True Worship Happens When…Sample

True worship happens when… I

What is true worship and what is it to offer worship that is acceptable to God? Jesus made it clear in John 4:21-24: true worship is worshipping God in spirit and in truth. The Word of God says the Father is looking for true worshippers, for those that will worship Him in spirit and in truth. I find this really interesting because there are people who are keeping vigils and fasting, looking for God. In contrast, this passage tells us that there are people God is looking for. Where would you rather be – in the category of those looking for God or in the category of those whom God is looking for? Jesus shows us that true worship puts us in the category of those whom the Father is looking for. The word 'looking' in the passage above is an active word. The more we learn about true worship and apply what we learn, the more we become like magnets to His presence, and the more we carry God's presence effortlessly. In other words, the more we imbibe true worship, the more effortlessly we carry God's presence everywhere we go. 

Jesus points out to this woman that one of the barriers to true worship is not knowing the One you worship. You cannot be a true worshipper if you do not know who you are worshipping, and if you do not have a thriving relationship with who you are worshipping. It is not enough to worship; you must know who you worship and how to worship. By the grace of God, this reading plan is going to show us the 'how' and we trust God to reveal the 'who' to us. 

David is a classic example of a true worshipper, and we will be learning the 'how' of true worship from the story in 2 Samuel 6 of David‘s journey to bring the Ark of God back to the city of David [to Jerusalem]. We see from 2 Sam 6:1 that David, in the process of moving the Ark to Jerusalem, chose the elite soldiers of Israel, the finest warriors, and the best horses and carriages. This was the same model the Philistines had used to carry and transport the Ark of God. Along the way, the Ark shook; Uzzah attempted to steady the Ark and God killed him. David ordered that the Ark be taken to the house of Obed-Edom. Let’s pause here for a minute and consider what was going on here. Imagine you were Obed-Edom in this story: God just killed someone who touched the ark and the king ordered that it be put in your house. How would you feel; how did Obed-Edom feel? Regardless of how he may have felt, he accepted and God greatly blessed him.

When David heard that Obed-Edom had been greatly blessed, he realized the issue was not with God or the Ark of God. The truth is, when we struggle in our relationship with God and we stumble, we get upset because we cannot understand why God would allow it to happen. However, the issue is usually not with God. If we step back and allow God, He will show us where the problem is. When David stepped back, he realized the problem was in his transportation of the Ark of God, not in the Ark itself. So David went back to God’s instructions for carrying the Ark of God. God did not need the finest warriors to carry the Ark, that job had been reserved for the priests. As scriptures state, by strength alone shall no man prevail. Carrying the Ark was a job for the priests, the people called and consecrated for the work. By looking at how David carried the Ark into Jerusalem, we see what true worship really is. True worship happens when seven things happen, and we will explore these over the next few days.