Where Does Our Thanks Take Us?
Leviticus 10:1-5 Acts 16:16-34 Psalm 100 11/24/2019
In a few days, some of us will have traveled many miles from where we are right now, in order to be with family and friends for Thanksgiving. For some of us it will be a time of great joy, but for others getting together with some family members is like jumping in a pool knowing there is an alligator in the water, but you can’t see it. You want to get out as soon as you got in.
Yet we are going to make the trip, because its Thanksgiving Day and that’s what we’re supposed to do. If you go down to Emmanuel Baptist Church on the corner of East 79th and Quincy, you would see on their church bulletin board, Thanksgiving is not a day, it’ a way to live life.
Being thankful always takes us somewhere. Has someone done something for you in your life, where you just wanted to get back and let the person know how much you appreciated what they had done for you? Last week we saw that being thankful led one of the 10 lepers who had been healed by Jesus back to Jesus to give thanks.
But being thankful can become twisted in where we should place our thanks. There was a very powerful king in the bible by the name of Nebuchadnezzer. He looked at the nations he had conquered, all the wealth he had accumulated, and all the admiration he had from his people, and his thanks led him to say. “I have all of this because of who I am and what I’ve done. His thanks led him to worship himself.
If you were out in the metroparks looking over a cliff, and you lost your balance, but just as you started over the cliff you noticed a branch was hanging over low enough for you to grab on. You grabbed that branch and it kept you from plunging to your death. What words are coming out of your mouth the moment you realized you have been saved? To whom does the atheist or agnostic give thanks in that moment?
I think there are two things that cause us to want to fall to our knees to worship God. The first is when we are in awe of God because of what God has done in creation. When I watch shows like the Blue Planet or Our Oceans on Netflix and see what God has done and what God has created, I can’t help but think inside, “God you are an awesome God.”
The second thing that causes us to want to fall to our knees to worship God is when we are so thankful for what God has done. When I think about the God who says this about himself in Isaiah 44:24 “ This is what the Lord says, your Redeemer and Creator; I am the Lord who made all things. I alone stretched out the heavens. Who was with me when I made the earth.”
When we recognize that it is God who not only created us, but desires to be in a relationship with us even with all the wrong we have done, our thanks should cause us to fall to our knees to say thank you Lord. When I think about what Jesus thought of us as he hung on the cross, refusing to come down because He knew if He had of quit, there would have been no hope for us, we should just want to fall on our knees and worship out of thanks.
Yet if we are not truly thankful for what Christ has done, it leads us to a sense of false worship in our worship of God. The worship becomes about us, and how we feel, and what we are willing to offer to God. We offer a worship to God that is not much different than a child throwing a bone to a dog and expecting the dog to be grateful.
When it comes to worship, worship is not a place we go to and it’s not a description of a service. Worship involves us taking our minds off ourselves and focusing in on God and what God has done. Worshipping God is not something anybody can do for us.
It is a simple choice that we make to do it or not do it. Each Sunday, each service, we make a deliberate choice. I will either surrender my heart to God in worship during the service or I will not do it. Sometimes we are tempted to worship God, in our own little way, and we say “God, you either accept this or leave it.”
If you read the Old Testament, God was very specific in how people were to worship him, especially the leaders. There were specific fragrances that were to be a part of worship of God. Moses’ brother Aaron, was the high priest for the nation. He had several sons, but two of them were named Nadab and Abihu and both were priests.
We do not know why, but for some reason, they wanted to establish their own rules for worshipping God, and ignored the rules for the kind of incense which was to be offered to God. They came up with their own kind of incense to offer.
Instead of worship being a surrendering of their hearts, it turned into an issue of pride, in that they did not have to do what others were doing. They had something better to offer to God. They could not see what they were offering God was their disobedience as worship. As they took this new offering toward the sanctuary, the Lord sent fire and the fire burned them to death there in front of the sanctuary. Their cousins had to come and take away their bodies.
Nadab and Abihu, knew what was expected of them. They had been trained as priests what ingredients to use, what time of time to offer incense, and what steps were necessary to light the fire to assist the people in worshipping God. But they insisted on doing things their own way.
When we no longer treat God with respect and honor, it is not long before we cease to treat one another with respect and honor. Our lack of worship of God can be seen in the crumbling of our homes and in the destruction and violence in our neighborhoods. People with little or no respect for God, will not see other people as worthy of they respect. When we lose the sense of awe and incredibleness of God, we begin to think that we are in charge. We are in control and we do not have to answer to others for our actions.
When our worship is truly God centered, it produces a change in our character because at the end of the day, we know we will give an account for our actions.
What do you think is one of the easiest commandments to keep in the Bible? I think one of the easiest commandments has to do with worship. It’s found in Psalm 100. It says, Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Is there anybody here who can make a joyful noise?
Let’s see if we can keep this commandment. On the count of three, let’s obey God and make a joyful noise. We make all kinds of noises. We make angry noises, whiny noises, complaining noises, selfish noises, anxious noises, but God says make a joyful noise.
God gave this commandment to everything and to everyone. God didn’t limit it to children, teens or adults. God didn’t limit it to just those who are saved. God didn’t limit it to just those who have everything going in their favor. God said “make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.”
For all of us who go around the house singing off key to the Lord, we are simply doing what God told us to do. Now making the joyful noise is just one part. The psalm goes on to say, “Worship the Lord with gladness, come before the Lord with joyful songs, Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us and not we ourselves.”
Every now and then, I will hear people say, I don’t come to church for the singing. I just want to hear the word.
Well the original Word, the actual word of God, says, “come before the Lord with joyful singing.” Why is it that the Lord wants to hear the sound of your voice. You know when you love somebody, just the sound of that person’s voice can bring delight to your heart and put a smile on your face.
This verse tells me, that God wants to hear the sound of each of our voices in worship. How many of you know that each of our voices has distinct sound. Nobody sings exactly like you. God is listening for your song in the midst of worship. The purpose of worship is to delight the heart of God.
Are we filled with so much pride that we would rather disappoint God, than open our mouths. We can say, ‘well God knows my heart.” Part of us focusing in on God to worship is to cause us to stop thinking so much about ourselves and our own problems. In our New Testament reading, Paul and Silas had gone into the city of Phillippi to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
They ran into a slave woman and set her free from the power of demons in her life. She had been a fortune teller, and when the demons left her, she lost her ability to tell the future. Her owners had Paul and Silas, arrested, stripped, and beaten with rods. Not only were they savagely beaten, they were thrown into the inner cells and had their feet chained. It was obvious, they were in a lot of pain and not going anywhere soon.
About midnight, Silas said to Paul, “Man I wish had never listened to you and come along as your partner. That was the worse decision of my life. Look what following Jesus has gotten me. I’ve never been in so much pain in my life. If I ever get out of this place, you had better not get in my face.” But that’s not what really happened.
About midnight, Paul probably said to Silas, Silas, “I’m feeling kind of thankful that we were able to lead that girl and that crowd to Jesus. “I tell you what, start us of off in that song we sang last week and I’ll join in.” They did and Paul followed with a prayer. They sang another hymn and Silas followed with a prayer. In the midst of one of their darkest moments, they decided to worship God with a joyful noise with gladness in their hearts
Their worship caused an earthquake beneath the prison. The prison door flew open by itself, and everybody’s chains came loose. Two servants’choice to worship God, set a whole prison free, and led to a lot of people getting saved.
True worship takes us above our circumstances and allows God to do things around us, that we could never do on our own. When we are delighting the heart of God, God takes great delight in doing things for us that really makes a difference. True worship will bring out a spirit of gratitude in us. One of the things that rob us so much of the joy that could be ours is that we have a complainer inside of us. We forget that Jesus died on a cross, so that we could quit complaining so much.
Psalm 100 says Enter His gates, with thanksgiving and his courts with praise, Give thanks to Him and praise His name. Sometimes we may wake up hoping that this is going to be a good day for us. If things start out right, we will be happy. If they start out wrong, we say, “oh I got up on the wrong side of the bed.”
But when we stop to worship, we realize that God is good to us right now. There is no wrong side of the bed when I think about what God has done for me already. Our worship is weak, when we feed the complainer inside of us rather than the thanker inside of us. What should I thank God for in worship today?
God has given me life. He didn’t have to do it. God has given me a wonderful wife. I don’t deserve all that she does for me. God has given me eyes to see, ears to hear, a mouth to talk, and legs to walk. I never ordered any of these parts. I never paid for them. God has given me the gift of you as a congregation. People who love me, who laugh with me, who share visions with me, who eat with me and who pray for me.
I did not earn this congregation while I was in seminary. I am tempted to forget how many pastors would gladly trade places with me if they knew what we have here.
One of the purposes of Worship is to bring out gratitude in us. When I am thankful, I am transformed from being a grouchy complainer to a more generous encourager of others. My choice to enter into worship of God allows the Spirit to transform me into the person God wants me to be. Recognizing that I am in the presence of God changes who I am. Worship is “Jesus on the inside working on the outside making a change in my life.”
It is God who made us and not we ourselves. It’s the fact that God is our Creator, that makes God worthy of our worship. God didn’t have to give us eyes to see the sunset God created. God didn’t have to give us ears, to hear the music God created. God didn’t have to give us taste buds, to taste the fruits, the vegetables and the wonderful dishes God created.
God didn’t have to give us the muscles, the bones, and the brains that make it possible for us to sit in the seats that God has created. God didn’t have to give us skin to feel the warmth of the sunlight or the gentle wind that God created. All good things come from God.
Why do we have a praise team, a praise band, dancers, and choirs. They are instruments that God has given us to invite us to worship. They can never make us worship God and no matter how hard they try, they cannot worship God on our behalf. Coming and looking at them, listening to them and even admiring them is no substitute for choosing to enter into the worship of God.
It’s like the fellow who went on the cruise and never really left his room. Sure he could tell others he went on a cruise, but he never engaged the cruise experience. It’s not enough to simply come to a church service. Are you engaging in the worship of Almighty God. I don’t care how many people or how few people are in worship, God is listening for the sound of your voice in worship when we all come together.
Some of us are praying for deliverance from behaviors that are destructive to us and to our witness as believers. That deliverance may come from us choosing to worship God in humility not caring what others around you are thinking about you. Hold your hands in surrender to God. Be willing to reach forth your hands to the heavens. Be willing to fall to your knees or willing to cry out if you need to do it. Be open to move of the Spirit in your life. If we are too ashamed to worship Jesus Christ in the church, how on earth will we worship God outside this building. So what if somebody laughs at you. The purpose of worship is to connect us with God.
We think that the invitation to worship somehow is suppose to please us. Some of us even think worship of God is somehow below us. We don’t need that kind of stuff. You may think you don’t need it today, but what makes you so sure you can handle tomorrow if God withdraws his grace and mercy from your life? God has given us so much to be thankful for in order to lead us to worship God. God’s purposes are going to prevail in this world.
He sent Jesus Christ into this world to offer people a chance to be saved from their sins and to receive eternal life right now. But it did come with a challenge.
Worship begins with a willingness to deny ourselves, in order for us to enter into the presence of God. There are times when worship is to be joyful and celebrative and there are times when worship is to be a solemn event in which we are to go before the presence of the Lord in complete reverence. We need to learn how to do them both, because we do not know when and how the Lord is going to show up.
One of the great benefits from Jesus dying on the cross and being raised from the dead is that we now have the opportunity to worship directly in the presence God without a priest standing between us and God. We can engage God directly for ourselves. Our being thankful does not require us to wait until Sunday to worship God. We can do it every morning we wake up.
We do have to remember though that our sin or wrongdoing keeps us from offering a worship that’s acceptable to God. Jesus’s death on the cross and the shedding of his blood removes our sin, which erects a wall of separation between us and God. We can be thankful of the promise , “if we confess our sin, He is faithful to remove our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Now that Jesus death on the cross and his resurrection to life has made it possible for us to worship God, there is no excuse for a believer to reject the invitation to come and worship the Lord whenever we are thankful. Giving thanks leads to worship.
**Special Thanks To Dr. John Ortberg from Menlo Park Presbyterian Church for some of the concepts I used from Psalm 100 in this message.
