Introduction:
Hebrews 10:24-25
Acts 10:42, 1 Tim 4:1-2
1 Tim 4:13
1 Tim 2:1,8 , Col 4:2
Eph 5:19, Col 3:16
John 4:23-24
All In On Truth (1 Chronicles 13:3-14)
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Good intentions and enthusiasm != TRUE WORSHIP.
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It is PERILOUS to worship God CARELESSLY .
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We worship God WHO IS WITH US.
John 14:16–18
1 Cor 3:16
1 Cor 6:19-20
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Chronicles 13:3-14
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What is at stake in God’s command to worship Him in truth? See, for example, another account of careless and irreverent worship in Leviticus 10:1-3.
Why are good intentions and enthusiasm insufficient for worshiping God in truth? Are they better, about the same, or worse than dead, emotionless, and unresponsive “worship?”
Before this message, what was your understanding of verses describing Christ
abiding in you? (John 14:16-18, 1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19-20)
How should the fact that Christ abides in us inspire or change the way we
worship?
Breakout
Pray for one another.
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Good morning, Harvest, and Happy New Year. Open your Bibles, please, to 1 Chronicles,
chapter 13. It will be in the Old Testament, 1 Chronicles, chapter 13. If you want, you
can put a little bookmark at chapter 15, because we're going to be looking there briefly as
well. This morning, we're beginning a three-week series on worship. Of course, there are many
ways that we worship, prayer, preaching, proclaiming the gospel. I think it's fair to say that
for everyone who is a believer in Christ, whatever we do is worship. Everything we do should
be for the glory of God. There are right ways, and there are wrong ways to worship God. At
Harvest, we follow something known as the regulative principle. That simply means that
if a type of worship is not permitted in Scripture, we don't do it. We don't get to worship God
however we want to. We must worship Him in the way that He commands. You may wonder,
"Why do we do the things we do here in worship every Sunday? Who makes that up?" Well, it's
not made up. We do what God's word says to. You'll notice that every Sunday, we meet
together. We preach God's word. We read God's word. We pray and we sing. Now, while those
are ways in which we are commanded to worship, this three-week series is going to focus particularly
on worshiping through music and singing. Our starting point for all three of these messages
is John 4 verses 23 and 24. "But the hour is coming and is now here, when the true worshipers
will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship
Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." So
we see that from these verses, the right way to worship God is spirit and truth. In two
weeks, Pastor Taylor is going to cover why worshiping in spirit and truth through music
and song is so important. Next week, Pastor Jeff will take us through what it means to
worship in spirit. And then this morning's message is about worshiping God in truth.
So here's the point of this week's sermon. "The Lord God Almighty delights to be with
us, but we must have regard for His holiness and worship Him according to His commands."
You see, when we worship God that way, when we worship God in truth, it means the words
we sing to and about Him are true. By singing true words about God, we're able to remember
later what is true. And we learn sound doctrine. If you've ever memorized Scripture through
singing or you've sung the old hymns that are just chock full of biblical truth, you
know what I mean. When we worship God in truth, the truth fills us with awe. We are
moved emotionally. We're moved physically by the truth that we sing. Now at Harvest,
we don't use, you know, strobe lights, flashing lights, fog machines, loud music, and other
tactics to manipulate you into thinking that you're worshiping just because you're experiencing
one sensory overload after another. But if what we sing is true, then truth will fill
us and flow out of us. When we worship God in truth, we recognize that singing His praises
is of the utmost importance to Him. He's worthy of our praises. He's worthy of all our songs
about Him. He commands our praises. He expects it. The Book of Psalms is proof of that. And
we should therefore make every effort to worship Him the right way because that pleases and
glorifies Him. Let's pray. Oh, most gracious God, sovereign of the universe, God most high,
you are awesome and mighty, and you are worthy of all praise. You are worthy of all of our
attention. You are worthy of every thought. You are worthy of every song we can sing.
Because Lord, you are holy and you dwell in the praises of your people. I pray this morning
that we would overflow in worshipful song because we know the truth. We know the trite
truth of who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for us and that He is in us. And it's
in His great name. We ask it. Amen.
Now this morning's passage recounts when David wanted to bring the Ark of the Covenant,
the Ark of God, to Jerusalem to be near him. The passage contrasts the wrong way to worship
God with the right expression of awe and reverence for God Almighty. Before we dive into this
message, I need to give you some background. We need to do a brief history lesson. So you
probably all know God chose and called the people of Israel out of Egypt so that he could
be with them. And the primary way that he demonstrated his presence with the people
of Israel was through a movable tabernacle. That's simply a large tent and it was surrounded
by a big fabric courtyard and poles. But inside the tent there were two separate places. There
was the holy place and that was furnished with the Ark of Incense and a table in which bread
was placed every week and a lamp, a gold lamp to give light. And then on the eastern side
of this tent was basically a cube-shaped area. It was about 15 by 15 by 15. It was a perfect
cube and that was the most holy place, the Holy of Holies. And it contained the Ark
of the Covenant. In other places in Scripture it's called the Ark of God or the Ark of
Testimony. Now in Exodus 25 God gave some very specific directions for the Ark's construction
and its significance. It was a wooden box. It was about 45 inches long, 27 inches high,
27 inches wide. Not that big. And then the wood was overlaid with gold and then on top
was a solid gold lid. It was all hammered out of one piece of gold and there were two
cherubim on the top. So this is just a very simple example of what it might look like.
We can't really speak in detail now about what the Ark looked like but we have the description
in Scripture. Now this lid with the cherubim was also called the Mercy Seat and it was
significant for several reasons. One, the Lord was said to be enthroned above the cherubim.
And two, the Lord spoke to Moses from between the cherubim. And then a third reason is on
the annual day of atonement the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies and he would
sprinkle blood on the lid to atone for the people's sins. And it's in this way that the
Lord tabernacled or dwelled between the two cherubim on the lid of the Ark. In this way
the Lord was present with his people and the people knew God was with them because in the
daytime there was a pillar of cloud over the tabernacle and at night it became a pillar
of fire and whenever that pillar moved up and forward it was safe for the Levites, the
priests to go in, pack up the Ark, pack up the tabernacle and move it to wherever God
was leading them. He took them wherever he wanted them to go. Now God also gave very
specific instructions about how the Ark was to be moved and by whom. Only the Levites
and of the Levites a clan called the Coethites were allowed to carry the holy things including
the Ark. Now this Ark was meant to be portable. It was carried on poles, passed through gold
rings that those rings were attached to the feet of the Ark and in that way the Ark was
lifted up over the priests heads when they carried it so all the people could see the
Ark was with them. Now these poles were never supposed to be removed from the Ark and before
the Ark was moved it was supposed to be hidden. They put a big goat skin over it and then
they covered it with a blue cloth and then that's they would pick it up and they would
move it. Now let's move ahead in time about 400 years to the end of the period of the
judges in 1 Samuel. At that time there was a man named Eli. He was the high priest and
during this time the Israelites fought a battle against their arch enemies the Philistines
and they were defeated. The Philistines walloped the Israelites and they were like, "Oh what
are we going to do? What are we going to do? Wait no, let's go bring the Ark of the testimony
to us. Let's bring it into the camp with us thinking this will bring us victory." And
they were instead defeated in a very great slaughter. And Eli's two sons they were killed
and the Ark was captured by the Philistines and taken away. When Eli heard his sons were
dead and the Ark was captured he fell backwards over on his chair and broke his neck and he
died. This had to be a terribly bleak time for Israel. Their God, their God was captured.
They had no priests, they had no prophets and as yet they had no king. Their whole identity
as a people has been overthrown in a day. Now the Philistines they took the Ark to the
city of Ashtad and they put it in the temple of their God named Dagon. And the statue of
Dagon fell face down in front of the Ark. So they picked him back up and set him up
again. They come in the next day and this time the God Dagon has fallen over again but this
time his head is busted off and his hands are broken off. And something else happens.
The Lord begins terrifying the people of Ashtad with plague and tumors and death. So the Philistines
and Ashtad they take the Ark to Gath, another Philistine city. And the people there also
suffered from plague and tumors and death. So they pick it up and they move it again
to the city of Ekron and guess what happens? The people there experience plague, sickness,
death. And they go, "Okay, enough of this. Enough of this." They decide to return the
Ark to Israel after seven months of being afflicted by God. So the Philistines, they
say, "What do we do with this?" They put the Ark on a brand new cart and they hitch it to
two milking cows. And the cows, instead of trying to go back to be with their calves,
their babies, they instead they go straight up to a place in Israel called Beth Shemesh.
The Israelites at Beth Shemesh, they rejoiced to see the Ark returned. But when some of
the men of Beth Shemesh apparently looked into the Ark, the Lord struck down 70 of them.
So the people of Beth Shemesh asked the people in another town called Keryth Jerem,
"Come and get the Ark from us." Which they did. So the men of Keryth Jerem brought the Ark to the
house of a man named Abinadab. They consecrated his son Eliezer to oversee it. And the Ark
remained there, the Bible says, for some 20 years. Now after David becomes king, you know,
this is a period of time Saul was king, he is dead, Jonathan is dead, David has become king,
he is now established in Jerusalem as his capital. And David's got this idea, he wants to bring the
Ark of God from Keryth Jerem to Jerusalem. So David gets all the commanders, all the priests,
and the Levites together to get their concurrence with his idea. And now we pick up at our account
in Chronicles chapter 13. "Then let us bring again the Ark of our God to us," David says.
"For we did not seek it in the days of Saul. All the people agreed to do so, for the thing was
right in the eyes of all the people." So David assembled all Israel from the Nile of Egypt to
Lebohamed to bring the Ark of God from Keryth Jerem. And David and all Israel went up to Bala,
that is Keryth Jerem, that belongs to Judah, to bring up from there the Ark of God, which is
called by the name of the Lord who sits enthroned above the cherubim. And they carried the Ark of
God on a new cart from the house of Abinadab. And Uzzah and Ohio were driving the cart. And David
and all Israel were celebrating before God with all their might, with song and liars and harps
and tambourines and symbols and trumpets. So this is quite a procession, quite a big celebration.
It brings us to our first point. Good intentions and enthusiasm don't equal true worship.
There are some huge red flags in this account. As king, actually David's a prince really,
because the Lord is still the true king. You know the Bible calls David King David?
He's really a prince of the true king. But as King David wants God's presence near him.
The Lord has established David and Jerusalem over Israel and to have the Ark of the Covenant
nearby would really cement the relationship between God and the house of David.
It was a shrewd religious and political move on David's part.
But notice in this account David doesn't seek God's counsel about moving the Ark.
David knew what he wanted. And he apparently expected God to bless this plan. It's a good
thing, right? Bring the Ark up to Jerusalem. I mean, after all God had blessed David up to this point.
So David just gathers counselors around him to agree with him and they go off and they do just
whatever it is they want to do. And you notice the phrase, "The thing was right in the eyes of all
the people." If you're familiar with the book of Judges, you know there's flashing red lights and
warning sirens going off all over the place. The leaders of Israel may have all agreed,
but if something is wrong, widespread agreement doesn't make it right.
Not one of the priests, Sir Levite, seemed to have suggested consulting the Lord
or the Law of Moses before doing this thing. And then to move the Ark, what do they do?
They put it on a cart. "Oh, but it was a new cart," you say. "Well, let's should please the Lord,
right? Look, Lord, Lord, Lord, look at this fancy set of wheels we got for you. Aren't you impressed?
Finest Cedar from Lebanon. The problem is they're copying the Philistines
rather than consulting God or the Law of Moses." So they got the Ark all loaded up.
They got a big procession, almost 30,000 people. Can you imagine? 30,000 people. That's 12,000 more
people than fit in PPG Paints Arena, just for perspective. 30,000 people with David,
and they're celebrating with all their might, and they're singing and praising with lots of
instruments, the liars, the harps, castanets, cymbals, trumpets. They have every intention
of worshiping the Lord, and they're super enthused. And this is just all quite a spectacle. It looks
impressive. It sounds good, but they're more interested in putting it on a show than worshiping
God. It was more about their worship experience. It was more about what David wanted than worshiping
the Lord. It was more about what they perceived God would approve without confirming than it was
about worshiping God as he commanded. And that's the core problem here. They're not worshiping the
Lord the way he commanded. They're not worshiping in truth. They don't even seem to have the slightest
interest in truth. Where? Where was the counsel of the high priest in the Levites? Where was prayer
in the simple request, Lord, what do you want? Where are the coethites and the poles to carry the
ark above the heads of the people? Where is the reverence and the awe due to the Lord?
Now, you can manufacture enthusiasm while singing. You know, that's why so many churches, they use
the lights and the fog and the beautiful moving images and the sonic walls of ear-popping sounds
and drums and squealing singers gesturing wildly. It looks worshipy. It sounds worshipy. It probably
even feels worshipy. Therefore, I must be worshiping God. Have you ever heard people say, "Oh, worship
today was great." I had a great worship experience. Have you ever said that? Who was it that made it
the worship great? The sonic boom or the truth of God? Did you sing songs about yourself or songs
that praise God's character, mercy, grace, and love? Were you pleased with yourself or did you
please your God by worshiping Him in truth? Now, some of you hearing this are probably congratulating
yourself right now. That's right, Sprunk. That's right. I agree with everything you've said.
All that exuberance, it's all fake. It's all performance. I just don't see what all the fuss
is about. Why? That's why when they're singing going on, I just keep my cool. I keep my reserve.
Well, good. If you're thinking along those lines, that's good because this next point is just for you
because just as good intentions and enthusiasm don't equal true worship, it is perilous to worship
God carelessly. Look at verse 9. "And when they came to the threshing floor of Chaitan, Azza put out
his hand to take hold of the ark for the oxen stumbled, and the anger of the Lord was kindled
against Azza, and he struck him down because he put his hand to the ark, and he died there before God.
And David was angry because the Lord had broken out against Azza, and that place is called Paris
Azza to this day. And David was afraid of God that day, and he said, 'How can I bring the ark of God
home to me?' So David did not take the ark home into the city of David, but took it aside to the
house of Obed Edom the Getite. And the ark of God remained with the household of Obed Edom in his
house three months, and the Lord blessed the household of Obed Edom and all that he had.
And we may be shocked that God struck down Azza for touching the ark.
I mean, can you imagine this procession of 30,000 people and boom, Azza's dead?
Well, that would take the wind out of the celebration, wouldn't it?
Try to think what that might have looked like. Well, if you were in Butler on July 18, 2024,
and there was an assassination attempt, you probably know what it felt like.
If you saw Charlie Kirk murdered, that's what it was like.
But God struck Azza down, and you may think, 'Well, what's the big deal? Why did he do that?
They were worshiping.' Well, we've seen there were multiple things wrong with the way David
and the Israelites treated the ark of God. Number one, they copied the Philistines.
They're worshiping like pagans, and pagans don't know the truth. They treated the Holy Lord, God
Most High, the Holy Lord of Israel, shabbily. They treated God like baggage in a wooden cart.
They were careless and unconcerned whether their worship obeyed the truth or expressed the truth.
And we know Israel had a history of careless, half-hearted worship.
We saw that in the Book of Judges, the people after they were settled in the land,
they became idolatrous and careless in their worship. They served other gods, and they treated the ark
as if it was some sort of good luck charm, a lucky rabbit's foot.
They had no qualms about taking the ark from the Holy of Holies and carrying it around wherever
they liked. 'Take it down to the battle,' they said. 'God will fight for us,' they said.
'You've got another thing coming,' God said. And everything was lost because of their insolence.
The Philistines, they thought they had completely defeated the Israelites.
'We've captured Israel's God,' they said.
'We'll put him in the temple of our God, Dagon, and he'll worship our God,' they said.
'You've got another thing coming,' God said. For their insolence, God busted up Dagon and
afflicted the Philistines with sickness and death until they sent the ark back to Israelite territory.
And after the ark returned to Israel's territory, the people of Beth Shemesh
wanted to get a look at the most holy thing in the nation.
They treated the ark like a curiosity, as something that they were consecrated and qualified
to look at. 'Oh, God has returned to us,' they said. 'Let's sacrifice the cows and worship,' they said.
'Let's look inside,' they said. 'You've got another thing coming,' God said.
And seventy men of Beth Shemesh were struck down for their insolence.
And then twenty years after the ark was moved to Curious Gerum, David proposes to bring the ark
to Jerusalem. 'God's established me as king over Israel,' he said. 'It's right in our own eyes to
bring the ark to Jerusalem,' they said. 'Let's put it on a new cart,' like the Philistines did,
they said. 'Let's worship and celebrate with all our might and loud instruments,' they said.
'You've got another thing coming,' God said. And as it was struck down for the people's insolence,
you see, David and the priests and the Israelites treated God with contempt, and God said, 'Enough.'
And David was rightly afraid of God, but no, he was also angry. But it was a self-pitying
anger. David was angry because he didn't get his way. He was angry like Cain when God rejected
Cain's act of self-centered worship. Angry like someone who knows he hasn't done his best,
he hasn't done something right, but he wants approval anyway. But God is not mocked. God was
not going to allow David and the priests to disobey his commands and still claim that they were
worshiping him properly. We should see that it is perilous to worship God carelessly.
David had to learn, and although the text doesn't say, perhaps he repented of his irreverent worship.
He was, after all, a man after God's own heart. And when he heard that Obed Edom was blessed
by God, he realized it was possible to bring the ark to Jerusalem. But he had to do it the right way.
So turn your head to 1 Chronicles 15. We're going to look at verses 11 through 15.
Then David summoned the priests Zadok and Abayathar and the Levites, Uriel, Asiah, Joel,
Shamiah, Eliel and Abinadab, and said to them, "You are the heads of the Father's houses of the Levites.
Consecrate yourselves, you and your brothers, so that you may bring up the ark of the Lord,
the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it. Because you did not carry it the first time
the Lord our God broke out against us, because we did not seek him according to the rule."
So the priests and the Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord,
the God of Israel. And the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles,
as Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord.
This time David does it the right way. The priests consecrate themselves. They prepare
through sacrifice and washing and abstaining from anything that would make them ritually unclean.
Each one got himself ready for worship. They follow the Lord's command when they carry the ark.
They lift up the ark and they revere the Lord as holy in the sight of all the people.
In short, they now worship according to the word of the Lord. And the Lord showed he was pleased
with their reverence by allowing David to finally bring the ark to Jerusalem.
Likewise, when we worship the Lord in truth and according to his command, he is pleased.
All right, so you've been listening intently to all of this. You've been maybe taking some notes
and you understand good intentions and enthusiasm don't necessarily equal true worship.
You recognize it's perilous to worship God carelessly. You may even be persuaded that you need
to worship the Lord in truth. But how? How do we do this? And what does that even look like?
Well, we worship in truth when we worship God who is with us.
When I was preparing this sermon, I recall seeing a series of memes a few years ago that
contrasted an event or thing that was brutal with another thing or event that was epic.
So I asked some folks familiar with cutting edge technology, cutting edge social media,
you know, like MySpace and Vine and Friendster. Did you guys remember those memes?
And they're like, no, we I don't remember that at all. And I'm like, well, aren't you people on
parlor? Well, anyway, anyway, I know, I know I did not imagine those memes that juxtapose brutal
and epic themes. Now, have you have you ever encountered a brutal or brute fact
that has set or altered your plans, perhaps altered the trajectory of your life?
You know, brute facts are hard, unalterable truths and incurable illness being laid off
and debilitating injury. Now, not all brute facts are so dramatic, but we have to reckon
with them. We must adapt and come to terms with them.
When I was in 10th grade, I had the ambition to row in college. And one day, the University of
Washington's head coach visited our school. The University of Washington has one of the premier
rowing programs, collegiate programs in the country. And their head coach came to our school after
our men's heavyweight four won the American Schoolboy Championship. Now, I wasn't in that boat,
but I was pretty excited about this coach's visit. And I was standing in the hallway and he shook my
hand and they nice to meet you. And the brute fact was brought home to me that his interest was in
Orsman, who were five foot 10 and taller. I had to face the brute fact that I was too short to row
for any college program. I still am. Now, now that might seem like a silly example, but our lives
are filled with inalterable facts. They are the truths we must face. Our intellectual and physical
characteristics can only be changed so much. Some of our earlier poor choices in life may have had
consequences for the rest of our life. Choices or decisions made by others may affect our careers,
our health, our relationships. All of us must face a variety of inconsequential to life altering
brutal facts. But there is one glorious fact so enormous in its scope, so epic in its immeasurable
proportions that all the brute facts of our lives pale in comparison. There is an epic truth that
ought to completely transform how we think, how we live, and yes, how we worship. It is quite simply
this. If you have trusted Jesus Christ for salvation, he abides in you. Christ in you is your hope of
glory. It is very simple. I repent, I believe in Jesus, and now I possess Jesus. Now, recall from
the introduction of this message that when God wanted to dwell with his chosen people, he did so
through the Ark of the Covenant. That simple box containing two tablets of the law and placed in
the most holy place was how God chose to tabernacle with and dwell with and be with his people.
John chapter one verse 14 tells us the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
The word translated dwelt there is literally tabernacle. Jesus tabernacled among us. Jesus
was the most holy place, the holy of holies in the flesh walking among his people.
The world's religious systems have nothing like this. We understand God is absolute power,
but yet he's personal. Islam has an absolute God in Allah, but he is in no way personal to his people.
Zeus and the variety of Greek and Roman gods, they were personal. They looked very human,
but not a single one of them had absolute power.
Christianity is unique in the fact that the absolute sovereign of the universe
humbly dwells with us in a personal way. There is no other religion, no other system
that compares with, comes close to the way of Christ.
Now you might say, well, he's not tabernacling or dwelling with us now, is he?
I mean, even the most ardent followers of Christ can get a bit muddled in their thinking about
Jesus' present location. I mean, I thought he ascended to heaven. He's at the right hand of
God the Father. Well, he did. He is there. But if you stop there, you may tend to think that Jesus
is far away from us. You might think he's like a regional supervisor in a big corporation.
He's given us a list of commands to follow. We got to check off our list to make sure we're good.
And, you know, he checks in occasionally to see how we're doing. And, you know, he approves or
critiques our performance. We have weekly meetings, right? Every Sunday we have weekly meetings.
We get a message from headquarters. We have a musical pep rally. And then we get on with our week.
Well, if you think in any way like that about Jesus, you are mistaken. Jesus is not limited
by time or space or location. When you think that way about worshiping Jesus, you neglect this great
truth from John chapter 14 verses 16 through 18. Jesus told his disciples, "I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth whom the world
cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you
and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you."
So, where is Jesus? Yes, at the right hand of the Father and present in everyone who believes in
him through the Holy Spirit. First Corinthians reinforces this truth. Look at verse 16 in
chapter 3. "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you?"
And then chapter 6 verses 19 and 20. "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit
within you whom you have from God? You are not your own. You were bought with a price,
so glorify God in your body." The Greek word translated as temple in these verses is naos,
and AOS, naos. And it refers to the most holy place, the holy of holies, where the ark was kept.
You see, beloved, we are living, breathing portable tabernacles, holy places in whom Christ
abides. And the law is now written on our hearts instead of stone tablets. We must embrace this
truth and worship in it and out of it and through it. The Spirit of Christ in you
ought to be calling out to the Father and worshiping him in truth. This awesome, glorious,
almighty, inipotent Creator and Master of the heavens and earth humbly dwells with you
and makes you his friend. Jesus promises to abide in us and he calls us to come and abide in him.
What is your response? Maybe you're hearing this truth for the first time and you're overjoyed
by this jaw-dropping reality and you're ready to praise him in song right now.
Or maybe you've just considered this in passing, but you think that holy spirit stuff,
isn't that for the charismatic? And I don't feel, I don't feel the Spirit of God dwelling in me.
It's not about feeling. The Spirit of God in dwelling all believers is presented as a statement
of fact. It is true of all believers. Look again at 1 Corinthians chapter 6, 19 and 20.
Do you not know your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, not outside of you?
We don't have to ask him to come and visit us in this place. We don't have to ask him to fall on
us or anything like that. He is always with us in us. You're not your own. You were bought with a price.
So glorify God in your body. This is not some charismatic mumbo jumbo. You don't need a second
baptism. You don't need an infilling of the Holy Spirit because when you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation and you believed in Jesus, you were sealed with the promised Holy
Spirit. You have all the fullness of Christ in you right now. You have all of him that you could
ever need. All of us together being built up into a holy temple have all the fullness of Christ in us.
Everything that is his, his ours already, you don't need more of him. He simply wants more of you.
Every day he calls you to abide more deeply in him. Here's the problem.
Some, maybe many of you don't live in this truth and you don't worship out of it.
Maybe it's because you're just learning about it. Maybe it's because you don't understand the scope
of this epic truth yet. But it would be really, really bad if you understood this truth.
And up to this point in time, you've been careless about it.
You know, it's okay if I'm habitually late to worship. I don't feel like singing anyway, you say.
You hang out in the kitchen area and you chit chat with friends because fellowship is more important
than singing, you say. When you are present, your hands are in your pockets, your arms are crossed,
you won't open your mouth to sing. God knows I can't sing. He doesn't expect it, you say.
It's my choice whether I sing, even if the Lord commands it, you say.
You, you may have another thing coming. You treat God shabbily and carelessly. You don't
value or appreciate the truth that he dwells in you. Instead, you act like he's remote and
disinterested. Instead of deep calling out to deep, you quench the spirit and you instantly
behave in a way that's right in your own eyes with such worship. God is not pleased and you are
testing his patience. Repent, repent right now and every day this week for treating the Lord Jesus
Christ with contempt, repent and earnestly seek his face. Here is your assignment this week. Read
and reread John 14 verses 15 through 23 and then get flat on your face and ask him to reveal both
in your heart and your mind the truth that he dwells with you. Ask him to help you to live
and praise out of the truth that you are his tabernacle. He delights to dwell with you
and he delights to hear you sing his praises. Now the worship team is going to come back up
and help us to worship the Lord in truth. Singing his praise is of the utmost importance to him.
Right now, you have the opportunity to praise the Lord in truth. Right now, make every effort to
get yourself to the throne of grace with your brothers and sisters and glorify your father and
your savior in truth. Because if you didn't know it before today, you do now. You were redeemed
to worship and glorify him. It is your purpose and privilege to worship God who is with us.
Our closing prayer this morning is from Psalm 98. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song for he has done
marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The Lord has made
known his salvation. He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered
his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Break forth into joy
a song and sing praises. Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody,
with trumpets and the sound of the horn. Make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord. Amen.
