The God of King David | Week 7 | David & The Ark | Pastor Dave Brown
MESSAGE NOTES
The God of King David
June 22, 2025
David & The Ark
Teacher: Dave Brown
When they came to the threshing floor of Nakhon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God because the oxen stumbled. The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down, and he died there beside the ark of God. — 2 Samuel 6:6-7
What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us… We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward out mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech. — A.W. Tozer
Holy Scripture posts Uzzah as a danger sign for us: “Beware the God.” It’s especially important to have such a sign posted in places designated for religious worship and learning. We enter a church or school to learn God, be trained in knowledge and obedience and prayer. And we get what we came for—truth that centers, words that command and comfort, rituals that stabilize, work that has purpose, a community of relationships that strengthen, forgiveness that frees. We find God. We change our ways. We repent and believe and follow. We rearrange our circumstances and reestablish our routines around what now gives meaning and hope. We take on responsibilities in the wonderful new world of worship and work. We advance in the ranks, and before we know it we’re telling others what to do and how to do it. All this is good and right. And then we cross a line—we get bossy and cranky on behalf of God. We begin by finding in God a way to live rightly and well, and then along the way we take over God’s work for him and take charge of making sure others live rightly and well. We get the idea that we’re important, self-important, because we’re around the Important. Religion is a breeding ground for this kind of thing. Not infrequently these God-managing men and women work themselves into positions of leadership. Over the years the basics with which they began, the elements of reverence and awe, the spirit of love and faith, erode and shrivel. Finally there’s nothing left. They’re dead to God. Uzzah is a warning. If we think and act as he did, we’ll be dead men and women, soon or late. Dead in our spirits. Dead to the aliveness of God. — Eugene Peterson
In olden days men of faith were said to “walk in the fear of God” and to “serve the Lord with fear.” However intimate their communion with God, however bold their prayers, at the base of their religious life was the conception of God as awesome and dreadful. This idea of God transcendent rims through the whole Bible and gives color and tone to the character of the saints. This fear of God was more than a natural apprehension of danger; it was a nonrational dread, an acute feeling of personal insufficiency in the presence of God the Almighty. Wherever God appeared to men in Bible times the results were the same-an overwhelming sense of terror and dismay, a wrenching sensation of sinfulness and guilt. —A.W. Tozer
Fear is no longer the word I use to describe how I feel about God. Now I use words like reverent intimacy. I still fear God, and I pray that I always will. The Bible emphasizes the importance of fearing God… Our culture severely lacks the fear of God, and many of us are plagued with amnesia. But for a long time, I narrowly focused on His fearsomeness to the exclusion of His great and abounding love. — Francis Chan
So David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. When those who were carrying the ark of the LORD had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets. — 2 Samuel 6:12b-15