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Rediscovering Worship – Part 1
July 4, 2021
- Online church has made us question church.
- Why do go to church?
- Why does go to church?
Different Time, Same Issues
- God’s story is about His desire to with us.
- How does a Holy God dwell with sinful people?
- God’s story is about Him trying to get to us without killing us
- Old Testament “rules” are about , not punishment.
- Exodus 19:6
- A priest was a designated worshipper and a designated .
The Departure
- God was compelled to punish His people because of His , not His meanness.
True Prophets vs. False Prophets
- Jeremiah 29:10-11
The Return
- Ezra 1:2 (NLT)
- God preserved the people who moved and the people who remained .
- There is an aspect of our return to onsite worship that must be acknowledged.
- Ezra 3:11-13
- Haggai 2:3
- Ecclesiastes 7:10
The Rebuilding Process
- Ezra writes 1 and 2 Chronicles to encourage the rebuilding process.
- Chronicles omits many of David’s shortcomings and focuses on his heart for worship.
- We see David express a vision for temple worship that his son Solomon would eventually produce.
- The Jews needed to be reminded of David’s vision for worship because the temple rebuilding process was met with many challenges.
- The biggest challenges were , not .
- The temple rebuilding process was less about paint and more about priorities.
Haggai 1:2-6
New Testament Worship
- New Testament worshippers have the same challenges to face as Old Testament worshippers.
- Same challenges, different temple.
- Because of Jesus, we are the temple and we the priests.
- I Peter 2:4-5
- I Peter 2:9
- Instead of bringing sacrifices of animals, we bring sacrifices of praise.
- Like Israel, we have a priority problem.
- Our struggle is between two competing forces:
- What our bodies and minds demand (i.e. The Flesh)
- What God demands of our bodies and minds (i.e. The Spirit)
© Joshua D. Smith, Ph.D., 2021