, we're gonna go and we're gonna get the Ark of the Covenant, which represents the presence and the favor of God and we're gonna bring it to Jerusalem. So we're gonna pick up in the story. In Samuel 6, you can go ahead and turn there. We're gonna start in verse 1. Again, David gathered all the choice men of Israel, 30,000. And David arose and went with all the people who were with him. Bal Judah to bring them up, bring up from there the Ark of God, whose name is called by the name, the Lord of Hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. So they set the Ark of God on a new cart, which was brought out in the house of Abinadab, which was on a hill. And Uzzah and A-E-O, I think it's A-E-O, I looked up that pronunciation thing where you click on it and it says it, so I think that's A-E-O. The sons of Abinadab drove the new cart and they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill, accompanying the Ark of God. And A-E-O went before the Ark. Then David and all the house of Israel played music before the Lord and all kinds of instruments of firwood and tambourines, cisterns and ensembles. And when they came to Nacan's threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to study the Ark of God and took hold of it for the oxen stumbled. Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Uzzah and God struck him there for his error and he died there because he died there by the Ark of God. And David became angry because the Lord's outbreak against Uzzah and he called the name of the place Perez Uzzah to this day. David was afraid of the Lord that day and he said, how can the Ark of the Lord come to me? So David would not move the Ark of the Lord with him into the city of David, but David took it aside to the house of Obed Edom. And so David, who has been in the center of God's will every step of the journey, he's had a prophetic destiny to be king and he's been waiting his whole life. He says, when I'm king, I'm not going to elevate myself, but I'm going to take the presence of God and I'm going to put that center in the city. And he goes and he gets this giant parade. He has the best that he can offer. 30,000 of the best men, the best music. And he's so excited. And then someone dies. And then Uzzah, sorry for laughing, Uzzah, if you're in heaven. I just can't imagine the feeling of this party, celebration and all of a sudden, bam, this guy is struck dead. And David doesn't know what to do. He hasn't planned for this because in his mind, this only had one outcome. He's bringing the Ark to Jerusalem and it's going to be a massive win. And all of a sudden, he's angry. David experiences disillusionment. It's the gap between expectation and reality. Disillusionment is when we assume it's going to go one way and it's going to look one way and it looks a different way. And because of it, David quits. And I've seen disillusionment take out so many Christians because of wrong expectations. Now, I don't think any of us in here have moved the Ark of the Covenant and done it wrong and somebody died. So you don't have disillusionment for that. But we have our own form, right? God, I've served you for 20 years. I put your presence first. I've done everything right and now my business is tanking. And this person who lives for the world, his business is thriving. I put you first in my relationship. I saved myself for marriage. We read scriptures. We prayed together and now year 3, 4 in a marriage, our marriage is falling apart. God, this is not what I thought it would look like. And what happens is when we hear the prophetic destiny and calling of our own life, we add our own assumptions of what that would look like. We assume, oh, 20 years from now, I'll be here and then 20 years from now, what happens? And we might lay hold of some of the prophetic promise but it looks different than what we thought. And so many people give up and quit in that place. And that's exactly what we see from David. He says, how can the Ark come to me? He's so overwhelmed. He's saying, look, I thought I was walking in my calling and now God is doing this. I'm angry. I'm upset. I don't want to deal with the presence. I don't want to deal with that point. I'm just going to forget about it. And so the Ark is a man named Obed Edom. Say Obed Edom. Obed Edom is the dude. Why is he the dude? Well, the four last times we've seen the Ark of the Covenant is it's captured and all of Israel's army dies. And then the next time we see it in this temple to false gods and all those false gods fall and they break and they die. And then people try, a group of Jews go to grab the Ark and they disobey and they all die. And now David's like, I got this guys, don't worry, grabs the Ark and Uzzah touches it and he dies. I mean, he must have been like, man, everybody dying up in here. Like, I can do the math here. Like, I don't want that thing anywhere near me. But what Obed Edom does what's so amazing, he doesn't put it on a property outside of his house. He doesn't build a shack for it. He doesn't put it in his business. But he goes, I want the presence of God right in the center of my home. I am going to put with no presupposition and he was the first person that we see in the last 100 years who wasn't trying to use the presence of God for his own gain. Everyone else was using it as a weapon or as a trophy or even David was just token symbol of his greatness and success as a king. And here Obed Edom is and he just welcomes the presence of God into the center of his life. And the person who puts the presence of God at the center of their home and their life will flourish. I believe there's a special anointing we have for family and presence of God in our homes because of the uniqueness of what has been plowed by our pastors, Pastor Lee and Jane. I stayed with them for about a month before our house was closing and the entire time I was there they had worship music playing in their house 24-7. But not just as a token. They were diligent about spending time in the presence of God and the peace that rested in their home because the atmosphere of worship and presence was unbelievable. It was the best sleep I've had I lived there. They have said this isn't just something we do on stage but privately in our home. Our home is a place we go after the presence. The Lord spoke something a year ago. We gave birth to our first born son, our first biological child or second child. And a month before he was born we were going to name him Ethan and the Lord started speaking about the Jordan River and Lee preached this message and he said this phrase to the promised land is through the Jordan River. And we started hearing it over and over again Jordan, Jordan, Jordan, Jordan, Jordan and we were like man I feel like the Lord wants us to change the name from Ethan to Jordan because he's saying there's something about stepping into the river that crosses over in the promises of God for your life. And so we talked to the Asberys and they were having a baby at the same time and they were like well you're not going to believe this but we were going to name our baby Kate but our three-year-old keeps calling the baby river, the baby that hasn't been born yet. River, over and over again and we feel like we're supposed to call this this baby river and and then next Sunday I was about to go on stage to lead worship and I talked to Andrew and Sarah Bonas they're actually here this morning over here on the left and they had just delivered this beautiful baby boy and I was like oh my gosh he's so cute we're about to have a baby and we have that conversation I'm like what's his name and he's like river. And I was like I've never even heard of a baby being called river and all of a sudden there's these three babies at this moment that the Lord is speaking this unique name to and I said God what are you doing and I heard so clearly he said the river is coming to the home and obviously in the natural that meant we were bringing these babies these river babies home but what the Lord was saying is there's a unique window and a season that the anointing and outpouring that I'm doing at Radiant Church and the gathering together of saints on Sunday morning is so valuable and important when we gather together and praise the Lord breathes life, he breathes faith his presence rests and dwells but sometimes we can leave and leave his presence in a building and not take it with us and the Lord has an open invitation for us to bring that into the home I had a dream a couple years ago and I was at church and I was doing the announcements and you know in the middle I was doing the announcements also I'm looking at people and as I look at them it's like a window open up and I can see into their home and even though they were just sitting there what I saw and I saw in the future there was families gathered together and they were worshiping together and it wasn't one person it wasn't young or old it was everybody together in unity experiencing the presence and life of God in the home and I began to pray Malachi 4-6 that God would turn the hearts of the fathers to the hearts of the children to the fathers and I believe and it's been this journey for Rachel and I in this past year of inviting the presence of God to be at the center of our home that would be a place of peace that I don't need to just bring my kids to church to experience the presence but we take it with us wherever we go and when we come home I can speak the power and life of God's word because he's been speaking about the environment of presence right there in the home and I felt this burden this week I just need to share I know this is a little off topic but but I heard this statistic a few weeks ago that really broke my heart it was that Mother's Day is the third most attended Sunday of the year in almost every church in America it goes Jesus's two holidays it goes Christmas, Easter and then Mother's are number three you know what the least attended Sunday in most churches in America, Father's Day Mother's use the holiday that's about them to leverage that favor to bring their families into the presence of God to be encountered men use that same holiday to leverage their holiday to keep their family out of the presence of God so they can do what they want and obviously there's nothing wrong with taking a vacation and missing church to have fun together we think that it unfortunately points to a symptom of men in our nation that are not stepping into their priestly calling to minister in the home and men there is no replacement Pastor Lee cannot be all the husbands and fathers in this room we need to be praying with our wives we need to be ministering to our family we need to be on our faces before the Lord and hosting the presence of God in our home our kids they don't need us to go to seminary to have five point sermons every morning they just need to see us be willing to admit when we're wrong they need to see us be willing to respond in the presence of God I just I just feel the presence of the Lord this morning I just want to pray in this moment I'm not closing the sermon but I just want to pray for us God we ask that this word would be truth Lord that the river really would come to our home God we ask that our houses would be places of rest for your presence God I ask for men and women in this room Lord that we would encounter God in such a way that we would activate the priestly ministry in our own home that we would be speaking those prophetic words to our spouses and our children that we would be going before the Lord in intercession that we would be hosting the presence of God we want to see you move would you start with us and you start with our families Jesus name Amen so Obed Edom is flourishing with the presence of God at the center of his home and David starts to hear about it you know he starts to hear the rumors like hey did you hear like Obed Edom lost 20 pounds on keto it's amazing he got a massive raise kids are killing it in their sports leagues it's just everything he does is blessed and David is provoked and David remembers who he was called to be it's amazing that one man who gave preeminence to the presence of God walking in who he was supposed to be how it provoked others to remember who they were supposed to be the person who puts the presence of God first in their home will not just awaken his own heart to the presence but others will recognize it and see it so David again remembers the point of why he was king to make the presence of God primary in his heart and in Jerusalem and so you know this time he actually goes back and he reads what God actually wants I can really sympathize with David like if I get Ikea furniture I don't need the directions I'm putting that sucker together and the second something breaks though then I'm like okay fine now I'll go to the manual anyone else like that in the room okay just me David is like man I know that I shouldn't have given up I know that it wasn't that the idea was wrong it's that my heart was wrong in it what does the scripture say we see in Exodus the Lord say that the ark was meant to be carried like art was meant to be carried the presence of God is to be carried see God didn't want man's help David's like hey what I'm going to do is I'm going to make my best idea to make it more convenient to carry the presence but the presence of God is not carried on the carts of convenience but it's carried on the shoulders of sacrifice and obedience and there's an important lesson for us that the presence of God we don't shove it in a cart and bring it out when it's convenient for us but we carry it at all times do you know that you are a temple of the Holy Spirit you are the new Ark of the Covenant if you will the fullness of God dwells inside of you put your focus on the Lord do you know what the word presence in the Old Testament means it's the turning of our face toward God's face it's setting our eyes on him and putting our affections on him and when we set our affections and eyes on him the presence rests on us and that's the sacrifice the sacrifice is that we put him first and we keep our eyes on him and so the first time we see 30,000 men he is the best music the best that man has to offer let's look at what happens the second time 2 Samuel verse 12 I was told King David saying the Lord has blessed the house of Obed Edom and all that belongs to him because of the Ark of God so David went and brought the Ark of God from the house of Obed Edom to the city of David with gladness and so it was when those bearing the Ark had gone six paces he sacrificed auction and fatted sheep then David danced before the Lord with all of his might and David was wearing a linen ephod so David and all the house of Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with shouting and the sound of the trumpet now as the Ark of the Lord came into the city of David Michael Saul's daughter looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord in his heart jumped down to verse 20 just for time's sake and David returned to bless his household and Michael the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said how glorious was the king of Israel today uncovering himself in the eyes of the maids and his servants as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself so David said to Michael it was before the Lord who chose me instead of your father and all his house to appoint me ruler over the people of Israel I will play music before the Lord and I will be even more indignified than this and I will be humbled in my own sight the first time it looked like David's best externally the best men, the best music and he sat there in his kingly robe when David remembered who he was that he wasn't primarily a king he was first just that little boy and the back kills a Bethlehem just worshiping the Lord with him and the Lord and that was it and he remembers who he really was and it's interesting what Michael says here Michael comes back, you gotta love Michael David comes back in peace husbands and wives they're like how's everyone doing and something really bad happened one of your kids and your spouse is like just kind of throws you off and he's like what is the best day ever the ark is back in Jerusalem I worship this is amazing and Michael goes you looked like an idiot today and David looks at her and he says this phrase that is a window into David's soul says it was before the Lord and not man see Michael was consumed with man and what man thought she loved the palace she loved all the benefits of the anointing without the sacrifice and she like her father was consumed with what people thought and David is saying to her he wasn't just being mean when he said God chose me and not your father it wasn't like your dad stinks and I'm way better than him there might have been a little bit in there too he's probably mad if we're gonna be real but what he was really saying was you missed it Michael the reason God chose me and not your father's not because I'm greater not because I'm more skilled not because I have more dignity and honor but because I did this before the Lord see you looked at a situation gripped in fear and shame and you were consumed with what man thought and I looked at the same situation I also was consumed with what someone else thought but it wasn't man it was God and what we see in David's life in every season is he lived before the eyes of God and hosted the presence of God and he didn't care what people thought and David he didn't just do that as a heart posture he said I'm gonna go out of my way to go over the top to exemplify that my worship is for God and God alone he takes off his kingly robe and he dances in the ethod which represents the priestly ministry and all throughout scriptures we see this kingdom is not just an inner kingdom it has an external reality to it and what we see over and over again in scripture is that physical obedience leads to spiritual breakthrough you know when God spoke to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac Isaac didn't spiritualize it and just meditate in that moment on it when God told them to march around Jericho and then shout with a voice of victory he wasn't speaking spiritually over and over again in scriptures the Lord commands something to test our obedience are we willing to obey and it's something normally that doesn't make sense but on the other side of that physical obedience is a breakthrough and the breakthrough is the breaking of the chains of the fear of man and what others think and David the man who had the most his first year as king he could have been worried about whatever he saw what happened with Saul and he said I'm not going that way I'm taking a sword through the heart of the fear of man and it's called abandoned worship to God you know in scriptures it commands dancing five times shouting 65 times singing 287 times and rejoicing 288 times is there specific power in a dance or clapping no but there is power in obedience and I remember when I was 13 years old I was a weird kid but I was terrified of what others might think of me all the time I don't ever remember responding in worship I wanted to I knew the voice of God but then in public I was terrified of worship and I wanted to express my love and affection for God with my body but I was afraid of what people thought of me and we were playing the song in worship I was in the back of the room when I was 13 and the song we sang tonight did you feel the mountains tremble and we sang that line dancers who dance upon injustice and I heard the Lord say I want you to dance upon injustice and you know I have the internal argument like I can't I don't know how no I don't want to be a distraction but I knew that God was speaking and he was saying Caleb I have a spiritual breakthrough on the other side of this physical piece of obedience and something just came over me in that moment and all of a sudden the love that I had for God internally became stronger than the fear that was over me and I started dancing and whirling around like a crazy person and when I did that I felt a breakthrough of freedom in the presence of God that I had never experienced and I didn't worship God the same again I could never imagine being on a stage and preaching in front of hundreds of people because I was terrified to talk in front of even one other person the Lord broke that off me he said Caleb it's not before them that you preach it's not before them that you live your life it's before me and if you keep your eyes fixed on me and if you follow in obedience and sacrifice and carry my presence I will deliver you from man's eyes and bring you into the fullness of your calling to minister as a priest before me I want to invite you to stand this morning I want to take this moment just like Andrew said to recalibrate we sang this song I'm coming back to the heart of worship it's not just for the prodigals that have been away from the faith guys I run down the prodigal road every morning every day I don't have time to talk through all of my failures and times that I've fallen short and we need to recalibrate daily we come before His presence and say God at somewhere I left the place of having you at the center maybe it was the disillusionment that came with being bitter about what life looked like maybe it's the fear of what man thought maybe it's the discouragement of seeing things not go the way that we want maybe it's just the busyness of life whatever it is I just want to take this moment and I know this might feel weird for some of you but I'm going to pause just for 30 seconds and then silence I don't want to do the prayer for you you look at Jesus in the face you gaze on the eyes of the Father you connect with Him and you like David say I'm coming back I'm putting you at the center I'm getting off the throne of my heart and I'm placing you back on let's look in the eyes of a loving Father and give Him our heart He says this morning I'm not angry I'm not disappointed but I'm drawing you closer to my heart you're never going to break that fear by focusing on it it's going to be the voice of your Father and His love for you that releases you so Lord I ask even as we repent as we recalibrate as we put you again at the center of our heart God that you would fill our lives with your presence God you would fill our homes and our families and our businesses God we don't want to be those who put you in a cart that pull you out in a moment that's convenient but we want to be people that carry your presence wherever we go we carry the smile and delight of your heart that same love that you lavished on us we want to pour it out so help us to be carriers of your presence Lord we ask like David that we would return to living our lives before your eyes return to the place of your countenance and your smile and your face God we ask your presence to rest on every area of our heart God every closed door of shame and failure that we have not let you in God we let you in right now and we let your presence heal and restore and bring and make new in our midst we give you our lives afresh your name amen and I want to invite the prayer team to come forward this is speaking to your heart and the Lord is highlighting maybe there's an area and issue of repentance that the Lord is wanting to speak I want to invite you to come forward or if you need prayer for anything else for everyone else who's leaving remember that we're not leaving the presence of God in here that we like the Ark of the Covenant carry the fullness of God in us and on us and it's before his eyes that we live amen amen radiant be blessed have a great weekend