"Your covenant laws are your gift to me forever. They fill my heart with joy" (Psalm 119:111).

The past few Wednesday's, we have wondered what God meant when he called David, "a man after my own heart." I say, 'wondered', because the Bible does not define this phrase. We are, of course, not talking about things we need for salvation. Rather, these are things God saw in David that delighted him.

We should want God to delight in us, as well. Three delights have been mentioned: obedience, humility, and integrity. Today, we conclude with this: David worshipped God.

Some of you may think of David and his harp, during the various stages of his life, shepherd, outlaw, king, composing psalms that are dear to God's people still today. Psalm 8, "Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth". Psalm 139, "You have searched me, Lord, and you know me". Psalm 32, "Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered." Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing." Psalm 24, "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it…" And so many more.

We may also think about the joy filled worship of God's gathered church. For us, worship is hearts and hands lifted to God in praise, knees bowed in prayer and confession, ears listening attentively to his Word read and expounded, hands offering service and gifts of money and mouths building up the people with words of encouragement and with prayer.

However, we must consider that participating in corporate worship services do not make us worshippers of God. Plenty of times in the Bible, God chastises his people for engaging in the formal acts of worship but not worshipping him at all. Take some time to read through Amos 5, Isaiah 58 and Matthew 6.

David was a worshipper of God not because he composed songs that became part of the Bible. Rather, he was a worshipper because he loved God and his love led him to obey God. I encourage you to be part of a community gathered in Christ's name in which your love for God is fanned into the flame of obedience. A community where the grace of God in Christ is proclaimed, received and lived.

In such communities, Jesus' words come to fulfillment, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me…streams of living water will flow from within him" (John 7:37,38). We cannot worship God and not go forth to bless those around us.

Are you seeking to delight God? Here are four qualities that God delights in and the Spirit grows in us: obedience, humility, integrity, worship.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

"May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together—spirit, soul, and body—and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he'll do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart… (Psalm 15:1-2).

It's difficult to know where and when it started. Maybe it was the monastic movements in which people retreated to the wilderness to focus on personal holiness. Maybe it was the division between clergy and laity that intensified during the Middle Ages. What ever its origins, the problem persists. I'm thinking about the continued divide between the sacred and the secular in which we separate corporate worship from life between worship occasions.

That is not the way Old Testament writers understood life. A holy life was integrated, walking in the ways of the Lord consistently—in the temple, the home and the marketplace. Every aspect of life was to be marked by holiness, spiritual and material, private and public, liturgical and economic. All of life was holy, faithfully lived out before the face of God.

When the Israelites gathered for worship, it was not an escape from the marketplace, the fields, or the political arena. Rather, worship engaged and challenged the economic, cultural, and political behaviours of God's people. While at worship, his people declared that he alone was sovereign of their lives. He was Lord of family and agriculture, money and markets, armies and kings, and, oh yes, the weather.

Israelite worship was considered an act of enthroning God (Psalm 29). He was declared king over private and public life. Singing together, worshipers were engaged in the liturgical act of submitting more areas of life to his sovereignty. Holiness flowed from the sanctuary into the network of relationships and activities. Both work and worship are named 'avodah', acts of service to God.

So, as you enter a new week, how will you live? Will you commit to live before God in all you do? Will you pursue holiness at home and at work, in buying and in selling, with soul and with body? How will you prepare for the next corporate worship time? As you live out this week, pay attention to the temptations you face. Which ones do you give in to? Bring them into worship for confession.

May only those without sin enter God's holy place? That was never the case. The Israelites came to worship confessing their sins and receiving God's liberating grace. We come the same way, covered by the blood of the Lamb. But those who have no desire to live integrated holy lives should not presume to worship a holy God. Let the days between corporate worship be days of preparation. Let your worship season your work and your work your worship.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

Wherever God takes you today (this week), may He fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit and that you may live carefully—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Galatians 5:13-15. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

Dive In!

1. Before today's sermon, how would you describe Christianity? What is its goal?
2. What element of freedom has been the focus in the past few weeks?
3. What element of freedom was highlighted today?
4. In what situations do you find it hard to love others? How will today's sermon help increase your love?
5. In the illustration of 'the gift', what have you done with God's gift of freedom?
6. Where and how can you learn to practice love as described in 1 Cor 13?