Even More Undignified

A couple of housekeeping things before we move forward with the Word, which

I'm very excited about. We have an opportunity

today, if you have a 5th grade child going into the 6th

grade, moving up here in about a week, we have a

meet and greet for you, for your— the parents, for the child,

immediately following this gathering. If you will make your way upstairs

with the youth, We are going to just let you get to know

us a little bit and introduce your child to that space,

to some of the people. And we would love for you to join us. And

if you do not know how to get up there, we will have somebody posted

there, correct? We'll be yelling, hey you, over here! You

know, just wave and we'll make it very obvious. But take your teen

and let them be introduced to the youth department.

Oh, ooh, it sounds ominous when you say it that way, huh?

We're excited about that. Next week we begin the

service change, the time changes. So

if you come at 11, you will have missed worship, or at least part of

it, and you don't wanna do that. So it'll begin at 10:30 next

week. God is so faithful. I'm excited about that. And I'm excited about the

Wednesday night as we press into the Word on the following week as we

begin our midweek gatherings again, but we begin them on Wednesday night.

And the final thing I wanted to share with you, you know, I have been

in this house Since the 1900s.

Wow. I know. Hey, you're on staff. You can't say that

like that. You—

ow, et tu, Brute?

Since 1992. And what I have seen in these

decades is the faithfulness of God in the ministries in this house.

When I came here, we had Pastor Margaret for the longest time. What

a blessing to our children. We had Pastor Kim,

a blessing to our children's ministry. And we have had Pastor Shari

O'Day, who has been a blessing to our children's ministry.

And one of the things that Pastor Kevin and Pastor Shari have both done

so amazingly is that they created teams in this house

so that there was no lack. And so while many of us

are not surprised, it is— Pastor Shari

will be operating— ooh, that sounds ominous. Pastor Shari

will be moving We're believing with Pastor Kevin as they sow into a season

at LCA. Pastor Kevin and Pastor Shari, for as long as I

have known them, have ministered as a team, and that's

something that the Lord has anointed them to do. And so I'm excited

for their opportunity in sowing into LCA. And with

that, there has been no lack left in this house because you guys

know, Christa— I mean, Come on, Krista.

Amen. We have

such a dynamic team, and if I do this, I'm gonna do what I did

when I forgot to list all the pastors' names. But there are about 8

of them that I could name, and every time I mentioned their names, you would

go, oh, absolutely, absolutely. Because Pastor Kevin and Pastor

Shari were so mindful in creating teams that could serve this

house so that, like all of us, And I know that all of us, every

single one of us, when the Lord says, now I want you to shift into

something else, we leave no lack in the house. So I'm excited

about what God has for children's ministry in this time. And I ask that you

continue to pray for Pastor Kevin and Pastor Shari as they step

into a new season in their lives. And now, as if he has

not done enough this morning, we're gonna invite Pastor

Jonathan back because he didn't sing and dance enough. And

he's gonna bring the Word. So thank you, Pastor Jonathan.

Thank you. Ah, this guy again,

so soon. Thank

you.

Let's pray. Holy

Spirit, would you help us to

open our eyes, open our ears, open our hearts To your

word, Lord. We

exist as a fellowship that has come to hear from

you, Lord, that has come to exalt

you, Lord. I thank you that you've given

us the calling and the gift to be

image bearers of Christ to the world.

And I pray, Lord, pray Holy Spirit, that you would help us to do so.

Amen. joyfully, carefully, and

compassionately. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

So Pastor Barbie asked me if I would close our Worship Anyways series

this week on the very well-known story of David dancing before

the Ark of the Covenant and saying, I will become even more

undignified than this. I will be humiliated or humble

in my own eyes. And that verse sits near the very end of one of

my all-time favorite passages or chapters in scripture,

2 Samuel 6. So if you brought your Bible, go ahead and turn there

today. We're going to spend a lot of time there. And getting

to that verse of, I have become even, or will become even more

undignified than this, is our destination. But every destination

has a journey we must take to get there. And this journey for the people

of God is exactly what makes this one of my all-time favorite

stories. in scripture. It's important for them then, and

it's important for us today. The context is that

David has officially been appointed king of Israel. His

first act as king was to take back the city of Jerusalem, which

he does so successfully, and then it is renamed the City

of David in his honor. Now, many powerful

leaders all throughout time, all throughout history, even in modern day,

When they officially take that seat of power, that position

of power, they will begin often making changes that make sure,

to make sure that everybody knows exactly who is in charge. They

might put up monuments and memorials to themselves.

However, King David is very different in this

regard. 2 Samuel 5 tells us that although

David, by all external accounts, is becoming

visibly greater and greater, the city was fortified and growing.

An allied king sends these resources and these artisans to build

him a house. There is a moment that happens in verses 11 and

12 that paints a beautiful picture of David witnessing

all this gain around him, and this is what it says. David realized

that the Lord had established him as king

over Israel, and that God had exalted his kingdom

for the sake of his people Israel. That word realize is the

word yada, which means to perceive or know in your mind,

in your heart, in a different way than you had, in a

way that you hadn't seen before. So this moment of appointment

for King David is nearly 20 years after he was

first anointed by Samuel to become king, and he is now

witnessing that word unfold in his life.

And we remember that David went through some really challenging

things in that period of time. We, of course, we remember Goliath, but he

was also figuring out what it means to serve faithfully under this

leader who is actively trying to hunt him down and have him killed

at the same time. Um, all of that can be really

crushing to a person, but we know through all of that, he had this

relationship with the Lord. He is a man after God's own

heart, but at this moment, he's perceiving something

different. That God, through all of that, was actually leading him

holding him and forming him through every

trial, every suffering for a

purpose. And I wonder, has anyone in here ever gone through

something where the challenge surrounding it

were so great, the sufferings that you went through were so great that when you

got to the other side and you looked back in whatever,

uh, uh, in whatever kind of fashion you were in, whether you were

standing or you just made it through, you're crawling through, you look to the other

side and you look back and you go, the only reason reason I'm here is

because I was being held together by the grace of God.

Amen. Something like that appears to be happening in King

David's heart and mind at this moment. He's realizing

all these blessings, all this gain, his home, his

kingdom, his kingship, it's all been established

not by him in his own strength, not by his own understanding, but by

God alone. for the purposes of

God. And that leads David into

a lower place of humility, a deeper

place of worship, and for the very

important decision to bring the Ark of the Covenant into the City of David

to be the spiritual center of the kingdom. And the Ark

of the Covenant in the Old Testament represented the manifest presence

and power of God dwelling among his people. It's where his people

would go and receive mercy. For me, it is an Old

Testament picture of he must

increase, I must decrease. It's what David's

doing here. David came to realize what Paul would later proclaim about

Christ, that all things are from him, through

him, and for him. Jesus is not only our source

of power, Jesus is our life.

Jesus is the reason we have life. And

Jesus— exalting Jesus is the purpose of our life. Can

you imagine what that would look like if the

church, the believers, really took hold of that and we were

so moved by God that we

would be moved to just exalt him in everything, all of our

conversations, Let's

read what making that decision looks like for us. 2 Samuel

2 Samuel 6:1–5

6:1-5. David again gathered

all the chosen men of Israel, 30,000. And David arose and went with all

the people who were with him from Baale-Judah to bring up from

there the Ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of

hosts, who sits enthroned on the cherubim.

And they carried the Ark of God on a new cart. And I want you

to remember that, highlight it, circle it, underline it. On

a new cart, brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the

hill. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were

driving the new cart. There it is again with the Ark of God. And Ahio

went before the Ark, and David and all the house of Israel

were celebrating before the Lord with songs, lyres, harps,

tambourines, castanets, and cymbals. This was a rocking praise service.

Yeah. This is a joyful moment for the people

of God because this is a restoration of his presence among

them. This is a restoration of the fullness of joy

that's found in his presence. I say a restoration because

1 Chronicles 13:3 says that before this

1 Chronicles 13:3

moment, the Ark was not sought in the

days of King Saul. who was David's predecessor.

Can we just stop and think about that for a

moment? The manifest presence of God

in our midst, nearby,

within reach, but never sought

after. The people never moved to move in

closer.

I hope that breaks our collective heart to the point where we

are prompted to ask the same question: how

did God's people get to the point of such

irreverence and indifference to his

presence? And I think we

find that answer by understanding just how the

ark wound up there in Abinadab's house in the first place. 1 Samuel

details a battle between the Israelites and the Philistines where the Israelites

just get demolished. They get their tails handed to them,

and they go back, they regroup, they lick their wounds, and they try to figure

out what, what went wrong here. And they're thinking about the stories of old, and

they go, I got it. You know, the problem is, is we didn't have the

presence, and where there is no presence, there is no

power. So let's go get the Ark of the Covenant.

and we'll bring it before us in battle and we'll show these guys

who, who the boss is. And they go and do that and something

miraculous happens. They go into battle and they get their tails

handed to them again. God allows them

to be defeated, and even worse, the Philistines take the Ark as

their prize, but they start to pass

it around among their villages, and everywhere

the Ark goes, they wake up the next day and their idols are broken

in the presence of the Ark. It's

catastrophic, so catastrophic for the Philistines that they go,

we gotta send it back. We can't deal

with this. So they fashion a cart and they put

the Ark of the Covenant on a cart, and they have the cart pulled by

2 cows who have never been yoked before. And this was kind of a setup

for the Lord, because cows that have not been yoked, not trained, would

not be able to get that cart back to where it needed to be. But

the Lord guides it exactly where it needs to be, and

it's clear that the Lord has been involved in all of this

the whole time. Based on those

stories, one possible out— uh, answer to the

question of how God's people find themselves in that place of

indifference, for his presence is that they care more

about the presence or the power of his presence than they do about

cultivating real relationship with his presence.

They care more about what they could get from God rather than what they could

give of themselves to God. And that

is a condition of the heart that I see

in relationships all over society.

Spouses, children, friends, whatever it is. We enjoy

the fruit and the spoils of intimate relationship,

but we don't often love the responsibility of self-sacrifice

that comes along with it. The responsibility

of self-sacrifice that is required to be truly present, setting

aside my plan, setting aside my agenda, giving my full heart,

giving my attention. I love my

kids. I want to be present for my kids. And when they ask

me to play outside—

I don't need to say anything else. Okay. They want

me to get down in the dirt with them. They

want me to see their faces and pretend with them. And my

go-to is, why don't you guys go play outside? We'll, we'll keep the

screen door open so that I can hear your voices.

That's the illusion of presence. That is not being truly

present. As Pastor Wayne would say, that is proximity, not

intimacy. And when I'm in proximity

to my children like that, something fascinating

happens. I can hear that they are saying

words. I can hear that they are speaking, but I'm

not close enough to hear What they are

saying. I can't hear the

fine details of their voice. The same is true in our relationship

with God and his word. If we love him and his word, but we spend

no time with him or his word, then we can both know

without a doubt that he has spoken, but we will have no idea what he

has said. So David is

declaring in this moment God's presence will no longer be

an afterthought for his people. God's people will

no longer be content with just knowing his presence is around if

we ever need him. God will be the joy of his

people, and his people will be diligent and purposeful to exalt

him in everything that we do, because that is the glory and honor

and praise that he deserves. Amen.

Our undivided attention, our full worship.

Let's continue to read, uh, verses 6 through 11. And

when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah

put out his hand to the Ark of God and took hold of it, for

the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against

Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there

beside the Ark of God. And David was angry because the Lord had broken

out against Uzzah, and that place is called Perez Uzzah to this day.

And David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, how

can the ark of the Lord come to me? So David was not willing

to take the ark of the Lord into the City of David, but instead took

it aside to the house of Obed-Edom. And the ark of the Lord remained in

the house of Obed-Edom for 3 months, and the Lord blessed

Obed-Edom and all of his household. And I'm just blown away by

that, because as a father with 2 small children, if someone comes to

my house and dropped something off that just took out a man because he

touched it, I'd be like, get that thing out of here!

I, I won't be able to keep them alive in that instance.

Oh, but Edom has control of his household, let me tell you that.

Hello. And later on in scripture, he's actually elevated into full-time

Levitical ministry to minister to the Ark

there. So The start

of the journey, joyful, celebratory. The Ark was at the top

of the hill, and it's all gone downhill rather quickly.

What happened? David gives us more detail in 1 Chronicles

1 Chronicles 15:13

15:13, which is kind of a parallel telling of this

story. It was because of you, the Levites,

did not bring it up the first time that the Lord our God broke out

in anger against us. We did not inquire of him

about how to do it, in the prescribed way.

They just didn't ask. Numbers 4:15

Numbers 4:15

says this. This is the prescribed way. When Aaron and his sons have

finished covering the holy objects and all the furnishings of the sanctuary,

when the camp is to set out, after the sons of Kohath

shall come to carry them by the poles so that they

will not touch the holy objects and die. These are

the things in the tent of meeting that the sons of Kohath are to

carry. So we remember from earlier, the Philistines

brought the Ark of the Covenant back on a cart, and David and the

people are now attempting to move the Ark of the Covenant on

a cart. How many of us know that the church is not

called or created to carry presents using

the methods of the world? Amen. Amen.

And this tragedy happens at the threshing

floor. This is a place where separation

happens. Separation of the wheat from the chaff,

separation of the fruitful from the unfruitful, the godly from

the worldly. And this is, this is

a hard lesson for King David. Of course, it's a hard lesson for

us. The presence of God is not simply a privilege

to enjoy, but it's also a

holy responsibility to carry.

And we should carry his presence carefully.

We have been indwelled with the Holy Spirit. We have been given the gift and

responsibility of reflecting Christ in the world

in the way the word of God says. Not with our best

ideas, not with the world's best ideas, but with

his. Yet we see the church

often attempting to carry his presence on these Philistine carts

time and time again. It can look like clever marketing.

Uh-oh. It can look like catchy songs. It can look like softening

truth. Why do we do

this? I find that

we yield faster results. We can get there quicker, but

maybe in a superficial way. It requires less faith.

It requires less dependence on God. So the problem

is not the methods themselves, it's just the heart

posture behind them. Have we actually gone to God

to say, God, what do you want us to do in this? Have

we gone to his word? It's not necessarily malicious.

We often have the best intentions of reaching people and exalting

Christ. That's what it's all about. When, uh, but our best intentions

do not replace God's instruction. Come on. They are

meant to form our best intentions. His ways

are not our ways, and his ways are better. And I'm

sure that this is personally humbling to David as a

leader, but he specifically says

We did not inquire of him the prescribed way.

Yeah. And there's something to be said about our collective responsibility

as a fellowship, collective responsibility to

carefully and be word-friendly

carriers of God's presence. That's the idea of iron sharpening

iron. So rather than place full blame on King David as a leader, I'm

not gonna go there because he doesn't go there. He says we, so

I'm gonna look at kind of all the characters involved in that, which I think

shows us something important. Uzzah, who touched the ark and died,

was the son of Abinadab, where the presence— where

the ark, uh, was in his house all those years. He grew up

in this house. King

David is actually known as someone who has good

communication with the Lord. He's not known as someone that doesn't talk to the

Lord. So there is a sense here that they collectively

represent seasoned believers who should know

better, but just get a little careless

here. And that perspective gives me some nuance that's very

identifiable for me personally, and it's instructive for me. And

I wanna show you this, uh, 2 Samuel 5:17-25.

2 Samuel 5:17–25

The Philistines come to fight David in the Valley of Rephaim

twice, and each time David goes

to the Lord and asks, should I go fight? And the Lord tells

him yes each time, but he gives him different

instructions both times. First time, go in

head-on. Second time, go around the back.

That speaks to me because I believe We are the most prone

to ask God for help and direction when we are facing

battles. Our natural instinct when there is uncertainty

in front of us. However, we are usually the most likely

to move forward in our own wisdom when we have this mix

of good intention and this mix of experience of

witnessing God moving in a certain way over a length of

time, and we just get comfortable. It would be a

disservice to you guys if we have an amazing worship service

and I think, wow, those 5 songs really worked in that

order. I don't do that.

I have to go to the Lord and say, Lord, what this week? What

do you have? And the Philistines getting

the Ark of the Covenant back is enough to tell me that just because God

allows something to happen doesn't mean his blessing is on it.

Sometimes that's just his kindness, allowing his people another chance to seek

him, another chance to depend on him, another chance to

walk in his will for our lives.

There were some first-time visitors who were visiting our church

a couple of years ago. And anyone who knows me knows I have a

terrible history with first-time visitors, because when I get in

conversations with people for the first time, it's as if I've never spoken a

day in my life. To a person. So,

uh, and I think it was a setup because somebody very, uh, somebody wanted

me to be the one that met them. So I go out into the foyer

before service and we introduce ourselves to each other, and they tell me in

transparency, they go, uh, it was a husband and wife and they

had just gotten out of a recovery program. And they said what

was very important to them was to find a church that had an

altar time at the end where they could pray with elders.

Springhouse has a rich history of doing that here. For 15

years, it's happened quite a bit. That's how long I've been

attending. So I'm thinking, okay, this is good. We keep talking, but

they didn't know that we were at the tail end of a 4

to 6 week series on the Holy Spirit. And each series

was either like, uh, gifts of the Spirit or fruit of the Spirit. And every

single week in this series, We had incredible altar

times, not only during worship, but at the end of service,

multiple times, both services. So I'm

thinking, oh yeah, you want altar calls?

We got them. We got 4 or 5 a day, you know.

In my mind, I'm thinking this. Not only that, but this particular

service was titled Holy Spirit.

My expectations were at an all-time high.

So now, have you ever said something and when it left your mouth you're like,

I wish I could put that right back? This is what I

said. I promise you

there will be a time at the end of service for you to pray with

somebody. Praise the

Lord, I didn't actually have to come out for the last song. I was standing

right back there behind that curtain when one of our pastors got

up to close the service, which would've been the altar time. And this

pastor, I'm not gonna name who they are, but they are known

for having a prophetic gifting and hearing from the Lord with

accuracy. And she has the

audacity.

She has the audacity to get up here and

say, the Lord's telling me We're gonna do something different today. And

I was like, of course we are! You know? This is

crazy! I'm back there, I'm just going, oh my gosh.

Oh my gosh. She said,

the Lord's showing me something different today. I feel like we should just sit in

our seats instead of our prayer time and just

Sit in the presence of the Holy Spirit. So that next week,

miraculously, that couple is back at our church in

a foyer. And as I'm walking up to them to apologize,

they are literally laughing at me.

Literally laughing at me. And they said, don't worry about it.

The Lord really used that. We were in tears the whole time.

And I said, well, I was too, but for a different reason.

Only the Lord can use a situation or orchestrate a

situation that can both heal somebody and correct a different person at

the same time.

That's why his ways are better. Amen. We have

no chance to come up with something like that.

I have been doing this long enough, and my theology was well-formed enough for

me to know I cannot guarantee what

is only for the Holy Spirit to offer.

I had taken what God had been doing in previous weeks, mixed it

with my good intentions that I wanted for these people.

Assumed he would do it in exactly the same way.

And I say that to say it can happen that quickly

if we're not careful.

Help me, Lord. Let's

see how David and the people put this into action.

We'll continue reading verses 12 through 15. And it was told

King David that the Lord had blessed the household of Obed-Edom

and all that belongs to him because of the ark of God. So David

went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the

City of David with rejoicing. And when those who bore the

ark of the Lord had gone 6 steps, he

sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal, and David danced before the Lord with all

his might. So we can see now They're bearing

the Ark of the Covenant on their shoulders. 1 Chronicles 15

tells us that David had actually pulled together the correct, correct

Levitical families to carry the Ark. So evidently

they took that 3-month period to do a Bible study.

Hello. Before they made their decision, before they made their next

steps. Can we just agree that it's a good thing

to slow down? And do some Bible

study. Yes. They are finally

understanding the weight and

the feeling of the weight of the calling they have been given.

They're carrying his presence now, not only joyfully but

carefully. And I love so much that it says

they made sacrifices after 6 steps.

That tells me we cannot allow ourselves to get too far along

in our day, too far along in our decision-making, so focused

on our goals that we forget the one whose presence

empowers us to make them.

As King David and the people are finally bringing the Ark into the city,

David is dancing with all of his might. He's taken off his kingly garments.

He's wearing a linen ephod with, um, that

more closely resembles what a priest would wear. This is the Old Testament

type and shadow of our High Priest and King

Jesus, who would empty himself and humble

himself in obedience to the point of death.

And David begins blessing the people and distributing food to them because

When we have truly tasted and seen the goodness of

God, that is something that we are prompted to

share. What a blessing.

David was unaware that when he was coming into the city, his

wife Michal was watching from a window, and it

says that she despised him in her heart.

Which brings us to this final exchange in our text today.

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. 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. 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. And Michal, daughter of Saul, had no children

to the day of her death.

It seems like there's bitterness there. I've heard

some teachers simply say, simply describe her

as a jealous woman, just unwilling to enter into

worship. Sometimes I'm prone to come to scripture

and go and just look for the black and white, the right and wrong, the

good and bad, but that doesn't really do

justice to the nuance of life. To

the nuance, nuance of the human heart.

So I began to ask, like, what— is there more to that story

there that reveal— that would reveal something a little bit

deeper? And I kind of went back in the scriptures, 1

Samuel, just to see, you know, their life together. And this is 1

Samuel 18. Listen to, uh, 20 through 23. Listen to how

important these first words are. Now Michal, Saul's daughter,

loved David. So something

traumatic has happened there. How can she go

from loving him to despising him?

And it goes on to say, when they told Saul that she loved

David, the thing was agreeable to him. Saul thought, I will give her to him

that she may become a snare to him, and that by the hand of the

Philistines And, and the hand of the Philistines will be against him. Therefore

Saul said to David for a second time, you may be my son-in-law today.

Then Saul commanded his servants, speak to David secretly, saying,

behold, the king delights in you, and all the servants love you. Now therefore

become the king's son-in-law. And David says, is it trivial in your

sight to become the king's son-in-law? I am a poor man

and lightly esteemed. So that word in the Hebrew,

lightly esteemed, is the same as undignified.

So that means Michal once

loved David for the very thing she now despises him

for.

This is what I see through their story.

Her dad Saul used her as a

pawn in the game, in his game.

That's hard stuff. Later on, scriptures

tell us that when her dad was coming to have David killed, she helped him

escape. And then her father married

her off to another man. That's really difficult.

And when David finally becomes king, he Demands that she be

brought to him. And we learn as she's being brought, her husband is

actually following her and crying.

Worship team, you can come out. When I see all

that context—

let me say this about context. Context is so important for us. Yes.

When there's a groove in a song, in a worship song that hits just

right, it gets a little something going in me.

And if you didn't know anything about me, you might look at me and go,

that's really distracting that he's up there doing that, or trying to—

what? It's not called dancing, I guess.

Or it could be encouraging. Some of you might not know

that I have a scar on the back of my neck. That's

about this thick. Oh

yeah. From a car accident.

And the surgeon who went in said that I was

centimeters from being paralyzed.

So with that context,

this becomes a miracle Yeah. Regardless

of how it looks. Context

is important here because I don't see her simply

as a jealous woman that should just get over it

and worship anyway. And

that's not what we've said during this whole time. We're not saying worship anyway

and be dismissive of anything. We're saying,

see the greater glory, the bigger picture in

Jesus. I see the heart of a person that has been

dealt a very difficult hand, and when her suffering is brought

into view, it allows me to have compassion that I

didn't have before. And

compassion is important for the image bearers of Christ

to have, because it was compassion that moved

Jesus To minister to those 5,000 hungry

souls, and his compassion that will move us

to minister to the lost, to minister to the brokenhearted.

And I believe that is what moves and ministers to

the heart of God and glorifies him, which is our goal.

Could I have a few Would 2 people come up that would be willing to

pray since I can make that decision today?

Suffering and bitterness is not just something that we're going

to help others get through.

Suffering and bitterness was— will test us as believers as

well. Suffering was in David's life, but it led

him to humility. And the danger

of bitterness that I see revealed in this text is this: when I see

Michal despising David for the very thing she used to love

and not even acknowledging the presence of God at all— she

can't see it— that tells me that bitterness can cloud

our vision from what is true and pull our focus

away from Christ. When I see her hiding

behind that window, I see A heart that has created

a hardened but fragile wall of separation,

an image of herself that must be maintained so that she does not

have to be hurt again. And maintaining that

image is exactly what is keeping her from

the grace of God that's in her midst.

So King David, in shedding of his kingly garments in

this undignified way, is teaching us Any

image that we have taken on that does not reflect Christ or

pulls our focus from Christ or restricts our worship is not worth

maintaining and must be surrendered.

Ephesians 4:31-32. Let all bitterness

Ephesians 4:31–32

and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be put away from

you, along with malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted,

forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

The way we come overcome the great

trauma of suffering and bitterness is we look to the

greater glory and forgiveness given in Christ.

And I imagine during a service here on any given week,

we have a picture, that same picture of hearts

Here, hearts that are overflowing with praise like David,

and hearts that are fighting to get there

as well. There is room

for both here to worship

anyway, in any way you can, with all your might.

Worshiping with all your might doesn't have to look

externally the same as it did for David.

It is not measured externally. It is measured through obedience and

surrendering. For Jacob, who was at the end of his life,

worshiping with all his might looked like bowing on his staff.

For the woman who struggled with the issue of blood, worshiping with all of her

might looked like fighting through the crowd just to To touch

the garment of the one who could heal her.

For the widow, worshiping with all of her might looked like bringing the last 2

coins that she had as an offering.

So this morning, if you need prayer, please come.

If you want to take time to kneel in the altar and surrender to

Jesus what has been restricting your worship, please come. Amen. Come on.

Let's spend some time these last few moments

just exalting Jesus, because Jesus

is the only one with the power, power

to make a sorrowful heart always rejoicing.

Amen. Let's worship. Would you stand, please?