A Seeking Heart

Rediscovering
True Worship

A Seeking Heart – Part 2

Did you find any NOW moments last night or this morning? How many of you
found the alcoves? Any other little spots of silence where you could get alone
with God? The day’s not over yet…there’s still time. If you need to…go ahead

NOW. These retreats are about you reconnecting with

God….not just listening to speakers. Don’t let a schedule stand in the way with
you worshipping God…right here right NOW.

We have been given some great gifts from local merchants. You know you can
use them as a NOW moment when you go shopping. Go into their stores and ask
for the manager and thank them for giving these little gifts. They might ask what
the retreat was about….and there you have it…a NOW moment.

We might have some ladies joining us that don’t know what our NOW moments
are. So let’s do a little recap.

Our focal verse for the weekend is _____________?

But an hour is coming, and is
now here, when the true
worshipers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth.
Yes, the Father wants such
people to worship Him.
John 4:23 hcsb

John 4:23
We are learning to worship in spirit and truth, and to worship
NOW.

N
O
W

And I was using NOW as my outline with an acrostic. Last

Need
O
W

night was N for need – our need to worship and our need to
know God so that we can worship Him in spirit and truth. Today we’ll focus on O
Need
Obstacles
W

for obstacles of worship and W for ways of worship.

Need
Obstacles
Ways

We’ll pick right back up from where we left David last night, but today focusing on
1 Chronicles 15-16 and some from 2 Samuels 6…you might want to put a marker
at both places as we’ll be flipping back and forth. And I’m warning you now that
I’ll probably get myself confused on which place I’m supposed to be at.

As a side-note…..one way to worship is through the study of God’s

Word….studying the Scriptures chronologically is a great way to study the books
of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Chronicles gives more detail of what happens in
parts of Samuel and Kings. Remember that God is into details and one reason that
we may not know Him like we should is because we skim the Scriptures looking
for nuggets of truth instead of reading all the details and getting into the dirt of
the Scriptures. Okay…back to David.

2 Sam 6:14 says that David was dancing with all his might before the Lord

1 Chron. 13:8 says that David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might
before God….now you might think this is referring to the same event…but it’s not.
2 Sam. 6:14 refers to the second attempt to bring the ark home, 1 Chron. 13:8
refers to the first time…the unsuccessful time.

But the way that David worshiped looks basically the same, doesn’t it? All of
Israel has turned out, there is music, shouting, and dancing. A few of the major
differences are how the ark was transported, how David danced, and David’s
attitude. The ark is now on the shoulders of the priest and David has removed his
kingly robes (2 Sam. 6:14). Most importantly, he is worshiping as a man seeking
after God….not as king…just as man…with a seeking heart (kind of like us this
weekend).

I tried to imagine what “all of Israel” would look like. I’m a visual person. I really
wish they had YouTube during the Biblical times so that I could Google a topic and
really see what was happening. I’m just weird that way. But I Googled images of
a gathering of around 300,000 people, which was about the population of Israel
at that time. Biblical scholars think that “all of Israel” doesn’t mean every single
person was there, more like a good representation of all of Israel.
 I found this picture of a gathering of about 300,000. Does it
look familiar? It is the March on Washington in 1963. All those people there,
united for one reason. Can you image a Tent of Tabernacle there where the
water is? However it looked….all of Israel was united in worshipping God as they
brought the Ark into the Tabernacle. Don’t you know that they were on some
kind of spiritual high? This probably wasn’t a one day event, although it doesn’t
give us a time frame.

First the bringing of the Ark in….for every 6 steps, they offered sacrifices and then
once they finally make it into the Temple, more scarifies and David (back in his
role as king) he offers the scarifies (1 Chron. 16:2) and blessed all the people.
Then he delivers to each and every Israelite there…both men and women…a gift
of a loaf of bread, a date cake, and a raisin cake. Somebody did a lot of cooking!!!
He then gives a speech that continues to motivate people today, but we’re going
to skip over that part right now.

I’d like to focus on verse 43.

Then all the people left for their homes, and David returned home to bless his
household.

David faces the first obstacle to worship….he worshiped alone, without his family.
This broke my heart. I’m not sure if I ever really paid attention to that verse
before, but it spoke volumes to me this week. I mean, you know what’s fixing to
happen when he walks through that door if you’ve studied the Scriptures before.
But he’s on the other side of the door now….alone, after a spiritual awakening.

I wonder how many of us today, can relate to David. He had experienced

something awesome and his family wasn’t with him, and yet he wanted to share
with them what he had experienced. He was coming home to offer the blessing
to his wife, Michal…..and cake! He is not only a man after God’s heart, but with

cake….he’s after a woman’s heart too!

For tonight, Michal, David’s wife, will represent for us obstacles that we all face

from external influences. This could be family members,

friends, workplace, or government authorities. They can each throw up a wall
that could keep us from worshiping God.

Let me set the scene…..David comes home after a great day. He’s tired, but it’s a
good tired…you know, like after a wedding where everything went according to
plan. The only issue that came up was that his wife…the queen…was not in
attendance (this might have caused concern to spread through the crowd or
maybe they were use to not seeing her with David, so for the people, it was no big
deal...but for David, it was probably an issue). “Honey, I’m home!” (not the
authorized KJV translation here).

2 Sam. 6:16-23

Michal stands in the center of the room, where she’s been waiting for some time
now. Hands on hips, still in her royal gowns, because she never let anyone,
including David, forget that she was the daughter to Saul, the first king of Israel.
David senses that all is not well at home and offers her the cakes…which she
ignores. He puts them on the table and begins to remove his robes.
“I thought you were going to meet me at the gates. Where were you?” David
asks.

“I was watching from the window. I saw you.”

“Wasn’t it great?! Did you see all the people’s reactions to having the Ark home
again? Too long we’ve forgotten about God. I have to tell you, I long to build a
proper Temple for the God’s presence. We have a home now, so should the
Ark…not just a tent.”

“I saw. Tell me….how glorious was the king of Israel today,” (David prepares
himself for what he knows is coming…an attack) “….uncovering himself in front of
everyone, even the servant girls?! How could you act like that? What in the
world was wrong with you…acting like a fool! I won’t be able to show my face in
public and I’ll have to get new servants. I don’t want servant girls that have seen
you half naked!”

David now suffers from a new type of tired. With every verbal barb Michal
throws at him in the form of nagging words, his shoulders start to slump, his head
drops, and his smile fades. Would his hopes be dashed as well?

Was it David that advised his son, Solomon about the disadvantages of having a

nagging wife? Prov. 27:15 & 21:9 Drips of water will eventually
wear a hole in a stone. Imagine the constant nagging of a wife…what will she
wear down?

The Bible doesn’t say much more about what Michal said, but you know…as
women…she had a lot more to say. Once started…we just can’t shut up. David
had to make a decision right then….would he let this obstacle stop him from
worshiping God.

I think that David made his decision before he ever entered the house. He took
all that Michal was saying and when he finally had a chance to speak, he turns,
pulls himself up to his full height, squares his shoulders and confronts his
obstacle.

2 Sam.21-23….let’s read his words…

I was dancing before the Lord who chose me over your father and his whole
family to appoint me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel. I will celebrate before
the Lord, and I will humble myself even more and humiliate myself. I will be
honored by the slave girls you spoke about.

I’m thinking he took that obstacle and made it a stepping stone to get closer to
God or a platform from which to speak.

What will you do with your obstacles? What will you do when they tell you that
you can’t pray in the schools or can’t talk about God to your co-workers or that
you can’t attend a woman’s retreat? What will you do when your friends make
fun of you for choosing to spend the weekend with a bunch of old women instead
of going to a party? What will you do when your family looks at you strange when
they find you face down on the floor…praying?

Will you allow anyone to tell you that you can’t worship God?

Who told you that you can’t pray in school? If you are worshipping God in spirit,
they can never take prayer from schools or the workplace. When you show up
Monday morning…you take worship with you…you take prayer with you. Only
you can keep prayer out of public places….if you keep it out of your heart.

The next time you’re at a school event, instead of screaming for the team…pray
for them. At graduation, while you’re sitting there for 10 hours…pray for each
name mentioned. Be radical….be worshipful wherever you are…whatever you are
doing. Bring every thought and action under control and make them God-
like….then you are living a worshipful lifestyle.
But you’re going to have to decide how you are going to face the obstacles.

They will come.

Brenna is joining the Air Force when she graduates. In training camp, she’ll face
some obstacles courses. She doesn’t get to decide on whether or not she’s going
to go through those courses. It was a given that she would be doing the courses
when she signed up. When she signed her name, she determined right then, that
she was going to overcome those obstacles. She’ll have to go over them, under,
around, and through them. Each time, she’ll get faster, more confident, and
stronger.

And so will we when we determine NOW that nothing will keep us from
worshiping God. We may have to find new ways….but who told you that you
can’t worship?

Of course the biggest obstacles are sometimes not from external influences, but
from internal. Let’s take a moment and look at Jonah. I’m not going to go into a
lot of verses here, we know the story.

Jonah defied a direct order from God to go to Nineveh because of his attitude.
Hate…he hated the people of Nineveh. I found it interesting that in the midst of
his disobedience, he still claimed to be a worshiper of God. Jonah 1:9…He
answered them, “I am a Hebrew. I worship Yahweh, the God of the heavens, who
made the sea and the dry land.”

Jonah had some pride too, I think, or he wouldn’t have gladly proclaimed who he
worshiped. Let’s face it, when we are in the midst of our sin…we don’t want to
think about God and we don’t want God thinking about us. Even with his
attitude, God used him…but Jonah never received the blessings that were there
for him. I wonder if anyone’s attitude is showing. Do you have an attitude of fear
that keeps you from speaking to someone about Christ? Do you have an attitude
of hatred for someone that you think doesn’t deserve the grace of Christ? An
attitude of laziness…unconcern…faithlessness….the list goes on and on.

How are you going to get over the internal obstacles of worship? Remember that
we as Christians don’t have to go it alone. We have each other and there may be
times that you need to stand on the shoulders of another sister while you climb
over that obstacle and then lean down and help her over. We may be walking

wounded that need someone to carry us through. Remember that

the more we overcome our obstacles….the closer we get to God and the stronger
we become in our faith.

Let’s become like the woman at the well…let’s leave our burdens at Jesus’ feet,
overcome our attitude about ourselves and our neighbors….and run to tell people
about the man you’ve just met. What would happen if each of us became radical
worshippers of God this weekend? How many communities could we change if
we ran home and told all that we know of God?

How….how do we worship? What are some ways to worship? Let’s go back to

David, 1 Chron. 16. Let’s see if we can find some ways to worship in his words.

1 Chron. 16:8-36 – give thanks, call on His name, proclaim His deeds, sing to Him,
tell about all His works, honor, search for Him, seek His face, remember, declare
His glory, ascribe to the Lord, bring an offering…worship the Lord in the splendor
of his holiness (v29b)..tremble before Him, be glad, exult, shout for joy, give
thanks, speak, give thanks and rejoice

ASCRIBE

HONOR
BRING AN OFFERING

Can we all say together….with conviction……Now is the time to worship!!!!