Worship Weekend 2026

before I do, I would say as far as a monarchy goes, king and queen, the one that maybe we think of and hear the most about here in our country would be England and Great Britain and the king and queen there. I want to talk for a moment about what happens when a new king and queen is coordinated in that country. And so it's been the same ceremony with very little shifting in what happens in that ceremony. It's been the same for over a thousand years. And so the most recent one that some of you may have watched and paid somewhat attention to, but it was back in May of 2023, King Charles III and Queen Camilla in Westminster Abbey in London. They have that British coronation ceremony. And in that ceremony, just like it happened again, a thousand years prior and all the other ceremonies that happened, what happens is they're closed in gold, they're handed an orb and a scepter, and then they're placed on their heads the crown, St. Edward's crown. And then what happens in every single British coronation ceremony after that? And it happened for King Charles III, but they take off that crown and they place it down. And then they go behind in a high altar to receive Holy Communion. And it's a moment with God. And the reason why they take off their crown before they go have that moment with God is it is a message, it is a symbol of something. It's a message to God that says, "I understand though I am an earthly king, I lay my crown down when I come before the king of glory." That's what that ceremony symbolizes. Now, whether or not every king has lived that message is a different conversation. But in each and every one of those ceremonies, there's that moment where the earthly king takes off his royalty to come before the king of glory. The reason why I share that is because of the passage of Scripture we're about to read where a similar thing happened. An earthly king kind of takes off his royalty to give worship to the king of glory. And we find in 2 Samuel 6, and I'm just going to share just briefly and just a couple thoughts from this passage. But let's go to verse 13. This is King David. It says, "When those were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps. He sacrificed a bull and a fatted calf." That's David. This says, "Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets." As the ark of the Lord was entering the city of David, Michael, daughter of Saul Michael, who was the wife of David. Michael watched from a window. And when she saw King David, when she saw her husband leaping and dancing before the Lord. And I'd love it if the rest of the sins was, when she saw her husband leaping and dancing before the Lord. I would love it if the rest of the sins was. She was inspired.

She was proud. She was grateful to be married to a man after God's own heart. I wish that's how the rest of that sentence goes. But instead, since when she's watching King David leap and dance before the Lord, she despised him in her heart. They brought the ark of the Lord. And they set it in the place inside the tent that David had pitched for it. And David then sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord. Let's hit pause in that story. We'll come back to it in just a moment. But I want to talk a little bit about Michael's response to watching her husband, the king and kind of why the king was acting like that. It was not sitting well with Michael, who was the daughter of a king. So she grew up in a king's household. King Saul was her dad. Now she's married to King David. And could it be that maybe this hit Michael a different way because she never saw her dad act this way. She was seeing King David act in a way where he's taken off of his regal garments. And he's stepping outside of his royalty. And he's out here acting a way that maybe wasn't as distinguished or as dignified as she thought a king should act. And yet David is doing so with all of his heart. And so what caused David to act in such a way that maybe other kings wouldn't have acted. Let me tell you what it was. David had an understanding of God's glory. David had an understanding that though he was a king, and listen, kings are held in high honor. On the earth, kings are often, I mean, catered to, kings are even worshiped. And yet David understood that thought. would be to bow at the feet of the King of glory. Like David understood that his own glory was nothing compared to that of God's. And that's what's great about worship. Is worship kind of helps us get our eyes off of our own desires and our own glory and our own achievements. And it puts our eyes on the glory of God because we know what it's like to be catered to as well. Some of you know what it's like to be marketed to and we know what it's like to be consumers. And so sometimes it's a little bit hard for us to step over that gap of just being consumers,

to being contributors. Understand that God deserves all of me. Like that's where worship is a, I was in English word. And in the old English, it was two words put together. We've kind of shortened it, made it this word worship, but initially it was worth worship, worth worship. We've shortened now to worship, but it really has that meaning to it. Yes, it's to bring honor to somebody, honor to God in this case. But it's also saying this, it's saying God is worth it. That's a question you've got to answer for yourself. Is God worth it? David understood the glory of the Lord and he had answered that question wholeheartedly. God was worth it. God was worth him taking off his royalty and dancing with all of his might before the presence of God. God was worth it for him. And let me tell you this, God is worth it. Whatever sacrifice you would ever make, whatever devotion you would ever commit to the Lord, whatever passion you would ever have for God, God is worth it. Is there anybody in the house that just, just has a sense of that, right? (congregation applauding) So, David understood God's glory. But then let's pick this story up.

This narrative here in Second Samuel VI, we'll go to verse 29. David returns home to bless his household. And Michael, the daughter of Saul, Michael, David's wife, she came out to meet him. And look what she said. She said how the king of Israel has distinguished himself today. I read it with a little extra sarcasm on there 'cause that's how she was saying it. She was not complimenting her husband. There is some marital tension going on right here. She, he's coming home and she said, "Boy, you have really outdone yourself today. I cannot believe the way you have acted today. How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls, of his servant's girls, as any vulgar fellow would do." And David said to Michael, look what his response was. It was before the Lord who chose me. Rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler of the Lord's people in Israel. So I will celebrate before the Lord. I'll be, he says, I'll become even more undignified than this. I'll be even humiliated in my own eyes. How did David get to this point? 'Cause David not only understood God's glory, he also understood his own story.

And he knew where God had brought him from. He knew that the position he was in, he was only in that position because of God. So he wasn't gonna allow that position to keep him from worshiping the God who put him in that position. And some of us, we've been in our position in Jesus or our position in church. Some of us have been in it so long that we have forgotten where God has brought us from. And we have started to think that we have really done something ourselves. Some of us have become like King Nebuchadnezzar who walked out on his little balcony and he said, look at this kingdom that I have created and God had to humble him in a hurry. No, we gotta understand our story. And some of us have been saved so long that we have forgotten what God brought us out of. We've forgotten what God brought us through. Some of us haven't thought recently about what God's doing in our life right now. Some of us haven't thought about how God's gonna keep us in the future what God's gonna do in your life because when you start to consider that kind of grace of God over your life, grace for what he's done. The grace of God and what he's doing in your life now. The grace of God and how it's gonna keep you in the future.

When you start to think about that, let me tell you what will happen. Worship will just burst forth out of your life. Worship will just burst forth out of your soul because you can't understand what God has done in your life. You can't be reminded of that and yet still have cold, disconnected worship. No, it's gonna cause something to heat up in your life. It's gonna cause you to express that. And we all expect that the question on this is not, will you worship, it's just what you will worship You're going to raise your hand without even thinking about you're going to you're going to get up and leap. You're going to raise your voice. And I'm not even saying that that's sin when you're doing that. What I'm saying is this. Don't let some football team get more worship out of you than the God of all glory. Come on. If I'm going to do it there, I'm going to do it 10 times more. Why? Because he's glorious. I understand his glory and because I know he's a part of my story. My story would not would not be what it is without him. Is it okay today? If we just come back to this thought and commit in our hearts, he is worth it. He is worth it. He's worth every song I could sing. He's worth every biblical expression of worship that I could ever do. Watch this. But these moments, these biblical expressions of worship, they're just a sign of the life of worship that he deserves. He's worth it.