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You can take your seat in the presence of the Almighty God. My name is Lon El Dawson Williams, and I'm the executive pastor here at 2819 Church. And just so grateful for the opportunity to be able to speak on this morning through the mighty word of proclamation. Really quickly, let's just shout out all the two other main communicators in this room, Elder Milton and Elder Eric, their consistency to the gospel. I'm telling you right now, it is not easy to do this. We've got nine to fives responsibilities, children, family, and then to stay up and study all week to prepare for these opportunities is. It's very taxing on the mind and on the body. So I'm just grateful for you. And while we are still in the moment of celebration, I want us to stand and honor the lead shepherd of this house, Pastor Philip Anthony Mitchell, in his absence. Amen. He and I had a meeting on Friday. He was like, well, no, everything good, everything straight. I said, man, listen, people are coming. Loving God, serving, giving. We're good, man. Enjoy this moment of rest. And when you come back, which is very soon, you're ready to go. We have such a strong and amazing last two quarters of this year. I do not want to let the cat out the bag, but I am just so excited about the world change that we are about to engage in. I mean, some of the great things that we have coming down the pipeline. So praise God. And to all of our digital disciples online, I want to just acknowledge you. We see you, we love you. This is your digital home. You may not be physically in the room, but you are in our hearts. I want to celebrate and shout you out. To all the people from around the world who are engaging in the chat. Some of you have your own home, churches and still call yourself digital disciples of 2819. And so for that, we welcome you. And for those who do not have a church home or who call this place place, your church home, we welcome and we love you. And to all of those who are watching this gathering from the Pando app, which is the app that is being used in prisons all across the United States, I want you to know that we love you. We thank you for being a part of this. We see you and the thousands of inmates that have actually given their life to Christ because of this amazing application. And so we just want to let you know, you may be behind a prison cell, but whom the sun sets free, he is free indeed. And so I just want to let you know that we love you and we thank you listen, I'm going to. We're going to jump into the proclamation shortly as we move into the next part of our series. Series bearing more fruit. Right? The fruit that remains in this house. But before we do, I just want to make a brief, brief, brief announcement and then we'll jump right into the proclamation. You know, family, we recognize that we are dealing with some AC challenges, air conditioning challenges. Yes, I saw the Netflix post. Let's not. Don't share it to me anymore. I've seen it. All right. Yes, we acknowledge it is hot. We are not oblivious to it, trust me. And the situation at times is outside of our control. But we are actively. And when I say actively, I mean daily, sometimes multiple times a day, speaking and working with the landlord to try to mitigate this situation and resolve it. But I am happy to say that by next Sunday, the wind, the ruach will flow through here and the situation will be solved. In Jesus name Holy Spirit, blow. That's all I got to say. That's it. Just blow in this room, cuz I'm already hot. All right, let's get into the proclamation. I want you to turn, if you can, with your Bibles to the book of second Samuel. Book of second Samuel. We are actually going to go to the sixth verse. I want to say this because I heard this earlier today. If you ever get an opportunity to go to the middle of your Bible, you'll see the chapter of Psalm. Don't call it Psalms. Psalm, Revelation, not Revelations. John had many dreams, but he had one revelation. All right, sorry, that's the only Bible lesson I have for y' all today. All right, let's go to it. Second Samuel, chapter six. Listen, we're going to walk through verses one through 15 to some degree, but for the purposes of right now, I'm only going to read three verses, verse five, verse six, and verse seven. And then we'll just jump right in and I will say that the 1 o' clock is actually one of my favorite gatherings. I just, I. I just had to throw that in there. Like, I love y'. All. Y' all be partying. They got mosh pits back there. Like, I just. This where the young folks come. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm old, but I feel young when I'm in here. So that's. That's just awesome. Let's read. The Bible says, and David and all of the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord. Songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and Cymbals. And when they came to the threshing floor of Nakan, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it. For the oxen had stumbled. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah. And God struck him down there because of his error. And he died there beside the ark of God. If I could pin a title to this message for this preachment, I would call it Don't Clap Car, Don't Clap Carry. I'm so proud to say, and I say it whenever I can, that I am from the west side of Compton, California. Thank you. Shout out to the west. And just proud to be from a native. And when I grew up, I grew up in a household with my little sister and my dad and my mom. My dad's name is Craig Williams. Craig Williams. And my dad has a very strong personality. Very strong personality. But he was very strict about certain rules. And one of those rules were when you come into the house. So when you leave a room, make sure that the room is always clean. Make sure that you do your chores, take out the trash, clean up the kitchen. But one of the things he always told me and my little sister were, whenever you leave a room, make sure you turn off the lights. And me, I rarely turn the lights off. Rarely turn the lights off. I was just going to the house and I would get what I had to get. I'd leave the lights on, and then I'd go about my day, and the lights would be on for hours. And my dad would come in and he'd say, lynell, I thought I told you turning these light. And I was like, oh, yeah, I forgot. My bad. And he would grab me. He'd say, hey, Lynell, money does not grow on trees. Now, that is absolutely incorrect, but that's another story for another time. So he would say, the money doesn't grow on trees. And I'd be like, okay, my bad. You know, we'll just turn the light off. It's not that serious, right? And it wasn't serious until I got about 30 years older. And then I had my own children. And somehow, some way, the mantle of God, the anointing of leaving lights on just fell from heaven. From my beard down to my kids caus. I mean, they just walk in the house, every light is on, shoes are kicked off, microwave is open, refrigerator is open. Air conditioning is on at 22. I don't know how an air conditioning can go to 22. It should be at 68. But my kids, they love to do it. And I find myself walking through the house this morning at 4am I walked into my daughter's bedroom, and I saw the closet light on. I said, how is the closet light on in the middle of the night? It don't make no sense to me. And I'm sitting there and I'm talking to my kids, and I'm like, y' all gotta turn these lights off. You know what I'm saying? I understand you don't get it, but you gotta turn these lights off, you know? You know, at the end of the day, money does not grow on trees. And my son said, well, you know, Daddy, actually I said, boy, if you don't get out of here, go sit down somewhere. I said what? I said. And see, this is the thing I realized as I reflected on that moment, especially the moment as a child. See, it's one thing when you understand the value of something because you have to pay for it. I'm already preaching. See? See, See, if you ain't got to pay for it, you don't know what it costs. So you have the. The liberty and the ability to just turn on something and just keep moving. But see, when you have to work for something and then you have to pay for that thing, you treat that thing with a little bit more sensitivity and respect. See, it's one thing to get it free. It's another thing when it costs you something. It's like a fire, right? It's like if we were in the mountains and I show up late, and you spent hours and hours and hours collecting wood and trying to start the fire on your own. And you got the match and you've got the embers, and you're blowing into the wind to try to get the fire up. And I show up out of nowhere, and I am experiencing the joy of the heat of the fire. I'm making s' mores with the fire. I'm sitting by the camp. I am enjoying myself in that moment. See, the fire was already burning before I got there. See, I felt the warmth. I enjoy the experience. See? And when you enjoy the fire but never gather the wood, you can start treating warmth like it's automatic, okay? That, my brothers and sisters, is how the culture in churches like ours die. See, I'm responsible for Tay to preach about carrying the culture. Now, not always when something dies, when culture dies, it's not always because somebody attacks it. Sometimes it dies because somebody stops carrying it. And when a culture dies slowly, the people inside of it are usually the last ones. To notice before we take a step further, I need to define what I mean when I say culture, because I'm going to use that word quite often throughout the entire sermon. So I don't want you to fill the gap with your own definition. Culture, as Elder Eric preached last week. He preached and he said that it is a behavior and characteristics of a group of people. It is the way that this house does what it does. See, you can have good culture, you can have bad culture. You can have toxic culture. So culture is not automatically holy. See, our culture here at 2819 is how this church handles what it values the most. And what we value above all other things is. Is him. See, Daniel Coyle in his book called the Culture Code, and I encourage you to read it. He says this. He says that culture is not something that you are. It is something that you do. So culture is not just what we say we value. Culture is what we are willing to carry and this church. I don't want you to leave these values to guesswork. I don't want you to assume or think that you know what they are. So I'm actually going to give you the values of our church. I'm going to give them to you. And you can write them down. They are very simple. You can actually find them on our website right now, 2819,church.org. it is under our beliefs and they are teaching prayer, worship, community, generosity, service, honor and excellence. These are the values of this church. This is the culture of this house. Now, show of hands. How many people knew those? Amen. That's all that matters. Now watch this. I'm not testing you to condemn you. I'm testing you to challenge you to carry the culture and not just clap about it. See, carrying culture is living out the values that this church stands on in your Christian walk daily. Not just in this room, but every day. For example, if you pray more on Sunday than you do Monday through Saturday, we've already got a problem. Right? Right. Because our culture is a culture of prayer. Right? So, so, so, so. So last week, Elder Eric did a phenomenal job communicating to us about protecting the culture. Right? He showed us about the wolves and the bears and the lions and David, who was. Who was charged to protect the flock. And that word was correct. And that gate got guarded. But this morning, I want to talk to you about a. Not, excuse me, about another danger. Not the danger outside of the house. It is the danger that could grow inside of this church. Because the attack from a wolf is not the only way that a culture Dies. Sometimes culture dies in the hands of people who enjoy the fruit but refuse the weight. Sometimes culture can die in the hands of people who are willing to see other people struggle and not give them help. So here is the question. I want to sit on your lap today. How does a church lose the weight of God and not realize that it is gone? It keeps the language of reverence while practicing the habit of familiarity. This narrative that we're going to walk through today, it is not just a history lesson. It is not just some ethereal thought or assumption. It is instructions. Because our culture at this church is built on the Word, the Word of God. We carry the culture by carrying the Word of God. God. And God is going to show us how to carry what he has given to this house. He's going to do it through four. Obedience, understanding, accountability, and grace. Let's go to chapter six. I'm going to give you my first point for those who take notes. And it is, Carrie, it God's way, even when your way works. Let's look at the text. David, historically, has just been anointed king. He is. He's beaten the Philistines. And Saul is no longer in charge. And so he now takes and decides to move the Ark of the Covenant from one city into the main city. And he is so excited, and he's got all these people around him, and he says, let us go and take the Ark of the Covenant and make it right there in the center of the nation. So look at verse one. It says, and David again brought together all of the able young men of Israel. 30,000. All right? So in this room, we can fit about 2,000 combined, right? So if that's the case, imagine 15 times the amount of people in this room. I mean, picture that. 30,000 people. Now watch this. And David arose and went with all the people who were with him, right, from baal, Judah, to bring up from there the Ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord, a host who sits enthroned on the cherubim. Now watch this. I'm going to ask them to put the picture on the screen. We actually do not know where the Ark of the Covenant currently is. We do not know. Some assume that it's actually in Ethiopia, but we have no idea. So we only can depict what we think it looks like based on what Scripture says. Okay? So this is a depiction of the Ark of the Covenant, all right? So I want you to just pay attention to the structure in and of itself, right? So you have a box and Inside of there are three things, right? So number one, it is Aaron's rod, right? Number two, it is the chalice or a cup full of manna. All right? And number three, it is the two stone tablets that they believe were the Ten Commandments. All right, so all three are inside. You see the two rings and the poles, and then you see the cherubim. Those are two angels. Their faces are covered and they're creating what the Bible calls the mercy seat, right? That's where they say Jesus is sitting on the mercy seat. All right, so this is the Ark of the Covenant as we interpret it to be. So it is not church decorations. It is not furniture. It is not an ottoman. It is not just something that you move around as you see fit. This was a holy piece. This was the place where God had chosen to make his presence known amongst his people. See, every other nation, they had idols. Every other nation had symbols and emblems and all these wonderful things. And they had buildings and they had noise and they had all this stuff, but nobody had what Israel real had, the presence of God. Now watch how they move the presence. Look at verse number three. It says, and they carried the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab. I want you to remember that we're coming back to that which was on a hill. And that, my brothers and sisters, is the problem. Not that they wanted something wrong. They wanted to do the right thing. They wanted the presence of God in the center of the city. But they put it on a new cart. And the cart is very new. I imagine with my mind that it looked new. It looked well prepared, probably decorated. It was probably excellent. It was probably clean and probably had jewels on it. I mean, it was carrying the Ark of the Covenant. But. But new does not always mean obedient. New cards can still break old commandments. God never told them to put it on a new cart. God gave them poles, put the picture back up. God gave them shoulders. God gave them priests. God gave them a way to carry what was holy. You see the poles. It was never meant to be touched. It was meant to be carried. So where did the cart come from? See, you have to go back to First Samuel, chapter six, where the Philistines had captured the ark, and at that moment it was wreaking havoc in their cities. And so they sent it back on a cart, a new cart that was built. But the Philistines did not know the law of God. They did know about the Levites, but they did not know about the poles and the purposes of the shoulders and the covenant Order and the liturgy that was associated with the Ark of the Covenant. But Israel knew better. At that time, they only had a couple of books, not even all the books. They only had a little bit of the law. And so at that time, they would just consistently read the very same text over and over and over. And so the law was ingrained in their heart. They had the word. So when the Philistines used a cart, it was ignorance. The cart is what happens when holy things become familiar enough to handle it without fear. And here is the crazy part. It actually worked. I mean, look at the text. It said that it rolled out of Abinadab's house. It rolled down the wheel, down the hill. And the people kept singing and celebrating and shouting and dancing because nobody died yet. And the people started calling it progress because the cart was still moving. But do not call it approval just because God hasn't interrupted it yet. See, some of us will say, if it works long enough, well, we just start calling it favor. I just got the favor of the Lord. When you don't even realize that fruit is not always approval. A crowd is not always confirmation. The cart worked, but they were still wrong. See, a rolling cart can still be rejected by God. Let me make it plain. Say some of you have watched somebody else's child. I imagine a niece, a nephew, a friend, they come over to your house and. And when you keep your own child, you can feed them whatever you want. You can let them do whatever they want. They want to look at the iPad. They can look at it. You can take the. Off the screen. You can look at, you know you got fructose. You know you can't get your fruits, snacks going, your pop Tarts going. You know, you can get lemonade as much as you want. It doesn't bother you. But when you are watching somebody else's child, they may have a different set of instructions. They may say, no fructose corn syrup. No screen time whatsoever. My baby gotta be in bed by 2pm Right? No red dye, no yellow dye, no soy, no peanuts, no water, no milk. All right? Just sleep in. Jesus. Now watch this. You might think that it's extra. You might do differently at your house, but that child is not yours. So you honor the instructions of the parents that the child belongs to church. This culture is not our child. It belongs to. To God. And he left instructions. This culture is not ours to improve or to do what we want with it. It is his to own and Ours to carry. And I know what you're thinking. I can hear it in your mind right now. I hear you. Well, you know, I'm trying to understand why 2819 don't have a dance ministry. Where's the men's ministry? Where's the women's ministry? Where's the trustee board? Where's the deacons ministry? I'm trying to get the flags going. I'm trying to get the mimes going. You know what I'm saying? For Christ alone, you know what I'm saying? Like you want all of that while my email's not getting answered. I need this and I want that. You know, I really do think we need a balloon ministry. I just feel it in my spirit that the Lord, the helium that's gonna lift us up. Listen, I'm telling you, we get it, and that is okay. We're not demonizing those ministries. We're not demonizing those opportunities. There's nothing wrong with churches that do those things, but at this house, we don't do that. Prayer, presence and proclamation. That's it. Prayer, presence and proclamation. There's nothing wrong with those things. But this house is different. So let me press into your week just a little bit. I want to get into your business just for a second, because obedience is not a concept. Obedience is a calendar. Where have you replaced obedience with strategy? Where have we edited God's instructions to fit our preferences and then called it wisdom? Where are we doing what works instead of what he said? Because deep down, we trust speed more than we trust surrender. See, some of us are praying over our cart right now. We are asking God to bless a method that he never authorized, a relationship he never sanctioned, a shortcut he never signed. And we are frustrated that heaven is quiet. But can I tell you that heaven is not quiet? Heaven has already spoken and we are just asking for a second opinion. See, obedience means that when God's way and my way disagree, my way always loses, even when my way is newer and nicer and cleaner and it draws more clouds. But obedience is better than sacrifice. Look at verse number five. It says this. And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. This was a straight up party. I mean, they were having a praise party. I mean, they was dancing and shouting and sincere and just celebrating the presence of the Lord. And the whole time it was on the wrong cart. Yeah, this is the thing. We can shout and still be in disobedience. Yep. You can dance and sweat your weave out and still be in disorder. Bust down to look at a hot mess. I'm telling you, see, you can be moving fast, gathering people, making noise, and still be carrying holy things the wrong way. And some churches call it revival when God calls it foolishness. So the question is not, do you love this culture? Because everybody out there love the Ark. The question is not just what we are carrying. The question is what we are carrying it on. Because the right thing on the wrong system is still being handled wrong. And the road, my brothers and sisters, is about to get a lot more rough. Point number two for the note takers is this. Take time to understand what you carry. Look at verse the next verse, verse number six. And when they came to the threshing floor of Nakan, Uzzah put out his hand to the Ark and God and took hold of it. For the oxen stumbled. This is so powerful. Okay, the oxen stumbles on the threshing floor. What is the threshing floor? All right, the threshing floor is where, if you've ever seen wheat, they collect the wheat. And what they would do is they bundle it and they would smash it on the ground. They would smash it on the ground so that the two items. And I'll talk about this in a second. The wheat, it's the chaff and the grain, they separate. All right? They separate just through the pressure of hitting it on the ground, right through that force. And so what happens is, after that, they'd also step on it. And so the ground would be extremely uneven. Extremely uneven. Right? So here we are. The ox stumbles, the cart shakes, the ark tips, and Uzzah reaches forward. Okay, Verse number seven. And the anger, the Lord was kindled against Uzzah. And God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the Ark of God. Man music stops. Tambourine goes silent. 30,000 people all sitting there quietly. David turns around and sees a body in the dirt next to the Ark of God. And I know what you're thinking, because I thought the same thing when I read it. Like, man, that sucks. God, why are you gonna kill this man? He saw the Ark of the Covenant. It was tipping. He put his hand out. He was trying to make sure that the holy thing doesn't hit the ground. He wants to protect this. He wants to make sure that it is covered and taken care of. So why would you do that? But see you over read like I overread it the first time. Because the answer is actually in verse number three. Let's go back up to it. This is why it's important to read the word for yourself. There's always nuances in the text. So slow down when you read his word because the answer is always there. Look at verse number three. And they carry the Ark of God, a new cart, and brought it out of the house. Out of the house, out of the house. Out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart. Uzzah was the son of Abinadab. And whose house did the Ark of the Covenant come out of? The Abinadab's house. See, if you look in the history in 1st Samuel 7:2, you'll read that the Ark of the Covenant was in abinadab's house for 20 years. See, the Ark was in the same house that Uzzah grew up in. So Uzzah did not meet the Ark that morning. He grew up around it. He walked past it. He ate meals knowing that it was in the other room. 20 years of proximity, but proximity did not produce reverence. And that is the danger. The danger is not that Uzzah had never seen the Ark. The danger is that he had seen it so much that he stopped. Stop trembling about it, Jesus. Because familiarity can put you in the house with holy things and still leave you casual. So you can grow up around the language and you can know the songs and you can know when to shout and know when to dance. Grow up around the presence and still not know how to carry what God entrusted to this house. When I was in college, my roommate, his name is Shanadu, shout out, Naidu. And we were in school. Our dormitory called AI it was actually about 400ft from where our classes took place. 400ft from our classes took place. And so every morning I would wake up, I put on my clothes, I get on my razor scooter. The silver razor scooter, the one. I bet you my ankles are messed up to this day because of that scooter. But I would get on my scooter and I would. And I would go down the road and I would go to my classes, right? But every time I would wake up, for some reason, Naidu was always sleeping. 8 o' clock in the morning, Nadu's sleep. 11 o' clock in the afternoon. At night, Nadu's up writing raps. 2 o' clock in the afternoon, though, Naidu's sleep. And I'm like, yo, Naidu, how in the world are you gonna graduate, bruh, if you're always sleep when it comes to school? And I was always concerned. Now he graduated, He's a successful young man doing a lot of amazing things all around the world. But my concern was that Nadu, we are 400ft from the classroom, and yet I don't know if you're going to graduate, because being near something is not the same as being formed by it. See, God had already spoken to them about the ark. See, in numbers chapter four, it says that they must not touch the holy things lest they die. And God did not just give them this rule. He built it literally on the ark. The poles was meant to be carried on the shoulders so that they would not touch it. Reverence was already engineered in the system. See, and then if you go to numbers chapter seven, and you can get all this when you go home. Says moses gave the cart to the Levites, but he gave no carts to the sons of Koath because the holy things had to be carried on the shoulders. So these instructions existed. Uzzah heard them his entire life. So we don't have to speculate about Uzzah's heart to see the problem. The issue is not that he knew privately. The issue is what he practiced publicly. And that's the word for everybody in the house that has inherited something holy. God does not have to expose every assumption in our hearts before he holds us accountable for our handling of it. You'll get it when you get home. Because culture is not proven. They're what we call value. Culture is proven by what we keep practicing. See, they had the ark. They had the history. They had the language. They had the celebration. But somewhere along the way, they lost the weight. And when the weight is gone, holy things start looking manageable. They start looking like cargo. And this is the second way that we are called to carry culture. It's called understanding. You cannot carry what you never took the time to understand. You can be near something for 20 years and never learn the weight of it. You can be in the house and be oblivious to it. Familiarity feels like knowledge, but it is not. Some of us know what that feels like. You got people right now around you for years and still don't know the real you. They know your face. They know your birthday. They know your mama name. They know where you live. They know your job. But they do not know you, the real you. If I could take a pen out of the prophet Ti tip himself, he said, you Might see me in the streets. Don't. Don't you do. Say it. Don't you say it. Thank you, Tip. When you holler in the street, remember you don't know me. Thank you. Amen. Familiarity is just repetition without revelation. So let me ask this church, both online and in the room, a few questions. As you think about it, have you ever asked why this church does what it does? Why do we teach the words verse by verse instead of only picking the parts that make us feel good? Why do we pray before any and everything that we do? Right? Why do we worship and give room for it to breathe and not feel like it has to be locked into a certain amount of time? Right. Why is community not optional and honor is not negotiable? Teaching, prayer, worship, community, generosity, excellence, service, and honor. Those eight values are not decorations. They are poles. They are how this house carries culture and the presence without dropping it. And some of us have been in the house for years and never asked why. We know the rhythms. We know where to stand and where to clap and where to smile and where to praise, but we don't ask the questions. And to all of my TikTok testimony fact checkers and my thread theologians that are out there, I want to give this to you and those of you who are in the room who just wanted to view and say 10 out of 10, let's try again. I want you to hear me right now. It is easy to critique a culture from a distance when you have never submitted yourself to the weight. Some people call it strange because they've never stayed long enough to learn why it's sacred. But do not let people who have never grabbed a pole become experts on how the ark should move. They can critique in seconds what they faithful people have had to carry for years. Take the time, ask the questions, study the patterns. Because an unexamined culture is a culture you will mishandle the first time it shakes. See, when I was coming up, we had our first daughter, Ivy, and I told my wife, I am not a diaper changing kind of guy. You know? I was like, mm, mm. I don't do that. That's not. I don't do that. She was like, okay, no problem. Here you go. And then she walked away. I had to very quickly get over the nauseating feeling for the first time of changing a diaper. But after six months, I became an expert at it. I could change a diaper and text message in two different hands, right? Like I had the ability, right? Now watch this. Ivy did not change, but My sensitivity did. And the funny thing is this, because some of us have been around the present so long that what we used to stop us does not stop us anymore. The glory didn't stop. Not get lighter. Our senses got dull. Let me ask you this. Have you. Have you ever driven home and had a million things in your mind? You're like, man, I gotta email this person. I gotta text that person back, oh, I gotta pick up some groceries. Oh, the kids got soccer practice. And then you pull into your driveway, you be like, how in the world did I get here? Crazy thing is, you stopped at every light. Your hands were 10 and 2. You followed every direction. I mean, you were just on top at Model Driver, but you were not there. See, your body completed a journey that your mind was absent from. And some of us have worshiped just like that. Some of us have commented in the comment section just like that. Served just like that. Led just like that. Hands moving, heart absent. But God is not just after hands that know the motion. He is after hearts that understand the weight. And I cannot just look at you and point to you and say, this is what's going on with you. I have to be introspective with myself. I have to ask myself the question, right? Am I preaching this out of my own? Has there ever been a season when I was not carrying the weight, but watching other people carry? And I know what it's like to stand up and preach from a platform and not pray about it. I'm being real with you. I know what it's like to preach and tear a house down and know that it had nothing to do with God and all was about talent. I know what it's like to be in the room with preachers who drink Hennessy before they preach just so they can get the fill. I know what it's like to be in rooms when the preacher comes down from the platform and says, I killed it. I slayed it. Them where it becomes a game of sport and not a game of reality and spirituality. I know what it's like to be in a room where preachers come down after doing the work of God and look me in my face and I'm talking about a preacher in Atlanta. Look me in my face and say, I can't wait till that girl come back to my hotel room. Married. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're creative. Put that on social media. I'm only see that one this week. I'm telling you, I know what it's like to see other people carry and say, I'm too good for that. I had to ask myself, when was the last time I sat under the weight of what God has given this house instead of just moving around through it? And here is why the threshing floor mattered. I told you about the threshing floor. Then let me show you what it looks like. See the threshing floor, if you could put it on the screen. The threshing floor is where the wheat gets separated, right? So you've got the chaff, which is the image that we see all the time, Right? So that's the chaff, that's the grain. Right? So there, when you hit it on the ground, it separates, Right? Because the wheat is heavier. Right. It has weight. The chaff just looks attached until the wind blows. Right? So? So I don't want you to miss this. The ark stumbles, but it stumbles at the place of separation. Okay? The stumble did not create the problem. It exposed it. Right? The bump did not make them careless. It revealed that they were already carrying it the wrong. And when the moment got urgent, Uzzah did not have an understanding to fall back on. He only had instinct. And instinct without understanding grabbed what God said, don't touch. You can take it off the screen. And this is what happens when we come to church on autopilot. When the shaking comes, and it will come, we don't rise to our intentions. We fall to our own understanding. And Uzzah was never closer to the Ark than the moment it killed him, because proximity does not automatically equal purity. Now, let's get back to the road. I want you to look here at verse number eight. It says, and then David was angry because the Lord's wrath had broken out against Uzzah. And to this day, the place is called Perez Azza. Now, his first emotion was not Lord, search me. I am sorry. I am wrong. I have made a mistake. His first emotion was anger. He was mad. How could you? And some of us know that feeling? You remember the first time God's holiness interrupted our desires? We didn't bow. Sometimes we got attitudes. We wanted a God who would bless the parade and not stop it. But then the anger for David cools into fear. And then David asked the right question. Look at verse number nine. He was afraid of the Lord that day and said, how can the ark of the Lord ever come to me? Watch what happens there. David stopped looking at the oxen. He stopped looking at Uzzah. He stopped looking at the crow, and he looked at himself. That's called introspection. That is a Man with enough humility to stop prosecuting the room and start examining his own hands. Because you cannot repent for what you keep blaming on somebody else. And then David does something that takes more humility than dancing. He stops 30,000 people and he halts the whole thing. See, sometimes humility is a stopped parade. See, pride would have kept the party going. Pride would have buried Uzzah very quickly, killed the oxen, attached a new one, and kept rolling. Because pride would rather arrive wrong than stop and be embarrassed. And see, and some of us are still marching because we're too proud to admit that God is correcting the movement. We would rather keep clapping than confess we mishandled something holy. We would rather protect the appearance of momentum than pause long enough to recover the reverence. But mercy stop the parade. Blessed is the leader who can say we are not moving another step until we find out what God said. Blessed is the church that would rather be delayed in obedience than celebrate an error. Blessed are the people who can survive the awkward pause, the confused faces, the questions on why we don't do that and why we don't say that, and why doesn't that happen every month from the crowd and still say we love his presence too much to carry it our own way? Because a humble pause can save what pride would have destroyed. And that was not the end of David's worship. It's amazing to see. It was the beginning of his correction. He was trying to recover the reverence. He was not rejecting the desires to bring the ark home. He was correcting the way they were, had to carry it. See, don't let applause talk you out of correction. Don't let momentum make you allergic to examination. Don't let the sounds of the parade and the people and the celebrations and the pats on the back and oh, that was amazing. And the shares on Instagram and on TikTok and all the stuff on Facebook. Who celebrates and praises you, convince you that God is pleased with the direction of your parade. Because momentum is not always proof of obedience. Sometimes it is just pride with a soundtrack. A proud man keeps moving so nobody knows he's wrong. But a humble man stops because God already knows. The mercy of God is this. He will stop what is moving wrong because he still loves what he called. He will interrupt the parade before the parade becomes a funeral. So if God has stopped you, do not despise the stop. If God is slowing down your cart, do not curse the delay. If God has interrupted your movement, maybe it is not punishment, maybe it is his mercy. Because the delay is not defeat when obedience is being restored. Three months. The text says that they placed the cart in Obed Edom's house for three months. And the Bible says during those three months, Obed Edom and his house was blessed. Now, what's interesting about this, if you understand the history of Obed Edom, the individual he was from the tribe the Philistines, specifically the same portion of the tribe that Goliath was from. That's interesting. God allowed David's enemies and that lineage to be blessed because he mishandled the moment. You mad because they winning. God's like, but I couldn't even trust you with the little that I gave you. I told you how to handle the holy things and you chose to do it. As Usher said, my way. So they corrected it. Not by feeling, not my innovation, not by creativity, not some strategy. David didn't call a consultant. He didn't call a board meeting. How he didn't have all these people, people give their opinion. He simply did it by the book. The Levites carried the ark on their shoulders with the poles as Moses had commanded them. See, they didn't improve it. They killed the cart, they consecrated themselves, and then they got underneath the weight of it. See, one thing about this church that I love is that we are not too proud to get off a horse that is taking us in the wrong direction. We're not going to keep riding somewhere because it looks great or because there's familiarity or because there's popularity or people are talking about it and how amazing it is. We're not going to keep moving in a direction just because people are watching. We refuse to stay committed to a method that God is no longer breathing on because we are afraid of looking wrong. See, some people will dismount because they fear embarrassment more than they fear God. See, they would rather die the wrong, die with them, ride with the wrong thing with confidence than step down in humility and say, this is not leading us into obedience. But at this house we worship God. We would rather lose the appearance of progress than lose the weight of his presence. And the ark was taken out by Obed Edom's house. And every six steps they sacrificed a bull and they praised. Took another six steps, they sacrificed a bull, they praised another six steps, sacrificed a bull and praised over and over and over. See, that's two trips, both trips, one on a cart and one on the shoulder. Both trips had music. Both trips had music. The shout was never the problem. The cart was. So now let me come back to Your house. Because accountability is not a church word. It's not a Sunday word. Accountability is a Tuesday word. When it shakes, and it will. When the cart stumbles, at your job, in your marriage, in your emotions, in your home, do the values hold up when they cut you off on 75? Or do we grab control? A shaking is not permission to abandon the pattern. The shaking is where the pattern proves that it is real. When you are corrected by church members, do you get angry, as David did first, or do you come with humility and introspection the second time? When leadership corrects you, when a brother or sister pulls you to the side and says, hey, man, I don't know if that's. That's the godly way. That's not how we do things here at 28:19. I love you. And I want to. I want to coach you, I want to mentor you, I want to disciple you. When the word steps on your toes, well, your flesh, it's going to naturally file for an appeal. But culture, it files for a confession. When we are unsure, do we guess? Or do we go back like they did with the Levites? See, unsure is not an excuse to improvise with holy things. Unsure is an invitation to lean in, to ask, to learn, to be open, to understand the pattern. Before you ever touch the weight, I want you to hear me. We exemplify these values in this church, but not just in this church, in the world. Yes, the world is watching. The whole world. People are talking about 2819 all over the world. Your children are watching, your parents are watching, People on your job are watching. People on your feed are watching. But most importantly, God is watching, and his leisure is the only thing that survives. And this is where culture stops being a slogan, because anybody can name values when the room is calm. But we find out what truly happens when life begins to shake. It's not proven in your shout. It's proven in the shake. 30,000 people, all on David's word. See, we only know three or four people's names in this story, but there are 30,000 people there. God knew every single person's name. The reason why is we don't carry culture for the audience. We only carry it for the author. The author and the finisher of our faith. So this week, when life shakes, when you are corrected, when you're unsure, when the question is put before you, not what do I want to do? The question now should be, what will God ask of me to do? Will I clap or will I carry? What does that mean? So I Know you're wondering, well, how do I carry? I carry the values. I serve, I give, I show up, I evangelize, I engage in outreach. I find opportunities to plug into community. I don't necessarily have to. We want you in a squad. But if there is no room for one, ban. Just go love on people, take them to dinner. My wife and I took a couple to dinner on Friday just because. To get to know people, to love on people, to be discipled and to disciple. That is the values of 28, 19. That is what we stand on. That is who we are. We're not just some church that's viral. That's the new hot thing right now. Because when no one was watching, we were the same. And when everyone's watching, we're still the same. Doesn't matter. But there is an appropriate response that one should have when it comes to carrying the weight, because there are people in this room that are doing it. But we're tired. We've been carrying this thing for far too long. And we need your help because this thing is heavy. Some people go to work Monday through Sunday and still serve in ministry. This is not a cry for help because we, we are doing our thing. But we need you to help carry the vision forward. Help us carry the word until the ends of the earth. See, here's the thing. I wake up usually five out of seven days, about 4am in the morning, and I go to, I start working. See, my days are usually somewhere between 16 and 18 hours, sometimes even 20 hours on Mondays when Pastor Philip is in the office. I promise you, I could get home at 8, 9 o' clock at night, still be answering phones, coming to the house, on the phone, taking text messages. Things that we've got to handle, right? I don't know why people think just because you work at a church, all you do is pray. Like that's not true. We actually have things we have to do, legal and accounting and all types of stuff. Like this is a real thing, all right? But when I come into my house, I look around and my house is clean. I got four kids, they all have food, clothes are out, homework done, ready for school. I mean, I'm like, wow, this is amazing. All the clothes are washed and folded, everything is immaculate. And I could assume that because I'm the one that's working right now that it's because of my money, that that's why we're able to do it, but that's not true. I can't take credit for something I didn't. You See, my wife is the one that handles those things. My wife makes sure that my home is taken care of. My wife ensures that our family is covered. My wife does all of it. So privately, I can say thank you. But publicly, I can say thank you so much that I know I don't always do and say the right thing. But I am grateful. Because there is no me and there is no us without you. That my life is better because of you. And I will spend every waking moment of my life while here on earth ensuring that you are safe and loved and cared for, seen and heard and empowered. And I wonder if God is in heaven. And he heard what I just said and was like, yeah, that was good. That was good, Doc. But then he looks at you and says, why aren't you saying the same thing? I mean, there is a way to respond. Don't clap, carry. Help us carry the weight of this ministry and this mantle. Step up and help. I'm not rebuking you. I'm challenging you. Because this is a holy thing. He who shall ascend the hill of the Lord. He who has clean hands and a pure heart. Don't clap, carry. There's one thing I want to show you that I thought was just absolutely fascinating, and then I'll. I'll be done. If we could put the Ark of the Covenant back onto the screens, there's something I saw that was just. It blew my mind, right? I told you already. Inside of the Ark of the Covenant, you had Aaron's rod, you had the chalice with the manna inside of it. And then you also had the Ten Commandments, right? That's what it is. I also shared with you that the cherubim on the top, right, the Bible says that it is the mercy seat of Jesus, right? So that is where we believe Jesus is. Now, here's the thing. Every year, every single year, it's the Day of Atonement. They call it Yom Kippur on the Jewish calendar. It is the day, historically, where they would sacrifice a lamb, a baby lamb, and they would take the blood of the lamb and they would sprinkle it on the front of the lid of the Ark of the Covenant as a sign that say that the blood protects us. So you didn't even realize that Jesus was being preached the whole time. The law that we break every single day, the law that we sin against every single day, the things that we do that not please God, inside of the Ark, the blood covers it by the mercy of Jesus Christ. So people who say the Bible's not real. How is that possible? Jesus was literally sitting in the Old Testament right before our eyes. Aza who reaches out his hand to catch the glory as you try to protect the Ark. This is another hand. When Jesus took his hand and took a nail through it for you and my sins. Where one man dies in the dirt next to the Ark of the Covenant, another man dies on the cross for your sins. His name is Jesus. And yes there is. And there was a parade when they moved the Ark of the covenant. But there will be a greater celebration in heaven when we are around and enthroned an enumerate amount of angels singing Glory glory, Glory hallelujah to the highest. And the greatest reward we will ever have is not what we do here. Not was in our 401k, not where we take vacations, not our children and not our homes. Is when we take the crown off of our heads and we lay it at the feet of Jesus. And some of you walked into this room and you were probably wondering, man, I didn't realize that when I came in that I would see such an interesting narrative of the story. Because God set you up for a moment just like this. He wanted you to hear about the Ark and the power of when you do things you your own way and how that could be a fallacy in and of itself. But when you lean on him, when you trust him with your heart, when you open up your mind and you say, lord, I let you in that I am no longer going to do things my own way. I am going to submit to you. You'll get something that we call from the old church. Blessed assurance Songs that blessed assurance Jesus is mine oh what a foretaste of glory divine. See, I know that there will be a date when I'm not here. It's very possible that I will not be alive tomorrow. All of us could be not here. It's very possible. We don't know what day or what time. We just know that the clock is ticking down. But I'm confident that when I close my eyes on earth, I will open them in glory. I have that assurance, as some of you do too. We are confident, but some of you are not. But you have heard the gospel preached and you are saying, I don't know what's going on, but I want that. He says, when you hear my voice, harden not your heart. That means the voice that you hear is not the enemy me. The voice that you hear is the Lord. And he's saying, come unto me all who are weary and Heavy laden. And I will give you rest. You're tired. But God has given you the moment that he can embrace you in his arms. The yoke is easy, and his burden is like. If I'm talking to you, eyes closed, heads bowed, if I'm talking to you, I just want you to lift your hands up really quickly in this room. If you feel like that gospel. I see you. That gospel is for you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. God bless you. I see you. God bless you. If I'm speaking to you, do not be embarrassed. Do not be ashamed. Because he said, if you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you. This is the moment, and I. This is the hour for your life to change. If I'm talking to you, raise your hand right now. They're raising up all over the room. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I see you. I see you. I see you. God bless you. You can put your hands down. After the gathering, the doors over there will be open, and I want you to go outside. There is a tent, a connect tent, and there they will give you a Bible. They will give you information about how know that you can understand the decision that you just made. And I promise you, you give it six months. Six months. I am not saying that your life will be perfect, but I am saying that your life will be better. And I want you to lean in and keep coming back and keep coming back because I promise you your life will change. I need to ask for one more call, and then I'm gonna be done. Because I'm tired, Lord. I'm tired. But I want to say this to you because this is pressing upon my heart. Some of you have been with God. You walked, and at one point in time, you had the ark on your shoulders. You were carrying the vision, you were carrying the culture. And one day you put it down, you walked away. You said it got too heavy. You got tired of seeing other people fake the funk. You got tired of fake church and deconstruction and reconstruction action and all that jazz. And you said, I can do big. I can be bad all by myself. But you walk away and God is saying, I have been with you the entire time where you went? I was there in the club. I was there on the street. I was there hot boxing in the car. I was there by yourself, thinking about committing suicide. I was there. I was with you the whole time. I will never leave you nor forsake you. So you're like, preacher, I'm already saved. I'm going to heaven. I know I am. But I have not been in right relationship with him. I backslidden. And for some reason God pressed upon my heart at the last gathering. And I want to do it here today. That if you feel like that issue you have walked away. Or you do not have a home, a church that you can be planted in, that you can plug in, that you. You can carry the vision with us. Carry the ark with us. If I am talking to you, this is an amazing church. We're led by an amazing leader. We are here to serve God. We don't always get it right, but we're trying to do things God's way. If I'm talking to you and you need a home, you need to come back to him. I want you to raise your hand right now. This is the moment. And this is your hour. This can be your church. God bless you. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for these, your sons and daughters, those who have truly understood and heard what it takes to carry this culture. I pray God that as we protect it and that we carry it and we discuss the fruit that remains. I pray that we as sons and daughters us do as you've called us to do. To take on the things that are holy and not treat it like it's familiar. I thank you for the sons and daughters who've walked into the kingdom, who have said that they wanted to give you their. Yes, the empowered to know that you are right there with them. And I thank you God for these, your saints that are weak. Be strong. Give us the grace to continue in to the end. For it's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. Have you been blessed by the word? Put your hands together. The vision casters come.