Well, even a casual reader of the Bible finds that God has declared in His Word what is known as the depravity of man. That is, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And of course, we see that and we understand that when it comes to our salvation and when it comes to understanding our need for Christ. And how many of you can watch about five minutes of news and see that sin is rampant in the world today? It's everywhere all around us. But how many of you are willing to say that sometimes sin and pride and wrong thoughts and a wrong heart can be a part of your life as well? The fact of the matter is that sometimes Christians will go through a period of time where our hearts get hard and when we sin and when we will act or think in ways that are contrary to the scripture. And I think of the book of 1 John. where the Bible tells us, my little children, sin not, but if you sin, you have an advocate with the Father, whose name is Jesus Christ. That's an amazing verse, is it not? My little children, sin not. And we know that it is not God's will for us to sin, and yet the same God that says sin not also said, but if you sin, we have an advocate. By the way, how many of you tonight are thankful we have an advocate? We have a defense attorney, someone pleading our case, and his name is Jesus Christ. And so we thank God for that as well. But it's amazing to me to observe Christians, who all Christians would admit if they're honest, that from time to time in their life, there is sin, there is pride, there are issues beneath the baseline that are against God and His Word, But Christians oftentimes respond to the convicting of the Holy Spirit in a very different way. Sometimes there are Christians who, when the Holy Spirit convicts them, or when there's a scripture that's read, or something comes across their heart that would cause them to refrain from sin, sometimes Christians throw off the restraint. They harden their heart. They stiffen their neck. These are all biblical terms. And instead of softening, and instead of repenting, many Christians just get harder and harder along the way, and that's an issue of the heart. Now listen, some of those Christians that are hardening their heart sometimes can still wear a suit, they can still stand in church. Again, this whole series is about below the baseline, because there's so much that goes on in our hearts below the baseline, in the building of our lives below the foundation, that you really can't know exactly what's going on just by an external lot. And so sometimes there's a hardening, there's a rebelling, and sometimes there's a convicting, and there's a softening, which leads to a repenting. And tonight's message is about having repentance below the baseline. In the city of San Francisco, there are many tremendously tall skyscrapers. One of the tallest is the Transamerica building. And one of the amazing things about many of these buildings is not only their engineering and not only the steel structures, but also the fact that many of these buildings are literally built on large casters so that in the time of an earthquake, there is actually a movement allowed that will keep the building from bending and breaking. literally rolling from side to side in the time of an earthquake. Below the baseline, these apparatus have been constructed for the safety of the superstructure. And I want to submit to you that a Christian life below the baseline must have the wheels of repentance that move to God and that are sensitive to God in times when sin would come into our heart so that we would say, I was wrong. I'm sorry. I want to have fellowship back with you so that we would have that tender heart. Indeed, John Wesley and many others before him of the Reformers spoke of the necessity of having a heart of repentance all of our Christian life long. Not to be saved over and over again, but to be tender, acknowledging the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And so tonight we come to the closing days of David's life. And what a man to show us that even a man after God's own heart had failure in his life, who could ever forget David and Bathsheba, who could ever forget this man that should have been out in the battle, that should have been out soul winning that should have been out tithing that should have been out serving in a New Testament vernacular but he stayed back and he was on his rooftop and he looked across and he saw a naked woman by the name of Bathsheba and he hardened his heart to God and below the baseline lust began to come about And because of that, sin was exposed. And you know the story. Many, many deaths and much in the way of deception from David's life. But finally, thank God, in Psalm 51, he opens his heart with repentance and he says, God, against Thee and Thee only have I sinned. And he repented. And because of his repentance, he had renewed fellowship with God. And he had the joy of the Lord once again. And oh, what a wonderful thing to have a God who loves us and forgives us. Can I get an amen to that tonight? He's a wonderful God of longsuffering. Well, you and I would think, someone that hit such a low peak and found such amazing grace because of his repentance, would surely never sin again. Or if he did, it would be really little sins, but not really big ones because we don't want to disappoint God again. And yet when we read the Bible, and one of the reasons I believe the Bible is the infallible Word of God, it doesn't gloss over the failures of the heroes of the Bible. And we come to the very end of David's life tonight. after many failures and many repentances, and we see something that takes place here in David's life, which at first glance to us is not really that bad, but you'll see in a moment, to God, it was an egregious, proudful act that David made. And I want you to begin noticing this with me as we look at verse number one. And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel. Satan provoked David to number Israel. Tonight we see in the first place the rebellion of David. David had something as a planted thought in his mind. And the planted thought, very clearly, came from Satan. Satan planted a thought in David's mind, and the thought was to number the people. Now, why in the Bible was numbering the people considered a sin? It was considered a sin because it lent itself to putting confidence in the people rather than the Lord. Now we're like any church here. We take attendance. Our classes take attendance. And that's one barometer of spiritual health in a church. And I understand that. But one thing we must always recognize is that our strength does not come from the people. Our strength comes from the Lord. And so, with the children of Israel, God showed His displeasure when they tended to lean to the arm of the flesh and put their pride and their trust in the number that they had, or the number of soldiers, horses, and chariots that they had. David likely reigned from about 1010 B.C. until about 970 B.C. and during this time they were constantly battling with other kingdoms and it was important that they remain armed for their defenses and I might quickly say tonight it's very important for America in this day to retain a strong defense. And I'm thankful for those who serve our country, and I pray that our leaders and future leaders will keep in mind the necessity of a strong defense. And yet, while that was important, it was even more important for them and more important for America to remember that the strength and the hope that we have is not in a well-armed bomber, but it is in the arm of Almighty God. And this was the principle that David was about to violate. Now there is a planted thought put into his mind. David is getting up into years. It is potentially possible that some pride came into his heart concerning the power of the kingdom, the number of the kingdom. And now this count in and of itself was an indication concerning this matter. And so, the Bible tells us clearly that Satan stood up, Satan provoked, that is to say, he incited this issue from taking place. James 1 and verse 13 says, Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man with evil. But Satan came along, and we know that God was angered by the prevalence of sin that had taken place. You can read that in previous chapters. And he lifted, apparently, his protective authority off of them so that Satan was now permitted to come in, similar to the life of Job, where Satan could have no way, no pleasure, no power in disturbing Job, except God would allow it. And apparently, God is going to allow David to be tempted of Satan in this scripture. It is a planted thought. And then there was, secondly, a precise count, the Bible says in verse 2, and David said unto Joab, and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan, and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it. And Joab answered, The Lord make His people in a hundred times so many more as they be. But my Lord the King, are they not all my Lord's servants? Why then doth my Lord require this thing? Why will He be a cause of trespass to Israel? Nevertheless, the king's word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore, Joab departed and went throughout all of Israel, and came to Jerusalem. And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And they of Israel were a thousand thousand and a hundred thousand men that drew the sword. And Judah was four hundred three score and ten thousand men that drew the sword. But Levi and Benjamin counted not among them, for the king's word was abominable to Joab. Now I want you to see in this counting process that Joab had a concern. Did you catch that when we read it a moment ago? Joab, the trusted general of David, raises concerns and tries to reason with him. He essentially tells David, we should not be doing this. We should not be numbering the men. And Joab was not a perfect man. You can see other accounts in his life indicating that for sure. But in this instance, he was acting as David's friend. And I want to tell you something. Anybody in your life that warns you and that cautions you to follow after peaceableness and godliness, even if it's a little awkward that they're in your face telling you that, please learn a lesson from David tonight. Listen to the Joabs in your life. Because Joab wasn't David's enemy. He was his ally. He was his general. He wanted God to bring victory. And the Bible tells us in Proverbs 27.6, Faithful are the wounds of a friend. And Joab was trying to be that kind of a friend. Now, I believe even in healthy administrative organizations, whether church or secular, there ought to be the opportunity to discuss certain things, even in a healthy marriage, to discuss and to even challenge, why are we doing this or what's the situation? Yes, God has called a husband to lead. And yes, God calls a pastor to lead or maybe a CEO of the company. But in this case, it would have been very wise that David would have heard Joab out in the matter. But he didn't. further indicating that there was probably a presumptuous will at hand. He did not listen to his advisor. One of the most famous paintings of General George Washington is that of him crossing the Delaware River. And that attack actually had been seen by a British spy. And that spy immediately went to the British general, rather colonel, Colonel Rall. And he said, there's movement from across the river. And he said, it looks as though Washington is advancing in our direction. Colonel Rall was too busy playing poker to listen to the report or even to really look at the note. He was too sure that the British powers were insurmountable. And because of that, he did not hear the report of the spy that had been given to him. And because of that, the Americans lost seven in casualty of the war at that battle, but the British lost 100, and 900 of their soldiers were captured because of a proud colonel who was too unwilling to hear from someone that was just Doing his job and we hear of many instances in military history But what about the many millions of Christians who on their way to a bad attitude on their way to? Backsliding on their way to quitting all together where someone lovingly came to them What about the many Christians who could have been preserved, but they were just too full of themselves to listen? Proverbs 1 in 30 they would none of my counsel I They despised all of my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own ways and be filled with their own devices. David stubbornly did what he wanted to do. David insisted that they go out and insisted that they count the people. And so we see the rebellion of David. No doubt, often in our lives when we do marriage counseling, when we work with people in interpersonal relationships, No doubt the first thing we see is the fruit of the problem. We hear about the spat, the anger, the broken window. We hear about all of the things that are on the surface. But I want to promise you something. That there are always things at the root level, you see. We don't know the exact root level of what was going on in David's heart. But no doubt there was a matter of pride here. And that pride led him to sin. We wouldn't consider it a sin, counting. But God wanted their confidence in Him. God wanted their confidence and their trust in His power. Well, we see the rebellion of David. But I want you to follow along with me. Notice in verse 7 the Bible says, And God was displeased with this thing. Therefore he smote Israel and David said unto God I have sinned greatly because I have done this thing But now I beseech thee do away the iniquity of thy servant for I have done very foolishly and the Lord spake unto Gad David seer saying go and tell David saying thus saith the Lord I offer thee three things This is interesting isn't it and you don't read this often in the Bible God says tell David he's got three options here and let's read them and see what they are and Choose one of them, verse 10, that I may do it unto thee. So Gad came to David and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, choose thee, either three years' famine, or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee, or else three days the sword of the Lord even the pestilence in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coast of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again unto him that sent me. And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait, let me fall now into the hand of the Lord. For very great are his mercies, but let me not fall into the hand of man. So the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel, and there fell of Israel 70,000 men. Now it is in this section of the chapter that we see something happening in David's heart. We see that there is a change of heart as soon as he realizes that God is displeased. And may I just say tonight, we live in an age of grace. We have been saved by grace. We're gonna go to heaven because of grace. But God is still displeased with sin. The Bible says in 2 Timothy, No man that woreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be faithful. Every one of us tonight should desire to please the Lord in our life. God says to David that he was displeased. And so David said unto God, verse 8, I have sinned greatly. Notice when it comes to repentance, the first facet of repentance is that we must acknowledge our sin. David acknowledged his sin. And he makes an appeal concerning what he has done. And it is an appeal of repentance and confession of his sin. And he beseeches God to remove the effect of it from his life. David went to the right place, did he not? He went directly to the Lord. David repented before the Lord, the Bible says in 2 Samuel 24, 10. And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly, and that I have done, and now I beseech Thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of Thy servant, for I have done very foolishly. This scripture tells us he was smitten. Literally, he was punched in the heart. Literally, he felt unworthy, he felt that he had done wrong, it was a burden, it was a pressure on his heart. When someone is repentant, that proud, gonna do it my way, don't care what anybody says, that spirit of hilarity of the world suddenly is exchanged away with a sense of burden, smitten in the heart, heaviness. I can't believe I did that. I can't believe I did that. You'll see it with one man who, when confronted with the sin related to his vows given to his wife, commences to say how terrible she is and how he just, in his own justifiable mindset, did what he did. And then in another man, who with weeping and a burdened heart, Admits repents before God repents before his family and says I have sinned It's as though I've been smitten in my heart. I can feel the burden of my sin One is repentance. One is not. Psalm 51 and 4, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. And David obviously wanted the sin itself to be removed. He wanted the penalty as well to be removed. And the Bible says in 1 John 1 and 9, If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You see, repentance literally is siding with God against yourself. Repentance happens when a man who's been having it his way, doing it his way, he's been going along thinking he is all right and it doesn't matter what someone else says, what the Bible says and so forth, and he is the ultimate authority in his proud sense. He sides with God and he says, God, you are right and I'm wrong. That's what repentance is. Repentance is siding with God against yourself. Let's say that together. Repentance is siding with God. Now I know some of you are thinking, hey, we're giving an offering tonight. This is kind of heavy stuff right here. Talking about repentance and everything. Well, I think it should be quite obvious to you that a proud, unrepentant man would have no interest in what we're doing tonight. David was putting his confidence not in the Lord, but in himself. He had to acknowledge his sin, and then he had to accept his consequences. The Bible tells us in verse number 13, And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait, let me now fall into the hand of the Lord, for very great are his mercies. By the way, how many of you would say, good answer David. I mean, cling to the mercy of God in this moment. I heard about a shoplifter that had been notorious in the city for shoplifting. He got saved. He wrote to a department store. He said, I have been saved. And he said, I've been feeling guilty ever since I got saved about shoplifting from your store. And he said, I want to return this $100 to you that I have stolen from your store. And then he said, P.S., if I continue to feel guilty, I'll send the other $100. Not quite fully repentant. David was fully repentant. David accepted the consequences. David said, I'll not fall into man's hand, I'll fall into God's hand. Revelation 3.19, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore and repent. This was the message of Jesus to the church. He said, As many as I love, therefore, I rebuke and chasten. Doesn't chasten just for fun. God is not up in heaven hoping that you have a bad day tomorrow He's not he's not wanting to chase in your life But he says I love you too much that if you become filled with pride if you neglect me then chastening may come into your life He says be zealous therefore and repent so that he doesn't have to bring chastening into our life David acknowledged his sin David accepted the consequences. But then I want you to see what David did as a leader. He interceded for his people. Notice in verse 16, And David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. And David said unto God, Is it not I that commandeth the people to be numbered? Even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed. But as for these sheep, what have they done? Let thine hand, I pray thee, O Lord my God, be on me and on my father's house, but not on my people, that they should be plagued. Now, David in his repentance did not blame shift. David did not do what Adam did. David did not say, the woman that thou gavest me. David did not do what so many of us might do. Well, you know, I just had to do that because, you know, my husband is the way he is. And, you know, churches are the way they are, and people are the way they are, and circumstances are the way they are. Listen, you want to hear the stories? Visit a local prison. You'll find, firstly, that very few people will admit that they are really responsible for what they've done. David did not blame shift. David went right before the Lord and he said, God, wasn't it me that did this? God, it's not these people that did it. God, don't bring this upon our children. Don't bring this upon the next generation. God, it's me. It's me that sinned. God, please, I come to you interceding for the people. True repentance doesn't blame others. We see the rebellion of David. We see the repentance of David. Now notice thirdly with me tonight, the remembrance of David. The remembrance of David. David, as he's coming to spiritual consciousness, begins the road back. And I want you to see in verse 18. Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad, Gad was the prophet, to say to David that David should go up and set up an altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebuzite. Often in the Old Testament, Blood was shed for the sin. Many lambs, many rams had their blood shed for the sin of the people. How many of you are thankful tonight that the Lamb of God paid that price for all of us? But in this instance, the prophet said, then go up to Ornan's threshing floor. And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of the Lord. And Ornan turned back and saw the angel and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat. And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David and went out of the threshing floor and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground. Then David said to Ornan, grant me the place of this threshing floor that I may build an altar therein under the Lord. Thou shalt grant it to me for the full price that the plague may be stayed from the people. Now notice, David is going to be involved in a costly sacrifice. David is commanded to make an offer, and Gad, the prophet, has said, David, I want you to give an offering unto the Lord for your sin. I want you to bring this offering to Ornan's threshing floor and make your offering. And the Bible is very clear that there would be a sacrifice needed as a part of his repentance. Now, that is not a mandate in the New Testament era, but I want you to see that it is indicative of a repentant heart that we're willing to follow the direction of God, and in this case. It was to offer the sacrifice at Ornan's threshing floor. I heard of a pig and a hen that were walking down the road when they saw a poster advertising a Harvest Supper. And it said that ham and eggs would be served. And the hen said to the pig, how nice it is that we can help the minister at this Harvest Supper. But the pig replied, it's all very well for you, for you'll be making a contribution, but I'll be making a sacrifice. David was not about to make just a contribution. What we're talking about, the purchase, the setting up of the altar would require great sacrifice from David. David requests to build the altar. And we read about this through verse number 23. He speaks to Ornan. It would be a costly event. And Ornan offers to provide for the event. And he even offers to give to his king the very place of the threshing floor. But we see that this was to be a personal sacrifice. that it would be something personal that David would himself contribute. Verse 24 says, And King David said to Ornan, Nay, but I will verily buy it for the full price. For I will not make that which is thine for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings without cost. So David gave to Ornan for the place 600 shekels of gold by weight. And David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the Lord, and He answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of a burnt offering. Now Ornan's threshing floor, literally, if we were to find it in a map of our Old Testament city of Jerusalem, is located at the mount called Mount Moriah. It is called today the Temple Mount. And one of the reasons that we believe that that Temple Mount should be the worship site of the Holy of Holies in the sense of the Jewish temple, is not only because the land was offered and given to Abraham, but also because the land was purchased by David. And this is the place where it was rightfully purchased. And of course today, there is a mosque sitting on top of this particular place that was purchased by the king. But nevertheless, we see it was now purchased by David. David simply is saying in this moment, I refuse to take something that is given to me and then give it as my offering. I refuse to offer to God that which costs me nothing. And we see again and again and again in the Bible, it is more blessed to give than to receive. We see in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, to their power and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves to give an offering. And so we see in the scripture there is a principle that ministry that costs nothing accomplishes nothing. And David said, I'm not going to do something for God, that cost me nothing. He said, I'll pay you for this threshing floor. Philippians 4.18, But I have all and abound, I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God. In the 17th century there was a particular moment when Lord Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England, heard that one of his soldiers had been involved in a dastardly deed and he set forth the edict that for this dastardly deed the soldier would be shot at curfew. And so the time drew near for the curfew bell to ring. And about the time that the bell should ring, folks began to look around. There was no noise. There was no clanging of the bell. And someone looked up by the bell. There was movement of the rope, but there was no clanging of the bell. And after they stopped swinging the rope, and after a while of sensing that there was going to be no bell ringing that night for the curfew, There was a young woman discovered up in the bell and she was brought by the soldiers to Lord Cromwell and they discovered her face was bruised and bleeding and her hands were broken. Her body was bruised and much of it was bleeding for she had taken her body and wrapped it around the clanger so that there would be no noise made from that bell. It turned out she was the fiance of the soldier that was to be killed. And Cromwell looked at the bruised and battered body and quickly issued a pardon because of the sacrifice that she had made. And I believe today that we serve a God that has made great sacrifice for us. And He is pleased, as Cromwell was pleased, when sacrifice is made. A missionary in Africa was once asked if he really liked doing what he did. Do you enjoy this adventure of being a missionary? His response was shocking. He said, Do I like this work? Do my wife and I like living on dirt? Do we have reasonably refined sensibilities? We do not like crawling into the vile huts through goat refuse. But is a man to do nothing for Christ that he does not like? God pity him if not. Liking or disliking has nothing to do with it. We have orders to do and we have orders to go. The love of Jesus Christ constrains us. And you show me a church that will only do what it likes to do. And only give what it is comfortable in giving. And only do what we feel like we want to do. And I will show you a church that is stalled out and going nowhere for God. but show me a church that has the spirit of David, the spirit of the Macedonian Christians, and the spirit that we see throughout the New Testament. I'll show you a church that is mightily blessed of God." David refused to take Ornan's gift. David purchased the land for himself. The Bible tells us he bought it with his own money in verse 25. He didn't try to bargain with God. He wasn't looking for the easy way out. He didn't say, God, how about this? How about, you know, Ornan's willing to give it to me, but Ornan's a good guy. How about if I give him 300 shekels of gold? That way he gets the blessing and I get the blessing. No. He wanted this to be a love offering to God. People have different ideas about love offerings. I remember as a boy living in Korea, and our parents were missionaries, we receive support. That's one of the reasons why I'm passionate about our missions program and our missions support being faithful and we want to keep our commitments to our missionaries. Because I know what it's like living 9,000 miles from home and hoping that churches remember who you are so that you can get along with ministry and life. And I'll never forget that first Christmas in Korea We all had things that we had hoped to get. I remember one church had sent a box of presents. Boy, I was excited about those presents because it was nice to get things from Korea, but the Korean products were not fully developed now. In fact, back then, a Hyundai was just kind of a laughable, disposable car. Drive it for a year and take it to the dump. Now, anyone here would like to have a new Hyundai. But it was different then. The products were different. And so, we were happy to have some presents that my parents had bought in Korea. But when the box came from America, now that was something. And each of us had a couple gifts that were placed under the tree. And, you know, being a teenage boy at 15 years old, there were times when I'd kind of shake that box and try to figure out what it was. Like, man, a church in the States remembered us! And knowing that it's from America, I mean, that's the land of milk and honey. This is going to be a good Christmas. I cannot wait. Some church. really sacrificed for the missionary, they remembered us. That is so awesome. Boy, I tell you what, it meant so much to me and my brother and we'd kinda, you know, look at each other, look at those presents, it's gonna be good, it's gonna be good. Boy, Christmas morning came, my mom and dad had all these presents ready. We didn't even want the presents from my mom and dad, we wanted the ones from that church in the States. That's where the good stuff, that's where Nordstrom's is. That's where Penny's is, you know, that's where the good stuff is. I'll never forget going to that bigger box and ripping the paper off and opening it up and pulling out that shirt that was made in Korea. Seeing the cigarette burn right down below the pocket. It was kind of at an early age when I began to realize different people have different ideas of what sacrifice is. Different people have different ways of kind of negotiating with God about how they're gonna have a part in being such a blessing. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 8, to the Macedonians, how that in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality, for to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves. You see, David, he refused the gift of Ornan. He purchased the land sacrificially of himself. Thirdly, David offered his sacrifices to the Lord. Notice verse 26, And David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the Lord. And he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of the burnt offering. How many of you would have loved to have been there? I don't know if we get to watch movies in heaven. I'd love to see that one. I'd love to see the fire coming down on the altars of Baal and I'd love to see God doing great miracles, just kind of watching that in the past. The Bible says, at that time David saw that the Lord had answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite. Then he sacrificed there for the tabernacle of the Lord which Moses made in the wilderness and the altar of the burnt offering were at the season in the high place of Gibeon. David offered to build the altar sacrificially. David offered the animals sacrificially. And I want you to see that this repentant heart of sacrifice, watch this, how many of you would agree with me, got the attention of God. God saw David's heart and the thing that God wants is a contrite and a right spirit from us. Quite frankly, More than the offering tonight, God is looking for your heart in this offering. Whether we're going to see another outpouring of hundreds saved and baptized at Lancaster Baptist Church, please understand this, is not predicated by the amount of square footage we build. It is predicated by the heart of repentance we bring. I talk to pastors every day of my life. This is my 17th time to preach in the last seven days. And I talk to a lot of pastors who have this idea that if they build buildings, their church will grow. That is a very wrong assumption. Buildings don't build churches. God builds churches. And sometimes there's this idea that if we will make more room, then the growth will come. And certainly that's helpful, we understand that in one sense. But what God is looking for all through this from David was a heart that was tender, a heart that was repentant, a life that was sacrificial. And when David offered sacrificially to God, Fire from heaven came down on the altar. And ladies and gentlemen, what we need in this church, more than we need the Walther Center, is fire from heaven to come down on this place. And so winters on fire with God, and not going out a piddly few here and there, and no response, no result. What we need is the fire of God in our lives once again. Oh, listen to me tonight, the greatest offering that is given tonight is not necessarily the dollar amount. It's the heart that comes forth in giving that dollar amount. It's the heart that says, God, I love you with all my heart and soul. God, I'm sorry that I put confidence in myself. God, with this offering I say to you, I honor you and I trust you from the heart. Boom! The fire came down from heaven. I'll tell you what, you've been saved any length of time, you know. Without God touching it, it's not going to get done. What we need tonight, yes, we need to finish a building, but what we need tonight more than that is the fire of God in the church. The fire of God coming down from heaven. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 8 21, providing for honest things not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men. Tonight, somewhere below the baseline of your life, somewhere in the foundational area of your life. I'm not talking about what I see, because what I see is it's awesome. You look great. Hey, you're in church on a Sunday night. You're in church on a rainy night for an offering. How great is that? To me, you look great. Lots of you have ties on and dresses and King James Bibles. I mean, this is great. I mean, this is so awesome, but I've got to tell you something. Below all that, coming into the inner man, the heart, God is looking for people who are here lovingly, repentantly, longingly seeking Him. And if that is what you bring tonight, then God will give the fire. We'll not only build the Walther Center, ladies and gentlemen, it will be filled with thousands of people every week hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not because a building got built, because people who've given for 10 and 20 and 30 years came and said again, Lord, you have first place in my life. Forgive me for those times when I worry about this and I worry about that fund and I compute this and I compute that. Lord, I just want to tell you, my life is yours to control. And David had to get to that place where he turned off his computer and he turned off his iPad and he stopped messing around with his mortgage calculator and his retirement calculator and his this and his that. And he just had to get to that place where it wasn't about numbering everything. It was about trusting someone. Amen. When he got his heart through all of that exercise, then he brought what he could do to the Lord And the Lord gave him what he needed the most. And what David needed the most was not more gold. And what you need the most is not more money. What David needed the most was the anointing presence of God in his life. Do you believe that tonight? Parents say, well, I hope my kid can get this prestigious this or that. Please, if your kid gets this prestigious this or that and doesn't walk with God, they've missed the most important thing. David, when he came to a heart of repentance, got what he needed the most. And so tonight, this is not about building a building or giving to a building. This is about bringing a heart to God and asking God to bless once again.