This sermon was adapted from an idea of Larry Brincefi
Growing up in a military family I have had to learn how to adjust. When we moved from Texas to California we had to learn how to forget that Bar-B-Que existed and move on to other things. When we moved to New Orleans we had to adjust from beautiful mountains in the back yard to flat everything.
Moving from Nashville to Gainesville we had to adjust from being one church in a town with 100 to being the only church in town.
And now since this is the first small town I have ever lived in we are doing some more adjusting. One of the areas we are adjusting to is restaurant situation. Living in Atlanta for 4+ years there are still some restaurants that we never made it to. But there were some that we liked and went to often.
We love to eat out! It makes it easier for Trista, because there is less mess and clean up. I don’t have to cook. Everyone can order what they want, we don’t all have to have the same thing.
Of course, on the down side, it is more expensive. And you really don’t know who is back there cooking the food or the care they take in their food preparation. You know I’ve gotten food poisoning on occasion in a restaurant; but I can’t remember ever getting food poisoning from home-cooked meal.
One of our favorite places to go is a buffet. Now Dan and I joke every time we go to the Hospital in Jasper about not having enough self control to eat at Ryan’s but there is merit to an all you can eat. Not only does everyone get what they want to eat but they can go back and eat as much as they want!
I can assure you that regardless of whether Dr. Phil would call me an Apple or Pear shaped person I am aware of the healthy eating habits. I know about those things called “vegetables”. And I have been to a salad bar or two in my life. But to be honest when I get to the buffet line, I usually don’t load up on salad and vegetables. I head straight to the good stuff Fried Chicken, Red Meat, Pizza, with lots of cheese, sausage, and pepperoni. And when I do get vegetables, they are usually breaded and deep-fried, and dipped in sauce.
Now before your stomach starts growling and you get lost in thoughts of Moo Go Guy Pan, or Sesame Chicken with extra Sauce let’s try to make this relevant to our text tonight.
Unfortunately there are many people who live their Christianity like they are standing at a buffet line! They have their favorite parts and then there are some parts they don’t understand or like so they pick some of this and some of that, trying to make them selves happy.
It’s like the time I got a call at a church where we were working and the voice on the other side asked me about our worship style and how it compares with other denominations. Do you have a long sermon or is there plenty of music? How long will we be there? Is there much congregation participation? I answered his questions… But after we hung up, I got the feeling he wouldn’t be coming to our church. He didn’t want to know if the people were friendly. He didn’t want to know if he would hear Biblically based sermons. He didn’t even care what we believed. What our doctrine was. I got the feeling he was looking for a church that was entertaining. Where he could sit back and get a blessing and leave without getting involved.
He was going through the Christian buffet line taking a little of this some of that and probably never really got to the vegetables the stuff that is so important to our spiritual health. Paul says in I Corinthians 3 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly.
Most people think worship is like a buffet line where you go and gorge yourself on things that satisfy your appetite your taste buds without ever realizing that they are missing the point of what worship really is.
If I like to pray then I want to go to a church that has regular prayer meetings. If I want to hear the Scriptures read than I look for a church that spends time in the Book. But most of us like the singing, and would rather have shorter sermons and more singing.
Worship appears throughout Scripture you can find it from the earliest pages of Scripture.
God was pleased by Abel’s worship but Cain’s worship was displeasing to God. Scripture doesn’t tell us exactly why God accepted Abel’s sacrifice, and rejected Cain’s. Jewish tradition says that Abel brought the best of his flock for sacrifice while Cain brought a few scrawny ears of corn keeping the best for himself. But whatever the reason we see in Genesis 4:7 that Cain new what was the whole will of God and chose not to do it.
In Exodus 3 we see Moses getting a crash course in Yahweh worship in the form of a burning bush.
Then in the Book of Psalms we read 38 different Psalms dealing with Worship.
Worship is weaved in the very fabric of the Old Testament through the practice of bringing animal and grain sacrifices to God.
And we read of Christ worshiping the Father during His life, through fasting, prayer, teaching, and singing.
I believe that we are aware of the importance of worship in our lives but tonight I want to impress on the importance of complete worship.
Tonight I’d like us to look at one incident from Abraham’s life as an example for us as it relates to worship. I’d like to put 4 items on the buffet of worship and no...you can’t just go and pick what you want gorging on 1 or 2 things while leaving the other parts out. you need to partake of all 4 in order to have a healthy worship
Lets read Genesis 18:1-8 and then we will pray.
The First Item on the buffet of Worship is learning to recognize the Presence of the Lord.
Abraham was sitting outside the front flap of his tent trying to cool down, in the heat of the day. Our text tells us "The LORD appeared to Abraham"
How do you think that Abraham knew that this was the Lord? Do you think that God was wearing a Hello my name is tag? Do you think that He and the two others with Him were glowing? The Bible doesn’t tell us how Abraham knew. But I think that it is interesting that Abraham knew who God was.
What about you? Have you ever had an experience where you felt that God was near? Near enough to feel His comfort and Peace? Near enough to feel the strength that Only God can give? I believe that we have all had an experience like that, but that was not what Abraham was feeling.
Abraham was looking for God to show up. In verse 2 we see that the men were standing opposite, or nearby but Abraham still had to run to them. Abraham recognized God drawing near to him and in turn he ran to draw near to God. He was searching God out. He wanted an opportunity to worship, to be in the presence of God so he was looking for opportunities to do just that.
In the same way we need to learn to be sensitive to the Lord’s presence in our lives every day whether we are sitting on the front porch after lunch, or washing dishes, at work, or driving down the road.
In the New Testament there are 2 words that we translate into Worship Proskuneo and Latreuo.
Latreuo – Is defined reverent service, or religious respect.
We have given ourselves as living sacrifices and He has declared our very lives to be worship to Him. One of the best definitions of worship I have ever read was penned by Warren Wiersbe: “Worship is the believers response of all that he is – mind, emotions, will, and body – to all that God is and says and does. It is a loving response that is balanced by the fear of the Lord, and it is a deepening response as the believer comes to know God better.”
If we are truly living a life of Latreuo then we are looking for God in every aspect of our lives. And when the Lord appears to us wherever we are whenever it happens we will be able, like Abraham, to recognize it.
The second item on the buffet, when the Lord shows up, we need to run to meet Him.
Abraham certainly enjoyed sitting in front of his tent it was nice sitting in the shade, listening to the wind through the trees, enjoying the pleasant breeze. I am sure that it was a place of comfort.
When the Lord showed up He didn’t say, "Sarah, tell Him to come back later...so I can finish my nap" He didn’t watch the Lord approaching and wait for Him to get there. Our Scripture says, "he ran from his tent to meet them"
When the Lord shows up we need to get out of our comfort zone we need to get up and get going. But that’s hard. So many of us have settled into a routine that our Christianity has become comfortable. We don’t read the Bible like we should because we think that we know what’s in there. We don’t pray because God knows what’s going on. And like the man who told his wife that he loved her 50 years ago, the people here know that we care and when we change our minds we will tell them.
We have forgotten that living the Christian life requires effort. But doesn’t everything.
Last week when the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl they won because of the effort they put in. Tom Brady knows how to throw the football, Deon Branch knows how to catch, Corey Dillon knows how to run, and Teddy Bruschi knows how to tackle. But do you know what they will be doing in 5 months? Going back to Summer Training Camp. Sweating and straining in the heat, spending sleepless nights looking over play books and videos, and spending hours in the weight room. Now they know how to play, they have won 3 out of the last 4 Superbowls, why would they go through all of this. Couldn’t they just sit back on their knowledge? Aren’t they strong enough?
You know the answer to that is no. They have got to put forth the effort to get better. They can’t sit back and get comfortable. Comfort breeds complacency, and complacency leads to death in Football and in your Spiritual life.
When the Lord shows up and we must recognize His presence and not only get out of our comfort zone but do like Abraham did and run to meet Him!
We are at an exciting time in our families life. When I go off for the day and return home Trafton is always waiting for me. When he sees me he gets so excited that I’m home that he doesn’t just walk non-chalantly over to me, he runs as fast as his little legs can carry him and jumps into my arms!
That’s a perfect example of how we need the meet the Lord!!!
Do you have that excitement for the Lord? Are you excited about the opportunity to worship that you get here early? Are you so excited about what God has in store for your life that you search the scriptures daily? Or have you slipped into complacency?
The Third item on the buffet, we need to worship the Lord with humility.
We read that Abraham "bowed low to the ground", actually a better translation would be that he fell to the ground and placed his face in the dirt. When we come to God in humility we are simply putting ourselves in the proper relationship to God.
Part of worship is recognizing Who God is but we also must recognize who we are by comparison. Too often, we have the attitude of "what did I get out of that Church service"? But the real question is "what did GOD get out of that church service"?
Was He exalted,? lifted up,? elevated,? raised up,? glorified,? honored?
Abraham was not a man of common means. He was accustomed to having servants to do his bidding. If the camels needed fed, his servants fed. If he was hungry his servants made him dinner. He said go and they went. He said do and they did. They were his servants, and they acted like servants.
But Abraham didn’t have a high opinion of himself because he knew that even though He had servants he also had a master.
That’s one reason that we are called to worship God. It allows us to recognize that we are God’s servants. God is in control. And within His hands are all of our problems, cares, and worries, because He is Lord of All.
Finally we need realize that true worship costs us something.
In verses 4-8 we see that Abraham was ready to give of his means to meet the needs of God. He had Sarah, make bread while he took a choice calf and prepared it. And even made curds and milk.
Now the first place my mind went when I was studying this week was if God is truly Lord of All then what do I have that I can give? He owns the Mountains, the seas and everything is at His disposal. What do I have that I can give, what do I have that is worthy of a sacrifice.
Well a sacrifice needs to be just that a sacrifice. If I were to offer God something that cost didn’t cost me anything there is no way that it could be acceptable because it is not a sacrifice, it is not the best I have to offer.
My mind goes to two illustrations that I believe teaches us how to make acceptable sacrifices. The first one is found in Mark 12: 41-44
Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything--all she had to live on."
Though the widow’s sacrifice was small it was acceptable. The size of or sacrifice, is not what is important, it is what it cost us, is it our best. Once again God does not desire your better than, He desires your best.
The other example is found in the book 2 Samuel 24. The background of the story is that David had again sinned against the Lord and he is told to go to the threshing floor of a man by the name of Araunah, and build a sacrifice there. When Araunah sees David approaching he goes out to meet him and bows down before him asking what does David require from him.
David tells him that he is there is buy the threshing floor and to build an altar to the LORD, so that the LORD will stop the plague."
David is told to just to take whatever he needs free of cost to make the sacrifice. But listen to David’s answer in 2 Samuel 24:24:
However, the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
David wanted his sacrifice to be acceptable to the Lord. And he knew that if cost him nothing, it would not be sacrifice.
Many times we make sacrifices that cost us nothing. Sometimes in the form of money, we say well I guess I can give a little extra to the church this week, I have some left over. Sometimes in the way of service, well I’ve got nothing better to do, I guess I can stop by the church and do whatever.
But in matters of money, talents or time our sacrifices must cost us something to be acceptable. Our sacrifices need to be just that sacrifices.
Like I said at the beginning tonight I love a buffet. Tonight as we gather, we have a big, beautiful, buffet table before us. Its tempting to head straight to the junk food and fill up on that But if we truly want to worship God We need to fill our plate with 4 things:
We need to recognize God. We need to run to meet Him. We need to put some humility on our plate. And we need to be aware of the cost and pay it joyfully.
Today are you here to drink deeply in worship of our creator or you picking and choosing what you want?
