(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen. Well, last week I didn't get to finish up my sermon, not even close, so last week we looked at how David was influenced by Satan to number the people and that it was a great sin and as we see in the chapter reading again, 70,000 people died because of this sin and it was David really that was, you know, he was tempted by the devil to do this and what I think is that this was a temptation of pride to see how great his army was and obviously that's, Joab was really upset about it and the other part of the sin was that they didn't get the offering of the half shekel to put towards the house of the Lord so they could be repaired and all the things that it was, that half shekel was supposed to be given for and they probably didn't ask for that because it was probably supposed to be some kind of a secret thing possibly. You know, this wasn't something that the Lord ordered for him to do so that's generally why these things would come to pass. So, anyway, and then we also looked at the consequences of that sin and the remedy and future foreshadowing that God is leading. Well, I mean, this week, excuse me, so we just looked at the sin last week, but this week we're looking at the consequences of that sin and the remedy that's going to fix the situation. Sorry, got a little ahead of myself there. But the first point that I want to point out tonight is that, or at least the first point of my sermon last week, and I'm getting way ahead of myself, so last week my only point that I actually got to out of the three points was that Satan is constantly looking to provoke us to sin and so just kind of to recap what I went through last week is that he uses our unsaved flesh, the devil uses our unsaved flesh to tempt us to sin. He'll like, you know, push buttons on us or, you know, put temptations in our lives so that we will sin and then he'll accuse us before God day and night. And so we have a lot of just things that are always bombarding us and the devil, this is one of the ways that he gets us to, he uses our sin to get God to punish us for things that he gets us to do basically. So it's like you're doing it to yourself. But Satan does accuse us after he tempts us and we sin and then we also have the problem of our own flesh that's against us and that is a daily struggle that we deal with every single day of our lives. If we're saved we still have to pick up our cross daily, follow after Jesus and the struggle is real. And we are also, we are at the mercy also of other people's sins and what they do can negatively affect our lives even if they don't intend to. So we have the world that's filled with sin and we, like, we can't stop people from committing sins against us, which I didn't really get too much into that but that is another obstacle that we have to face every single day in our lives is that we can't control what other people do. So you could marry what you think is the perfect spouse and that spouse can turn out to be some kind of a deceiver or some kind of a cheater or, you know, an abuser or whatever and you don't know that going in. They have you fooled somehow or whatever and then that person can do negative things but just, even just in driving, I mean you're, you can be just driving down the road and there's some weirdo that has like total road rage can just do something to impact your life. You could just like smile and wave at them and then they just like take that as I'm going to kill you now. You know, they laughed at me or something and they're a psycho and then they, you know, do something, stalk you. I mean, Dylan had this psychopath driving him, chasing him in Houston who had his kid in his car and Dylan thought he was going to have to shoot him. You know, I mean the guy's chasing him around, called his buddies, his buddies are helping try to like corner him in all these positions. He's like having to do the fast and the furious and stuff. It's just like, you know, he thought it's something, he's like I'm going to have to kill this guy in front of his kid because he was armed of course but the last thing that hate preacher Dylan Oz needs to do is pull his gun out and shoot somebody, right? So he got put into a weird position but like what I'm saying is that we can't control what other people do to us. You know, some people are just crazy and some people just, you know, they impact our life and there's not a lot that we can do about it. And we also have the system of this world that's against everything that we stand for as Christians and it's against God and we have to navigate our lives through that but even with all of these things against us we do have the advantage of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We are saved and the Holy Spirit prays for us when we don't know what to pray for, when we just don't know what we need. God who's within us kicks in and prays for what we need for. Jesus Christ is our great high priest and he's the advocate for us. So Satan is the accuser, he's like the prosecuting attorney and Jesus Christ is like, you know, he's the attorney that defends us, the defense attorney. And he says, no, no, no, no, I paid for his sins with my own blood. But he's our advocate and he also prays for us and he prayed for us in the New Testament in John chapter 17. He prays for us, he prays for us and talks about when Thomas says that he believed and Jesus said blessed are those that have not seen and yet believe. Jesus loves us and he's there for us eternally mediating for us. And so we have a lot of things going against us but at the same time we have great advantage because God is greater than all those things that are against us. So even though we have all these forces against us and yes, they provoke us to sin and yes, we mess up a lot but we still have a great advantage also over other people because they are still plugged into the devil's system. They don't understand their right hand from their left. They don't understand what it's like to be saved. They can't even understand the Bible. They can't just sit down and read the Bible and understand the spiritual truths about it. So they're just locked into the system and they're locked into their sin. Now so the second point of the sermon is found in verse number nine and the second point of the sermon is sin, once it brings forth, always has consequences. So regardless of whether God has mercy or not, there are still consequences to the actions that we do. Now he might not punish us to the extent that we deserve but we still will receive some sort of punishment for the sins that we commit. That's why it's best as Christians to try to live the most holy and clean life that we possibly can and if you're a kid, the best thing you could do is to obey your parents as much as possible and then you get the least amount of spankings that you can. So some kids are wise. They see the one bad kid, well the one, I won't say bad, how about the one kid that misbehaves the most and they see how much they get spanked and they smarten up and they're like, yeah, I don't want to be like that kid. They're the ones that get the most lickings so maybe I just, you know, and if you haven't gotten that smart yet kids, you should just pay attention and then like see, well hey, I don't want to get spanked that much, maybe I should just do what my parents say, you know. So but like this is a lesson for us as believers too because if we're a believer, we're all God's children. If we're a believer, okay, not this Mormon belief that everybody's God's children, that's not true. You're not God's child until you're born again. Once you're born again then you're God's child and then it's the same way. When we disobey his commands then there's consequences to those actions and he does give us mercy, great long suffering but he still does have actions that he takes against us and if we have a humble attitude, if we beg for mercy in those situations, then God is less likely to give us the full extent. Just like if you go to a judge, have you ever seen these guys that are in courtrooms and they flip out and do, say stuff to the judge and then the judge is like, alright, that's maximum sentence. You know, you're going away for the rest of your life or whatever and then they're still cussing them out or fighting with the bailiffs or whatever. Instead of just pleading for mercy, they're acting all obtuse and stuff and then they're probably thinking like, man, I got this extra 10 years sentence on my sentence because I just had to say something. It's the same thing with God though. If we have that attitude towards God like you have this attitude like that wasn't that bad and you act like your sin isn't that bad, well, he's gonna come down on you harder than if you just have a humble attitude and admit what you've done and get right with God and this is the key to David's success in life and why he's a man after God's own heart because when he does mess up, he admits it right away. He always just says, I've sinned, it's my fault and then he accepts the consequences and he will try to pray and get out of it even further like when God said your son is gonna die and what did he do? He fasted. He put dust on his head. He was in sackcloth and ashes. He didn't eat anything and then when the child died, he got up, he washed his face, he put oil on his head and he sat down and ate and then people were like, why are you doing that? He's just like, well, while the child was alive, I did everything I could to see if I could change the outcome. I'm just paraphrasing and then now the child's dead, there's nothing I can do but he knows that he'll see that child again someday but he did everything he could. I mean, what's the point of continuing to fast and pray over something that there's nothing you can do at this point? So, look at verse nine in our chapter here. It says, and the Lord spake unto Gad, David's seer, saying, go and tell David, saying, thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things. Choose thee one of them that I may do it unto thee. So, Gad came to David and said unto him, thus saith the Lord, choose thee. So, now, it's interesting because David is called a prophet in the Bible too, right? But I always wonder, like, why does God speak to David through prophets instead of just saying it right to him? But the reason why I think that that's the case is because David is also in a position of ultimate authority. He is the king of Israel. And so, you know, I was just thinking, like, why would he do this? But, like, if David's just going around saying God told me to build the temple right here or God said for me to do this or God said I don't have to die because of my sin of adultery, then people would be like, oh, yeah, God told you that, huh? So, you get to live and everybody else has to die. You know, it's just like, so when prophets that are legit prophets are saying these things, then there's a layer of insulation between him and, you know, the people. So, there's that prophet that everybody knows, Nathan was a prophet. Everybody knows that Gad was a prophet. And so, when Gad the prophet or Nathan the prophet are speaking and saying these things to David, there's that layer of insulation so it doesn't look like the fix is in that David's just this corrupt king politician that just, oh, yeah, I can commit adultery, but guess what? God forgave me. God told me that he forgave me. It's like, yeah, that'd be kind of weird, right? So, I think that's probably the reason why God does it that way. And so, verse 12 says, either three years famine, so these are the choices that God gives them through Gad the prophet. It says, either three years famine or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtake 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 to him that sent me. So, I kind of often wonder whether this is where people get the idea of the genie giving people three wishes or something. I don't know if it is for sure. I mean, I might be wrong about that, but it's like you get three choices, but none of these three choices are good choices, are they? And it's like, this isn't like, you know, you rub the genie and you get three wishes, like whatever wish you want. This is like God told you, hey, choose these three things. It's like, choose your destruction. It's more like Ghostbusters when it's like, choose your destruction, and like he chooses to stay Puff Marshmallow Man or whatever instead. But anyway, this is like, you know, choose your destruction. Which one, door number one, door number two, or door number three? And so, yeah, people do like to treat God like a genie, though. You know, in reality, they just want God to be there for them when they want something from him, but a lot of times they're just not there for him. And that's unfortunate, but that's not what's going on in this situation, obviously. This is God having mercy on David because he had a humble heart, and he's also, God is also wanting to accomplish something here. He's wanting, David had a desire to build the temple. That's already been obvious from previous chapters. So God's kind of leading him along here and showing him where he wants it to be. So that is part of the underlying objective here. But anyway, look at verse 13. It says, 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. Smart choice because he knows that God has mercy. Mankind tends to not be as merciful as man. Man wants to destroy and go far past the bounds of mercy, and sometimes man is overly merciful, but if it's David's enemies, they're not going to be overly merciful. They're going to be like, you've killed all these Philistines. It's probably going to be the Philistines or the Amalekites or somebody that he's already crushed. Maybe the people that he just put through the brick kiln a couple chapters ago and sawed them with saws and all that kind of stuff. And so if he wasn't merciful to them, it's probably going to come back his way. David's probably thinking, yeah, I don't really want to see my people go through that. So he chooses to go into the hand of the Lord. So look again when it says, let me fall now into the hand of the Lord, for very great are his mercies. And that is the attitude that we should have too. Let's let, if we're going to just, instead of just hiding our sin and not confessing our sin to God, we should follow into his mercies and just say, I'm ready to take my licking. A lot of times kids like to run when they were going to get a spanking, don't they? Who's had their kids run? They run and hide, right? I did. I would book it when I knew my stepdad was going to get me or anybody was going to get me. It was like, I was fast when I was a kid. I could outrun my stepdad. He was not faster than me, but every once in a while he would know I was going to run. So he would already like have me in a spot where I couldn't quite escape, you know, and he would just like, you know, he would, he just like kind of have step on me. And I was like, Oh man, he got me, you know, so, but I was a runner for sure. So I know where my sons get it from, obviously, because they were runners too. Joshua would be like hiding under beds and I'd have to like tear everything up to grab them. Anyway, but that's another story. So, but let's look at Hebrews chapter 10. Turn over to Hebrews chapter 10. And, you know, sometimes, you know, we think that certain sins aren't a big deal in the Bible. And I've harped on this and I haven't preached about it in a long time, but about church attendance, you know, going to church. But what is church attendance? Well, it's gathering together with the believers. It's not getting under some church with a steeple and, you know, it's not, it's not about like what it is in most churches. We're gathering together with God's people to worship the Lord and to serve him. Everything gets done through our local church and we're supposed to be gathering together to, you know, listen to the preaching of God's Word. And the Apostle Paul writes about this in Hebrews 10 because I believe the Apostle Paul wrote Hebrews to explain to the children of Israel why everything changed in the law, what changed in the law, how you go forward as a Hebrew. But look at verse 25 in Hebrews 10. It says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as they see the approaching. You've heard that read probably in other churches besides this one, but I've read it quite a few times. But that's, that is a command to not forsake the assembling. Assembling is gathering together, right? And that's what it's saying, gathering together ourselves as the manner of some is. Some people just will not go to church and especially in this day and time, for whatever reason, people just don't find church to be a priority. But this is written 2,000 years ago. So the Apostle Paul, obviously there was people that were like that back then too. Well, look what it says underneath. It says, for if we sin willfully after that we've received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. So he's talking about people that are not saved. This is, you know, when they, when they, you know, sin, the, you know, but he's compare, he does this a lot in Hebrews. He compares what wicked people that were not saved do and then God still does punish his children. He's compare, he's using comparisons here. But he says, he that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much more sore punishment, suppose he, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing. So why is it saying that about not going to church? Like that is what the context is. Why is he saying that? Well, and it says that they've counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he is sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite the spirit of grace. We've been all given grace. That's how we're saved is by grace through faith. And it says, for we, for we know him that hath said vengeance belongeth unto me. I will recompense it the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. So he is talking about his people. He's not talking about just unbelievers that don't go to church. That's makes no sense. He says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. So, and then if you just compare that to the chapter we're in, what did he say? But for very great are his mercies, but let me not fall into the hands of man. But he says, let me fall now into the hand of the Lord. David wants to fall into the hand of the Lord. But then in this chapter, it says, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God. So it's not like David chose an option that wasn't rough. He did choose an option that was rough, but it's better to be judged by God's hands than to let him judge you by your enemies. So even though David chose that, it's still a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And it's talking about the blood of his covenant. Why is it talking about that? Because, well, let's turn to another chapter, Acts chapter number 20. So I'm just saying that people think that going to church, or skipping church for any reason, is a light thing. But I think that this chapter spells it out that it's more than just a light thing. And I'm not saying if you're sick to not, you know, to keep coming to church. Look, I'm not saying that. Please don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that there isn't legitimate reasons to not come to church. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that if you just miss church for any old thing, and it's never important for you to come, and you come when it's just always convenient, then you're kind of just in this category where it's the manner of some, that you just skip church for anything. And I don't think that we should have that attitude as Christians. I think that we should have the attitude that we should be here whenever we can be, and it's the exception that we're not here. It's not the exception that we're here. It's the exception that we're not here. And that we should have, you know, a pretty regular attendance to the house of God. Look at Acts 20 verse 26. Now this is not the Apostle Paul writing this. This is Luke writing this. But he's writing this about something that the Apostle Paul did, and things that the Apostle Paul said. So the same person that wrote Hebrews chapter 10 says this to the Ephesian elders before he's about to get arrested in Jerusalem. He says, Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. So Paul's saying, what? I preached the whole Bible to you, and I didn't hold anything back. Verse 28, Take heed therefore unto yourselves, talking to the Ephesian elders, the pastors, and to the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. So how do you connect that back with Hebrews chapter 10? Well it says that you've counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing. So Jesus purchased the church, he purchased the flock of God, he purchased the congregation of the Lord with his own blood. So when you're like, I don't really care about the congregation of the Lord, I don't really care that much about going to church, it is a bigger deal than you think it is. It's not just like, whatever. No, it is a big deal. It is a big deal to just treat the purchase that God purchased with his own blood, and it's just like, well, is the church or congregation of the Lord a light thing? Is it a light thing? Well I don't think that, why is he telling the Ephesian elders that take heed unto yourselves? This is a very important thing I'm trying to tell you, to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost had made you overseers. Who made them overseers? The Holy Ghost. God. To feed the Church of God. So Paul thought it was a big enough deal to bring it up in Hebrews chapter 10, and to say, hey, you're trotting underfoot the Son of God, the blood of Christ, if you just take it as a light thing. And then he thought it was a big enough deal to make sure that the pastors in the Ephesian churches, to make sure to feed the flock of God, which was so important to him that he purchased it with his own blood, but as a pastor and overseer, it's kind of hard to feed members of the flock that aren't here. Don't you think? Like if the flock just doesn't come to get fed, then how do you feed them? And so that's like why shepherds are supposed to go out and, you know, find them out in the highways and the hedges and find them out, you know, wherever they're at and just say, hey, come home. Like you got to find the stragglers. So if somebody's not here, I'll be like, hey, you know, I haven't seen you in a while. Where have you been? So now it says to feed the Church of God, which he had purchased with his own blood. So as a pastor and overseer, it is hard for me if people aren't here, so I would just say this. I just want to challenge people to try to be at church as much as you can, because most people don't, they might, you might skip a meal for fasting. Some people do that. Who does that? Well, I'm not gonna ask for a raise of hands, but if you, yeah, I don't want to blow your rewards or whatever, but some people do it just for health reasons. They do the intermittent fasting to like try to lose weight and stuff, and you skip meals on purpose, right? But nobody skips all three meals without doing it for some purpose, okay? Most people eat three squares a day or maybe more. You snack in between, but nobody just misses meals all the time. So now when Jesus said that the Word of God is more important than your, you know, we're supposed to have our daily bread, right? We're supposed to, you know, it's more important for us to have the daily bread of the Word of God than it is for our own food, you know? So when Satan tried to tempt Jesus with turning the rock into, you know, that stone into bread, Jesus told him it's more important to have that, to have the Word of God, right? So let's look at, let's see, go back to our text in 1 Chronicles chapter 21, but the point I'm trying to make is that we don't just skip meals, so why would you skip meals that are spiritual meals for you? They're prepared for you, and if Paul said, hey, make sure that you're feeding the flock of God, and then you're not there for the feeding, you know? We got to be there for the feeding. You're like, well, the Bible never commands how many times you should be in church. Well, I mean, apparently we need it, you know? Why did Baptists even come up with three times a week? I don't know. The Bible doesn't, I mean, the early Baptists in the Book of Acts had every day a week, so I mean, I think that we're kind of liberal in all honesty, you know? We're not daily in the temple. We're every, you know, we're three times, and sometimes if we're feeling spicy, we'll have an extra service during the week or something, and usually if we have someone come preach on a Friday or a different day of the week, we usually cut the service, the midweek service out, but I've been to Baptist churches where they do revival services, and they go Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Who's ever been to those? And I liked them. I mean, if it was every week, I might not, but I liked them because usually there's a potluck before, you know? It's like, come at 5 p.m. It's like, okay. My wife's like, hey, I don't have to cook dinner for three days or whatever, you know? Those are kind of nice. Anyway, but I mean, it is important to be at church, so I just, you know, if there's something that we can do this year that's really important for our spiritual life, go to church more. Be at church more. Just put some pressure on yourself to try to go to church more, and it will help your spiritual life. And let's look at our text verse in verse 14. It says, So the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel. So he chose to fall into the hands of the Lord, and the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel, and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men. That's a lot of people. Seventy thousand men is a lot of people. So he sends his pestilence. Now what's pestilence? Pestilence is, you know, it's just if you just take the lens off, you just put the pest on there, it comes from animals. It comes from bugs. So like the bubonic plague came from rats, and the fleas that were on the rats would bite people, and when they bit people, then they would get that plague. And so then it was just a terrible, horrible plague that killed lots of people, massive amounts of population, and it comes from uncleanness. Now when these came from God, it wasn't necessarily coming from uncleanness, but there's all kinds of plagues in this world that come from animals. You know, the bird flu. Is that why the eggs are so high in price right now? Is that what it is? They're just like smashing all the eggs because all the birds are infected or something? Huh? Yeah, the birds. So they're killing all the birds too. So now everybody's having to re-get their, re-hatch some eggs or something. Well, hopefully this spring we'll have a new batch of chickens so the egg prices will go down or something. But they'll probably do all kinds of weird stuff to them scientifically and probably not giving them all the steroids they need or whatever. I don't know. They're not supposed to have steroids. Is that why you guys are laughing? Okay. The medicine or whatever. I don't know. I haven't raised chickens since I was a kid. We didn't give them all that stuff so I guess that's wrong. So yeah, anyway, but me and my wife were out shopping for the sweetheart banquet and there was like this like thing of eggs and it was like $46. I was like, $46? It was like for like, I don't know, just like a stack of eggs. I don't know how many. It was like, it was a lot. Yeah, it was like five dozen. Crazy. 46 bucks. That'll be like $4.60 back in the, not too long ago. Maybe 10 bucks, but anyway. So, but the pestilence is disease that God is putting upon them. And so the price that David had to pay for what sin he committed was high. And it's like, he didn't die, but the people that were under him died. And so when leaders make huge mistakes like that, it can have huge consequences on the sheep that he's supposed to, because he is the shepherd. David is called that lots of times in the Bible. He is the captain of Israel. God chose him specifically for that duty. And sometimes captains have to make decisions that, like even in generals and battles and stuff like that, they know that they're sending them off to their deaths in some situations. But this situation, it was just a boneheaded thing that he did. It was a mistake and he feels bad for it, and he should. But when you're a leader over people, you have to understand that the bad decisions you make can have consequences over the people that you are counting on you. But what is the silver lining for all this? Well, let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10. The silver lining for us as Christians is that even though we have all these issues and temptations and things like that, we do have ways to get through it. 1 Corinthians 10 is a really good verse, verses 12 and 13, that we should really just have in our minds and in our hearts as Christians. When we start getting puffed up with knowledge, when we start thinking that we're better, when we start thinking we've arrived, when, oh yeah, I'm less sinful than them, I can't believe that they would do that. Well, you better just be careful with that attitude, because you're sinful just like everybody else, and you might not fall in that situation, but maybe you would fall in a different situation. If King David can fall, a man after God's own heart, anybody can fall. If Moses can make mistakes, you can make mistakes. That's why I think that they show us these great characters in the Bible, and every single one of them does something that they shouldn't do. Even Joseph. I mean, Joseph was pretty much a great character in the Bible, until he sells all of Egypt into slavery to Pharaoh. I mean, basically turns them into communists or something. I mean, other than that, he was a great guy though, right? So, I mean, yeah, I mean, that just wasn't that great of a thing, and then they turned the Israelites into slaves for 400 years after that, as reaping what you sow. So, look at 1 Corinthians 10, 12, it says, Wherefore, let him that thinketh he stand take heed lest he fall. You think you're one of the best or whatever. Take heed lest you fall. It says, There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able. But with the temptation will also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. So, everybody gets tempted. Everybody gets tempted to sin, but that is common. It's common to all of us. We're all tempted to sin, but God is faithful, and he will find us a way to get out of the situation. Are you tempted to lie to your boss if they're trying to fudge some kind of numbers, or are you tempted to just do something that just is not right? Well, God will get you out of that situation, but you have to just be willing to stand by what you know is right. Don't mess with the time card. Don't mess with your numbers when it comes to men at work and things like that. Don't lie. Don't cheat. Don't steal, and God is going to get you out of those temptations where you're tempted to sin. He's going to get you out of it, but you do have to stand strong. That's the hard part because there's a lot of pressure. You know, peer pressure is a real thing. You know, people say that it's not, but there's a reason why cool kids dress with cool clothes because if you don't, then you're called a nerd. You're called a geek. You're a freak or whatever. At school, there's a lot of pressure, and everybody here's homeschooled. Hopefully, there's no peer pressure to dress a certain way in your homeschool class because, you know, you got a problem. You get to straighten these kids out, but in public school, there's all these social constructs, and you're part of the nerds, the socs, the jocks, or the, you know, whatever. That's a real thing. It's real pressure, and if you are some cowboy kid from Eastern Oregon, you go to school, you're going to get made fun of like I was when I first came here, and I had no idea what Air Jordans were or any of that stuff. I'm wearing like Wranglers and a pair of cowboy boots and a shirt that looked just like CJ's right there, and I show up to, you know, inner city Portland dressed like that, and I'm just getting made fun of. I had no idea what style was. So, yeah, I had a pretty tough time moving to the big city. I didn't even know what getting burnt on was, but I found out pretty quickly. So, but there's a lot of pressure for us, you know, to, you know, I'm just saying that's peer pressure, you know, the pressure to be like everybody else, to do what everybody else is doing, and sometimes that's a bad pressure. Peer pressure to do right is okay. You know, when we're together as a church, that's a good pressure to do well, to be right, to sing out to the Lord. Hey, that person's singing loud. Maybe I should sing loud too, or that person's going soul wanting. Maybe I should go soul wanting too. There's nothing wrong with that kind of peer pressure, but the pressure to do wickedly and to do wrong, those are things that God will allow us to get out of if we will take the doorway out of it, and if you just keep this in mind, kids, if you keep this in mind, adults, they got, hey, you're like, I need a way out of this. I'm stuck in a position. I feel like compromising here just to not look like a weirdo or something. Well, you know, and sometimes you just need to make a stand with people and tell them who you are and what you are and what you represent. Sometimes you just have to, you know, just say it. You know, don't be ashamed of your Lord and Savior, but can we overcome sin? The Bible says we can, but do we always? No, we don't. We are weak, and Paul says he's the chief of sinners. So, you know, the Bible's inspired by God, right? So he must have been. You know, obviously he was probably being a little tongue in cheek there, but he probably felt that way, yet arguably probably the greatest soul winner and church planter that ever lived as the chief of sinners. He said he was carnal, sold under sin. So, but it, you know, it is, is it true though that you, you, you know, the more holy your life is, the more effective you'll be in winning the lost and then soul winning? I think it probably is. I think the more holy your life is, the better you will be at reaching people. You know, people that see you and see how your life is that they'll say, hey, I, I mean, I think there's something to lifestyle evangelism in the way that if you're, if you talk like you walk, like you talk, then people are more likely to listen to you. But because if you're living like the devil at, at work, and then you try to tell someone the gospel after work and they're like, I just heard you tell the worst joke ever. And then you're going to tell me the gospel. Like people do kind of look at stuff like that, but, but at the same time, you know, everybody struggles with sin and just because you sinned and you might feel bad about that, you know, it doesn't mean that we can't still be effective and you can't just pick yourself up for the seventh time and get back up and do what's right for God. You know, there's that garbage teaching that's kind of going around with the holier than now is that, you know, we have the right God, we preach the right gospel, but our life tells a different story. If they could see how our life is in real life, then nobody would want to hear it from us. Well, I don't think that if anybody saw our real life anyway, they would want to hear anything from us because everybody sins. You know, I just, I just find that so, so strange that someone would even say that. It's like, how holy do you actually think you are? I mean, you must think you walk on water to say something like that. You know, to preach a sermon like the false gospel of some soul winners is just like, I just, I find it just strange that people that just rail all day long would actually say that. I mean, they're just literally just railing all day long and then they're like, you guys have a bad life. It's like, okay, well, why, because someone said a bad word one time or, you know, some bad word slipped out of somebody's mouth or they don't, I mean, I'll take bad words over someone railing and lying about someone any day of the week and I don't think that, you know, obviously kids don't use bad words, whatever, whatever you consider bad. Parents, that's your parents' job to straighten that out, but to sit there and say that we shouldn't go soul winning if we've sinned this week or something is ridiculous. That is not the truth. I mean, God sent Jonah to Nineveh and he tried to escape the presence of the Lord. God's like, no, no, no, no, you're not escaping. I'm gonna have a whale swallow you and he'd keep you there for three days and three nights. He's gonna spit you out once you realize you're wrong. He comes out smelling like seaweed and probably looking like he got burned with acid or something. He comes out, he goes and preaches the bidding that God has him to do. He walks in, he gets like the whole city saved, basically, and then he still has a bad attitude when he leaves and sits out with his popcorn and whatever the gourd that grew over the top of his head for shade and he cares more about the plant that died overnight than he cared about the 120,000 people that lived in that city and all the cattle and stuff. Even the cattle repented. They had clothes. The dogs and cats, they knitted little sackcloth clothing for them. I mean, how much more do you have to repent than even your animals are repenting? And Jonah hated their guts and wanted them to die and still got them all saved. So, I mean, is that the optimal way to go soul-wanting? To hate the people that you're going out to preach to? Not really, right? But yet they still got saved. So you can be pretty bad and still get some people saved. And I'm not saying that that's how you should be, but you know, we all overcome by the blood of the lamb. That's how any of us get saved. It's not because of how good we are. And yes, we should live a good life. We should live a holy life. We should live a separated life. We should come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and he will receive us. Yes, all that's true, but that doesn't stop the fact that we are still sinners. We are still going to sin and tell Jesus come back. He's the only one that has a glorified body, and we don't have one yet. And we still fight with the flesh every single day. And look, I'm not trying to make excuses for us, but it's just true. And I'm sick of holier than thou's looking down their nose at people and acting like that's not a fact. It is a fact. And if they act, that is smoke in God's nose. He does not like holier than thou's. He just doesn't. Now I'm saying we should be holy, but not holier than thou's. There is a difference. To sit there, like that's why you said take heed lest you fall. Those that stand, take heed lest you fall. Because if you're sitting there talking about how great you are, how great your kids are, how great everything is in your life, and you're looking down your nose at everybody else, just be careful. It says take heed lest you fall. Someone's going to knock you out from underneath that you think you're standing, you're going to fall. Because you're missing something because you think you're better than everybody else. And those kind of people make God sick. You think that people that sin make God sick? He knows what we're like. That's why he had to come down to save us. He knows our frame, and that we are but dust. He understands that. When he flooded the whole world he said, I'm not going to do that again. What's the point? I know that there's only evil continually. That's just what's in them. So he had to make another plan. And Jesus when he's praying to God the Father in the garden, he said, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. The only way we're going to understand what's wrong and right in our life is if we pick up our Bible, and we read our Bible, and we understand what God likes and what he doesn't like. And sanctify means to set apart, to make holy. And if we don't understand, if we don't know what the Bible says, then we're not going to do that. So it's really important for us to get in the Word of God and to understand what he wants. How shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. You know, David is, you know, he wrote some of these psalms and yet he still sinned, and still is a man after God's own heart. So the the truth is is that we have a sin problem, but God had to make a way to bridge the gap for us because there was no way we're ever going to get to heaven without Jesus doing that for us. Point number three, David finds the right place to build the temple. So verse 15 says, and God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it. And as he was destroying, the Lord beheld and he repented him of the evil and said to the angel that destroyed it is enough. Stay now thine hand. And the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. So he said stop, stop right there, this is where I want you to halt. And David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between the earth and the heaven having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. So it seems to me like this angel is pretty big, right? I mean if you, he's standing between heaven and earth, he's right at the threshing floor and that when he extends the sword, it's over the city of Jerusalem and his hand is extent over it. So he's ready to destroy it and it says then David and the elders of Israel who were clothed in sackcloth fell upon their faces. So they already know what's up, they're already repenting and that's good that the elders of the people, the leaders and David actually care about the people and their prostrate with their faces on the ground and clothed in sackcloth. It says and David said unto God is it not that I commanded the people, is it not I that commanded 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 thy people that they should be plagued. So David here pictures Jesus Christ as Jesus also you know God is his father and he said you know obviously this is David's fault. You know he said hey let it be upon me but Jesus it wasn't his fault but he still said let it be on me, let it be on me, this these people's plague and what is the plague like if you're picturing if you want to take that picture for the New Testament what is the plague? The plague is sin. The plague is an incurable disease that we can't get rid of and the only way to get rid of it is to have it put upon somebody else and that's why he says let thine hand I pray thee O Lord be on me and on my father's house and not on the people and he cares for the sheik he even calls them sheep he says you know why why is it put this evil on me I the sheep didn't do anything and so he's he's playing the role of the shepherd here and caring about the people he actually does care about them he's willing to die for them and that's what Jesus you know that's why he pictures Christ. Verse 18 then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and set up an altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. So he gets clear instructions from the prophet to go to this specific spot the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite so threshing floor is where you would thresh wheat they have like these rake looking things and they put the wheat out and they separate the chaff you know from the wheat the actual kernels of whatever kind of grain that they're threshing and they just kind of they hit it and the wind kind of blows it and whatever it it separates that so they can use that to make bread with and so there's a lot of pictures in the bible about separating the wheat from the chaff the save are the are the actual kernels of wheat and the chaff is what you burn up and throw away so it's interesting that they would he would pick a site where that's happening but he's actually doing it while David walks up there which is also interesting but so i know i've preached a whole sermon about this i just want to talk about a few things here at the end here about this so keep your place in first chronicles chapter 21 verse 18 i'm going to have you turn to genesis chapter 22 verse 2 so this is the site where David is going to have his son build the temple and again i preach the whole sermon about this and i'm not going to re-preach the whole thing okay but i just want to show you again what where this place is so genesis 22 2 is where Abraham goes to sacrifice Isaac and he tells God tells him to go to a specific place genesis 22 verse 2 says and he said take now thy son thine only son Isaac which is of course is picturing the Lord Jesus Christ whom thou lovest and get thee into the land of mariah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mount excuse me one of the mountains which i will tell thee of so he says to to do what to take him to the land of mariah for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains so it's one of the mountains and the land of mariah now turn to second chronicles chapter three verse number one second chronicles chapter three verse number one and what i'm showing you here is the two places in the whole bible where it mentions the word mariah the first time is when when you see the picture of God sacrificing Jesus which it's actually Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac and he tells him to go to mariah and do this upon one of the mountains and it's a burnt offering and then God's you know stops Abraham from doing it and you know Isaac at one point says where you know we have the wood we have the the fire but where's the where's the lamb for the or the yeah the lamb for the burnt offering and he said God will provide himself a lamb for the burnt offering so obvious foreshadowing of christ second chronicles chapter three verse one the bible says then Solomon began to build the house of the lord at Jerusalem so this is obviously in the future from where we're at now we're at in mount mariah so the same place where Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac in mount mariah where the lord appeared unto David his father in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of ornan the Jebusite so the same exact place where we're at right now in our chapter is where where Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac and where David you know this is where he's going to place the house of the lord in the same location this this pinpoints it for us right here where this is okay now let's go back to our text in first chronicles chapter 21 verse 19 so he's been told he has to put do a burnt offering right here now I just want to remind you also that David had taken the ark of the covenant remember he took it and first Uzzah touched the ark and there was a breach made in him they took it the wrong way they were supposed to put it on a cart it shook off the cart Uzzah steadied it and zapped a hole in him or whatever happened to him he died right and then they brought it back again and they did it right they brought the levites and David built a tent which another word for tent is tabernacle but it's not the tabernacle that Moses built it's a different tent the tabernacle of the congregation is at Gibeah which is where Saul or where Samuel had put it which were is where it was when Saul was king it was there the whole time Samuel because when the Philistines took it they had it for like seven months and it was plaguing all of them it was killing all their people and the Philistines like made some golden mice and some other some golden emerods like put the h in front of it that's what it was and then sent it off by itself right on a cart not knowing any better God kind of had mercy on them with that it gets to Kerjath Jerim which is actually Hebron it was there blessing someone else's house when they try to bring it into the city that's when Uzzah got struck dead and all that so so currently that ark of the covenant during this story we're at here during the ark the ark of the covenant is in a tent as under a tent but it's not at this location that we're at here David's going to a new location think about that he's not it's not like he already knew it's not like the ark of the covenant's right there at the threshing floor of this Jebusite is it because wouldn't that be weird he's like oh hey go go to this spot where Ornan the Jebusite is threshing wheat and he's like he turns around it's right there I mean wouldn't that be dumb oh it was here the whole time I was in the right place this is where the temple is supposed to be built no that's not where it was he told him to go to a different location didn't he now look what it says in verse 19 and David went up okay so he's going up that's because you know what it's on a mountain that's what it said right so David went up at the scene of Gad which he spake in the name of the Lord so when I preached that sermon I there was like a response video made to that sermon and I was so dumb I was so stupid and I got all my information off the internet and that was kind of what was said about it but that's actually not true I only the only information I got off the internet was how far Gihon spring was from the temple all the other stuff I got was straight out of the bible and then what Robert Cornuke actually said out of his own mouth with the scriptures that he was using to teach so his scriptures that he uses to teach I just don't I simply just don't think that they're saying what he says that they're saying I think he's stretching them pretty far and you know when it comes to him saying like that like in chapter five in in later on in second chronicles chapter five where he says that it's some kind of festival going on or something when it's actually they're taking all that stuff to the new temple that's I mean that's just twisting the scriptures so I just I mean and then like the people that are saying that the antonia fortress is where you know where the temple mount is right now where everybody thinks it is like everybody in the world thinks it is except for a few people but that that's that that that temple mount they think that that is was actually the antonia fortress and then down below in the city of David is where the temple actually was which there's no room to fit something that big there but anyway but they'll they say that that was the antonia fortress because jesus would be a false prophet if all those stones were still left upon another but that is not the temple that is the retaining wall of where the temple the platform that's built over mount mariah and the dome of the rock is built right over the top of where that where the the ark of the covenant set right where that that little if you you you can actually go look up videos and it shows exactly where the ark was set it has all the little notch outs they built it there on purpose so that the jews couldn't build their rebuild their temple there anyway but I wouldn't say that the pla you know the platform is obviously not the temple because jesus said look at these buildings he didn't say look at this platform and the buildings he said just look at the buildings so i mean i think that their idea is is that it can't be the temple mount where the temple sat because they count all those stones as part of the temple but i just simply disagree with that totally now the fortress antonia which it's not antonio it's antonia okay there's an a at the end but anyway the drawings that you'll see of that are like so say that this is the temple mount from the front the antonia fortress has towers had towers originally that sat like this so say that this is the northwest corner okay and that the temple is you know somewhere in the middle here right this is obviously not a great template here but the towers of the antonia fortress so the antonia fortress butted up right to the temple mount but it had like a brick you know they had stairs they could get down onto the platform if they needed to in a hurry so they'll say they'll use verses like in acts where it says that they went down when paul was getting beaten in the temple when he was when they attacked him they suppose that he brought a gentile in that they went down to get paul and they brought him back up well they're bringing him back up to the towers the roman soldiers are watching from these towers here and when they see something happening they see the skirmish happening they go down and rescue paul and bring him back up and when he's talking to him he's talking to him on some platform there from the antonia fortress so when it says they went up yeah they did but they didn't go up from the city of david onto a that giant platform where the temple mount was there they just went up into the towers that were there the antonia fortress is still right there it's just beat down and destroyed but there's still parts of it because it's dug into the bedrock i mean they didn't destroy the all the bedrock there you can still take tours of it there and everything so anyway i know that you you know some people might not be super interested in that it's kind of nerdery stuff but i like the bible and i like proving things out of the bible but anyway so now when it says david went up that you know he went up up in elevation okay where does david live he lives in the city of david now if you i don't know if you know what it looks like if you look from like where the jebu site the city of david fortress was but it's kind of like it's kind of like has this this like big this sloping pattern here and then the the actual mount mariah is like this so it makes sense that you'd have to go up to the mountain now it doesn't it didn't have that big platform then there was just some mountain that you had to climb up right so that's why it makes sense that he says and david went up at the scene of gad which he spake in the name of the lord so and that's but i mean you can't you can't use the antonia fortress argument to say that that was you know oh so they had to go down to the city of david no no they just came down from the tower where they were watching over so verse 20 i'm going to hurry up here and ornan turned back and saw the angel and his four sons with him hid themselves now ornam was threshing wheat and as david came to ornan ornan looked and saw david went up to the threshing floor and bowed himself to david with his face to the ground and david said to ornan grant me the place of this threshing floor that i may build and alter therein unto the lord and shall grant it me for the full price that the plague may be stayed from the people so jesus you know if you think about this jesus had to pay the full price for our sins he didn't you know he had to pay something for it so when you hear david like in this next passage he's gonna say no i'm he tries to give it to david and david's like no no no i'm not i'm not just taking it for free i'm gonna pay full price for it because g you know what what did it cost for our sins to be forgiven it cost the full price it cost everything it cost him his life look at verse 23 it said it says and ornan said to david take it to thee and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes lo i give thee the oxen also for burnt offerings and the threshing instruments for wood and the wheat for the meat offering i give it all and david said to ornan nay but i will verily buy it for the full price for i will not take that which is thine for the lord nor offer burnt offerings without cost so again i believe that this is picturing of course the redemption of christ and obviously christ didn't pay money but he paid with his life and to purchase salvation is going to cost a great price but to give it to the people it's going to be free and jesus is able to give salvation to free it's a free gift to anybody that will just put their faith in him but it did cost jesus everything it cost him his life it cost him his blood now um look at verse 25 well um it says so david gave to ornan for the place 600 shekels of gold by weight and i was just looking up different prices of what that would be and one i saw really small price of 4800 bucks but i think that if you're talking about pounds of gold then you're talking thousands and thousands of dollars so it's very expensive maybe at least 75 000 so but it could be more than that who knows 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 all the altar of burnt offering so notice that david built the altar to the lord see that it wasn't somebody else it wasn't gad the prophet it wasn't anybody else it was david built the altar david offered the burnt offerings david offered the peace offerings david called upon the name of the lord so again jesus is the one you know david is you know jesus called the son of david so why would not the priests be doing this because god told david to do it god pulled gat through gad the prophet for david to do it and again it's work to get you know to purchase salvation is work and it's work you know guess what it's work to build an altar it's work to chop up the wood it's work to chop up that animal and put them on the on you know and burn them up or whatever they had to do and it's work to do all this stuff so it says that david did all this stuff so david did the work just like jesus did the work to pay for our salvation and he did all that just like god said and it said the lord commanded the angel and he put his sword again in the sheaf thereof at that time when david saw that the lord had answered him in the threshing floor of ornan the jebusite then he sacrificed there so in that exact spot for the tabernacle of the lord which moses made in the wilderness so just it just gives us this little information for the tabernacle of the lord which moses made in the wilderness and the altar of the burnt offering were in that season in the high place of gibeon but david could not go before it to inquire of god for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the lord so why is it telling us this information the bible does not just put information out there just for no reason it doesn't it's not going to just tell us why would it tell us this well i think it's telling us this because the actual tabernacle of the lord that they're supposed to go to to actually do the sacrifices he's saying that he should have gone there that's the place he should have gone under the law right that's where the sacrifice that's where the actual tabernacle and it says which moses made not the one he made where he put the the arc at but the actual one where they're supposed to go to do the sacrifices he didn't go there that was at gibeon that was miles away from where they're at now and he's sacrificing in a different place but god i believe is drawing him to this location because god is showing him where he wants the temple to be built where he wants the holiest place to go and it's not down where he has the arc of the covenant it's not in gibeon it's right here at the at the jebi where the ornanda jebusite was that's where he sacrificed that's where he had it done and then it says but david could not go before it to inquire of god for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the lord so he couldn't go to the place that he was supposed to go but god had already told him to go right here so david had already moved the arc of the covenant to the city of david now really quickly let's go to second chronicles five they'll be the last place we turn and we'll be out of here so and i made this point in my sermon but i just want to say this there is no connecting verse that connects gihon springs to the threshing floor of ornana jebusite or to mount mariah okay that's the point i was making when i made that point in my sermon i wasn't making a i was making the reason i was making that point is so that you knew that first of all where solomon got uh ordained as the king was not the same place as where david's at right now that's not the same place he didn't say take him to the threshing floor of orn and the jebu site he said take him to gihon which is a spring which is in a different place and that tabernacle was not the same tabernacle as the tabernacle of moses so it's not the legit tabernacle okay so that was the point i was making i knew exactly what i was talking about look at verse one it says it says thus all the work that solomon made for the house of the lord was finished and solomon brought in all the things that david his father had dedicated and the silver and the gold and all the instruments put he among the treasures of the house of god what are we talking about here what's the context here talking about the all the stuff solomon made the house of lord now he's they're gathering all these things and it says then solomon assembled the elders of israel and all the heads of the tribes and the chief of their fathers of the children of israel unto jerusalem to bring up the ark of the covenant of the lord what does it say there out of the city of david which is in which is in zion we're so look the temple is not in the city of david i mean eli doesn't solve that mystery like a few years ago right but that's what the bible says folks and then let's let's let's make it even worse here wherefore all the men of israel assembled themselves us out of onto the king in the uh in the feast in which was the seventh month and all the elders of israel came and the levites what does it say there what what the levites took up the ark they took it up so it's not in a valley it's not under so they took it up out of the city of david and that would have said before and then just keep saying it so it's almost like that god just like wanted to make sure that we knew that it's up out of the city of david and they brought up the ark at the tavern and the tabernacle the congregation and the holy vessels that were in the tabernacle these did the priests and the levites bring up and king solomon and all the congregation of israel that were assembled up unto him before the ark sacrificed sheep and oxen which could not be told nor numbered for multitude and the priest brought in the ark of the covenant of the lord unto his place to the oracle of the house into the most holy place even under the wings of cherubim's verse 13 skip there it says it came to pass as the trumpeters and singers were as one to make the sound to be heard and praising and thanking the lord and they when they lifted up their voices with the trumpets and the symbols and the instruments of music and praised the lord saying for he is good for his mercy endureth forever that then the house was filled with the cloud even the house of the lord so where are they at the house of the lord like they're not at a festival they didn't take all the instruments out for some festival no no they're taking all this stuff into the house of the lord that solomon just built in the next chapter he goes into the house of the lord he builds this pulpit of wood and and bows his face down and prays that hey if you if these people are doing this and that then they'll pray towards you know heaven and whatever they're in the temple this is talking about taking all the stuff to the temple they took the tabernacle of the congregation in there so when they put when they set up the arc when they set up the holiest place they took the the tabernacle that moses built from gibeah and placed it inside the the new temple and placed it around all that stuff is now i mean that's what it says right they brought the arc and the tabernacle of the congregation so let's see verse 14 so the priest could not stand to do minister by reason of the cloud for the glory of the lord had filled the house i mean that should be all she wrote folks i mean we know what the bible says but i just why why bring this up again well i was in the chapter okay well how could i resist gotta kick the puppies every time you walk past them but anyway they're they're bad puppies but um anyway why is this just a big deal well look man i mean if people are gonna go around trying to say something that's not true it's still just not true like i don't know i'm not gonna it's not like it's the biggest deal in the world but it does kind of make christianity look dumb when you're like that's not where the that's not where the temple was it's like you know everybody in the room you know no it is where the temple was everybody knows that like the rocks that are at the bottom of that they're fine they find stuff all the time at the bottom of that that are just like are parts of the temple they found the places where they used to blow the trumpets from the top in that rubble i mean coins like when they throw all that stuff on there was like all these shops and stuff down there there's like a road that walked and it all got destroyed by all the stuff being thrown off the temple mountain but that was just placed there by i don't know anyway that's all i got let's pray lord we thank you so much for this chapter in the bible lord and lord how we can we can study the bible and see what the bible says and it will help us if we're ever confused about anything lord help us when we have fallen in any kind of sin that we could just reach out to lord and humble ourselves and lord pray that i pray that we would not just think and think we're holier than other people or that we would not get puffed up in our minds and think that we are better than other people lord that we would take heed lest we would fall and lord i pray that you would help us to be lord caring about people that we care about coming to church we care about the house of the lord and we care about being fed we care about worshiping you and lord that you'd be with us as we go our separate ways tonight i pray that you bless all those who are sick i pray that you would help remy kylie and the kids to feel better also in jesus name we pray amen