Worship That Moves God

Do you ever contemplate the question, “What is worship?” That’s the reason we’ve come together today isn’t it, to worship God? But what is true worship, genuine worship? I’ve thought a lot about that question in my ministry. I’ve wondered, do I really worship God in a way that pleases and brings honor to Him? Does our church?

As a church, a large part of what we do corporately is worship. Much of what our staff do throughout the week is with the express purpose to prepare us for worship. Obviously then, worship is very important to us. Remember also, one of our Strategy Planning goals was to create a warm and inviting worship atmosphere. And I think we have taken major steps to do just that over the summer months.

Do you know that the Bible declares there is a right way and a wrong way to worship? There is worship that pleases God and there is worship that dishonors, and even angers God.

I love that early Psalm of David recorded, not in the book of Psalms, but in the 16th chapter of 1 Chronicles. Following the occasion of the return of the Ark of God to Jerusalem, David sings aloud,

I Chronicles 16:28-29, Give to the Lord,O families of the peoples, Give to the Lord glory and strength.

29 Give to the Lord the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come before Him. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!

That’s how God should be worshipped! That’s how God deserves to be worshipped!

But many years later, the Prophet Jeremiah, lived and preached to an idolatrous nation who failed to worship God properly.

In Jeremiah 25:6-7, listen to the heartcry of a broken prophet, ‘Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will not harm you.’ 7“Yet you have not listened to Me,” says the Lord, “that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.”

My message today is entitled, “Worship That Moves God.” Please open your Bible this morning to 1 Chronicles 15.

1 Chronicles, chapters 13 through 16 take us back to the wonderful occasion when King David was motivated to return the Ark of the Covenant, Moses’ ark, or the Ark of God, into the royal city of Jerusalem.

In chapter 13 we are told of David’s and the people of Israel’s failed attempt to move the Ark of God. (following Scriptures not in the sermon notes)

6 And David and all Israel went up to Baalah, to Kirjath Jearim, which belonged to Judah, to bring up from there the ark of God the Lord, who dwells between the cherubim, where His name is proclaimed. 7 So they carried the ark of God on a new cart from the house of Abinadab, and Uzza and Ahio drove the cart. 8 Then David and all Israel played music before God with all their might, with singing, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on cymbals, and with trumpets. 9 And when they came to Chidon’s threshing floor, Uzza put out his hand to hold the ark, for the oxen stumbled. 10 Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Uzza, and He struck him because he put his hand to the ark; and he died there before God. 11 And David became angry because of the Lord’s outbreak against Uzza; therefore that place is called Perez Uzza to this day. 12 David was afraid of God that day, saying, “How can I bring the ark of God to me?” 13 So David would not move the ark with him into the City of David, but took it aside into the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite.

This story illustrates one principle: There is a right way and there is a wrong way of worship. There is a worship that pleases God, and there is a worship that dishonors, and thus angers God.

Chapter 14 seems to indicate that some time passed before David made another effort to move the Ark of God from the home of Obed-Edom to Jerusalem. You’ll also notice that David had time to give much thought to just how God desired to be moved, to be worshipped. As we review 1 Chronicles 15 this morning, please take note of the important steps we must take if we too, are to move God in worship.

First, notice that before we can worship in such a way that moves God, there must be preparation.

1 Chronicles 15:1-3, 1 David built houses for himself in the City of David; and he prepared a place for the ark of God, and pitched a tent for it. 2 Then David said, “No one may carry the ark of God but the Levites, for the Lord has chosen them to carry the ark of God and to minister before Him forever.” 3 And David gathered all Israel together at Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the Lord to its place, which he had prepared for it.

The key word is “prepared.”

1. WE MUST PREPARE FOR WORSHIP THAT MOVES GOD.

A. Our Preparation for Worship Must be Intentional

B. Our Preparation for Worship Must be Instructional

How do we prepare for worship? Two ways, 1) We must prepare for worship individually, and 2) We must prepare for worship corporately.

John MacArthur, in his book, “The Ultimate Priority,” says, “If believers are to maintain a consistent lifestyle of continuous worship, they need the encouragement and fellowship of other believers as they assemble for group worship. Individual worship and corporate worship feed each other. So on the one hand, I need the fellowship of the saints. On the other hand, the community of saints needs me to live a consistent life of worship.”

The source of most of the problems people have in their Christian lives relates to two things: either they are not worshipping six days a week personally or privately, or they are not worshipping one day a week publicly with the assembly of the saints. We need both!

If you go to church only when it is convenient, you will never be victorious and productive as a Christian. You can’t succeed on your own, you need to have the spiritual stimulation of fellow believers. We live in such an easy-come, easy-go, casual, flippant society that people don’t make consistent, faithful commitments, and then they wonder why they fail. The answer is clear. Spiritual success requires commitment to others….”

ILLUSTRATION—A pastor went to see a man who didn’t attend church very faithfully. The man was sitting before a fire, watching the warm glow of the coals. It was a cold winter day, but the coals were red hot, and the fire was warm. The pastor pleaded with the man to be more faithful in meeting with the people of God, but the man didn’t seem to be getting the message.

So the pastor stood up and picked up the tongs beside the fireplace, pulled open the screen, and reached in and began to separate all the coals. When none of the coals were touching the others, he stood and watched in silence. In a matter of moments, they were all cold. “That’s what’s happening in your life,” he told the man. “As soon as you isolate yourself from God’s people, the fire goes out.” The man got the message.

The Bible says, “God inhabits the praises of His people.” Spending quality time with God alone is important, but just as essential is the joining with other believers to meet with and move God in worship. (Hebrews 10:25)

So we must prepare to move God in worship both personally and publically. That’s intentionality. But I also said we must worship instructionally, if we are to move God.

Look again at verse 2. This time David gets it right. 2 Then David said, “No one may carry the ark of God but the Levites, for the Lord has chosen them to carry the ark of God and to minister before Him forever.”

Before, David and Israel attempted in their own might, to worship God, but failed, because they failed to follow God’s instructions.

So if we are to worship in such a way that moves God, we must also follow His instructions, in our preparations.

T/S--Let’s look closer at the people God places or calls to lead His people today to worship Him in a moving way.

2. THE PEOPLE GOD CHOOSES TO MOVE HIM IN WORSHIP

In verse 4, we are told, “4 Then David assembled the children of Aaron and the Levites:” again this is the Levitical Priesthood, we have read so much about. In verses 5-10 are listed some of the more than 850 Levites who were selected to help transport the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem.

And in verses 11-15, 11 And David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites: for Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab. 12 He said to them, “You are the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites; sanctify yourselves,(that’s preparation) you and your brethren, that you may bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel to the place I have prepared for it. 13“For because you did not do it the first time, the Lord our God broke out against us, because we did not consult Him about the proper order.” 14 So the priests and the

Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel. 15 And the children of the Levites bore the ark of God on their shoulders, by its poles, as Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord.

You can read about this again in Numbers 4. But keep reading at verse 16. 16 Then David spoke to the leaders of the Levites to appoint their brethren to be the singers accompanied by instruments of music, stringed instruments, harps, and cymbals, by raising the voice with resounding joy.

Don’t miss verse 22, they had a Minister of Music, too. (Chen a ni ah) Makes me grateful that our Worship Leader is simply named Penny!

One of the things you have to see here is that God has always had a special people He, Himself, has chosen and called to lead His people to worship Him. For David, and the people of Israel is was the Levites, the Priestly order, of the tribe of Levi.

T/S—We’ve looked at the preparation that is needed to worship God both privately and publicly. We just looked at the people God chooses to move Him in worship, now let’s look at the principles of worship that move God.

3. THE PRINCIPLES OF WORSHIP THAT MOVE GOD

1 Chronicles 15:25-28, 25 So David, the elders of Israel, and the captains over thousands went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the house of Obed-Edom with joy. And so it was, when God helped the Levites who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, that they offered seven bulls and seven rams. 27 David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, as were all the Levites who bore the ark, the singers, and Chenaniah the music master with the singers. David also wore a linen ephod. 28 Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn, with trumpets and with cymbals, making music with stringed instruments and harps.

1. Worship That Moves God is Joyful Worship. “joy”

2. Worship That Moves God is Dependent Worship (“God helped the Levites”)

3. Worship That Moves God is Generous Worship “that they offered”

4. Worship That Moves God is Vocal Worship “the singers”

5. Worship That Moves God is Inclusive Worship “shouting, the sound of the horn, trumpets, cymbals, music, stringed instruments, and harps.”

I enjoy reading the commentary of an ole’ fashioned, deeply conservative preacher of days gone by, J. Vernon McGee.

“I have always wanted a big orchestra, but I never did have it in any church I served. I guess the Lord just didn’t want me to have one. I believe one of the reasons the church service is so dead and the reason the world passes it by is that there is no evidence of joy. Look at people going to any church today and see if they look happy.

Look at a newscast of a crowd at a baseball game, and you don’t see a sad face in the whole lot. Even those who are losing don’t seem to be sad. They all seem to be having a good time. The tragedy of the hour is that God’s people don’t seem to be having a good time. We ought to be!

I think the world in that day heard about David bringing up the ark to Jerusalem. I think there were visitors from other countries who went home and said, “You should have been in Jerusalem with me. It was a great day, a great day!”

CONCLUSION: Worship that moves God requires preparation by each of us individually and corporately and it must be instructional.

Certainly a part of God’s instructions in the Scriptures clearly calls for God-called and God-prepared men and women who lead God’s people in moving, and meaningful worship.

But true worship that moves God includes the principles of joyful worship, dependent worship that relies on God’s presence, generous worship where the people of God are expected to offer their sacrifices, vocal worship

that includes our expressions of praise and thanksgiving, and inclusive worship that allows for a wide-assortment of musical methodology distinct to each generation.

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