 Today I'd like to talk to you about carrying the Ark of God. The Ark of God in the Old Testament was a box. It was made of acacia wood, which later had beautiful thorns. And who knows if the thorns weren't used in the crown of thorns in Jesus' head. Now the Old has physical objects that point to spiritual truths, their types and shadows of the Spirit in the New Testament. So you may ask a very legitimate question this morning. What does an Old Testament object like the Ark of God have to do with my life? And I promise it'll be practical and I promise it'll be applicable. But follow with me to the significance of an Old Testament part of the temple of God, or first the tabernacle of God. The tabernacle was a tent that God told them to build according to a design where His presence, the glory of God, would actually physically descend above the two cherubim of gold on top of this box. This box was in the most holy place of all within the tabernacle. The tabernacle had two rooms, one 15 by 15 by 15, a perfect cube with only one piece of furniture, the Ark of the Covenant. It was overlaid with pure gold. It had rings through which poles had to be placed through and carried by specific men called Levites. You were not allowed to physically touch the box after it was made, after the glory of God inhabited or shown above the mercy seat. The mercy seat was made of pure gold and an anointed artisan. You know God anoints us in the marketplace too, do you believe that? Whatever you do, you are anointed by God in your ministry as a layperson, as a professional minister in the church, you're still anointed by God. And this anointed artisan carved out these beautiful angels that as they watched the glory of God once a year, the high priest of the nation of Israel would kill and slaughter a lamb, an innocent lamb. They would take the blood on their finger and they would go into the Holy of Holies once a year, only once a year, and they would drip from his finger on top of the mercy seat. And that one drop of blood covered, not took away, covered the sins of all Israel for a year. Now this pointed to the time where Jesus Christ would enter into the presence of God and he would put the drop of his blood on God's mercy seat and take away our sins forever and ever and once and for all. The other room was 15 by 30, twice as long. And it had three articles, a table of bread, right, which reminds of the communion supper. Seven candlesticks called the menorah that had oil and it never was supposed to go out. And the third was, in the middle was another altar, not for blood, but for prayer. And they had a special perfume called incense, they would drop and as the smoke would go up to God, God said it was a pleasing savor in his nostrils. That signifies prayer. And of course you had the outer courtyard and all the rest of the temple. Now this arc was so important that people took it sometimes into battle hoping that the presence of God would overcome their enemies. Now this is introduction and I have to go really fast here to get to the main points that are applicable to you and me today. It turned out that the priests of God at that time were very corrupt and the high priest had two sons which were not acting as Christian leaders should act and they got into immorality. They did wrong things in the sacrifice that belonged only to God. They stole things, they did things incorrectly. And God said he would destroy them and he would let his arc be captured. And so when the arc, when they were fighting the Philistines that God raised up against them, they captured the arc of God and took it to their city and put in the temple of their God Dagon. And so that was a terrible thing. Go to the next slide and you'll see that. So the backgrounds are in first Samuel chapels four and six. The arc is captured by the enemies of God and Eli and his sons let Israel to sin. But what God did is he used that arc not to bless the enemy but to cause health problems. Now one word in the King James says God sent them haemorrhoids. I think God has a sense of humor. These people could not sit down for very long. And so the people start complaining to God why all these strange punishments in a strange place. Maybe the God of Israel is angry at our God. There's a little detail that when they put him in the temple of Dagon, an angel of the Lord came and chops the head of Dagon and puts it down. And so they said, wait, we have to get rid of this arc. Well, how do we know it's God that's causing these things? Look at this cool detail. So somebody came up with the bright idea. Let's take two milk cows. They just had calves. Now cows are moms, right? And they will never leave their little calves, especially when the calves are just starting to drink of the milk of the mom, right? And so let's hitch them up to a cart. Cows don't hitched carts and they will not pull the cart and they will not be separated from their calves. But if this is the God of Israel, they will go by themselves from the area of the Philistines into the camp of Israel miraculously. Everybody said, hey, that's a great idea. If this is the God of Israel is doing that, let's see. You know what the cows did? They pulled the cart moving as they went, leaving the poor little calves behind. They went straight, not to the left, not to the right. Never stumbled. Can you imagine the picture of the Israelis seeing two milk cows with udders, not oxen, pulling this calf with the Ark of God. Amazing, amazing. So let's go to the verses, 2 Samuel 6, 2. Next slide. David and all the people, they wanted to bring the Ark of God to Jerusalem. So verse 3, they carried the Ark of God. Now they put a new cart and put it hitched to oxen. Oxen are professional animals. And they brought it out of the house of Binedab. And then verse 6, when they came to the threshing floor of naked, the oxen stumbled and the Ark was tilting. And this man called Uzza reached out his hand to the Ark of God and wanted to take hold of it for the oxen shook it. He was afraid the box would fall and maybe even crack or be destroyed. Now, did he have a good intention? Yes. But God said, don't touch. Don't physically put your hand on the Ark. We read what happened in verse 7. The anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzza. And God struck him there because he reached out his hand to the Ark and he died right there beside the Ark of God. Now, verses 8 and 9, talk about David, the king, the new king and his emotions. Verse 8 says, David was what? David was mad at God because the Lord had burst forth against Uzza. Second emotion, verse 9, David was afraid of God that day. And he said, how can the Ark of the Lord come into my care? All David wanted to do was a good thing. And all Uzza, the man who died, wanted to do was a good thing. You can have good intentions as a Christian. But if you don't do things God's way, consequences follow that are not up to you, but they're already preset by the Lord. And I'll explain that. So now let's ask some really good human questions. Some of you are there scratching your heads. Why would God kill a man for only trying to help? I asked that question. That's a great question. Secondly, these oxen, professional animals are bringing the Ark back to Israel. Why did they stumble and the milk cows, which had no experience, went straight and perfectly? That doesn't make sense either. Thirdly, why did God allow the Philistines to send back the Ark in an unusual way, but not his people, the Jews? Wow, great questions. Let's settle the most important question of all. What is the Ark of God? The Ark of God in my presentation this morning is the presence of God in our ministry. Whatever you do, you want the presence of God in your labor for the Lord. Am I right? Whatever you do, the marketplace, the church building outside the church territory, in families, at the workplace, in schools, everywhere you go, do you know that then God's glory dwelt only one place above the Ark of the Covenant? And today the Holy Spirit has been shed abroad to live in you, the body of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit. And that presence needs to be put into flame. That presence needs to push out the darkness. That presence needs to be carried correctly and you'll see the glory of God in your ministry. There are nine lessons and now this is the actual message. If you're taking notes, you might not want to write these simple, simple thoughts. After I tell you, well, yeah, that makes sense. What are the lessons we could learn from the Ark of God? Number one, the Ark is heavy. It was made of heavy wood to begin with. Then they overlaid it with gold, which is heavier than lead. And then the lid of the Ark of the Covenant was solid gold. Gold is super, super heavy. Then the angels were made of solid gold, the mercy seat, the two cherubim. And it tells us this, that the work of God in our ministry is heavy. It gives a burden. Do you know this to lift up this Ark through the poles? Because that's how they would carry it with the poles. One person couldn't do it. You needed a team of people. And they was very, very heavy. I'm going to say something to you. Ministry sounds exciting. Ministry sounds romantic. Oh, we listen to other people's ministries. I'd like to do that. But can I say to you that ministry is heavy? And true ministry will weigh on your heart. True ministry will be called, what the Bible calls, a burden. A burden from the Lord. You know, I find in scripture at least three burdens. There might be more. One is a burden of sin. That's like carrying a backpack full of heavy rocks. Has serves no purpose and it weighs you down. And the Lord came to deliver us from the burden of sin. Amen. But the second burden is a burden from the Lord. And what do I mean by that? Well, would you feel a heavy weight for someone? Or for something that honors the name of God? You know, I've been in prayer for certain people before we did evangelism outreach. And I remember many times that the weight of that prayer would come upon me and crush me. And there were times where I cried real heavy tears. There were times I sobbed because I felt the heart of God for that person. You know, Paul wrote, he says, oh Corinthians, how I labor until Christ is formed in you. If you want true ministry, you have to have a burden for people. You have to have a burden for the ministry and it's not a light burden. Once you get into ministry, there will be days you say, what did I get myself into? I've got to do that. Oh no, in the beginning it's all exciting, all too great, mighty things for God. But after you've been doing it for a long time, you have to be refreshed in your spirit. Otherwise the burden will crush you. Even Moses said in Numbers 1111, that's easy to remember, 1111. He said, God, why don't you give me these millions of people? Am I their father? Am I supposed to carry them like all babies? He took all the burden on himself and Jethro, his wise father-in-law, said, Moses, you need to set up judges of thousands and hundreds and fifties and tens. And you listen like the Supreme Court to the heaviest cases and the burden was shared. That's the third burden that the Bible says share one another's what? Burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Do you know that when you see a person almost falling beneath the burden, either of sin or of heavy ministry, get alongside of them. Say an encouraging word. One of the greatest things that is missing among Christians is a word of encouragement. We have so much criticism, I wouldn't do it that way. Oh, they are this. Oh, and why are that? And then so much criticism. But who is actually getting underneath the load and say, let me help you carry that. That's sharing the burden of someone else because the Ark is heavy. The presence of God is heavy on us. And if it's not heavy, it's not a burden from the Lord. You know, Jeremiah says cursed is the man who does the work of the Lord slackly, easily. Lightly. Don't take the burden of God lightly. The Ark is heavy and it was made to be carried. Secondly, the materials of the Ark are so valuable. You have precious metals. You know, God is not cheap. He chose the best for the best. He chose gold and he chose artists who knew how to form. Do you know that the menorah is not the message, but it's an example of the message. It was made of one piece of beaten gold. Now it had a base and it was hollow right to the center. And then it had three of those candlesticks, but they weren't straight tubes. No, they ended up in almonds and then flower petals. And then a straight tube and an almond and flower petals right to the end. And the guy hammered it with the hammer and possibly fire out of one piece of, no soldering, no cutting, no, well, maybe he filed, but he got the gold, which is very malleable. That takes artisanship. So valuable is a work of art. And you know, the value of what you do for God is eternal. And Jesus praised the man for giving a glass of cold water to a prophet. It's just a small thing that helps someone in service, but it's eternal. How long do we live? 80, 90? My mom lived in 97 and she's with Jesus now. 97, right? Two years ago. And yet what is eternity? Thousands of millenniums of years. There's a cost for ministry. Do you know this building cost something? These cameras, these speakers, the screen, the musicians, all that is involved with church has cost. But is it worth it? We're trading the material for the eternal and it's worth it because God is valuable. Now the third thing is the best lesson of all. So the Philistines put the Ark of God on a cart and milk cows brought it home. David wanted to copy that method and put the Ark of God on a brand new cart, a better cart because he's King David and professional oxen and they messed up. They stumbled. The Ark is tipping and almost fell. And God killed a man for not obeying the warnings of doing ministry improperly. And you know what it was? Later on, David, after he got over being angry with God, after he became over being afraid of God, hey, wait a minute, how are we supposed to bring the Ark of God home? And he went into the book of Deuteronomy and they discovered the Ark should never be put on a modern cart with wheels. The Ark had long poles that you had to lift it up and carry it on your shoulders. Are you following this? The ministry of God cannot roll along by itself. It takes people who are dedicated to lifting up a heavy burden of ministry and carry it on their personal shoulders. That's the cost of ministry and it's called personal responsibility. It's not let somebody else do it. Oh, I gave money by a cart. Let it roll along by itself. The church will never grow, will never multiply and the glory of God will never descend on a ministry unless people rise up called to carry the ministry of God on their personal shoulders. But I warn you, it's heavy and I warn you, it's valuable and I warn you that you must lift it up. It's not telling someone else to lift it up. You must lift it up. We all work together and all together they bow down. Then all together they put it on their shoulders and when you have 8 or 12 men carrying it, it's a lighter burden. Hallelujah. Don't expect others to carry what God calls you to carry. You know the other day God embarrassed me. There was a minister who asked me to come next week and I'm coming. Then he calls back again and he says, hey, can you also come for a men's tree? You've got to drive three hours into the woods and we're going to have three services there. And I'm tired. So I was thinking to say no. But I was thinking how do I say no nicely? And God said to me, he says, don't say no to what you can do. If it's in within your power to give it, don't withhold. He said it to me twice in two different occasions. And I said, God, whenever you say that to me, that means you're going to bless that effort. And that means I'm going to put my shoulder and I'm going to go against my personal desires. And you're going to bless that day better than any other day. Because God is putting a heavy burden on us. And if it's God, I will do it. The work of God requires personal sacrifice. And number four, the Ark must move God's way. Now, why did God allow the Philistines to bring the Ark any way they chose? Because God tolerates the world's ignorance. They don't know any better. They didn't read the Word of God, the Scriptures. So they wanted to get rid of this tumor-causing box. So they figured out, let's do it this way. And if it's God, it works and it did. But the work of God cannot be accomplished using carnal methods. Now, please don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not saying use a pencil instead of a word processor. That's not the point. But let's take something like marketing. Marketing is an excellent tool, advertising. New methods, the Internet, Facebook, social media, that's not the point. The point is that is not the substitute for the presence and power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The other things are tools. Like a pencil is a tool. Like a word processor is a tool. Like the Internet is a medium that evil can be spread and the Word of God can be spread. Those are tools. But the tools are meant to be used by skilled people filled with the Holy Spirit of God. Are you following that? And where is our dependence on the cart or on the presence of God above the Ark of God? So use them only as tools. Use them only as God directs you. Use them in ways that are counter-intuitive where your mind will say that won't work. And God says still, if I'm in it, it will work and you'll see the results. You know I can't give you examples because there's so many examples. But when you begin to do something for God, God will direct you the right way and God will warn you about using the Philistine way of doing things. That's all I can say on that. Let God show you because it's much better when the Holy Spirit teaches that than me. Number five, because the ark is heavy, because the burden is great, because the ark is so valuable, because it must be carried on men's and women's shoulders. Number five, it cannot be carried by one man. It cannot be carried by two people. It requires a team. And when the work of God within a church organization or church organism is a better word, a body works together. Ephesians chapter four talks about the five-fold ministry of Apostle. Apostle today is a missionary evangelist. They could do everything. They could preach, they could teach, they could pastor, they could be an evangelist. God will give them a word of prophecy. They delegate their administrators. And so they start ministries where there's no ministry. That's what an apostle does today. They start new churches. They start new Bible schools, new works. They're like ice breakers. They go to the Arctic where ships cannot go. And that first ship has cutting tools in the prowl of a metal ship and slow progress. And it breaks through and breaks through and breaks through. And finally a passage of water is cut through ice and then big cargo ships follow freely. Because one little ice breaker cut away. I remember when I was a 16-year-old guy, we started taping music in the studio, four walls and microphones. And I was thinking to myself, a teenage thought, who in the world is listening to this music we're singing over shortwave radio to the USSR? We were not the best singers. We were not the most talented people. There were times I was singing at a flu, a temperature. I wanted to quit. Who am I singing to? Until I went to the Soviet Union and I heard our songs being sung in every church. I saw young people got saved through that music because the communist government didn't allow them to sing publicly. They had no public Christian radio. So they would tune in and it would be distorted by towers that were jamming the music so they would move it an inch. And I've talked to people who came to Christ. They would kneel down by the radio and the words of the song. I remember I was so ashamed. I was so convicted that I had thought that no one is listening. It's amazing. It's really, really amazing that it's a team ministry and God does it. Number six. Where is the power in those days of the Ark of God? Was it the gold cherubin now? Was it their artistry? Was it the fact that they use beautiful gold? Gold is so valuable in those days. No. Was it the beauty of the box, the carving? Was it the way it's put together? No, no. It was the presence of the Shekinah glory of God that looked for a place that was clean, that could receive that holiness. And you know the priest had to do it correctly because on his robe were tassels of fruit, which talk about the fruit of the spirit, but they also had bells. And when the priest would move, the bells would ring. When the priest would stop and the bells would not ring for half an hour, there was a rope tied to his ankle because he did something wrong and he's dead. And so they would pull him out from behind the curtain, dead. Is that a serious thing? Do you believe that God would do that today? Well, that's number seven. You cannot touch the Ark of God carelessly. Now, why did Uzzah die when all he wanted to do was steady the Ark that was falling? Okay? The answer is I don't think God said, I think I'm going to send him down a lightning bolt. Oh no. I think that when the glory of God, which is supernatural, actually permeates an object on an ongoing basis, that is like high voltage. You know, you ever see those old telephone poles, they have these barrels? You know what those barrels are? Transformers. The cables carry 440 watts. To your house, excuse me, to your house is 110. If you touch 110, it'll buzz you but it won't kill you, right? They stepped it down. Now in Europe, it's 220. It's twice as powerful. One time I was in the bathroom in Belgium. The pastor was redoing the bathroom and it was dark. So you know how you go in a dark room and you're feeling along the side of the door for the outlet? Well, he didn't have a cover on it. And so my fingers touched the open wires of 220. Whoa! Man, I thought a rat bit my fingers. Honestly, I thought there's a rat in the wall and he bit me. Man, I was jumping up and down. If you grab a hold of 220, it causes your muscles to contract. That's why electricians never touch anything this way. They touch it this way. If you touch it, your hand will close away from it. Did you know that? Well, how much voltage did the Ark of God had? I don't know. But all it took was one touch. He was dead. Now, let's be practical about that, okay? Because that sounds so fantastical. In Acts 12, it talks about King Herod. He was over the land of Israel. And he had a stadium filled with people. These people had a high tax burden that they didn't pay. So King Herod, they wanted to get on his good side. And as this politician, this King Herod, ungodly man, started to speak his speech, the people were flattering him. And this is what they said. This is not the voice of a man. This is the voice of a God. And Herod loved that. The praise that belongs only to God he took for himself. And Acts 12 tells us he did not give glory to God. He took what can only belong to God, glory. And the Bible says an angel touched him, punished him. And King Herod died of worms. His intestines began to be infested and he died very, very quickly. Well, you'll say that was then. All right. There was a man who built a ship and he called the ship unsinkable. Well, that's not bad. You can brag about a strong ship, but he invoked the name of God. And this builder of this ship called the, ah, you know the story. The Titanic said God himself could not sink her. Oh, and on his maiden voyage, I spurred and you know the story. You made a film out of it. Well, it sounds so romantic and great, but all the men died on that ship. Because one man touched the glory of God. There was a famous group. No one had affected music like these four young men. No one had changed the face of music from a single rock and roll singer to a group with guitars and drums. No one matched their harmonies or incredible God given ability to write melodious and lyricful songs. They took America by storm. They were the most talked about. They had like 78 or nine number one singles on the same 100 chart. Nobody did that. And in a television interview, one of the men said, we are more popular than Jesus Christ. Later he tried to retract it, but it went out because he really thought that and his life soon ended. Don't touch the glory of God. If God blesses your church, don't brag. If God uses you, give glory to God. Anything we do, anything we have, who gave that to us? It was God. And God gave and God could take away. God gave me a voice since I was 15 right about 65. And now God has taken my voice away and he told me that he would. Because I wasn't writing a book for five years and he told me to write a book and you know what? If you want excuses, I'm a very good excuse generator. I have a million reasons why I'm not good enough to write a book and why nobody's going to buy it and what am I going to write about? God said, okay, I'll take away what you love to do and then you'll be stuck. And during COVID everybody, I had 12 trips cancer, 11. So my wife says, well, maybe you'll write the book now. I said, yes, honey. Thank you, SD. And you know what? I finished the book and it's being a type set right now and I'll send the box to Pastor Vlad. He doesn't know about this yet, but you could purchase that. The glory belongs to God because when he does something is so amazing. It's so beautiful. When David read that the Levites had to carry the Ark physically on their shoulders. Please remember that. That's the most important part of my message. My dad preached this message. I remember that's why I wanted to repeat it and they walked. How fast was the progress? How fast can you go carrying a heavy box? Not very fast. Not like with a cart and horses or oxen. Secondly, the Bible says they gave sacrifices every six steps. Whoa, that really slowed them down. Don't you think you're bringing a box home. You want to do it efficiently? No, God says do it correctly. Oh, no, no, we want to do it fast. God says do it slow. Hear a little bit. There a little bit. Line upon line, precept upon precept. Every building with bricks requires one brick at a time. Are you hearing this? In our modern world, we want it up in a day. We have prefab, throw it up, slap it together, move on to the next project. Know the work of God is slow and tedious, but it's quality and it's God driven. Starting a ministry is fun, but being consistent over many, many years. You will discover is the hardest thing in your life. I've been in preaching since I was 15 years old. Did our first mission trip when I was 16 and did a mission trip every year of my life till this day. I want to finish well. I don't want to do one thing will be the dead fly in the perfume of God. I don't want to do any one thing that will ruin 50 years of faithful service to the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you hearing me? I want to have a good name which is better than rubies and riches and a big house and a fancy car. I want to bring glory to God like Billy Graham did. The secular press never criticized him because he was a man who did not mess with women. He was a man who didn't touch the money. He was a man who gave the glory to God. And that's what I want for a hungry generation. God will use you greatly. Do not touch his glory. Do not take credit for what only the Holy Spirit can do. Don't touch the Ark of God. That's the presence of God. Walk carefully around his presence. Treat his holiness as something that you long for and you humble yourself. And the more you humble yourself, the greater the grace that he could give. Hallelujah. And I've come to the last part. Sacrifice. I want to tell you something that is counter-intuitive. We think in our human mind that if I lose something, I am less or have less. It's not money. Let's take money out of the equation immediately because right away people go right first to money. Money is included. That's not the point. The point is even harder than that. When we sacrifice, it takes a price. We pay a price. But in the midst of true sacrifice done for the right reasons, for the glory of God, there is a secret that unfolds from your sacrifice for God. And it's called joy. J-O-Y. You only discover it when you are in the midst of horrible sacrifice. You only discover this when you go all in and say, I don't care. And all of a sudden, the spirit of joy comes upon you. Here, I've got a scripture for you. I bet you that no one's ever preached to you about this. I discovered after I put this message together, Hebrews chapter 12 says, Jesus Christ, who for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. He despised the shame. Jesus was bleeding. Jesus was suffering. Jesus was dying in agony. But his heart was not full of ha-ha-ha. It was full of the joy of the Lord. Because he saw you. He saw the results of his suffering and he was satisfied. Why could he pray, Father, forgive them? They don't know what they're doing. Why could he do that? Because he had joy in his heart. I'll finish with this story. How were the emotions of David when the man was killed? He was angry at God. We mess up and we get angry at God, right? We do the wrong thing and we blame God. Why did this happen? All I'm trying to do is your will, David. That's what you're trying to do, your will. And we get mad. When we don't get our way, that's when we get mad. And somebody doesn't do for us what we expect them to do. We get mad. Something we do for God supposedly doesn't work out. We get mad. Why? I'm sacrificing here. Do it God's way. And then there's fear. And David was afraid. A man died. He's got to talk to his wife and children. And they don't understand why did God kill my husband? All they do is trying to help. Trying to help. You know? When they took the ark on their shoulders. When they lifted up the burden of ministry. They said I'm going to be personal responsible. When they worked as a team and everybody together. And they walked six steps and they gave a sacrifice to God. The joy of the Lord descended. David took off his crown. David took off his kingly robes. And David started jumping before the Lord. I'm not big on dancing. I'm not a dancer. But you know what? When you have the joy of the Lord. You just can't stay on your feet. I have to tell you the story. Because otherwise it's just theory. I was invited to Latvia many, many years ago. 1992, 93 around there. Soviet Union had just fallen. I think it was 91 actually. And I've never been to Latvia. I'm Ukrainian. I don't speak Russian very well. But I understand it. I can speak in Ukrainian. I was just a flight key. We had a Jesus conference. I was there for two weeks of ministry every day. I was exhausted. I was a young man, but I was exhausted. And then they came to me and said, you know, Aeroflot is not paying their bills in Latvia. So the Latvians cancel all the flights into Riga Latvia. I go, yes. I could go home. Oh no, Brother George. We got train tickets for you. No, serious. And so I think it was two day train trip. Train trip. You had 15 republics. And you needed a visa for each one, right? Until it became visa free now. But then you had to have a visa. And they, oh no, no. When you fly in, they give you a visa. But now I'm not flying in. I'm going to train. And I had to go through Belarus. Belarus requires a visa. Lithuania requires a visa. And then finally Latvia, the Baltic States. I had no visa. And I heard stories that they pulled people off the train. You have to find the embassy the next day. Do you eat? Do you have money? They wanted money from the Americans. The Soviet Union fell apart. I'm freaking out. I said, I want to go home. God said go to Latvia. I get on the train. They didn't ask for my passport. Where are you headed? Latvia. In Belarus. In Lithuania. I get to Latvia. I went into the bathroom to shave. Because then I had a very dark skin. A dark beard. I look like Richard Nixon on a bad day. Those of you who remember. I went into the bathroom. It's stunk. Anybody remember Soviet bathrooms? Foo. I ran out of air. As fast as I could. I get to the airport. I think, okay, take me to the Bible school. I'll take a bath and shave. Oh no, it's three hours away by car. I had a happy missionary. I wasn't. I wasn't. It required more sacrifice so that I was willing to do. So I'm mad. I'm angry. I'm tired. I'm in this car. We show up at the Bible school. And all their faces are so happy. An American came to teach at the YWAM Bible school. And I'm like. With two days of growth on my beard. I said, can I just take a shower first? Three days now. They shut off the water to the town. We Americans are so spoiled. We got to take a bath three times a day, right? Oh man. I'm finishing the story. I said, can I have a glass of water? No, are you thirsty? No, I want to shave. I shaved out of a glass of water. I kid you not. I sit behind the pulpit. All these kids are happy faces. Somebody pray, I said. How happy is this? It's going to be a great blessing. I don't want to be here. I don't want to be here. I don't want to be here. But I'm here. And I prayed a simple prayer. I said, dear Lord God. I'm here at the call of God. You know my heart. You know my flesh. Lord, I commit. I will obey you. Give me strength to speak the next three hours. I'm so tired. I'm overwrought. And something happened to me and my friends that I can only tell you. That's why I wrote this message. It's like God poured liquid joy. Not the dishwashing stuff, okay? The real stuff. On my head, it went down my back. Down my feet. The power of God literally came upon me. I felt light as a feather. I preached for the next three hours. It was the best Bible school I've ever taught at. And I learned a lesson that day. That is in the midst of your sacrifice. Done God's way. That God pours the joy of the Lord. Do you want that joy in your life? Then commit yourself to carrying the burden of the ministry upon your shoulders. Would you pray with me? Stand. Heavenly Father, I don't know who you're speaking to in this moment. I don't know what you're saying to their hearts. I tried to be accurate. I tried to be simple. And I tried to speak the word of God in my weakness, Lord. But I know this. That you called me to carry the burden of the ministry of the Ark of God, which is His presence today in the New Testament. The holy presence of the Spirit of God who goes forth to deliver, to break chains, addictions, Lord. To break bondages of alcoholism and drug abuse. Depression, suicide, immorality. And Father, break them in Jesus' name. Because you are the embodiment Holy Spirit of the presence of God. Let your fire burn here in the hungry generation. Let your fire burn in our personal lives, Lord. Let the fire of God be in our evangelism. Let the fire of God be in deliverance, Lord. Let the fire of God be in speaking of the great works of the Lord God. Power God, our shoulders. It is a privilege to sacrifice for the one who sacrificed for us. May your name be glorified. May your name be worshiped. And all the glory belong only to you in Jesus' name. Amen, have a seat. I feel led just to tell you one little thing I heard the other day. It just blessed me so much. Do you know who the first man who had the blood of Jesus drop on him, drip on him? Do you know who it was? It was a black man. Yes, Jesus fell beneath the cross. Yes, on the hill to Golgotha he fell. The weight of the cross was so heavy it fell. And they compelled the man of Cyrene called Simon. It was a black man. And the blood of Jesus was on that cross. And as he lifted up the cross, the blood was on his shoulders as well. Wow, God shows a black man as the first man to have the drops of Jesus' blood fall on his shoulders. There are three demonic spirits that are afflicting our land. What is the spirit of racism where whites hate blacks and now blacks are hating whites back. That spirit has no place in our church. Second spirit is the spirit of Jezebel. Radical feminism, not where women are elevated to place of value and partnership. But they want to do to men what men did unto them, which is revenge. That's radical feminism. That's the spirit of Jezebel. And the third spirit that's afflicting our nation is the spirit of Malik. Where little babies are brought in sacrifice to the demon God Malik through abortion. But God will change all of that, isn't he?