Kingdom Growth Series

Kingdom Growth

Thesis: David teaches us that there are two-core principles we need to have in our life if we want to grow the kingdom of God. First there is the necessity for a passionate love for God and a heart that communicates regularly with the Lord.

Texts: II Samuel 5-24

I Chronicles 11-29

Introduction: How do we expand the kingdom of God? This is the question we will seek to answer this morning. It’s a question that many ask periodically. I have people come in to my office and ask how can I help the kingdom of God to grow? I want to answer that question today by continuing to explore the life of David. “A man after God’s own heart.” Lets recap the biography of our hero David:

He went from a nobody to somebody- by defeating Goliath, and winning many battles for Israel.

He then went from a somebody to a fugitive– a person with power, fame, fortune, married into royality, commander in chief of an army.

He went from a fugitive with integrity to a king.

Then he became king and grew the kingdom.

David teaches us two kingdom growth principles from the way he grew and expanded the nation of Israel’s domain. In parallel we as the church of Jesus Christ can learn church growth principles by observing how David grew the kingdom. I do want to pause to say that the two principles we are going to look at today are rarely talked about in church growth circles.

I. Principle one is to have a passionate love for the Lord.

a. He wanted God’s presence in the city where he dwelled (II Samuel 6 & I Chronicles 13:1-4).

i. Note verse 3 “Let us bring the ark of our God back to us, for we did not inquire of it during the reign of Saul.”

ii. So he went and got the ark only to experience tragedy in the midst of trying to establish God’s presence in Jerusalem (I Chronicles 13:1-14).

1. Tragedy on the road to Jerusalem. The oxen stumble and the ark looks like its falling off the cart and Uzzah reaches up and touches it. He is killed by the power of the Lord because he touched the ark.

a. He forgot to follow the rules – Leviticus 3:10 “Appoint Aaron and his sons to serve as priests; anyone else who approaches the sanctuary must be put to death.”

i. Time doesn’t change the mind of God when it comes to following his decrees!

ii. Yes the others where worshipping God but rules are rules- there are absolutes in the kingdom. Just like if you climb up to the top of our building and jump off you will get hurt or even killed. But do you here people say, “That was not fair God! He jumped and got hurt!”

b. God warned the nation of Israel that only the Levites where to transport the ark and enter it’s sanctuary. No one else! Even though this is years later God has not changed his mind on the rules- and this tragedy hurt deep.

c. But even though it made David angry it did not crush his love for the Lord because he searched to find out what they did wrong.

2. II Chronicles 15:13 gives us the rest of the story:

13. It was because you, the Levites, did not bring it up the first time that the LORD our God broke out in anger against us. We did not inquire of him about how to do it in the prescribed way."

a. If you fail the first time try again-but learn to do it right.

b. Do your homework and discover the truth. Don’t blame God for your problems when you don’t follow the rules!

c. By the way this all has to do with having a passion for the Lord.

i. Is your passion strong enough to endure a tragedy and to learn from it?

ii. Does your passion drive you deeper into the Lord to discover what you need to do different?

iii. Is you passion deep enough to be teachable?

iii. So eventually David brought home the Ark and passionately worshipped God in front of all Israel- They saw the king passionately, wholeheartedly, no holes bared worshipping the Lord.

1. This was the first time in a long time that Israel observed a leader –the leader showing who he served and loved.

2. He was so delighted at bringing home the ark he danced, and sang. Listen to this Psalm of passionate thanks!

3. I Chronicles 16:7-36:

7. That day David first committed to Asaph and his associates this psalm of thanks to the LORD:

8. Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done.