Worship (5)

When it comes to worship, are you a participator or a spectator?

If you know what different people in the church do during worship, you are a spectator.  If you have no clue what other people do because you are busy worshiping God, you are a participator.

Today I want to speak to the spectators.

Be careful what you think and say about the worshipers in the church.  The lady that dances in the passage, the man behind you whose vocal ability leaves nothing to be desired, the person next to you who maybe claps his hands out of beat, the woman who always start singing in tongues etc.  These people are worshiping and you are spectating.  You are in a very dangerous situation.

In 2 Samuel 6 we read about David who was bringing the Arc of the Covenant back.  He was worshiping while they bringing the arc back.  

2 Samuel 6:5

David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before the LORD, with castanets, harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums and cymbals.

They were celebrating WITH ALL THEIR MIGHT!  That must have been one noisy worship session!  Unfortunately, there was a spectator and her name was Michal.

2 Samuel 6: 20 - 23

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.

Michal criticized David's worship and the result was that she was barren for the rest of her life.  You see, what other people do when worshiping is none of your business.  They are busy with God.  Be careful that you don't act like Michal did.  You might just become spiritually barren.  If you are praying and it feels as if your prayers bounce back from the ceiling, sit and think whether you have been a Michal at some point.  That person who worships in abandonment, in real 'David style', is pleasing to God.

John 4: 23 - 24

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

Is noisy worship and the loud band a problem to you?  Get used to it!  Heaven is not going to be quiet!!!  In Revelation 19 you will read that worship in heaven with be like thunder!

Repent today of being a worship spectator.  Become a worship participator.