Don’t Despise Your Detour

The message in 6 points

1. Better than a thousand

   He reads Psalms 84:10, a day in God's courts is better than a thousand, and 1 Chronicles 13:12-13, where a fearful David carries the ark aside into the house of Obed-edom. His message is simple: don't despise your detours.

   1:05:13

2. Nobody wants a detour

   Telling of a detour off the interstate onto winding mountain roads, he says a detour is unexpected, out of the way and always takes longer. Yet sometimes God is just trying to take us off the path we are on and onto one less traveled.

   1:08:56

3. Ceremony without power

   He describes the ark and the mercy seat, then notes that under Saul the ark sat forgotten for twenty years while the priests kept up their duties with nothing in the Holy of Holies. He warns that a church can keep its rituals and have no power behind the veil.

   1:13:21

4. A detour to Obed-edom's house

   David rushed to bring the ark home on a new cart, and when Uzzah touched it he died, so David turned aside and left it with Obed-edom. Pastor Erickson points to the detours Jesus took, to Samaria, to Lazarus, and to the whipping post where he bore stripes for our healing.

   1:20:07

5. Blessed in the detour

   Reading 2 Samuel 6:10-12, he shows how God blessed Obed-edom and all his household. Once Obed-edom tasted the presence of God he followed the ark as porter, musician and doorkeeper, willing to do whatever it took, and his faithfulness left a legacy in his sons and grandsons.

   1:28:14

6. Our own detour

   Everyone has been forced into a detour by COVID-19, unable to gather to worship. He asks whether we will be like Saul and leave the presence of God on the side, or like Obed-edom and bring it into the center of the home, praying, reading the Word and teaching our children.

   1:39:29

In his words

Taken word for word from the video, with punctuation added.