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The Presence of Worship

Sunday, March 29th, 2009

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INTRODUCTION

Last week Pastor Marshall began a series on worship, entitled “Worship is Essential”. He began with the first message in the series dealing with the Priority of Worship if you didn’t get a chance to hear the first message in this series then I encourage you to get a copy of this message either online via our website or you can request a CD a the welcome desk on your way out.

Today I’m going to be sharing the second message in this series.

Looking in Webster’s dictionary you’ll find this first definition for worship, “reverence, homage or honor paid to God” Then it goes on to say that the word is also used to refer to a place where this reverence, homage, etc. paid to God is given.

If you were to ask people what the word worship meant you would get a large variety of responses. Some might agree with Webster, some might say it is when you sing songs to God, some might say it is going to church, some might say it is when you place money in the offering plate. The reason why you would get such a large number of different answers is because the word “worship” is used in so many different contexts. While preparing this message I tried to think of all the ways in which I’ve used worship. I’ve said, “Let’s worship God together now” (in reference to singing praises); “Let’s worship God with our tithes and offerings”; “I worship you Lord”; “Why don’t you come and worship God with us” (while inviting someone to our church).

While looking closely at the contexts in which the word worship is often used I found that we often use this word to refer to an action we do – whether it is singing a chorus, going to church, placing money in an offering plate, raising our hands – etc. However I believe that scripture teaches us that worship is so much more than these things. In fact, you can be doing all these things and still not be entering into the place of true worship

I like what Robert Webber wrote about worship,

ILLUSTRATION:
We need to let go of our intellectual idea of worship and realize there is more to worship than a sermon; we have to let go of our evangelistic notion of worship and reckon with the fact that worship is not primarily directed toward the sinners who need to be converted; we must let go of our entertainment expectations and remind ourselves that we are not in church to watch a Christian variety show. We have gathered together in worship to be met by God the Almighty. God, the Creator of the universe, the One who sustains our lives, our Redeemer and King, is present through proclamation and remembrance. He wants to communicate to us, to penetrate our inner self, to take up residence within us. And, as we go through the experience of meeting with him in this mystical moment of public worship, we are to respond. But response is not just singing a hymn, not just saying a creed, not just saying a prayer. Response, from the very beginning of worship to the end, must be a powerful inner experience of actually being in the presence of God. When we sing a hymn or say a confession or prayer, we are not singing or saying words, but expressing a feeling, bringing our souls, truly responding and communicating to the living and active presence of a loving and merciful God. (Worship is a Verb, by Robert Webber, pg.114)

Today I want to talk about the presence of Worship. Worship really is about presence.

WORSHIP IS ABOUT PRESENCE

 acknowledging and reverent of the presence of God (Worship recognizes God’s presence)
 your presence before Him…. (Worship itself is a presence…)

For our text today I want to take another close look at a scripture that Pastor Marshall referenced last week. I believe we have here a story that has much to teach us about the presence of worship.

36 Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38 and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. 39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is–that she is a sinner.” 40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. 41 “Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said. 44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven–for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” 48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” 50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Luke 7:36-50 (NIV)

PRAY

The presence of worship is BIRTHED from the RECOGNITION OF who JESUS is (who the Father is, who the Holy Spirit is).

There is an incredible contrast in this Luke’s account of this event in Jesus’ life. A contrast between a guy named Simon (who happened to be a religious leader) and this unnamed woman (who is described as “immoral” a “sinner”).

• Something interesting: The Pharisee is said to have invited Jesus to his house for dinner…
 He didn’t wash Jesus feet (a basic form of hospitality)
 He didn’t anoint Jesus’ head with oil (a basic form of hospitality)
 He considered that Jesus’ may be a prophet or at most a teacher…but certainly not who Jesus claimed to be. Evidence is in how the Pharisee received Jesus.
• The woman was uninvited yet…
 She washed Jesus feet with her own hair
 She anointed his feet with not any oil but a COSTLY oil.
 She considered Jesus her Saviour. Evidence is in how Jesus received her.

When first looking at this scene, it’s easy to ask, why did the woman come to Jesus? Sure, she heard about him being at the Pharisee’s house and so she made the effort to go there and do her act of worship….but what really prompted her decision to make that effort? A clue is the story of two debtors that Jesus shared with Simon. Something had happened in this woman’s life, or she had witnessed something that opened her eyes to who Jesus is and she believed it. This faith, this understanding birthed the presence of Worship in her heart which resulted in this extravagant expression of her worship.

Listen to me, the presence of true worship is birthed in the recognition of who Jesus is – everything else is idolatry or pseudo-worship. True worship is all about Him. Idolatry or pseudo worship is all about what we can get out of it. True worship is all about God, all about recognizing who Christ is, the God of love, the God of mercy, the majestic God, God of grace, God of justice.

This presence of worship can be expressed in many different ways because it’s based in the heart of recognizing who God is. But remember, that whatever the expression of worship is it always, always, always points to Him!

Here in this story we have Simon inviting Jesus’ with the goal of discovering what this Jesus might be able to do for him, or perhaps what kind of danger this Jesus’ might pose to his position. The Pharisee was more concerned about what Jesus might do then who He is. Contrast the response of Jesus to this uninvited woman who is extravagant in washing Jesus with her hair her tears and anointing Him with the expensive perfume. An expression of what was birthed in her heart, true worship – because she saw who Jesus is! Friends, when you understand, recognize who Jesus is – you can’t help but worship Him!

{show “That’s My King” video)

Listen to me, sometimes, most times, worship isn’t really about ushering the presence of God into the sanctuary or the place where we are but more about ushering us into the presence of God…the woman, she didn’t usher Jesus’ into her presence via the expression of her worship…in honoring Him she was ushered into His presence.

The presence of worship COMPELS us to GIVE SOMETHING of OURSELVES

Worship always involves to some degree the giving of something as an expression of worship – a contribution of who you are, your life for the one you worship. What is significant in reading this story is that when this woman came to express her love for Christ, she not only poured out this expensive perfume but she had also come into this hostile territory, the home of a religious leader who knew her background, who knew her immorality and no doubt had reminded her of her failings many times. This woman faced the risk of being shut out, the risk of being rejected to humble herself and not only wash the feet of Jesus (and bring honor to Him who had been dishonored), but she humbled herself in washing His feet with her own hair, with her own tears. What an INCREDIBLE picture of the sacrifice made in Worship.

The thing about this giving in worship is that is not something giving unwillingly, or begrudgingly, or in agony. It is a willing gift because of the recognition of WHO you are giving to and what He has already given.

This means then, that the expression of our Worship isn’t confined to place or position. We may express this worship when we give…

• in singing praise to Him on Sunday’s
• in praying for someone in need
• in doing our job through the week to the best of our ability as if we were working for the King
• in the giving of our time to serve where He gives us passion to serve.
• In loving our spouse, our kids, our family as He loves us.
• In directing our resources where we see the need (because He has shown us that need)
• In being a friend to someone who doesn’t have a friend.

Really, every day presents us with opportunities to worship our king. It is entirely possible for our lives to be an expression of worship to Him. And it is when we truly recognize who God is. In fact, this is exactly what Paul (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) wrote to the church in Rome in Romans 12:1,

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice-the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.
Romans 12:1 (NLT)

You know what’s interesting? Paul chose to introduce himself to the Roman church at the beginning of this letter as “a slave of Christ”. This follower of Jesus wasn’t just preaching to the church He was living what He taught.

The other thing we learn about the presence of worship from this woman at the feet of Jesus is…

The Presence of true worship brings a TRANSFORMATION

Among the transformation that happens in one worshipping is ….

…a transformation of perspective
True worship transforms your perspective on who Jesus is. It transforms your perspective on who you are (this woman knew she was a sinner, she realized what wasn’t right in her life but she also knew the only one who could do something about that was Christ)
• transforms your perspective on the future
• transforms your perspective of your problems.
• transforms your perspective of your pleasures.

...a transformation of position.
• the presence of worship changes your position from being someone far from God to being someone close to God.
• Interesting that Jesus said, “Your faith has saved you, go in peace”. Her position was changed from being someone outside the kingdom, to being a citizen of the Kingdom of God – from being ungodly, to a daughter of the King.
• What I said earlier about worship doesn’t usher the presence of God into the sanctuary or where we are but rather we are ushered into His presence!

…a transformation of purpose (from death to life).
• not concerned about what you get out it, but the Glory He gets.
• Your very life becomes an instrument of worship. There is purpose to everything you do.
• Invest in His kingdom rather than Your kingdom.

Sometimes this transformation in the life of a worshipper of Jesus occurs over a period of time, sometimes it is instantaneous – complete in that moment. But here’s the cool thing, sometimes the transformation brought about by the presence of worship happens even to those not worshipping! This is one of the reasons why I believe corporate worship is so incredible…when the presence of worship is birthed in our hearts and it is expressed in the gathering of God’s people – those who are present, who don’t know who God His, who are not yet Christ-followers, may be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in the midst of worshippers! That is so AWESOME!!

Why does this transformation take place? Because true worshippers are ushered into the presence of God and sometimes a few people will get brought along with them…

(If time reference the story of Paul and Silas in Jail – Acts 16)

CONCLUSION

So why are we teaching on worship? Why this focus on worship? Because I think sometimes we get trapped in this wrong idea of what worship is all about and stuck in the routine and familiarity of tradition and behavior where we’ve allowed our “worship’ to become nothing but a cheerleading club. The only way we break free from that mentality and that behavior is to be reminded, to open our eyes, to unlock our hearts and RECOGNIZE who Jesus is, to ACKNOWLEDGE who He is! To respond with the gift of ourselves and allow His life and His presence to transform us!

I think it’s awesome how things have worked out so that we are having communion this morning. Communion serves as a great reminder of who CHRIST IS! Those distributing the emblems of communion can make they’re way up to the front now to do so. As the emblems of communion are being passed out I want us to watch this video clip called, “the gift of Worship”

PRAY

BLESSING (from Hebrews 13:20-21)
20 May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Hebrews 13:20-21 (NIV)

Tags: praise, presence, the presence of worship, worship
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Cultivating Holy Desperation

Sunday, March 15th, 2009

This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series Holy Desperation

INTRODUCTION

This morning I spoke about holy desperation. I believe that very few of us know what it’s like to be desperate for something. The truth is, we have so many “things” readily available that for many of us true desperation is not experienced.

Is there anybody here who likes country music? If there’s anything that comes close to desperate, that’s it. Now, I hope I don’t make any enemies picking on country music tonight…well let me just say that I’m one of those people who won’t actively seek out country music to listen too but I will confess that if it happens to be playing I don’t exactly wanna run away either. But listen, for the most part, country music is filled with “desperate” lyrics…that typically revolve around sad love stories. Some of these titles I’ve found give it away,

1. If You Can’t Live Without Me, Why Aren’t You Dead?
2. I Went Back to My Fourth Wife for the Third Time and Gave Her a Second Chance to Make a First Class Fool Out of Me
3. You’re the Reason Our Kids are Ugly
4. I’m Ashamed to Be Here, but Not Ashamed Enough to Leave
5. If My Nose Was Running Money, Honey, I’d Blow It All On You
6. You Were Only a Splinter As I Slid Down The Banister Of Life
7. You Ain’t Much Fun Since I Quit Drinkin’
8. I Would Kiss You Through the Screendoor but It’d Strain Our Love
9. I Wouldn’t Take Her to a Dogfight, Even if I thought She Could Win
(contributed by Davon Huss @ www.sermoncentral.com illustration database)

In truth I think some of the writers of these titles are desperately looking for something original don’t you think?

Why is understanding desperation so important? Jesus said that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled. That is, those who are desperate for him will know His presence in their lives.

I firmly believe that God moves in a powerful way in the place of Holy Desperation. In the place where He alone matters and is sought after. Is it no wonder that the writer of proverbs wrote,

Proverbs 15:9 (NIV)
9 The LORD detests the way of the wicked but he loves those who pursue righteousness.

Proverbs 21:21 (NIV)
21 He who pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor.

The kind of desperation that Jesus is talking about is like the story of the…

… little boy about five years old once tried to pick a small snail from a rock, but the creature’s hold was stronger than his tiny fingers, and he could not get if off. When he prayed that evening he thought of the snail and said:–

“O God, grant that I may stick to thee as the snail stuck to the rock today, and couldn’t be got off.”-(sermoncentral.com, Fred Ampara)

This morning I spent some time explaining what happens when we are desperate and in the process revealed why God wants us to hunger and thirst after Him. Really though, the key to holy desperation lies first in know how much you need Him. I am grateful to God because there were [more than?] a few of you who this morning stood and affirmed your desire to have the desperation in your life. You recognized that there’s something missing in your relationship with God and that hunger and thirst was awakened.

Tonight I want to hopefully give some practical tools to cultivating that desperation. I believe that God has given us some great insight through His word into how to nurture Holy Desperation in our lives so that we are in pursuit of Christ and His righteousness daily. The truth is, a lot of people’s spiritual journeys resemble a roller coaster ride. It’s up and down, twisting all around. There are the “highs” where they’ve had a life-changing encounter with God and then there are the lows where you wonder where the life change has gone. You know what I mean? Well, I believe it’s possible, over time, to develop a character of Holy Desperation. Not desperate in the sense of wild-eyed hopelessness – but desperate in the sense of wide-eyed pursuit. Remember Jesus’ promise – those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled.

So will you allow me a few minutes to give some teaching on cultivating this Holy Desperation?

1. Pray

This may be the most often quoted, obvious and encouraged spiritual discipline but it can’t be left unsaid.

There’s lots of reasons why prayer is so important in cultivating Holy Desperation but the two I want to emphasize are:

a. We pray to invite intimacy.
b. We pray to build belonging.

Psalm 42:1-11 is a wonderful example of how prayer both initiates and sustains Holy Desperation. In this psalm, King David describes the agony he’s going through as he wrestles with feeling like God’s forgotten Him and the knowledge that He hasn’t. He paints a wonderful picture of his desperation for God in describing it like a deer panting for water.

There was a man named Nicholas Herman who worked in the food service industry. He was a short-order cook and bottle-washer. Nick became deeply dissatisfied with his life; he worried chronically about himself, even whether or not he was saved.

One day, Nick was looking at a tree, and the same truth struck him that struck the psalmist so long ago: the secret of the life of a tree is that it remains rooted in something other and deeper than itself. He decided to make his life an experiment in what he called a “habitual, silent, secret conversation of the soul with God.”

He is known today by the new name given to him by his friends: Brother Lawrence. He remained obscure throughout his life. He never got voted pope. He never got close to becoming the CEO of his organization. He stayed in the kitchen. But the people around him found that rivers of living water flowed out of him that made them want to know God the way he did.

“The good brother found God everywhere,” one of them wrote, “as much while he was repairing shoes as while he was praying with the community.” After Lawrence died, his friends put together a book of his letters and conversations. It is called Practicing the Presence of God and is thought, apart from the Bible, to be the most widely read book of the last four centuries. (quoted in Ed Sasnett’s message, “Happy are the Starved”)

His one ambition was to know the presence of Christ and his primary means of cultivating his pursuit was continual conversation with God.

Really folks, that’s all prayer is. It’s conversing with God. Probably the most important way to cultivate a hunger and thirst for him is to pray that God’s spirit will continually remind you of your need for Him.

Another side-effect of praying consistently and regularly is that you start to realize how important it becomes to your life. In fact you will miss when you are not praying.

Matthew 7:7-11 (NIV)
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

2. Practice “Giving Up”

When I say practice giving up I’m not talking about quitting but rather about surrendering things that mean something for a season or for good. This practice can help to teach desperation and can lead to recognizing and learning to be dependent on God.

Try giving up something dear to you for a while to gain a taste for desperation. This is the principle of fasting. Fasting is the process of denying something dear to ourselves in order to hone holy desperation for the source of life, God. One of the major obstacles to holy desperation is the frank fact that many of us really don’t know what it is to be desperate! This practice will help to give you that understanding.

So, try this. For the next week, choose one of your desires and systematically deny it. For instance, if you love meat, be a vegetarian. If you love to get places quickly, drive the speed limit, stopping at yellow lights you would normally have sped through. If you like to work while you eat lunch, do nothing while you eat. If you like watching the news before going to bed every night – try reading your Bible instead. Get the picture? Friends, fasting doesn’t always have to be about giving up food (although that is the primary practice!). Fasting is really about giving up something we normally depend on and learning to depend on Him.

Interestingly enough, this practice of “giving up” also has the side-effect of helping you to hone your understanding of what’s really important in your life. When you give up things that you think you absolutely have to have in your life – after a while you may realize that you can get along just fine without them. That’s why it’s a good practice to regularly “give up” what you consider dear to cultivate Holy Desperation in your life.

“Giving Up” also refers to the practice of “giving away”. Let’s face it – a lot of us have things or “stuff” in our life that either we don’t need or that we have more than what we need. Our society teaches us that the path through life is all about accumulation. You know what I mean? I remember when I first went to college I was able to fit all my “stuff” into the trunk of my parent’s Cavalier – my Mom, Dad and sister were able to come and see me off to school. The next year only my Dad was able to take me to college because my “stuff” took up the trunk and the back seat of the car. The following year I was fortunate because my parents had a bought a mini-van so there was more room to bring my stuff — still…only my Dad and I could fit! Then in my final year of college we had to load up all my stuff in the van and trailer. I’m not even going to go into after I got married…I don’t’ think it’d be safe hehe.

My point is I think every single one of us can identify with the fact that we accumulate a lot of “stuff” going through life. Part of the reason is because we live in such a blessed country where we have the luxury of doing so. I mean garage sales were invented to be glorified stuff exchangers. Oh sure the excuse for a garage sale is to get rid of things you don’t use anymore and hopefully make a bit of money…but the real reason is so that we can make room for more stuff!

Folks, try this. Pick a room in your house this month and go through it and determine what you’re going to get rid of and what you’re going to give away. Get rid of the stuff that is truly garbage – you know the things that if someone gave you, you wouldn’t keep if your life depended on it. Mark for giving away things that are still in good shape and are usable. Here’s where the toughest part comes. So many of us can readily identify things that we could give away that are truly junk – but is what about giving away something that you still find useable. Or better yet, it’s easy for us to take things and drop them off someplace and say “Here, take this and give it to someone who needs it” What about making some effort to find out if there is a neighbor or a co-worker or someone at church, or a family member and actually delivering it to them in person?

Once you’ve done that for one room – move on to the next room in your house and so on. You know what? You could even make this a family activity! Then, make a point that for every new thing you obtain you have to give away something else.

Friends, doing this will help to cultivate Holy Desperation in your life. Listen to these words from scripture and you’ll see why,

Proverbs 11:24-28 (NIV)
24 One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. 25 A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. 26 People curse the man who hoards grain, but blessing crowns him who is willing to sell. 27 He who seeks good finds goodwill, but evil comes to him who searches for it. 28 Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.

Proverbs 18:16 (NIV)
16 A gift opens the way for the giver and ushers him into the presence of the great.

3. Spend time with desperate people.

Holy desperation is contagious. When you associate with people who are desperate for Jesus eventually you will “catch” it. Truthfully, every single one of us is born with this innate need for God. It is a spiritual vacuum that can only be filled with a relationship with Christ. Spending time with people who are fully aware of this vacuum and are desperate in their pursuit for Him helps to awaken our own awareness of our need for Him.

The problem is, when we spend too much time with people who are falsely satisfied with imaginary springs of water – then we become blind to our own need as well. That is the strategy of Satan. He’s doing everything he can to convince us to attempt to fill that most basic of needs with everything but righteousness.

2 Corinthians 4:4 (NIV)
4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

I’m not saying to run away from relationships with people who don’t believe as you do – in fact many of you already have wonderful friendships and connections with people who may not believe in Jesus Christ – who haven’t experienced springs of living water running in their life. That’s great! What I am saying is in order to cultivate Holy Desperation in your life make some effort to include in your closest relationships people who are desperate for Christ. How do you recognize these individuals? I like a quote I came across… it gives a clue,

Would you know who is the greatest saint in the world? It is not he who prays most or fasts most; it is not he who gives most alms or is most eminent for temperance, chastity, or justice; but it is he who is always thankful to God, who wills everything that God wills, who receives everything as an instance of God’s goodness and has a heart always ready to praise God for it.
– William Law

Do you know any such people in your life? Get to know them, learn from their life. By the way, this is one of the reasons we come together as a big group on Sunday’s. It’s an opportunity for this to happen. It’s also one of the reasons why I believe small groups are important. All a church needs is a few desperate people and a few more wanting that desperation and something will happen. All a small group needs is one or two people with Holy Desperation and something will happen.

Another way to cultivate Holy Desperation is to…

4. Recognize and allow difficulty to notch up your desperation for Him.

I like what C.S. Lewis wrote,

Pain insists upon being attended to, God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
– C.S. Lewis

Aptly put and I believe the idea is true but the reality is that many of us, when we experience trouble or problems in life, we just want the pain to go away as quickly as possible. The thing is, it is when troubles come and when we experience pain that the greatest opportunity for fueling Holy Desperation appears.

Have you ever noticed that God is not in a hurry? It took 40 years for Moses to receive his commission to lead the people out of Egypt. It took 17 years of preparation before Joseph was delivered from slavery and imprisonment. It took 20 years before Jacob was released from his uncle Laban’s control. Abraham and Sarah were in their old age when they finally received the son of promise, Isaac. So why isn’t God in a hurry?

God called each of these servants to accomplish a certain task in His Kingdom, yet He was in no hurry to bring their mission into fulfillment. First, He accomplished what He wanted to do in them – then He was able to do what He wanted to do through them. We are often more focused on outcome than the process to get there. When we experience His presence daily, one day we wake up and realize that God has done something special in and through our lives. However, the accomplishment is no longer what excites us. Instead, what excites us is knowing Him. Through the tough times in life, we can become more acquainted with His love, grace, and power in our lives. When this happens, we are no longer focused on the outcome because the outcome is a result of our walk with Him. It is not the goal of our walk, but the by-product.

Look at Joseph, when he came to power in Egypt, he probably couldn’t have cared less. He had come to a place of complete surrender so that he was not anxious about tomorrow or his circumstances. His pursuit was not for power but for presence. More specifically the presence of the true King in His life!

Friends, when tough times come – as they always do. Allow them to be the crucible that refines and fuels your desperation for Christ. Cling to Him in those times. Don’t let defeat, disappointment, and disaster knock you down and keep you down. Instead let these things propel you into greater intimacy with He who is greater than anything that comes your way.

A man named Jerry Vines made this astute observation,

A defeat that leaves you humble is better than a victory that leaves you proud.
(Interviews with Jesus, published by Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee; pg. 25)

Finally, another help in cultivating Holy Desperation is…

5. Fresh, Pervasive Worship.

There are many perspectives on what worship is. Listen to these two examples,

A young Christian went to his local church usually, but one weekend attended a small town church.
He came home and his wife asked him how it was.
“Well,” said the young man, “It was good. They did something different however. They sang hymns instead of regular songs.”
“Hymns,” said his wife, “what are those?”
“Oh, they’re okay. They’re sort of like regular songs, only different,” said the young man.
“Well, what’s the difference? Asked his wife.
The young man said, “Well it’s like this: If I were to say to you, ‘Martha, the cows are in the corn,’ well that would be a regular song. If, on the other hand, I were to say to you: ‘Oh Martha, dear Martha, hear thou my cry. Inclinest thine ear to the words of my mouth. Turn thou thy whole wondrous ear by and by, To the righteous, inimitable, glorious truth. For the way of the animals who can explain? There in their heads is no shadow of sense, Harkenest they in God’s sun or his rain Unless from the mild, tempting corn they are fenced. Yea those cows in glad bovine, rebellious delight, Have broke free their shackles, their warm pens eschewed. Then goaded by minions of darkness and night They all my mild Chilliwack sweet corn have chewed. So look to that bright shining day by and by, Where all foul corruptions of earth are reborn. Where no vicious animal makes my soul cry, and I no longer see those foul cows in the corn. AMEN!
“Then, if I were to do only verses one, two, and four and do a key change on the last verse, well that would be a hymn.”..

That’s one perspective but here’s another…

An old farmer went to the city one weekend and attended the big city church.
He came home and his wife asked him how it was.
“Well,” said the farmer, “it was good. They did something different, however. They sang praise choruses instead of hymns.”
“Praise choruses?” said his wife, “What are those?”
“Oh they’re okay. They’re sort of like hymns, only different,” said the farmer.
“Well, what’s the difference?” asked the wife.
The farmer said, “Well it’s like this – If I were to say to you: ‘Martha, the cows are in the corn,’ well that would be a hymn. If, on the other hand, I were to say to you: ‘Martha, Martha, Martha, Oh, Martha, Martha, MARTHA MARTHA, the cows, the big cows, the brown cows, the black cows, the white cows, the black and white cows, the COWS, COWS, COWS are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the corn, the CORN, CORN, CORN’!!! ‘Oh, Oh, Ooooooooh, yes, it’s true, the whole herd is in the awesome corn, yes, it’s true, the whole herd is in the awesome corn, — weeell, it’s true, the whole herd is in the awesome corn!!! Alleluia! – That would be a praise chorus.”…

Now obviously theses are some pretty extreme perspectives. But I share them to make a point. Worship isn’t about whether we sing a hymn or a praise chorus. Singing praises to Him who made us is a manifestation of worship but worship is something that is not limited to certain times or places or even specific methods.

John 4:24 (NIV)
24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

God is looking for people who will worship Him in “spirit and truth” Who does that refer to? I like how Dallas Willard describes it. He says,

It refers to people who have free-hearted and wholehearted admiration of, respect for, and commitment to God as the highest being of all. They never try to conceal anything from him and always rely completely on him. (from Revolution of Character by Dallas Willard with Don Simpson)

In other words worship isn’t so much an act we do as it is a state of being and a relational response. It is possible to be worshipful in everything we do.

Now I say a way to cultivate Holy Desperation is through fresh pervasive worship because for far too many people worship is limited to routine and place. When our worship is fresh – that is when we are creative in how we show our affection, admiration and respect for God – and when our worship is pervasive – that is we see it as a state of being and relational response rather than just what we do, when worship is enabled and welcomed in every area of our life – then it fuels a Holy Desperation for Him.

In some ways worship is like marriage. I’ve been married to my wife Kerryanne, well it will be 13 years this coming August. There’s something I’ve noticed in this time we’ve been married. The more routine and predictable we allow our marriage to become, the more we begin to take our relationship for granted. But if every day we share together some new expression, gift, act of love, or experience, our relationship will keep growing.

Similarly, when worship becomes predictable, it can become ordinary and lose its impact. When worship is fresh and pervasive in our lives it can enliven our relationship with Christ and increase our desire for Him.

CONCLUSION

Well, there you have it – five ways in which you can cultivate Holy Desperation in your life.

1. Pray
2. Practice “Giving Up”
3. Spend time with Desperate People
4. Recognize and allow difficulty to “notch up” your desperation for Him
5. Fresh and pervasive worship.

I’m convinced that there is a battle going on in the world today for the hearts and minds of every person. If there’s one thing Satan, the enemy of God, dreads more – it’s the pulse of someone who’s got Holy Desperation. He is doing everything in His power to keep people from realizing their need for God and keep them in trapped in their satisfaction with temporary things. Half the battle is realizing that we need God, the other half is cultivating our continued dependence on Him. And friends, that is a hard battle when you think of all the things we are blessed with in our lives today.

But friends take heart with the word of God – for it says,

2 Chronicles 16:9 (NIV)
9 For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.

If you recognize your need for God tonight, if you were one of the ones this morning that stood and said, “I want that Holy Desperation in my life”, if you’ve realized that gnawing sense of dissatisfaction with the temporary things in your life – then I invite you to allow the seed of desperation for Him to flourish and consume your being. God is looking for people like you, He’s looking for the committed, the willing, the desperate.

Tags: choices, desires, desperate, heart, Holy Desperation, hunger, thirst, worship
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Jailhouse Praise

Sunday, October 12th, 2008

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Jimmy and Dave found a sink hole that seemed to appear out of nowhere one day. The hole was on a path they usually traveled to go to Mr. Earl’s pond where they would fish for sunfish and perch. In the summertime they traveled that path often and the day they found the hole, they knew it was a new one because it was right in the middle of the path.

Being typical boys, their first instinct was to look in the hole and see just how deep it really was. It was too deep and dark for them to see anything, but if they yelled real loud they would get an echo that was better than those you would hear out at the Grand Canyon.

However, the fun level soon dropped dramatically after a long period of hollering in a hole and the two boys now turned their attention to checking the depth of the hole by dropping things into the limestone darkness.
It was a very scientific process. They would drop a rock into the hole and count the seconds until they heard the rock hit the bottom. There was only one problem. The hole was so deep they could not hear the rock hit the bottom.

Their fun now turned into work as they dropped huge boulders, tree stumps, and whatever they could find into the sink hole, still with no success of hearing a sound from their efforts.

They were now desperate to find a bottom to the hole. As they looked for larger items to push into the sink hole, Jimmy found a railroad tie in the undergrowth near the path. The two summer tanned boys with all their might dragged and pushed the railroad tie to the hole and slowly let it fall into the darkness. As they waited for the sure sound of a crash to the bottom, they were amazed at the sudden appearance of a white goat running from the undergrowth where they found the railroad tie. The goat ran right past the startled boys and went immediately into the darkness of the sink hole.

In total shock Jimmy and Dave moved slowly to the edge of the hole and looked in. All they saw was settling dust, darkness and heard absolutely nothing.

From behind them, Mr. Earl was coming up the well traveled path and as he approached the now pale boys, he asked them if they had seen a goat along the way.

“Funny you should ask,” said Dave with his eyes as large as china saucers. “We have just seen a goat and it did the strangest thing, too!”

“Yeah,” answered Jimmy and pointing to the hole in the path, “A goat just ran out of those woods over there and jumped in this hole for no apparent reason, less than a minute ago.”

Seeming somewhat confused Mr. Earl smiled at the boys and said, “Well, that must not have been my goat. You see, my goat was tied with a long rope to a railroad tie.” (Tenessee Farm Bureau, September 2000)

That’s funny, huh? While this supposedly true story gleaned from the September 2000 issue of the Tennessee Farm Bureau is hilarious it also points out how dangerous sink holes can be…

In 1993 a 100 foot wide sink hole opened up under a hotel parking lot in Atlanta Georgia that killed two people and destroyed four dozen cars. On July 14 2001, after 4 days of severe rains in Hernando County Florida, eighteen sinkholes, the largest of which measured eighty feet across and over one hundred feet deep opened up in a two day period. No one was injured but one emergency worker narrowly escaped injury when the earth sank beneath him as he was clearing debris with a backhoe.

The holes in our lives we have labeled depression, anger, weariness, fairness, loss and brokenness, may not open as suddenly as sink holes but they are as dangerous and sometimes as deep. And, whether you are a person caught in the throes of depression or a goat tied to a railroad tie, they can be easy to fall into, mighty difficult to climb out of and especially hard to fill to prevent further falling.

Our text for today speaks about the incredible hole that Paul, Silas and company found themselves in while serving God in Philippi. No doubt for the average person, for most of us, if this happened to us this hole would have broke us. Yet how on earth could a beaten man sing songs and praise God? The reality is that it is possible in midst of our worst situations for God to fill us with praise. Our response is to praise the Lord, to let out what HE has placed within. It is better out than in!! The Apostle Paul knew there was power in praise, so lets look and see just what Praising the God can do, because I believe friends – that no matter what holes we happen to stumble across in life the key to climbing out of those holes and filling them up is found in simply understanding the power of praise…

THE POWER OF…

I. Praising the Lord brings reality into focus

A. Reality is not necessarily just what’s on the surface!
1. The Apostle Paul’s present condition: Tell the whole story as found in our text. Focus on the negative (Verses 19-24).

2. What might be our present circumstances: good or ill?

B. Reality is and should be focused on God!
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
Romans 8:18 (NIV)

Note the Apostle Paul’s reaction to his circumstances (verse 25!)

Acts 16:25 (NIV)
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.

No wonder Paul later wrote in the introduction to his letter to the Philippians,

9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ–to the glory and praise of God.
Philippians 1:9-11 (NIV)

No matter what we face in life, the believer has the assurance of the reality of God’s presence. Forgetting that reality makes it easy to succumb to despair and hopelessness – remembering this leads to gratefulness and praise.

The power of praising the Lord brings Reality into focus.

THE POWER OF…

II. Praising the Lord brings freedom from bondage (vv. 26)

26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose.– Acts 16:26 (NIV)

A. Praise brings about supernatural EVENTS.
Listen carefully… because Paul and Silas sang Hymns of praise, God had an open avenue into their circumstances.

There was a violent earthquake, the prison doors flew open and the chains fell off. Is this a natural occurrence?

Do you remember the story of the Battle of Jericho (Joshua 6: 6-20; especially verses 6, 14, and 20)?

Joshua 6:6,14,20 (NIV)
6 So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant of the LORD and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it.” 14 So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days. 20 When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city.

What caused the walls to fall, 7 days of Marching around the city? Was it 7 days of the 7 priests blowing trumpets? OR WAS IT THE PRAISE OF THE PEOPLE AS THEY SHOUTED TO THE LORD? AND THE WALLS CAME TUMBLING DOWN!

B. Praise brings personal freedom!
Paul’s chains fell off!
- Talk about emotional freedom (Paul and Silas could have been held in bondage to fear, bitterness, rage, depression, self-pity, anger etc.)

Not only does praise bring personal freedom in affecting individuals but also…

C. Praise brings corporate freedom
Every one in the prison was now free! Good and Bad are freed! People who knew Christ as Lord were Freed! People who had just heard the Praise of the living God were Freed!!

Is amazing to me but when you Praise God you are not only ushering in personal freedom but YOU are also having an affect on those around you.

The Power of Praise brings freedom from bondage!

THE POWER OF…

III. Praising GOD is a vehicle of salvation to the lost

27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” 29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved–you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God–he and his whole family. 35 When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” 36 The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”
– Acts 16: 27-36 (NIV)

A. Praise brings questions!
One of the most famous question in all of Scripture: “What Must I Do To Be Saved (Verse 30)?”

A man in fear for his life had seen some incredible things on third shift. Beaten, imprisoned men sang about a Savior. Something supernatural had happened. God became real and this jailer did not know this God

What example do we set? Does it cause anyone to notice at all, or do we just complain and gripe like the rest of the world? How do we respond to the struggles of life – in faith or in frustration? If we pull a “Job” or a “Paul & Silas”, we will respond in faith and others will see and ask the most important question of their entire life: “WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?” – What must I do to climb out this hole that I am in? What must I do to fill the hole in my life? What can I do to experience that joy in my life?

B. Praise reveals the answer!
When Paul replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved (verse 31), was he just blowing smoke, or did he BELIEVE IT?

WHAT HAD JUST TRANSPIRED IN HIS OWN IMMEDIATE LIFE?!? He had just been saved! There is a physical and a spiritual dimension here. Paul found Jesus on the road to Damascus, (Acts chapter 9) and he believed in Him. Now, not only was Paul physically saved from death and imprisonment, but how do you think his faith was effected by this miracle? Paul was living proof of what Jesus can do!

What was the net effect? Not only did the jailer come to know the Lord, his whole family was freed from the bondage of sin and death. Personal and corporate Salvation was experienced by the Lost!

One Last thought: look at verse 34. Read between the lines. What do you believe to be the response of our New Convert to the faith? I believe he PRAISED THE LORD!

Acts 16:34 (NIV)
34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God–he and his whole family.

CONCLUSION

What keeps you from praising the lord with your whole life? What keeps you from being a living model of praise so that the world might know? Are you willing to praise the Lord even in the midst of the holes you find yourself in?

The Power of Praise brings reality into focus, brings freedom from bondage, and is a vehicle of salvation…

Sandra felt as low as the heels of her Birkenstocks as she pushed against a November gust and the florist shop door. Her life had been easy, like spring breeze. Then in the fourth month of her second pregnancy, a minor automobile accident stole her ease.

During this Thanksgiving week she would have delivered a son. She grieved over her loss. As if that weren’t enough, her husband’s company threatened a transfer. Then her sister, whose holiday visit she coveted, called saying she could not come. What’s worse, Sandra’s friend infuriated her by suggesting her grief was a God-given path to maturity that would allow her to empathize with others who suffer.

“She has no idea what I’m feeling,” thought Sandra with a shudder.

Thanksgiving? Thankful for what? She wondered. For a careless driver whose truck was hardly scratched when he rear-ended her? For an air bag that saved her life but took that of her child?

“Good afternoon, may I help you?” The shop clerk’s approach startled her.

“I….I need an arrangement,” stammered Sandra.

“For Thanksgiving? Do you want beautiful but ordinary, or would you like to challenge the day with a customer favorite I call the Thanksgiving “Special?” asked the shop clerk. “I’m convinced that flowers tell stories,” she continued. “Are you looking for something that conveys ‘gratitude’ this Thanksgiving?”

“Not exactly!” Sandra blurted out. “In the last five months, everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.”

Sandra regretted her outburst, and was surprised when the shop clerk said, “I have the perfect arrangement for you.”

Then the door’s small bell rang, and the shop clerk said, “Hi, Barbara…let me get your order.”

She politely excused herself and walked toward a small workroom, then quickly reappeared, carrying an arrangement of greenery, bows, and long-stemmed thorny roses; Except the ends of the rose stems were neatly snipped: there were no flowers.

“Want this in a box?” asked the clerk.

Sandra watched for the customer’s response. Was this a joke? Who would want rose stems with no flowers! She waited for laughter, but neither woman laughed.

“Yes, please,” Barbara replied with an appreciative smile. “You’d think after three years of getting the special, I wouldn’t be so moved by its significance, but I can feel it right here, all over again,” she said as she gently tapped her chest.

“Uh,” stammered Sandra, “that lady just left with, uh….she just left with no flowers!”

“Right, said the clerk, “I cut off the flowers. That’s the Special. I call it the Thanksgiving Thorns Bouquet.”

“Oh, come on, you can’t tell me someone is willing to pay for that!” exclaimed Sandra.

“Barbara came into the shop three years ago feeling much like you feel today,” explained the clerk. “She thought she had very little to be thankful for. She had lost her father to cancer, the family business was failing, her son was into drugs, and she was facing major surgery.”

“That same year I had lost my husband,” continued the clerk, “and for the first time in my life, had just spent the holidays alone. I had no children, no husband, no family nearby, and too great a debt to allow any travel.”

“So what did you do?” asked Sandra.

“I learned to be thankful for thorns,” answered the clerk quietly. “I’ve always thanked God for good things in life and never to ask Him why those good things happened to me, but when bad stuff hit, did I ever ask! It took time for me to learn that dark times are important. I have always enjoyed the ‘flowers’ of life, but it took thorns to show me the beauty of God’s comfort. You know, the Bible says that God comforts us when we’re afflicted, and from His consolation we learn to comfort others.”

Sandra sucked in her breath as she thought about the very thing her friend had tried to tell her. “I guess the truth is I don’t want comfort. I’ve lost a baby and I’m angry with God.”

Just then someone else walked in the shop.

“Hey, Phil!” shouted the clerk to the balding, rotund man.

“My wife sent me in to get our usual Thanksgiving arrangement…twelve thorny, long-stemmed stems,” laughed Phil as the clerk handed him a tissue-wrapped arrangement from the refrigerator.

“Those are for your wife?” asked Sandra incredulously. “Do you mind me asking why she wants something that looks like that?”

“No…I’m glad you asked,” Phil replied. “Four years ago my wife and I nearly divorced. After forty years, we were in a real mess, but with the Lord’s grace and guidance, we slogged through problem after problem. He rescued our marriage. Jenny here (the clerk) told me she kept a vase of rose stems to remind her of what she learned from “thorny” times, and that was good enough for me. I took home some of those stems. My wife and I decided to label each one for a specific “problem” and give thanks for what that problem taught us.”

As Phil paid the clerk, he said to Sandra, “I highly recommend the Special.”

I don’t know if I can be thankful for the thorns in my life,” Sandra said to the clerk. “It’s all too…fresh.”

“Well,” the clerk replied carefully, “my experience has shown me that thorns make roses more precious. We treasure God’s providential care more during trouble than at any other time. Remember, it was a crown of thorns that Jesus wore so we might know His love. Don’t resent the thorns.”

Tears rolled down Sandra’s cheeks. For the first time since the accident, she loosened her grip on resentment.

“I’ll take those twelve long-stemmed thorns, please,” she managed to choke out.

“I hoped you would,” said the clerk gently. “I’ll have them ready in a minute.”

“Thank you. What do I owe you?” Sarah asked.

“Nothing; nothing but a promise to allow God to heal your heart. The first year’s arrangement is always on me.” The clerk smiled and handed a card to Sandra. “I’ll attach this card to your arrangement, but maybe you would like to read it first.”

It read:

“My God, I have never thanked You for my thorns. I have thanked You a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorns. Teach me the glory of the life I bear; teach me the value of my thorns. Show me that I have climbed closer to You along the path of pain. Show me that, through my tears, the colors of Your rainbow look much more brilliant.”

Praise Him for your roses, thank him for your thorns. (quoted on the website, Motivating Stories)

Tags: paul, praise, silas, worship
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Gods Deeper Work

Sunday, November 4th, 2007

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INTRODUCTION

We are quick to acknowledge in our praise and worship the wonderful majesty and awesomeness of God. We are quick to give Jesus glory as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. God is a powerful God. A quick survey of what the Bible says about God’s power attests to that:

• He first displayed His power in creating the universe.
• He displayed His power in causing man to speak in a multitude of languages.
• He executed His horrific power in sending the great Flood upon the world.
• He struck Sodom and Gommorrah with His destructive power.
• He sent Moses to the Egyptians and brought them to submission with His powerful displays
• He gave the Israelites on their journey through the desert many examples of His providing, protecting, and punishing power. Also doing the same in the many years they were in the promised land. Working through judges, kings, and prophets.
• He demonstrated His miraculous power while on Earth two thousand years ago as Jesus Christ walked the Earth and healed the blind, the lame and the sick.
• He unveiled His redemptive power with His death and resurrection.
• He sent His power to work in the lives of the people in the early church with the blessing of the Holy Spirit.
• He foretells of His awesome power that will be witnessed in the Day of the Lord.

Yes, our God is a powerful God. Indeed, we pray to Him because of our knowledge of God’s power and ability to heal, provide for, and rescue. Even the unbeliever in their times of deepest need will cry out to God for help! The cry, “O God,” is often blurted out in such cases subconsciously in recognition of God having the power to intervene.

As Christians, we often have a similar view of God’s power. However, many times, our expectation of God’s power is slightly misdirected. We are primarily looking for God to show his power in creation, in healing bodies, in supplying employment for his people, in bringing a new baby into the world – and these are all wonderful things. Think of all the times you’ve prayed in the last while – for what have you prayed? I’m sure if you thought about it you would find that a lot of the things you prayed for are external in nature.

But the Bible declares that the greatest things, the most powerful things that God does are internal, not external. Ephesians 3:20 speaks of God “who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine’ (we like that part), “according to his power that is at work within us.”

All the external things are things that are temporal, things that don’t last, things that will eventually wear out. Only the internal things will go with us into the next world. We won’t be dragging along our bodies (as they are, thank goodness!), our cars, our houses, or our lands.

Andrew Murray, “Your heart is your world, and your world is your heart,”

Folks it is in the heart where God works His greatest power. It is in the heart where God does His greatest work in our lives. Our inner heart is the main place where God works!

I like what Jim Cymbala wrote in his book Fresh Faith,

“What good is it if God heals you and keeps you alive for an extra twenty years if you walk in disobedience for those twenty years? What good is any external blessing without God’s peace and joy in your heart? What’s the point of receiving a promotion and making a lot of money if your big, fancy house is not a true home, but rather a boxing ring of fussing and fighting.” (p.163-164)

We often hear many Christian testimonies for “external” things that have happened, “Praise God for the $100 check that came in the mail.” “Praise God for sparing me from a traffic accident” – While these are definitely blessings and we certainly should praise God for them, greater still are the things that God wants to do inside of us! The reality is that when we start placing our entire focus on what WE want God do FOR us, we forget that there are more important things God wants to do IN us!

Have you ever noticed that a lot of our requests to God and expectations upon God’s power are centered on the problems we hope he will solve in our lives? I need healing, I need money, I need a good job, or a good wife, or even a good church! We go to God (and rightly so) for our emotional and physical healing. But friends, God knows that our problems are not merely due to our environment; they are deeply personal. Fixing up the environment doesn’t necessarily repair the person! Some people, in fact, grow stronger in the midst of adversity; others have an easy life and still self-destruct.

I want you to hear something loud and clear this morning – our environment may be one of the contributors to our problems – but changing that environment doesn’t automatically guarantee a solution to your difficulties!

Take money for instance. I can pick on this one because it’s something I’ve come to understand in a personal way! We always wish we had more money. We think to ourselves, “If only I had more money coming in each month than what is going out, then I could start saving, or I could pay off my bills regularly, or I could start reducing my debt and I will be free from all worries. Yet how many of you find that when your wish comes true and you get a little more income that all the changes you expected to happen just aren’t present! The bills are still there, the debts are still unpaid and you still have your worries. You see, the problem isn’t primarily that you don’t have money – the problem is what you do with it when you have it! It is your approach to it on the inside that affects the solution to the problem!

What does the Bible say about God’s inner work? Probably the most eloquent portrayal of what God does inside us has been written by King David. One of the most difficult pieces of writing that David ever wrote was Psalm 51 – and today I’d like us to turn there as the basis of the message this morning on “God’s Deeper Work”

READ PSALM 51 AND PRAY

1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. 5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. 6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. 7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. 10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you. 14 Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. 15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 18 In your good pleasure make Zion prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem. 19 Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight you; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
Psalms 51:1-19 (NIV)

David was like all of us in the respect that He too, was a sinner. He gave into temptation, He gave into pressure – He wasn’t superhuman. One spring in particular, he stayed home instead of going out with his army, and he got himself into major trouble.

What happened to David should be a warning of something to watch out for in our lives: It can be dangerous not to go where God sends you, or not to do what He has called you to do. This is true for everyone, not just those in pastoral ministry. I’ve seen it where people have been faithful in doing a certain ministry within the church and are consistent and reliable and then say, “I’m kind of tired; I think I’ll go on leave now and later on I’ll get involved in another ministry in the church.” I’ve observed that, if they don’t go to the next place of service God planned for them, they eventually drift from the things of God altogether. Satan is moving about like a prowling lion looking for those He can distract from the purposes of God for their lives.

You’ll find yourself very quickly in a treacherous position if you just hang around church and “loiter” without getting active in the service God has called you to. You better be sure when you are “taking a break” that it is really God telling you to “take that break” and that it’s not your own flesh entering in and saying, “I can’t do this”.

King David found himself with too much time on his hands and one night he couldn’t sleep…

I like what Jim Cymbala had to say about this,

“Nightime brings its own dangers. If you don’t sleep well, my advice is that you had better start praising God quickly. Otherwise, worry, anxiety, and impure thoughts can easily creep in.”

What happened to King David? Well, he decided to take a stroll on his veranda and he happened to see a beautiful woman bathing. The Bible says that he desired her – and being king, he could have anything and anyone he wanted. We all know what happened next.

When Bathsheba’s pregnancy became known, this “man of God” acted disgracefully. That’s what sin does to people folks! David called Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah the Hittite, back from the battlefront in order to cover his tracks. It didn’t work. So David got the man drunk on liquor in a despicable attempt to sway his judgment. Even that failed. Finally, he sent Uriah back to his regiment carrying a letter to General Joab – a letter that was Uriah’s own death warrant. David ordered Uriah’s death in the battlefield. He committed murder through other people’s hands. Everything was covered, David thought.

I can’t imagine how David ever lived with himself for months and months. The man who had written such wonderful psalms – worship songs to God – went for most of a year with a wall between himself and God. Then God sent Naaman the prophet to confront him.

Only then did David admit his guilt. Finally we hear him come clean in Psalm 51: “Have mercy on me, O God…Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” (vv. 1-2). From the depths of his soul David repents and asks pardon from the merciful God he has offended.

Then in the middle of the Psalm, David spells out three absolutely essential things that he desperately needs from God. He has learned something from his terrible fall. What he desires is impossible for him; the Lord must do it. And the work must be done inside him.

When you hear David’s words, you will be aware of how seldom, if ever, you hear anyone pray like this today. Unfortunately, we are not asking God for things along these lines. This isn’t the way we usually talk. But these three requests of David lie at the foundation of every victorious Christian life.

create in me a pure heart (v10)

David asked God in verse 10 to “create in me a pure heart”. What he was asking for was more than having his heart washed from sin – He already asked for this in verses 2 and 7. Now David is going deeper – He desires God to start all over, to create a brand-new heart that is pure to the core. David admits that without God he is all twisted inside. David wants to see everything in his world with pure eyes, to hear with holy ears, and to act with Godly initiative.

David’s words go far beyond our common language of “vow religion” so prominent today: “O God, I promise to do better in the future. I won’t do this ever again.” Some people promise the same things over and over again only to break them broken over and over again. And then the guilt sets in, “I’m sorry Lord, I’ll try harder next time.” David had no trust in his ability to turn a new leaf. Instead, he called out to God to create something entirely new within him. The word create here is the same one used in Genesis 1:1, when God created the heavens and the earth. It means a divine act of bringing something wonderful out of nothing. The work is all of God.

Receiving a pure heart from God is better than getting healed of cancer. It is better than becoming rich overnight. It is better than a new car, a new house, or a new oven. Receiving a pure heart is to be like God at the core of your being.

renew a steadfast spirit within me (v. 10)

The second thing David cried out for is God’s steadiness in his everyday spiritual living. Many of us have heard the phrase, “rollercoaster Christianity” – it describes the up and down spiritual walk that many Christians have…reading the Scripture every day for a week and then hardly glancing at it the next.

The Hebrew word for steadfast means to be firm, strong, erect, immovable. What David is asking God for is a work of grace within him that will keep him from the kind of rise-and-fall, mountain-and-valley pattern that characterizes far too many of lives. David wants to resist temptation not just one day, but every day. He knows he cannot do that himself-but with God, all things are possible.

David doesn’t want to be like Jell-O; he asks to be a rock. He knows that he has been cleansed and forgiven, but he recognizes his need for something else: a steadfast spirit.

What is your desire? There are a lot of changing situations that face us in our lives but it is the steadfast spirit of God that can help us weather through each one.

I believe that one of the reasons why David prayed for a steadfast spirit was because he knew that the process of God creating a pure heart in him would be a painful. David wanted that steadfast spirit to help him to stick it through the painful times and let God finish the creating process.

Some of you might remember comedian Yakov Smirnoff. When he first came to the United States from Russia he was not prepared for the incredible variety of instant products available in American grocery stores. He says, “On my first shopping trip, I saw powdered milk – you just add water, and you get milk. Then I saw powdered orange juice – you just add water, and you get orange juice. And then I saw baby powder, and I thought to my self, ‘What a country!’” (James Emery White, Rethinking the Church, Baker, 1997, p. 55-57)

Smirnoff is joking but we make these assumptions about heart transformation – that people change instantly at the moment the pray, “Create in me a pure Heart”! God will create in you a pure heart but first He has to get rid of the old one and deal with any scars and roots it has left in your life!! That is why we too like David should pray, “renew a steadfast spirit within me” so that we can stick it out during the creating period.

grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me

A third thing that David knows he cannot manufacture on his own is “a willing spirit” (Psalm 51:12). David admits that this is something God must grant to him. Beyond being steadfast, David wants to be willing to do whatever God asks. David wanted to have the kind of spirit that would bend to God’s finger pointing into his life and saying, “That’s not good for you,” or “I want you to do this, or go there” David wanted a spirit that doesn’t fight against God’s will but instead molds to God’s will. David realized that you can’t go and fight against God in your spirit and find solutions to your problems! God works His miracles through those who have willing spirits!

David also realized that only God’s power can make him willing to walk in obedience. In Philippians 2:12-13 Paul urges us to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” God is in the “willing business”!

Jim Cymbala said in his book, Fresh Faith:

David recognized that his heart can betray him. His will can consent to the appeals of the world and the flesh, so he cries out for God to give him a willing spirit. This again flies in the face of much of today’s Christianity, which bites its lip and tries harder to do what only the spirit of God can accomplish. In fact, God has to make us willing. Salvation is of the Lord – from beginning to end. The sooner we learn that we can stop our futile self-effort and throw ourselves on the strong arms of God, the better off we will be. (p.169)

Jesus himself said, “My food…is to do the will of him who sent me…I seek not to please myself but him who sent me” (John 4:34,5:30)

It was a joy for Jesus to obey his Father, not a burden. When we ask God daily to cleanse us, to hold us, to lift us up and give us a willing spirit – when we ask God daily to create in us a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit then we will actually find ourselves longing to do the will of the Father and drawing ever closer to the model that Jesus laid before us.

The Holy Spirit wants to impart this willing spirit to us, so that Christianity is not drudgery or burdensome, but instead a life of loving the good and hating the evil.

CONCLUSION

“Create in me a clean heart; Renew a steadfast spirit within me; grant me a willing spirit” was the cry of David. David realized that the solution to his problems lay in the work the God does INSIDE him.

You see, when God creates in you a new heart – as He instills in you a steadfast spirit, and as He grants you a willing spirit to do what He wants you to do, you’ll find that no matter what you face in your life God has changed your perspective on that problem and in fact begins to work a solution to that problem through YOU! God begins this change inside of us, he begins that change with our soiled hearts – soiled with sin.

God’s grace goes further and deeper than we can ever imagine. David’s life is a reminder that God alone can give us what we really need: a pure heart, a steadfast and willing spirit. No matter how deep and dark the secret, no matter how many times a certain sin has defeated you, God can bring change to your life. But it must be his Holy Spirit working from within and not your weak attempts to “do better the next time.” All God asks of you is to bring the whole, sorry mess to him so he can begin the spiritual transformation you need.

Jim Cymbala, Fresh Faith,

Don’t attempt to be strong in yourself, for that is the very opposite of what is needed. God is always drawn to weakness. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise’ (Psalm 51:17). That verse is from the same psalm with which David made his cries out to God, and if you will join David in his prayer, you will find that God’s deeper work will become real in you. (p.177)

Tags: character, faith, focus, God, growth, heart, life, steadfast, worship
Posted in Podcast, Sermons, Sunday Morning Service | 2 Comments »

The Prize of Worship

Sunday, October 28th, 2007

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This entry is part 3 of 3 in the series The Heart of Worship

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INTRODUCTION

Today is the last message in the series on “The Heart of Worship”. Before we begin this morning I’d just like to take a few moments to summarize what I spoke about in the last two messages in this series.Remember that the heart of Worship – the essence of worship is found in the midst of people who are hungry/thirsty for more of God. True worship flows out of a deep, wrenching hunger and thirst desire to know God and not only to know Him but to dwell in His presence. It goes beyond the ritual or traditional worship into true God-inspired worship.

The first message of the series was the presence of worship. From the words of Jesus in John 4:23-24 and through the illustration of these words in Luke 7:36-50 we learned that true worship is not determined by place or posture but by the attitude of our hearts and the longing of our spirits after the heart of God.

True worship is birthed from a heart that has reverence for who God is, that is humble and repentant, and that has a penetrating love for God. True worship is not only birthed from these attitudes of our heart but also from the longing of our spirit after God’s heart – when we seek the giver not the gifts and are concerned more with ministry to God rather than ministry FROM God.

Last week, in the second message, I talked about the price of worship. Through the account of the Israelites at Mount Sinai in Exodus 19:1-20:21 we learned that there is a big difference between worship and true WORSHIP! The Israelites didn’t enter into a place of intimate worship with God because they were afraid to pay the price and sent Moses in instead. Paul wrote in Romans 12:1 that our spiritual act of worship is to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.

True worship is birthed by the attitude of our hearts and by the longing of our spirits after the heart of God but as the Israelites understood there is a price to remaining in this intimate place with God. The price of worship is ourselves! God wants us! In the process of bringing ourselves to God as living sacrifices in true worship there are some uncomfortable places that we’ll find ourselves: The place of repentance; the place of sacrifice; and the place of brokeness. As we begin to enter into true worship we’ll be confronted with the price that has to be paid and then we’ll have to ask ourselves – do we want to stay back and watch or do we want to enter into the intimate presence of God – knowing that it will cost us ourselves!

But after all this has been said, after we’ve learned about the presence of worship and the price of worship today it’s time to talk about the wonderful, blessed, glorious prize that is experienced by true worshippers in the midst of true worship.

PRAY.

The Call to Worship had just been pronounced starting Easter Sunday Morning service in an East Texas church. The choir started its processional, singing “Up from the Grave He Arose” as they marched in perfect step down the center aisle to the front of the church. The last lady was wearing shoes with very slender heels. Without a thought for her fancy heels, she marched toward the grating that covered that hot air register in the middle of the aisle. Suddenly the heel of one shoe sank into the hole in the register grate. In a flash she realized her predicament. Not wishing to hold up the whole processional, without missing a step, she slipped her foot out of her shoe and continued marching down the aisle. There wasn’t a hitch. The processional moved with clock-like precision. The first man after her spotted the situation and without losing a step, reached down and pulled up her shoe, but the entire grate came with it! Surprised, but still singing, the man kept on going down the aisle, holding in his hand the grate with the shoe attached. Everything still moved like clockwork. Still in tune and still in step, the next man in line stepped into the open register and disappeared from sight. The service took on a special meaning that Sunday, for just as the choir ended with “Allelujah! Christ arose!” a voice was heard under the church shouting…”I hope all of you are out of the way ‘cause I’m coming out now!” The little girl closest to the aisle shouted, “Come on, Jesus! We’ll stay out of the way.” (Autoillustrator.com, “WORSHIP”)

In another instance, after attending church with his father one Sunday morning, before getting into bed that evening a little boy kneeled at his bedside and prayed, “Dear God, we had a good time at church today, but I wish you had been there.” (Autoillustrator.com, “Worship”)

There are many people that miss out on the prize of true worship because they aren’t willing to “get out of the way” and let God do what He wants to do!! God has a great desire to enter into our services and manifest Himself to us but He won’t do it if we’re in the way. Sometimes we can be so organized, so proper, so “perfectly in time” with our worship that we resist any intrusion into the traditional order of our worship and thus place ourselves at a distance from what God wants to do.

When people worship God in Spirit and in Truth (discover the presence of worship, and embrace the price of worship) they will soon encounter the wonderful prize of worship: which is the manifested glory of God!

When you find yourself face to face with God’s glory you find yourself in a place that you don’t want to leave. Why? Because it is in this place that your very being finds completeness!

8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
James 4:8-10 (NIV)

What a wonderful promise! “Come near to God and He will come near to you!” It is echoed in the Psalms by King David and later by Isaiah.

The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
Psalms 145:18 (NIV)

Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
Isaiah 55:6 (NIV)

However notice that this promise is followed James 4 by the commands:

Wash your hands, you sinners – True worship (coming near to God) brings you to a place of repentance.

Purify you hearts, you double-minded – True worship (coming near to God) brings you a place of sacrifice. God becomes your only desire – not one among many.

Grieve, mourn and wail….Humble yourself before the Lord – True worship (coming near to God brings you to a place of brokenness.

Yes, coming near to God can be a painful process. But the end result is that God draws near to us! And as James ended this particular passage – He WILL LIFT YOU UP! What does this mean? I believe that this phrase accurately describes two things that happen when you have a God-encounter as a result of true worship:

RENEWAL

The first aspect of this phrase, “lift you up” that I’d like to focus on is the idea that when God draws near to us is that there is a spiritual, physical and emotional renewal that takes place. He “lifts us up” spiritually, physically, and emotionally.

15 For this is what the high and lofty One says– he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. 16 I will not accuse forever, nor will I always be angry, for then the spirit of man would grow faint before me– the breath of man that I have created. 17 I was enraged by his sinful greed; I punished him, and hid my face in anger, yet he kept on in his willful ways. 18 I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will guide him and restore comfort to him, 19 creating praise on the lips of the mourners in Israel. Peace, peace, to those far and near,” says the LORD. “And I will heal them.”
Isaiah 57:15-19 (NIV)

ILLUSTRATION
There is a great lesson to be learned from the dictionary. When things start going bad, we often fear they will only get worse. It seems the “worse” will take us to the “worst”. To prevent the “worse” from turning in to the “worst” look at the unique set up God has provided in the English language. Any standard dictionary will separate the words “worse” (and it’s derivatives) and “worst” with one special word – “worship.” When circumstances seem to be slipping in the wrong direction, remember that worship is the buffer between “worse” and “worst”. (Websters Dictionary)

When God draws near to us in response of our drawing near to Him we move from…

a place of repentance into a place of righteousness…

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9 (NIV).

There is a need for us to confess our sins before God in that place of repentance but the scriptures promise that, uncomfortable as it is we will come to a place of righteousness as God purifies us from all unrighteousness. A good example of this worship is found in Luke 18:9-14.

9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men–robbers, evildoers, adulterers–or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ 14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Luke 18:9-14 (NIV)

What is righteousness? Righteousness quite simply, is “rightness” it is the quality or condition of someone who is free from sin and is “RIGHT” before God. It is righteousness that allows one to stand in the presence of God. God will not draw near to unrighteous people because His glory will destroy them. God is a Holy and Righteous God and just as light dispels darkness – His holiness and righteousness will destroy unrighteousness. (When the High Priest went in to make the sin offering on the Day of Atonement he would have fellow priests tie a cord around his ankles in case he died so that they could pull him out. They would know he was dead if they stopped hearing the tiny bells ringing on the tassels by his feet as he went around doing his duties).

Sinful flesh dies in the presence of God and it was necessary that the High Priest make sure He was sprinkled with the blood from the sin offering and made sure that the Holy of Holies was smoky with the Holy Incense so as to veil His flesh from God.

When we go through the place of repentance in worship we are really acknowledging our unrighteousness or “not rightness” that keeps us from seeing God’s glory. But praise God righteousness has been made possible because of the one and only sacrifice paid by Jesus Christ. And this righteousness is gained by faith in Him.

21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans 3:21-24 (NIV)

It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God–that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
1 Corinthians 1:30 (NIV)

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV)

Now, because we are righteous before God, He is free to reveal Himself to us! There is something tremendously wonderful about knowing you are right in God’s eyes! And the truth of the matter is He wants everyone to be righteous.

I want to make one thing clear, true worship is not what makes us righteous but it is the vehicle by which worshippers can truly become aware of their righteousness before God – not on their own merits but by Jesus Christ. In the midst of this worship experience you are able to identify better with what Paul wrote to the Romans.

Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
Romans 6:13 (NIV)

a place of sacrifice to a place of blessing
As I said in the second message, true worship will bring you to a place of sacrifice – but the sacrifice you bring to God will soon be forgotten as you begin to experience the blessings that God brings. But the ultimate blessing the most wonderful experience is just being in the awesome presence of God and having an intimate relationship with Him.

In the midst of this glorious worship experience we’ll start to see wonderful things happen that will blow away our concept of “church” and life as a Christian.

In the last message I used Romans 12:1, I’d like to repeat it here and then add the next verse,

1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)

Friends, in the place of true worship there is a transformation that happens! One of the greatest blessings we can know is when God renews our minds from an unrighteous way of thinking (the pattern of this world) into a righteous way of thinking (God’s way of thinking). Paul wrote, “Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will”. How many of you would like to know what God’s will is? True worship brings us to this wonderful, blessed place of knowing what His will is because of the prize of having God manifesting Himself in our midst and transforming us!!

a place of brokenness to a place of healing
One of the most wonderful of all the transformations that takes place when God manifests himself in the midst of true worshippers is the healing of one who has entered the place of brokenness. God takes the broken and contrite heart and touches it with His healing love. In the midst of their brokenness they feel a wonderful peacefulness and joy that is matched by nothing else on this planet – Has anyone here ever felt this before? You know what I’m speaking about then. This healing that is found in the presence of God is greater than any physician, psychiatrist, chiropractor, dentist, masseuse, or surgeon can give you! It is more powerful, more potent than that received from any painkiller, any prescription, and cold medicine, any head pills, any heart medication. It is greater than the thrill received from any drug or drink. Truly it is a taste of heaven. And truly we can experience a little bit of heaven on earth when we worship God in spirit and in truth.

These three things combined – moving from the place of repentance to righteousness / sacrifice to blessing / brokenness to healing – as a result of God manifesting himself to worshippers works a tremendous renewal in the life of the worshipper spiritually, physically and emotionally. You WILL be changed, and you WILL want more of God, and you WON’T want to leave!!

RADIOACTIVE

The second aspect of the phrase “lift you up” from James 4:10 might at first raise a few eyebrows. It is described best by the word, radioactive. That is, not only does God renew you spiritually, physically, and emotionally, but He also begins to use you to bring revival in the hearts of others. He makes you radioactive spiritually.

There is something remarkable that happens to those who are exposed to the glory of God:

29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD. 30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. 32 Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the LORD had given him on Mount Sinai. 33 When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. 34 But whenever he entered the LORD’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35 they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.
Exodus 34:29-35 (NIV)

When Moses returned from the presence of God’s glory on Mount Sinai he had been there so long that He reflected the radiance of God’s glory on his face when He returned to the Israelites. You can bet that they knew that something was different about Moses! In fact when they saw Him they were afraid to go near Him. Here was the man they had sent into the thunder and lightning to pass on God’s messages to them and now they were afraid just because they saw He was changed? No, they were afraid because they saw the presence of God’s glory manifested in the face of Moses!!

This happened in the life of the apostles as well because they spent time in the presence of God’s glory.

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
Acts 4:13 (NIV)

15 As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. 16 Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed.
Acts 5:15-16 (NIV)

True worshippers become radioactive as they spend time in God’s presence.

9 If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! 10 For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. 11 And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts! 12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. 14 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. 15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:9-18 (NIV)

The true purpose of God’s presence manifesting in our lives is evangelism. The more that true worshippers hunger and thirst after God and linger in His presence – the more He begins to reflect Himself in their lives.

Have you ever asked yourself as a Christian, “Why can’t I win my friends to the Lord? Why is it that my family members just don’t seem interested in God?” The reason people who know you aren’t interested in your God may be because you are more worried about convincing them of God’s presence that you are with dwelling in God’s presence and letting Him convince them. Without the presence of God you are just another somebody to those around you!

But the true worshipper…when people are around them they know that there is something different about them. I remember when my wife worked at Bi-iway that she would sometimes come home and tell me of how she was amazed at the number of people that would come to her and start sharing their problems (sometimes their life stories) with her. The reason people did this is because Kerryanne was radioactive spiritually! God’s glory was being reflected in her life and people recognized there was something different.

Tommy Tenney made this statement in his book, The God Chasers,

“I don’t know about you, but I am tired of just being ‘another somebody’ to the lost around me. I have made a decision. I made up my mind and set my heart to declare, ‘I am going to pursue the presence of God in my life. I am going to get so close to God that when I walk into secular and public places, people will meet Him.’ They may not know that I’m there, but they will definitely know that He is there. I want to be so saturated with God’s presence that when I take a seat on a plane, then everyone near me will suddenly feel uncomfortable if they’re not right with God – even though I haven’t said a word.” (The God Chasers, by Tommy Tenney, p. 113-114)

What about you?

CONCLUSION

The prize of worship is the presence of God manifested in our lives and through our lives. In the story that was read this morning, once again we have a woman who was a true worshipper. The same woman who anointed Jesus feet, and anointed his head was once again on her way to anoint Jesus body in his death in worship. Yet when she arrived at the tomb she found her Lord and Savior gone and began to weep. On his way to the true mercy seat to sprinkle His blood as an offering for the sins of the world, Jesus heard the cry of a true worshipper and it arrested Him – Jesus returned to Mary to receive her worship. There is a tremendous pull on the heart of God that is exerted by the broken and contrite heart of a true worshipper. God will manifest Himself where people are longing after Him.

Do you understand the heart of worship?

Lowell Ogden tells the story of a little boy who lived out in the country around the turn of the century. He had never seen a traveling circus, and one was coming to his town on Saturday. When he asked his father for permission to go, his dad said he could providing his chores were done early. Saturday morning came. Chores finished, the little boy asked his father for some money to go to the circus. His dad reached down in his overalls and pulled out a dollar bill, the most money the boy had ever seen at one time. Off the little wide-eyed fellow went. As he approached the town, he saw people lining the streets. Peering through the line at one point, he got his first glimpse of the parade. There were animals in cages and marching bands. Finally, a clown was seen bringing up the rear of the parade. The little boy was so excited that when the clown passed, he reached in his pocket and handed him the precious dollar bill. Thinking he had seen the circus when he had only seen the parade, the little boy turned around and went home. Isn’t it sad that some people come to church like this little boy who went to the circus? They may come with the intent to worship God, but all they see is the parade – the parade of liturgy, hymn singings, prayers, and preaching. They peer through their pews at all the activity and then turn to go home at 12:00 noon; thinking they have been to God’s house, but yet they missed the main event – a personal encounter with Jesus Christ! (Autoillustrator.com, “WORSHIP”)

It’s time for us to get back to the heart of worship!

Tags: cost, heart-of-worship, presence-of-God, prize-of-worship, radioactive, renewal, worship
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Posts Tagged ‘worship’

The Presence of Worship

INTRODUCTION

WORSHIP IS ABOUT PRESENCE

The presence of worship is BIRTHED from the RECOGNITION OF who JESUS is (who the Father is, who the Holy Spirit is).

The presence of worship COMPELS us to GIVE SOMETHING of OURSELVES

The Presence of true worship brings a TRANSFORMATION

CONCLUSION

Cultivating Holy Desperation

INTRODUCTION

1. Pray

2. Practice “Giving Up”

3. Spend time with desperate people.

4. Recognize and allow difficulty to notch up your desperation for Him.

5. Fresh, Pervasive Worship.

CONCLUSION

Jailhouse Praise

THE POWER OF…

I. Praising the Lord brings reality into focus

THE POWER OF…

II. Praising the Lord brings freedom from bondage (vv. 26)

THE POWER OF…

III. Praising GOD is a vehicle of salvation to the lost

CONCLUSION

Gods Deeper Work

INTRODUCTION

create in me a pure heart (v10)

renew a steadfast spirit within me (v. 10)

grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me

CONCLUSION

The Prize of Worship

INTRODUCTION

RENEWAL

RADIOACTIVE

CONCLUSION

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