Free files for youth pastors:

1 – 2 Sam 1-6 – Worship (mp3)

1 – 2 Sam 1-6 – Worship (fillout sheet)

1 – 2 Sam 1-6 – Worship (ppt)

1 – 2 Sam 1-6 – Worship (outline)

1 – 2 Sam 1-6 – Worship (Scripture)

1 – 2 Sam 1-6 – Worship (service order)

2 Samuel 1 – 6 is a passage about personally praising God in public.  I’m so thankful for the church I grew up in.  It wasn’t as popular back then to have youth praise bands, but I do remember singing with my fellow teens to Jesus.  I remember returning to that church and worshipping Jesus in the student ministry with a soundtrack in the background.  Later I ended up interning at a church in Detroit that had an amazing worship band just for the teens and led by teens.  That experience really opened my eyes.  Then I began youth pastoring at a very small church where I began the teenage worship ministry under the leadership of Third Day and Jeremy Camp (CDs and an overhead projector).  Then we were so blessed to have 3 different guys (John, Jeff, and Jay) lead worship for us at 3 different times over the course of 3 years.  And now at my present church, I’m amazed at what God has blessed us with year after year with our teenage worship ministry.  God has given us drummers, singers, sax players, guitarists, keyboardists, etc.  The worship ministry here was one of the huge draws as to why I came.  I want that to continue as we grow in worshiping Christ personally and publically.  In fact, I wrote down about 10 things I wanted to address to my students in terms of worship, and it just so happened after studying this passage, it addresses all 10 biblically!  

2 Samuel 1 – 6 starts out with David becoming king of Judah and eventually Israel…uniting the two back together as one.  Unlike Saul, King David sees God as the ultimate ruler over Israel, so he calls for the ark of the covenant to be brought back to Jerusalem – the central place of worship.  The ark of the covenant was special because it literally was the throne of the glory of God in the temple.  What we must understand about all of this is that the ark of the covenant represented the special presence of God among His people, Jesus today is the special fullness of God (John 2), and the church today is the fullness of Jesus (Eph 1).  The church is today’s presence of God’s Kingdom.

In this passage then we have the symbol of God’s special presence among His people coming back into His kingdom.  What do the people do upon its return?  They sing songs and play instruments.  Do you realize that God not only calls His people to worship Him privately, but He also calls us to worship Him corporately?  Corporately means to worship God with others who are working together with you for the same purpose – praising God!  While the ark is being brought back in, it begins to fall, and Uzzah reaches out to catch it.  God strikes Uzzah dead.  God didn’t go overboard.  He has high expectations for the seriousness of His presence.  In corporate worship with our churches, we can’t take lightly any time of worship.  Worship is always a time of seriousness – either serious depth or serious fun!  We must be totally engaged in worship.

Also when bringing the ark back, David sacrificed animals before the Lord.  Sacrifices were an acknowledgement of sin and a need for forgiveness by a death.  In the same way, our worship songs must be centered around the gospel – the death and resurrection of Jesus.  We must think about the person and work of Christ in worship.

As the ark was coming back in, David danced in excitement, thankfulness, and worship.  His wife, Michal, was embarrassed at his shameless dancing and his un-kingly attire.  She was obviously embarrassed that he wasn’t acting dignified enough.  Notice David didn’t answer that it doesn’t matter what others think, but He answered that the way He shamelessly worshipped brought honor to the Lord in the eyes of others (6:20-23).  In a similar way, we must worship Jesus in a shameless way as to bring honor to Him.  No, we don’t need to be a distraction, but we do need to pour out our passionate hearts, voices, and express our emotional worship to Christ as our King (1 Cor 14:24).