This morning, turn to the book of First Chronicles, chapter number 16. First Chronicles, chapter number 16. And we're going to be in a few places here this morning and dealing with some things that I think are relevant to the time in which we're celebrating as well as corresponding with our sermon series, Draw Near with Thanksgiving. And I want us to take a moment and to read, beginning in verse number seven, the psalm of thanksgiving that David offered upon bringing the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem. and the great celebration that surrounded that wonderful victory, which, in my opinion, constituted the most joyous event in the life of David. If we were to take the life of David and his reign, I think if we were to look at consequential events If we could maybe have a conversation with David and say, what was the absolute best day of your whole life? I don't think he would say the day I slew the giant. I don't think he would say the day that Solomon was born. I'm not sure that he would say the day when I finally ascended to the throne. I don't think he would even say the day that I was anointed to be king. I think he would say it was the day that we brought the Ark home. I believe that there was perhaps more celebration surrounding that than you could have ever imagined. And we're going to take just a moment and look at that this morning. And if you wonder what Brother Daniel was doing, he was bringing my sermon notes, which I left on my desk this morning. Either that or someone was being really funny and they took them out of my Bible. because I know I put them in there. So we're in First Chronicles chapter 16 and verse number 7. Then on that day, David delivered first this psalm to thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren. Give thanks unto the Lord. Call upon his name. Make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him. Talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name. Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord and His strength. Seek His face continually. Remember His marvelous works that He has done, His wonders and the judgments of His mouth. O ye seed of Israel, His servant, ye children of Jacob, His chosen ones, He is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the earth. Be mindful always of His covenant, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations, even of the covenant which he made with Abraham and of his oath unto Isaac, and hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying unto thee, Will I give the land of Canaan the lot of your inheritance? when you were but few, even a few, and strangers in it. And when they went from nation to nation, and from one kingdom to another, He suffered no man to do them wrong. Yea, He reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Show forth from day to day His salvation. Declare His glory among the heathen. His marvelous works among all nations. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. He also is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the people are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Glory and honor are in His presence. Strength and gladness are in His place. Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people, Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory. Do his name. Bring an offering and come before him. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Fear before him all the earth. The world also shall be stable that it be not moved. Let the heavens be glad. and let the earth rejoice and let men say among the nations, the Lord reigneth. Let the sea roar and the fullness thereof. Let the fields rejoice and all that is therein. Then shall the trees of the woods sing out at the presence of the Lord, because he cometh to judge the earth. O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever. And say ye, Save us, O God, of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to Thy holy name, and glory in Thy praise. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel forever and ever. And all the people said, Amen. And praised the Lord. Father, God, help us as we study your word today. Minister to our hearts. Lord, if there be someone here that does not know thee as Savior, we pray that today might be the day of salvation for them. For this we pray in the lovely name of Jesus. Amen. This morning, I want to bring you a message entitled Thanksgiving in His Presence. What I have just read to you is the psalm that David penned upon the occasion, as I have mentioned, of the return of the ark to the people of God and to the place of God's appointment. It had been away from them for a long time. If there was ever an illustration anywhere in the world that portrayed the thought that you often do not appreciate what you have until you don't have it, this would have been the case. For perhaps a generation, the ark was lost to them. They did not make use of it during the reign of Saul whatsoever. It was taken from them by the Philistines. They really didn't have an appreciation for it until they started getting defeated and the heathen were taking advantage of them, and then they realized truly important that it was going to be to them as a nation. Sometimes that's true. I've seen many people who have come and become a part of this church family, and they've immersed themselves in service, they've become acquainted with brothers and sisters in the Lord, and maybe they got drawn away because of their own personal interests and desires. They began to just flag in their faithfulness and their attendance. And pretty soon, they began to take for granted that freeway is just always going to be there and it will always be there. And then they go away, they move away, and they think, you know what? There are good churches everywhere. I've had many of them call me and say, I was wrong. I miss my church family. We had one family that moved to Arkansas, and they thought, well, that's kind of right, the belt buckle of the Bible belt. There's got to be a great church on every corner there. And it took them two years before they settled into a church. And even though they settled into a church, they said that it falls way short of whatever they experienced. where they were, and they said, we never appreciated fully what we had while we had it. And now that we don't, we wish we did. The fact is that the people of God didn't appreciate, they did not thank the Lord for what they had until they needed it and didn't have it. And I believe that there is a great deal that we need to draw, and we're going to be in 1 Chronicles 13 and 16. We'll also be in 2 Samuel 6. These texts all deal with this one event in the history of Israel, which was so exceedingly consequential. The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord had become something that God never intended for it to be. And so the Lord allowed it to be taken from them. The people had somehow come to view the Ark of the Covenant like others might view a genie in a bottle. That they wanted to live their life as they wished and then bring out the Ark whenever they wanted God to beat the stuffings out of the heathen. Just, you know, bring it out of the tabernacle whenever they wanted God to pour out some kind of a blessing upon them. It was something that God never intended for it to be. It was ordained to be a token and symbol of the very presence of Almighty God with His people who dwelt between the wings of the cherubim. The reality is that they had used it for their own device, not to further the will of God for their own lives. This attitude, of course, brought about the stealing of the ark. And as David sought the blessing of the Lord upon the land of Israel, the people of Israel, he sought to restore the ark to those that it was given to. In bringing it home, there was a great deal to be learned regarding the Lord and His truth. And the end of that event was a season of thanksgiving and praise. that the people of Israel had never known in their lives until that moment. It was really the greatest day, I believe, in the life of David. And for many others, they would have testified of the same. I want to just read to you from 1 Samuel. And I want to encourage you to hold your place here, because we're going to be in 1 Chronicles. But in 2 Samuel chapter 6, 2 Samuel chapter number 6, I want to just share with you some of the back story, and then we're going to move rather quickly through the message that the Lord has given to me. But I want to set the stage, if you will, with the reading of this narrative, so we all are right there on the same page at the same time. understanding what's taking place. And so in 2 Samuel chapter 6, the Bible tells us this. In verse number 1, again, David gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, 30,000. And David arose and went with all the people that were with him from Baal of Judah to bring up from thence the ark of God, whose name is called by the name of the Lord of hosts, that dwelleth between the cherubims. And they set the ark of God upon a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in Gibeah. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, draved the new cart, and they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was at Gibeah, accompanying the ark of God. And Ahio went before the ark and David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instruments made of fir, wood, even on harps and on psalteries and on timbrels and on cornets and on cymbals. And when they came to Nacon's threshing floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen shook it. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God smote him there for his error. And there he died by the ark of God. And David was displeased because the Lord had made a breach upon Uzzah. And he called the name of the place Perez, Uzzah, to this day. And David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, how shall the ark of the Lord come to me? So David would not remove the ark of the Lord unto him into the city of David. But David carried it aside into the house of Obed-Edom, the Gittite. And the ark of the Lord continued in the house of Obed-Edom, the Gittite, three months. And the Lord blessed Obed-Edom and all his household. And it was told King David, saying, The Lord hath blessed the house of Obed-Edom, and all that pertaineth unto him because of the ark of God. So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom into the city of David with gladness. And it was so that when they that bear the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sanctified oxen and fatlings, and David danced before the Lord with all his might. David was girded with a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. I want us to notice, first of all, the Lord's. The precepts of God, the precepts of God. You see, the precepts of God are those things which he has ordained and which he has commanded. We might say things like, thou shalt and thou shalt not. That constitutes a precept from the Lord. There's a good Bible word, ordinance, and that means a law. It's something that God has ordained. It's something that God has sanctioned. These are the precepts of God. And so we understand that the Lord gave precise instructions for the fabricating and the transporting of the ark. Now, in Exodus chapter 25, we read those explicit instructions, and it gives in minute detail how this would be made. And the fact is, it says in verse number 10 of Exodus 25, and they should make an ark of Shittim wood. Two cubits and a half should be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. and a cubit and a half the height thereof. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold within and without shalt thou overlay it and shall make up on it a crown of gold round about. And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it and put them in the four corners thereof. And two rings shall be in the one side of it and two rings in the other side of it. And thou shalt make staves of the shit of wood and overlay them with gold. And thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark. that the ark may be born with them, and the staves shall be in the rings of the ark, they shall not be taken from it." So what the Lord is saying, while He's telling them what to build and how to build it, He's telling them why these things are going to be done. So what He said was, I want you to put a golden ring on each corner of the ark of the covenant of the Lord. then I want you to take a long stave, it would be what we might think of as a pole, and fabricate it out of shidom wood like that the ark was made of, except the mercy seat was made of solid gold, it was overlaid on shidom wood on the container itself, but what we find is that they overlaid that pole with gold, And then God intended for them to run the pole through the rings on each of the corners of the ark. And the reason being. that God had ordained that a Levite would stand on each corner of the ark and bear the ark on their shoulders. And we know that there were various times where perhaps in the wilderness, like as when they crossed over Jordan, they carried the ark of the Lord on their shoulders with the stave or with the pole, that golden pole on their shoulders, and God wanted the priests to bear it. Anything apart from that was disobedience to what God said. God was very precise in these instructions that He gave for the making and transporting of that ark. And there are many verses, and you can get the outline off of the QR code after the service, or you can write it down as many of you are doing. What we find is that they were very well-intentioned in their desires to bring the ark of the Lord back. And so what we find is that the ark of the Lord, the Bible tells us, was there. And in chapter 6, we read that it was at the house of Abinadab that was at Gibeah. And there were two men, Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab. that fabricated a brand new cart. It was beautiful. And they thought, this is the ark of the Lord. We can't do this halfway. We need to do something really beautiful. And so they made a brand new cart. Not the old one, but something that would be befitting what they thought would represent honor and dignity unto what it was that they were doing. And they were very well-intentioned. They meant well. The problem was that they just didn't do it in the way that God said do it. They failed to do it as God had directed them to do it. And the Lord was angry that the ark was not carried as he had instructed. Of course, we know that Uzzah, when he saw the ark beginning to topple a little bit, he thought, because the oxen were shaking, and it caused the cart itself to shake, and he reached out and he grabbed the ark to steady it so it wouldn't fall from off of the cart. And at that moment, God smote him, and there he died. You say, wow, that's pretty extreme for something like that. It shows us how concerned that God is with His people doing things as He says. That you cannot trifle with God. Anytime man decides, I'm going to be the stabilizer of this work, I'm going to be the one to hold this up, I'm going to lay my hands on what God reserved for Himself alone, you're going to have a problem. I'm going to further say that we're living in a generation that is filled with oozes. You say, what do you mean, Pastor? I mean this. that there are a lot of people that are very well-intentioned. They want to see the work of the Lord go on, and what they've done is they've fabricated a whole bunch of brand new carts upon which to carry the gospel. But the carts upon which they're carrying the gospel are entirely fashioned from the minds and the blueprints of men. They are born by beasts of burden and steadied by men. And what God has ordained is for His work to be done in His way with those of His choosing, with His blueprint. And God has given us a blueprint for doing His work, and it's the Word of God. And you say, well, that's a distortion of an Old Testament narrative. No, I believe that there is a very real application because what we discover is that the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord is typical even today of the very presence of God. We read in two verses of Scripture that God dwelt between the wings of the cherubim and it was the very place where God met with man. And what we understand today is that God has not prepared an ark per se for us, but He's given us a body where God dwells with man, just as He dwelt between the wings of the cherubim on top of the mercy seat, and He met with man there. And God has called us to carry the gospel of Jesus Christ, not according to how man wants to get it done, We are living in a generation where people have given up on the precepts of God. I was talking to Pastor Lineweber on Friday and his wife spoke up at the ladies retreat and he drove down so we could have some fellowship together. And we were visiting together about a ministry and the work of the Lord. And we got on this subject about how many people are trying to do God's work, man's way. And oftentimes, it's very well-intentioned. I've many times had people come to me and they have great multi-level marketing prowess and ideas. And what they want to do is they want me to introduce it to the church family because man, it's going to make a lot of money for the church. And we're going to be able to support a lot of missionaries. If we just have this huge downline as a part of our church, we're going to make a lot of money. Well, you know what? They may have good intentions. Sometimes it's a little suspect because they're at the top of the food chain on that. But maybe they have good intentions. They really do want to support missionaries. There's a problem with that, however. Do you know it, Brother Kelly? Do you, Brother Scott? That's man's way of doing it. What's God's way of doing it? The church. giving sacrificially, joyfully, systematically, contributing to the ongoing work of the Lord. Look, if you want to give out of your abundance, that's fine, but where's the sacrifice in all that? See, God hasn't ordained Amway, or Prince's House, or ACN, or Shackley, or Amway, you name them, to support the work of the Lord. God wants people who've trusted Him and that love Him to contribute lovingly as a proof of their love so that the work of the Lord may go forward. And so, you know what? God looks at people that have a better idea like He did Uzzah that day. They've got a beautiful cart, but it's not what God said to use. They have a steadying hand, but God said, don't touch it. They were trifling. God said, I want four Levites. I don't want people from just any tribe. I want the priestly tribe. This is something sacred. They were gonna dwell within the midst of the people. The people didn't camp around about them. And in fact, Because of that work, I'm going to give them their portion in the land. And every tribe of the other 11 tribes were going to give a portion of the Levites, of their inheritance, because of the work that they did in the behalf of the Lord. The fact is, that there are those who have looked upon the precepts of God and thought, you know, that's arcane. That's something that's irrelevant. It doesn't work anymore. Pastor Lineweber was telling me that recently had a friend that that came to him and said, what are you doing for outreach? And he said, well, we're going out into our community and we're knocking on doors and we're inviting folks to come to church and telling about the Lord. And and he said this other pastor said that is outdated. It doesn't work anymore. Well, you know, there's a verse in the Bible that says, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Right? Not send everybody a text message. Not send everybody an email. It doesn't say post it on your website. It says go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. I know that there are computer geeks out there that have a better idea and they're very well intentioned and trying to get the message out. But the fact that you might have a website or a blog or a discussion board or the fact that you might be able to send mass text messages or emails out to people does not remove what is incumbent upon every believer, and that is to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And what we need to understand is they trifled with the precept of God, and there was a consequence that followed, and they stopped, and David was afraid. He said, how in the world am I ever going to get this back home? Of course, eventually it made its way to Jerusalem, first to Bethlehem, city of David. But what we discover is here that it was a picture of the presence of God and they were trying to do it and manufacture it God's way. I'm just going to submit this to you that not everything that glitters is gold. How many of you know that? Really, the moon is not made out of green cheese. We ate the Easter bunny because of COVID. There is no Santa Claus. And not everyone that says they are a Christian really is. So we'll have crisis counselors in the foyer after the service. Some of you are still reeling about the Easter Bunny and no Santa Claus. But look, not everybody that calls himself a Christian really is a Christian. Are you aware of that? And not every person that stands up and says, let's give Jesus a handclap of praise and speaks in tongues is really filled with the Holy Spirit. Many of them don't have any conception of what it means to really be in His presence. But you know what, they've manufactured a stage production that might be a facsimile of something that they think it might look like, and they forget that Jannes and Jambres, the magicians in Egypt, were able to replicate several of the plagues that were brought upon the Egyptian people before they finally relented and let God's people go. The fact that man can kind of manufacture something that looks a little churchy or godly doesn't mean there's any genuineness in it. It's got to come from God. We can't conjure it up by speaking in a tongue or clapping our hands enough or having a great band. Maybe what I need to do is get some people up here that can play softly while I'm preaching. And as I get more animated, boy, the music begins to swell. And that'll really work on our emotions. My friends, I've seen way too many emotional people in church that cry and weep and come to the altar and they get in the car and they're the same guy that drove in the parking lot to begin with. The devil doesn't like what I'm saying. So, Understand this. God wants us to do his work his way. Now, I want to just submit this to you. And this is going to be a thread that's woven through the remaining points of the sermon. And that is that God is above all holy. And so what we need to do is understand that a holy God wants things to be done in a holy way. Think about the reason why Jesus had to be crucified. Why did Jesus have to be crucified? More than that, because that's what the prophet said. Here's the reason why. That all righteousness might be fulfilled. Because the holy God could not compromise who he is to save one person. Because if he compromised his holiness to try to save one person, guess what? He's no longer God and he can't save anyone except himself. So he had to die. So let me ask you a question. Does God want us to compromise his holiness to try to reach people? Does he want me to put on leather pants and get a eight inch extension to my tongue and grow my hair long and get platform shoes and an electric guitar and tell people that we're really relevant and we could have smoke bombs and laser lights and that somehow God's going to say, well, you look like the devil, but you know what? I guess I can use that. But you know what? Listen, how many places can we find and we don't have to look very far that are trying in an effort to be more relevant? What they're doing is building a new cart and steadying it with their own hands. And God says, that's not what I said do. I said, get the golden staves and four Levites and have them carried on their shoulders. And man has a better idea. And in his efforts to try to advance the gospel, all he's doing is sullying the holiness of the work of God. doing it man's way, trying to give the gospel but carrying it on a new cart and holding it up with our own hands. Not only do we see the precepts of God in these verses, we see the presence of God. And of course, the Bible says in chapter 6 and verse 2 that it is the place where the Lord of hosts dwells between the cherubims. The ark was the place where God communed with man. It was a token of the presence of God with His people. And it was not anything that any man wanted to mess around with. They didn't want to trifle with it. In fact, when it was finally in the tabernacle and later in the temple, guess where it was? Did they put it out next to the table of showbread? They put it in the outer court? No. It was in the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies. And what was separating the Levites from the Holy of Holies? The veil. There was a veil Woven of fabric this way. It could never have been torn by man. A sword could not have hacked it in two. It was so thick and so heavy that man could not penetrate. And once a year on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would first make sacrifice for his own sins. And then what would he do? They would tie a rope around his ankle and bells around his ankles. He had anklets with bells. Why? Because whenever he had to go into the holy place, into the very presence of God, it was such a fearful thing. His knees were quaking and they could hear the jingle of bells. The reason why they had a rope around his ankles is that if they heard the bells go silent, they knew that God had killed the high priest and they would draw him out. they couldn't go in. It was so austere and so holy. And sometimes in our efforts to make Jesus our running partner or our co-pilot, we somehow espouse a Mormonesque doctrine to some way humanize God and deify man. as worthy enough to somehow encroach upon the holy, the divine. And yet, the wonder of wonders is this, that the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, wants to dwell with you. And to me, one of the greatest and most stirring verses in the Revelation is where it says, the tabernacle of God shall be with men. You think about that. God wants to be with us and He wants to dwell with us in His presence. But when we're in His presence, we begin to understand His immense power, His eternal holiness. and His ultimate goodness. I think we've all read in Isaiah chapter 6, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. And then it goes on to talk about the seraphims and the cherubim that attended and sang, holy, holy, holy. And when Isaiah saw the Lord, he said this, then said I, woe is me! Not, let's give Jesus a handclap of praise. Not, send me an offering. Not, let's speak in another language. He said, woe is me, for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. You see, when He finally came into the presence of God and saw Him in all His unrequited, unmitigated glory and splendor. He saw Himself for what He was and who He was. And when we come into the presence of God, and we understand that, it's going to change us forever. We're not going to just glibly give Jesus a handclap of praise. and go home and download our favorite preacher. The fact is, in his presence, you begin to understand what it means to be holy. Begin to understand the power of God and his goodness. We notice not only the precepts of God, and the presence of God in this passage, we notice the power of God. There are many places here that we could look to. In our text, if you turn back just a page or two to chapter 13, we begin to see the evidence of the power of God. And we realize there in a different accounting of this time where God smote Uzzah, And David was afraid. What did he come to understand? He came to understand. That God is all powerful. I don't know if. You had a similar experience as I have, but I remember as a as a young man. Going to. Huntington Beach, California, after like a storm in the Pacific. And the waves were just immense. And there were some friends of mine, we were going to go down and do some boogie boarding and some body surfing. We went down and man, it was just thunderous breakers. And it was an amazing thing. And everybody was like, hey, come on, travel, let's go. And I'm not going to be a wimp. I'm going to get out there and mix it up with the best of them. And so, I mean, there was probably 10 to 12 foot breakers. And I was kind of playing around in the whitewater. And that was all I wanted to handle. And the riptide started kind of carrying me out a little further. into the big breakers. And I saw my friends, some were surfing, some were boogie boarding, others were body surfing. I thought, well, I could get in on this too. And I'm starting to do a little bit of body surfing and having a little fun. And before I knew what had happened, about a 10 or 12 foot breaker came down on top of me. And when it hit me, it drove me all the way to the floor of the ocean. And it knocked the wind out of me when I hit the sand. And I chipped a tooth. I mean, I was traumatized. It's a wonder it didn't knock me unconscious. And I mean, I hit. And like that. And what happens when when you get the wind, you want to suck some some wind in, you know. So now I'm sucking sucking the seawater in and I'm thinking I got to push myself up to get up above the breakers. And just as I push myself up, thinking that my head is going to bob up out of the water, another breaker came over the top of that one. And threw me down again. And I was on a part of the beach that was sloped and it got very deep, very fast. And it threw me into the side of that slope. And now I'm thinking, this is it. Here I come, Elizabeth. This is the big one. And I'm really thinking this is going to be the end of my life. And some of you are looking a little nervous right now. I survived. But I just wanted to let you know, I know that's a spoiler alert, but man, and eventually it spit me out onto the shore. I felt like Jonah outside of Nineveh, you know, I'd had a rough day of it. And listen, it spit me out and I'm laying there and I roll over and I'm covered in mud and seashells and sand, and I'm bleeding, and I've got a chipped tooth, and I can't breathe, and I'm coughing up seawater. And my buddies are out there. They had no idea what was going on. I would have drowned for all they cared. And I walked over, and I sat down on a towel, and I looked out at the sea, and I thought, wow. It's the last time I'm going to go body surfing. with 12 foot swells. I developed a whole new appreciation for the power of the sea. And you know what? From that time until now, I have not trifled with it. I wonder, some of you have probably been knocked down and pulled under, and you've chipped a few teeth and had the breath knocked out of you, and you fail to understand that it was Almighty God trying to get your attention, so that you would develop a healthy respect for who He is and what He can do, so that we no longer trifle with God. Come in casually. Come as you are. Leave as you were. Drop something in the box. Be trifle with an omnipotent God. That's what they did. They didn't realize it. They had every good intention. But David became fearful. How am I ever going to get this ark home? And what we discover is that when he kind of came to that place, He realized, and he gave some new instructions then. He told them in 2 Samuel 6, okay, we're going to have four guys move this, Levites. We're going to get the high priest in on this one. We're going to do this God's way. We'll do it God's way. And after they'd gone a little ways, what did he do? He slew the bullet. And he gave a portion of bread and meat and a flag and a wine to every person in Israel. And there they celebrated. And we know that David danced before the Lord. There are a lot of people that make a lot out of that, you know, thinking that we need to have a dancing ministry so people can gyrate before the Lord. And, you know, the fact is, I'm going to tell you something. This wasn't choreographed by man. This wasn't orchestrated by man. Stop trying to rebuild the cart. Stop trying to rebuild the cart. This was spontaneous elation and exuberance over what God did. I have a little video on my phone. I've shown it to some of you. It's Cole, my grandson, when, One day he was at the park, and he was in the swing, and his daddy was pushing him on that swing. And his mama took a video of that, and it was the first time he really, in his whole life, went way up and way back, and he was having such a big time that he just began to laugh. Spontaneous, just jubilant laughter. And every time I'm a little downhearted, I can open up my phone and watch that, and it always brings a smile to my face. And I thought, you know what? This isn't choreographed here. I mean, he's just tickled to the bone. I mean, he is tickled completely pink. And man, he was having such a good time. We didn't have to say, now go ahead and giggle, Cole. Now go ahead and laugh. Wait a minute, I didn't get that on camera. No, he just kept giggling and kept laughing and having so much fun until he just squealed with joy. It was absolutely spontaneous. This is not the model for having a dancing ministry in your church. as many will do these days. It's the model for just being absolutely over the moon at how good God is. We see the praise of God, and we read the psalm, but I want to just remind you what the psalm said here. It says in verse 10, glory in His holy name, let the heart of them rejoice that seek. the Lord. Seek the Lord and His strength. Seek His face continuously. Recognize the fact that as they gave their thanks and praise to Him, they drew near to Him. They drew near with thanksgiving. The only way they knew how. David spontaneously Dance before the Lord. He tore off his coat. He was sweating. He was so excited about it. And then his wife, my cow, tried to throw cold water on his zeal and said she abhorred him for dancing in front of all the maidens. And he said, I did it before the Lord, not before anybody else. I didn't do it to get an opinion from you. I did it before the Lord because that's what came out of my heart. They were called to draw near with thanksgiving. And what I've discovered is that our praise extols God. It lifts him high, but it also expounds his truth. Why? Because people wonder, why in the world are you doing all of that? And it gives us the opportunity to tell them because we have a wonderful God and what he's done for me, he will do for you. He is to be praised in our lives. And I love the verse there that we read where it said, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel forever and ever. And all the people said amen and praised the Lord. And so he's to be praised in our lives every day. But you know what? God wants to be praised in the congregation. Every once in a while, we come to church and Brother Daniel will be up here singing. We'll be singing, count your blessings. And we're, count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God has done. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Look, I'm just saying, you know what, listen, is that the best you got? Listen, if your grandkids were here, is that how you'd be doing it? Is that what you'd be doing? Not me, man. You know, we'd be having a big time with it, you know. And we would be excited about it. We would be lifting our voices as a congregation. And look, we wouldn't have to mic anybody. We'd just be blown out the back wall. We're so excited about it. Amen. He's to be praised in our lives and in the congregation. And finally, we see this, not only the precepts of God and the presence of God, not only the power and the praise of God, but finally the promises of God, the promises of God. You know what? When they thanked the Lord and when David wrote this Psalm of thanksgiving, he said in verse number 14, Let's back up to verse number 13. O ye seed of Israel, his servants, ye children of Jacob, his chosen ones, he is the Lord our God, his judgments are in all the earth. Be mindful always of his covenant. What's a covenant? It's a promise that God made. It's a promise that God made. And here's what it says. The word which he commanded to a thousand generations, even of the covenant which he made with Abraham, and of his oath unto Isaac, and hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying unto thee, Will I give the land of Canaan the lot of your inheritance, when ye were but few, even a few, and strangers in it?" Guess what? He said, Abraham and Sarah, Yeah, I know you're in your 90s, and I know you're way past menopause, Sarah, and I know that your loins have dried up, Abraham, and now nothing's going to be much happening from man's perspective, but I'm going to make of you a great nation. And you're going to have so many people from your seed that they're as the stars of the heavens and as the sands of the sea. And who would have believed it? There was just a few. And now, David took 30,000 men to give you. They looked around and realized, you know what? We all came from 90-something-year-old people here. You know what that tells us? God always keeps His promises. They rejoiced to see and know that God keeps his promise and he will always keep his word. The Bible says that God be found true and every man a liar. The Bible reveals in Hebrews chapter six verses 17 through 20 that There's something that is immutable about God, and that is that he cannot lie. The Bible says in the first Peter in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. And I want you to understand that just as God has made a covenant to his people, Israel, God has made a covenant with us. We call it the new covenant. And it's an eternal covenant that God sealed with his own blood and that he is the testator of. Under the old covenant, he dwelt between the wings of the chairman and above the mercy seat. Inside were the tablets of stone. And the Lord was the testator of that covenant, and He is the testator of the covenant that He made with us, and that is that I will put my law into their hearts and into their minds, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Praise the Lord for a new covenant, amen? And aren't you glad that He always keeps His promises? That means He's never going to bring your sins up against you. if you have trusted him and entered in to what he promised you with his new covenant. I want to just have you, I'm done, that's the message. There you have it. Isn't that a very artful ending? Let me tell you something. We read about a young man who is possessed of a legion of demons in Mark chapter 5. When we read about him, he's living in a graveyard. And those that lived in the city were afraid of him. He was often bound with new cords and with chains, and he would break them asunder with superhuman strength. He would wallow on the ground. throw himself in the fire, he was in such misery, tried to do himself in. He would cut himself with stones. By the way, a whole phenomenon of people cutting in our day, it's nothing new, it's nothing new under the sun. Those that were influenced by Satan often did cut. And any modern day cutting that goes on as a means of transference is not good psychology, it's satanic. The man was miserable, wretched. You know the story as I do, how the Lord freed him from the torment of a legion of demons. And when we find that young man, he was seated and clothed and in his right mind, the Bible says. And then the next time Jesus turned around, you know where he was? Read it in Mark chapter five. He was sitting in the boat. He was sitting in Jesus' boat. I think some of them said, hey, dude, what are you doing? He's like, I just want to be with Jesus. The Bible says he besought him that he might be with him because Jesus just gave him the greatest gift that he'd ever had. He just wanted to stay in his presence and every day show him how truly grateful that he was. My friends, The people of Israel were like that young man sitting in the boat. They just wanted to be in God's presence and rejoice in all the victory that he delivered to them that day. But when was the last time you just wanted to sit in the boat and say, God, I just want to be with you. I just want to stay close to you. Where every day I can tell you how much I appreciate all that you've done for me. He wanted to be with him. Sometimes when we draw away, we just let things slip from our consciousness and we're not as appreciative. Years ago, a fellow came to our church the Lord did a work of transformation in his life, and he went through a hard time. And I can remember many people took him under wing, had him to their house to eat, bought him clothes, helped him get into an apartment. We put out a call. People from church brought loads from, pick up trucks of furniture so he could furnish a place. He'd come out of homelessness before that, out of jail, and he was getting his kids back, and we tried to help him. We helped him get a job, and he got a good job, and everything was going well. He joined the choir and was doing great in the choir, and some of the fellas got him together and took him over to the clothing store and bought him a couple of suits, and he was so proud to have him. From years of drug abuse, his teeth had practically all fallen out, and there was a dear lady in the church that took him aside and said, my husband and I really love you and are so grateful for what God's doing in your life. And we know that you're having a hard time with your teeth. And I'd like to give you the money to get all your dental work done. So you can get a set of false teeth, if that's what it takes. And they paid thousands of dollars. So you get a set of teeth. He wasn't their kin. He wasn't on their insurance. They paid cash. Not because they were wealthy, but because they were kind. And I looked at all that was done and all the help that this guy received. And boy, when he was here and things were going great, you know, he just wandered around telling everybody how much he appreciated all the love and kindness. But you know what? He got really busy with work and his Kids started moving out. And so he thought, I don't see very many women my age over at the church. And he started going with a buddy to another church after about eight years of leaning on the people of God almost every day. And I'd go visit him, knock on the door. Sometimes I could hear people home and they wouldn't answer the door. Sometimes he'd answer the door. And I'd go week after week. And finally, after I'd visit him several times, he said, to be honest with you, pastor, I'm going to another church now. He didn't want to tell me. He said, really, it's my buddy. He's got a girlfriend over there. So, you know, you don't need to come by anymore. I said, brother, I just want you to know I love you. And there's a whole host of people down at the church that still love you and want you to know it. He said, I appreciate that. God bless you. What about the clothes? What about the furniture? What about the rent? What about the letters? What about the helping with the kids? What about the rides to court? What about the financial help? What about the gift cards? What about the teeth? What about a purpose? The longer he was away, the less significant that seemed. But when we stay in his presence, we wake up every day reminded of how truly good God is. Let's decide this month that we decide nothing else. that we're gonna live in his presence and we're gonna draw near with thanksgiving. Father God, we thank you for the love that you showed. And Lord, may we never come to the place where it's commonplace to us. Lord, may we truly be grateful every day for the goodness of God knowing that His mercy endureth forever.