Latest / Goodlife Church Formation Podcast / Lessons on following God's detailed instructions from King David and Hezekiah
Transcript
- Jack: Alrighty, welcome back, another episode of the Good Life Formation podcast. ⁓ I have Pastor Dave with me, not Pastor Bex. ⁓ Dave, where in the world are you? Dave Connett: Well I'm ⁓ w well look, Rebecca is over in Rome right now. Hopefully he's sleeping, in getting through the jet lag. I'm at ⁓ I'm at Nobbies. ⁓ I've come ⁓ between appointments to have a run. My problem is, Jack, that I was at the gym this morning and dropped the ⁓ landmine press with thirty-five kilos ⁓ on my ⁓ big toe of my right foot and I just tried to actually take a few steps. I can't even walk right now, let alone run. I'm trying to train from high rocks and so I'm at Nobby's ready to go. I can't do it anyway. I don't know. Jack: You know what, Dave? I feel it's the Lord's judgment on you for participating in hierarchies. Dave Connett: Look, say what you will, Jack, but look, at least I'm not wearing ⁓ lycra as I'm doing it, like you do when you do your exercises. Jack: Well, I don't get injured when I do my exercises. And I can Dave Connett: The Lord jud the Lord judges you in other ways, I'm sure. Jack: ⁓ I'm sure he does. ⁓ okay, so well speaking of the Lord's judgment, then we can move straight in. what a segue. Yesterday, ⁓ well at the time of recording, ⁓ yesterday, you preached at Good Life week something of ⁓ of our series on the the Raiders of the Last Ark. Dave Connett: ⁓ what a what a segue. What the Yes, ⁓ week week four. So we've gone through the whole c concept of the ⁓ the the the the the tent of meeting, ⁓ which later became obviously the temple after Solomon built it. ⁓ but we've gone through the outer courts and all of the ⁓ all of the ⁓ significant aspects there. ⁓ the ⁓ the holy place and the significant aspects there. Then last week we talked about the the veil being taught the the significance of the veil. And the barrier that was between us and God, then that gets cut ⁓ between ⁓ when Jesus' body and blood was spilt and he said it is finished, the veil was torn from top to bottom, and then this week it's all about the ark. The ark is the presence of God, the mercy seat on top of that with the cherubim and all the bits and bobs that when I was young, I was like, ⁓ unnecessary detail. Jack, the detail was necessary in this one. Jack: Are you implying that when you were young you thought it was unnecessary, but now that you're old, it is necessary? Dave Connett: I look what I we ⁓ often I I I look it's probably look it it's a mixture of ⁓ strength and weakness with me, Jack. We just wanna look let's get to the real things. Why are we stuck in the salient detail? Sometimes that weakness is that the salient detail is quite ⁓ necessary. Even things things with this arc about how it was built to had these special rings and then poles and they're covered in gold. And I like I've read the Bible cover to cover a a bunch of times and actually gone through these stories a bunch of times separately to my like daily reading and annual reading. But I just like, okay, so s there's there's poles and there's there's eyelets and then there's the okay the covenant got like do you I mean like I was just like, okay, cool. Like I get it. ⁓ but funnily enough, when you dig into it, they are quite significant and there's a lot of meaning to it. And there's a reason why God makes it that way. Jack: Mm. Yeah, totally. There they're ⁓ g God knows better than we do, right? And ⁓ I mean some of that came up in your message. Maybe we'll get to it ⁓ we'll get to it whether it's how David hand David handled the cart or even Hezekiah, I'd love to press on. You know, you alluded to Hezekiah, but really part of the intention of this ⁓ this podcast is to find out what didn't make it to the sermon. If people want to go back and listen, they they're welcome to check out the YouTubes and ⁓ find the recording there. That'll be Monday, the ⁓ Sunday the Dave Connett: Yeah. Yeah. Jack: Fourteenth of June. But you know, if you were to think about what didn't make it through, what is what is left on your office whiteboard, as it were. ⁓ do you even have a whiteboard anymore? But but what's left on the whiteboard? Dave Connett: ⁓ Look, currently I don't have an office. So ⁓ the good thing is that a lot of what I can do isn't lo it doesn't have to be locked into a space. So yes, I have whiteboards and ⁓ wall planners. It's all very visual with me, Jack. But ⁓ it's for me it's all about efficacy. How do I actually make sure that I have an efficient use of space and my brain space is huge. So so but yeah, currently no whiteboard because my office is being ⁓ changed into a mother's room and the mother's room is being changed into more auditorium room because of the Growth at Good Life Church. And so good problems. I like these problems as a pastor, but ⁓ if that means that one day I'll get a whiteboard back, currently I'm running out of the crace rooms and all sorts of stuff. What got left on the whiteboard? ⁓ well, as you go through the different aspects of the message, because we're valuing the presence of God. And so we talked about the value of the presence of God first up when David becomes king and he's like, I need the ark in. in town. I need the ark, the presence of God near me. It had been ⁓ under Saul's leadership, it had been lost in a fight, in a war, ⁓ to their enemies. And then the enemies were cursed and so they sent it back. And that's quite the story of golden rats and tumors. That's that's some great Bible reading right there. We should dig into that one day. But David's like from where the from where the ⁓ where where his enemies left it, ⁓ let's bring it back. And so he like He didn't just start valuing the presence of God when he became king, though. ⁓ I think he became king because he valued the presence of God. You see, all the way from the start, David is a worshiper. He's a worshiper from the start. He's he's practicing his tunes, and those psalms that we get, we get a bunch of the psalms are written by David, but he's a worshiper from the start. Out in the middle of nowhere, he learns how to ⁓ pour out his heart before God, worship, praise, declare. And and I I That it's that deal of being a worshiper where you declare the goodness of God that shapes your mind and your soul. Very hard to maintain a negative spirit when you've got a praising mouth. ⁓ out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And so if you can declare, you can actually change the heart content. And so that's actually a powerful thing that we teach at Good Life Church. I didn't get the chance to go into it. We've done it in other series where the confession and the praise and the worship of our God. Literally changes the aspect or the way that we see the world and the way that we respond in situations. But David was a worshiper from the start. Now, because of that, he gets identified and called into Saul's courts because when he worships Saul's spirit, which was agitated because Saul was becoming quite the jackwagon. And so, but then you find he gets calmed. And so even then when Saul realizes you're a threat. Well, he thinks David's a threat. He sees David's star rising and thinks this guy's gonna take me down. So Saul chases him down, tries to pin him to the wall, throws spears at him, tries to kill him. David ends up running for his life, ends up with his own little army. He's not a he's not in rebellion against Saul. He's actually just trying to get by. And so even when Saul, you know, David had an opportunity to kill Saul. He refuses to touch God's anointed. And I don't think that's because Saul was good to him. I think that's because God was good to him and he knew it. He'd been shaped by valuing the presence of God. And God looks at that guy and says, I like the cut of his jib. That could be a king that we could, yeah. I mean, if that could be reproduced, we'd be in a great place. And so David was a worshipper from the start. He didn't value the presence of God when he became king, he already valued it. and then was anointed as king and then brought the presence of God back into Jerusalem. Jack: Hmm. And so then, you know, they they pursued the ark as you described. And it seems a as I heard it, you know, sitting there listening to it, it they they kind of went about it their own way and kind of neglected to check in on why to your point of like the the details of the scriptures, they neglected to pay attention to the detail that God had dis prescribed, maybe because they thought they knew better or maybe they were taking shortcuts, but ultimately it Dave Connett: Yep. Jack: It didn't go well for them, right? Dave Connett: It's it's an interesting one. It's ha it's hard to ⁓ I s I suppose I suppose prescribe intent. But their intent was to bring the ark back. Their intent was to value God, the intent was to worship God. The intent was we need the presence of God in the middle of our society. But if you read in Exodus twenty five, you find those rings and the poles and the gold and everything. Why? Because the ark was meant to be carried by people and so We did get to that in the message that we're meant to not just visit the presence of God. I'm not just meant to worship God. I'm meant to carry the presence of God. It's designed all the way for us to actually carry the presence of God. And so those rings and poles, if you dig into in Exodus 25, then when you get to ⁓ the story when David's like, let's bring it back, it says they put the ark on a new cart. And I kind of was like, I found that odd. I'm like, you this is how it's built. The poles are already there. You just need people to carry it according to what's listed in scriptures. And so David, just go that way. But they built a new cart, which means they went to extra bother. ⁓ they you know like this was built built for purpose. Jack: Do do you think do you think if you were to if you were to ⁓ to take a stab, do you think they were being rebellious or just being lazy? Like they didn't want to carry it so they built a trolley for it? What do you think? Dave Connett: Look, I I I think if they had of bothered to read the scriptures and dig in and say, Okay, let's think this further. What not just okay, I wanna get the presence of God back, how would God do it? W is there anything in the scriptures that lead us towards it? I think there's it speaks to the diligence of their soul to search the scriptures, to let the scriptures be the one that informs and directs. And so I just think that was sloppy. ⁓ Jack: Yeah, li is lazy, really is prob probably what happened. Dave Connett: Right. I don't think it's laziness because we don't want to carry. I think it's a laziness that we're not diligent to search the scriptures to follow what God's directives are. So if if you read the scriptures, you'd be like, well, just trust him. And sometimes there's areas, I didn't get to delve into this, but sometimes there's areas of life where we go, Well, do we have to do it God's way? Like what I mean, the Bible, it can be old. It can be like even it's now 2026. I I if can I, with every area when it comes to Jack: Really, if I was God I'd do it just Dave Connett: Difficult areas that are politically incorrect to tackle. Can I just follow God's directives and trust that He is the creator, He is the provider, He is the protector? It's kind of odd that I would impose my directions into areas that God gives directions. That's me assuming that I know better and I'm God. And I don't know if anyone really fits the bill right there. Can we just trust Him when it comes to difficult spaces, when it comes to finances, our future? Can I trust him that when I've got an issue with fear or anxiety, that I follow the word of God on how to actually there's antidotes in the Bible right there. How ⁓ look, I've you know people that have got a habit pattern of ⁓ of lust when it comes to either physical or then digital lust, can I follow the word of God on how to actually go about that? Can I just trust him that his ways are higher, that higher than the heavens are above the earth? That's where God's ⁓ that's where God's intent and thoughts and plans for us are. ⁓ I'm gonna assume that Uzzah, who put his hands out, had good intentions. ⁓ no, the thing's gonna fall down. And so we get we so Uzzah's one of the guys around and carrying like directing the cart, the new cart, we've done all that. It's about to trip and it's about to fall. So Uzzah puts his hand up, he dies. I'm gonna assume good intentions right there, but here's what you need to know. A, if you follow God's ways, there's no like if you don't impose your ways. There's no need for this to happen. Here's the next thing. From a worldly perspective, God doesn't need your defense. God does not need your protection. and so it it's it's a it's a tough situation to get your head around with Uzar, but they weren't following God's directions. And that actually was the thing that led to the situation with Uzar. And then David's like, I don't know if I want to bring this back. Like, just read the scriptures and follow what it says. So it got left in Obed Edom's house for Three months the guy gets blessed out of his skin so much that David's like, look, I I'm scared about this. So what we can do is we're gonna go there. And that that point they searched the scriptures. At that point they carried it back with with with the men carrying it in the right way with the poles and the and the and the the loops and all kinds of different stuff. ⁓ I j I just think they're hope it's sloppy because you can see that they've they've followed it the second time. Jack: Yeah. Well it it sounds to me, and as I heard you preach it, it's like well, if they had a paid attention to the presence of God as it was prescribed, they're not going up gone about it their own way, they wouldn't have had to prop God up. The the the no the necessity of Oozar propping up the presence of God was because they failed to do it the prescribed way in the first instance. Dave Connett: Right. Yes. And I ⁓ so so Jack, knowing that my person, and this is ⁓ obviously you've been on our team for a while, and when I talk about salient detail, you know that I'm being slightly sarcastic. ⁓ but my brain doesn't go there. I'm a big picture apostolic, we're gonna reach the world, ⁓ we're gonna speak the truth, and then it it it's in there are people on team, and you're included as one of those. That to go, okay, we're following have we actually thought this through? Have we got the detail? And it's that mixture of big picture detail, the big heart, the the small detail really is really is needed. There should have been someone on King David's team going, ⁓ Exodus 25. Can can we read this? And I've got that's why we have a committee management at Good Life Church, is why to look at the financial and legals, why we have eldership or what we call the DLT, long story how we got that name, but Essentially to be able to go, are we following the direction that God's given us? Are we valuing God, His Word, His people? There should be someone going, Hey boss, can we just it there's got to be people in our world that can speak to us on the difficult topics because when you're blind, you need people to go, hey mate, you're blind. I know you've got a good heart here, but you're not following the details. And so I I'm my natural tendency is to skip over some salient details. But if it's in the word of God, We are gonna do it. Like it's a it's a yes. Everything holds for us to actually be obedient to the word of God. So I want people in my world. I think we all should have people in our world that can hold us to account going, Are you following what God's got for your life? Jack: Right. And maybe just block your ears for a minute, Dave, if I may have permission to speak slightly pastorally to to Goodlifers listening. ⁓ though Dave says he skips over some of the salient details, having had an inside road for an extended an inside lane for an extended period of time, I I wanna assure everyone that Pastor Davenbecks do sweat the small stuff and do pay attention to the details, though sometimes the presentation is, you know, very ⁓ very visitor friendly or maybe perceived as superficial at times. There is an incredible amount of depth and attention to detail that may get lost in charisma, but absolutely exists. And there are guardrails for those details to be surfaced if and when necessary. So there is an incredible incredible amount of depth or detail that may get ⁓ may get looked over in charisma, but it is absolutely there. Dave Connett: Yeah. Look I look, I appreciate that, Jack. I I mean and you know for this ⁓ I I'm I'm actually okay that God chose me to be the pastor. ⁓ it took me a while to get there. No ⁓ and no, I and ⁓ I no I appreciate I appreciate that. But it was actually quite a wrestle because pastoring a church is quite a serious business. ⁓ to stand in the gap for a city of half a million people is quite a serious business. ⁓ and I got into pastoring 'cause I love God and love people and then realised there's a lot more to there's a lot more to this and so Jack: Yes. So am I. Dave Connett: We really do delve into with diligence into all those things. And I appreciate that your perspective is not that just you're the diligent detail guy, but you you telling the church that that's how it works. But I am actually okay with my very sanguine personality. It's not an excuse for sloppiness or sin. It's not an excuse for my flesh. And every personality, sometimes we have excuses for why we have flesh or sloppiness. And so diligence is the answer to that. How do I actually allow my personality to give the best to serve others in Jesus' name? And so I coined this term a little while ago that at Good Life Church, we're gonna be lighthearted, but we're not lightweight. I don't want lightweight. And so the presentation of the gospel, the way that we go about it, is actually very well thought through. What we're looking to do is to grab the difficult concepts of scripture. the difficult ⁓ yum the politically incorrect concepts of scripture the very detailed and make it user friendly and the way that we go about that is by making sure it's lighthearted. Now that's my style. Now I'm not asking Jack when you when you preach to to divorce your style ⁓ but I'm looking obviously if I'm then leading a church sometimes I'm like okay like your communication has gone leaps and bounds i in in your ability to be able to bring the teaching of the word of God and to bring people around when we've just massaged it. And so you're always thinking what's the style. Content must remain strong, but the style, I'm I'm just gonna say lighthearted is going to be pretty standard issue. But it also that's on purpose because a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. I'll get people laughing, you watch after I get them laughing, then you know the word of God is actually presented quite strong and direct because I'm wanting people to go You know you're right. ⁓ and so there's a there's a lot of method behind that the ⁓ there is no madness, but if you think there's madness, you're actually you're misunderstanding it. ⁓ we're clear, we're purposeful, ⁓ we're diligent, and we're wanting to be user friendly. Jack: Mm. Love it. ⁓ in the the remaining minutes that we've got, do you wanna touch on maybe the Hezekiah story stood out to me or we we finished on the the repentance piece? What else? Yeah, what else didn't make it or do you want to touch on Dave Connett: Yeah. ⁓ look, th th it was probably the d in-depth aspects of the Hezekiah ⁓ stuff. He was the first king after David to in state proper worship. And it wasn't there was other ones that went had their hearts towards God, but the what it says for Hezekiah was that he tore down the high places, he tore down the ash repulse, he tore down The sacred stones and they were pillars towards other gods. And he also broke down the bronze serpent that Moses had erected by God, which in that case was the focus that saved everyone's life back in Moses' time. And so Hezekiah doesn't just reinstate worship in the temple, which not every king did, right? So if you even just reinstated worship in the temple, you were a good king. But Hezekiah goes, We need to deal with every other thing. And so Where so you can have high places. High places where we're distracted. Is is where I've where I've got this mixture of I'm worshiping God but I'm doing it my way. I'm worshiping God, but I'm kind of working with the world system. And I'm how many people try to impose upon God the world system? All you have to do is look at sanctity of life and sex and sexuality. How many people go, you know what? We're imp we we're trying to manage and wrestle the two things of the world system in some Jack: Hmm. Dave Connett: Really quite illogical matters, and then we're trying to wrestle with God at the same time and put it together and think that it works. And if you if you've got you, I mean if you're either side of the fence, you're gonna get splinters where the sun don't shine, and so just don't want to do that. So that's that mixture of, and I think in a world gone crazy, we're still trying to do it, and I think there's good Christians that are trying to wrestle with this because they're trying to make it seem like it kind of and it never is two different kingdoms. Jack: Mm. Dave Connett: Now not saying you're up on the so if you when you tear down the ashera poles, Hezekiah said, Ashra poles and the sacred stones, that's the active worship. Like that would be the place where people go to worship Asher and forget God completely. And so he goes, We're tearing down that stuff that's coming against God, but he also says the high places where there's a bit of a mixture of the world system and God's, we're tearing that down as well. And so That that was that was the repentance. The the one in regards to the Moses and the snake and that kind of stuff was that sometimes we get stuck, if you've been a Christian for a while, going, Well, I remember back when and it should be this way. And look, yeah, I mean w you don't want to get stuck in old ways and now worship the old ways. But I think the key thing really for us is the repentance of where we've mixed our worship of God with the world's mentality on how to think things through. It's like putting an arc on a new cart and expecting it to work. It just doesn't work. You can have good intentions. God doesn't need your defense. God doesn't need you to run the world's way and try to work it this way. What I need to do is repent of the mixture of these two things, the distractions of the world. And if I've got false idols, I want to, I want to leave that behind. I want to repent of that and come back to Christ. The good thing is when you repent, he forgives your sin. He cleanses you. He washes. Repentance is not just God, I'm sorry, but God, I'm turning away from that. I refuse to go back there again. ⁓ and that's what the blood of Jesus covers and forgives. Jack: Mm. Yeah, I mean the the technical term is syncretism, right? And what what really my revelation was sometimes sometimes when this type of thing gets preached now we've got to resist the ways of the world and idols, you can sit back and go, ⁓ you're being a bit dramatic, you're being a bit over the top. But if I then for me, I think about and I've learned a lot of this from Pastor Beck's, is going, well, how about we learn from history lest we repeat it, and we think about like We think about Von Hoffer, for instance, right? Von Hoffer was preaching we need to tear down these ⁓ these worldly syncristic way ⁓ syncretistic ways and people thought he was a bit over the top, and lo and behold, ⁓ in comes Nazi Germany. And so it it all seems a little bit dramatic until it's actually on our doorstep, right? Dave Connett: I I tell you what, the the slow ebb of the world's ways takes down the church. And this is this is where weak men create bad times. We need strong leaders, strong men and women of God in their homes, in their workplaces, in their communities to say no, because weak leaders create tough times. So what we want to do is stand strong regardless, even though the times are easy for us, times easy times often create weak leaders. Jack: Right. Mm-hmm. Dave Connett: So what we want to be is the ones that see where this goes if we're not careful, where we actually mix God's ways with the world's ways. ⁓ it is that these are enmity. The flesh is at enmity with the spirit if I'm reading Romans correctly. So what I need to do is to stay firm, stay godly, stay holy, and yes, get into the salient details. They're not salient details, but that's how old Dave used to think. What the flip are we getting into these details? No, they're important. To follow God because he knows higher than I do and his word is clear. So yeah, let if if we don't stay strong, it will create tough times for our church, for our city, for our nation. Jack: Right. We don't want to wait till it's boiling point, right? It's the the the frog in the the boiling pot analogy. There's no we need to act now, take these things seriously now. Dave Connett: Yeah, and and the tough thing is when you stand firm, there's gonna be people that go, Mate, you're taking it too far. You you know, it's such a yeah, I mean, you you're you're so extreme with this. No, no, I'm not extreme. I'm just following the word of God. We're just being godly. I want the best for my children and my grandchildren, so I will not put up with this mucking around with the world's ways. I'm not going there. And I think the stronger we are with that, the clearer we are. ⁓ and then we've got to think how do we best present it with the world? But I'm I'm still gonna present what the truth is and I'm not gonna water it down with the way that I present. Jack: So good. Well, thank you. Wonderful message. I I obviously spoke to you privately, but I would encourage all good lifers to go back. Either listen to it again or catch it on YouTube if you didn't get it. Thank you for ⁓ giving us a bit of a peek behind the scenes, Dave. Peek behind the curtain. And we'll do it again next week. Cool. See you next time, guys. Dave Connett: Pleasure. Love it. Looking forward to it.