Proverbs 14:12 NLT
“There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.”

It seems right…but it isn’t. It seems right but it leads to disobedience. It seems right but it leads to fruitless ministry. It looks, taste, and feels right, but, Church, it’s leading us to death.

There is a problem today in our ministry system that is long overdue in addressing. It goes unnoticed because it appears, on the surface, logical. It goes unseen because, over the last few generations, we’ve never seen anything else. It exposes our lack of Bible knowledge and desire for comfort. It is cloaked in human intelligence and common sense…and is currently considered common practice…because it SEEMS right…

Allow me to explain…

God has a way. His way is not like our way. We are in the bad habit of trying to make it our way…but it doesn’t work that way. God has declared His way upon this earth. God has declared His way upon our hearts as well. Jesus referred to it as the “narrow road”…not many people travel on it…and it isn’t easy…it isn’t popular…but it is HIS way none the less.

2 Samuel 6:1-5 NLT
Then David again gathered all the elite troops in Israel, 30,000 in all. He led them to Baalah of Judah to bring back the Ark of God, which bears the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, who is enthroned between the cherubim. They placed the Ark of God on a new cart and brought it from Abinadab’s house, which was on a hill. Uzzah and Ahio, Abinadab’s sons, were guiding the cart as it left the house, carrying the Ark of God. Ahio walked in front of the Ark. David and all the people of Israel were celebrating before the Lord, singing songs and playing all kinds of musical instruments—lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets, and cymbals.

There is a predicament here that we must face. The Ark, representing the very presence of God, is in one place…but David now yearns to bring it back to the Tabernacle where it rightfully belongs. David’s heart is right. This is the right thing to do. It represents restoration and reconciliation.

So David begins to think…How can I get the Ark from Baalah back to Jerusalem? What is the most efficient way? What is the most cost effective way? We are supposed to be good stewards of the resources that God has us, right? So, David’s comes up with the most logical solution he can think of; the cart.

That’s genius, right? The cart, which is nothing more than a couple of oxen and a two wheel wagon, is more than able to handle the job. The cart will allow us to get the Ark back faster. The cart will allow us to better steward our time. The cart will allow us to more safely transport the Ark back.

All of this leads to being a great steward, right?

But then something happens…look back to the story…

2 Samuel 6:6-7 NLT
When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, 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.

No one ever thinks that when they are doing something that seems right…that there might be casualties. Uzzah reached up and to steady the Ark…and in doing so, he met his fate. All the singing and praising God that was going on isn’t going to bring Uzzah back now. Good stewardship has now turned into a godly stumbling block…and let me reveal to you why…

The Bible records that the Ark was built in very detailed specifics. One of those specifics is recorded in Exodus 37:3-5, ‘He cast four-gold rings and attached them to its four feet, two rings on each side. Then he made poles from acacia wood and overlaid them with gold. He inserted the poles into the rings at the sides of the Ark to CARRY it.’

Did you catch that last part? The Ark was designed to be carried on the shoulders of men…specifically the priest.

Let that sink in a bit…

Today our carts are a little bit different…but they are all designed to do the same thing…and all with the thought that we are only being good stewards of our time, talents, and treasures. All the while we move farther from what God intended.

God intended for us to work. He intended for us to labor. He intended for us to conquer. He intended for us to subdue. He intended for us to carry the weight of the Ark and feel the power of His presence on our shoulders…not outsource it to the cart!

God intended for a man to pray…He intended for a man to seek His face…He intended for a man to simply be obedient and say the words that the Lord would give him…God intended for us to read His word and know His word. God intended for us to overcome fleshly struggles and to strive towards becoming more like Christ! God knew it wasn’t going to be easy…and God has never promised us that it would be.

There is something wrong with our ministries today…we’ve gone the way of the cart!

We have stewarded away our responsibility to memorize God’s Holy Word to Google. We have stewarded away our responsibility to hear God’s word to websites and businesses that will write sermons for you. We have stewarded our faith out by modeling our churches after a business plan rather than a divine revelation from God. And for what, a little comfort, a little easier living?

People are dying!

We’ve taken the easy road…the road everyone travels. We desire God’s presence but we’re afraid of getting our nails dirty and our knees calloused. The Gospel cost the early church their lives. How come we think we are going to escape that same fate and still function in the same presence and power that they functioned in?

This world will be subdued by sweat and labor.

As God told Adam, ‘By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made’ (Genesis 3:19 NLT), so is the same to be true for us today! We can look to the New Testament and we see that Jesus once told a man (Luke 9:62 NLT), ‘Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.’

When we stand before God we are going to have to answer for the lack of sweat on our back and blisters on our hands! The great truth that this generation is running from is this; that the way forward is back…back to God’s way.

God’s way isn’t going to be an easy way. God’s way isn’t always going to seem like the most intelligent way. However, God’s way is a RIGHT way…His way is a HOLY way…His way is a way that will lead us to VICTORY, PEACE, HOPE, and SALVATION.

God’s way isn’t the way of COMFORT…His way leads to the CROSS!

We don’t like that kind of talk. We want the cross AND comfort. We want the cross because we know we need it to be saved…but our flesh is constantly working in secret to obtain comfort from the pain that bearing our cross brings. So our deprived brain has gone to work…it is constantly seeking alternatives.

Today, ministries strive to give you an “experience” rather than an “encounter”. State of the art worship music partnered with intelligent preaching leaves you feeling good…but never changed. Today we come to church, sit down, stand up, listen, and then leave…and what scares me the most is; we’re satisfied!

This isn’t a popular message to preach…but it’s the truth! The proof is everywhere!

I read a letter not too long ago that stated that in 1960 there were 560 churches planted in the North Texas of the Assembly of God. In that same letter it revealed that today there are around 533 churches. Let me reveal what that means; the last couple of generations are living on the shoulders of the former generations. The generation that built those churches worked hard…the subdued the ground…they weren’t known for great music and clever persuasive preaching…but they we’re known in POWER!

That generation moved as the Holy Ghost moved. They were prayer warriors. They were watchmen. They were men of other denominations and faiths that were pursuing God in a way that few understand. They were open to the supernatural…they had yet to determine what God can’t do…because they believed what their Bible had told them, that ‘God is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish more than we might ask or think!’ (Ephesians 3:20) They didn’t need to read the latest “how to grow a church” book…they had the Holy Spirit to guide them. When their hands were bleeding and their backs were hurting from the laboring fields, they had the Great Comforter to comfort them!

Who were these men? They were ordinary people like you and I. They were Baptist, Methodist, and other denominations that had and ENCOUNTER with the Living God! Aren’t you happy that they didn’t have an experience?

I recently had a conversation with a man who has been ministering in the Baptist denomination while going to school at Dallas Theological Seminary…which isn’t known for its abundance of being Pentecostal. This man, after much studying, has come under the conclusion that the Holy Spirit is alive and well and waiting to be encountered. He has had encounter that he can’t explain…a sudden burst of freedom that he has never known. The Holy Spirit has changed his life!

A great sadness comes over me every time I see a Pentecostal church no longer living in Pentecost. But there is hope! Let me remind you of a great truth in our history…the last time Baptist pastors started to awaken and encounter the Holy Spirit a new denomination was born; the Assemblies of God!

What is it going to take to wake us up?

Let’s finish the story…

2 Samuel 6:12-14 NLT
Then King David was told, “The Lord has blessed Obed-edom’s household and everything he has because of the Ark of God.” So David went there and brought the Ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with great celebration. After the men who were CARRYING the Ark of the Lord had gone six steps, David sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. And David danced before the Lord with all his might, wearing a priestly garment.

They carried the Ark. They picked it up…put in on their shoulders… and felt the weight pressing upon them. They bared its holy burden. They returned to God’s way…it wasn’t the easiest way…but it was the right way.

We must return, Church. We must return the Lord…to His ways. God is pleading that we simply go to Him and seek His face…seek His will…seek His favor. However, to do so is going to be work…we’re going to have pray…we’re going to have to be steady and faithful.