Inspire

Guest (Female): Aloha and welcome to the Inspire Church podcast. Whether you're on a walk, driving to work, or just need to hear a fresh word, this is your spot to get inspired, challenged, and equipped to live a faith-filled life. Each episode you'll hear powerful sermons straight from our weekend services that speak into your life, your leadership, and your legacy.

Before we dive in, do us a favor. Hit that subscribe button, leave a review, and share this with someone who needs a word today. If you want more resources like Pastor Mike's newest book, Blow Your Mind, head over to MikeKai.tv. All right, let's lean in, open your hearts, and let God speak through this message.

Mike Kai: Father, we come before You in the mighty name of Jesus. We know, Lord, that You are mighty to save and You are mighty to heal. Right now, by the power of the Holy Spirit, for every person in this room that needs a healing right now, we believe it, we receive it. We also pray for Pastor Dudley, that You would heal his ribs and his clavicle.

Father, we just bless You. God, we give You all the glory today. Lord, I pray that You help me to preach. God, I pray that You help us to lean in and to listen. Lord, I pray by the power of the Holy Spirit that You would begin to touch every single heart in this room and online. Lord, that You would tailor-make this message for each person in the house of God today. God, we give You all the glory, the honor, and the praise in the mighty name of Jesus. And everybody said, amen. Come on, thank the Lord one more time, everybody. He is worthy of our praise.

I want you to open your Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 6. When I look at the timeline of our church and the timeline of our lives, God's not done. When I look at this passage of scripture, I begin to think about something powerful. I begin to think that without the presence of God, we could be nothing. Without the presence of God, David said, "Where can I go from Your presence, oh Lord? If I go down to the depths of the sea, You are there. I can't escape You, God. Even though I want to escape You, I can't, because Your presence is always with me."

The Bible says in the Old Testament that Moses, with his staff, said, "God, where can I go? God, do not go. We will not go anywhere without Your presence. If You are not leading us, Lord, we do not want to go there." That's what Moses said. If Moses said, "I need Your presence," and if David said, "I need Your presence," then surely you and I would say, "God, I need Your presence. I need Your presence on my house. God, I need Your presence in my life." I'm going in early. I'm not warming up. I'm already there. I really believe that God's about to do something powerful in Hawaii in the mighty name of Jesus.

In 2 Samuel chapter 6, let me set up the scene. The Ark of the Covenant of God was important to worship. The Ark of the Covenant of God was overlaid with gold. It was carried by priests only with poles. In the Old Testament, when it came to the book of Exodus, God had a man named Bezalel who had a special anointing and gift for design. He created the Ark as God's instruction was. It was gold on the inside and gold on the outside. There were two cherubim looking at each other with their eyes looking down at the mercy seat, touching their wings.

The Bible tells us that the God of the universe decided that He would allow Himself to live in a tent, in a tabernacle in the desert for 40 years. For 40 years, the Israelites wandered in the desert and for 40 years, there was a tent within the tent of meeting. That was where the glory of the Lord was that sat over the mercy seat, that hovered over the mercy seat.

The Bible says that every time Moses would go in to meet with God face to face, he would come out and his face would be so bright and so shiny. It was called the glory of the Lord. They begged him to put a veil over his face. He would come out and cover his face because the glory of God was so strong because of the presence of God.

When the Ark of the Covenant was so powerful, God said, "In the Ark, what I want is manna so that people will remember the manna that came down from heaven and they ate that. A jar of manna." Aaron's budded staff would be in there because it tested his authority against the people who said that he wasn't authorized to lead. God said, "Put the staffs out and the one that buds is the one that leads." Everybody else's didn't bud except for Aaron's, and it budded.

Everything in there was absolutely important. But what happened was they began to take for granted the presence of God, take for granted the Ark of the Covenant. When they lost a war to the Philistines, the Philistines took it and put it in the temple of their god, Dagon. While it was in the temple of their god, Dagon, the statue of Dagon fell to the ground. They came in the morning and said, "Dagon's statue is on the ground." It was a nine-foot stone statue on the ground. They propped it back up. They come back the next morning, face down again.

Finally, the people get infested with tumors, hemorrhoids, and rats. God's got a sense of humor. Tumors, hemorrhoids, and rats. They finally realized that they needed to get rid of this Ark of the Covenant. "It doesn't belong to us. We're being cursed because we're using it as a good luck charm, as a spoil of war." So they built a brand new cart and on the cart, they put the Ark of the Covenant. They attached it to an oxen and the oxen goes into Israelite territory.

There was a town of people that took it and they were so excited that it came, but they opened up the Ark. They all died. Obviously, they never saw Indiana Jones. You don't open the Ark. So now for 20 years, the Ark of God is at a home of a man named Abinadab. In comes David. Now David is king. David was once the slingshot boy, took down Goliath, cut off his head, and now he's the king. He's defeated Saul, Saul died, and he's unified the kingdom. The city of David, which is right below Jerusalem, is going to be the capital. David's got good intentions. David wants to bring the Ark of God to Jerusalem.

We pick it up in 2 Samuel chapter 6, verse 1. "Then David again gathered all the elite troops in Israel, 30,000 in all. And he led them to Baalah of Judah to bring back the Ark of God, which bears the name of the Lord of Heaven's Armies, who is enthroned beneath the cherubim on the Ark." The cherubim are the two angels whose wings are touching one another. They're not looking at each other. They're looking down. What they're looking at is the mercy seat. The mercy seat is where the presence of God would be.

In verse 3, it says, "They placed the Ark of God on a new cart and brought it up from Abinadab's house, which was on a hill. And Uzzah and Ahio, Abinadab's sons, were guiding the cart that carried the Ark of God. And Ahio walked in front of the Ark. And David and all the people of Israel were celebrating before the Lord, singing songs and playing all kinds of musical instruments—lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals." You can see by this picture right here that there is a great celebration that is going on in bringing the Ark of God to Jerusalem.

In verse 6, "But when they arrived at the threshing floor of Nacon, the oxen stumbled and Uzzah reached out his hand and steadied the Ark of God. Then the Lord's anger was aroused against Uzzah and God struck him dead because of this. So Uzzah died right there beside the Ark of God. And David was angry because the Lord's anger had burst out against Uzzah, and he named the place Perez-uzzah, which means 'to burst out against Uzzah,' as it is still called today."

I look at the scripture and I go, "Wow, it's fascinating." It's a piece of history that's important. The Ark of God is so important. You want the presence of God. David wants to bring Him to Jerusalem and they make a cart, just like the Philistines. They put the Ark on the cart to bring it back into the Israeli territory. Let's bring Daddy home. They've got a celebration. They're dancing. Lyres, tambourines, castanets. They're dancing and David's leading the charge.

Everything is going on and they're having a great time. All of a sudden, the Ark goes by the threshing floor of Araunah. A threshing floor is where you got the wheat and then you'd have a threshing sledge. Then what would happen is the oxen would pull it and they'd go in a circle and it would crush all the grain so that you get the kernel. You winnow it and from there you get flour. From there you get bread. It's a long process, an eight-step process.

So the oxen, I was wondering if it was muscle memory or something, hit the threshing floor area and the Bible says that the oxen began to stumble. The Ark of God was in danger of falling off of the cart. What does Uzzah do? He sticks his hand out. He's trying to steady it. He doesn't want it to fall. I don't blame him. I would have done the same thing. My reflexes. Fast twitch. It almost falls, but Uzzah touches it and Uzzah dies. I feel sorry for Uzzah. I feel sorry for Uzzah's family. I had a hard time with this. God, but here's what I know about this. God is holy. The presence of God is holy. When we treat something as holy as common, when we become too familiar around it, we lose the awe and the wonder of the presence of God and all that He can do and all that He has done.

I want you to take notes and I want you to write this down. Number one: Good intentions can have wrong methods. Everybody had good intentions. David had a good intention. I want to bring the Ark of God to Jerusalem. David always had good intentions. He wanted to build the first temple in Jerusalem. God said, "You will not build it," through the prophet. He said, "You will not build it. Your son will build it. You've got too much blood on your hands. You've been a warrior, so your son's going to build it." I love your heart, but you're not building it. David had good intentions. David wanted to bring the Ark of God to where it needed to belong. Uzzah had good intentions. He stuck out his hand. But good intentions can be done the wrong way. Just because you have good intentions doesn't mean it's the right way.

I want more of God. Okay, great. "I want more spirituality." They talk about that today. "I want to manifest the universe. I want a vibe. I want an aura." You know what I'm saying? Good intentions, but wrong way. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me." You can have good intentions, but there's only one way. When I think about this, you can have great intentions and I love it. Uzzah stuck out his hand and Uzzah died. Uzzah was a good guy. Uzzah was a friend of mine. Uzzah is gone because God's presence is so holy that you don't mess with it.

Number two: Don't just host the presence of God, carry it. They put it on a cart just like everybody else did. Everybody else put it on a cart. The Philistines, the Philistines are far from God. They're the enemies of God's people, still to this day. They put it on a cart. David doesn't know any better. He's got good intentions. He's a little bit ignorant on the subject because he didn't have his priests with him. Apparently, the priests were somewhere else. David does what he thinks he should do. Put it on a cart. That's what we do. But he didn't know that you have to put it in poles. He didn't know that only priests had to carry it. He had good intentions. We don't just host the presence of God, we carry the presence of God.

What do I mean by that? What I mean is that you carry the Holy Spirit with you. You are the host of the Holy Spirit. Your body is a temple of God. Once you give your life to Jesus Christ, did you know this? That your body is like the temple of the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit lives inside of you. He is not necessarily in Jerusalem in a temple that needs to be rebuilt before the end times. He is in you. So when you have your life consecrated and separated and you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you become what we call born again according to John chapter 3, verse 3. Your body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit. That's why you take care of your body because it's the temple.

He lives inside of you. So you carry that wherever you go. You carry the presence of God when you go to work. You carry the presence of God when you go to school. You carry the presence of God at your baseyard. You carry the presence of God in your office. You carry the presence of God in the boardroom. You carry the presence of God into the locker room. You carry His presence. That's why when you walk into a room, do you realize that there's a level of favor and authority that you carry with you, not because you're from Hawaii? That's a bonus. But not because you're from Hawaii. Being from Hawaii opens doors. I just want to let you know, especially if you bring a gift wherever you go. My gift is Honolulu Cookie Company. They should sponsor me somehow. I've been doing it for 15 years. Wherever I go, Honolulu Cookie Company breaks the ice and it opens doors. But I can tell you this: It's the favor of God that does that.

Don't just host the presence of God, carry it. Number three, write this down: What strikes fear can also be a blessing. David was afraid and David was angry. So what does he do? He doesn't know what to do. He's upset. He's scared. God is holy. I don't want to touch it. So he puts it in the home of a man named Obed-edom, who apparently doesn't have a choice. Why me? You don't want it, like, you want us to have it? You're going to put them in my house? What about his house? What about the Silvas down the street? What about the Makadangdangs? What about the Pereiras? Put them over there. Why are you putting them in my cul-de-sac? What's going on over here? Why my skinny street in Kunia? Why? You're going to bring them into my house.

You know what the Bible says? The Bible says that the house of Obed-edom for three months was blessed. It was blessed for three months. It says his house and his family. The Mishnah, the rabbinical books, say aside from the scripture that his house was so blessed that his eight daughters-in-law all got pregnant. That's what it says. Like, all eight got pregnant in a three-month period. It says that his crops multiplied five times greater than it normally was. Think about that. Like, I got this banana patch in my backyard and I cannot keep up. Imagine five times more than that. I can't even give away enough bananas. My neighbors see me, "Oh, here he goes with his bananas again." So I bring them to the staff. I give them to the security. You guys like bananas? I've got plenty of bananas.

Multiplied five times. Five times. That's what happens when the presence of God enters somewhere. Can I tell you, though, isn't it interesting that Abinadab and his family had the Ark at their house? But we don't hear about anybody getting blessed like that. I'm not yelling. I'm just excited about this. Look, you get the Ark for 20 years in your house and your sons now have the privilege and honor to move the Ark on a cart. But then your boy sticks out his hand. I just wonder: Did they take God for granted? Did they take all this for granted? Like, for 20 years versus three months.

It makes me wonder sometimes, "Mike, come on, you've got to get your passion. You've got to keep your fire." Look at the newest believer that comes to your church. They're on fire. Let that fire burn. What about your fire? What about your 25-year fire? What about your 10-year fire? It's so easy for them to be there for 20 years and there's no evidence of blessing. And one of the boys treated it as common. And then this guy, Obed-edom, lets it come into his home for three months and he is so blessed that David wants it back. "We need it back. We need to find a way to do this the right way." So David inquires of the Levites, David inquires of the priests. He said, "How is this supposed to be done?" He said, "It's supposed to be done in a proper way with the right protocol. It cannot be handled. It cannot be touched by human hands. Only the priest can carry it. And the only person that can ever touch it is the high priest." Not the moving company.

The fourth thing is: When you see the blessing, you pursue the blessing. When you see it, you pursue it. Invite the presence of God into your house. Invite the presence of God into your home. Guys, listen to me. Have you ever dedicated your house to God? "I never knew I could do that," some of you might be thinking. Yes, you can. "I thought I needed a priest." You don't need a priest. You're the priest. The Bible says we're a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. You are the priest. You can do it. You can do it. You can rid your home of any demonic spirit. You can kick stuff out in the name of Jesus. It doesn't belong there because the Bible says that God has given you authority. His authority delegated to me and to you. That's why when I stay in a lot of hotel rooms, I go into the hotel rooms and I'm already casting out stuff that was there before I got there. I don't know who did what in that room before I got there. I don't want to know. I don't care what you did, but all I know is this: I don't want none of your remnant still here. So I walk into a room, I dedicate the room to the Lord, I invite the Holy Spirit into the room so I can sleep well that night.

You can anoint with oil your office, your truck, your e-bike. Definitely your e-bike. You can anoint your home. You can anoint with oil. So I just brought a bottle of olive oil, avocado oil. All right, olive oil. I prefer olive oil because there's a lot of olive trees in Israel, so olive oil. And at the doorposts, the sides and the top, and I dedicate this door, this house to Jesus. The windowsills, I do it over the windowsills, the doorways, and the windowsill. I'll do it with my family. "What do I pray? I don't know what to pray." Just pray, "Jesus, come inside. I dedicate this house to You." That easy. "I dedicate this house to You. I rebuke anything in the name of Jesus."

Imagine if the Ark was in your house. What would happen? Not only would you be blessed, you would sin less. "I can't watch that with the Ark in the house." "We can't do that with the Ark in the house." You would sin less if you had the Ark in your house. You would sin less if you brought in the presence of God. And I can tell you this: You would have more peace, more peace in the house. Dedicate your house to the Lord. Dedicate it. You can do it. "Well, I'm not married." That's okay. You're the head of the household, you can do it. "I have roommates." That's okay, just do it anyway. In fact, when they're sleeping, pour the oil on their head. No, no, just kidding.

Listen, think about this for a moment. The presence of God is more than a symbol. It's a spiritual reality. I pray that the presence of God would be over our islands. I pray that the state would be covered with the cloud of God. The same way that it was in Hilo. The Hawaiian Revival is my wheelhouse. The same way in Hilo, at Haily, not the congregational church where it exists today, but down there by the Wailoa River. Wailoa State Park over there. That was where the main church was before. And the presence of God was so thick and so strong in Hilo that the village of 2,000 people, by 1820 to 1836, the village of 2,000 people swelled to 10, 15,000 people. Why? Because everybody moved from all the other districts in order to be under the presence of God in Hilo when Titus Coan was the pastor of the church.

The presence of God was over these islands by 1836, where 95% of the people were Christians, believers in God. A generation before believed everything different. But the generation later, because of everything that the missionaries gave to them, poured into them, the language, the spelling books, taking their olelo from memory and from passing down generation to generation orally, now they finally got it on paper and they can read it. Not English, they're reading Hawaiian. And the Bible was in Hawaiian called the Baibala and the presence of God was so strong and so thick.

David saw and David wanted it. The Bible says that David went there and brought the Ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with a great celebration. And after the men who were carrying the Ark of the Lord had gone six steps, David sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. And David danced before the Lord with all his might, wearing a priestly garment. He said, "I can be even more undignified than this." He said, "I don't care what anybody thinks. I'm going to dance. I'm going to be in the front." That's why we say that people like that, they dance like David.

So David and all the people of Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with shouts of joy and blowing of ram's horns. And they brought the Ark back to the city of David, which is going to be Jerusalem in the future. When I look at this and I think about this, I think the most important thing that we could do is say, "God, I want You in my life. I want Your presence in my house. I want Your presence in my marriage. I want Your presence over my kids. I want to dedicate this all to You, God." Because I know I worked, but God, You blessed. I know I worked, but God, You blessed it. There are things that you might have to kick out of your house. There are things that maybe do not belong with you anymore. There are things that need to be made room for God. Is there room enough for God? Is there room enough for Jesus?

If you're serious, you're like, "Mike, I agree. I agree. I want the presence of God. I want to be blessed. I want the presence of God in my house. I want Him in my life, in everything that I do. Like Obed-edom, that's who I want. I want His presence." If that's you and you believe that for your life and for your family, I want you to raise your hand right now. I'm going to pray for you. Lift up your hand. "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." That's what Joshua said. "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

Father, we come before You in the mighty name of Jesus. God, we thank You, Lord God, that we are here in Your presence. And God, with a sincere heart, we don't know exactly how to do this, but we're going to do it. We're going to ask You to come into the house. We're going to ask You to invade this space. We're going to dedicate it to You, Lord God, and we're going to ask You to come, that You would come in power, that You'd come in might. God, that You would invade every space, every nook and cranny of our life and our house. God, we welcome You. May the glory of the Lord be so strong in our lives and in our house that it is evident that wherever we go, we carry the presence of God. It's not just in the church. It's not just on Sunday. It's for us every day of the week, 24/7 in our homes. We dedicate our lives to You, our children to You, our grandchildren to You. God, we give You all the glory, the honor, and the praise in Jesus' mighty name. And everybody said, amen.

Here's the next prayer, the most important one. I want to lead you in a prayer for you to say, "God, I give You my life. I dedicate my life to You." I don't know if you grew up with a religion or a tradition that maybe were different from what we're talking about today. I'm talking about being born again. I'm talking about you were born once from your mom, now you've got to be born of the Spirit. When you give your life to Jesus, like I did at the age of 20, your life will never be the same. He comes into your life, He changes you from the inside out, forgives you of all of your sins, everything that you've ever done. Washed clean by the blood of Jesus, as if you had never sinned before. A clean slate, a new beginning. It's more than a resolution. It's a fresh start because the Holy Spirit is in you and your life will never be the same.

If that's you today, and you say, "Mike, that's what I want. I've been fighting this, but that's what I want." Maybe you had a religion before or maybe you had a philosophy before that we could call a religion because you had a philosophy. "My God would never do this and my God would do this. My God would do this and He wouldn't do that." You can have good intentions, but still do it the wrong way. Today, Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me." There's one way, and it's Jesus.

I want to lead you in that prayer. Do not leave this room without knowing that you are born again. So with every eye closed and with every head bowed, for some of you it's going to be a rededication, a reconfirmation, and a recommitment. I love that. And for some of you, it will be your first time. That's amazing. So right now, the Holy Spirit is touching and moving and speaking online and in this room right now. We silence every notification, every thought from the enemy. We elevate, we edify what the Holy Spirit is doing right now. I want to lead you in that prayer that I just talked about. I'm going to count to three. When I say one, two, three, when you hear me say three, I want you to put your hand in the air. I want to lead you in that prayer. And your life will never be the same again. It will not be easy, but He will be with you. So get ready.

One. He will never let you down. Two. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. Get ready. Here we go. One, two, three. Raise your hand if that's you. Raise your hand right now. Raise it up high. Raise it up high. Raise it up high. I want to count it. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, God bless you, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. I got you. 21, 22, 23, 24, 25. 26, 27, 28, God bless you. 29 right there, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, I got you. 49 right there, keep them up, almost done. 50 right there. 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70. 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80. Come on, everybody, let's rejoice over the 80 people who are dedicating their lives to Jesus.

The glory of the Lord was in their house. May the glory of God be on your house, in your house and on your house, in your house and on your house. Repeat after me, the 80 people and everybody else: "Say Jesus, today I surrender. I give You my life. Thank You for dying on the cross, shedding Your blood that washes my sins as white as snow. I also thank You, when my time comes, I'll be in Your presence for all eternity. But while I'm here, be my strength for today, my hope for tomorrow, my ever-present help in my time of need. You're my God, I'm Your child. The old has passed, the new has begun. I'm a new creation in Christ Jesus, created to serve You with the life You gave me. So mold me, shape me, lead me, guide me, heal me, fill me, use me, and send me. In the mighty name of Jesus. And everybody said, amen." Come on, can we thank the Lord, everybody?

Guest (Female): What a powerful word. Come on somebody. If that stirred something in you, don't keep it to yourself. Share it, rate it, and let us know how God is speaking to you through these messages. We believe your best days are ahead and we're honored to be part of the journey. For sermon notes, leadership tools, coaching resources, and more, visit MikeKai.tv. Stay inspired, stay planted, and stay ready because God's not done with you yet. Until next time, God bless you and aloha.