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.
Our worship is toward the Lord of heaven and earth, toward the Holy One, toward the transcendent One!
Our worship is not to be addressed to each other, but toward God. David was so caught up in worshiping God that he didn’t care what the people thought.
David worshiped with his whole heart, mind, soul, strength, and body! Michelle didn’t worship at all.
She was full of pride and despised David, but he refused to worry about her or anybody else.
True worship is not a spectator sport. “To worship is to change. To stand before the Holy One of eternity is to change. If worship does not change us, we have not truly worshipped.” Worship isn’t the work of the pastor or the work of the worship leaders; it’s the duty of the people.” The Word of God is alive and active.
We should never to dare to approach the Living Word of God by sitting back and being slack. Church is not a place to come just to have our minds stimulated, it’s a place where we engage the Living God, the Holy One of all Eternity, so that we leave changed and our whole lives are a dance before the Lord. Let’s get specific.
Today, do we dare to enter the text about David and let it change us? Do we dare expose ourselves to the Living God and the rest of the world? King David knew how to worship! He worshiped with his whole being—he poured out the deep, passionate love he had for God, with all his heart, soul, mind and strength.
Is this how we worship God? True worship doesn’t stop when we leave this building! True worship can’t be contained! True worship is a daily dance before the Lord, when we rise in the morning; we should worship God, at work, school or play, we are to worship God.
Because true worship is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. True worship is to let the power of the living God, live in us
Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Jesus Christ has promised that if we would only die to this life and take up our cross and follow Him…
…we will have more than we could ever hope for…
…Life, bubbling over into eternal Life…
…and the ever-present joy of the companionship
of our loving Savior, throughout this earthly life!
If we truly worship God, then our lives, like David’s will be seen by others, as we dance before the Lord!
Our lives will preach the Gospel.
Our lives will reflect our worship!
Our lives will embody our love for God and men.
The Lord will use us to reap a great harvest of souls!
Are we dancing before the Lord with all our might?
There is no greater freedom!!!
"Let them praise His name with dancing and make
music to Him with tambourine and harp." Ps 149:3
"You turned my wailing into dancing; You removed
my sackcloth and clothed me with joy." Psalms 30:11
"Praise Him with tambourine and dancing, praise Him with the strings and flute." Psalms 150:4
People may ask if dance is a Scriptural form of worship. In Exodus 15:20, Miriam and the other women respond to God's triumph over the Egyptians in an expression of dance. Jephthah's daughter danced
David led the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem when he "danced before the LORD with all his might."
In the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:25), Jesus shows us that music and dancing was used to celebrate the return of the prodigal. As long as there is salvation happening in our churches we should be celebrating with music and dancing. All these illustrations of dance throughout Israel's history, give us a basis for dance as worship in the life of God's people.
"And it came to pass, as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tablets, with joy,
and with instruments of music." (1 Samuel 18:6)
"And David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod."
The Hebrew word for dance means "leaping and twirling." Leaping and dancing is an expression of the joy of salvation, which includes physical healing:
"In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up, stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God." (Ac 3:6-8)
Dancing and Healing walk hand in hand….
Dance is a sacrifice of praise, especially when the body is weary and the mind doesn't want to praise the Lord.
"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might" (Ecc 9:10) Use the talents in your hands and feet with all of your strength. Your thighs are the strongest muscles in your body. Use them…
“Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise." (Mat 21:16) It’s a child's nature to sing along and move with the music in dance.
The Lord is the Promoter of Liberty in expression through worship. We should Dance Before the Lord
"Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." (2 Cor 3:17)
David danced before the LORD with all his might;
Dance with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Can we start here this morning by getting on our feet,
And moving around as the music plays and Worship the Lord with all our Heart, Mind & Strength, with all of our Soul, with all of our Might, with a Shout, with a Tambourine or a Clap of our Hands. Come on and Worship the Lord, forget about who is looking and…
“Dance Before The Lord”
Special thanks to a great man of God and a wonderful friend, Pastor Terry Sisney.
My name is William Poovey, and I pastor at Bethel Church in Olar, SC. I have been a long-time user of Sermon Central and truly appreciate its content and contributors. Some of the best sermons I’ve ever preached have been reworked material from this website. As you use the material from my sermon bank, understand that it is work that has been done from not just myself, but from hundreds of other pastors as well. If you see part of your message, or a lot of your message with my name on it and this upsets you, please email me and I will quickly respond and cite you as the main source. My intent is not to claim someone’s work as my own. I am disclaiming up front that I use the resources from Sermon Central and appreciate the tool. I simply want all those who use my work to know that some of these messages were inspired by the Holy Spirit working through other pastors. Because I do use the messages of other pastors I waive all claims of originality or origin of creativity for the messages posted under my messages. I pray God blesses your preaching ministry for the glory of His Kingdom.
Respectfully,
William Poovey
