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Right Mindset of Worship
October 9, 2024
Hey Clawson Family!
Song:
Scripture:
Luke 19:37-40 New Living Translation
37 When he reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.
38 “Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in highest heaven!”[a]
39 But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, “Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!”
40 He replied, “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!”
Psalm 150 New Living Translation
1 Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heaven!
2 Praise him for his mighty works; praise his unequaled greatness!
3 Praise him with a blast of the ram’s horn; praise him with the lyre and harp!4 Praise him with the tambourine and dancing; praise him with strings and flutes! 5 Praise him with a clash of cymbals; praise him with loud clanging cymbals.6 Let everything that breathes sing praises to the Lord!
Devotional:
God created everything on the entire planet to worship him, and we need to join in the song.
I was created to worship God; not worshiping Him goes against our DNA.
So, for a few minutes I want to dive into why we worship the way that we do at Clawson? Why we allow things like instruments, dancing, jumping, clapping, raising hands, flagging? Is that stuff even scriptural?
First of all, I want you to know that when it comes to Clawson, we have a value at this church that says, “This is where the party starts!” That is because when I looked in scripture, I found that God not only loves but commands us to have celebrations in His name, thanking Him.
In the Old Testament, Israel was commanded to have weeks of feasts and parties to celebrate God's work and worship him. And they were not chilling and quiet! They had choreographed dancing and festival Parties.
Our praise and worship of God were never meant to be quiet, boring, perfect, or nontransformational! Our praise and worship to God was meant to celebrate what God is doing on the inside of us, expressed through an outside expression.
A lot of people think worship is an outside thing. True worship to God is something that comes from within and is expressed without. If you are worshiping God with all of your heart and might, everyone may not like it, but you should not be ashamed of it.
King David in 2 Samuel 6 was so excited about the Ark of God coming to the city of David, that when the priests started carrying the Ark… the bible says 14 And David danced before the Lord with all his might, wearing a priestly garment.[f] , and as he danced into the city with the ark… the bible says When (His wife) saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she was filled with contempt for him.
Have you ever seen someone else in worship and allowed yourself to be filled with contempt for them? I hate to tell the truth about this, but I have. Do they have to clap that loud? Is that shouting necessary? Is his dancing or her flagging just taking over the worship service? Is that really appropriate? And I would say if it is coming from within, and you pouring out your heart to God in thankfulness for what he has done and is doing in your life, If you are doing it for God and not for show, then it doesn’t matter what people think… God sees it as a beautiful thing.
I want you to see what David tells his wife…. “I was dancing before the Lord, who chose me above your father and all his family! So I celebrate before the Lord. 22 Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my own eyes! I am so thankful to God and what he is doing that I am willing to be humiliated, even in my own eyes, to show him how much I love him. I love this! And I want to show you what happened to the one that was in contempt for David's worship of God.
23 So Michal, the daughter of Saul, remained childless throughout her entire life.
God doesn't want us to have contempt for others' worship! He wants us to worship and praise and celebrate what he is doing. Really the gist of it is he wants us to respond, and express ourselves to him.
Journal:
In your journal, write down how you plan to prioritize worship in your life.
Training
Holy Spirit, fill me with joy that I may sing songs of praise today. Let everything that has breath join me in praising the Lord! Amen.
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