Passionate Worship Series

"16 As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart. 17 They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord. 18 After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord Almighty.

19 Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.

20 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, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!” 21 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.

22 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.”

23 And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death."

David didn't care. He loved God and he wasn't worried about how he looked or how he sounded. Again, worship isn't about us or how we look to others, worship is about expressing our love for God and all that He has done for us.

When we talk specifically about Passionate Worship and how that might look during our Refuel service, we also have to look and remember Radical Hospitality. If we are greeting people and making them feel welcome, not matter how good our service is, they won't get into it. This goes for new visitors and regular attenders.

Each piece of our service needs to work together and be smooth. How many were here this morning during the 9:30 service? What did you think of when one of the praise band singers didn't know when the song started? Did you focus on that for a while? That was not Passionate Worship. Passionate Worship is worship that focuses all our energy to God and allows us the ability to express our love for Him and all that He has done for us. As we move forward with our services, you will see some changes. You will see different opportunities for you to worship God, not always in song and words but with silence and meditation.

As we come into the Easter season, we need to especially remember that Jesus died on the cross for us. He died so that we could worship. Jesus didn't die so we could stand around like this [Mimic a sad worshiper]. He died so that we could dance like David, undignified and unashamed. We need to drop all our misconceptions about worship and come before God humbly and with excitement. We need to forget about what genre of music we like and focus on the words of the songs and what they mean to us. We need to quit worrying about the friends around us and sing as loud as we can, it doesn't matter to God what your voice sounds like. Remember, worship isn't about us...