Green Light or Green Screen?
The Journey • Sermon • Submitted
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· 10 viewsTrue worship has a single focus, is a genuine response, makes a critical decision and creates a clear division
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Transcript
ATTN
Pic of Rusty in E6
If you watch our announcement videos at the beginning of the service, you’ll see a background that looks like this. It looks like we went into the E6 Café while people were there and shot the announcements. But the person who recorded those announcements didn’t do it here, (show e6) they did it here (show Adam’s studio).
Pic of Rusty in studio
You’ll notice that the back wall of this recording studio is covered with a green material. They call it a “green screen.” There’s something about that color green that allows you to superimpose other images in the shot so that this (Studio) becomes this
Pic of Rusty in E6
(E6). It’s called Green Screen media.
And you’re probably wondering why I am up here today giving away our media guy’s secrets. Well, it’s because I want you to think about what’s going on with the green screen for a minute. The green screen allows you to look like you’re doing one thing when you’re actually doing something else.
And it’s that fact that makes me say that, when it comes to worshiping God, there are many “green screen” worshipers. If you look at them on the outside, they look like they are genuinely worshiping God, but, if you could take down the green screen, you’d find that they have very little deep knowledge of God at all. On the outside they look like they are in the very presence of God Himself, but they are not really in His presence at all. They have emotion, but little reality. They are green screen worshipers.
Contrasts that with what I call “greenlight” worshipers. These are the people who’s outward expression of worship matches the inward surrender of their hearts. They’ve said huge “yes” to God and His direction and they are all in, full on worshipers of God.
And just in case you want to take a little deeper dive into what all of this means, I want to invite you to look at a passage of Scripture in 2 Samuel 6. We’ve been taking our “journey” together through the Bible surveying the major characters and events that happened in Biblical history. Today we come to a very critical text.
David has become king, but not without a good deal of controversy on the front end of things. Seeking to honor God and consolidate his power, David conquers Jerusalem and proclaims it as his own city. To demonstrate God’s favor upon him and his administration God leads him to move the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. The ark had been residing in a place called Baal Judah after the Philistines captured it, then returned it when God punished them.
Now I know that the Ark of the Covenant might not be familiar to some of you. It was a sacred container which contained the Ten Commandments that God had given Moses and which represented the presence of God among the Jews. Having it with you meant that God was with you.
Now maybe you can understand why David wanted the Ark in Jerusalem. I think you can definitely say that he’s doing the right thing, but there was a problem. He didn’t do the right thing the right way. Instead of having the priests to carry the ark with poles, as the law required them to do, they put the ark on a cart. As the ark begins the journey to Jerusalem, the scene is one of joy. The people are praising God for this moment of victory and everything is going well until . . . until the ox stumbles and ark begins to topple off of the cart. Uzzah, a Levite overseeing the move, puts out his hand to stop the ark from falling and is immediately struck dead by God.
Wow! Talk about killing a worship service! This is devastating and David reacts. Look at what 2 Sam 6:8 says:
And David became angry because of the Lord’s outbreak against Uzzah; and he called the name of the place Perez Uzzah to this day.
Now, I’m not sure exactly whom David was angry at, but I’m assuming it was at God. I don’t think it was a vengeful anger that made him want to quit following God, but I think it was a helpless anger that was mixed with fear. It was an anger made him wonder how he could ever have a relationship with a God who would strike down a priest who was trying to bring the ark to its proper resting place. In fact 2 Sam 6:9 says,
David was afraid of the Lord that day; and he said, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” So David would not move the ark of the Lord with him into the City of David; but David took it aside into the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite.
But then something began to happen. Obed-Edom begin to experience God’s blessing because the ark was dwelling with him. This gave David courage to try again, except this time he doesn’t do it his way, he does it God’s way. He uses a new method. If you go over to the account of this in 1 Chronicles, you see that, instead of using a cart, he uses the Levites to carry the ark with poles. And He has a new attitude. There is something that is hidden in the text that you might miss if you don’t read carefully. I did until I was studying for this message. Look at 6:13: It says, 2 Samuel 6:13
And so it was, when those bearing the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep.
Did you catch that?? They were probably moving the ark a good 10 miles! Every time they took six steps, they took a “travel Sabbath.” Every six steps they sacrificed to the Lord. Whatever else that meant, it shows me that there was a deep attitude of reverence for the holiness of God.
David had a new method and a new attitude, but it seems that David had a new involvement. V14 says,
Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod.
Again, you tend to just pass right over that, but it was significant. By wearing the ephod, David was recognizing his spiritual responsibility to lead these people, not just as their political or military leader, but as their spiritual leader.
Pic - The Linen Ephod
The ark finally arrives in Jerusalem and there is great rejoicing and worship. You can just feel the spiritual electricity in the air when you read v 14 again:
Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet.
Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod. 15 So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. Wow! Can you picture that in your mind? What joy! What victory! What worship!
But not everyone was happy. Look at v 16:
Now as the ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.
16 Now as the ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart. Ruh Roh! Houston we have a problem! Why would David’s wife despise him at such a powerful spiritual moment? You see why down in v20:
Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, “How glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself today in the eyes of the maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!”
She was not happy!
And David responds to her and in his response he does much more than just rebuke his wife. In these two verses, God allows David to take the greatest theology of worship, picture it in this story and crystallize it with such clarity that you and I can understand what He looks for when we come to worship Him. Look at what David says:
So David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me instead of your father and all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel. Therefore I will play music before the Lord. And I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight. But as for the maidservants of whom you have spoken, by them I will be held in honor.”
What you have in David’s response to his wife is a description of worship that we all need to hear. We need to hear it first because of who we are. We are God’s CREATURES. Created by Him, we have one primary purpose: To bring Him glory. The emptiness in us—that hole in our soul—is actually a little cathedral that was meant to be occupied by two beings: You and God, you to worship and Him to be worshiped. And here’s the deal: Until you fill that cathedral the way it was meant to be filled, you’ll always be looking for something you can’t find.
TRANS:
So, since true worship is THE thing we were created to do, what does true worship look like. You find it in the picture this story draws and in the things that David says. Let’s look at it. In the first place, True worship
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True worship has a single focus.
True worship has a single focus.
EXP
You can hear the sarcasm dripping from Michal’s lips as she berates her husband in v20. She says,
Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, “How glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself today in the eyes of the maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!”
Now, I don’t think that David was uncovering himself in some sexual way. I think Michal’s problem is that David isn’t dressing like the King. He had on the priest’s garment. I think that Michal wanted the position of being the King’s wife and, just like her father Saul, she craved the admiration and respect of the POSITION of being king. In short, she felt his actions were beneath his office. He was “hobnobbing with the riff raff” and she didn’t like it.
David’s response teaches us about worship. He says, in v 21 It was before the Lord that I danced with all my might. He’s saying, “Hey Michal, you didn’t like what I was doing? Well, that’s fine because I WASN’T DOING IT FOR YOU. I wasn’t doing it for me. I wasn’t doing it for the maidservants. I was doing it before the Lord. He was my only focus.
And there’s the lesson! In true worship, we intentionally blind ourselves to everything and everyone else and see only Jesus. We have a single focus. WE HAVE AN AUDIENCE OF ONE!
TRANS
And that’s how you can tell what true worship is. It has a single focus and then
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True worship is a genuine response.
True worship is a genuine response.
EXP
Look back at v 21: It says:
So David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me instead of your father and all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel. Therefore I will play music before the Lord.
Now I know that this might sound like David is just having a good old fashioned fight with his wife. After all, he does say, It was before the Lord, who chose me INSTEAD OF YOUR FATHER AND ALL HIS HOUSE, to appoint me ruler . . . But I think if you get caught up in that part of this, you miss what is being said about worship.
Look at the verse again: So David said to Michal, It was before the Lord, (notice!) who CHOSE ME . . . to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel. THEREFORE I will play music . . . Did you catch that? David’s worship is a genuine response to what God had done for him. I think that David was genuinely amazed that God had reached into the sheep pen and snatched David up to make him a king. His worship is coming from the very core of who He is. It is a genuine response.
And it stands in sharp contrast to the worship of his predecessor, Michal’s father, King Saul. You see, Saul was always more concerned with appearance than with reality. Let me show you what I mean.
If you go back to 1 Sam 15, you’ll encounter the story of Saul and his great failure. He’s been sent to carry out God’s decree that the Amalekites are to be destroyed because of the way that they attacked the people of God when they were journeying to the Promised Land. Saul returns from battle flush with his own glory, thinking that he has won a great victory even though he spares some of the Amalekites and does not obey Gods command. He is confronted by Samuel, his mentor and God’s voice in his life. He is told by Samuel that God has rejected him from being the king of Israel. Even though this is a blow to Saul, it is amazing what he says to Samuel. Listen to 1 Sam 15:30:
Then he said, “I have sinned; yet honor me now, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord your God.” So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul worshiped the Lord.
Did you catch that? What was Saul concerned about in worship? What people thought about him.
David was different and that’s what he tells Saul’s daughter: He says, “It was before the Lord, who chose me instead of your father and all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel. Therefore I will play music before the Lord.
APP
So let me ask you: Has God done anything for you in your life to which you can respond in worship? (Pause) Don’t think too hard!! Are you still breathing? Everytime you inhale and every time you exhale, you are being given a gift for which you should respond. As the song says, It’s YOUR breath in our lungs so we pour out our praise to You only!
Hey, are you on your way to heaven? Have you turned to Christ from your sin and are you sure that if your next breath was your last breath, you’d wake up in His presence? Well, then you’ve got something to worship Him for.
ARG
And maybe someone might look at this story and say, “Well, that was easy for David to do! After all, God made him a king! I’d give praise too, if God made me a king! But, wait a minute! He has made you a king! If you’re a child of God, you’re a child of the King of Kings.
ILL
Don’t miss this! Majesty lives inside of you! Maybe the reason we don’t respond to God in worship is that we just don’t realize what He has placed inside of us. Louie Giglio makes this point so well in a message he gave to younger people. He is making the point that when we are asking what we can get away with as Christians, we are really failing to realize just what God has given us and how that gift can be expressed in our lives. Take a look at this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59MK7dUqsUE
You have majesty living in you. David knew who he was and who God was and his worship was simply a response to God, and really, that’s all that true worship is: It is responding to God from your heart because you understand just what He has done for you.
TRANS
True worship has a single focus and true worship is a genuine response. But there’s something else we learn from David’s description of worship.
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True worship makes a critical decision
True worship makes a critical decision
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You see the decision that David makes in v 22:
And I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight. But as for the maidservants of whom you have spoken, by them I will be held in honor.”
There is one decisive statement David makes here that involves two specific words he uses.
The first word he uses is translated “undignified” in the NKJV. In Hebrew it literally means “to be trivial or to become of little significance.” The second word is humble and means to consider yourself inferior or of low value.
Hold on to those definitions in your mind and let’s look at the rest of the verse. He says to his wife who wanted him to appear “kingly” before the people, And I WILL BE even more undignified than this, and (I) WILL BE humble in my own sight. Did you catch the verbs? They are not accidental! They are very INTENTIONAL. David tells his status symbol wife that I am intentionally making a decision to make little of me and very much of God.
And that teaches us a powerful lesson about worship! True worship is about us DECIDING to forget ourselves and what others think of us and truly worshiping God. It is an intentional decision. You see, most people come to church without intentionally deciding anything. They may say, “Well, if Bryan gets up there and the band is tight enough; if the vocals are clean enough; if the lighting is bright enough, the bass is good enough, and if Bryan says just the right thing at the right time that moves my heart emotionally, maybe worship will just happen.”
WRONG!! O no! True worship doesn’t begin with your emotions, it begins with your will. It is a decision to intentionally make nothing of yourself and everything of God. It is intentional . . .
And it is HUMILIATING. David says that the decision he is making is to appear undignified and humbled. He was dancing before the Lord in that ephod with all his might! He didn’t care what the High Priest thought; He didn’t care what his advisors thought; He didn’t care what the maidens thought or what the musicians thought. He only cared about what God thought. He forgot Himself!
And that can be humiliating! Why are our altars empty and our pews full? It’s this right here. We are too proud to humble ourselves and throw ourselves before God and forget what the person sitting next to us thinks. I know that because I have been that way too. There have been many times when the Lord has moved my heart just to leave my pew and humble myself and pray at this altar. Sometimes I have come but others I have made an excuse because I was too proud. Listen! When I refuse to allow myself to be humiliated, I don’t just rob myself of blessing, I rob everyone else of a blessing.
Peace Church, let’s get over ourselves! Let’s decide to worship God. Let’s decide to be undignified; let’s decide to humble ourselves.
You say, “Why Rusty? Why would I make a fool of myself to worship God?” I’ll tell you why. YOu see, there was a garden where Jesus knelt and said “Lord, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.” Jesus was about to suffer the ultimate humiliation and, in His humanity, He didn’t want to go through it, but He intentionally decided to move forward. Why did He do that? Some will say, “Well it was for us. It was because He wanted to save us.” Well, while that is true, that was not the main thing Jesus was doing on the cross. O no! His prayer to the Father on the night before His trial was that God would be GLORIFIED in His sacrifice. He intentionally went to the cross to WORSHIP God.
And, because He intentionally decided to worship no matter what the cost, we are ABLE now to worship Him because His sacrifice has made that possible. Because He has forgiven us we can come right into the presence of God!
So, the only adequate response to this amazing, intentional love is for us to forget about ourselves and focus on God. Let’s worship! That’s what true worship does. It has a focus; it is a response; it makes a decision and finally:
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True Worship creates a clear division.
True Worship creates a clear division.
ILL
One pastor wrote that our culture has turned us into professional spectators. We don’t get out and explore ourselves, we just turn to the Travel channel. We don’t find a great recipe and cook a gourmet meal, we turn on Rachael Ray. We don’t get out and play sports, we just tune into ESPN. We don’t form real relationships with our our neighbors or co-workers, we form fake relationships with people on “Reality T.V.” We are watchers.
I catch my grandson watching other kids shooting nerf guns on his Ipad. Now he does that when he’s got 4 or 5 other kids in the neighborhood and a huge box full of nerf guns in our garage. Yet he’s choosing to spectate instead of participate.
The strangest thing about it, however, is that in the midst of our watching, we have come to believe that we are truly part of something by simply watching it. For instance, many people today define themselves by their favorite sports team or television program. If you ask people to talk about themselves, one of the things they might say is, “I’m a huge Cowboys fan” or “I’m a Trekkie.” We come to identify ourselves by these things that, personally, we have nothing to do with. You also see this in the division that happens in our worship at church.
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O listen, David’s worship created a great division that day. And, the truth is, true worship always divides an audience. You say, “What are you talking about Rusty? How does worship divide an audience?” Well, just look at the two groups you see in these verses.
In v 16 it says,
Now as the ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.
That’s the first group that’s present in any worship service. It’s the “watchers.” They aren’t participating, they are evaluating. They are looking on and often they are looking on with great disdain. Because they are refusing to join in worship, they are critiquing those who do and our enemy will be sure to help them despise true worshipers.
At every worship service there are “watchers” and there are worshipers. Will you notice what David ends v 22? He says,
And I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight. But as for the maidservants of whom you have spoken, by them I will be held in honor.”
Evidently the maidservants were dancing before the Lord with David. Because Michal has refused to enter into worship, she is looking skeptically at everyone else who is worshiping and misjudging their motives. She accuses them of having sexual designs on David, but David says, “No Michal you are dead wrong. They’re not loving me, they are loving God. They get it! They are true worshipers and they hold me in honor because they know I hold God in honor.
And, again, both groups come to every worship service. You have the watchers who refuse to participate and just observe on the sidelines, and you have the worshipers who are willing to make the decision to forget themselves and focus on God. True worship divides the worshiper from the watcher.
So let’s draw this together with a few specific applications:
Since worship requires focus, we can ignore distractions.
Since worship requires focus, we can ignore distractions.
First, since worship requires focus, we can ignore distractions. When we gather in our sanctuary with other believers, we must consciously decide to forget about what others are doing or what other are thinking and genuinely focus all of our attention on God. That also applies to your private worship with the Lord. You need that quiet, isolated place where you can be alone with God and kneel on your face before Him, or raise your hands to Him, or pray out loud to Him, or weep openly before Him. Remember, your worship isn’t before anyone else, it is before the Lord. Real worship requires focus, so we must ignore distractions.
Since worship is response, we can remember grace.
Since worship is response, we can remember grace.
· Second, since worship is response, we can remember grace. Not only do we ignore distractions, there are some specific things and, primarily a specific Person we focus on. Worship is simply attributing greatest worth to the One Who has blessed us. So, in worship, we remember Who He is and What He has done and we praise Him and thank Him. Real worship is simply a genuine response to all God is and all He does and, since that is true, I must consciously place my mind on Him and His blessings and remember His great grace. Real worship is a response.
Since worship requires a decision, I can choose surrender.
Since worship requires a decision, I can choose surrender.
· Third, since worship requires a decision, I can choose surrender. As I remember Who God is and what He has done, I realize that He alone deserves my greatest allegiance and I joyfully give Him all of me. I surrender my lips to praise Him; I surrender my hands to raise in His honor; I surrender my emotions to be moved by Him; I surrender my mind to think about Him and His glory; I surrender my life to bring Him praise whether I’m sweeping the street or singing a song, or preaching a message, or discipling my friend, I actively choose to surrender to God. I consciously decide that, whether people think I am undignified or humiliated, I will choose to surrender to God. Worship, real worship requires a decision to surrender.
Since worship creates a division, we should evaluate ourselves.
Since worship creates a division, we should evaluate ourselves.
And when we worship like this, we will find that this kind of worship creates a clear division. Since this is true—since worship creates a division, we should evaluate ourselves. Are we truly worshiping or are we just watching? Are we like David as we dance before the Lord with all our might, or are we like Michal—just watching and despising? Are we green screen worshipers or are we greenlight worshipers? Are we just thinking about how weird real worshipers are, or are we so occupied with God that we are fully and completely under His control?
VIS
Pic - Amazon
Robert Kennedy, the brother of President John F. Kennedy, once visited the Amazon jungle. While there he had a conversation with a Brazilian Indian. Though he didn’t know it, this Brazilian had recently become a follower of Christ. Trying to identify with the Brazilian, Kennedy asked him, “So what do you like to do the most?” Kennedy expected the man to say “hunting with bows and arrows” or maybe “canoeing,” but the Indian answered: “I like being occupied with God.” Thinking that he had been misunderstood or that the translator had gotten it wrong, Kennedy said, “Ask him again. Something may be lost in the translation.” But the Indian gave the same answer. “I like being occupied with God.” That’s a greenlight worshiper right there. There’s a man who has said with David, . . . “It was before the Lord, who chose me (that I danced). Therefore I will (worship) and play music before the Lord. 22 And I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight. I will be occupied with God. I will be a greenlight worshiper!