Worship Fully
Joseph worshipped through Obedience
Mary Worshipped through Submission
The Magi worshipped through Sacrifice
Series introduction
Slide
Good morning.
December is upon us and it is often about this time that the craziness of the holiday season begins in full.
Shopping has begun and the stress levels of what to buy for each person on our list begins to rise.
Something doesn’t seem right about that, does it?
I mean this is the time of year that we should be rejoicing and celebrating the salvation that has been provided through God sending His Son into the world, not stressing out over what to give someone.
It seems that sometimes we lose focus about what Christmas is about and instead the focus becomes the stuff that we give and get.
So this year, we are joining a conspiracy. The Advent Conspiracy.
Slide
We are joining with other churches to conspire to take back Christmas from what it has become and return it to what it was meant to be.
Here is a little promo video of what this series will be about.
Advent conspiracy promo video 2008
Slide after video
We are conspiring together to take back Christmas from what it has become to what it was designed to be, a time of celebration and worship of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Over the next 3 weeks leading up to Christmas, we are going to talk
about how to Worship the Lord Fully,
about spending less and Giving more to those around us whom the Lord has put us in relationship with, and
about how to love all as the Lord has shown us.
We are also going to be taking a special Advent Conspiracy offering. We have envelopes available for you to take make that offering or you can just write “Advent” in the memo line on the check and drop it in our regular offering.
Not looking to be another item on the list
We are not looking for this to be an added cost to you this Christmas.
Instead, we seriously want you to think about what you are spending and
perhaps buy one less gift for those you buy multiple thing for, or
spending less on everyone or
instead of buying something, make something,
and use those resources toward this special offering. This offering will be going to 2 places.
Help for those in our church and community
First, we are helping out with some of the needs of people in our own church and community.
There are those right here who have had a struggle this year with finances because of job losses and or medical situations and we are going to be helping some of those families and people in our church whom the Lord has placed here who have some needs.
Help for those internationally to have clean water
A second way we are looking to reach beyond our walls and love in a way that the Lord would have us love, is by helping those in foreign communities who do not have clean water to drink.
We will be joining with Living Water international to help dig wells in areas that need it.
Maybe you are thinking, digging wells? Really?
(Cup of clean water/cup of dirty water)
In the land of plenty that we live in, having a drink of water is not something that most of us think of as a death defying event, but in some countries, it really is.
Water borne illnesses are the leading cause of death in under resourced countries.
Each year, 1.8 million people die from water borne illnesses.
Compare 9/11
Remember the horror of 9/11 where nearly 3,000 people died in one day?
Well, 1.8 million a year is nearly 5,000 people a day.
And even more tragic is that nearly 4,000 of those are children.
Imagine something worse than 9/11 happening every single day.
It is estimated that it would take about $10 to $15 billion in the hands of Christian organizations, not governments, where corruption and theft are rampant, to end the world’s water crisis.
While $10 to $15 billion seems like a lot, when you put it in the perspective that Americans’ spent $450 billion last year during Christmas, it is not that much.
And when we are able to reach people with some of the most basic needs, we are able to share the gospel with them.
I want to show you a video clip of how Living Water International is having an effect not only in meeting basic human need of clean water, but being able to provide living water to those people as well.
Advent Conspiracy – Living Water International video – 1.5 minutes
Slide after video
Meeting basic human needs to share the Love of God.
So that is where this special offering that we are collecting will be going.
There are envelopes available in the back and in the foyer or you can write a check to Hickory and just write Advent in the memo line and make your offering any time over the next 3 weeks.
We will talk more about how we as families and individuals can achieve this next week, but I hope that this series spurs some conversations about how we celebrate Christmas.
Sermon Intro
Today we are going to begin where we should always begin if we are going to alter a direction we have been travelling. We are going to start with Worshiping Jesus.
We are going to learn how to Worship Fully.
Slide
This is essential because we need the Lord’s guidance and strength to walk against the flow of a society that wants to make Christmas about us.
And if we are going to receive that strength and wisdom to do what the Lord would have us do, we have got to draw close to Him and we do that through worshipping Him.
Worship does not equal Music
Inevitably, when most people hear the word worship, they immediately think of singing.
That is one way we express our worship, but worship is something that comes from within, in our spirit and true worship is something that is lived out moment by moment in our actions.
This morning we are going to look at several people involved at the first advent and see what their worship entailed so that we might learn how to Worship the Lord fully this Christmas.
Joseph
Turn with me to Matthew 1:18-25.
Slide
We are first going to take a look at Joseph and see how he responded to and worshiped the Lord so we might learn better how we might worship the Lord.
Matthew 1:18-25
18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"-which means, "God with us."
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
Here we see that
Joseph worshipped through Obedience
Slide
He did what the Lord commanded him to do through the angel (Matthew 1:24)
To worship the Lord fully, we need to be obedient to His commands. And sometimes those commands will be hard to follow, but God works powerfully through our obedience.
Many of us have probably heard the Christmas story so many times that it fails to have an effect upon us.
Big deal, he took Mary home as his wife.
But realize that this is no longer just some marriage in a little town in Israel.
The woman who is to be your wife is pregnant.
She is at least 3 months along and Joseph finds out shortly before their actual wedding day.
Imagine on the eve of your wedding, you find out your fiancé is 3 or 4 months pregnant and you know it is not by you. In fact she has been visiting relatives for the 3 months before and she hasn’t been around you. People are going to be able to do the math and know that the child is not yours.
Your whole world is rocked.
Your friends and family are saying dump this girl and you are with them.
Then you have a dream and in your dream an angel says it’s ok to marry her.
Imagine explaining that to your friends and family.
“I know I said I was going to dump her, but I had a dream and God says to go ahead and marry her.”
I can only imagine how Satan was working overtime on Joseph.
“Joe, really? You are going to marry this girl who is pregnant, and not by you?
You had a “dream” of an angel saying it is ok?”
Joseph believes and he obeys immediately.
That is worship.
Lord, I trust that you are in this. I have been seeking you and I believe you are behind what is happening, and even if I don’t understand, I am going to obey and do what you told me to do.
And the Heavenly Father used Joseph to be the earthly father of His only Son.
Wow.
Are you worshipping the Lord through your obedience?
Are you doing the things He has commanded you?
There are things sometimes that the Lord calls us to do that does not always make sense in the moment to us.
Missionary
Last week, Andy spoke about being open to a calling into international missions.
If the Lord is calling you to go, are you obeying?
Maybe you have been thinking about that and talking with others and there are people in your life that are opposed to you going.
“Really, you are going to take your family, your kids, and move to Africa, or South America to preach the gospel? Aren’t there others that can do that better than you?”
Some of what they are saying makes sense, but you still sense the Lord’s leading to go.
Ministry
Maybe you are sensing a call to do a particular ministry.
Perhaps there are those around you who are saying, you don’t want to do that, it is too hard, or not worth it.
I would suggest that you continue to pray about it and follow the Lord’s leading.
When I left my job to pursue ministry, I didn’t have a job, but knew in my heart that the Lord was leading that way.
Now, I would never counsel anyone to do what I did, quit your job before you have another job, but I believed that is what the Lord wanted, so I obeyed.
Do you want this Christmas to be meaningful? Do you want your life to be meaningful?
Obey the Lord in the things you don’t fully understand, but believe that He is leading you in, and I guarantee that your life will have eternal effects.
Maybe you don’t sense the Lord leading you to some major change of life.
Perhaps it is just a small directional change in how you are living.
Maybe you have been rationalizing some sin you are committing and don’t at all see how stopping is going to benefit you. While it may be difficult and even painful in the short run, I guarantee that if the Lord is convicting you of it, it is always the best thing to obey the Lord for the long term.
Do what Joseph did and worship the Lord fully by obeying His commands and leading.
Mary
Now turn with me to Luke 1:26-38
Slide
Here we read another familiar account of the first Advent of Christ and we see how Mary Worshipped the Lord
Luke 1:26-38
26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."
34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"
35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God."
38 "I am the Lord’s servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.
Here we find that
Mary Worshiped through Submission
Slide
She submitted herself to the Lord’s will.
Now some may ask, what is the difference between obedience and submission?
Aren’t they the same thing?
No. They are related, but they are different.
Obedience is an outward action
Slide
Submission is an inward attitude
Obedience is the doing of what you are told to do.
Joseph obeyed. It says he did what the angel of the Lord commanded him to do. He took Mary to be his wife. He acted on a command.
Submission is voluntarily placing someone else’s will above your own.
Let me illustrate the difference for you.
Illustration
A boy gets in trouble from his mother for doing something wrong. She tells her son to sit in the corner. After a couple of minutes of sitting there, the mother walks by and sees the son sitting there. He is upset with that he has to sit there and tells his mother, “I’m sitting down on the outside, but I’m standing up on the inside!”
This son was obedient but he wasn’t submissive.
Mary worshipped the Lord by submitting her will to the will of the Father.
She wasn’t sitting on the outside but standing on the inside.
She was submitted to the Lord’s will for her.
"I am the Lord’s servant…May it be to me as you have said."
She knew and believed that God’s will is the best and even in what could be some very bad circumstances, things that were not as she would plan them, God’s will was best and she would submit to them.
The reality is that what the Lord had told her could get her killed, but she trusted the Lord’s will above her own.
If it didn’t get her killed, it would probably ostracize her from Joseph and her family and community. She may spend her life not only without a husband, but with no friends either.
But she was a worshipper of the Lord and she worshipped him by willingly submitting her will to His.
Application
Are you worshipping the Lord by submitting to Him, not just obeying but by willingly placing the Lord’s will above your own.
So often when we hear the word submit, we have a negative view of it.
We think doormat.
We think submission is for the weak.
Submission is not about being a doormat and it is not about being weak.
Jesus was submissive to the Father and He was anything but weak or a doormat.
Being submissive takes great strength.
It took great strength for Mary to recognize what the Angel was telling her and yet still to submit to it.
To know that you are a virgin, that you have been following the Lord and now this circumstance, becoming pregnant while you are still a virgin and betrothed to be married, knowing how this is going to be so hard because others probably won’t believe your explanation.
Perhaps she is thinking, “Can I even believe what you has been said?”
“An angel visited me…I am pregnant by the Holy Spirit…The child I will bear is the Savior of the world.”
And yet, she says “May it be to me as you have said.”
Not, “No Lord, you don’t know how bad this will be. Don’t do this awful thing to me.”
She submitted and worshipped the Lord fully.
Are you submitted to the Lord’s plan for your life?
Wives
Wives are you willing to glorify the Lord by submitting to your husband? Not just obeying, but submitting what you think should happen for your husbands leading?
“Scott, you don’t know my husband.”
You’re right. But I know the Lord and I know He can work through flawed people and even poor decisions.
Submit yourselves to the Lord and worship Him.
Husbands
Husbands, are you will to submit yourself to the Lord’s will by loving your wife as Christ loved the church? Willing to lay down your desires for the benefit of your family? Willing to give your life, not just your physical life, but your living day in and day out life, for the benefit and blessing of your family like Christ did for the church?
Scott you don’t know what it is like to live with my wife.
Worship the Lord by submitting to Him and loving her anyway. Let the Lord work in this situation and draw you close and strengthen you.
If we are going to worship the Lord fully this Christmas and always, we need to submit our will to His. We need to voluntarily place his will as a priority in our lives.
We need to be like Joshua who said, “Choose this day whom you will serve (worship). As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.”
“I am the Lord’s servant…May it be to me as you have said.”
Worship the Lord fully by submitting like Mary.
I want to take a look at one more set of characters from the first advent to see how they worshipped.
The Magi
Turn with me back to Matthew 2:1-11
Slide
Here we are going to take a look at the Magi and see how they worshipped the Lord.
Matthew 2:1-2, 9-11
2:1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."
Herod freaks out, but tells them to go to Bethlehem and tells them to let him know when they find him so he can worship Him too, although he really wants to kill Jesus.
Then it goes on to say in verse 9
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.
Here we see that
The Magi worshipped through Sacrifice
Slide
The Magi sacrificed a great deal to worship the Lord.
They sacrificed in 2 specific ways.
First
They sacrificed their Time
Slide
The journey they came on to worship the Lord was long. The Text doesn’t tell us how long, but it was probably over a number of months.
They didn’t arrive to worship the Lord until Mary and Joseph were in a house, it wasn’t the night of the birth.
I don’t know about you, but traveling by camel for months is no walk in the park.
Think about traveling today.
People complain about driving to Florida, less than 24 hours to get there in a car or van with air conditioning and probably a DVD video system.
We think we are sacrificing if we don’t fly.
These guys spent weeks and months on camels just so they could come and worship in the presence of the King of kings.
These guys worshipped by sacrificing their time.
Time they could have spent being comfortable or relaxing or enjoying their wealth.
Are we worshipping the Lord by sacrificing our time?
Are you willing to sacrifice what you want to be doing
to be in the presence of the Lord?
To do what the Lord is leading you to do?
If we are going to worship fully, then we have got to worship through sacrificing our time.
But these Magi did not only sacrifice their time.
The Magi worshipped by sacrificing their treasure
Slide
Matthew 2:11b – “they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts”
They sacrificed their time and sought out the Lord, bowed down to this newborn Babe, and they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts.
There were many other things that they could have done with their treasure, but instead, they used their treasure to humbly worship the newborn King.
There is no better use for our money than for worshipping the king.
How we spend our money is worship to the Lord.
It doesn’t mean that we have got to give it all at church every week.
To worship the Lord with our treasure does mean that in all that we use our money on, we are being wise stewards.
God doesn’t need our stuff. It is all His anyways.
But we do bring Him glory as we sacrifice our stuff to give to the church and to those things he lays on our hearts.
One of the reasons we are to work is so we will have something to give to those in need. (Ephesians 4:28)
When we do that it is worship because it shows that we trust in the Lord to meet our needs and not in money or stuff.
We glorify and worship the Lord as we sacrifice to give back to Him and to those things He lays on our hearts.
Conclusion
Are you worshipping the Lord fully?
If we are going to be able to get back to the purpose of Christmas, it is going to start as we worship the Lord fully and are drawn into deeper relationship with Him.
We will never be able to truly
give from our hearts as the Lord desires without being close to the Lord.
love others as the Lord would have us, if we are not intimately connected to Him through worship.
escape the trap that is the way this world celebrates Christmas with the stress and bills and desire for it to be over, until we are fully focused on the Lord and worshipping Him fully.
Worship Him fully moment by moment by
living obediently,
submitting your will to His,
sacrificing your time and treasure
to truly and fully worship the King of kings who willingly left the glory of heaven
to be born as a babe in a manger,
to live in this cold and sinful world, and
to die a brutal and lonely death
so we might experience forgiveness and eternal life.
He is worthy of our full worship.
We need to express that worship to Him through our actions. And while singing is only a way of expressing our worship, it is a good place to begin in our actions.
So the worship team is going to come up and lead us in a song, but don’t let your worship end with the song, let it be a fresh start to living a life of worship.
Living obediently, fully submitted to the Lord and sacrificing our time and treasure for His glory.
Let’s begin again to worship Him fully as we close with a song.
