Doing The Right Thing The Wrong Way Part 4 Series

Right thing the wrong way Pt 4

Sincerely wrong

When King David Moved the ark

Introduction

A. We are continuing our sermon series, “Doing the right thing the wrong way.” A right thing done in a wrong way can be as disastrous as either not doing it at all or even doing a wrong thing. God wants us to do the right thing, but He wants us to do it the right way. This has a lot to do with the attitude of our hearts.

B. We looked at the two men who prayed. One prayed the right way and one prayed the wrong way. It was not the words that they said that made it right or wrong. It was the condition of their hearts that determined whether they prayed the right way or the wrong way.

C. We looked at the two people who questioned God. It is all right to question God but there is a right way to do it and a wrong way.

D. Today we want to talk about be zealous for God. God wants us to be zealous for Him and His ways. Often we refer to this as being ‘on fire for God.” We are going to look at a story about King David in the Old Testament and when he was zealous for God and wanted to bring the ark of God to Jerusalem so worship of Jehovah God would be in the center of the nation. His zeal was good. He was doing the right thing but he did it the wrong way. We will be reading in I Chronicles today but before we do…

Honor God’s Word

Psalm 119:14 “I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, As much as in all riches.”

Text Poll

We are going to be talking about following instructions today, so our text poll is:

When you buy something new do you read the instruction manual first?

Sometimes

Never

Always

A. How important is it to read instruction manuals? Sometimes I do wonder about who the people are who write them. The English is usually broken and often times it does not even make sense.

B. We have been told that men don’t read instruction manuals but women do. I read instruction manuals most of the time when I am putting stuff together.

C. I read an interesting piece of research about following instructions. It was addressing the question, “Is there any difference between men and women?” The results from studying 200 high school students show that women who expect to be more able than men and men who expect to be more able than women outperformed their counterparts. It had more to do with their expectations than whether they were male or female.

D. CORRECT: Always. If you want to do things right, follow the instructions. Listen to Proverbs 8:33. Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not disregard it.

E. Let’s read what God thinks about following instructions. Read the story first in 2 Samuel 6:1-15, then read it again in I Chronicles 13.

David did the right thing 2 Samuel 6:1-15, I Chronicles 13:1-6

A. This story says beyond question that God is as interested about how a thing is done as He is about having it done at all. Doing the right thing the wrong way has been a problem mankind has faced for ages. David learned this principle when he tried by his own devices to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem his own way. It was a costly mistake that cost a man his life. It was the right thing to bring the ark to Jerusalem, but it was wrong the way he did it. When he looked to the scripture for direction the task was completed successfully. You see he was trying to do the right thing, he was simply going about it the wrong way.

B. Do you do it right? Or do you do the right thing? Or do you do the right thing right? There is a big difference between doing the right thing and doing the right thing the right way.

C. I can rob a convenience store but if I do it “right,” I get away with it. It’s the wrong thing done right. Or I can give five bucks to a beggar but if he buys drugs with it, I’ve done the right thing (charity) in the wrong way. We must figure out how to do the right things in the right way.

D. Does it matter how we serve and worship God? We see from our text that it does.

E. Is God only concerned with sincerity, or is He also concerned with obedience to His commands and the truth of His Word? These men in our text were sincere, but they weren't obedient to God's Word.