Don’t Despise Your Detour | Associate Pastor Chad Erickson

amen thank you pastor carpenter we love our pastor so much love our first lady I give them both honor and give our pastoral staff honor love love our student pastor our kids quest pastor and wife and and soon-to-be wife love sister Flannery and I'm excited to have her here this week and it just it just the time of quarantine everybody's kind of stays in and and just does the best we can to live a life and I was driving out of my of my driveway this evening on my way to church and saw my neighbors the ORS and they were gathering their family together in their back patio and they have a television screen back there they were already starting to air the service and and brother or pointed out he said he said we're about to have some church right here about tests of church so maybe you're grilling out in heaven Church maybe in your living room heaven Church I know pastor was talking about food here and I was getting hungry and I thought well the frigerator is a lot closer to you than it is to me but God is good in this praise the worship team did such a wonderful job give them honor our band and all of our tech staff give them honor today if you win maybe just just put the sandwich down just for a moment and turn with me to Psalm chapter 84 in verse number 10 I want to read this passage from a couple of different translations and then I've got one more scripture first chronicles 13 and 12 that also want to read in your hearing as a text tonight Bible says for a day in my courts is better than a thousand I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my god than to dwell in the tents of wickedness I was I love to study scripture in different translations just to see what what different authors bring out in the word the message translations the message Bible verse 10 says one day spent in your house this beautiful place of worship beats thousands spent on a Greek island beach I've never been to a Greek island Beach I have no idea what that's like I've been I've seen the white sands of Destin beach I've seen the white sands of Navarre be tough I've seen the Isle of Palms and I'll tell you I'd rather be here it keeps on going to says I'd rather scrub floors in the house of my god than be honored as a guest in the Palace of sin my mama I'm gonna preach about that just a moment 1st chronicles chapter 13 verse 12 and this is what I've come to preach David was afraid of God that day saying how shall I bring the Ark of God home to me so David brought not the Ark home to himself to the City of David but carried it aside into the house of obed-edom the gittite but he carried it aside into the house of obed-edom the coton I'm gonna preach just for a short time in your hearing don't despise your detours don't despise your detours come on let's pray over the word today father we love you but I'm so thankful for your word tonight I'm so thankful that your word is already anointed the Lord I need to feel your presence Lord I need you to speak through me as you've spoken to me Lord I want your church to be blessed by your words at night Lord the families of first Apostolic Church of Maryville the the families of first Apostolic churches Sevierville of Cleveland Oh God every saint of God is watching by way of the World Wide Web whether they're here in the United States or no we've got a lot of people watching Lord from Singapore a lot of people watching in Kenya Lord in the Philippines or we got people watching in South America Lord I'm just believing that your word is going to touch every person watching in jesus name because the lord i know lord god your words ages people and I know if we will listen to your word and obey your word our lives will be affected Oh God will be changed forever we ask all this in Jesus name we pray and everyone said amen and you may be seated here in the house of the Lord well nobody in the right mind ever wants to see a detour sign something about a detour sign if you do any kind of traveling the last thing you want to see when you're on the highway the last thing you want to see when you're trying to make it to your destination is this ugly orange sign I remember now long ago I was I was traveling from West Tennessee back home and there there was probably on on interstate 40 there must have been at least two maybe three wrecks that had taken place the day that I was traveling and and and we were backed up near Nashville and then we were backed up again near Cookeville and and we came close to Kingston and once again the traffic started backing up and I quickly began to look for a turn off and and thank God there on the side of the road they had they actually had a digital sign that they had placed on a truck and in the digital sign had a detour the detour led me off the interstate onto a back road that kind of came around Kingston and if you've ever traveled around Kingston case is a beautiful place but it's nothing but windy hair turn roads and curves that go through parallel with interstate 40 and I could help but notice that all the road that I chose to travel the detour that I chose to take there was a very plain sign on the road that said no trucks and wouldn't you know at about five minutes into my travel down these windy Hey pin turns the traffic stopped and I looked down the mountain and I saw the longest tractor-trailer truck I had ever seen I'm not just talking about the tractor with the trailer I'm talking about the tractor had a cab that looked like a camper on it I don't know how long it was how many feet it was I just knew that there was no way he was gonna get down the mountain and I also knew there was no way turning around and going back and so it should have took me probably about I don't know 45 minutes to an hour it took me probably close to an hour and a half just to get through because I was following this truck as as the tractor that the truck would take the turn and I'd watch as the trailer would bounce it would go across where the truck had just turned through and and I thought to myself there's no way he's ever going to make it but he did or should I say she did as I was passing the truck I was looking up at the Sullivan looking up I wanted to see what the guy looked like there was driving this truck that couldn't read the sign that said no trucks and as I looked up and I saw the woman looking back at me I just waved down I thought I'm not messing with that woman she could get that truck around those hairpin turns I sure ain't messing with her if she can't read that's between her between her and her kindergarten teacher but as for me and my house we weren't gonna make any suggest a modest waved at her said hey thank God you made it down the mountain but there's something about the sign that says detour because a detour is a distraction from the original route that you intend to go they're usually unexpected routes they're they're out of the way it always takes longer to arrive at your destination when you gotta follow a detour a detour is in convenient they take you off your pre-planned route but I'm here to preach to somebody tonight don't despise your detours because sometimes it's okay sometimes God is just trying to get us out of the path we're on and take us to a less path travel so I've come to preach about Oh baby eat him they get tight but before I do I just want to refresh your memory of the Ark of God that we find in the Old Testament the Ark of God had two parts the first was a box it was a box that was covered with pure gold inside of the box were the Ten Commandments it was actually the tables of stone that Moses had broke when Israel went into idolatry also inside the box was a pot of manna the food that was provided by God when the people murmured and complained and then the third thing in the box was Aaron's rod that budded and it represented the jealousy of the tribes on who would rule following Moses all free I want you to notice all three of these objects represented a rebellion of God's people in the wilderness and so the second part of the ark was the lid what we call the mercy seat to seraphim's would face one another with their heads faces facing down and their wings outstretched over the mercy seat touching one another and on the day of atonement one time a year God would come and he would sit upon this mercy seat the throne of God if you will and he would meet with the high priest and the reason why it was called a mercy seat is it said on top other million of mission and the only way to cover rebellion is to cover it with mercy so this golden box this sacred box that the children of Israel loved throughout the wilderness and even into the promise line into the Promised Land one thing about the box is it had to be reverence it had to be respected you could not touch the box golden rings were placed on all four corners and and pole staves went through these rings and and the priests the priests were the only the Levites were the only ones who could put this box upon their shoulder and transport this box call the Ark of the Covenant they covered the ark whenever it traveled it they covered they didn't want the the human eye to be able to look upon the ark only one could look upon and that was the high priest but when our story picks up this Ark has spent some seven months in Philistine captivity and then for the next twenty years when Saul was reigning as king of Israel the ark was stored and pretty much forgotten about by King Saul however it was David it was King David the man after God's own heart the very first thing he did as king was inquire after the Ark can you imagine the ark can you imagine the very thing that led Israel into war the very thing that let them into victory had been sitting in Israel not in Philistine land for twenty years had been sitting in Israel forgotten about it wasn't even where it should have been it should have been in given it should have been in Moses's tabernacle it should have been behind the veil but it was sitting somewhere out of the way out of sight and out of mine but I want you to understand that while it was out of sight and while it was out of mind the priests were still doing their priestly duties in Moses tabernacle they were still going to the praised and ultra they were still sacrificing they were still washing their hands in the Laver they were still lighting the candlestick in the holy place they were they were still high team that the altar of incense in the holy place they were still eating on the shewbread on the table of showbread in the holy place but there was nothing in the Holy of Holies there was a day a king named Saul who had no value in having the presence of God inside the tabernacle and somewhere along the way I don't know when it began it must have probably began where in the Ark was lost to the Philistines when the Philistines had captured it in battle but somewhere along the way the priests and the people got used to having a ceremony within the tabernacle without any power in the tabernacle listen they were attending a house of worship and going through the motions but there was no power behind the veil I want to get this across because I'm sorry to say that there's an epidemic of churches that don't seem to need the power they have the organs they have the choirs they have the wooden pews they have sacred crosses but there's no power behind the curtain we were just a few weeks ago well three or four weeks ago now we were in the beautiful city of London and in the beautiful city of London we took a tour through a church huh and let me tell you something it was dead dead dead they were still going through the ceremonies the priest was still getting up before the people but it was dead there was people buried all throughout that place under the ground all around from this side to that side it was a huge beautiful building but it was dead dead dead let me tell you something it looks like the tabernacle but without the power of God it's not nothing more than ritual action nothing more than sacred ceremonies oh my god I don't ever want this place to be nothing more than a ceremony but God helped us be a place where your power is welcome in your power is always with us but then David came along and and King David all we love King David the Bible simply says he was a man after God's own heart because he took he took the Spirit of God and he put it into the presence of his people in his own city he erected a tent and he said I'm gonna bring huh I'm gonna bring the presence of God into the city of Zion I'm gonna bring it here where the people can worship their God and pastor carpenter I don't understand I researched and researched why was David allowed to bring the ark up to the City of David and not that to Gibeon behind the veil why was it that he was allowed to do that and the only thing that I could come up with and and the only thing that I could feel was simply that God had been forgotten about for so long that he just wanted to get into the presence of his people and he said David if you'll teach the people how to worship Him you'll teach the people how to play musical it sure isn't you teach the people how to sing to me I will allow you to put my presence into your tabernacle Skol David's Tabernacle it was not Moses's Tabernacle it was David's Tabernacle but in the rush and pastor pastor he he kind of taught a little bit of this story but in his rush to get Jesus or to get the box back the presence of God back to the presence of the people he made a very uneducated decision to put that box up onto a brand new cart it was pulled by oxen I think David thought in his mind as long as we have a great fanfare as long as we bring worst person and he brought worshipers he brought some 30,000 worshipers huh I've never seen I've never seen a line of 30,000 people I've been in an arena with 30,000 people but I've never seen an entourage ceremony a line of people it was bringing up the ark with 30,000 people I can't even imagine what that would look like the choirs and the singers and the musicians in the pan but David thought ah I want to have the greatest fanfare for my god as I bring him home to the city of Zion but we know the story if you don't know the story you can read about it but simply these two young men the sons of a better damn name Ohio and US a-- drove this oxen Encarta with david and thirty thousand worshipers in this procession but the Arts in the Bible says stumbled on a threshing floor and oxen understands it's not the smartest animal but oxen understand that on threshing floors they stop their feet that's what oxen do that's what they're trained to do to Thresh on a threshing floor and when they came across the freshing floor they began to stomp their feet and as they began to stomp their feet the Bible says that the cart began to move in the ark began to Teeter and there was this young man named aza who reached out and he steadied the Ark of God and the very fact that he touched the ark caused God to take his a life at that very moment he died and it struck fear into David because David realized right away this is nothing to mess with this is nothing to take lightly it's more than just a gold box but it's the presence of God the Box represents but we have a man named open Edom who just so happened to live at the exact place where US a-- was struck dead by god and so david turned he made a little detour he deviated off his path and he left the art with obed-edom in this öbut Edom he has there's nothing in the Word of God it describes his lineage ha there's no stories prior to this story that include Ovid Edom he wasn't some professional Ark store he was just a guy living at the very side of the road where this Ark just so happened to be resting and so Albany Edom was simply a detour I'm gonna say that again all that Edom was simply a detour and this causes me to thank God for the detours of life because sometimes the greatest lessons are learned during times of detour jesus said I must needs a detour and go through Samaria he said everybody else my disciples huh they're going to get some food up over yonder here but I must need detour and go to a well where there's a woman with no reputational she actually did help quite a reputation she had a horrible reputation she been married so many times and divorced and put away so many times and she was a real reputa but jesus saw the woman his head I've got a detour from what I'm doing and run over here and make sure she understands that their salvation for her and her people too and if it wasn't for that detour I don't know if we never realize I love this scripture we we call it all the time in John 4:23 it says for the hour cometh and now is when true worshipers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father seeketh such to worship him for God is a spirit Jesus is explaining how and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth I thank God for detours in my life don't despise the detours the Gentile race was saved due to a detour Jesus got a little detour on the way to Lazarus house Mary and Martha they said they said Jesus we need you to come quickly for your body your best friend Lazarus he's at the point of death and Mary and Martha had enough faith to believe that if Jesus could just get there that their brother would be made whole but Jesus said I need to go on a little detour for a couple of days because I need to show some people that even things that stinketh things that seem to be decaying in their life huh I can show up and let them know I can still resurrect the very things that they thought were dead and gone somebody said praise the Lord I'm so glad there was a detour on the way to the cross it was told the whipping post the cross bought our salvation but the detour called the whipping post brought our healing but he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with His stripes we are healed we're about to come into the Passion Week and I want you to know I say God for the cross I thank God for the cross but I also thank you for the detour he took her anyway to the whipping post and he took stripes upon his back so we could have healing at church today somebody shout Amen right where you are don't despise your detour the arc of God took a detour should have been on the road to the City of David but in 2nd samuel 6 and 10th we find a detour to open Eden's house David you would not remove the Ark of the Lord under him into the City of David but David carried it aside into the house of obed-edom to get tight in the Ark of the Lord continued in the house of obed-edom to get tight for three months watch this and the Lord blessed open Edom and all his household and it was told the king saying the Lord had blessed the house of obed-edom in all they pertain earth under him because of the Ark of God so David like anybody with common sense David went and brought up the Ark of God from the house of obed-edom into the City of David with gladness I did some research on the blessings of obed-edom and this is what I read I found this in the Jewish ex like l'épée dia on page 370 and going into 371 brother Hammond and it says this is a this is a rabbi Nicole I think that's how you say it it's rabbi literature how about that it's information handed down from Asia age from rabbi to rabbi and this is simply what it says in the Jewish it's like a pina says the blessings with which God blessed Oh buddy them consisted in children they said his wife and eight daughter laws for children twice every month during the three months that the Ark remained with him according to another version each of them six children at once I wasn't there you weren't there kind of hard to imagine but all I can tell you is there was some major blessing going on there was some major blessing gone because the news reached the king said O king I know that you went on a little detour and dropped off the box at Albany tombs house but just so you know in the last three months that guy and his wife and his children and his children's children in the household and their possessions and probably people they know they're all being blessed Oh King you might want to check it out and so the King said hey if God is blessing them and I believe the King even though he feared huh he feared God in a good way I believe he had enough sense to say we're gonna look it up and we're gonna find out what the Levitical law is and we're gonna carry the thing like it ought to be carried huh we're gonna bring the presence of God into the City of David the way God wants to be brought into the City of David so here we go David David returns to Albany tombs house he brings priests this time to carry the ark and they carry the Ark upon their shoulder again he brings thirty thousand worshippers but this is the next reading that I find very interesting I want you to look with me in first chronicles 15 and 16 and I know I know you're at home but please open your Bible because I'm not gonna redo this but I need you to see it first chronicles 15 and 16 David spake to the chief of the Levites to appoint their brethren to be the singers with instruments of music soldiers and harps cymbals sounding by lifting up the voice with joy and and please understand this this was something brand-new this was not being done before David there were people they would write songs there are people that would they would praise God I'm sure with instruments but nothing to this level had bent on choirs and orchestras playing music to God as praise this had not been done and for 17 so the Levites appointed Haman Haman the son of joy and of his brethren a Stephanie it goes through all these people that he starts up pointing and I want you to look at verse 18 because it talks about them there's a second level a second degree and I want you to see in verse 18 the word and the name open Edom jumps out and me because it says hope and Edom he was a porter and I thought well that's interesting because here they're taking the art out of open items house and now we find alba to eat them as a porter I'm a little confused so I kept on reading down and I read verse 19 and verse 20 and then verse 21 there it is again open items named jumps out and now I see that ho petite him is now given a harp if so now he's a porter and now he's playing a musical instrument and I kept on reading and I'm hearing verse 24 and once again open datums name jumps out of the page at me and now we see that he's a doorkeeper for the ark and this is all I want you to see right here I just believe that once open Edom got a taste of the spirit in the presence of God in his home then when it was time for the or to leave o to me Oh Bettina said I don't care where the box goes I'm gonna follow it wherever it goes whenever I have to do I'll volunteer if I need to be a doorkeeper I'll be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord if I've got a mop the floor I'm not before if it means I get to be close to the presence of God I'll do whatever I have to do give me a guitar I'll pick up a guitar I'll learn to play the guitar whatever it takes I just want to be in the presence of the Lord because the Word of God is all taste and see that the Lord is good this is all taste and see and when Bobby gives the Blessed shock and you see a blessing your kids you see a blessing your possessions think that you touch turns to gold over tiny to say God I want to be around you all the time somebody give God praise huh if you love the presence of God I got a text message had a beautiful saint of God had no idea what I was gonna preach this she had no idea what I was gonna preach tonight and she wrote me this long text and she said brother Eric said if I could just be on the greeting team she said I could just be a dorky but this was a text I got this afternoon after my notes were already written she said listen she said ah I work on a job and my job is to greet people and she said if I'm greet people having a good time doing it into my job she said I just want to hold a sign that says welcome home I just want to hold a sign when people come into this park she said I would love to be one of the people out there the first service we come back into this house of worship I want to be one of the people welcoming everybody home and I just believe that was the spirit of obed-edom this said just let me be a doorkeeper I just want to be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord for a day and my courts is better than a thousand obedience said I've got bigger house and a bigger ball I've got blessings at home pastor carpenter but I'm gonna leave it all behind I'm headed to the City of David because it's not the blessings I'm after it's a spirit of God that I'm after it's not the things that he gives me that I'm after it's the presence that I'm after hope it eat him was in the right place at the right time and his desire to move wherever God moved how do whatever it takes I'll do whatever takes pastor I'll do whatever I have to do pastor whatever you want me to do I don't have to have a soul pastor I don't have to have the lead part in the choir pastor I don't even have to be a sunday-school teacher just let me help out in Sunday school I don't have to be the student pastors let me be on the team yes let me be the person that sets up the puppet I don't have to be over I just want to be the person that helps out because I know if I'll be the presence of God everything else everything else is gonna fall into place in my life a nobody tomb is not the only he's not only the blessed one his family was also blessed God gave him eight sons and as such I want you to watch this very closely his sons and his grandsons also worshiped the Lord alongside OBD them his sons and his grandsons his family listen the Bible says they were all leaders they were all capable men with strengths to work pastor carpenter there was 62 men total in his family that worked alongside him in the tabernacle of David hope it heat him along with his duties he was put in charge of the south gate and his sons were keepers of the storehouse by his faith listen to me church by his faith and his attitude along with his actions obut Edom created a legacy of faith and a relationship with the Lord you see because the Lord because he was faithful because he said I'll do whatever I have to do I'll clean I'll play I'll watch againa I'll be a security guard for the for the tabernacle I'll do whatever I have to do because he was faithful to God in return God was faithful back to him and he established a legacy of generational blessings listen there's nothing that I desire more than generational blessings listen my ministry to flourish and I want to be able to affect people and I want to be able to touch people and reach people but let me tell you something that means so much to more to me if my daughters and their future husbands and their children if they go up in the house of the Lord and do great and mighty things huh that's the legacy that means the most to me I'm just about finished you see some detours it seemed to start out as a nuisance they turn into a way of life and I just believe the detour that every single one of us have been forced into this Kovan 19 we have all been forced into a detour I don't know if there's ever been a time in the history of mankind where every single person was put on detour and they couldn't go to their house of worship to worship ah I know there's been there's been persecution over Christianity I know there's been times when people would get together in hiding in caves or somewhere in basements or somewhere out in the wilderness and they got together and worshiped but I don't know if there's ever been a time when nobody in a country is allowed to come together to worship and I just believe that the detour that we are a part of right now it's gonna change lives forever the very fact that the power of God has to be placed in our homes instead in the house of God the virial my pot I believe there's a nobody eat them it's watching by way of internet tonight and you've been thinking yourself I just don't know if I can make it without the church house I want you to know if you allow the presence of God to be detoured into your home if you become like an overeater and just say God I want your presence way in the very middle of my life I don't have to go to a certain building up after go to a building that has a steeple in order to worship I can worship right in my home I can worship on my back patio because the Spirit of God is with you if the Spirit of God is with you you don't need a choir you don't need a band you don't need a beautiful house of worship all you need is to be in the presence of God but the question I have the question I have for you tonight is this who will you be will you be a soul it just takes the ark and just leaves it somewhere sitting on the patch side of your life or will you be a nobody them that welcomes the or come on go bring it right in here boys that's a car right up into my living room back the car right up into here I'm not gonna touch it but sure water in my home if this is the presence of God and all through our time I've been told that the presence of God dwells within this box if the presence of God is here I also want to be here I think to myself we have two decisions we could either be a salt during this time and God forbid that it's a three-month period I I pray that this is not prophecy I prayed that we don't have to be three months outside of Zion but if we do if it's not to the end of May before we can even get back together again will you be a type of saw that just says huh whatever ah I know I know that we're having church every night at 7:30 I I know that I can open my computer I could I could turn my my iPhone on I know I can open my iPad and I can watch it but you know what just you know whatever whatever we can get the box back to the house of God that's when that's when I really I really put my time in or you could be like a nobody time and you could read your Bible like you've never read your Bible before you could get a prayer life going like you've never had a prayer life going before you can start to teach your children the Word of God do you understand that your children are not going to Sunday school on Sundays and your children are not going to Christian school Monday through Friday it's up to us it's up to us parents we got a train up our children in the ways that they should go we can't depend on the house of God we can't depend on the schoolhouse it's up to us and I believe open eat them in front of this family said come on babies come around we're gonna get around the box don't touch it but we're gonna gather around it and we're gonna have a relationship with God all to ourselves and I just believe because of that fact it hope it eat him for those three months the decision he made in those three months he affected his family and I believe that the decisions we make in these three months of this colvin 19 can be the very thing listen we got kids pastor him passed for him and preached about the rapture pastor him and woke up woke up our children he woke up our children to realize that we're not promised tomorrow we're not promised next year when I promised the graduation of 2020 of ACA it could be a moment a twinkling of an eye and because of that our kids in Colvin 19 they're starting to wake up and realize I've gotta get on fire for God I've got to get a daily prayer life supported I gotta get into the Word of God I've gotta take this thing seriously we thought about end times more than we thought about in times in years it's been decades huh as far as since the year 2000 that we've thought about the coming of the Lord like we're thinking about it now so our choices are so simple we would be a Saul who pushes it away who will we be a hold of obed-edom it says this might just be a detour for a few months but I'm gonna do everything I can do in this detour I'm not gonna look at this detours as being a pain oh I can't believe I've got to travel down this road this is taking us such so far out of the way this is not where I intended to be this is not what I thought God had in store for me we could take up that kind of attitude or we can say thank you Lord for the detour that you decided to put your presence in our home for a little while but you decide it all my god shut it up or cut it up ha ha I feel the Holy Ghost in such a strong way come on daddy come on mamas we got a step up we got a step out we gotta realize that we could create a legacy for our children if Benita had pushed the ark into his garage if he had pushed the organ to some outer shed somewhere he would have never got blessed and his family would have never respected the presence of God but since he put it right in the center of his home I just believe it was his actions it was the detour shut up all caught up aha they gave that man a legacy did every one of his sons and every one of his grandsons athlete his wife is daughters and his daughter lost I believe that they were saved because a father said I will not despise my detour before they begin to sing I just want to pray over you right now well why don't you say we'll just make a circle with your family come on pull your babies in close to you if you got grown children take them by the hand come on this is pray a prayer a prayer a blessing over all families come on in Jesus name help me be the father that I need to be Oh God failing to be the mother Lord God that you want her to be Oh God we're gonna raise up daughters there are powerful women of god oh god I'm is believable because uh their mother and father even in this detour have led them in the right direction I believe that they're gonna end up marrying great men of God one day they're gonna leave them and their future children shut up oh shut up haha little legacy begin and every one of our families huh Oh in this club in nineteen oh no we're socially separated there's social distancing but all God your presence is still with us your Holy Ghost is inside of us your spirit oh god is living within us and wherever we are you are and wherever you are we are because the Holy Ghost is a presence with us tonight Karami how in Jesus name in Jesus name I want you to keep on keep on hold on keep on holding on your family members I want them to begin to sing this blessing the song of lessons for our children for sure I let you