• Many years ago, a very poor holy man lived in distant country. He became known for his devotion to God. Every day before his time of meditation, in order to show his devotion, he put a dish of butter up on the window sill as an offering to God, since food was so scarce and butter was expensive. One day his cat came in and ate the butter. To remedy this, he began tying the cat to the bedpost each day during his quiet time. This man was so respected for his commitment to God that others joined him as disciples and worshipped as he did. Generations later, long after this holy man was dead, his followers placed an offering of inexpensive margerine on the window sill during their time of prayer and meditation. Furthermore, each one bought a cat so they too could tie one to the bedpost during their quiet times.
Gen 12:6-8 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD.
• What a wonderful worship experience for Abram.
• Here is one who came out of idolatry and followed God.
• God said, “Pack up your family and just get going. I will show you where to go.”
• And Abram obeyed. As a result, God now appears to him.
• What does that mean?
• We are not certain how God appeared to him, since we are told that no one has seen the Father but the Son. (John 6:46 and other places).
• However, we are convinced that God appeared to several people in the Old Testament through His Son.
• So maybe this is a Christophany, an appearance of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament.
• We know this, this is the first time God revealed himself in any real way to mankind since Adam.
• Why Abram? He was an idolater. Why was he worthy of such a calling, and an appearance by God?
• This I can assure you; Abram didn’t do anything to deserve it. It was grace.
• God chose Abram, Abram didn’t choose God.
• Gordon Runyan points out that Abram responded to God’s call, and God’s appearance, by building an altar, not a bicycle built for two.
• God didn’t offer to be Abram’s copilot. He became Abram’s all-in-all.
• God had drawn near in an incredible way. But Abram didn’t then go on to mess up the defining characteristics of their relationship. God remained God, and Abram remained his lowly servant. God remained the LORD, the king of all the earth, while Abram scrounged around on the earth looking for materials with which to build an altar. God has drawn near to us in Christ, who took on human flesh and became one of us for the sake of saving us. (Runyan). We are not in a position to redefine God’s plan or relationship with us.
• By grace, after God gives us grace, we come to Him, through His power alone.
• What am I trying to say right here?
• Too often we invite God to join our worship. That is so totally wrong.
• Look at the sequence of events. God appeared Abram, and he responded with worship.
• We worship in the presence of God. We don’t conjure up His presence through worship.
• We’ve got it all wrong if we go at it that way.
• We accept His presence by faith, based on His promises. Not feeling, sensing, evidence.
• Faith alone, the same way we were saved.
• He said, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” Matthew 18:20.
• If He blesses us with feelings or an awareness of His presence, that is His choice.
• It never limits His presence in our worship, just because we don’t feel Him.
• But Bro. Tim. I don’t feel Him.
• So, are you worshiping at the feet of your feelings or at the feet of Jesus who made that promise?
• But, Bro. Tim, there was a time when you simply walked into this building and you sensed His presence. That’s gone!
• That is because He wants you to live and worship, believing Him, simply believing what He says, not going around like a caterpillars with feelers and sensors.
• It’s not about our feelings. It’s about living and worshiping like what God promised is true.
• There was a woman who went on a short term mission trip to Kenya, helping the missionaries there. While there, she stopped at a remote village where she attended a medical clinic. As the native women outside the clinic began to sing together, she found herself deeply moved by their beautiful singing. The harmonies and rhythms seemed worshipful indeed.
• She was so moved she began to cry. It was the most worshipful singing she had heard in years, perhaps her entire life. She decided, it would change her forever.
• Since she wanted to capture the moment in her memories, she turned to her interpreter and asked with tears freely streaming down her face, "Could you please translate the words to that absolutely beautiful song?"
• Her friend respectfully replied, "They are singing this: ‘If you boil the water, you won’t get diarrhea.’"
• Worship is more than a feeling or experience.
• So when does true worship begin?
• Here are some true markers of worship in those who worship in Spirit and Truth.
I. God becomes more real.
• Abram responded to the call of God in Haran with obedience.
• How God called him? We don’t know.
• But Hebrews tells us that he responded by faith.
• Heb 11:8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
• We have already been told that faith is obeying without sight.
• Heb 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
• In other words, Abram obeyed God without seeing any reason but faith
• That is how faith operates.
• In some way, without God revealing Himself, God called Abram and Abram obeyed by faith.
• When you obey by faith, it never remains blind faith. After faith, evidence comes.
• Then, God reveals Himself in some way. He becomes more real.
• He became more real to Abram.
• “Then the LORD appeared to Abram…”
• What a wonderful thing this was for Abram.
• He believed, He obeyed, and then his faith was validated by an appearance by God.
• God demonstrated in no uncertain terms that Abram had made the right choice.
• I will not tell you that you will see vision after you choose by faith to follow God.
• God has many wonderful ways to make Himself known to you after you obey Him.
• For one, He confirms in your spirit an undeniable affirmation of His involvement in your life, but that is just for starters.
• Rom 8:16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
• I have never known anyone who has obeyed God in their life, having experienced God in ever increasing new ways, that later doubts He is real.
• He becomes more real to you if you will walk with Him. That is worship.
II. The spiritual battle becomes more real.
• Basically, Abram had built an altar in Shechem. God appeared to him there.
• Then he moves on eastward to the hill country between Bethel and Ai, and what does he do?
• He builds an altar there.
• He built an altar to worship a God he could not see, recognizing that there was a world of spirits He could not see.
• He saw God in Shekem, but he knew God went with him to the hill country, even though he could not see Him.
• Frank Peretti wrote the book, This Present Darkness, to illustrate, the best way he could describe, that a spiritual world existed that we could not see.
• He did a very good job on an impossible task.
• There were battles, wars that the eye could not see, and the scriptures testify to.
• 2Co 10:3-5 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
• Our war is not with the physical world. Our weapons are not of this physical world.
• Our armor is not of the physical world and our enemy is not of this physical world.
• Eph 6:11-12 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
• We worship when we realize we are engaged into a spiritual battle
• Christ has already purchased the victory.
III. Our desire is to draw near to God becomes more real.
• Once you have experienced worship, you want it more and more.
• Abram built altars everywhere because he wanted to continue in a life of worship.
• He wanted to draw nearer and nearer the God who called him out of his old life.
• That is part of worship.
• Worship feeds the desire to change, to grow, to go deeper.
• It is never satisfied with the status quo.
• As our youth will tell us, where I was spiritual yesterday is so yesterday.
• I want to be closer to God today.
• So wherever you are, you build an altar, so to speak.
• You don’t make room for God in your new day, you make room for your new day in your relationship with God.
• Let me say that again, slightly different:
• You don’t make room in your day for God, you make room in your worship of God for the day.
• Bethany Mason wrote this verse:
• Nearer my God to thee, nearer to thee.
• Even tho it be a cross that raises me.
• Think of that: she expressed her desire to be closer to God, even if it means nailing her to a cross to lift me closer to heaven.
• That is worship. That is a worship song. That is a praise song.
• When the Titanic was sinking, the band was asked to play to keep the guest, scrambling for life boats, calm.
• As they gathered and organized, one of them suggested. “Let’s play, ‘nearer my God to thee’”.
• Many survivors of the titanic said the last cords of music they heard as the ship was sinking was this tune.
• The musicians died with the plea to God to bring them nearer to Him.
• In 1901, President William McKinley was fatally shot.
• Dr. Matthew Mann, who attended President McKinley during his last days, said the president’s last words were, ““‘Nearer, my God, to Thee, e’en though it be a cross,’ has been my constant prayer.”
• That so moved the nation that it was played at his memorial and the memorial services for several presidents since.
• You are not worshiping unless you have that hunger to be closer, closer to God.
• As the Psalmist David said, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. :2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” Psalms 42”1-2.
• This is why worship is so important to the Christian life.
• Worship is that call to walk closer to God, to draw near to Him.
IV. Your identify in God becomes more real.
• Abram built Him another altar and worshipped Him in the Hill country.
• I am certain that his wife, nephew and servants watched Abram and thought, “This is just a phase he’s going through.”
• Well, that phase lasted a lifetime.
• His new deal was this God who called him.
• This new “thang” became the last thing, the only thing that guided his life.
• That is another sign of true worship. It is life changing.
• God becomes the center and focus of the rest of one’s life.
• Let me summarize this sermon in this way.
• Worship is a growing experience through life.
• God called. Abram obeyed by faith.
• God revealed Himself to Abram in a new way.
• Abram responded by a worship that drew him nearer to His God.
• God became the central focus of Abram’s life.
• That is how our worship should look.
• That is what worship is. Stuart Sacks, missionary illustrates: While I was serving in Paraguay, a Maka Indian named Rafael came to sit on my porch. I was eating and went out to see what he wanted. He responded, "Ham, henek met." Again I asked what I could do for him, but the answer was the same. I understood what he was saying but not its significance: "I don’t want anything; I have just come near."
• I later shared the incident with a local veteran missionary. He explained that it was Rafael’s way of honoring me. He really didn’t want anything; he just wanted to sit on my porch. He found satisfaction and pleasure just being near me.
• "What brings you here, my child?" the Lord asks.
• "Ham, henek met."
• Doesn’t that reveal the heart of true worship?
• We honor God by desiring just to be near Him.
