The God of Joy: Why GIBC Rocks
Deut. 12:1-14
One the basic things we got to know about God is - His joy!
Today we celebrate 20 years of Grace International Baptist Church. This is awesome! Look around you we see an international gathering. This tells me you are no afraid of change, in order to fulfil your purpose a stated in the bulletin “helping people to have a heart for God and for others,” to the glory of God. So I am proud to be here with you, to serve God with you here. I want to be around celebrating the 40th anniversary, God willing. Furthermore I believe that God is proud to be here today as well. There is something that God delights in, that is when His people choose to come, without being forced, to worship. When His people come celebrating, bringing out the goodies, singing, God is delighted. That’s the main theme of the text this a.m. the God we serve enjoys a good gathering, celebration, a party!
God outlines what to bring to His party, - it would be embarrassing to come to a party and bringing the wrong costume. I believe God’s still handing out the invitations to anyone who choose to believe there’s a party in heaven. He is gladly receiving the RSVPs in prayers you say and is waiting patiently for the music to begin, for the festivities to start, for joy that will rock the new heavens and the new earth. With every gathering like this today, we are just practising like a dress rehearsal for the real Party when Jesus comes again to take us home. Part of life here is preparation for that ultimate blowout. But how does God want us to prepare and what’s there to bring to His party?
Salads? Cookies?
I believe He would like us to be prepare by bringing in…
þ Exclusive Worship: no compromise in the worship of the Lord our God. (v.1-4)
1 These are the decrees and laws you must be careful to follow in the land that the LORD , the God of your fathers, has given you to possess-as long as you live in the land.2 Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains and on the hills and under every spreading tree where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods. 3 Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places. 4 You must not worship the LORD your God in their way.
God has brought His people out from slavery in Egypt and preparing His people to take hold of their liberty, and He expects His people to really respond to this new freedom. To celebrate His goodness and His greatness. He expects His people to respond to Him as the Hero who made their dreams come through. Into a new place, new destiny God tells His people to party with Him only, to worship Him alone. They are NOT to copy the ways of the nations but worship the One God who brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand. They were slaves for Egypt but now they are free under the guidance and love of God and now they are the landowners.
In the 20th anniversary of GIBC, I choose to believe that God desires GIBC to do the same. He wants us to celebrate the death of Christ on the cross, because by it the price is paid for sin. There is forgiveness! He wants to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection because without rising from the dead we have no way of knowing He is really God. There is new life, hope for newer things, new heavens and new earth. And I believe God is going to do new things here. We will have new adventures together, we will live as brothers and sisters, as a family that’s ever expanding for Christ, always having new things to try out, new people to win for Jesus, new ministries, dreams, new stories of changed lives as folks here are baptized … And for that to happen we must not in any way concede to our prevailing culture which tolerates anything but the exclusive claims of the Lord Jesus Christ. Which by the way shows the intolerance of those who preach tolerance. The fact is those who have studied comparative religion will find out that all religions do not teach the same thing. They all have distinct exclusive claims, that void or contradicts each other’s views. So we should ask question which claim is the one that’s rises above it all and have some verifiable truths?
Last week’s message, “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel” 2 Tim. 2:8. The message from this text outlines for us why we consider Jesus, because of His credentials as raised from the dead and descended from David (prophesied king). He alone stands out as the one who claimed to be God and backed it up with rising from the dead, and centuries of predictions that are absolutely statistically impossible for any one man to conspire to fulfil in one lifetime. That’s the reason we hold to exclusively to Jesus Christ, because He is absolutely qualified to be God. And so deserves to be worshipped as God. He has performed the greatest FEAT of all history: resurrection from the dead! For no other has done this...
If the resurrection is a fraud, then all of Christianity is a fraud. But if it is true…
With the greatest FEAT of all history, we know Jesus is God, we got a legit reason to worship God as Jesus reveals Him to be. We don’t have to worry if we got the right religion, and get all our bases covered just in case, like I once did. For Jesus claims exclusive worship, we need to trust Him on that:
1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God ; trust also in me. 2In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going."
5Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
8Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."
9Jesus answered: "Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ’Show us the Father’? 10Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.
These are the most incredible words or the most ridiculous words uttered by any man. How can anyone claim to the way, truth and life… If anyone says that, we know for sure it has to be the ravings of a madman. Philip said: Show me God… and Jesus said “right here” WOW! ? “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father”
So Jesus stands outs in defiance to all who claims all roads lead to heaven, “I am the Way…no one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus is either the greatest liar or madman, or totally deluded, or He is who He says He is, God! Option we come to accept here is - He is God based on His accomplishment of rising from the dead. Hence, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of GIBC will be nonsensical if the exclusive worship of God revealed in Christ is not a right and good thing to do. So today He expects a party in His name only, a party to celebrate the Way to God, a party to celebrate the reality that lives have been changed here because God is not dead but alive, a party to celebrate this church which belongs to Him as has existed for Him for 20 years!
þ Environment for Worship: God has chosen a place of worship, and it is within us and among us. (v.5)
5 But you are to seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling. To that place you must go;
Another thing to bring to the party is a place for the festivities to occur. In the time of the OT it was centred in a particular place - the temple or the tabernacle. It would be really bad if we’re invited to a party but don’t where to go. Or worse being led to a place where there is no party being planned. There are two places for us to worship today. We worship from the inside out through the Spirit who dwells in us, in our bodies which is the New testament now calls the temple of the God, or with fellow believers who make up the church.
19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV)
Today u don’t need to go far to worship, if you believe in Christ, your body is the building that God lives in. His Spirit dwells in every believer. Furthermore when the church people get together, together we can experience God in a powerful way too:
16Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 17If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple. 1 Cor.3 16-17 (NIV)
18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 21Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Ephesians 5:18-21 (NIV)
In submission to each other we shall experience something that is of Christ!
Wanna hear the sounds of joy that God intends for His church?
17 The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing. Zeph. 3:17 (NIV)
What a picture of God’s joy with His people, in His people!
Even if earthquake hits this building, or a fire or bomb, the worship of God is not over.
As long as we have each other, and our body in intact, we can worship! GIBC celebrates not because this building, it will decay and we may have to move out but because of the people, of lives being changed as we come together in Jesus’ name.
þ Enjoyment of worship. (v.6-14)
Just like my kids’ birthday parties. See them anticipate the joy of the event. They get all worked up, counting the days, the minutes, anticipating games, cake, goodies and of course presents.
All sorts of actions are involved here. So it is with worship. It’s a party for God and with God. Tony Campolo wrote a book entitled “The Kingdom of God is a Party” and he is right on. Let all heaven break loose… Can u hear the party atmosphere God intended in these words of the Bible:
6 there bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, what you have vowed to give and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. 7 There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because the LORD your God has blessed you.
8 You are not to do as we do here today, everyone as he sees fit, 9 since you have not yet reached the resting place and the inheritance the LORD your God is giving you. 10 But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and he will give you rest from all your enemies around you so that you will live in safety. 11 Then to the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name-there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice possessions you have vowed to the LORD . 12 And there rejoice before the LORD your God, you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites from your towns, who have no allotment or inheritance of their own. 13 Be careful not to sacrifice your burnt offerings anywhere you please. 14 Offer them only at the place the LORD will choose in one of your tribes, and there observe everything I command you.
Principle here: comes from the heart of worship – joyful praise! Hence giving is not compulsory at all to the one who does not know God or know about worship Him in a worthy way.
2 Corinthians 9:5-11 is clear the “sacrifice” or “offerings” is to be given in joy, in enjoyment
Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (NIV)
Or in (GNB)
You should give, then, as you have decided, not with regret or out of a sense of duty; for God loves the one who gives gladly
Our attitude is to be one of joyful praise. If we are not aware of this today let’s make a decision to change our minds and make a decision in our will to celebrate God’s presence here at GIBC. Let GIBC rock with the praise of God, let GIBC be a beacon of joy in a sea of hopelessness, let GIBC rock with the sound of our sacrifices of praise, let now everything that has breath here praise the Lord. PTL!
Heaven’s gonna be a blast! Are you preparing well for the ultimate blowout?
