Spiritual DNA
Spiritual DNA • Sermon • Submitted
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· 31 viewsWorship has multiple levels, a couple of those levels are referred to as vertical, and horizontal worship. Vertical worship is the connection to God. It allows us to send our worship to God. It allows us to bring glory to God in all aspects of worship. Paul challenges us to honor God in all we do, of course that includes worship music, worship liturgy, worship sermons and so on. Horizontal worship is the corporate aspect of worship. Again, while worship is not about us, it does involve the community of faith. We as the body of Christ worship God together. We were made to be in a community of faith so that we can worship God together; the challenge to horizontal worship is to make sure it remains God centered and not a show! I will use two specific examples of worship: The first is 2 Samuel 6: 12-22 this is the story of David dancing before the Lord. This is the example of vertical worship. David could care less who sees him, or what anyone (including his wife) thinks about it. He is worshiping God. He sings, leaps and dances with all of his might and Joy! He also worships God by giving gifts to others who are in the worship setting. With this form of worship, it is all about God. This is contrary to a lot of churches who think that worship is only about them. The second story will be the woman at the well. John 4: 19-24. In this portion of the scripture the woman asks how her people are supposed to worship; in other words what should their horizontal worship look like. Jesus basically says, it doesn’t really mater what it looks like. What matters is the heart of worship. It must be a worship that is focused on God, and not us!
Notes
Transcript
A Disciple Worships
A Disciple Worships
I find it hard to believe that it is November 8th already; it is crazy of me to think that we are just a few short weeks away from finishing up this series, and moving on to advent.
I hope this series has been impactful for you as you do the tough work of examining you walk with Jesus, and asking yourself what you need to do in order to deepen your level of discipleship.
(talk about a time when you experienced worship that was different from what you were accustomed to. This could be a very contemporary worship, worship in a different culture, or language. Did you feel uncomfortable? Where you lost? What about that experience had a lasting impact on you).
This morning we our focus is on worship.... This is a significant part of our discipleship journey. In order to be a disciple we have to worship God.
This aspect of discipleship is significantly different than other types of discipleship and is what really sets Christian discipleship apart for a world view of discipleship.
Someone can be a disciple or apprentice of someone or something… however worship is a unique portion of Christian Discipleship...
(Tell the story about a time when you experienced worship that was different… what about that was unique of challenging.)
The thing is so many times we become comfortable in worship… We want it to be about us.
When you think about that it seems silly. Who are you worshiping? You or God?
So if worship is about God, then it should be something we participate in.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit we are brought unique relational opportunity with God.
That is what mature discipled relationship is, it is relational...
As we prepare to look at the first scripture this morning I want us to begin to change our understanding of what worship is… Its not about us, it is about God; and the fact that He allows us the opportunity to be in relationship with Him.
Like all aspects of Christian Discipleship worship is our participatory response to God’s love.... So in order to prepare our hearts for to continue to worship this morning lets pray.
(This is an idea for the prayer)
God we thank you this morning that we get to worship you; how awesome is it that you allow us to be in a relationship with You! God we ware not going to take this opportunity lightly this morning. We know that so many times we have made worship about us, what we like, how we feel, and what we want instead of making it about you! Forgive us for that self-centered attitude and allow Your Holy Spirit to help us really understand what it means to worship You… In Jesus name; Amen!
Our first scripture this morning is from the book of 2nd Samuel.. chapter 6. We are going to be looking at verse 12-22 but it is important to understand what is happening leading up to this specific worship encounter.
In Second Samuel, right before the scripture we are about to look at King David is attempting to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, which is God’s Holy City at this point in history.
The Ark of the Covenant was God’s presence int he world. It was the most sacred thing in the Jewish worship of Yahweh.
The Ark was a Gold chest that was ornately decorated.. Even though there is some debate about this… like there is with everything it seems like these days… Tradition hold that the Ark contained several things.. It is believed that the ark contained Aaron’s staff, the one that budded which is talked about in numbers 17 verse 6-9. It also contained a golden jar that had some of the manna that fell from Heaven, which is what the Israelites ate while thee wondered in the wilderness.
The ark also contained the tablets of law as well as the ten commandments that God gave to Moses… So it is easy to see why this was such a Holy thing!!
After King David and God’s people win their independence from the Philistines David decides that they will bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem (you could mention that if people want to know more about the history of the Ark they can read 1 Samuel 4- 2 Samuel 2)
This ten mile journey to Jerusalem, from the small village where the Ark had been for the past 20 years was meant to be this awesome celebration for the people… remember that.. it was about the people, not about God… which is huge.
So the Priests put the ark on a cart, the people where dancing and celebrating what God had done for them… but then things went south… lets look at 2 Samuel 6: 6-7.
When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled.
The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down, and he died there beside the ark of God.
We will come back to this portion of the story, but what I really want you to understand at this point is that Worship is important to God. It is not something that God takes lightly and a disciple should not either. .
After this happens David is angry, and worried so he sends the Ark of the Covenant to one of the Priests homes where it stays for 3 months… during that time God blessed the Priest and his household significantly… this King David the confidence to attempt to bring the Ark to Holy city of Jerusalem once more.
Lets look at verses 12-14
Now King David was told, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.” So David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing.
Ok so I want you to understand this is a different attitude than what happened the first time that they tried to bring the Ark to Jerusalem…
The first time it was about them.. their excitement about the Ark of God being brought to the City of God..
This time they come before God humble and ready to worship Him...
This is a huge lesson for us.. worship is not about you or me.. its not about what we like.... its about worshiping the almighty God of everything… Worship has to be centered on God!
lets move on..
Slide
When those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf.
the first time they put the Ark on a cart, which was not what God had asked them to do when He told them how to move the Ark, His instructions were that the Ark should be carried by the priests…
This time the people where prepared.. this time they were ready to worship..
They took six steps stopped… prayed and offered God a sacrifice.. their attitude was different..
Two really important things here… first Worship is not one specific thing that we do.. it is all that we do…
What I mean by that is that many times we think of worship as the songs that we sing.. but that is one small part of worship..
But everything we do should be worship… how much different would it be if we looked at the time we walk into the building as a time of worship?
or if we really looked at our giving as a form of worship...
how much better would it be if we looked at announcements as worship.... right...
or the Sermon...
The reason why we have wrongly identified worship with music alone is because for so long the music is the only thing that the people siting in the pews felt like they could participate in...
listen we have to change that.. You not only have permission to participate in all aspects of the worship service.. if you really want to experience mature discipled worship it is vital...
We are working to make all parts of our worship service interactive… that is why we have the church app.. so that you can participate in the sermon.. you can make notes, post on facebook… or twitter or whatever..
You can amen, say boom there it is.. or dance in the isles..
You can do the same thing during announcements. and during a video..right.. you are free to participate in worship!!!!
verse 14
Slide
Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might,
Ok this is so significant.. The fact that David is wearing the linen ephod is huge.. because it was a symbol of worship.. It was a symbol of his appointment by God..
so by wearing this and dancing before God with all of his might David is teaching the people that it is ok to worship God with all that they are...
Just like any other type of worship we learn by watching other people.. We have a responsibility to help people enter into worship… right...
Anyone who is a part of the service needs to know that it is ok to worship… if that means dancing in the isle.. awesome.. it that means waving a ribbon or terrible towel.. praise God.. if that means sitting there and silently taking in and participating in the entire worship experience.. Hallelujah!
While worship is not about us, we have to honest, and genuine in who we are as we worship God!
Lets look at the last several verses as one chunk.
Slide
while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.
Slide.
They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord.
Slide
After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord Almighty.
Slide
Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.
Slide
When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”
Slide
David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord.
slide
I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”
Slide
What happens is we see this awesome act of relational participatory worship go south really quickly because nasty attitude of Michal who is David’s wife.
Her self centered attitude, and her insecurity prevents her from worshiping God and being able to experience all that God had for her life..
She makes all kinds of excuses right.. she is upset with David’s actions.. she blames him and other for her sour attitude, but ultimately she is the one who is responsible for the way she acts and feels… that is really important… hold on to that..
Let’s start to transition to the practical, hands on application of the sermon so that we can understand how to make sure we are able to fully worship God!
In order to do that we need to transition the next scripture for a moment for a moment..
(we will move to the story of the woman at the well, I think it will be more impactful to tell this story instead of read it.. you do not have to go into a great amount of detail in this story).
In the Gospel of John chapter 4 Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman at a well… that’s why the story is called the woman at the well.. In this weeks study guide you will get the opportunity to dig much deeper into the story that we are going to go this morning.
What I want you to understand this morning is that during this conversation that Jesus has with the woman she asks him a very important question; which is basically this. “What is the best way to worship God?”
Yes her questions is a little bit more complex than that.. there is this tension between the Samaritans and the Jewish people about where is the proper place to worship and so on, but in essence her question boils down to “what is the best way to worship God?”
In verse 23 Jesus answers her questions and gives us all the practical teaching we need in order to really worship God.
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
Slide
So what does spirit and truth mean? great question.. three things..
Worship is not about you its about God… When we understand that it changes how we approach worship..
Think about it.. if you want to do something really nice for someone are you going to wait until the last minute and then expect that it is amazing? If you are planning the best possible birthday party, or the best possible family gathering… are you going to roll out of bed 45 mins before the event… and hope that everything goes well? No.. that’s absurd right.
But for what ever reason we think that on Sunday mornings we can roll our of bed, walk into the church building 3 mins before service starts, sit down and worship God in spirit and truth.... Well when you put it that way it seems a little bit self-centered right!
If you want to make worship about God it is important you prepare yourself for worship… through prayer.. not just on Sunday morning but all the time.
it is important you have been showing God how much you love Him by serving Him.
It is important that you have been trying to live into the life of forgiveness that He has called you too
it is important that you have been working on becoming generous… all of these things prepare our hearts to encounter and participate in the worship of the almighty God!!!
Discipleship requires a level of commitment and preparation with the right attitude.. remember how much better things went for David and the people the second time they tried to bring the Ark to Jerusalem?
2. Be You! don’t try to be something or someone your not.
Its ok that you worship in your unique way… guess what God made you that way…
Don’t to live up to someone else’s expectations… live into God’s expectations for you...
Notice the difference.. living up to is about you… living into is about your relationship with God.
3. Be Open… Be Open to how the Holy Spirit wants to be in a Worship relationship...
Part of being open is understanding that ever part of your Christian life can and should be worship!
Intro to communion...
One awesome way we participate in worship is through Communion. God pores His spirit into these little things… this bread, and this juice.
and through it He touches us and invites into relational worship with Him.
What is awesome about today is that these little cups and wafers that none of us really like are a wonderful reminder that Worship is about God and not us.
we all know that these little pieces of bread are not as good as the communion bread we are used to.
we all know that these little cups can be sticky, and honestly kind of gross…
but all of that is about us… and Communion is about Jesus… His sacrifice.. His New Covenant.. His willingness to dies for our sins...
So as we worship together by receiving Holy Communion I pray that God will remind us that what we are doing is worship… , in Jesus name Amen!