Rediscovering Worship – Part 1

• 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:

1.  What our bodies and minds demand (i.e. The Flesh)
2. What God demands of our bodies and minds (i.e. The Spirit)

© Joshua D. Smith, Ph.D., 2021