"And they carried the ark of God in a new cart out of the house of Abinadab: and Uzza and Ahio drave the cart.

"And David and all Israel played before God with all their might, and with singing, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets.

"And when they came unto the threshingfloor of Chidon, Uzza put forth his hand to hold the ark; for the oxen stumbled.

"And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzza, and he smote him, because he put his hand to the ark: and there he died before God.

"And David was displeased, because the Lord had made a breach upon Uzza: wherefore that place is called Perez-uzza to this day.

"And David was afraid of God that day."–I Chron. 13:7—12. When someone said that afraid just means "a reverential respect," I looked it up and found that the word fear in the Bible means "fear"–like the fear I had of my parents. When I disobeyed, I feared they were going to beat the daylights out of me!

And David said:

We read in II Samuel, chapter 6, a parallel account of this. It says God blessed Obededom and all his household for the ark’s sake.

The ark in the Old Testament was the dwelling place of God. When God spoke, He spoke from between the cherubim on the mercy seat that represented God’s presence. And the Bible says that our bodies are the temple, or the dwelling place, of God.

This is Temple Baptist Church. The church, as it gathers together, is a place where God is, because the people, who are the church, are indwelt by the Spirit of God.

Obededom discovered that God’s blessing comes along with God’s presence. It was not because Obededom had better fertilizer; it was not because he had better food for his flocks; it was not because he discovered some new agricultural method; it was not because somebody came from the agricultural college and told him how he could turn the lights on early and leave them on late and have his cows give more milk; it was not because somebody had some new breeding technique for his sheep; it was because God was there that Obededom and all his house were blessed.

Some of us in independent, fundamental Baptist churches need to discover again that the blessing of God comes because of the presence of God.

I am for standards. It is terrible that they are slipping. I get upset when I hear that supposed-to-be independent Baptist churches, fundamental churches, don’t make an issue about movies anymore, don’t make an issue about modesty, and don’t make an issue about Bible standards of godly living. That bothers me!

People say to me, "You know, such-and-such a church is allowing their young people to go to the movies. They are letting the girls wear shorts. They are bringing in contemporary music." That bothers me! I am concerned about that.

But let me tell you what is worse. A whole lot of independent, fundamental Baptists are not reading their Bibles every day. A whole lot more are not praying very much. A whole lot more are not asking for the power of the Spirit of God on their lives.

Obededom found that the blessing came because God was there. God makes the difference. God gives the blessing. God produces an increase that really matters. It is God who does a work in the hearts and lives of people that can change them for time and for eternity.

We need to remember that there have been people whom God has blessed who were not Baptists.

I am a Baptist–an independent, fundamental, separated, soul-winning, King James, hard-nosed Baptist. But I read about a Methodist who had the power of God on his life–John Wesley. He didn’t believe right about everything, but he saw thousands saved because God’s hand was on him.

And I read about a Congregationalist who heard somebody say, "The world has yet to see what can be done with one man who is completely yielded to God." And D. L. Moody said, "By the grace of God, I’ll be that man." He reached out and put one hand under America and one hand under England and lifted those two countries closer to God than they had been or have been for a century, on either side of his ministry.

Obededom discovered that it is God who makes the difference.

There were many bushes in the desert, but Moses was attracted to one, because God was there.

There were many weddings in Cana of Galilee, but we mention only one, because Jesus sanctified it by His presence and chose to perform His first miracle there.

There were many places where Jacob slept, but we only want to visit and speak about one, because he said, "Surely the Lord is in this place."

There are many graves in Bethany’s cemetery, but when we go to the Holy Land, we stop by only one of them, because outside that grave the Lord Jesus said, "Take ye away the stone." He then said, "Lazarus, come forth"! And he that was dead stood, still bound hand and foot in the graveclothes.

It is only when the Lord Jesus comes into a life that we can say about that person, "He that was dead…"

I wonder how Lazarus felt that day! "Lazarus, how are you doing?"

"Well, I have a little crick in my neck. I am still raw where they bound those graveclothes too tight around me. My back is very sore after lying down on that cold stone. I don’t feel very good."

Do you think Lazarus said that? No! I think he said, "Glory to God! I was dead, but now I am alive!"

The people of God ought to be the happiest people on the face of this earth. We ought to say, "I was dead in my trespasses and sins; I was lost and undone without God or His Son; but Jesus saved me! Glory to God! I was dead, but now I’m alive!"

There were many handicapped people by the pool of Bethesda, but we talk about just one, because Jesus came to that man who for thirty-eight years had been unable to move himself, unable to propel himself from place to place, and said, "Wilt thou be made whole?"

An angel had troubled the waters. And the Bible says the first one into the water after the coming of the angel was able to be healed of whatever disease he had. And this man said, ‘I would like to, but while I am dragging myself there, another steps down ahead of me.’

And Jesus said, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk."

Of course, the Pharisees showed up and said to him who was cured, "It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed."

I have a question for those Pharisees: Where were you for the last thirty-eight years when that fellow couldn’t do anything for himself?

And I have a question for the Pharisees of today: Why do you get upset by some of the sloppy clothes of our bus kids, and because we reach some teenagers who don’t get sanctified the minute they get saved, and wear an inappropriate tee shirt?

There was a young man here last night sitting on the front row who had on a tee shirt that said "Hard Rock Cafe." He came from the University of Tennessee. Glory to God! He just got saved a little while ago.

I am not for the Hard Rock Cafe, but neither am I for a church that doesn’t try to reach people who go to the Hard Rock Cafe.

I have more questions for you Pharisees: Where were you when that guy was lost? Where were you when those bus kids were on their way to Hell? Where were you when they were unsure and unaware of how to have eternal life?

There were many funerals in Nain. We talk about just one, because Jesus came by as the widow went with the body of her only son, and He raised back to life that young man.

There are many tombs outside Jerusalem; but we travel to only one, because the body of the Son of God lay there for three days and three nights, until early on the morning of the third day when God raised Jesus of Nazareth from the dead!

Obededom made a discovery. He said, "Man, it is good where God is!"

Turn over a couple of chapters to I Chronicles, chapter 15, and verse 24. (Remember, Dr. Smith said we ought to preach the genealogies. I got a lot of good truths out of the Bible in reading those genealogies. I didn’t think I would, but I found God had some good nuggets buried in there.)

"And Shebaniah, and Jehoshaphat, and Nethaneel, and Amasai, and Zechariah, and Benaiah, and Eliezer, the priests, did blow with the trumpets before the ark of God [this is the chapter about David’s bringing the ark back to Jerusalem]: and Obededom and Jehiah were doorkeepers for the ark."

Chapter 16, verse 1, says:

Obededom not only made a discovery, he made a decision: "I want to be where my God is, where He is blessing, where His presence is known, where His name is magnified. I will stay with the ark."

Now go ahead and watch TV instead of reading your Bible, but I will stay with the ark.

Spend your time gossiping about people instead of talking to God if you want to, but I will stay with the ark.

Go ahead and try to fracture and fragment fundamentalism even further; keep redefining what a fundamentalist is, and pretty soon you are the only one who lives inside that circle.

I seem to remember another fellow who had a problem like that.

"I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts…I, even I only, am left" (I Kings 19:10). Finally God said, "Oh, hush, Elijah. I have seven thousand people who have never bowed the knee to Baal. You are not as alone as you think you are. You are not as unusual as you think you are. You are not as isolated as you think you are."

We believe, as independent Baptists, we shouldn’t have denominationalism. It is so hard to preach on this and not be misunderstood. We ought to preach against people’s getting around the ungodly crowd, those who violate Bible principles.

I am not talking about people who make an issue of principle but about people who make an issue of personality. In fact, what they practice is denominationalism.

Independent is not a noun, naming the thing I joined when I became a Baptist preacher. It is an adjective, describing how I must behave, so that I am free from the fetters of men and machinery and able to obey God.

By the way, what you need to do about those kinds of folks is to ignore them.

I get letters that fuss at me for this or that. I write them all the same answer:

Oh yeah, folks get upset sometimes. We have a big day every year in our church and try to have a big attendance. We send our young people out at noontime from the school. They go around where the public schools are dismissing, pass out flyers and try to get the names and phone numbers of boys and girls who might want to ride the bus. Then we go back and get permission from the parents.

A few years back the assistant superintendent of the Saginaw public school system called me, all upset. He said, "You are violating the law. If you do this again, we are going to bring charges against you. This is wrong; you cannot do it!"

I said, "Why?"

He said, "What if somebody else went out and did that, and they kidnapped children?"

"If somebody else did that, and they kidnapped children, they ought to put them in jail. If we kidnap any children, you ought to put us in jail. We have not been kidnapping any children."

We had parents call us up. There had been some program on television about kidnapped children. They were all sure that our people, who were going out and knocking on doors and talking to boys and girls and moms and dads and trying to get them to come to church, were a part of something terrible, a conspiracy to kidnap children.

I said, "Hey, man, we are doing everything we can to help you. We will tell you when we are coming. We will all wear armbands, if you would like us to. We will identify ourselves." I added, "And we are going to keep doing this."

He said, "If you do, you are violating the law."

So I called the police, and I talked to the lieutenant. But before I did, I called the city attorney to find out about the law. I couldn’t get the attorney, but I got the city clerk. She said, "There is no law like that."

They don’t like it when you read and research.

I said to this police lieutenant, "I want to talk to you about this law."

But knowing that I had figured it out, he said, "Well, Reverend, why don’t we just talk about what is best for the children?"

I liked that. I think it is best for children to know Jesus. I think it is best for children to be in church. I think it is best for children to go to Heaven and not go to Hell. Those kids have already been captured by the secular humanists in the public school system. They are taught nothing about God; they are taught that they descended from monkeys. In many cases they are taught the opposite of our American system of government, and that we (Christians) are really bad, and that communism–or something like it–would be really good. I think it is best if those kids get in a good, Bible-believing, Bible-preaching, fundamental church.

Boy, they put the pressure on us!

We get all too worried about people’s attacks on us. We get all too worried about who is criticizing us, who said what, who did this and who did that. Phooey on that stuff!

People are important. I’m glad I have a friend like Dr. Clarence Sexton. I’m glad there is a place like Crown College. I’m glad there is a conference like this. People are important, but only God is necessary.

And if Dr. Sexton dies, and they call the wrong person to be the pastor of this church, and this place goes liberal, then you don’t need it. You just need God.

And if your brother decides to run with the "neos," you don’t need him. You just need God.

And if the preacher who led you to Christ and discipled you decides to go the wrong direction, you ought to love him still. You ought to appreciate what he did and honor what his life was–even if you can’t honor what it is now–but you don’t need him. You just need God.

Obededom said, "Hey, I am out of here. Good-bye, Mama. Good-bye, Daddy. Good-bye, cousins. Good-bye, lands. Good-bye, houses. I will stay with the ark!"

I want you to see one more thing. Can you handle a little more genealogy?

First Chronicles, chapter 26:

But I want you to know that Obededom reaped a dividend: his sons stayed with the ark. His sons stayed in the service of God. His sons wanted to be where the blessing of God was. And the Bible says sixty-two of his descendants served in the service of God.

You can be a faithful church member and have your kids grow up and leave church entirely. You can be a Baptist and have your kids not turn out right. You can be a fundamental, independent, soul-winning Baptist and have your kids grow up and say, "I don’t like that. I am out of here!"

But if you get your kids to know God; if you get your kids around the ark; if you let them see the blessings and power of God; if you let them see prayers answered; if you let them see lives changed; if you let them see the battle waged for the cause of Christ and the victories won by faithful soldiers, then your children will stay around the ark.

My dad has been a preacher almost all my life. He was in college when I was born.

He was riding on a bus after World War II, intending to go to Columbia University, when he saw a couple of kids he hadn’t seen since his early teenage years. When he told them what he was going to do, they said, "Why don’t you go to our college?" (They knew Dad wanted to be a radio announcer.) They said, "We have a radio program, and we have our own radio station."

Dad asked, "Where do you go?"

"We go to Bob Jones University."

My dad was twenty-one years old and had never heard the Gospel.

That "coincidence," that "chance encounter," resulted in his writing and being accepted at Bob Jones.

He went down there, and the first night he was there, Dr. Bob Jones, Sr., kicked his leg back, raised his voice and preached the Gospel. Dad said, "Man, that sounds like a good deal to me!" And Dad got saved.

He went on in the ministry. He had some great successes, and he had some times that weren’t so successful.

When Dad was in evangelism, he preached a revival at a fundamental church in Detroit, Michigan. (This was about 1972.) He got a $1,000 offering for that meeting! That would be a pretty good offering now, but it was a really good offering then.

I said, "Wow, Dad! Man, you keep on going like this, and you will be in the big time!"

I will never forget what my dad said. He looked at me and said, "Son, I have been in the big time for twenty years." Big time wasn’t defined for my daddy by big offerings. Big time wasn’t defined by big meetings. Big time wasn’t defined by having a big name. It was defined by the fact that he got to be a part of the ministry of a big God! He was in the service of Jesus Christ.

When my Katie was about three years old, she would say, "Daddy, can I give them the Good News?" I knew what she meant. She had seen me pass out tracts and say, "Here is some Good News. It tells you how to be sure you are on your way to Heaven."

I try to give them to the gas station attendants, the clerks in the motels, to workers at the grocery store, to people who take my money when I go through the car wash, to folks at McDonald’s. "Here is some Good News," I say.

Katie said, "Daddy, can I give them the Good News?"

I want my children to be around the ark. We have led people to Christ that we wouldn’t have even talked to if it hadn’t been for our kids.

Katie loves cats. My wife is allergic to cats. That is the excuse we give for not having one. But Katie really loves cats.

Our golden retriever was getting old and would have to be put to sleep. We had gotten Button, a toy poodle. And I said, "We have had Kelly [the golden retriever] for a long time. God has been good to us. If anything happens to Kelly, we will still have Button." (I was trying to get Katie ready for this.) I said, "And if anything happens to Button, we can get another dog."

Katie said, "And another dog, and another dog, and another dog." Then out of nowhere, she said, "And when Mom dies, we can get a cat!"

We were out soul winning with the family, and I was going to a duplex (two doors on one side of a house). We were supposed to go to the door on the right. It was the address I had of a man who had been saved and needed to be baptized. But there was a cat on the porch on the other side, and Katie climbed over the little fence and started playing with the cat.

Just then the lady who owned the cat came out the door. I said, "Hi. I’m Pastor Ouellette of the First Baptist Church in Bridgeport. This burglar here is my daughter Katie." Then I led the lady and her husband to Christ. Later I was able to baptize them and saw them get involved in my Sunday school class.

I don’t like cats, but I’m glad Katie did that time!

Why don’t you just stay with the ark? Phooey on all the rest of that stuff! Let the others play all the politics they want to; you stay with the ark. Let them criticize you, fuss and complain all they want. Don’t waste any energy on that. Just go back and talk to the Lord, read your Bible, tell some people about Jesus, ask God for a greater measure of His Spirit and of His power.

I had the privilege of being on the bus they chartered to take Dr. Curtis Hutson to his last big meeting–the Southwide Baptist Fellowship in Charlotte in 1994. He was very sick. He tried so hard, and succeeded, at being a good host. He talked to everybody, visited with three of us preachers and some of his family.

Soon others were either reading or sleeping. I was sitting across from him. He was lying down on a bed. It hurt him just to move his leg from one side of the bed to the other.

When asked how he was feeling, he would say, "I feel fine. I am just a little sore." His body was filled with cancer, and he had just a few months to live.

I heard him sing to the congregation "I Am on the Winning Side." Then I heard him preach "Things That Are Different Are Not the Same." Another version is not the same as the King James Bible. Lifestyle evangelism is not the same as soul winning. Southern Baptists are not the same as independent Baptists. Evangelicalism is not the same as fundamentalism.

He was sharp. He said that Bob Jones, Sr., was the first one to join the National Association of Evangelicals. When some wise guy said "amen," he looked out in the direction of the voice and said, "He was also the first one to leave when it went bad. Say ‘amen’ again."

I watched him when he got done preaching. I heard him sing:

It is no surprise to me that all his children are living for God.

He wasn’t part of a movement. Oh, he believed in fundamentalism, because it was Bible. He was a follower of the Lord Jesus. He hung around the ark.

PRAYER: Lord, help us to decide this morning just to stay with the ark. Help us to discover that all that matters is that we be right with You, close to You, empowered by You, living for You, and our motive be to please You. Help us decide that whatever else and whomever else we have to leave, we are going to stay by the ark. I pray You will help us to be so real and so faithful that we will have the privilege, if Jesus doesn’t come back first, of reaping the dividends and seeing those who follow also stay by the ark.