JEREMIAH 29:11 –
‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord. ‘Plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you a hope and a future.’
What good news it is to know for sure that someone is in charge of this mess and that someone wants good things for us!
Today, I want to use God’s own words to show you what He has planned for you.
1. GOD’S PLAN IS FOR YOU TO WORSHIP HIM
What is worship? Worship is a very focused attention from us, acknowledging and accepting the fact that there is but one God, and that He loves us and that we love Him.
In EXODUS 20:1-6 it reads,
’I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above, or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
‘You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.’
God is the only true God. When we choose to not allow Him a place in our lives, it becomes the same thing as hating Him. Some don’t think that is what they do, but we either love Him by keeping His commandments, or we hate Him by keeping Him out of our lives.
MARK 12:28-34 tell us,
’One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this:’
‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these."
"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.’ When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.’
We were created to worship. Worshiping God with our heart, mind, body, and spirit is in our DNA. God imprinted that need upon our hearts even before He formed us in the womb.
We will always find ourselves worshiping someone or something in our lives. If we are not worshiping our status in life, we are worshiping our income, or some TV personality or sports figure. And if that were not bad enough, if we aren’t worshiping one of them, we’re probably worshiping ourselves.
We even worship ourselves in the titles to our songs. Listen to the titles of these country songs.
* If You Can’t Live Without Me, Why Aren’t You Dead Yet?
* You’re the Reason Our Kids are Ugly
* I Wouldn’t Take Her to a Dogfight; Even Though She Would Win
* 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
Now, these titles are not real. But if you look at these titles, you will see an unhealthy focus on “us” and “our” feelings. This is what we do in most areas of our lives; we always seem to concentrate on the big “US” and never give a thought to the much bigger GOD! This is the same as telling God you do not want Him in your life because you think we you more important that He is.
And whenever we set anything in our lives as a higher priority than God, that thing becomes our idol. And, for every action, there is a reaction. When we worship anything there is always a response. Worship God and you will experience life. Worship idols (including yourself) and you will experience death.
We were made to worship our Lord in everything we do, and when we choose to do so, we become blessed with His mighty love.
In ISAIAH 56:4-5, it talks about those who keep God’s commandments.
’… those who choose to do what pleases Me and commit their lives to Me. I will give them - in My house, within My walls, a memorial, and a name far greater than the honor they would have received by having sons and daughters. For the name I give them is an everlasting one. It will never disappear.’
Let me ask you a question: Do you think you really matter to God? And if you do, on what level do you think you matter to Him?
This verse in ISAIAH shows that we matter very much. We matter so much to God that He will give us a special name; and that name will actually be a memorial in Heaven, and that name will carry a high honor.
In REVELATION 15:2-4, it tells of what John saw in his vision of Heaven.
’I saw before me what seemed to be a crystal sea mixed with fire. And on it stood all the people who had been victorious over the beast and his statue and the number representing his name.’
’They were all holding harps that God had given them. And they were singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.’
’Great and marvelous are Your actions, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are Your ways, O King of the nations. Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. All nations come and worship before you, for Your righteous deeds have been revealed.’
John saw those who had trusted Jesus as their Savior, and they were all holding harps, which God had presented to them. And all were worshiping God through song. That, too, shows that we matter to God, and that we were made to worship Him.
Now that we know we were made to worship our God, we need to find out just what worship is in the eyes of God.
2. WORSHIP IS SHOWING GOD WE LOVE HIM
Think of worship as communications. When we worship, we are communicating to God the love we have for Him. And we can communicate in many ways. In REVELATION, we saw the victorious worshiping the Lord through song.
Did you know we worship God every time we go to Him in prayer? Why would prayer be classified as worship? Prayer is worship because it shows our total dependence on God for the things we need and want in this life.
In fact, we worship God in the very way we live our lives. Our lifestyles indicate where God is in our lives. So, in everything we do, we demonstrate our feelings for God.
There are three truths to our lives;
* God loves us
* God wants us to love Him
* and God wants us to love others.
In MARK 12:30-31, we see how important these truths are.
’And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. The second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.’
This means we are to have the intent to love God. That is something we do "on purpose". We choose to love Him. It starts with an actual thought out process and we come to a conclusion that God is so holy that we must honor Him in all we do. That results in a statement of determination to give our absolute love to Him, just to show Him that we honor Him.
As humans, we share at least one very strong trait. When we see something (or somebody) that we really like, we “feel” something, don’t we? I don’t care if it is a big piece of chocolate cake or that special someone; when we are in the presence of that thing or person, we actually ’feel’ different; more alive, excited, and even elated.
Those feelings are called emotions. That’s right – emotions. See, it is okay to feel emotional. And, it is also just as okay to feel emotions toward God. In fact, we should feel more emotions toward God than we do anything or anyone else in our lives. And if we feel that much emotion toward Him, should we not also be able to feel free to express those emotions at times?
Yet, too many of us would think it absolutely outlandish to raise our hands in holy praise, even though Paul tells Timothy that men everywhere should raise holy hands in prayer.
What would you do if somebody sitting next to you this morning would begin to cry – just because they felt the Holy Spirit stir in their heart? Would you feel uncomfortable or would you feel joy that the Holy Spirit were in this room?
If someone came up during the sermon and knelt down on their knees and quietly prayed at this prayer altar, would you feel uncomfortable, or would you feel like coming up here and putting your hand on their shoulder and praying with them?
Too many of us refuse to feel or show God the emotions He gave us to help us worship Him.
There is a story of a church that was right across the street from a college. This college was one of those liberal colleges and the students dressed with their jeans down around the back of their knees and holes in them to boot. Boy! They were really fashionable.
The church was an old church that was quite conservative in all they did. They still believed in dressing up like ‘downtown’ for every service, and all the music they had was from the old pipe organ.
Well, for one college student, the feeling of the Lord had been stirring in his heart for quite some time, so one Sunday morning, he went across the street to attend the church. He wore sandals and had his favorite jeans on that were faded and had holes in the knees. His hair was long and uncombed and his shirt was open and untucked.
He came in late and there was absolutely no place to sit. He quietly walked up the aisle, looking for a place but found none, so when he got to the front, he did what any college student would do; he sat down on the floor.
Why, everyone almost had a heart attack! How dare this impudent young man show such disdain for the Lord’s house? Even the pastor scowled, but one elder decided it was up to him to handle this, so in his black suit, he walked slowly using his cane to walk towards the boy.
You could hear the gentle tap of the cane with each step as the elder walked down the long aisle to the boy. Everyone was wondering just how the old man was going to throw this kid out. When the elder finally reached the boy, with great pain, he laid down his cane and sat down on the floor next to the boy.
Why did he do that? The elder knew that worship was where the heart is, not where you happen to be sitting.
See, church is not a place where we should look down long elite noses at others for any reason. Church is a place where we look up to God and learn what we can do for Him. Church is a place where we can look at the person next to us as they become emotional and put our arms of love around their shoulder to support them and comfort them.
Church is a place where everyone is welcomed to come and worship the Lord our God. Church is where we purposely intend on letting God love us as we love Him and then love others in His name.
And church is a place where we should feel very free to show just how much we love God through our emotions. Church is not a place where we should feel free to sit rigid and unmoved by the Holy Spirit.
If I had a choice to have this church half filled with people like that college student, or totally filled with people like those who were appalled by his ‘unchurch-like behavior’, I would take the college students any day of the week; for they would be here for no other reason than to seek our Lord in their lives.
I am trying to show you that it is not only ‘okay’ to demonstrate your emotions towards God, but it is an absolute necessity to show those emotions. But, that being said, let me say that we are to show those emotions in such a way as to never take the focus off Jesus and put it on ourselves.
For example, I have seen a pastor step on one pew and jump from one to the other just to show how God has healed his arthritis, all the while yelling at the top of his voice “God is good!”
I believe that, even though this was probably meant to show how great God is, it deflected all the focus from Jesus on to the preacher, and in my opinion, it was wrong.
In the New Century Version, ROMANS 12:1 states -
‘So brothers and sisters, since God has shown us great mercy, I beg you to offer your lives as a living sacrifice to Him. Your offering must be only for God and pleasing to Him, which is the spiritual way for you to worship.’
Have you ever wondered just why it is we need to demonstrate our worship to God?
The answer is found in NUMBERS 6:24-26 -
‘May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you His favor and give you His peace.’
We worship God to let Him know how much we love and need Him. When we do this, He will bestow His many graces and mercies upon us for being His loving children.
3. WAYS WE CAN DEMONSTRATE OUR LOVE
We must always be sure to make our worship genuine and authentic. We can never be satisfied to offer up empty words to our Lord.
ISAIAH 29:13 warns us,
‘The Lord says: “these people say they love me; they show honor to me with words, but their hearts are far from me. The honor they show is nothing but human rules.’
I say this is a warning because this comes very close to how many Christians worship God in America today. We worship by uttering the words, but we have no heart, no emotions, and no feelings to back those words up. You can hear our words, but too often, you cannot see the evidence of those words.
JOHN 10:1 shows us that we cannot enter into Heaven without worshiping the Lord.
‘Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, the person who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in some other way is a thief and a robber.’
The door is Jesus. He is talking about your heart. He is telling us that we must worship God with our actions, not just with our words. If we say all the right words, but fail to have the heart full of Christian fruits, we are considered by Him to be robbers and thieves. Now, don’t get upset at me for saying this, because I am only repeating what Jesus said. If that upsets you, please go to Jesus, okay?
Let me ask you a question. Could you ever see yourself getting down on your knees and bowing to the floor – just to worship God? It is my belief that too many Christians would never consider doing that, because it would be viewed as undignified, or unnecessary in their eyes.
They feel that they can worship just fine by thinking the thoughts of worship while remaining very dignified and very still. These people are Christians, but they are also referred to as ‘the frozen chosen.’
EXODUS 34:8 says,
‘Then Moses quickly bowed to the ground and worshiped.’
Why would Moses do that? He was praying for the Israelites. In verse 9 he continues,
‘He said, Lord, if you are pleased with me, please go with us. I know that these are stubborn people, but forgive our evil and our sin. Take us as your own people.’
The Israelites were much like today’s American Christians. We tend to take it for granted that we are Christians. We are stubborn and self-centered, claiming a type of godliness while holding on with dear life to the things we desire in this world. We must start realizing that we are not safe unless we are saved, and we are not saved unless our hearts are on God and not on this world.
When we put anything between God and us that becomes our idol; even if the thing we put between us is ourselves. To properly worship God, we need to cast down our idols. And to some of us, that might mean casting down our self-image or our need to be in control.
To others, that might mean reaching out to others with love in your voices rather than not showing any love in your voices. To some, it might mean that you get down to brass tacks with the Lord and really start seeking His face so that you can have the Christian fruits we are supposed to have.
In COLOSSIANS 3:5-6, it talks about the things we need to throw away.
‘So put all evil things out of your life; sexual sinning, doing evil, letting evil thoughts control you, wanting things that are evil, and greed. This is really serving a false god. These things make God angry.’
In COLOSSIANS 3:12-17, it tells us how Christians are supposed to be living.
‘God has chosen you and made you His holy people. He loves you. So always do these things: Show mercy to others, be kind, humble, gentle and patient. Get along with each other, and forgive each other. If someone does wrong to you, forgive that person because the Lord forgave you.
‘Do all these things, but most important, love each other. Love is what holds you all together in perfect unity. Let the peace that Christ gives, control your thinking, because you were all called together in one body to have peace. Always be thankful.
‘Let the teaching of Christ live in you richly. Use all wisdom to teach and instruct each other by singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Everything you do or say should be done to obey Jesus your Lord. And in all you do, give thanks to God the Father through Jesus.’
But before we can do all these things, we must make a personal decision. And with that decision comes a commitment. I wonder how many people in church today have ever made a conscious and binding commitment to follow the Lord, no matter what the cost.
Maybe too many of us would be like Peter who, when faced with persecution, denied Christ three times early in the morning so long ago.
In 2 CHRONICLES 20, we read about how King Jehoshaphat was preparing to go to war, and we see where the king bowed face down to the ground as he went before the Lord in worship.
Is that something we would be willing to do today, or do we consider that “Old Testament stuff”?
Because he worshiped God in prayer by being humble in stature; and because he continued to worship God in song as they marched out to battle, God gave them the victory in war. I wonder if we would be just as true to the Lord in all that we do, if God would not also give us the victory in the battles that many of us face today.
But, if we are going to worship the Lord, there is something we must be aware of.
4. WE MUST HAVE A WILLINGNESS TO FORGIVE
Forgiveness is not just asking God to forgive you of your sins. There is another side to forgiveness, and that side is a very important side that most of us tend to ignore, because it is very hard to do. It is forgiving others who have sinned against us.
In 1 SAMUEL 15, it tells how King Saul told Samuel that he had sinned by not obeying the Lord’s commands. He said he was afraid of what the people would do to him. And he begged Samuel to forgive him.
We are to seek forgiveness from the Lord. We are also supposed to seek forgiveness from those around us whom we have wrong. But we need to know that our sin has consequences, even though God will forgive the repentant heart.
In King Saul’s case, Samuel told him that the Lord had rejected him as king. When we do something that hurts someone else, or when we do something that hurts God, we will suffer some kind of consequence. It may be flat out punishment, or it might be the punishment of knowing we have hurt our Father.
In MATTHEW 6, we find the prayer Jesus modeled for us. In that prayer, Jesus tells us to ask God for forgiveness, but notice what else he says in conjunction with that.
In MATTHEW 6:12-14, Jesus says,
‘Forgive us for our sins, just as we have forgiven those who sinned against us. And do not cause us to be tempted, but save us from the Evil One.’ Then Jesus goes on to say, ‘Yes, if you forgive others for their sins, our Father in Heaven will also forgive you of your sins. But if you don’t forgive others, your Father in heaven will not forgive your sins.’
We have been talking about worshiping the Lord in all we do. Sometimes, we think that worship only means singing in church, or listening to the sermon in church, but it means so much more. We worship the Lord even in our prayers. We worship Him by forgiving others for the wrongs they have done to us. But we also worship Him by gathering together in His wonderful and glorious name.
In DEUTERONOMY 12:1, we are told that God had given His commands to the Israelites in the land He was giving them, and instructed them to keep those laws. He gave them the land so they could all assemble together in one place.
In PSALM 132:7, we are told,
‘Let’s go to the Lord’s house. Let’s worship at His footstool.’
In HEBREWS 10:25, it tells us not to forsake the gathering together as some are in the habit of doing. Time after time, God is telling us to assemble together and be diligent about it. He knows that when we are separated from the whole body of Christ, or when we are alone, we too often forget the need to worship Him.
How many people in today’s churches let things come up that keep them from going to church? Now, I understand there are things that will come up to legitimately keep you away from church, but those things are the exception, not the rule. Yet, too many people make up excuse after excuse to get out of going to God’s house. I know, because I used to be one of them!
I have seen people over the years who professed to be Christians, but would make excuses to get out of going to church for the Christmas and Easter services. The two most important days to a Christian, and they let other things become more important to them. I think it becomes necessary for some to do some self-examination to see how they really feel about the Lord.
In COLOSSIANS 3, I find two verses that tell us very clearly how we are to worship the Lord.
In verse 17, it says,
‘Everything you do or say should be done to obey Jesus, your Lord. And in all you do, give thanks to God the Father through Jesus.’
And, in verse 23, it again reminds us,
‘In all the work you are doing, work the best you can. Work as if you were doing it for the Lord, not for people.’
If God told you to go out and build a house for Him, I am sure that each one of us would eagerly do our parts in a most eager manner. Well, God has asked us to do just that. But that house is called His church. In this case, it is called CrossRoads Church. My question is whether we recognize that and, if so, have we done all we could to build this house?
I am just a man. I have no attributes that would let me properly lead you anywhere, except those found in Christ. He leads me. I try to always be a willing vessel.
He has placed me hear to do a job, and that job is to lead this church as it begins to grow stronger in Him. And that is not just my purpose; it is your purpose, too. To do everything we can to build His earthly kingdom as deep and as wide as we can. Deep in having people grow closer to Him and wide by having as many people as possible come to Him.
But to do that, we must have His Son in our hearts, because that is the only place we will find the strength to do that. So if you are here today and you have the slightest doubt as to how much of your heart you have given to Jesus, come forward now, as we sing.
INVITATION
