Devout

Transcript of talk given at Birkenhead Community Church on 2nd September 2018

Kirsten to read 2 Samuel 6

Thanks Kirsten.  This week we continue our series on what it is to have a heart ‘after the Lord’ and consider what it means to be devout.  Our passage this morning as we’ve just heard is from 2 Samuel 6 where the David brings the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem.

Before we go any further.  Let’s pray.

Oh Lord, we need your help this morning to worship you as we open your Word together.  We need your help Jesus to see the Father more clearly and to understand what it means to live lives that are totally committed to you. We need your help Holy Spirit to worship in Spirit and in Truth.  Take us deeper than we’ve dared venture before.  For your glory, Amen.

So if this whole chapter is about David bringing the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem I guess the first questions are to ask what is the Ark and where has it been?  It would have looked a little like this – about 50 inches by 30 deep and 30 high – gilded entirely with gold, with more gold around it.  Four rings of gold were attached to its four corners and through these rings, gold-covered wooden poles were inserted for carrying the Ark.  These poles were not to be removed.

It was made more than 400 years before David’s time and the Ark of the Covenant represented God’s presence to the people of Israel when they were in the wilderness with Moses.  When they were travelling to the Promised Land, it was the Ark of the Covenant that housed God’s presence.  Inside it had the 10 commandments, a jar of manna and Aaron’s rod that had miraculously budded as confirmation of his leadership.  The most significant part was the Mercy Seat, where God would speak to Moses. This Ark represented the immediate presence and glory of God in Israel. 

And yet it wasn’t in the Israelites possession because the Philistines had stolen it after defeating them in a battle some 100 years earlier.

Except the Philistines didn’t keep it.  Things didn’t exactly work out for the Philistines when they had the Ark of the Covenant in their possession…

-          Dagon (little g)

-          Towns - plagues

-          Rats / Tumours

-          Death & Destruction

-          Eventually get rid of it

-          Appease the Israelite’s God – gold rats & tumours

-          2 cows never been hooked up to a cart

-          Dead straight line back to the Israelites

The people in this first town, Beth-shemesh looked into the Ark and 70 people died as a result.  So understandably they didn’t really want the Ark to stay with them much longer and so called up the people at Kiriath-jearim and told them “The Philistines have returned the Ark of the Lord. Come here and get it!”  It was from here that it went to Abinadab’s house and remained there seemingly forgotten.  The presence of God was available, but the Israelites had forgotten.

There’s a lot of things we could pick out of this chapter to focus on and look at this morning, but we’re going to consider what it is to be devout.  What it is to worship.  Now you might say, “oh I’m not really ‘into’ worship” or “I’m not much of a worshipper” but let me tell you something.  You were born to worship. 

We all worship.  Everyone worships.  The questions is not if you are worshipping, but what or who are we worshipping.  If you look at the word devout in a dictionary, it gives two definitions – one which lends itself to religiousness, rules and rituals – we are not aiming for that this morning.  The other, is about being totally committed to a cause or belief.  It’s about being ‘all-in’, holding nothing back.  It’s the type of devout, the type of worship, that lends itself to dancing “with all your might”.

Worship is our response to what we value most. 

I’ll give you an example: The 60s went crazy for the Beatles.  One news report talking about their return from the States said that the noise of the fans generated “enough energy to put three atmos missiles in orbit, and power 54,000 transistor radios.” That’s some serious volume.  The report goes on to say that the fans would do “anything to be nearer their idols”, to get a glimpse of them, to be in their presence, to be seen, to hear their voices, to have their own voice heard.  They just wanted to be in the presence of greatness.  73 million people tuned into one of their appearances in America in 1964.  The Beatles were adored, followed, loved.  They were worshipped.  

It seems that as humans we intrinsically know how to worship – whether it’s rock bands, sports teams, money or something else.  We are all worshippers.  Look at what we value most in our lives – at the things we spend our money, our time and ourselves on, and that is what we are worshipping.  However, if worship indicates what we value most but our worship of God is restrained and small, then we are saying to the world and ourselves, that our God is small and fairly inconsequential.

David, it seems, knew something of extravagant, outlandish worship.  And yet, as we heard in this chapter, he didn’t always get it right.  So what can we learn from David’s two attempts to bring the glory of God back to its rightful, central place in their lives and what do we need to do to allow God’s presence to take centre-stage in our own lives?

Firstly, let’s look at what went wrong:

David always enquired of the Lord before doing anything.  Except it seems, here.  1 Chronicles 13, reveals that he consulted with his officials and the generals and the captains of his army.  Even the entire assembly of God’s people, “If you approve…” he says, and yet despite a good and godly desire to bring back the Ark, he doesn’t actually ask God what they should do.  When we choose to do things our own way, without enquiring of the Lord, we’re essentially saying to God, to ourselves and to those who are watching from the sidelines that God’s not good enough to lead our lives - we can do it better - our way is the best way.

We’re saying, like Dan was talking about last week, that we’re happy with our good ideas regardless of whether it’s a God idea.  It turns out that you can have a good desire and sometimes even a godly desire, but you can go about it in the wrong way.  Don’t settle for good ideas when you can have God ideas.

We see this further in the way in which David and the Israelites sought to bring the Ark back to Jerusalem.  The Philistine’s had bought a cart and stuck the Ark on it to send it back.  They just wanted rid of the Ark.  Anything to appease the Israelites’ God.  The Philistines were not God’s people.  The Philistines did not have the law of God.  They did not have the careful instructions laid out by God for the proper moving and handling of the Ark.  The Israelites did.  But they didn’t follow them.  Instead, the Israelites copied the customs of the Philistines.  They might well of thought they were doing better than the Philistines.  We read in verse 3 that they set the Ark not on any old cart, but on a new cart.  However, in doing so, they were copying the world’s methodology rather than obeying the instructions the Lord had set out for them.  (You can read those instructions in Exodus 25 and Numbers 4.) 

Sometimes our service to the Lord appears like this.  Like a new cart – a new production – a new ministry – a new way of serving the Lord.  It seems right and good.  It can have strength behind it and be friendly and welcoming in its presentation – yet the thing that is most important is to inquire of the Lord and look to His will.  We can do good things for Jesus but we can do them the wrong way.  Or maybe, you know what you’re supposed to do, but you’re just not doing it.  You’re taking the easy option.  Maybe you know what it is that the Lord is asking of you, but you’re not doing it because carrying the Ark seems like too much hard work.  Why carry the Ark when you can just put it on a cart right?  It worked for them... But what is God asking of you?

Sometimes we copy the world’s methodology in the way that we worship too.  You might wonder how can this be when the world clearly isn’t worshipping Jesus.  But without even realising, we start to worship our health, our wealth, our relationships with friends at school.  Perhaps we begin to worship success.  We listen to what the world is telling us to worship and ultimately, the world is telling us to worship ourselves.  To place ourselves first and centre – do what’s right for you – look out for number one – take the easy route - put yourself first.  We are all born to worship, we need to keep a check on what or whom we are giving our worship to.  Are you totally committed to Jesus or yourself?

We’ve barely got five verses into this chapter – full of celebration, music, festival – when bam.  Someone dies.  What?  How could this be?  David’s desire is to bring God back to the centre of the community, back to the centre of their lives.  How could he kill someone? 

Verse 3 tells us that the Israelites were collecting the Ark from Abinadab’s house which is where it had been for decades.  His sons were the ones guiding the new cart.  They would have known the law.  They would have known that no one could touch the Ark (ever).  They had had the Ark of the Lord in their house… and yet, at the threshing floor when the oxen stumbled, Uzzah reached out his hand and touched the ark.  Ever heard the saying familiarity breeds contempt?  I don’t know about contempt so much here as a familiarity of having the Ark in his house for decades had led to a complacency around rightful respect and awe of the presence of God. 

Uzzah erred in thinking it didn’t matter who carried the Ark, he erred in thinking he knew all about the Ark because it had been in his father’s house for so long.  Uzzah erred in thinking that God couldn’t take care of the Ark himself when the oxen stumbled.  He erred in thinking that the ground of the threshing floor was less holy than his hand. 

Could we be charged with the same error?  Could we be charged with complacency when it comes to worship?  Have we become so familiar with singing our songs and declaring our love for the Lord that the awe of whose presence we’re entering has evaporated?  Have we made errors in our thinking assuming we know all about this God that we worship?  Do we assume that we know how to come before him?  Are we taking the easy route in worship which doesn’t demand much of us?  We serve a holy and jealous God.  He will not share the worship that is due His name.  He will bring the Dagons in our life crashing down if they are competing for His glory.  Good intentions aren’t enough when it comes to worshipping God.  God wants our devout - all-in, totally committed worship. 

The final error in David’s failed first attempt to return the Ark of the Lord to Jerusalem is not found in this chapter of the story, but in 1 Chronicles where the same story is being told.  We learn from chapter 15 that first time round, David hadn’t prepared a place for the Ark to go.  He had just decided to go get God.  He needed some of God’s presence so off he set.  No room had been made, no space had been cleared.  Could we ever be accused of coming to worship on a Sunday morning without making space in our hearts?  Without preparing ourselves to worship the Most High God?

Well.  As we see from v9, Uzzah’s death incited the fear of the Lord in David and there’s no way he wants the Ark of the Lord now.  So it gets left in the house of Obed-Edom.  This could seem fairly inconsequential.  It reads as if he’s just left it at the nearest blokes house.  However, David is starting to understand here.  He’s starting to ‘get it’.  Obed-Edom was a Levite of the family of Koath.  This is the family within the tribe of Levi that God had commanded to carry and take care of the Ark.  And we see in verse 11 that the Lord “blessed him and his entire household”.  When God’s Word was obeyed and His holiness respected, blessing followed.

Moving from verse 11 to 12 in this chapter we might think that David’s turnaround to wanting the Ark back again was pretty quick.  But if we look at this same story in 1 Chronicles 14 we see that three months passed and in that time quite a lot of stuff happened.  The palace had been built, David has married more women and he is fully established as King.  And in 1 Chronicles chapter 15 verse 1 we read that David had built several buildings for himself in the City of David and he “also prepared a place for the Ark of God and set up a special tent for it.”

David returned to his rightful place before the Lord.  He had battled with the Philistines and enquired of the Lord each time and seen the Lord to be faithful.  He had heard of the blessings on Obed-Edom’s house for those who honour the Lord.  He remembered who it was that He was wanting back in Jerusalem.  Not just a trophy God, a genie to rub when things go wrong, but the God who saved them in battle.  The God who gave them law, providence and direction.  The God who was faithful and showed up.  The God whose presence brought blessing.  The God who knew him by name.  The God who is worthy of all praise.  David returned to the heart of the matter as he was reminded about God’s goodness and intimacy God wants with his people.  And so he made space for God’s presence.  He cleared a place.  He designated a special area and made room to welcome God.

Have you made space in your hearts?  Have you cleared a place in your schedule?  Have you searched your soul to check that the space you’re inviting God’s presence into is ready for Him?

So then, take 2, they go to get the Ark for the second time.  Except this time they honour God’s word.  They bring their obedience and their all.  Their worship began when they started clearing space for the Ark.  Every six steps they stop and make an offering.  Every six steps of the 12 mile journey.  That’s quite possibly 25,000 steps.  That’s over 4,000 times to stop and worship.  12 miles of dancing with all your might.  12 miles of singing and music.  12 miles of thousands of animals being sacrificed. 

This worship is costly. 

We know that David learns a lesson here about the cost of worship.  Later when he’s building an altar he refuses to take the threshing floor for the altar without paying for it.  He says, “I will not present burnt offerings to the Lord my God that have cost me nothing.” (2 Sam 24:24).  Devout worship is worship that is costly.  It is your total commitment.  Wholehearted, unwavering, earnest, passionate and resolute.  Carrying the Ark is costly.  It’s heavy.  It needs total commitment.

We see the cost of worship when Mary pours out perfume on Jesus’ feet and dries them with her hair.  It cost her financially, and it cost her socially to do that in front of others.

Building an altar every six steps is costly.  It’s a sacrifice of praise.  Worship is costly when we declare ‘you are greatly to be praised’ when it doesn’t feel that way – when an injury prevents you from playing for your sports team, when there’s no job, when your spouse has left you, when the money has run out, when health has deserted people we love.  When we build an altar in our lives to declare God’s goodness, his faithfulness and His love even when it doesn’t feel like it, that’s costly.  Worship costs us.

Every. 6. Steps.

Every six steps there’s sacrifice.  But also, every six steps there is rejoicing.  There’s no complacency second time round for David.  Remembering what happened before, David is aware of God’s goodness in getting them even six steps and so worships with all his might.  This worship is elaborate, extravagant.  It has been said that “If our worship isn’t visible, comprehensive and extravagant, the gospel we heard must have been tiny, empty and cheap.”

David knows the gospel in this moment.  He knows that he is dealing with a holy, powerful, almighty God, and the level of worship in response shows that.  In the Old Testament, there are several different words translated as ‘worship’.  “Halal” [haw-lal] is one of those words.  Halal appears more than 165 times in the Old Testament and translates to shine, to boast, to show, to rave about, to celebrate, to praise, even to be clamorously foolish.  David is full on ‘halal’ worshipping the Lord.  He is devout – all-in, totally committed.  He’s holding nothing back.

Louie Giglio, an American pastor, says that there is “a direct correlation between your appreciation of what Christ has done for you and the expression of worship… So many people don’t know the fullness of what Christ has done for them… the greatness of who He has made them to be.  They don’t know enough about their new standing with God to break free from the Deceiver’s lies.  They try to worship, but condemnation chokes out their praise.  Guilt restrains their hearts.  Shame stifles their songs.  No wonder their worship is weak and frail.  No wonder so many aren’t shouting his praise or breaking into a dance of unrestrained celebration.  Maybe we’re not getting the gospel – the whole gospel.  We’re short-sighted and living in far less than we have in Christ…”

I often think to myself that if I truly understood the gospel my life would look so different.  I would be shouting from the rooftops.  I wouldn’t be weighed down by such insignificant issues.  Why is it that a new Christian will be so successful in leading others to Christ?  Because they are so aware of all He has done for them.  Have we forgotten?  Have we become complacent?  Are we ‘good now’ because we’ve got our ticket for heaven?

No!

A.W.Tozer says, “It is my prayer that the evangelical church will discover that salvation is not a lightbulb only, not an insurance policy against hell, but a gateway into God and His heart.”

A gateway into God and His heart.  The gospel is so much more than a ticket to heaven.  The gospel is alive.  The gospel is for now.  The gospel is Jesus.  He lives, he breathes.  He has conquered death.  He rose from the grave.  If you are a Christian, He sent the Holy Spirit to live in you.  God in you.  God’s presence – in you.  Do you remember the last time I was preaching here?  There is now NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  The gospel is Jesus.  We are IN Christ.  We are IN full stop.  This is cause for celebration.  This is cause for emotion.  This is cause for falling to our knees in gratitude.  This is the gospel.  This is why we worship.  This is WHO we worship.  Jesus.  It is all about Jesus.  Hebrews 13:15 says, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise…” Continually offer a sacrifice of praise.  Continually.  Every. Six. Steps.  It is through Jesus and because of Jesus that we are to worship continually.  Not just on a Sunday morning.  Not just when we have a ‘quiet time’.  But every. Six. Steps.  What would your day look like if every six steps, every six hours, every six minutes even, your thoughts were aligned to the one who is sustaining you and connecting you to the Father?  If every six steps, here and now, you reminded yourself of the gospel.  Jesus deserves our everything.  The breath that we breathe, it’s Jesus sustaining us.  Here and now.  It’s all about Jesus.

Through Jesus Hebrews says.  It is Jesus that gives us the gateway into God and His heart.  We can know the heart of God, here and now.  We can hear the voice of God, here and now.  We can see the promises of God come to pass, here and now.  We can see miracles, here and now.  We can watch as captives are set free, here and now.  We can witness lives transformed, here and now.

Every six steps.  Here and now.

A woman once asked Jesus where the proper place to worship was.  His answer is here and now.

“The time is coming – indeed it’s here now – when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.  The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way.” (John 4:23)

The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way.

The Father is looking for worshippers who will hold nothing back.  Who will dance with all their might.  Who are worshipping for an audience of one.  When you start to worship, witness and praise as you should, there will be others who despise you for it as we see with Michel in verse 20 when she watches David. 

But David hasn’t debased himself here.  He has humbled himself.  He was aware of the inappropriateness to come before the Lord as the King of Israel and instead took off his kingly robes and came as a servant before the Lord, as a commoner, as one who acknowledged the Kingship and Rule of God in Israel.  He took off what was an impediment to worshipping God in humility and truth.   What do you need to take off that is standing in your way of worshipping the Father in Spirit and truth?  What is impeding your worship?  Do you need to take off fear or man?  Or pride?  Do you need to strip a known sin away?  Do you need to take off busyness and distraction?

“Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you.” (Andrew Murray)

To worship in spirit and truth means we have a right understanding of who God is and who we are before him.  We have a right understanding that our worship is for Him and not for the people around us.  Worship is seeing something great and then reflecting it to the world.

Have a watch of this.  It is an intermediate student at his school recital:

Video of Sammy

That’s actually my nephew and the voice you hear at the end is his Dad, my brother.  My brother saw something great, and he reflected that to the world.  Some of you will watch that and think how inappropriate.  What a scene he’s making.  That my brother, Sammy’s Dad, should know better than to shout and scream in such a setting.  But he wasn’t doing it for you.  He wasn’t applauding and celebrating the other people in the room.  He had eyes only for his son.  He was giving his Son some ‘halal’ praise and letting Sammy know exactly how awesome he is. 

Some of you will watch that as Michel watched David and you might now despise my brother in your heart.  But my brother, Andy, loves Sammy.  And he wanted to celebrate, to honour and to recognize Sammy in that moment.  And how did it make Sammy feel?  I’m guessing pretty awesome.  In response to Michel’s scorn, David says, it’s not for you.  My worship is not about you, it’s not about me.  “It was before the Lord… I will celebrate the Lord… I will become even more undignified than this… I will be humiliated in my own eyes…” I will let pride die in me.  I will ‘halal’ worship.  Here and now.  Every six steps. Because it is Not. About. Me.

Our worship isn’t about us guys.  It’s not for us.  It’s not to make us feel better (although often that’s a beautiful by-product of worshipping in spirit and truth).  Being devout isn’t about religiously following rules, rites and rituals.  Of having ‘proper’ decorum.  Devout is all-in.  Total commitment.  Holding nothing back.  I love you Jesus worship. 

So how do we worship in Spirit and truth?

You can’t worship what you don’t know.  You have to worship in truth.  Get to know Jesus.  Spend time in the Word, discover the beauty and depth and intimacy of relationship that he has on offer for you.  Worship is no longer about location.  We don’t need to bring an Ark into our homes to worship.  We don’t need to go to a special mountain.  Where is God?  He is with us.  The Spirit of God is leading and guiding us. 

The Bible gives us plenty of examples of how we can worship – shout to god, sing a new song, dance before him, clap your hands, bow down, lift up your heads, tell of his might, stand in awe, meditate on his truth, walk in his ways, still your heart, cast down your idols, run to him, make a loud noise, lift your hands, clash those cymbals, strike up the band, praise him with trumpet sound, seek his face, tell the nations…

Don’t strive to worship.  Like an overflowing cup, it will only overflow when it is continuously being poured into.  Fill yourself with who Jesus is and you won’t be able to help but worship. 

You might be here this morning thinking that you can’t take six steps and then worship because you’ve not even taken one step towards Jesus yet.  Let me encourage you – you don’t need to have all the answers, you don’t need to have life figured out before you start stepping towards Jesus.  He will guide you with all of your steps if you take that first step towards him.  He died on the cross to deal with all the things in our lives that get in the way of us coming close to the Father, all our sin.  He died and he came back to life so that you could have new life.  So that you can know God here and now.  So that you can walk each and every step in unity with His Spirit.  Don’t be afraid of giving your worship to Jesus.  He is the only one who is worth it.

Psalm 147:1 says this in the Passion Translation,

“Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
    How beautiful it is when we sing our praises to the beautiful God,
    for praise makes you lovely before him
    and brings him great delight!”

Praise makes you lovely before him and brings him great delight.  We all worship.  Our worship tells us what we value most.  It determines our actions and becomes our driving force.  What does undignified worship look like to you?  What would be extravagant and costly?  Worshipping with your finances and giving them away.  Worshipping with your time and serving.  Worshipping with your emotions and physicality and losing your pride.  Worshipping with your faith and stepping out to take a risk with leading a small group or serving in youth or kids ministry.  Every six steps.  Because we can worship here and now.  All through this week.  Here and now, turn your hearts.  Here and now.

Let’s worship.