We're gonna be in 2 Samuel, chapter number six. I would like to say without reservation or hesitation whatsoever that I'm very, very proud and pleased and I understand about pride and the proper use of it, but the amount of work that has been done, the amount of preparation that has been done the amount of finances that have gone into what is about to be probably our largest, certainly our largest graduating class, that God's allowed us to be a part of because of what others have done before us. and then given us the responsibility to carry on with what they started. We're on the forefront of the work, but the preparations have been made. The thing's done, almost completed now that we're ready to start receiving the people as they come in. With a meeting of this size, any meeting to be honest with you, there's always bound to be different things that occur that will test and or reveal what we're really all about. In 2 Samuel chapter 6 I see some contrasts where after about 98 years of the ark being in the hands of the Philistines, David says, you know what I'm ready to bring the ark back. He recognized the ark represented the Lord in those days and God being with him, so I'll use it in type or as a shadow or figure, the relationship between him and the nation of Israel and their God had been separated for a period of time. Now we know we can't lose our salvation, but I'm trying to just show you a picture of what can happen to us over a period of time is that we get accustomed to kind of running the machine without the oil in it. And sometimes we don't even recognize it until something happens that causes us to run hot. because we are lacking the oil. I'm not a mechanic. Don't claim to be a mechanic. I know a few. I've messed around with enough cars to know that. And it has to have oil and water and air to be able to operate properly. But without oil, you have friction. And that friction can have a multitude of other things, meltdowns and parts coming apart and those kind of things, and just the tiny little metal shavings. that can get down into the oil pan and into the crankcase and even though you now have added the oil back in those tiny little shavings are still there and as that crankshaft throws that up and the rocker arms pick it up and it begins to go back down through the pistons and they fire and each next thing you know it creates those little shavings create these tiny little scores that are on the side of the casing that holds the piston And before long, the engine loses compression because it's not sealed properly because those shavings over a period of time, though the shavings were the size of a grain of sand, nonetheless very hard, have created etchings in the side of those housings where the pistons move back and forth and they begin to wear all of a sudden the lifters that should push the rocker arms and the rocker arms that should operate off the springs and the oil is not able to get up there and then most importantly the big piston as it shoves forward and back down it's not able to produce the compression and you mash the gas and it still goes but it don't go like it used to. And the engine is still running. but it doesn't run like it used to. At idle, it almost sounds like it's purring like a kitten. But under pressure, when you need it to get out of the way of the semi coming or the train coming or whatever, under pressure, it's lost the compression and you mash the gas and the carburetor floods with some gasoline and sends it down to the spark plugs and the spark plugs fire and they hit that piston and that piston is supposed to begin to operate faster and quicker but because the compression isn't there it moves but it doesn't have the punch that it used to have now it hesitates because it can't handle the pressure of the fuel being dumped anymore because it's lost compression. You can put in an oil additive. In my days, it was STP. That's what a poor man did as opposed to overhaul an engine. It was thicker than blackstrap molasses on a cold day. I mean you could put it in the crankcase, just leave the can sitting there, it'll take it all day to drain out. It came out, I mean, thicker than K-Ro syrup. And then you're thinking to yourself, man, that thing is going to seize that engine up. Well, it's made to operate once it gets hot. To help with the compression and to leave a film or a coating where the etchings have been to try to give you a false sense of the compressions back. But it's only going to last for a little while. As a matter of fact, you know what can happen? That little bit of an additive, and you crank up the car in that morning and guess what? That big cloud of blue, gray, black smoke doesn't come out. You're like, man! Engine overhaul in a can, this is the greatest stuff in the world. $1.49 from Genuine Auto Parts. I have overhauled my entire engine. I'm gonna run another 150,000 miles. This is great. It don't even, look baby, it don't even smoke anymore. But it's not long before the counterfeit, the cover up, Replacement for the etchings begins itself to break down. Not realizing that what I needed the whole time. Just go ahead and pull the top end out of that thing. You need to replace those sleeves. David has gotten accustomed to running the engine without the oil. And when he recognizes that he needs the ark back. He said, let's go get it. But he makes a mistake. He goes and gets a can of STP. Instead of recognizing that he's been gone from it a long time, and it's going to take some time to get it back. What I like about David is, is that in spite of what's about to happen, he doesn't quit trying. What I like about him is, unlike sometimes, if I can be just a moment personal a little bit is, at the first sign of trouble, though he is afraid and he's worried and he's concerned, he doesn't quit figuring out, okay, I've got to do things a better way, a different way, and that kind of thing. Can I say first of all, if you would like to take notes today or not, can I say first of all, recognizing that God and you are at a distance. is the first step at fixing it. God knows where you are. But do you know where you are? Secondly, he don't always come back as quick as you want him to. And when you first start trying to get back in fellowship with him, here's the first thing you must remember. It's not about speed. It's about accuracy. It's not about subverting the rules, the laws that God set forth and said, this is how it has to be done. Lord, we messed up, the Philistines got in here, they grabbed it, Eli fell off, he broke his neck and everything was terrible, his boys were horrible anyway. And, Lord, that's been in there too quick. Hey, listen, the Philistines came, they got it on a cart. And so if they can get it on a cart, certainly we can get it on a cart. And, Lord, if we can hurry up and get it back here, we can get back to the worship service the way it used to be 98 years ago. And, Lord, you know, this'll be a real blessing. This'll be a tremendous thing. And, Lord, if we could just hurry and that kind of thing. And he puts together the ark. No question it would have been the Cadillac, the Bentley of Arks. The best of the oxen. Nothing else would have done at the king's order. Hurry up, get that ark ready. Get those carts ready, get those oxen ready. I mean, feed them up till they're fat and slick and muscled up and grizzled up. And man, we are going to have us a worship service. We're just going to run down there, we're going to grab it, we're going to get it back here, we're going to have church. But the Lord's not always as interested in our speed as we are. One of the hardest things for a Christian to understand is, is that when we mess up, it's more than just fess up. Fessing up does wash away the sin, but the restoration, you can't do it on a cart. You can't do it with a can of STP. You can't do it with one service, one sermon, one song. You can't just do it with one little thing. Oh man, went to the altar, got it right, I'm good. Woo, man, praise the Lord, hallelujah. Boy, I'm back in the saddle. The Lord's like, really? You know, you're kind of encouraging people to leave if that's all there is to coming back. And all you gotta do is just jump right back where you got it. No, no, you've missed a lot since you've been off the train. And now you jump back on the train. You need to realize you've missed several stations along the way. And you better find out where you are before you start thinking it's like it used to be. Because David, you don't jump right back in where you left off. Some things have changed. Well you know what happens, and sometimes here's the first thing I would like, or third thing I guess it is that I would like to say is, is that sometimes no matter how well meaning you are, how good your intentions are, if you'll notice in there it wasn't even David's fault, he had the ark loaded up onto the cart and they're walking along, it's somebody else's fault. that the ox stumbles and a hail goes out and touches it and gets killed right on the spot and stops the return of the ark to Jerusalem. Stops the reuniting, the restored fellowship. Are you listening to me? This is really important. The reason it is important is, is because often times you will begin to move and see and recognize, I need to get back in fellowship with the Lord. And it'll be somebody else that will stumble. Somebody else that will do something that if you're not careful, it'll stop you. Even if it kills them. It's in the passage. And if you're not careful, you begin to forget, wait a minute, I was going after the ark to restore the fellowship of God to the nation of Israel. I was going back to get my relationship with the Lord restored and I'm trying to get things fixed up and the ark stumbled. And the ark shook. And Ahaio touched it because he had gotten familiar. It's just the ark. What's the big deal? The Philistines did it. God didn't kill them. But you see, God will not tolerate from us what he tolerates from the Philistines. But I would like to say, Cana S.T.P. A quick fix. It won't last long. Because when he poured the STP in, the ox stumbled, the engine broke down, God smote Ohio, and David stopped everything. We're going to have a meeting. We're excited about the meeting. I am. But I've been at it long enough to know. that if we get in a hurry and we try to put a patch on something under pressure, that patch is going to blow. Under pressure, the compression is going to fail. We won't make it across the railroad tracks. Well, I'm almost to where I want to be today. David sits and ponders for a while. I think I'm at the Bottom of the right-hand page, the bottom left-hand corner there, I'm right. David says, I found out that the ark is down at Obed-Edom. Is that? David said, I need to go and finish what I started. He wasn't wrong in desiring it. He was wrong in the way he went about getting it. You should desire a blessing. You should want it. You should want to have that fellowship with God, that ability. Your relationship with God, ladies and gentlemen, should be more than just 1 John 1, 9 after you're saved. I mean, it should be. I got up this morning and Mr. Arthritis is plaguing me and eating me alive and I can't take enough of sedimedicine or ibuprofen or Excedrin or Tylenol for arthritis care or whatever. I'm still hurting and I got to ask God to help me not confess my sin. I hurt. I want to be in church. I lost a loved one. I need guidance, I need direction, not I need to confess my sin. I need direction on what to do about a situation, not confess my sin. I need to know who to go to, what doctor to see, how to get pain relief. I gotta have direction. Oh, but can I just say this? There's always something that'll block that blessing. And can I say that biblically, It'll always be a little thing. It's just a little thing, just a little wobble in the cart. Just a little thing, I mean, David's, look, let me think about it. I mean, he's taking the ark back. Who cares about the semantics of how things are done? His motive is, hey, it's the right thing. It's like one fellow told me one time, listen, it's okay to do wrong to get a chance to do right. Well, how's that working out for him here? Well, go ahead and do it and ask for forgiveness rather than ask for permission. You might want to read the passage. That applies in the world. That does not apply to us as Christians. As Christians, the Lord's like, I'm glad you're coming after me, but you better approach the right way. The priest in the Old Testament, when it came time for him to come into the Holy of Holies, he was so afraid of not doing everything exactly like it ought to be. You say, why? God would kill him. If he approached the wrong way, too often nowadays to come to a meeting, we want to get right, get back in the saddle, dump in the can of STP, we're back. And the Lord is like, you're back, are you? How is it that that little thing caused you to get out already? Somebody sat in your spot. Somebody sang your song. Somebody didn't do it like you wanted it done. Somebody did it. Am I too close to home? Somebody got your spot in the altar. You can't go. Now you got to blow holy water on it before you go there because they've been on it. Probably your enemy was down there. The preacher, as he will do, changes things up. And whenever he changes things up and puts you there, it was the Holy Ghost. But whenever he excludes you, it was the devil. I can be both. David said, you know something? That desire to have that fellowship, to be reunited, That thing that means something to my God. I heard that God's blessing the house of Obed-Edom. I'm going down there where the blessing is. I want that blessing. He goes down there, but this time he goes, he has an entirely different attitude. How do you know? Because if you read the top of the next page in an old Schofield, you know what it said? They had not gone six paces, and he sacrificed the thing he had depended on before, which were the oxen. Six paces. One, two, three, four, five, six. Stop. What's the matter? We're doing okay. The Lord hadn't killed anybody yet. They said, I'm going to insure that. You know what we're going to do? We're going to thank the Lord. He let us go six paces without killing us. Last time we hadn't gone two, one of us dropped dead and stopped the whole thing. You know why? I got in a hurry. Any place is a good place. I don't care if it's a kardash. I don't care if it's under a desk. I don't care if it's on an altar. I don't care. Any place is a good place. We're going to call a church service. Build up an altar, stop. Everybody's like, what is the king doing? He's making a sacrifice. I mean, don't he know if you just load that thing up and then we can... Uh-oh, uh-uh. How come he's got them old men carrying that thing? If he got younger guys, stronger guys, he could do it a whole lot faster. That's what got him in trouble before. The Lord said, those are Levitical priests. They're the only ones that are to carry it. It has to be carried with staves through the rings. David is following now the letter of the law. I would say it looks like to me he's learned his lesson, that it ain't about speed. It's about accuracy and it's not about him. It's about God. Well, they have a worship service. Of course, everybody was in attendance there. They were like, man, that was really something. We stopped on the side of the road. And man, I mean, the Shekinah glory came down, and boy, it was so good. We didn't know you didn't have to be here or there. Man, it just, I mean, man, it was good. And Davis says, okay, let's go on into Jerusalem. And gets into the city limits. He's getting close to that place where the ark is gonna, the Bible says rest. Getting close to where the ark is gonna take its preeminence, its proper place in the center of the entire nation of Israel. Once again, gonna be centered on God and David gets overwhelmed with emotion. David is a king. David is the greatest warrior that has ever been seen in Israel. And he gets carried away. And he does an unusual thing. He lays aside his royal robes. He puts on the garment of a priest, and ephod is what it's called. Make no mistake of the vulgar people that try to make it look like David took off his clothes and stripped down to his underwear. That's not at all what happened. You say, why? God would have killed him. God killed a man for touching an orc. You don't think God would have killed him? I don't know how Hollywood crept into the passage, but it ain't no Hollywood. It's him taking on the position of a priest. You say, how do you know? Because he worships and he praises, and then he distributes to the people, and he passes on the blessings to everyone else, just like a priest was. In this case, he's a type of Christ. So be careful about pulling your carnal thought in there and going, oh, well, no wonder Michael was upset with him, because he's out there dancing around like a... A male dancer at a strip club. If you honestly think that's what happened, you have been severely overridden by a woman's point of view that it must have been that for her to be rightfully upset. No, she was upset because he was worshipping God over her. What got Adam in trouble was when he put Eve over God. You say, how do you know? Well, don't rush my story, you'll get in trouble going too fast. You can't STP this one. The Bible says David danced before the Lord. The people were in admiration of David because he lowered himself and he acted just like a common man because in front of God, who is a warrior, and who is a musician, and who is a king, and who is a preacher, and who is anything. Before God, we're just, hey, we're all nothing, he's everything. That's what David is saying. David's like, hey, I'm just doing what God told me to do, and God's allowing us to bring the ark down here. Man, ain't this a blessing. And he takes off, and he says, listen, don't be looking at me. Don't let me be the hindrance of your worship of God. Forget about it. I'm not here to be reverenced or respected or appreciated as your king. And he removes that kingly presence, that robe, that insignia, that crown that would have caused people to say, he's the boss. He's the one that has to have the recognition, the appreciation. There's a protocol. He said, nah, this is all about God. That's what he's doing. He's saying, I like this. I don't think he did the Watusi. And I have no idea what's out there nowadays. I don't think it was a vulgar display of humanity. However he danced, it would have brought glory to God. It wouldn't have been something that would have made the girls go, Michael's got her a catch, boy. Because it would have taken away from... I don't know what the dance was. I heard a preacher tell me one time, he said, I can show you how they dance before the Lord. I said, no, thank you. Can I just tell you why? Do you not think it would be strange for me to be sitting down and a man dancing in front of me? He may say it's in front of Jesus, but I'm present. I'm like, you can't see Jesus, so people are looking at me like, preacher, what are you doing? I'm learning how to dance in front of Jesus. Those are things that's like, I don't know, so why do I have to worry about it? I just know it wasn't vulgar. I know whatever he did, it pointed to the Lord. I gotta hurry. And the people are rejoicing. The Bible says they're happy. There is nothing like a church service when God shows up. You know, the wildest thing is I've seen the Lord show up and I've seen other people like, my God, man, he's already 15 minutes over. Well, you happen to be in the passage. Imagine that. Because Michael was watching on the internet. That's what it says. You have to go to the original Hebrew to get it. She even had windows. 365. In the cloud. So what? It's in the passage. See, it's prophetic, the Lord told you. You're going to be looking at windows, the internet. There it is, right there. Probably a little bit of a loose interpretation there. My first question would be, why is the king's wife sitting at the house when she should have been with the king? Is that too close to the cotton? I better rephrase. Is that too close to the taters? Is that better? Brother Mike, that better? That good? That better? Taters? Just mean are you plowing close to the root system. Some of you are like, oh no, he didn't. Thank you. Are you staying with me? Mine was McHale at the house. This was the event. Even though Georgia-Florida came, it wasn't no inauguration of the president. This was the event of the century. They're bringing the ark back. Like the one Indiana Jones let you look in it, you melt. What's even worse is you look in it, you get hemorrhoids. Hemorrhoids, hemorrhoids, hemorrhoids, go look them up. You say, preacher, what that is is hemorrhoids go over. No, no, no, no, it ain't hemorrhoids. Don't be Southern. I said it right. This is the major event. She's at the house. Is that a little weird to you? Come on, even if you don't like it, can't you say amen? Don't you think that she ought to be with her husband, the king? If she's looking for recognition, whoa, well, maybe that's the problem. She didn't get the recognition when the king was there. So the only way she could get the recognition was don't be where the king is, because wherever the king is, they all make it about the king. Well, the king just made it about the Lord. Why wasn't she there? I have a list of things in my notes, but I'm not going to give them to you because you'll be like, oh, you're just cherry picking. Is she the king's wife? Should the wife be with the husband? Are you his wife? Oops. Shouldn't you be where the king is? Amen. She's home watching on the internet. We're glad for all of you that are watching on the internet and a lot of you don't have churches and we understand that. So please just don't take offense to that. We're grateful. We're appreciative. Thank you for everything you do. Amen. But for some reason, she's not participating, Brother Larry, in the service. If I could paint, I'd have David coming in with a smile as big as when he killed a bear, a lion, and a giant. I'd have him walking in going, man, it's back again! This is great! God's got preeminence in Israel and I got to be a part of it! Man, this is great! Baby, I went in, pulled the top end of that thing out. I bored it. I cleaned it. Man, I put fresh oil in it. Man, you wouldn't believe it. I hit the gas, and man, she smoked them. They didn't even have to put no bleach on the track. Man! Oh, it was good. I'd have him coming in the house, kind of still skipping a little bit, and say, honey, I'm home. Can't wait to tell you what happened at church today. Whoo, hallelujah! What are you doing all that shouting about? You say, what happened? Well, when Michael saw him, she couldn't even wait for his dissertation about what had happened. She said, oh, you looked real nice today in front of all the women. making an insinuation that they thought the way she did, her being more worried about what the women thought than what God thought about her not being in church. Not worried about that. Oh boy, weren't you kingly today? Don't you know, she bobbed her head. Don't you know King Saul's my daddy? Don't you know I'm the king's wife and I'm represented by how you act? How dare you is what she's saying. Embarrass me like that. That's what she's saying. How dare you act that way. I don't know who you think you are. But let's get something straight. And David said, you hush just a minute. I wasn't dancing in front of the women. I was dancing in front of the Lord. Well, not only can speed get in the way, not only can little things cause you to stumble, but even when things start to go good, there's always going to be dissenters and discouragers and people with demeaning comments. That's so discord. That's all, Brother Larry. Stand up. What's that all about? I don't know. You must have a different point of view from your window than we do. And don't you quit doing it until you're too old, you're going to break something. And then when you do, we'll let you sit in the chair. We saw that big old black guy down there, stand up, tears running down his cheeks, hand up in the air. What's that all about? You wouldn't get it. Let me kind of give you an inside track, can I for just a second? What McHale doesn't realize is, is she's talking to God, not David, and saying, he should not be worshiping God, he should be more concerned about her than him. And God's sitting there listening. What does that remind me of? There will always be spectators, ladies and gentlemen. We are fixing to have a hootenanny. And there are going to be some people that are going to act unhinged. You know why? They've never seen the ark come up before. They've never seen the unity, this many people working this hard to try to facilitate everything we can think of, to have less pressure on them so they can enjoy the meeting. And when all of a sudden the ark gets the preeminence, they're like, wow, what was that? And they might go, amen. Ooh, hallelujah. You say, well, you do. Don't be watching from the window. The temptation when a big meeting comes is, I'll watch from the house. Yeah, but the problem is, is you have things going on in the house that distract you from what's going on in the church. Too many other things going. Some of you are jonesing right now so bad. It's like, I've got to look It just buzzed. I know somebody liked my last post. And now they made it easy for you in church. It makes you look like you're doing the Baptist salute. I caught you. I didn't think the preacher knew about that. You're not changing the time or setting an alarm. Yes, he's still going. He's pretty wound up. Yeah, I don't know. Can I just say, I will be late, and then it'll go off again? Yes. Looks that way. Because the view is always different from the point of a spectator than it is from a participator. David was fully engaged at that moment the same way he was fully engaged against the bear, the lion, and Goliath. He was fully engaged as if he was fighting a battle. giving everything he had to God, at that moment, overwhelmed with such joy, and gladness of heart, and appreciation, and gratitude, that he said, you know something? I wouldn't even be here! If it wasn't for God seeing me on the hillside over there as a little shepherd boy tending to some sheep, He came and, man, are you kidding me? And people are like, King, are you okay? King, do you need an aspirin? King, can we get you some water? King, He goes, you know something? Could you just stop? Could you just stop? We're in God's presence right now. This is about God right now. Stop making it about me. I wouldn't be where I am if it wasn't for Him. Let's give credit where credit's due. Let's give glory where glory's due. Let's give gratitude where gratitude is there. Let's pour it out on God. Stop looking at me. This meeting is not to draw attention. to ourself. It's for the purpose. Drawing attention to the One that got us where we are. We wouldn't even be sucking air if it wasn't for Him. David didn't shirk his responsibility. It's just at the time, it's like, you know what? I'm going to make this like there ain't no tomorrow. I got a chance to worship the Lord. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, I'm gonna do it. And David was happy. And he cut a rug there in front of the Lord and he said, Lord, I know this is out of the ordinary. I recognize this is not normal. I know kings don't act this way. But Lord, this unusual set of circumstances. And you know what I've just been reminded of? I'm still just a shepherd boy. You know what I just realized? I'm just the litter of the runt. I'm still over there just the son of Jesse. Before I killed a bear and a lion, before I killed Goliath, before I killed Philistines, I forgot, Lord, I forgot. You may have made me a king and a priest, but I'm just a nobody. That's the fundamental difference in David and Saul. Well, I have to give you the bad side. How are we doing? Okay. 1102. I'm going to show you something real quick. I'll try to be fast. Whether David put her away, whether the Lord made her barren, The Bible doesn't say specifically. It does say that when she tries to be a surrogate mother to some kids, some grandkids of Saul, that those kids wound up getting sacrificed at Rizpah. Because you know what he said? Because of what you said about me worshiping God, you're not going to bear any children. Preacher's not any kind of a big deal. Oh, Ohio got killed because he got too familiar with the Lord and touched the ark. She did the same thing with her mouth that he did with his hand. She hindered the worship service. David perfect? No. But in the passage, David is not the one under the microscope. In the passage, it is couched between two bookends, and I'll be done. The first bookend is David won the blessing, but he went at speed, not accuracy, and some people got hurt. Then he went after the blessing again, and he was doing it the right way, and things looked okay. Now we have another attack on both ends of the story in between. Is David doing what was right to do? Both sides were about hindering the worship service because David, for that moment in time, said, I'm not going to make it about me. Surely every preacher in here sees where that's headed. You live in a culture. that is teaching you, including in churches, to make it about you. And whether Ohio is so familiar with God, I got it! I got it! Just the ark, I got it! Okay. Appreciate it. Now it stops. Now it starts back up. Here comes the spectator. Yeah, boy, what are y'all doing down there? How come y'all doing it like that? How come you're doing this? God strikes both of them. One of them lives being unfruitful. The other one dies on the spot. So here's the deal. I want to see God do something. I need Him. to do something for me. Today, but in this meeting. I don't want to hinder the meeting. I don't want to be... You're going to hear from a lot of preachers, but you don't know what's going on in their saddleback. Let's just don't get in the way of God moving. Let's don't make it about anything but the Lord. You say, why? God going to kill me? No, He ain't going to kill you. But you might be unfruitful. Might be a while before you pass out of track again or lead somebody to the Lord. It might be a while before you answer the call to do something that the Lord would have you to do. He might make you unfruitful because all you have time to do is just mock what everybody else is doing. Let me say this, I said I would close. I'm not going to lie, I'm going to say this. I don't think that there is an object or something that we can go get, bring it here, set it down and go, okay, God's here. I think He comes in with each of us because He dwells in us. But I do think if the Bible's right, we can take that spotlight that should be on Him and we can have a tendency to sort of turn it around until it's fully shining on us. And the Bible says, I'll not share my glory with another. Can I explain quickly? When Ahio touched the ark, if he had kept the ark from falling, where would the spotlight have been? Ahio? Oh, he's the one that kept God from falling. Where would we be if it wasn't for Him? Oh, man, I mean, He was at the right place at the right time. Man, He must have been benching 400. He just held that thing up there. Boy, what a blessing He was. He'd have gone down in history as the guy that saved the ark. He saved Israel. And the reason that the ark had been displaced is because people had begun to rely on things other than God. David said, go get it. And Ohaio said, oh, I got it. I got it. I got it. God said, uh-uh. I'm sharing my glory with anybody. You better go back and do that thing the right way. Michael said to David, how dare you give him glory? Don't be concerned about what's going on in the palace. What the women are going to think about me at the next tea party. How the women are going to see me because how my husband... You know what they're going to ask me, David? They're going to know how come I ain't got you in tow. You know what David said? No more kids for you, sister. As a matter of fact, she's put out of the palace. Well, is that really what you saw? She wasn't at the church service. She didn't want to be around David anyway. So David just said, okay, see you later. But you or him, sorry sister, you ain't even a close second. You know what the Lord did to her though? He made her live with the fact that she was unproofful. Here's what it doesn't say. It doesn't say that she recognized the error of her ways and she did wrong and she came back to the king and said, I'm sorry, can you get me back in fellowship with the Lord? I stepped out of place. It doesn't say that. It said that she continued with her conniving and working behind the scenes to try to subvert the judgment that God had put on her. Instead of after she recognized the judgment, repenting and getting right and reversing it, she was so proud, she would not bow. And she died fruitless. So we have a meeting coming. Use the passage just as an illustration. Let's make it about him, and let's make it about them. There are going to be some people get a blessing, and they're going to look like they were plugged into 440. And they're going to be like, we've never seen it on this wise. This is amazing. And that was just from the welcome. They don't get treated like you folks treat me and other people. They don't. They're coming in to see how you roll out the red carpet and how you appreciate them for what they do. They've never been loved like that. Heavenly Father, I pray you'll bless the service this morning. Lord, that you might help us to recognize that it's a great thing to desire you, but going about it the right way is hugely important. Help us to recognize, Lord, just one act of getting things squared away is not going to make things happen overnight. Help us, Lord, as we struggle. Try to do what you would have us to do and help us to be a blessing to these folks as they gather. Help us, Lord, to find the accommodations that we need. I know we're going to be tied to sardines. Thank you, Lord, for the privilege of being overrun and overwhelmed. I pray, Lord, you fill us up to capacity and that we'll finally see the prayers answered of raising up the blinds and raising the windows. and we might have a dozen eutychuses sitting in the windows. Bless us, Lord, like they did in the old days with an old-fashioned, old-time meeting where people came to get in, not get out. Help us, Lord, to give you the preeminence. We pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.