"Dancing Before The Lord"

From the Pulpit of Bethel Church

Olar, SC

Bishop William D Poovey, ThD

"Dancing Before the Lord"

2 Samuel 6:14-16 And David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was girded

with a linen ephod. 15 So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. 16 And as the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michelle Saul's daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart.

Have you ever been so immersed in worship that you completely forgot about yourself, that is, you lost all sense of self-consciousness? If you have, then you have experienced true freedom!!! True freedom is to dance before God in such a way, with such enthusiasm that everyone you meet sees the glory of God, in you.

I know that not everyone will accept the message that we preach, not everyone will accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and thus be saved from sin, death and hell, and those people may look at us, as we dance before the Lord and despise us in their hearts!

Maybe they resent that anyone could be so happy, maybe they are jealous, maybe they want nothing to do with God, maybe they chose darkness over Light. Maybe they chose this world and Satan over Jesus Christ and eternal life, maybe they are just too self-conscious of themselves to dance before the Lord.

Remember the Words of Jesus: “If the world hates you, remember, it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is,

you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”

In our text, we see David dancing before God: “David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the Lord with all his might.” David was fully immersed in worshiping God, right in front of the whole company of Israel!

“Michal, Mee-call, watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.” Have you ever felt, as if, someone despised you, because of your enthusiasm for the Lord? There aren’t a whole lot of guarantees in this life…but this one is for sure…

…if we worship God the way we should…

…if we do what He commands of us…

…if we witness to the world about the Great Salvation that can only be had through Jesus Christ…

…there will be some people who will despise us…

But never allow the judgment of the world, to stop us from dancing before God and take away our joy.

Never be ashamed to witness, or praise God in the sight of others, or tell the world about Jesus, simply because some people will cut us down because of it.

Paul writes: I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all.” “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Whose approval do we want?

Paul says: “If anyone is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” Those are some very strong words!

We are called to be stewards of God’s True Word.

Who are we trying to please? Are we declaring God’s truth…no matter what others might think or say ?

Imagine what a difference we could make

…if everyone who is born of God

…would do what God has called us to do

…what if we would all dance before the Lord

…being so fully immersed in worshiping the Lord, that we leave ourselves fully immersed in worship

We might get persecuted…

We might get laughed at…

But, many, many others would see the truth and come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior!

And this is the only cure for our world!!!

Without Christ, this world is going to hell…

…do we care enough to forget about ourselves and be true servants of Christ by trying to please God?

“David returned home to his household, and his wife came out to meet him and said, ‘How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar man would!’ David said, ‘It was before the Lord and I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this. You see, David had removed his Kingly Robes and put on the robes of a Priest. He was saying to the people that his relationship with the Lord was more important than being King. He worshiped the Lord, unashamed and unafraid, in public.