From A Detour To A Doorkeeper | Associate Pastor Chad Erickson

Turn with me in your Bibles to to to Psalms 84 and verse 10. Just very quickly, um I want to read a couple scriptures in your hearing. We're going to be seated. We're going to sing a song. We're going to sing a hymn together and then I want to preach. I want to preach. I'm excited about this message this morning. Psalm 84:10 says, "For a day in thy 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." And then one more, and you can just read the screens with this one. 1 Chronicles 13:12, my text. And 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 ask to himself to the city of David, but here it is right here. But carried it aside into the house of Obedom the Gite. My title for this morning is from a detour to a doorkeeper. From a detour to a doorkeeper. Let's pray together. Father, we love you. Oh Lord, I'm so thankful for this church. God, I'm so thankful for the choir that just let us in worship. God, we are such a blessed people. I don't even believe we realize how blessed we are. You've been so good to us. You've been so kind. And Lord, we're here, Lord, this morning to give you praise, to give you glory on this first day of the week. And Lord God, I pray that what you've given me for these great people, Lord God, that as I begin to preach this morning, Lord God, they will receive it, Lord God, and not only receive it, but they will hide it in their heart, Lord God, that we might not sin against you and that our lives might be changed because of it. In Jesus name, I need your anointing. In Jesus name we pray. And somebody said, "Amen." You may be seated in this place. Great is thy faithfulness, oh God, my father. For there is no shadow of turning with thee. For thou changest not. Thy compassions they fail not. As thou hast been, thou forever will be. Come on, help me sing. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. All I have needed, thy hand has proided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. Second verse goes, "Summer and winter, it's the springtime and harvest. Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above. Join with all nature in manifold witness to thy great faithfulness, mercy and love. Oh, great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. And all I am need is thy hand has proided. Great is thy faithfulness porn unto me. I want you to sing this with me one time through. And I want you to think about these words as we sing it. Just the chorus. Great is thy faithfulness. Come on, sing it. Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies. Come on, testify this morning. And all I have need thy hand has proine. Come on, somebody sing it. Great is thy name. Come on, sing that again. Sing. Great is thy faith. I feel the Holy Ghost in this place. Great is thy faith. Oh, great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Lord unto me. Come on. Has he been faithful to you? Come on. Has he truly been faithful to you? I think he ought to I think you ought to be praised right here just for a moment. My God, I feel your Holy Ghost. I feel a people in this place today whose lives have been changed, have been rearranged, oh God, because of your faithfulness, because of your goodness, oh God, because you've never failed us, and I know you never will. Oh, one more time, clap your hands before you're seated today. Thank you, Jesus. Great is thy faithfulness. Woo! From a detour to a doorkeeper. But we're going to get there very quickly. But I uh first want to uh just share a story that that happened to me a few a few years ago. Craziest thing happened. We were coming back from Nashville, my wife and I. And um and this seems to happen quite often. Matter of fact, right around the the Kingston exit. I don't know why, brother Arbus. Somewhere around the Kingston exit there always seems to be wrecks. I don't know what it is, but there is this side road right before you get to the Kingston exit that goes back through the most beautiful countryside. But the problem was the day that we took this as we were on our way and we were kind I'll be honest we were in a little bit of a hurry getting home and I began to see that there were of course there are all kinds of police cars and ambulances and fire trucks and I don't know what all happened in front of me but I knew it wasn't good and they were forcing everybody off this exit the exit right before Kingston Tennessee and they they they were forcing everybody off this exit and when you got to the end of the of the ramp getting off the exit there was one sign. They already had electronic billboard there. There's one sign saying trucks to the left, cars to the right. And so I was in a car. I was not in a in a semi. And so I I I drove to the right and I I began to go down through this beautiful Oh, it was beautiful. Winding down through this mountain. And uh I couldn't help but notice that about I don't know 3 minutes into this drive that I thought was going to kind of go pretty quickly. The traffic came to a dead stop and uh on this road it was and if you've been on it, some of you have been on it, but it it's it's hair tin turns all the way down this road. And um right away as I was be I began to come down the the decline and coming down this hill, I looked and I could see I could see myself coming pretty much is what what happened. I could I could see as a line of cars went down and and wouldn't you know right at the front of the line of cars was a semitr. And and this this semi it wasn't just any semi-truck. It was one of one of the longest largest semi-truckss and and apparently the guy couldn't read. And I don't know if if if he was he thought he knew the road. I I don't know, but he thought maybe he's going to take a shortcut. He was going to go with the cars. I don't know what he thought. But as I begin to watch, he was he was cutting these hair hairpin turns. And as he would go around the hair pin turn, his trailer would literally go off the road 20 and 30 feet in the hairpin trying to get across and and people were waving him and people were moving cars out of the way and he was backing up and doing like a seven-point turn, you know, trying to trying to get around these there's these hairpin turns. And finally, I don't know, it took us about two hours to get through this. And finally we got into Kingston and we got on this fourlane four-lane road and I take a left going back towards 40 and I'm passing the truck and I'm like I just want to see what this guy looks like. >> Like I I mean I don't know if he's wearing dark sunglasses. I just want to see what he looks like. She wasn't wearing glasses. And I didn't know at that point I didn't know what to do. I didn't know if I should say that was the most amazing driving I've ever seen to get off those hair pin turns. I I didn't know what I didn't, brother Bruce. I didn't even look at her. I just I just put my head down and just kept on driving. I thought if she can make if she can drive the truck, number one, I'm not messing with her. But but nobody likes detour signs because detours, anything you're doing, detail, detours are always going to slow you down. Detours, all they are is they're distractions from the original route you intended to go. Let me talk to you about detours just for a moment. They're they're usually unexpected. They take you out of the way, right? It always takes you longer and they're always inconvenient. They take you off a pre-planned route. But I want to preach about some detours of life today. Proverbs 3 and5 says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding." We love this scripture. You see it written all over social media. "And all thy ways acknowledge him." But right here it is. And he shall direct thy paths because we understand that our ways are not his ways and his ways are not our ways. And and the things that would make sense to us don't make sense to him. or maybe I should say the things that make sense to him don't make sense to us. And sometimes sometimes we go through these these detours and and I want I want everybody to realize and what I'm coming to preach tonight is sometimes detours of life are okay. Was Robert Frost I believe that that wrote a poem talking about the road less travel. Sometimes it it takes you in a direction that you may have never seen and experienced without the detour. And so I want to go back in the Old Testament for a few minutes and I want to talk about the Ark of the Covenant, our our text this morning. In the Old Testament, it had it had two parts. The the the first part was of course the wooden box that was overlaid with with pure gold. And inside of that box was the ten commandments, the tablets of stone that Moses had chiseled, had had ruled upon. And and we understand that the first set of the first set of stone Moses came down and and the people were worshiping the golden calf and that those got broken, right? And so this this set of stone that was in the ark, it represented a rebellion. and it represented a god that gave direction to people to not only get out of Egypt but to stay out of Egypt. The second thing in there was the pot of mana. This was this was provided by God when the people murmured and complained. We we remember the pot of mana that that God wanted inside of this box, this golden box. And then there was Aaron's rod that buted and this represented the jealousy of the tribes and and it it it kind of talked about Moses choosing Aaron, or I should say God choosing Aaron and showing the other tribes who the next leader would be. But all three objects, all three represented a rebellion of some sort that had been done in the wilderness. But then the second part of the ark, and this is a little more of a positive note, was the lid was the the mercy seat where two saraphims would would face one another looking bowing down that yet their wings would would touch would would touch and outstretch and touch. On the day of atonement, once a year, God would come and sit upon this mercy seat. It was as as a throne of God. It's it represented the presence of God to the people. And the reason why it was called the mercy seat because it was set on top of a rebellion of a nation. It was sat on top of this box that contained the rebellion of a nation. And it only the only thing that fixes rebellion is the mercy of God. It's people who are willing to be corrected and it's the mercy of God. >> And this golden box was so sacred I it couldn't be touched and and and golden rings were put on the corners and staves uh uh uh poles were put through these rings and only the priest could carry and transport this golden box, this ark of God. And I I want to preach about this because our story picks up where this ark had spent seven months in Philistine captivity. People of God had taken the ark and they found out that hey good things happen when when God travels with you. And so they had taken the ark of God into battle. But however this particular time uh there was sin in the camp and they thought well sin or not we're going to bring God with us and and he's going to fight our battles for us. And God very plainly made it very obvious that he was not going to do that. And so the ark was taken captive by the Philistines. Some horrible things happened. I'm going to fast forward a little bit. Uh I don't want to graphically talk about what happened to the Philistines, but it wasn't a good thing. Uh and they gave it back. And so for 20 years, the last 20 years of Saul's reign over Israel, the ark of God was stored and pretty much forgotten about by King Saul. But then we have David, the man after God's own heart, which which the very first thing he does, his very first mission as king is to inquire about the ark of God. Where is the ark? If if I'm going to rule the kingdom, we're going to have the presence of God in the midst of the kingdom. But can you imagine that the ark was stored in Israel for 20 years and was never inquired about? And it makes me think sometimes and and I I know this is this is an analogy, but but I think about sometimes about a Bible that that that sits covered in dust in a household that's sitting right by a bed on a bedstand yet it's never opened. Let me preach to us for a moment. Sometimes we can get so familiar with it that we don't even realize it's there. Saul got so familiar with the presence of God. He got so familiar with the prophets of God that it was just another item to him. He didn't even he didn't even realize that it was missing. But David, oh, David, the man after God's own heart, the man that would fulfill the will of God, the very first thing he did was he said, "Hey, if we can get the presence of God back in the midst of the people, our kingdom will be successful." And so, the ark of God, again, it wasn't in Gibian where Moses's tabernacle was. The priests were still sacrificing. They were still sacrificing at the altar. They they were still washing at their labor. They were still they had they had incense that they were burning. There was a table of show. There was candlesticks. But beyond that point, beyond the veil, there was no ark of God. They were going through the motions, but they they were not having a relationship with their God. They could not bring their sin before God. There was no mercy in the kingdom for 20 long years. They had become a a ceremonial type of religion. There was no relationship. There was no more power. They were attending the house of worship, but just going through the motions. I don't ever want to do that. I don't ever want this place just to be somewhere where I come and go through the motions because I know that I ought to be in church on Sunday and we should be in church. Oh, brother Snitzer, you preached about it on Wednesday night. We got to be in church on a Sunday, but God, I don't want to come here and just go through motions. I don't want to just go through ceremonies. And you can say, "Well, we don't have those kind of ceremonies anymore." Well, we have other types of ceremonies that could become ritual if we don't put anything within them. Uh rituals like like singing songs with a choir. Sometimes, listen, sometimes I I look out and I wonder to myself, do people realize we have 150 worshippers up here leading us in worship. I don't know. I I look around and it feels more ceremonial sometimes like, well, that's just their job cuz I that's what they're paid to do. Y'all know that, right? They're paid to get up there and sing. Come on, somebody. We can't let this place be a house of ceremony. >> It's got to be a house of worship. There's got to be a there's got to be a reason why we do what we do. If we're going to come and sacrifice, if there's going to be a labor, if if there's going to be a show, if there's going to be a candlestick and and incense going up. And we preached about this a couple weeks ago, but if all that's going to happen, there's got to be a purpose for it. And the purpose is that once a year, we get to go in behind the veil and we get to present ourselves upon the mercy seat. >> There's got to be the presence of God in the house of God. Oh, we went and and this is what religion is made of. We went to Rome. My family went to Rome this year. It was it was the most amazing thing. We we saw some of the most beautiful structures, some of the most beautiful houses of worship, if you will. But it was all ceremonial. There was no power there. Oh, it was beautiful. Matter of fact, matter of fact, in in one square foot of some of those places, they had more money we have in this whole this whole campus. pure marble and and and and actual things covered in gold and and statues. My god, I don't know. Millions and millions of dollars of statues and and and and probably hundreds of millions of dollars of stained glass and and everything as as those edififices seat 40,000 people and I think to myself, here you are in a ceremony, but you have no power. Here you are. You you have the altar. You you have the labor. You you have everything that looks like church, but God is not here. >> There's no presence of the Lord in this place. And here for for 20 long years, we have a tabernacle. We have a place where where where Saul Saul is sending the priests and and they're going before all their priestly duties. The Levites are doing what Levites do. But there's no power within the tent. There's no power in the tabernacle. Oh my God. I'm so thankful for David. I I'm so thankful for a man who stepped up and said, "We got to get God in the presence of the people. We got to get God in a place where the people can feel him and the people can experience him." And I just believe that God want to be in the presence of the people just as bad as the people wanted to be in the presence of God >> because God loves his creation. He loves his people. He wants a relationship with us. He doesn't want some ceremonial. He doesn't want us to go through rituals. He wants emotion. He wants a relationship with us. And so David, I I don't understand how he got away with it other than God. It was in God's plan was that he took that ark. He took it from a place of storage and he got 30,000 and they they had an entourage and they brought this ark of God to the city of David or they attempted to bring it to the city of David. They attempted to bring it to Jerusalem but you know the story. The story goes that the two sons of the priest as they were carrying oh the ark of God not on the shoulders of priests but on a new cart as they're carrying it even with a processional and this is interesting to me even with 30,000 worshippers God still refused to be carried in a cart >> I know the Philistines carried him in a cart but he didn't let his people carry him in a cart he said they don't know no better they're going to get punished for what they do he said but you don't know better. This is not how you bring my presence. This is not how you carry my presence. You carry me on a priestly on on the shoulders of priests on on Levites. You bring me in with reverence. I don't get carried on some cart. Matter of fact, the Bible says that that the the ark of God began to teeter. The the the oxen, they they they went over a threshing floor. And and oxen when when oxen go over a threshing floor, they do what's natural to oxen. They thresh. They stomp their feet because that's what oxen do in a threshing floor. They they stomped their feet to thresh and as they began to do that, Bible says the ark began to teeter and that one that one priest son who knew better reached out and touched touched the presence of God, touched the ark of God and God smote him dead. And right there we have a detour because instead of going to the house of David, instead of going to the city of David, David says, "Hold on. We're gonna bring him here to the house of Obedom. We're gonna make a detour and we're gonna stop him right here because we first we we got to figure out what we did wrong because nobody else is going to be we can't have anybody else dying around here. We got to find out what is it. Why did God strike him dead? And David had to go and do some some research. But here we have Obed Edom. And here, oh, listen. Sometimes, woo, sometimes detours are good things because here we have right at the house of Obedom. Now, Obedom, he wasn't expecting this. This just happened. I believe he was there as a fanfare. He was watching the processional go by. But wouldn't you know it, right there at his house, I I can just see him, Brother Ferg, cuz I can see him right now. I I back him up right here. Put him in my living room. Put him in my house right here. I've heard good things about the presence of God, back them, put them up right here and and they they took the ark of God and they placed it in the house of oid Edom. And here we go because I began to research and I because the Bible says that David began to hear. He began to hear of the great things and the blessings that God was doing to the house of Obedom. Matter of fact, I began to study this and and the Bible really doesn't say what it was. And so I thought, you know, I'm going to look up some Jewish uh I'm going to go into some Jewish encyclopedia and just just try to see uh what they what they feel was happening in the house of Obedom. And I'm going to read this to you and just hold on. Bible says the blessing with with which God blessed Obedom consisted in children. Okay, I like it. His wife and eight daughter-in-laws bore children. I'm reading this straight out. Twice every month during the three months that the ark remained with him. According to another version, each of them bore six children at once. I was not there. I'm just reading to you what this encyclopedia says. Although I know God's done some pretty crazy stuff. I don't know. I I don't want you We're not going to make a doctrine out of this. This just came out of a Jewish encyclopedia. All I know is this, that when David heard about the blessing. When David heard of how Oben was being blessed, he said, "I've got to figure out how I can get that from his house >> to my city." And I began to I began to think and I thought, "My God, there's there's been so many things that that happened throughout the New Testament when Jesus walked this earth that were that were detours, if you will, detours of life, such as Jesus when he said, "I must needs go through Samaria." I'm talking about Jesus's disciples. They they're headed they're they're they're headed in the right direction. Disciples are going to get food. We're about to eat. And Jesus says, "Hold on. You all go get us some food. I must needs go through Samaria, which you and I both know was a crazy thing for a Jewish man to say because the Jews didn't go through Samaria. It was a horrible place. And here he met this woman that's sitting at the well. This woman of illreute, this woman of a horrible reputation. But I want you to know, I guarantee she's glad that he went on a little detour. Matter of fact, I'm glad he went on this detour because we begin to read in John 4:23 when Jesus says, "But the hour cometh, and now is when when true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to worship him." God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship worship him in spirit and in truth. I thank God for this detour because this scripture would have been in our Bible had he not must needs go through Samaria. We learned a whole lot about our God and the and the worsters that our God is seeking after because he went on a little detour. I don't know about you, but but he went on a detour when it came to Lazarus's house. >> Mary and Martha, Lazarus's sisters. Jesus finally gets to the house and Lazarus is dead, been dead for 4 days. And they said, "Where were you? Why didn't you come? We we called for you. We were looking for you." And the Bible says in John 11:6, when he Jesus had heard therefore that that Lazarus was sick, he abodeed two days still in the same place, he went on a little detour. When he found out that his best friend was dying, he said, "Hold on. I I got to hold on right here. I got to go on a little detour." Then the Bible says, "Then after that, saith he to his disciples, let us go into Judea again." And oh, I love this detour because if it was not for this detour, there would have been a lot of people who would have never believed that Jesus could rise after 3 days. >> You think about this detour he went on. He did it to build faith in his followers. Sometimes we go through detours. Sometimes things happen to us just to help us build faith in our God. I don't know. He already had a lot of doubters when he when he died on the cross. He already had a lot of doubters that that that thought he was dead and wasn't coming back. But there were some that had witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus to find out that even when a body is decaying in a grave. This Jesus has enough power to call up that body out of the grave and bring it back to life again. And it was because of the Bible says it's because of that fact that people began to believe that Jesus he said, "Oh, you can I'm going to tear this this temple's going to be ripped and torn down, but in 3 days." He said, "In 3 days, it's coming back. In 3 days, this body's bringing life. Uh it's going to take on life again. I'm so thankful for the detour that he made. Uh instead of going to Lazarus's house, >> it would have been a whole lot easier for him to heal Lazarus, but he says, "I am more powerful than just sickness. I can raise you from the dead." >> And then speaking of speaking of Jesus going to Calvary, I'm so thankful for the detour called the whipping post. I'm so thankful that he didn't just just go to Calvary, but he stopped by. There's a detour that he made to the whipping post because the Bible says it was those stripes that brought healing to us today. By his stripes, you we are healed. I thank God for the cross. I thank God that he shed his blood for us on the cross. But I'm also thankful for the detour because if it was not for that detour, there would not be healing in the church today. But he said it's because of those stripes. Uh because of stripes on my back. 39 strikes uh on my back. Uh you are healed.Uh you are healing in the church today. Anybody thankful for the healing that's in the church today that you just want to say thank you Jesus for taking a stop and taking a detour by the whipping post. We pray over the sick today. We anoint them with oil today because of that whipping post. See, detours are not always a bad thing. Sometimes detours are the greatest the greatest blessing. But David, here he is. He he carries this this this arc to Obedom's house. Oh, but here we go. Verse 11, the Bible says 2 Samuel 6 and 11, the ark of the Lord continued in the house of Obedom, the Gite three months, and the Lord blessed Obedom and all his household. And it was told King David, saying, "The Lord had blessed the house of Obedom, and all that pertainth unto him because of the ark of God." So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed Edom into the city of David with gladness. And this is where we pick up where he danced before the Lord with all his might. You know the story. This is where he brought it into into the househ the city of David and he created a tabernacle for it. It was a tabernacle of David where God could be right in the midst of his people. See, when word gets out about what God can do, what he's going to do, what he's doing for you, everybody wants to know about it. Everybody wants to see it. So, David returns to Obedium's house and brings it up. He He puts it on the shoulders of the priests. He carries the ark back like he should bring it. He brings us 30,000 worshippers. But 1 Chronicles 15-16, I I want to read this right here because this is important. David spoke to the chief, the Levites, to appoint the brethren to be the singers with instruments of music, sultry and harps and symbols, sounding by lifting up the voices with joy. This this type of worship with musical instruments, this had never been done before. This this loud singing of joy had never been done before. This was brand new. Verse 17. So the Levites appointed Hmon the son of Joel and of his brethren, Asf, the son of Baraka, and the son of Mari. And I'm I'm going to read these on purpose. Their brethren, Ethan, the son of of Kushi. Verse 18. And with them their brethren of the second degree, Zachariah, Ben, Jazziel, I'm gonna butcher these. That's okay. Shamroath. That's pretty good. Jeal, Uni, Elab, Banayiah, Messiah, Methayiah, Ephilah, Micahi, and Oedum. Yeah. And Obedum. That I need to read that one because that's the most important one here. These are the porters. The porters are secondderee porters. These these are volunteer musicians. These are volunteer workers. These are not the appointed. These are second degree. These are the volunteers. Verse 19. So the singers Hammond, ASF, Ethan were appointed to sound the symbols of breath. Zachchariah, Ezel, Shermayamoth, Zahel, Umni, Elab, Messiah, Maniah with sultreies on Elimoth and Mathi, Ephali, Mecci, and Obedom. There it is. and Jerel and Isaiah with harps on the shimens to excel. Y'all put your hands together. That was pretty good. I don't even have my glasses on and I read all that. I'm not done though. Verse 22. And Chaniah, chief of the Levites, was for song. And he instructed about the song because he was skillful. And Bara and Elana were doorkeepers for the ark. and Shabbania in Jos Jehoshaphat and Nathaniel and Amassi and Zachchariah and Banayiah and Eleazar the priests did blow with the trumpets before the ark of God and Oadam and Jeia were the doorkeepers for the ark. >> So David and the elders of Israel and the captains over the thousands went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the house of Obedom with joy. So, what I want you to see right here is a lot of times we think about doorkeepers as I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord and we vision ourselves back here at the door holding the door open for people. But that's not what a doorkeeper is. A doorkeeper is somebody who watches over something, who keeps guard of something. His job was to keep guard, watch this right here, of the ark of God. The ark of the covenant oidam was a volunteer. He said, "It's been in my house for the last 3 months, and God has blessed me abundantly." He said, "I'm not even going to stay in my house. I'm going with you, David. I'm going to the city of David. I'm moving to Zion. I'm moving to Jerusalem, and I'm going to be the doorkeeper for the presence of God." Because once you get in the presence of God, once you experience the presence of God, you'll do anything you can to stay in the presence of God. I preached all this message for one person and that's o Edom because I look at him and say all you were was a detour but you became a doorkeeper because you allowed God to change your life and give you blessings and you took care of the house of God. Uh you got in and as a doorkeeper you began to watch over the things of God. You made sure people didn't touch the things they ought not to touch. Woo! Once Obedom got a taste of God, the Bible says, "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good." Once he just got a little taste of God, he could not leave him. He couldn't just say, "Hey, take him away. We'll see you later. I'll come visit you once a year." He said, "I'm going to go. I'm going to volunteer." Y'all hear that? He was a second degree. He volunteered to be in the presence of God. Psalm 84:10. And here's our here's our theme. For a day in thy 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. His desire. Oh my God. His desire is what I want. My desire to be God. If I can just remain in your presence. He said, "I'll become a worship leader. I I I'll play the harp." That's what he did. I'll play the harp if I have to. I'll do anything I have to do to remain in the presence of God. The Bible talks about he had 68 associates that ministered regularly before the Lord in worship. Yet, he still continued to keep the gates. I don't know. Let me kind of explain that a little further. He was a rich man. He was a blessed man. He had 68 servants who came with him. But he didn't come to get paid. There were those there were those that got paid to be in the house of the Lord. That's what they did. That was their livelihood. He just came to volunteer. He had all of these servants. He didn't care. He didn't have to live in his home. He just wanted to be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord. Oh my God. I'm talking about ministry. I'm talking about get your family involved. The Bible talks about he had eight sons and his sons, the Bible says his sons and his grandsons also worshiped the God. Woo. In the city of David, >> in the tabernacle that David made for the h for the for the ark of God, they were all leaders. They were all capable of men. They all had strength to do the work. Uh these men and these servants and these sons all were together because God made a detour into Oen open Edom's househ. And because of that, it changed his life forever. The Bible says he was put in charge of the southgate and his sons were keepers of the storehouse. Here, here his sons, they're the keepers of the storehouse and he's the keeper of the ark. I love that. By his faith, by his attitude, his actions, OE Edom created a legacy for his family. >> That's what we're doing here today. That's why we're in the house of the Lord today. That's where our kids are in Sunday school today because we're creating a legacy and we're letting our kids know there's no better place uh than the house of God. There's no better place in the house of worship. Oh, once again, this is not a ceremonial placeh. But this is where we come to have our lives changed. Once you've been blessed by God, once God's done something for your family, you can't help but say, "Come on, kids. Uh, get in the car. It's time to go to church." I know we go to church twice on Sunday, but that's okay because God's worthy of it. Come on. Did you hear me? I know we go to church twice on Sunday. Some of y'all go to church three times on Sunday. Some of y'all going to you're going to Severeville here in a few minutes. Thank God that we see the house of God in the presence of God of somewhere to begin a legacy for our family. Come on and praise him if you're thankful for a place to create a legacy for your family. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord. Create a generational legacy because he was nothing more than a detour. Detours don't affect God. You might be in the middle of a major detour in your life that you never saw coming. You can be like the Israelites in the wilderness and and you can grumble and complain and tell God he hasn't been fair to you or you could take advantage of your detour. >> Oh yeah. The beautiful thing about a detour is you have time to slow down and see the sights stuff that you would not normally see. All of a sudden you can kind of slow down and enjoy life a little bit sometimes. Yeah. Some detours like like like CO 19. We didn't see it coming. It was a detour. Y'all remember this. We had just moved into the sanctuary in 2018. Man, we were so excited. Woo! This place is going to blow up. We got a new sanctuary, you know, build it and they will come. Next thing we know, we have four people in the front pew and that's all it's here. For weeks, we're we're quarantined. We didn't even know what quarantine meant. Face masks. We thought those were for doctors and nurses. All of a sudden, we're on a detour. But I don't want you to know. I don't know about you, but that was one of my favorite years of my life. You say, "How in the world?" I know my favorite restaurants weren't open, but we sat down as a family around a dinner table more in 2020 than we did prior or since. I mean, we sat, y'all remember this? We got to be with our family. We got to slow down. Kids were at home. And I know some of y'all were like, "God help us." Right? Family all stayed, man. Listen, I would not I don't want to do it again, but I wouldn't trade that year for anything. I really wouldn't. It's not like like Apostolic Collective. Apostolic Collective was just a dream until pastor told us, "Hey, we're going to record a ministry session every day." We're like, like every day? Oh, yeah. We got to keep the church. We got to keep them. We got to keep, man, we're going to put it online. We're going to make sure the church family knows that that we're thinking about them and we're ministering to them. So, every single day we would meet in the studio upstairs. Oh, and not only will we present something to put online as far as a teaching or a preaching or or or leadership session, but we were writing songs every day. We were recording every day new song. We we're recording out front. We recording a studio. We're recording our back. We we had cameras. Now, we can only have 10 of us at a time, but man, if you remember some of the greatest songs, we wrote some of the greatest songs during co God blessed us. Listen again, I wouldn't trade it. There's some detours that you just got to say, God, I don't want to go back through that again, but thank God it happened because we got to slow down and actually enjoy life, man. Our our calendars, everything. We we we cancelled everything. Everything got cancelceled in our calendars. And and some people be like, "Oh, that's horrible." No, it wasn't horrible. We spend Thanksgiving at home and Pastor Hammond's still fighting for that detours. Sometimes detours, we can't always look at them in a negative because sometimes it's just it's it's it's things like detours that that get us thinking that God, hey, we're seeing things we've never seen before. We're experiencing things we've never experienced before. I began to think about detours in some of your lives. You might have lost your your career job, but that detour may be what leads you to your dream job because when you find your dream job, you don't ever have to go to work again. You know, God God can can fulfill dreams. But but a doorkeeper, it takes somebody that's want to say, "God, I don't understand it. I don't know why it's taking place in my life. It doesn't make any sense. I I've worked my whole life in this career. I've I've done everything I've done. I've I've been educated in this in this in this career and I don't know why I don't have this job. But it might just be that God is detouring you so he can get a hold of you. And he can say, "If you'll just put me first in your life. If you'll just understand that I am your God. I care about you. My thoughts are towards you. I love you. I want you to have an expected end. If you can just understand that your God loves you that much. He's going to do something. And >> but we can't be like the children of Israel. We We can't be all about grumbling and complaining, but we just got to say, "God, I'll volunteer anyway. I have to volunteer. Matter of fact, I've got a good friend." This very thing that's happened to him. He text me the other day and he said, "Listen, anything that needs to be done at the church, you let me know. I'll be there. I've got time off. I've got time in my hands right now." He said, "You let me know. I'll be at church and I'll do what I have to do." That's a doorkeeper in the house of God. It's somebody who says, "Hey, I may not be I may not be clocking in at a workplace, but God, I'll do whatever I have to do in your presence. I'll be a doorkeeper in your house if that's what I have to do." You may have planned, you might have planned to be married by now, and you just never found the right one. God's taking you on a detour and then another detour. And I there's a precious lady in this church and she'll come up to me about once every five years and she'll say, "Brother Ericson, just pray. I I want to be married. Just just just just pray that that God will help me find somebody. Let me let me tell you something. There's one thing worse than not being married, and that's being married to the wrong person. >> Can I get a witness? Oh, y'all shouldn't have raised your hands. Y'all all in trouble." My God, I saw married people raising their hands. Praying for y'all. Seriously, sometimes God God can actually God can actually detour you away from things that would have ruined your life, >> messed you up, pulled you out of church. And you got one or two you got one or two thought process. You either say, "Oh, God, everybody my age is married. God, everybody my age, they've already gone on. They're they're moving on to bigger and better things, and here I am. Or you can say, "Thank God. God, you know the perfect person for me, God. I believe I believe there's somebody for everybody. >> If you want to get married, I believe there's somebody for you. I I truly believe that. I I believe that." And then and he never ceases to amaze me because sometimes I question that and then next thing I know, people come in and say, "Hey, I'm engaged." I'm like, "Awesome. Don't y'all judge me. You know what I'm talking about. >> There's somebody for everyone. >> Nothing wrong with you. God just might be put taking you on a detour and keeping you out of some things that are going to mess you up. There >> people that are on a detour called disease, detour called sickness. You got something in your body that doesn't belong in your body. Something that's eating up your cells. And you say, "Oh, why me, God?" But I don't know. Sometimes God brings us through detours and takes us places and we're saying, "God, why does it have to me be me that's sick? Why why do I have cancer? Why do I have diabetes? Why why do I have to suffer with this? Why do I have this disease?" And oh, God just trying to take you places and trying to move you into into a place where you can see better and understand more and see that his mercy and his grace are for you. I think about people like like brother Robert Thompson who's here this morning went on a detour of life at a wife that died way too soon. Oh, precious Linda died way too soon, Brother Thompson. But I couldn't help but notice you up here worshiping. I couldn't help but noticing you up here dancing and shouting during that choir song. And I thought to myself, look at that man. I know he's been on a detour. I know it's the hardest thing that he's ever been through, but oh my god, he's in church today. It was because of that woman. And if I got my if I got the story right, it was because of that woman who prayed for you and believed in you and kept on pulling at you and saying, "Come on, you don't have to live a life of drugs and a life of alcohol." But there's a church that you've got to come to. You got to you got to experience what I experienced and and all because of that. It was that lady and I know she's gone up to be in heaven and she's gone on to be with her maker today. But brother Thompson, you can say, "Thank God that you brought me down the path of Linda." Because if it wasn't through a path of Linda, a detour called Linda, I wouldn't be here today. I wouldn't be worshiping with the choir. I wouldn't be in church today. I wouldn't be saved, sanctified, and on my way to heaven. Oh my God. For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God. If you'll stand your feet with me today. I I began to read about David because David had that same spirit that Odin E Odum oh but Edom had. He wrote stuff like surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. He wrote Lord I have loved the habitation of thy house and the place where where thine honor dwelleth. He wrote, "Blessed is a man whom thou chooth and cause us to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts." Uh, we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. He wrote, "I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord." He said, "One thing have I desired of the Lord that I will seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple." Maybe today I want to open this altar. Maybe one thing that we've desired, maybe it's been a misdirected desire. Maybe God is saying, "If you'll just put me first, if you'll seek first the kingdom of God, if you'll seek me first, everything else will be added. Those things that you desire, those things that you want, those things that you dream of, those things that you need in your life. If you'll seek me first, I know you might be on a detour today, but it might be a detour that saves your life. It might be a detour that absolutely saves your family and saves your children. I don't know why. I already said it. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. We can't even understand why he does what he does. But one thing I know for sure, he's been faithful. He's been so faithful. If he's been faithful to you, I wonder if you could just come to this altar this morning to say, "God, I lift my hands to you because of your faithfulness." Come on. You might have a detour right now in your life. Maybe you just want to say, "God, I refuse to cry and complain. I refuse. Oh, no, no, no. I will not be like the children of Israel, crying about food and crying about water. I refuse to be like the children of Israel looking back at Egypt and wondering where the flesh pots are. I refuse to be that type of child of God, but instead I'm going to seek you first. Instead, I'm going to be a doorkeeper in your househ. Uh I'm going to watch over what is righteous. I'm going to watch over what is holy. I'm going to watch over the things, oh God, that please you and that you love. Come on. Is that you today? Before the singer sing, come on. Can you just throw your head back uh and say, "God, I'm going through it right now. God, I'm facing trials right now. I'm facing some tribulations in my life right now. I'm facing some hardships in my life right now. But I'll seek after you. This one thing I seek after. I seek after your kingdom. I seek after your house. I seek after your presence. I seek after your power. Come on, church family. Right now, begin to say, "Jesus, I'm a victor. I'm victorious. I'm an overcomer. I know it looks bad. I know it looks bleak. Oh, I know it's the darkest part of the night, but the dawn is about to come. The morning's coming. Morning's coming. You just got to hold on long enough. Morning's coming. You got to hold on long enough to realize your detour is about over. You're about to get through it. You're about to get back on the highway of life. But allow God to let you see some some stuff you've never seen before. Oh, you're so good, God. Come on. Come on. Come on. I know there's people here. Matter of fact, why don't you reach your hand over and pray for somebody next to you? I know there's people here going through so much. Reach over. Grab Brother Thompson. Come on. Reach over. Grab somebody. Woo. Some of them might have lost their job recently. Reach over and grab somebody you know might be sick. Uh reach over and grab somebody you know that's lonely. Come on. Reach over and grab somebody you know that's hurt. May maybe they got a lost a loved one. Maybe got backsliden children. Come on. Reach over and help somebody. Reach over and say, "I'll be there for you. I'm in this with you. We're in this together. Don't give up. Don't give in. God knows. God sees it. God understands it. Come on. Ministry is taking place right here. Ministry is taking place right now. Uh you may not even realize it, but you came to minister to somebody this morning in the altar. You came this morning to help somebody. You came to today to tell somebody God is going to work it out. God is changing your detour into a doorkeeper. God is changing things in your life. Come on. That's right. Minister right now. Come on. Minister. We got ministers all through this place. Uh I'm not talking about preachers. Uh I'm talking about people who have gone through things. Uh and you're going to help somebody else through the same thing you went through. Jesus name. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Holy Ghost right now move. Holy Ghost minister right now. The power of the Holy Ghost wants to fill you. The power of the Holy Ghost wants to change you. The power of the Holy Ghost wants to make you new in this place today. Come on. Before they sing just for a few more minutes. Come on. We're going to believe God is going to bring us out. We're going to believe in God right now. He's going to answer some questions for you. He's going to make a way for you. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. He's doing it. He's doing it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Come on. Come on. Come on, minister to somebody right here. Come on, minister to somebody right here. Come on. They don't even They need more than just to preach word of God. They need you to help them. They need you to speak into their life. Heat. Heat. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Jesus. All along I'm missing me. You made a way out of deserts and rivers just yesterday. Lord today if I hear you speak I don't need an explanation. If you tell me move I don't need the destination. If what's proised I never see. I'm still walking with you. You're still walking with me. Yes, you will Jesus. You will redeem. You will redeem all the time. As wondering, you've been the far away. You made a way out of bondage and darkness just yesterday. So today I hear you speak. I don't need an explanation. If you tell me more, I don't need a destination. It was coming. I am. >> Oh yeah, >> I'm still walking with you. >> Come on, sing this song right here. >> Walking with me. >> And if I know, >> God is a deliverer. If no one, >> if no one, >> God is going to see us through. >> If no one, our God is the deliverer. If I know one day, my God is going to see us through. If I know one day, I know one day I want to see us through one day. Come on, let this song build faith in you. Come on, let this song build faith in you. He's going to see you through. He's going to see us through. Yeah. >> Yes, you'll see us through. >> Come on, let your faith build. Let your faith build. Let your faith build. >> I'm never alone in the battle. I'm never alone in the desert. You'll see us. I'm never alone in the fire. >> You'll see us through. You'll see us. You'll see us. You'll see us through. You'll see us through. I'm never alone in the water. You'll see us. I'm never alone in addiction. You see us through. I'm never alone in depression. You see us. You see us through. You see in our anxiety. I know. In my darkest moment, I know Jesus never circ. If you will, if I know I know if I know I'm going to He'll see us through and I receive my God. He's going to see us. Yes, he will sing. You made a way. Out of rivers, you made a way. >> Come on, sing this. Out of bondage and darkness. See, you made a way out of des. You made a way out of >> You made a way out of me. You made a way yesterday. You made a way to see Heat. Heat. Heat. One day is going to see us. You'll see us. Come on, just lift up your hands and say, "Thank you, Jesus." Oh, thank you, Lord Jesus. Woo! God, you made a way. You made a way. You made a way. You made a way. Yes, you did. Every time. You did. Every time. Thank you, Jesus. Oh, thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. Come on. Just love him in this place. I feel his presence here so strong. Come on. This is a legacy church. Come on. This is a legacy of worshippers. Thank you, Jesus. This is a legacy of doorkeepers. Yes, you are. You are. You are a good people serving a great God. Oh, thank you, Jesus. Can we just sing that chorus one more time? If I know one thing, >> God is a deliverer. >> If I know one thing, >> God is going to see us through. If I know one thing, God is a deliverer. If I know one thing, God is going to see >> this. One more time. >> And if I know one thing, >> God is a deliverer. >> He's a deliverer. Oh, >> if I know one thing, God is going to see, >> he's going to see you through. If I know one thing, >> God is a deliverer. If I know one thing, God's going to see us. He'll see us through. >> Come on, clap your hands unto the Lord and give him praise. Come on. If you believe he'll deliver you, come on. If you believe he'll make a way, even when there seems to be no way. Thank you, Jesus. Woo! Hey! Oh! Hallelujah! My God! I feel joy in this house. I feel deliverance spirit in this house. I feel victorious spirit right here in this place. Thank you, Jesus. Somebody shout, "Thank you, Jesus." Oh, yeah. Thank you, Jesus. Come on. This is the same spirit that we need here tonight for America's revival. I heard last Sunday we had two or three families that were here just for America's revival from our community. That's huge. Come on, y'all. That's that is so amazing. I love that. I hope they're here this morning. We welcome you. Come on. This community, we're getting together. We're coming together and we're believing that God is going to do great things. The Holy Ghost is gonna be poured out upon all flesh. Pastor Ham preaching tonight. I want you to come ready to receive the word, but not just for us cuz Sunday nights is for the community. Now, we're going to receive. There's no doubt. We're going to get something out of it. But come on, let's come expecting to help somebody else. Can we do that just like you did this morning? You ministered in such a beautiful way. I saw you ministering. It was such a beautiful thing tonight. Let's do it again. But maybe not just for us, but we're going to believe this. We people here. Matter of fact, let's pray this prayer as we close. Father, I believe tonight you're going to bring people into this house. People that we've invited, people have seen the ad in the paper. People who have been online and seen our online content about the revival taking place. God, I believe, Lord, you're going to cause them, Lord God, to be here. It's not by accident. It's on purpose. Lord God, I My God, I feel your Holy Ghost so strong. You're going to do something tonight, God. You're going to fill somebody with your spirit. Somebody's going to make a decision to repent of their sins. They're going to get in the water. They're going to make a decision to go down in the water in Jesus' name for the remission of their sins. And all their sins are going to be remitted tonight, Lord. Great things are going to take place, Lord God. And we, your church, we, your people, Lord, are coming tonight ready, excited, experiencing, going to experience the most wonderful thing, and that's to see lives being changed. In Jesus' name we pray. And the church said, "Amen." God bless you. Love you. We'll see you tonight. Come on, let's be ready. Prayer room is going to open at 5:30. Be ready for church tonight at 6:00.