Those Who Know God Best Worship God Best – Part 1
“Elohim – The God We Can Trust”
(Laura’s part of the sermon)
Intro - Hebrew greeting: Barach Hashem! (Blessed be the Name)
My husband has used the following phrase:
Those who know God Best worship Him Best.
STORY:
About 20 yrs. ago – without job. Winter – cast away in borrowed house – Nelson County – 3 children – “Had God forgotten us?” –
38-yr-old husband – basement – soft weeping – days & hours went by -different sounds – a tune –
To Jesus who has loved us and has freed us from our sins…
He has made us to be kings and priests to serve our God and Father
To him be glory and power for ever, Amen! (Rev. 1:5,6)
More songs – weeping turned to worship – positive self – soon invited to churches – the hours getting to know God and then worshipping, turned bitter experiences into a ministry of blessing others.
Jeremiah 9: Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight….”
In education, wealth and political or military strength – Nothing to boast about -- there is no security.
In knowing God –Something to boast about. – That kind of security leads to praise and worship.
WORSHIP BEGINS, NOT IN A GROUP MEETING WITH A WORSHIP LEADER - WORSHIP COMES OUT OF ENCOUNTER WITH GOD. WHERE GOD MEETS US AT OUR POINT OF NEED.
It’s hard to worship someone you don’t know.
We can be encouraged to worship God, but all the teaching on praise and worship will never make us worshippers.
We have to KNOW him first to be able to call out words that give Him worth.
AND OUR ABILITY TO KNOW GOD BEGINS WITH GOD. He initiates the relationship.
The Spirit, Himself, bears witness with our spirit
I love him because he first loved me.
The father has loved me so I have loved you, Jesus said. (Jn.15:9).
Love each other as I have loved you. (Jn.15:12)
It is God who first revealed himself to us so we, in turn, could know him. And then once we know Him, we are able to worship him for his nature and character qualities.
GRADUAL INCREMENTS:
In the Bible, man’s knowledge of God came from God in gradual increments, usually with names associated with each revelation of God’s character, culminating in the last name we were given == JESUS. (Col. 1:19; 2:19) For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.
Jesus said, in John 17:6, 11, to the Father:
I have revealed you (your name) [your nature] to those whom you gave me out of the world. …Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name [your nature] — the name you gave me…..
Jesus said in Revelation 2:17. To him who overcomes ….I will write on him my NEW NAME…..”
What character revelation of God will be revealed – and we will reflect that?
THIS SERIES OF MESSAGES ON WORSHIP
Will begin with GOD’S REVELATION TO MAN. (Man-ward)
And the second part – man’s response through acts of praise and worship. To hillel, barach and so forth. (God-ward)
John 4:2 God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship him in spirit and in truth
The truth of who He is.
I. GOD’S NAMES:
A. Why a plurality of names?
[Ask neighbor his/her name]
A name imposes limitations
What one name could adequately convey God to man?
If you give God a name, this implies he is this, but not that.
David – shepherd, warrior, king, prophet, poet, musician
Pastor Qualls – pastor, counselor, husband, father……
[Ask neighbor’s other names they are called – hopefully nice ones]
Historically, our family names are relatively new.
In ancient times, people had one name – a given name.
But to distinguish one from other, we began to add other designations:
MOST FAMILY NAMES COME FROM FOUR PRIMARY SOURCES:
1. Characteristic of individual after he is born:
(sly) John was sly so we’ll call him Fox
(Fast) John Swift
(Sloppy person) John Hogg
2. Location
someone came looking for John. He lives at the water –
John Atwater.
(lives over the brook – John Overbrook
3. Your father’s name. John had a son – oh, Yeah, you’re talking about Johnson or Anderson, etc.
4. Your trade
John Cook, John Carpenter, Smith, Taylor, Falcon (falconer)
Names were given to identify one individual from all others.
Names given to God to set God apart from all others, too.
B. THREE PRIMARY NAMES
Elohim, Jehovah, Adonai (we will add El Shaddai in our study because it is used so much)
COMPOUND NAMES DERIVED FROM PRIMARY NAMES:
El Elyon (God Most High), El Shaddai (The Almighty), El Roy (the God who sees)
Jehovah-Shalom, Jehovah-Nissi, Jehovah-T’sidkennu, etc.
EACH NAME HAS A PARTICULAR CODE OR EMPHASIS:
In KJV English translators wanted to distinguish between God’s Hebrew names for us.
Hebrew: English translation (kjv, niv)
Elohim: God
Jehovah: LORD
Adonai: Lord
El Shaddai: The Almighty or Almighty God
II. ELOHIM
A. First revelation of God to man:
A. Translated 2500 times in O.T.
Not sure of derivation of his name
· Some believe: contraction EL with AL(alah)
· EL – “strength,” “Power” AL – to bind oneself by an oath.
(El Al Airlines)
Elohim – God as one who is strong and faithful (covenant keeping)
Used 32 times in Genesis 1 alone.
Turn to Gen. 1: In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth……
The strong God creates. He brings into being that which was not.
Bringing cosmos out of chaos, light out of darkness.
But, as the second meaning of his name implies, He is not going to abandon his creation.
As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease. (Gen. 8:22)
To Abraham, God said: Gen 17:7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God (Elohim) and the God (Elohim) of your descendants after you.
To make a covenant implies the power and right to do so, and establishes the fact of absolute authority as Creator and Ruler of the universe.
Then, because there is none greater, he swears by Himself. (Ex. 32:13)
It is Elohim who made covenant promises with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Israel, David, and the church.
We trust in a promise-keeping God so that when we die, like a seed in the ground, the believer will be resurrected again.
He will never leave us or forsake us.
He keeps his promises.
Ex. My dog is so happy to see us when we get home. The dog knows through experience we will be home.
We go away. But then we come home.
Toddlers in the nursery learn that their parents are promise-keepers.
They leave them, (forever disappearing in the child’s mind), But parents always return.
YOU CAN TRUST ELOHIM.
B. Elohim is the generic name for God.
Ex. humankind/mankind – generic
Men, women, children – specific kinds of people.
Elohim is the same word used in antiquity for the gods of the heathen.
The elohim of the Assyrians, the Babylonians, etc.
The Bible makes God a specific God from other gods:
“The Elohim of Abraham, The Elohim of Isaac, etc.
N.T. – Theos is the Greek generic name for God.
So far we have learned that when God reveals himself as Elohim, he tells us that
1. he is strong,
2. he is faithful,
3. the only true God,
4. and that he is three persons in one.
C. ELOHIM is a plural word in Hebrew.
1. im - Hebrew ending for all masculine nouns in the plural.
Other Ex. – one cherub, cherubim – one seraph; seraphim.
The plural reveals the Trinity of God.
Problem for the Jews: Jewish Shammah: Hear O Israel, the LORD our Elohim, the LORD is one. (Deut. 6:4)
One -- Echad (ekh-awd) – oneness in plurality
One cluster of grapes
Same word in Gen. 2 about marriage: A man leaves his father and mother – they, two shall be echad. (two-in-one)
Theologians of church have said: within the oneness of the Godhead are THREE persons.
1. Co-eternal – co-equal.
2. Functional distinction.
3. Same in essence (substance- spirit) but can exist independent of one another..
Dr. HORTON’S QUOTE:
Each does things that show He is a real and distinct person, yet the three are so harmoniously interrelated that they are one essence, one Divine Being.
Examples of the Trinity:
Gen. 1:2 The Spirit brooded over the waters.
Gen. 1:26 – Let us make man in our image.
Gen. 11:7 Let us go down and confound their language.
To Isaiah, God said, “Who will go for us?”
Elohim is plural in form, but often accompanied by verbs and adjectives in the singular.
“I am Elohim and there is no Elohim beside me” (Deut. 32:39)
By myself I have sworn…for I am Elohim, there is no other. (Isaiah 45:22,23)
Elohim (The triune God) provided our salvation. Each person of the Godhead functionally different.
Someone has said:
Salvation was planned by Father, Purchased by the Son Distributed by the Spirit.
But even though the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit existed as Elohim in the first revelation of God, the three as functioning in the lives of individuals would not be revealed to humanity until later.
For example, the concept of God as Father came after his holiness was revealed in the books of the law. Fatherhood is not safe without holiness. (more on that later)
(My part of the sermon)
III. David’s understanding of Elohim. Psalm 51
Transition – In thirty-seven years of marriage, a lot of stuff can happen and does happen. It doesn’t make any difference how good a marriage is or how bad, how long a marriage has endured or how many marriages you have – misunderstandings are bound to come.
Have you ever gone through an entire day or a weekend without a clue that you did something wrong. You were aware that there was something going on between the two of you but you just couldn’t put your finger on it.
You put your arm around your mate and they don’t cozy up as usual. Kisses are not the same as they were just a few hours before when you could feel them down to your toes. And when you talk, and this is a real key, the eyes don’t really meet and the eyes seem to belong to a stranger.
Finally, your partner for life takes the time to share with you what went wrong. You did something that you didn’t know was so hurtful but it created distance between you and the one you love.
· You didn’t keep a promise.
· You forgot an important date i.e. a birthday.
· You said something in front of some friends that your partner thought was just between the two of you.
· You took your frustration out on one of the kids.
· You tried to give some advise about their workplace .
· You didn’t really listen when your wife started to tell the dull background of a situation with her job that she was really concerned about.
· You didn’t really pick up the anxiety of your husband when he mentioned how tight the finances were.
As your spouse begins to share what their concerns have been, there is a twinge of regret that you feel down in your stomach. You begin to identify with their pain and you want it to go away. More than anything else you want the relationship restored. You the relationship to continue and grow.
The words that we use to describe the putting of distance between ourselves and the one we love are words like:
1. unfeeling
2. insulting
3. failing
4. greedy
5. selfish
6. insensitivity
7. uncaring
8. overbearing
9. mouthy
10. unloving
The Bible has one word that it uses to describe these and other related words. And the word is…(ask audience) sin! This word “sin” is used to identify the wrongs that we do to others and the distance that we put between ourselves and Elohim – the God we can trust.
God wants our relationship with Him to be without disruption. He loves us so much that He always reminds us that something is wrong. You can trust the fact that He will not pull away from us or to allow any time to go by before He brings us to a knowledge that if we don’t take care of the situation our relationship with Him will deteriorate even worse.
David, the King of Israel, was in such a situation. He had recently killed a man so that he could marry Bathsheba and a man of God was good enough to tell David that, even though David didn’t realize it, David’s relationship with God was falling apart.
David begins Psalm 51 (page 562) with the words Have mercy on me, O God (Elohim). Then notice the next phrase: according to your unfailing love. You can hear in these very precise words that David knows that God can be trusted.
Optional illus – Have someone catch another person who falls backwards.
David continues to express his dismay over the fact that he has done such a terrible act. From verses 1–5 he describes his plight.
Illus – It reminds me of several marriages where someone has gone outside the marriage in a terrible act of disloyalty. The offender wakes up to the severity of the act and now wants to save the partnership. An act of selfishness is now going to cost this person so very much. It is going to cost some of the following:
· It may cost a committed spouse,
· It may cost financial pressure,
· It may cost devastation to children,
· It may cost loss of friendship with relatives,
· It may cost a fear of not being trusted ever again,
· It may cost a sense of worth,
· and most importantly it may cost fellowship with God.
David understands his dilemma. He can have temporary pleasure or he can ruin his relationship with God, his nation and his family.
· If you look at David’s life you will see just in this Psalm that David knew that he had devastated his ability to worship God in the manner he once knew.
· David was also aware that ruling a nation without integrity isn’t easy to do. His top general in the army became disloyal. Could it be that the feud between Abner and Joab was a direct result of the disrespect that Joab, David’s top general had for David.
· David’s family seemed to disrespect his leadership as well. We probably see this played out when David refused to correct his son, Absalom and Absalom’s decision to usurp the throne.
There is a reason that David is considered so highly. In spite of all of his weaknesses, David has a good understanding of the God that we can trust. Let’s look at the outline and the seven attributes that David ascribes to Elohim. Let’s apply it to our own lives.
A. God brings conviction.
6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
Remember, this is because we can trust God to let us know what it is in our lives that is keeping us from having proper relationships with Himself or others in our lives. I have to begin with integrity, truth in my head and mind and emotions.
B. God cleanses.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
There is nothing that feels so dirty as a guilty conscience. God begins with to work on my ability to take a breath of air without feeling that I should be dead, wounded, or maimed.
C. God confirms.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
There are times that when we are corrected that we also need the confirmation of that persons love. We know it innately but we need to see it expressed in a form that we understand.
D. God forgives completely.
9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
One of the deepest fears that we have is that the person who forgives will bring up our wrongs at the wrong times, the times that the person wants us to pay for our miscues again and again and again. God doesn’t do that.
E. God grants a new beginning.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Every needs a second chance but God does better than that. He affords us a clean slate and a new source of power and life. Our motivation, our purpose, our direction, our strength and much more is now under the control of God Himself.
F. God restores joy.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
It’s not enough to have all the conditions right and a new life. More than anything else we want to have the feelings that were destroyed when we blew it.
G. God accepts unconditionally.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Notice the complete act of contrition. This is not easy stuff. It is totally sincere. And because it is, the restoration is absolutely complete.
Concl – God is the God we can trust. David knew it and so can you. No matter what we’ve done God will have mercy on us. Let us pray the same prayer that David prayed with the same confidence he prayed. Have mercy on me, O God we can trust.
