REVIVAL 2003: FREEDOM
FREE TO WORSHIP
PSALM 27:1-6
READ PSALM 27:1-6 = “1 The LORD is my light and my salvation- whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life- of whom shall I be afraid? 2 When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh, when my enemies and my foes attack me, they will stumble and fall. 3 Though an army besieges me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then will I be confident. 4 One thing I ask of the LORD ,
this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple. 5 For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock. 6 Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the LORD.”
I. THE BUSHED BELIEVERS
ILLUSTRATION… From Max Lucado
Max Lucado tells a traumatic tale - a chapter in the life of a parakeet named Chippie. It began when the
bird’s owner decided to clean his cage with a vacuum cleaner. She was almost finished when the phone rang, so she turned around to answer it. Before she knew it, Chippie was gone. In a panic she ripped open the vacuum bag. There was Chippie, covered in dirt and gasping for air. She carried him to the bathroom and rinsed him off under the faucet. Looking at this dripping mini mass of poultry, it dawned on the owner that Chippie was cold and wet, so she reached for the hair dryer. A few days later a friend asked Chippie’s owner how the little parakeet was recovering. "Well", she replied, "Chippie doesn’t sing much anymore. He just sits and stares." No kidding! Sometimes life can do that to us, can’t it? We feel sucked up, washed out and blown away by one struggle or another. The song is gone. All we feel like doing is sitting and staring.
Psalm 27 begins with David describing a very stressful situation. His enemies are surrounding him and they are attacking him on all sides as hard as they can. David would say that he is in a day of trouble. I can imagine that fighting constant battles and protecting the cities of Israel was a constant effort on David’s part… especially in the beginning of his rule. I bet David went to bed at night bushed.
Have you ever felt like that? Is your life rushed and stressful to the point that you are bushed? Does the spiritual side of you feel like you are constantly being attacked? There are times when it seems as though the energy in our Christian life has just run out. Whether it be from constant attack or lack on maintenance, we sometimes become weak and ho-hum about the matters of God. Sometimes the song is gone and we just sit and stare. Our objective this week is to become energized and motivated:
§ I want you to be motivated and committed to follow Jesus’ #1 priority, ‘to seek and save the lost’
§ I want you to be motivated and strengthened to conquer obstacles interfering with your relationship with God
§ I want you to be excited about the spiritual journey of a deepening relationship with Jesus Christ
Sometimes, though, we feel sucked up and washed out. Our spirits feel tired. We do find people in Scripture becoming tired and facing some of the same situations we might face:
1) Moses = (Exodus 17:11-13) = “As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up-one on one side, one on the other-so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.”
§ Moses was the leader of the people of Israel which probably numbered over 1 million. Exodus recounts a battle where Moses became physically tired because of the demands on him. He needed help and support to win the battle… literally.
§ Moses received help and the Scripture states that he remained ‘steady.’
2) Samson = (Judges 16:15-17) = “Then she said to him, "How can you say, ’I love you,’ when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength." With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was tired to death. So he told her everything. "No razor has ever been used on my head," he said, "because I have been a Nazirite set apart to God since birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man."
§ Samson was nagged and nagged by the same problem over and over. The book of Judges recounts that Samson became tired in his will and faithfulness to God. He was to keep the secret of his strength a secret, and yet his defenses were conquered.
§ Samson became the pawn of the Philistines and ceased to be useful to God.
3) Jesus = (John 4:5-7) = “So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?”
§ Jesus was out and about teaching and healing and doing His Father’s work. There came a point at which He and the disciples needed rest and they stopped in Sychar.
§ Jesus asks the woman for a drink, but later offers her living water that would cure her spiritual thirst forever.
The only reason I bring these passages to your attention is so that you can see that it is possible to become tired physically, emotionally, and spiritually from the activities, efforts, attacks, and pressures around us. Even doing God’s work can be tiring.
II. THE TREATMENT FOR TIREDNESS
We might find ourselves in just such a situation: just kind of sitting and staring, spiritually. What do we do? I want you to know tonight that what I am about to say is not a cure-all, but I do believe it will work for all of us.
When we find ourselves weary in our spirits… we need to worship!
When we find ourselves weary in our bodies… we need to worship!
When we find ourselves weary in our emotions… we need to worship!
When we find our commitment to God diminishing and falling away… we need to worship!
When we find ourselves just ‘not caring’ about the things of God… we need to worship!
Worship is more than songs or the type of songs or singing. Worship is more than church. We could always consult Webster’s Dictionary for the precise meaning of worship (adore, idolize, esteem worthy, reverence), but defining worship proves more difficult because it is both an attitude and an act. Worship is found in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Wherever we find believers, we find worship. When we look and find people seeking after God, we will find them worshipping.
ILLUSTRATION… AW Tozer
“Worship is to feel in your heart and express in some appropriate manner a humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe and astonished wonder and overpowering love in the presence of that most ancient Mystery, that Majesty which philosophers call the First Cause, but which we call Our Father Which Are in Heaven.”
Worship for us is focusing on God and giving Him credit for all that He does for us. Worship for us is changing our hearts to match the Heart of God. Worship is the stretching of all that we are and offering it to God.
What does worship mean for you and for me? How should we understand worship in relation to our spiritual lives? I cannot tell you how to worship or what to sing or how to stand that will energize your Christian life. Each person is different. I do know that worship is plugging into God and receiving from Him divine energy that will boost our motivation, faith, and commitment. In looking at Old Testament worship, we can find 8 principles about worship, which are true for us today:
(1) Worship required conscious preparation on the part of the worshiper [expand]
(2) Worship encouraged private and family worship as a complement to corporate public worship [expand]
(3) Worship demanded the response of the whole person to God as Creator and Redeemer [expand]
(4) Worship encouraged congregational worship that was active and participatory [expand]
(5) Worship focused on the redemptive Acts of God in human history [expand]
(6) Worship employed symbolism to enhance worship [expand]
(7) Worship observed a liturgical calendar that heightened the worshiper’s anticipation of and participation in ritual reenactment [expand]
(8) Worship assumed that a lifestyle of obedience in service to God completed the integrity of worship [expand]
[Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology]
CONCLUSION
This is what David tells us In Psalm 27. Verse 4 states so clearly, ‘One thing I ask of the LORD ,
this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.’ When things get rough for David, he wants to worship. When his spirit is down and out, he knows to worship. It is the one thing he seeks!
