Amen. Will you turn, please, to 2 Samuel chapter 6 again? My text actually is found in the same story, only it's over in 1 Chronicles 13-14, but open your Bibles at 2 Samuel chapter 6, and then I will read the text from 1 Chronicles 13, 14. This is the word I want to leave with you this first Sunday of this new year. Listen to it carefully. And the Lord blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that he had. And the Lord blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that he had. I trust and I pray, this is what I have been praying for, that the Lord will bless this house, this congregation in 2024. I also have been praying for your households and your families, that the Lord will bless your household and your families in 2024. And they also have been praying consistently that the Lord would bless each community member, this congregation, and each attendant who comes along to the house of God. God will bless you whatever your needs may be. Whether it is a blessing of salvation, a blessing of the healing touch, a spiritual blessing that we all covet ever so much, as the people of God. I have been praying that God's blessing will reach you and touch you and enrich you. And the Lord blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that he had. When David became king over all Israel, his first priority was to have the ark of God transported from the house of a man called Abin Madav, where it had been for 20 years, at least. Deva wanted to have the Ark in the capital city of Jerusalem. He wanted to have the Lord at the center of the spiritual life of the nation, as well as at the center of the political life of the nation. Unfortunately, he failed to consult God about the matter, and as a result, he did things the wrong way. There's always a right way to do something, and then there is always the wrong way to do something. Sadly, because David did not do things the right way, it led to a great tragedy. And furthermore, it led to loss of life. Let me explain. As the ark was moved to Jerusalem, the oxen pulling the cart on which the ark had been placed stumbled. And a man named Asa reached out his hand to steady it. It should never have been on the cart to begin with. And as this man also touched or laid hold upon the ark, God's anger burned against him. And immediately he was struck down dead. He died on the spot because he put his hand to the ark of God. Now the punishment does appear to be very extreme for what we might consider to be a good deed. After all, he was seeking to help the Ark. Well, God doesn't need any of our help. And he had made it clear that you don't use a cart to move the Ark of God. You use the steves that are placed on the Ark itself to carry the Ark wherever you journey. David ignored God's word. The ark should have been carried on the shoulders of the Levites. David was displeased with God. Can you imagine that? A human being, good man that he was. He was displeased with God. And that word displeased simply means he was angry with God. He was angry with God because of what had happened. He was to blame. He was at fault, but he blamed God for what had happened. And as a result, he refused to take the Ark of God any further. Instead, he ordered it to be carried into the home of one of the locals, a man called Obed-Edom. After the anticlimax of his first attempt to bring the Ark to Jerusalem, there could have been little joy in David's soul. He must have been miserable. When he left the ark in Obed, Obed Edom's house, he was frustrated, and I hasten to add, he was fearful. David and Israel had to learn a sober lesson. Us's death had so badly shaken David that he abandoned his plans and returned to Jerusalem in a huff with God. His anger with God. And for the next three months, the ark of God remained in the house of this Gittite, this man called Obed-Edom, and the Bible does emphasize in Samuel and in the Chronicles that the Lord blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that they had. So, the event that had turned out to be tragic for David proved to be a blessing for this man, Obed-Edom, and all of his house. I have three simple things I want to highlight here from our story. Bear with me, pray for me. Open your ears to hear. Focus your attention upon the preaching of the word. There's the place of a blessing. The Lord blessed the house of Obed-Edom. And of course, this does not refer to a building, a structure as such. Here in verse 11 of 2 Samuel 6, it refers to his household. So it's not really just the building, the structure. The Lord blessed his family. The Lord blessed all that he had. What does that teach us? that the Lord is interested in the homes of God's people. And the reason for the blessing is clear in verse 12 of 2 Samuel 6. It was because of the ark. And as many of you will be aware, the ark was a symbol of the presence of God. The ark was the centerpiece of this home for three months, 90 days. So, we could really say then, in the light of what I said, it was a Christ-centered home. That ought to be our aim. That ought to be the goal of every child of God, to have a Christ-centered home. They were constantly reminded of something. Of what? God is holy. And the place where us had died before the Lord was nearby. That's why David left it in the house of Obed-Edom because it was nearby. So every day, the sons, Obed-Edom and his family, oh, they knew something. God is holy. So the message is very clear to me. I can see this. Don't touch the ark. Don't meddle with God. Don't get familiar with the things of God. Now, there's no reason to think that Usseh was an unholy man. I think that he was doing a good thing. He thought he was doing a good thing rather, by helping, by preventing the ark from falling off the cart. So I don't think that he was an evil man, but I think maybe the problem was The ark had been in his home for 20 years, and maybe he just became too familiar with it. It's very easy to become familiar with holy things, the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. So the message is clear, God is holy. Don't touch the ark, don't meddle with God, don't get familiar with the things of God. Obed Edom welcomed the ark, And in so doing, he welcomed the presence of God into his house. The most important piece of tabernacle furniture was the ark. As I said a moment ago, a symbol of God's presence. It was just a wooden chest covered in gold. And I think that speaks to us of the humanity of Christ and the deity of Christ. And it was overlaid, it had a lid on the ark. and that was known as the mercy seat. There were two solid gold cherubim facing each other, covering it with its wings. And this is what God said, there I will meet with thee and I will commune with thee from above, there at the mercy seat and from between the cherubim. So this was a very solemn place. And God says, I will communicate to you from there. Now, inside the ark, there were three items. Hebrews 9, 4. Two tables of stone, pot of manna, and Aaron's rod that bought it. They all spoke of Christ. Do you see where I'm going now? The tables of stone had the law of God written upon them that spoke of the obedience of Christ. Because he said, thy law is within my heart. Christ Jesus kept the law of God perfectly as no other man did or could. He kept the law for his people, by the way. The manna spoke of Christ, the manna from heaven. It spoke of his incarnation, his coming from above to meet the needs of his people. Aaron's rod that budded number 17 spoke of the resurrection. And the ark was where God communed with Israel. And for us today, as children of God, we approach and commune with God through Christ. For the Bible says, no man cometh on to the father, but by me. We approach God the father through Christ the son. Think about the ark. Don't meddle with God. It's Christ that's here. Christ is the one who brings us now to God. So the Philistines, they saw the ark and they trembled. Remember what happened to them when they captured the ark. Remember Dagon, the fish god, how it fell before the ark of the Lord. This was to teach that the Lord in all things must have a preeminence. He must have all the glory. So the Philistines, they saw the ark and trembled. Asa, he touched the ark and died. David abandoned the ark and feared. Obed-Edom welcomed the ark and was blessed. One day, Obed-Edom heard a knock at his door. Little did he know what was about to happen. He heard the voice saying, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man open, I will come in and dwell with him. So that day, it was the Lord, it may have been David, it may have been some of the servants, but in reality, it was the Lord knocking upon the door of old Ben Edom's home. Behold, I stand at the doorknob. Do you hear me knocking? I will come in and I will dwell with you. What an irony. That David should treat the ark like a hot potato, drop it in another man's lap, and then say, God bless that man. That's exactly what happened. Exactly what happened. Obed-Edom had a place in his house for God. He discovered that blessing comes through God's presence. That is true. God's blessing comes through his presence. It's easy to lose the conscious sense of God's presence, as in the case of Samson. Oh, he did great exploits for God. Powerful, mighty man. But he wished not that the spirit of God had departed from him. He was arrested. His eyes were gored out. His hair, of course, was cut. He was chained. Ah, there's a lesson there for us all. It's possible to lose the conscious presence of God. Is that your experience? Has that happened to you? Has that happened to any one of us? including the preacher, it's possible for that to happen. Sadly, Israel had lost the ark years before, way back in 1 Samuel chapter four. They lost the ark. They lost the conscious presence of God with them, and disaster after disaster followed on. But the home of Obadiah then became a sanctuary. No wonder he was blessed. I suppose, let's bring it right up to date. He was saying, welcome Lord Jesus. There's always a place in my home for you. There's always a place in my heart for thee. Come Lord Jesus, come into my home, into my life, into my family. I want the blessing of God. Come Lord Jesus. I need thee. I can't live without thee. I can't survive without thee. I need thy blessing for 2024. The name Obed Edom consists of two parts. Obed meaning work or service. Edom, Adam, or man, or red man, if you like. The name means the servant of Edom or the servant of the red one or the servant of the red man. A Jewish scholar says, this is what he says, Obed means a servant who honors God in a right way. Edom, one who causes to blush. What's the significance of that? What was he trying to get across? What message was he trying to communicate? Well, this is the way he interpreted things. Obed Edom was a man who made David blush with shame. because David was afraid to receive the ark. And Obed-Edom, on the other hand, he welcomed the ark and he was truly blessed. He took the ark into his home without any hesitation. He rendered true service unto God. There's the place of the blessing, the house or the household of Obed-Edom. Then let's think for a moment or two about the purpose of the blessing. In verse 12 of 2 Samuel 6, this is what we read. Listen to it now. Are you listening carefully? It was told King David saying, the Lord have blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that pertaineth unto him. God's blessing upon his people will be observed. People will take notice of it. Others had heard, they had seen something of God's blessing upon this man. And that's a challenging thought now. The reason for this blessing is clearly stated, as I had mentioned before, it was because of the ark. The blessings of God are never secret. They cannot be hidden. It was an experienced blessing because the Lord half blessed. It was an extensive blessing because the Lord blessed all that he had. And it was an evident blessing because it was told David, other people were talking about it. They were talking about the blessing that this man experienced. I wonder, I just wonder how many people talk about you or me. Well, when you get a lot of people doing that for different reasons, But I'm thinking especially, do they talk about the blessing of the sea? Do they talk about the blessing that is evident in your life and my life? That's a challenging thought, a challenging question. We may not want to face it on, but we've got to look at it. Others could see it. There's definitely something different now. Whatever it was, I cannot say. Maybe he had been poor, as one commentator said, and then he became prosperous. I don't know. But I do know this, that he prospered spiritually. The Lord blessed him. The Lord put a smile in his countenance, joy in his heart, a skip in his step. That's what the blessing of God does. Other things rob us of the blessing, but the blessing of God hath no sorrow. It makes us rich spiritually. Abimelech and his friends said to Isaac, we saw certainly that the Lord was with thee. What did they say? This is what they concluded. Thou art now the blessed of the Lord. That was some testimony. Joseph's master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper, Genesis 39. And we're told that the Lord blessed the Egyptians' house for Joseph's sake. Have we been a blessing to anybody else's household or family or another individual? Have we drawn near to them in their time of need and put an arm around their shoulder and say, let's come, we'll pray with you, we'll encourage you in the Lord. We know how you feel, or we think we know how you feel. Let me take time to pray with you, to share your load, to share your burden. Christlikeness! That's exactly what the Savior would do. And this is what Saul saw. Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David. Oh, he was jealous of that. He was as mad as a hatter as we would say. He tried to kill him. He tried to pin him against the wall. Why? Because he knew beyond the shadow of a doubt he had the anointing of God upon him. He was God's man. And that caused this man to be filled with hatred and jealousy. And he died a miserable man, as he had lived a miserable man. I wonder, David, how they play on the instrument to bring calm to his troubled mind. That's what happens when we go to touch with God. We need the minstrel. That's it. We need the minstrel to come and play to us. Laban said of Jacob, oh, Jacob wasn't anything special. The old heel catcher. You either like him or you don't like him. Laban said of Jacob, I have learned by experience. I've learned by experience. I've noticed this. I've detected this. I've seen this. I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for thy sake. How there's a beautiful picture there. We can apply this to Christ. The Lord blesses us for Jesus' sake. Oh, isn't that a treasure? The Lord blesses us for Jesus' sake. It makes me want to shout glory all the day. Oh, the joy of the Lord is our strength. it will be reflected in her countenance. The joy of the Lord is a strength said Nehemiah. Divine fullness, divine blessing comes through Christ. When he heard, that is when David heard how God had less obeyed him, he was stirred up to seek that same blessing. He learned a vital lesson. You've got to obey God. God's work needs to be done God's way. God will not have it any other way. You've got to comply with my wishes and what I've revealed in the Holy Scripture. So it is clear to me that David had his heart searched before God in the quiet place. Obviously, he had consulted the scriptures like Chronicles, for example. to discover how he should handle the ark of God. So he searched his heart, and he confessed his sins, and he turned to the law of God to discover God's instructions for carrying the ark. And David said, none ought to carry the ark but the Levites. He discovered something. He learned a lesson, but it cost high. It cost high. The ark had steers, it didn't have wheels. It was to be correct. Holy things cannot be used in some mechanical fashion. Philistines, they knew no better. God didn't judge them for putting the ark on a cart. They were doing what they thought was right. They had no insight into the teaching of the word of God. They were ignorant of these things. So the Lord didn't strike them down. He did that in other times. And David was just doing what the ungodly did. Something new, something novel. Give me old time religion, performed and carried out in the old fashioned way. I don't want something new, something fancy, something novel. That's what David thought. This is a new idea. This is a novel idea. I think there is this danger in this age. And their descendants are still with us today. Something new, something different. They have more pleasure in putting their religion in new carts than carrying it personally. Don't ask me to carry the Ark. That's too outdated. That's too old-fashioned for me. That's really what happened. And David had a high price to pay. He perceived the frown of God upon his life, as opposed to what Obed-Edom received, the favor of God. God's work must be done in God's way. Some get angry when their plans do not get the green light from heaven. That's really what happened with David. And he got bitter. He wanted to do it his way. And God said, no, you're not getting away with that. You've got to do it my way or no way at all. I'm going to teach you a lesson, David. You've got to do it my way. That's exactly what he did. And so he got better. I mentioned he was displeased with what God did. That word simply means angry. He got better. So he left the ark. This is what really he was saying by his action. I'm going to let someone else do it for me. I'm not going to bother with this anymore. I've had enough. I tried my best. No, I didn't. It was folly. It was foolish. But that's what he said in his heart. And because of this kind of attitude, he lost out. And for the next three months, for the next 90 days, God blessed Obed-Edom in a powerful way because he cared for the ark. Do you care enough for Christ to always welcome him? Do you care enough for the Son of God to always obey him, to walk before him in truth, to submit yourself to him by the enabling of the Holy Spirit? Will you go through with God in 2024? Will you serve him with all of your heart and all of your mind and all of your soul? Or will you be like this man who tried to do God's work his way, and then when God didn't approve, he became angry, displeased, pointing the finger at God. It was a barren period for David, but it was a blessed period for Obed-Edom. So the Bible says in verse 10, David would not remove the ark He would not remove the ark, how miserable he must have felt at that time. But then it was told, the king in verse 12, it was told the king about the blessing of God upon Obed-Edom. And then we're told that David brought up the ark. Everybody was talking about it. And the news came into the palace, into David's court, into his home. So David was encouraged to seek the ark again. And if anyone here has lost out with God, God has moved in the congregation. Hearing a young man praying today who has been restored to the joy of the Lord, this is what God can do. This is how God blesses a home and how God blesses a family. If anyone has lost out with God, 2023 has been a disaster for you. What about 2024? What about coming back to the Lord? What about yielding to him again? What about seeking first the kingdom of God? What about giving him priority of place? And if done with your foolishness, and if done with your sin, whatever it may be, God alone knows. And get right with God, and press into the kingdom if you're not yet converted. He thought to himself, if God could bless Obed-Edom and this house, surely God can bless me. Think about the strength in that little word, so. So, and oh, what a wonderful message. So David went and brought up the ark of God. That word, so, it really means for this reason, that is because God blessed Obed-Edom. The blessing of God is never intended for one individual. The blessing of God is intended for many. The joy of Jerusalem experienced at this time came on account of the blessing of Obed-Edom. And the David thought to himself, well, I want this blessing. I'm sure other people who were there that day and saw the hand of God made there, I'm sure they said the same thing. God is holy. I need to seek him. I need to get right with him because God is holy. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a holy God. Therefore seek him today. Repent of your sins and believe the gospel. And I could go on and talk at length about the proof of the blessing. But time forbids me that. But since it is the first Sunday of the new year, and I don't often get to be here on a Sunday, I'm just going to take a little bit of liberty. Bear with me, pray for me. But I might not get carried away, start all over again. Here's the proof of a blessing. The Lord blessed the house of Obed-Edom. For all that honor me, I will honor God said. That's the promise of God. Obed-Edom is described in chronicles as the Gittite. And why is it called the Gittite? Well, I think he's probably associated with Gath. Maybe he came from Gath-Rimmon, a Levitical city that was given to the sons of Kohath, Joshua 21. I don't know for sure. I don't know for sure. But I do know that the word Gath means the oil press. the place of crushing, the place of breaking. Thus the name Gethsemane that we come across in the New Testament, the garden was the place where the olive crop was gathered and pressed. Gath means press. Semeni derives from the Hebrew word for oil, thus the oil press. As I mentioned before, Obed-Edom means the servant of man. and indicate servitude. Let me apply something spiritual from this statement that I just made. It is through the son of man who took upon him the form of a servant that the blessing of God has come to this family and comes to the king of the land, and it is through the work of Jesus Christ that the blessing of God comes to his people and comes to men through the work of him, who became the great servant of all to go to the cross. Think of Gethsemane. Think of the man, Christ Jesus in Gethsemane, a place of crushing. Think about Golgotha. Think about the cry, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Think about what he said, it is finished, it's done. We come to go through Christ. And if you reject this Christ, one day he will become your judge. And one day he will have to sentence you because of your sin. and he will say, depart from me, you cursed. I never knew you. I've got to move on. In other places, you've got to take my word for it here. Study the scriptures this afternoon and find the places. The word of God tells us that God increased his children and his children's children till there was among them 62 able-bodied men. Does that not sound something like the blessing of God? I think it does. Here's the proof of it. God gave the increase, whether he increased prosperity, I don't know, but I know that God increased the family because the Lord blessed the house or the household of Obed-Edom. So there are 62 able-bodied men, all held in repute, all fit for the Lord's work. Moreover, the sons of Obed-Edom, the same man, for God blessed him, it says, and his sons are mentioned as porters. God has honored him. His family is in the service of God. God has honored him. Physical strength is also mentioned because as porters, it was required of them not only to be sentinels of the sacred edifice and its precious furniture against the attacks of the plunderers, but also to be, in fact, a military guard. God blessed this man and his household. Members of his family are porters, they're singers, they're praising God, they're in the service of God. This is the blessing of God. Is that the kind of blessing you want? It's the kind of blessing I want for my home, my family, my loved ones. All the kind of cars and the kind of homes and expensive lifestyle and everything else, those things are good in their own place. But the day of death comes and all disappears. Leave a legacy. Family walking with God, singing his praise, going through with God. What about the house of Mary? There was a young man in that house, Acts chapter 12, and we know that it was a place where prayer was made. She had a son called Mark. He was brought up in a prayerful environment, and he witnessed firsthand the praying, the preaching, and the power of the early church. He was brought early under the influence of the things of God, and it seems that Peter had the joy of pointing him to Christ, because he calls him, my son, in 1 Peter 5, 13. Prayer offered in the home was answered after a shaky start, and he didn't do too well at the start, and that's the way it happens with us all, you know. There's no room for complacency. We all can look back. And how many testimonies have we heard about people getting saved and then they go to a college or go somewhere else and they lose out with God and then they're away for a few years and then God comes and mighty power. How come? Well, there's the proof that God answers prayer, even though they wander, they are rescued again and brought back because of prayers, by praying family. God answers prayer, you know. In chapter 21 verse eight, we'd read there about the house of Philip. He was an evangelist. He was the man who pointed the Ethiopian unit to Jesus on the Gaza road. His four daughters, they were called evangelists, whatever that means. They followed in their father's footsteps. Well, being an evangelist, he was a man of the word. The word was honored in that home. And the four daughters followed in the footsteps of the father who believed the word. Over in Philemon, in the house of Archippus, we read about the church in his house. The company of believers met for worship there in his home. The house constituted a little church. Domestic life is important, and it should revolve around church life. Here is a testimony to the value of the Christian home and the blessedness of Christian fellowship. He lived in a place called Colossae. He had a slave. Well, does that surprise you? He was a slave, a man called Inesimus. I find it difficult to understand what he wanted to leave, the ploy of this good godly man, but he did. He ran away, you see. And in the providence of God, He arrived in Rome where Paul was a prisoner for some unknown reason to us and the purpose of God, probably because our keepers prayed along with the rest of the family who met in the church in the house that God would follow after this young man. Oh, he tried to run away, but he couldn't get away from the prayers of the church. And the apostle Paul had the joy. of counseling Onesimus, pointing him to Christ, and writing the letter, the little book of Philemon, you take that back to Philemon and tell him, if you owe anything, I'd be responsible. Isn't that the gospel truth there? Jesus is saying, Father, they owe you a great debt, but put it in my account, and I'd pay the price. And surely he did, he paid the price. Outside the wall of the city of Jerusalem, the ransom price. What a savior. What a wonderful redeemer. He had done all things well. But to cut a long story short, Onesimus got saved, most likely in answer to prayer. So God blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that he had. There's the place, the house or the household, There's the purpose of the blessing so that others, especially King David, would seek for that blessing too. And then there's a proof of it. Do we have proof in the Bible? Yes, we do. We have proof that God blessed this man because God always honors his promise. You can find those places for yourself. Chronicles is probably there. Look them out today. Don't waste the time. Redeem the time today. And remember this, God bless the house of Obed-Edom and all that they had. May God bless this house. May God bless this congregation. May God bless your household and your family. And more particularly, may God bless you. We'll bow for prayer. Father, bless thy word. We pray that as it has been given from the Lord, so may it be received thus from the Lord. May the Lord touch all of our hearts, beginning in the pulpit. flow now to every pew, the ground floor and the gallery, to those who are seated in their homes right now. O God, give unto each one of us a desire for this blessing, for our own hearts and our own lives. Now may the grace of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit rest and abide upon all of God's believing people. Now and forevermore, we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.