Isaiah 6:1-5, Ezekiel 1:22-28; Psalm 8,29,95; Titus 1:16
Introduction - Barbara McKeever, Urbana, Ohio -- Said that in the middle of a soloist's number at church, her young grandson Chandler tugged her sleeve and whispered, "She can't sing very well, can she?" She knew that the woman had a deep love for God. She told him, "She sings from her heart. That's what makes it good." He nodded like he understood. Several days later, Chandler and his gramma were driving down the road together, singing along with the car radio. Chandler stopped and said, "Nana, you sing from your heart, don't you?"
Some of you are eager to sing more this morning, whether you sing like Chandler's gramma or not! We're going to sing. Hang on.
This morning, I want to direct our thoughts to one of the most primary aspects of worship -- the object of our worship -- Who is it we worship?
Quote - C.H. Spurgeon - "I believe a very large majority of churchgoers are merely unthinking, slumbering worshipers of an unknown God."
Whew! Thanks, C.H.! Now tell me how you really feel! I don’t want to lend any reason to someone to think that we are slumbering worshipers of an unknown God! Let's look into it!
We're going to go to God's Word early this morning to make a single point: worship doesn't happen until we consider God! Worship, whether it’s private or as the Body gathered together, is the outcome of considering Who God is and what He has done. So, to illustrate that, to help us grasp it, and to apply it as we go, we're going to begin this hour pondering God and what He has done.
And then, watch -- something's going to happen.
When you consider Who God is and what He has done...
I. You Surrender Human Position
The Bible term for this is "fall on your face" It happened to people in the Bible. Each one of these 3 passages involves the same thing, there is one man (Isaiah, Ezekiel, and John), and he’s being given a vision of heaven, and we get to hear him describe it and then we get to see what he does.
(Isaiah 6:1-5) In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
(Ezekiel 1:26-28) Above the expanse over their heads was what looked like a throne of sapphire, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking.
(Revelation 1:13-17) and among the lampstands was someone "like a son of man," dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.
What I see is a pattern of people, when they come into contact with the glory of God, who find themselves falling on their faces. This isn't falling over in the pews because some slick guy on a stage blows across his microphone and says the "Spirit is moving like a mighty rushing wind!" or he hits someone with his coat. This is man's natural response when we come face to face with the holiness and splendor of God!
To this day, the Greek Orthodox church practices "falling on their faces" - that may seem odd to you, but they've gotten this right: they understand that one appropriate response to God is to fall on your face before Him! No doubt, you’ve seen at least in the news that’s an obvious part of Muslim worship. I wonder if sometimes, because we associate it with those types of groups that we shy away from it. But you know what? Jesus did it in Gethsemane. How could being bowed before the Lord be wrong?
When we begin to think about God and recognize Who He is, worship happens -- we surrender human position.
In Jonah 3, after Jonah has preached all over Nineveh that the city is going to be destroyed, the king calls for a citywide repentance. And they did. Even the animals were dressed in sackcloth and ashes! And along with everyone was the king. It didn't matter that he was the king, he put on sackcloth and sat in ashes
The Bible talks about another position:
Story - Jennifer Smith, Fort Gratiot, Michigan "Worship brings all kinds of responses, as I observed in church recently. An elderly woman was standing with eyes closed and hands raised in prayer and praise. The 3 yr old standing in the pew in front of her turned around and gave her a high five!"
Have you ever thought about what a person does when he gives up? (hands up) "I surrender." In effect, that's what we're saying to God. It's no wonder to me that raising hands to God is a natural response for some people, or that the Bible commends it to us as an act of worship. It’s just not something that we’ve adopted into our particular cultural setting very readily.
"Nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to Thy cross I cling." Lord, I surrender my will to Yours.
Ill – At the end of the movie "Volcano." A skyscraper has been demolished in front of the path of a lava flow to save Los Angeles. Ironically, in this movie, it created quite a stir of dust, exactly like that of the real life event in NY City on 9-11. And just like the real life event of the attacks in NY, this movie shows everyone wandering around covered with soot and dust. A fireman picks up a little boy, who says he's looking for his mother. "What does she look like?" He looks around. "I don't know. Everybody looks the same." The camera pans the people, and they're all gray with dust - white, black, Hispanic, Asian - it doesn't matter. Everyone who had gone through that disaster together and worked together - they all looked the same. Nice racial statement.
Have you ever thought about it? When we're bowed before the Lord, we all pretty much look the same. Human position and status is out the window, and we all look the same, when our position is bowed before the Lord.
I'll say this for monks: they understand that God is worth just thinking about; and getting to know and understand and appreciate Him is worth getting away for. There’s some value to that.
So set aside some time. Allow some moments in your week when you can focus on Who God is and surrender human position before the Father. When you consider God, you surrender human position.
When you consider Who God is and what He has done...
II. You Cast Aside Other Gods
Do you ever struggle with other things being on your mind when we're supposed to be worshiping together?
Do you ever find yourself spending your time and energies on things that have very little to do with God, and then you don't have time for Him? Let me help you with that one, in case you’re struggling with your mind being on other things: Yes, you do.
If you’re actually a normal human being who struggles with those things, I have good news: You're not the first person to get your adoration mixed up.
(Revelation 19:9-10) Then the angel said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!'" And he added, "These are the true words of God." At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, "Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."
(Revelation 22:8-9) I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. But he said to me, "Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers the prophets and of all who keep the words of this book. Worship God!"
John wasn’t alone in this… (in Lystra, after healing a cripple man)
(Acts 14:11-13) When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in human form!" Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.
Not a lot has changed. Seems like in our current culture there's a group of people ready to worship just about anyone. We've lost ourselves in the cult of personality. Instead of offering a sacrifice to actors and ball players, we make posters of them, pay millions of dollars just to see them, and name our children after them.
-(Exodus 20:2 5) "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,"
Sometimes the reason we struggle with worship and giving it the time it deserves is the number of things we allow to have our devotion in place of God. Busy people find it easier to worry than to worship. We let other gods creep in. But I want to tell you, when we focus on God, Who He is, what He's done, those other gods will be cast aside.
I challenge you: go ahead! Compare God with other things that demand your attention! Take an honest look at God – Who He is, what He has done! Don't worry, I'm confident He'll win!
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
When you focus on God - Who He is, what He's done - other gods of this life get cast aside.
III. You Respond With Praise and Obedience (the worship of your life shows it)
The only way we'll respond with proper worship to the right God is to get to know Him.
(Ex 5:2) Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go."
When people don't know God, why would they want to worship Him? Or obey Him?....
(Titus 1:16) They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him.
Why do we need to keep learning about Him? Why do we need to meet each week around the Lord's Table? It's because when I do that, I think about God, I think about the great things that He has done for me through Jesus, and it helps me to respond with praise and obedience to Him! And if you're missing that by ignoring it or just not making it happen each week, how can your worship of God, either here or privately, not suffer?
quote - Martin Luther: "People who abstain and absent themselves from the [Lord's Supper] over a long period of time are not to be considered Christians."
So that's it? The answer to human pride, to wandering, to disobedience -- to just think about God and Who He is? Ill - like Winnie the Pooh: "Think think think" and we've got it?
No, but it has to begin there. Worship begins with our personal sense of awe before God. Without it, the rest won't happen. Until we have some grasp, some ability to consider God and Who He is and what He's done, we'll struggle with human pride, we'll struggle with worshiping God by our obedience, and we'll especially struggle with worshiping God with our praise.
(Ephesians 1:17 21) I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe."
"I want you to know God," Paul was saying. I want you to contemplate Him and understand Him better, because I know that the outcome in your life is going to be worship and obedience that honors Him. The better you know Him, the more your life will show it.
Conclusion:
The outcome of considering God is our worship to Him.
The outcome of considering God is changed life; decisions that honor Him.
We're going to do that now. The rest of our time here this morning is going to be our response to God
• our response through song and praise,
• through the Lord's Supper, through giving
• through accepting Him as Lord,
• through the way we share with each other as we leave here,
• and through the way we live once we've gone out those doors.
You've considered God. Now respond! Let's worship Him together!
(season of worship)
