Moving Worship Series

This sermon was preached by Scotty L Killingsworth at Evergreen Church on Sunday morning November 3, 2002.

Moving Worship Psalms 23

God is on the move. He is dynamic not static.

God who is one day old and ancient of days is and will always be on the move. He never goes on vacation, sleeps or takes a day off. He is on duty 24-7.

John 5:17 Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at work to this very day, and I, too, am working.”

In Genesis 1 He moved into a void and created a universe

In Genesis 1:2 He tells us that in our immeasurably vast universe he picked out, at least, one planet and moved upon it bringing order and life where there had been chaos and emptiness.

In Genesis 1:26 He was moved to create human-beings to live on the planet to care for it.

In Genesis 3:8ff we see that God had entered into relationship with human beings.

Taking a chance to love something is risky and we walked away from the love of God for the love of self. God was moved to deepest sorrow.

God would not allow the situation to stay where it was and He moved to set into motion a plan of redemption. It would take a long time to complete, but God was moving to build a bridge to restore Him to us.

Any human who wanted to cross the bridge back to God could do so. It is a walk of faith, but it has never failed.

The bridge involved a lot of human history. God moved to establish a line of people where in he could re-enter human life. He found a man named Abraham and moved him by faith to a new place. He became connected to this family by a covenant.

The covenant family became a nation whose journey back across the bridge was filled with twists and turns. But it was working and God was moving.

The Exodus is an example of God moving his people out of a bad place and the conquest of Palestine is a grand example of God moving his people into a good place. The bridge was taking shape and men were crossing and were finding their eternal destiny on the other side.

God was still moving in history. He led the sons of Abraham through his Word and presence to establish a nation.

He gave Judges which were replaced by Kings and God moved closer

He sent prophets who began to paint a combined picture of a coming king.

We felt the hot breath of God as he drew nearer and nearer.

He was moving. He wanted a new home and was building one in the hearts of a covenant people.

Ezekiel saw God moving as a wheel within a wheel. The lesson here was that God was not just God in Palestine. He was God of Babylon too. He wanted to move his people back to their homeland. He had something he wanted to do.

Daniel saw God moving in the history of the kingdoms of earth. He moves and eventually will wear the ultimate crown and all nations will bow to him as King.

Amos saw God moving men to be aware of the social condition of men. God was not happy that the rich were oppressing the poor. God was moving in every area of life.

Isaiah gave our theology a jolt when he prophesied that the Messiah would be a suffering servant – born of a virgin – a god/man who would take away the sins of the world. He said he would be beaten and rejected by men - a man of sorrows.

The covenant people were puzzled, but that didn’t keep God from moving

He moved over a virgin and conceived a supernatural child that was born in Bethlehem

He moved from a much celebrated birth to an infamous death to seal the contract with the Father whereby our sins are marked paid in full.

He moved from death to life so that we might have the hope of resurrection.

He moved from heaven into the hearts of men to move men to God

He is moving to build a mighty church for which He will one day return and claim as His own forever.

He is moving those who have chosen Him to our eternal destiny of being captivated by his presence for ever

God is on the move. Don’t try to stop him. You will not distract him from his purposes. You will not delay him from his appointed time schedule. He is God and God is on the move.

God is here this morning. He wants to move here. He wants to move in our worship so that our worship can affect our lives which can affect the lives of others.