RETHINK WORSHIP
prt.2 Exodus 3
Two days before Thanksgiving an elderly man in
Phoenix called his son in New York and said to him, "I hate to ruin your
day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing; 45 years of
misery is enough. Were sick of each
other, and so you call your sister in Chicago and tell her."
Frantic, the son called his sister, who exploded on
the phone. "Like heck theyre
getting divorced," she shouted, "Ill take care of this." She called
Phoenix immediately, and said to her father. "You are NOT getting divorced. Dont
do a single thing until I get there. Im calling my brother back, and well
both be there tomorrow.
Until
then, dont do a thing, DO YOU HEAR ME?"
The
man hung up his phone and turned to his wife. "Okay, honey great news. The kids are
coming for Thanksgiving and theyre paying for their OWN flights."
Thanksgiving
is a great time: Family and friends gathered around the table to feast/ to
offer up thanks
A) That is also a good
description of Church: The family gathered together as a family to offer up
thanks & to feast on the Word
B)We are here because
someone paid the way for us!
1)Jesus paid the price
C)Last
week we began a discussion on the subject of worship RETHINK WORSHIP.
D)Taking this opportunity to
do something we dont get to do very often corporately
1)Meditate
on a Subject Because we teach verse by verse book by book we move on
E)But sometimes it is just
good for us to meditate on something look at it from different angles
1)That is what we are doing
with Worship.
Good subject
to do that with because we are told in
Revelation
4:11 That God is the creator of all things and for
His pleasure they exist and were created.
A)We exist to bring Pleasure
to God.
B)And in John 4:22-23 God is Spirit.. and those who are true worshipers will worship Him in spirit
and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
C)God is looking for those
who will worship Him in Spirit and in truth.
1)So we need to know what
that means
So
we are taking the next few weeks to rediscover what the Bible had to say on the
subject
Dispel
the misconceptions
3 Introductory thoughts
#1 Worship is not a religious thing it is a human thing!
A)Everyone is a worshipper
It is not like a person becomes a follower of Jesus and starts to worship
B)People worship all sorts
of things As soon as we start to value and appreciate something form of
#2
Worship is a lifestyle!
A)Worship isnt about
singing or musical styles
B)Worship is about your
heart and how you live your life.
1)What we do here at Church
we call worship is only ONE expression of what should be the heartbeat of our lives.
Bb)Worship is a lifestyle!
C)There is a war over your worship!
1)Our enemy would love
nothing more than for you to give your life to something insignificant
#3
You become like whatever it is you worship!
A)That last point is what
makes this series of studies so relevant
B)Best thing for us is to
become more like Jesus
Theme
of study last week Worship involves Wonder Revelation 4-5
A)Focused on the scene in
Heaven around the throne
Sense of
Wonder before the throne in heaven
B)Wonder at who God is
Wonder that in the midst of the throne is a lamb
..been slain
1)Wonder of Redemption
Jesus died for me not the world but for Me
C)Worship is about getting
God in view realizing that He is the only one worthy of our worship.
D)Today we want to add to
that thought by discussing the fact that Worship also involves Reverence.
Turn to Exodus Ch.3 The
calling of Moses
God
appears to Moses in the Burning Bush I am sending you to tell Pharaoh let my
pp Go!
A)Now understand the
Egyptians had all these little vending machine gods
B)Different god for
everything Crops / Fertility etc
1)Names corresponded to what
they were supposed to do
C)So Moses knew the pp
would want to know what is this Gods name
1)So he asked the question
V. 13 Who shall I say has sent me
14
And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And He said, "Thus you
shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
D)In Hebrew it means TO BE
the Becoming one
Here is what God is saying
compared to all those pretender gods in Egypt who are not real.
E)I Am I actually exist
and I will prove TO BE whatever you need.
F)Now in v. 15 God gives to
them the name that they are going to use to describe God The LORD
15 Moreover God
said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: 'The LORD
God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob, has sent me to you.
Now
LORD is the English approximation of 4
hebrew consonants called the tetragramatron
A)The consonants are YHWH or
YHVH there werent any vowels so we are not sure how to Pronounce it
B)Our Best guess is Yahweh
or Jehovah
C)So God says this is the
name that Israel is to call me and This is My name
forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.'
D)The LORD
appears 6800 times in our English Bibles
Now
you have to agree with me that there is a difference between calling someone by
their Title and their name.
A)My wife doesnt call me
Pastor She doesnt call me Husband or fellow tax payer
B)She calls me Rob when I
am in trouble and Honey or Babe to be
affectionate
C)Well when God says to
Israel here is my name It is an invitation for them to know Him Starting
point
1)It is a communication of Relationship
D)You meet someone you
might ask what do you do First question is what
is your name right?
God
is saying to Israel I want you to know Who I am!
A)But the thing I want you
to see is that even though God is inviting them into relationship
B)The name that He gives
them is communicating a sense of Mystery Holiness and Reverence.
C)So on the one hand God is
inviting them into relationship but it is one that will involve some mystery
and majesty
Theologians
call this the tension between Gods Immanence = to be near or close
A)And His transcendence =
superior or supreme He is not like us. He is far superior to us.
B)This tension between His
closeness and His otherness His mysterious and majestic nature is what FUELS OUR WORSHIP!
C)On the one hand the Bible
tells us that we can Know Him and approach His throne confidently
1)On the other hand He is beyond our comprehension
D)We should never be so
arrogant as to think that we have Him figured out He fits into a little box
E)God is constantly
reminding us that He is bigger than we could ever imagine.
Exodus
19 We see another picture of His Immanence And His transcendence turn there.
A)God brings the people
led by Charleton Heston
Moses to MT Siani
B)God tells the pp of Israel
I want you to spend the next 3 days getting ready
for what is coming next
1)Consecrate themselves
Wash their clothes get ready for the third day.
C)In other words They were to PREPARE themselves for what would happen on the
third day.
1) Worship involves some
heart preparation come back to that thought
D)Set boundaries around the
MT they were not supposed to come near it or touch it. SERIOUS
16 Then it came
to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and
lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was
very loud, { trumpet the voice of God} so that all the people who were in the
camp trembled.
Now
how comfortable would you be to approach this MT I get it they were trembling
Scary
A)Ominous
B)RD
V.17-20
Here
God is inviting His pp into an even deeper relationship with Him a covenant relationship.
A)He is giving them the 10
commandments
B)He is revealing His heart this is how already redeemed
pp are to live.
C)But at the same time God
is going to Huge lengths to remind them that He is
not just like them.
D)On
the one hand He is inviting them into a deeper covenant relationship.
1)But on the other hand He
is doing it in such a way as to remind them that He is Holy majestic &
Awesome
E)Ominous scene MT covered
in smoke with thunder and lightning
All
of this reminds us of the scene around the throne that we looked at last week
in Rev 4-5
A)Voice like a trumpet
Smoke thunderings and lightning!
B)God is still this way!
Right Now!
C)But we are told something
incredible in Hebrews Ch. 12 About Jesus
The
book of Hebrews is a tremendous book
A)Focus Jewish believers
back to Judaism
B)The
writer of Hebrews is declaring that all the figures, leaders. Festivals and
sacrifices
1)Were pictures of the Jesus
who is the real thing
C)So why go back to the
pictures and the shadows when you can have the real thing.
D)Book starts powerfully -
Hebrews 1:1-3
God, who at
various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the
prophets, has in these last days spoken
to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also
He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image
of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had
by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Here
is what He is telling us is that the tension between His Immanence &
Trans. gets solved in Jesus He makes that Pt powerfully here in Ch. 12
A)V.18 For
you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with
fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, 19 and the sound of a trumpet
and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should
not be spoken to them anymore. 20 (For they could not endure what was commanded:
"And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or
shot with an arrow." 21 And so
terrifying was the sight that Moses said, "I am exceedingly afraid and
trembling.")
That
right there was the mark of the Old Covenant relationship with God
We
are in the New Covenant { Shedding of his blood
22 But you have
come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of
the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the
spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant,
and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
Here is what He is saying In
a Nutshell: You and I are privileged because of what
Jesus did His blood Our Mediator to enter into the Worship of Heaven
right now
The Whole worship scene in
the OT Tab / temple
Highlighted the tension.
A)Approach me with a
Sacrifice there has to be the shedding of blood
B)Gentile Gate of Tab
Temple outer court
1)Jew the Altar
C)Priest Blood Veil Holy
Place / Holy of Holies
D)At the Cross Veil was
rent in two
Hebrews 4 tells us we can enter into that throne room
boldly
A)Ephesians tells us we have
access to God the father
B)But
just Because we have access to Him doesnt mean that He has changed
1)1 Timothy 6:16 God still
dwells in unapproachable light.
C)But we can come to Him!
1)But notice how we are told
to approach Him
28 Therefore,
since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by
which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God
is a consuming fire.
28
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be
thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. NIV
28 Since we are
receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by
worshiping him with holy fear and awe. NLT
We
are to approach Him with Reverence and Awe always remembering He is a
consuming fire
A)He doesnt want to burn
you up burn out
But brighten you up
B)Reverence and
awe this guards us against the temptation of thinking of Jesus as just our
buddy.
1))Do not call you servants
but friends there is a closeness there but there is also suppose to be a
Reverence.
What
does Reverence and Awe look like? How do we get there?
A)Opposite of casual and
Flippant.
B)Reverence means to honor
and regard something highly Respect
for an office.
1)The office of the
President of the United States
C)If the President of the
U.S. called me today and said Rob lunch tomorrow
policies
1)I am not going to respond
sorry dude my schedule is full my pp call your pp
D)No first I am
not going to call him Dude and 2nd I would clear my schedule
E)To Reverence someone means
that I adjust to Him!
We
see this in the heavenly scene: First with John
A)Described himself in John
as the Disciple whom Jesus loved! Head on breast doesnt get any closer
B)Sees the glorified Jesus
Revelation 1 I fell at his feet as though dead
1)close yet reverence
C)Elders 3 times Fell down
4:9, 5:8, 5:19
1)Not just talking about
Posture Knees
D)Heart posture of Humility
To
Revere also means I will approach it cautiously.
A)When a Baby is born!
That is a reverential moment.
B)You dont come crashing
into the Hospital room throwing High fives grabbing the baby out of moms arms
throwing around the room.
C)You approach that
cautiously not invade that sacred moment.
1)You wait until you are
asked do you want to hold the baby.
D)Respect for the place
the moment!
Reverence
also speaks of having worth for the relationship. Worship = Worthship
A)Two ways to date. Single guys listen up/ married too
B)Lets say it is our night
to go out we need to leave by 6:30
1)I show up at 6:40
unshaven still need a shower and to change
C)What am I communicating
I am communicating by my actions that our relationship isnt worth much to
me.
D)The other way is: I get
home early enough to get ready I pick up flowers on the way Make Resv.
1)Not just going to
MacDonalds
I am
communicating that our relationship is worth a lot and my time with her is very
special to me.
Reverence
often requires preparation.
A)Lets get really practical
Ok
B)How do we prepare to come
here to seek God with a sense of Reverence? -
Be on time!
1)Get up earlier not late
C)The most important part of
my time here is not to see my friends and talk about the big game.
D)It is to join my Church
family and to seek God together!
1)Worship happening at home
on your own
For most of us that is not
the case.
I
am not trying to be mean condemning
A)Dont miss out make a priority
B)Those of you who have a
tendency to be late I ask this question Do you show 15 min late movie?
C)It is about Worth
Prepare my heart first!
A)Hard with kids
B)Slow down
Turn
off your cell phone Next hour/ half you
have my undivided attention.
Be Honest God this is where I am today frustrated afraid confused I
need to see you
Trust God with my past the
past is past
Trust God with my future
His hands
So help me to be present in
the moment.
Close
two thoughts: For some of you here today you need to be reminded God is
near close
A)So interested in you
knows # of hairs
B)Thoughts like the sand
good not evil future and a hope
C)Gave His son Jesus for you
know Him Jesus says I will NEVER leave you nor forsake you.
Many of us need to be
reminded of what it means that we get to approach God
A)Repent of a lack of
Reverence.
Soccer s