Pleasing Worship
2 Chronicles 30:1-26
Chad H. Ballard
Introduction
An old farmer went to the city one weekend and attended the big city church.
He came home and his wife asked him how it was.
"Well," said the farmer, "it was good. They did something different, however. They sang praise choruses instead of hymns."
"Praise choruses?" said his wife, "What are those?"
"Oh they’re okay. They’re sort of like hymns, only different," said the farmer.
"Well, what’s the difference?" asked the wife.
The farmer said, "Well it’s like this - If I were to say to you: ‘Martha, the cows are in the corn,’ well that would be a hymn.
If, on the other hand, I were to say to you: ‘Martha, Martha, Martha, Oh, Martha, Martha, MARTHA MARTHA,
The cows, the big cows, the brown cows, the black cows, the white cows, all God’s cows,
The cows are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the corn,
The cows are in the CORN, CORN, CORN’!!!
‘Oh, Oh, Ooooooooh, yes, it’s true, the whole herd is in the awesome corn, yes, it’s true, the whole herd is in the awesome corn, --- well, it’s true, the whole herd is in the awesome corn!!! Alleluia!
That would be a praise chorus."
You know one of the most divisive things in churches today is this issue of worship style. Some people want drums and guitars and worship songs. Some want to hear pianos and organs and hymns.
But all I really care to hear (and I dare say all that God desires to hear) are His people, praising His name in true heart felt worship.
I like all kinds of music, as long as the message is about Jesus, because my most sincere desire is to worship God.
A woman entered a Haagen-Dazs store on the Kansas City Plaza for an ice-cream cone. After making her selection, she turned and found herself face to face with Paul Newman. He was in town filming the movie Mr. and Mrs. Bridge.
Newman’s blue eyes caused her knees to buckle. She managed to pay for her cone, and then left the shop, heart pounding. When she gained her composure, she realized she didn’t have her cone.
She started back to the store to get it and met Newman at the door. "Are you looking for your ice-cream cone?" he asked. She nodded, unable to speak. "You put it in your purse with your change."
When was the last time the presence of God quickened your pulse?
Well this morning we are going to look at what happened when Hezekiah invited all of Israel to come and to join him in worship.
First we will see:
I. The Call to Worship
A. Of the 21 kings that followed David, there was none greater than Hezekiah. The reign of King Hezekiah brought with it a period of revival in the nation of Judah. Hezekiah was leading a great return to God. But it wasn’t always a pleasant journey.
1. In Kings, we see some pretty difficult situations that Hezekiah had to deal with. He had to remove the high places and break the images that the Jews had began to worship.
a. One of those images was the brass serpent that Moses had made in the wilderness. The people had begun to worship and burn incense to it.
b. There had been a time when the people looked at the serpent in faith, trusting in the promise of God.
c. There had been a time when the serpent had been their physical salvation, saving them from the poisonous snakebites.
d. But now it had become an object of worship, a stumbling block to the people.
e. And may I say that, likewise, today, the church (not the people of God but the building in which we meet) has become an idol to many.
f. There are those who believe that there is something spiritual about being present in this building. There is nothing spiritual about simply attending a service in this place.
g. It is not our attendance, but our worship that draws us into God’s presence. It is our worship that quickens our pulse and creates and excitement among God’s people.
h. So when we come into this place, what makes it special is what we do while we are here.
3. Now in Chronicles, we see the positive things that Hezekiah has done to restore worship in Judah.
a. He had “opened the doors to the house of the Lord and repaired them.” Remember that Ahaz had nailed the doors to the temple shut. But Hezekiah had opened them and commanded that the temple be cleaned.
b. He had told all the priests and the Levites to sanctify themselves. There had to be a return to the holy living, honesty and integrity of their fathers.
c. And today we need just such a return to the holy living, honesty and integrity of our fathers. There have been some true men of God who have been members of this church, but who have gone to be with the Lord. Many of them are buried across the street.
d. Allow me to ask a difficult question, but one that God laid on my heart sometime ago. “If those men could speak to us today, would they be pleased with our attitudes and actions toward God and others in this church today?”
e. I believe we too need a return to the holy living, honesty and integrity of our fathers.
f. Hezekiah had also re-instituted temple worship and in our text this morning we see his call to worship of all the people of Judah. Let’s look at 3 important aspects of that call:
B. Routed to All (Read 30:1&10a)
1. Hezekiah wanted everyone in Judah to participate in the Passover. It wasn’t just for the religious people of the day. It wasn’t just for those who were the “churched”. Hezekiah knew that if the people were going to be revived to worship God again, that everyone must be invited.
2. You know, I can’t tell you how many times I didn’t attend church because I was ashamed of the fact that I hadn’t been there in a while.
3. When I would come home on the weekends from college, most of the time the reason that I didn’t go to Sunday school and church it was because I didn’t want people to look at me funny because I hadn’t been in a long time.
4. Our worship needs to be inviting to others. The worst thing we can say to someone who hasn’t been to church in a while is “Hi stranger!” That doesn’t make people feel welcome and accepted.
5. We also need to make sure that worship is a time that we look forward to. We need to practice worship and get better at it.
6. I’m kind of like the old black preacher that was once asked, “Who he liked to hear preach.” He thought about it and said, “When I’m prayed up, studied up, and practiced up, I believe I’d rather hear me than most anybody.”
7. I love to be involved in the worship of God! I look forward to it, I long for it, and so should you!
8. But not everyone has a positive reaction to the invitation to worship. We see at the end of v 10 the reaction of the people:
C. Ridiculed by Most (read v 10b)
1. Folks, understand that not everyone is going to be open to worship. There are those who see coming to church and pouring out your heart to God in prayer and song is just a waste of time.
2. There are those who are going to make fun of you if you come to church instead of doing what they want you to do.
3. And there are even those in church that if you get a little too serious about worshipping God will ridicule you.
4. I remember as a youth, on a particular Sunday, I sat with my cousin, who was kind of a rough character and usually wasn’t in church, instead of my usual group of friends. Sitting right behind us was another youth named Brian who was in church every Sunday. During the song service, my cousin started laughing so I looked at him and said “What?” He said, “Listen to Brian.”
5. You see, Brian was singing out and praising God. And my cousin was mocking him. I felt so guilty for laughing at Brian later.
6. But Brian is a Minister of Music today, while my cousin is on his third wife who is about 20 years older than him, and lives a very mediocre life.
7. There will always be opposition to worship. Satan will see to that. But not everyone will mock you for worshipping God. In v 11, we see that the call to worship was…
D. Received by Some (read v. 11)
1. Some people of Judah received the call to worship. And it brought them
a. Singleness of heart
b. Sincerity
2. Read vv.12-14.
3. We’ll talk about this more in a second, but we can see from this that the people who truly came to worship had their lives changed because of the experience.
II. The Condition of Worship
A. Hezekiah’s call to worship didn’t just tell people to come just for the sake of coming. He commanded that they come prepared to worship.
(Read vv 8)
B. In the Old Testament, the same Hebrew word is used to mean both serve and worship.
C. Until we yield ourselves to God and come to Him humbly willing to worship Him no matter what the world thinks; until we empty ourselves of our pride and we can only have empty services.
III. The Consequence of Worship (Read vv 21-26)
A. Because of the worship of God’s people we see that they:
1. Were made glad.
2. They were singing praises to the Lord.
3. They were given encouragement.
4. There was rejoicing.
5. There was truly great joy in Jerusalem.
6. There had been nothing like this since the days of Solomon.
Conclusion
Do you long for better times? Do you remember a time when this church was more excited than it is now?
Hezekiah did. And he was able to restore the glory that had once been a part of their lives.
And the way he did it was by re-instituting worship and bringing the people into the presence of God.
And look at now they closed the service. Read v. 27.
PRAY!
Pleasing Worship
2 Chronicles 30:1-26
February 17, 2002
When was the last time that the presence of God
quickened your pulse?
This morning we are going to see what happens when
Hezekiah invited all of Israel to come and join him in
___________________.
I. The ___________ to Worship
It was:
A. ___________ to all.
B. _____________ by most.
C. _____________ by some.
And it brought them:
______________ of Heart
______________
II. The _______________ of Worship
III. The _________________ of Worship
