Sermon am 14082005

14th August 2005 WORSHIP - WALKING HUMBLY WITH GOD - p.m. version. Pastor Colin Meadows

Psalm 40:1-10, 1 Samuel 15:10-14, 22

God has placed us on earth as part of his divine plan. We are here for a purpose – to know God and to love Him. In fact, we can distinguish five distinct areas of purpose that God has created us for: Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry and Mission . Tonight will be looking at the first, Worship – our response of walking humbly with God.

· What is Worship? Popular view is that worship is singing praise songs to God. Others feel it is quiet reflection and meditation on the holiness and love of God, or reading the bible and listening to it being applied to our lives.

But worship is much more than this.

Psalm 95:6 “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker…”

Worship is our humbling ourselves before our mighty, righteous creator. Worship is our human response to the love and mercy of our God. Worship is our response to God’s holiness and grace in the light of our sinfulness and disobedience. Worship is obedience and submission to God that leads to a humble walk, of acknowledging God as master and Lord and us as his servants.

Different words are used in the bible for the word ‘worship’ that are translated into English - ‘to bow down’, ‘to serve’, ‘to esteem highly’, ‘to venerate’ and to ‘kiss the hand’. Behind them all these words is the awareness that our God is high and holy, pure and righteous. He is the ‘holy other’. We are not his equals. While we are created in God’s image and likeness, He is creator and we are his creation. Worship is thus our whole of life response to such a mighty, powerful, exalted God.

Let us explore this further as we look at Psalm 40:1-10. How can we be made ready for worship?

· God makes us ready for Worship: The psalmist reflects that there was a time when he was far from God and unable to worship. He was up to his ears in the mud and dirt of life, caught up in rebellion towards his creator. He was in no position to help himself. It was in this helpless state that he cried out to God. We need to remember we are powerless to save ourselves. IT is because of the grace and mercy of God that we are rescued, not through our own efforts. A Buddhist friend asked me about the Christian gospel. What did he have had to do… just cry out to God and thank Him for what He has already done for us in Christ… no, that is not enough, he explained. What did he have to do? We are rescued by God when in our helplessness we cry out to him, trusting in all that Christ has done for us on the cross.

Then God will lift us up and placed us on a rock. This gives us a firm place to stand. Once we feel that rock, then we know we are safe. That is what happened to the writer of the psalm. God is our rock.

Psalm 19:14 “…O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.”

God is the one on whom we can rebuild our lives, the foundation for our feet. This imagery flows through into the NT where Jesus is pictured as our foundation and rock. Many people however stumble on this rock, instead of seeking it out as a place of safety and rescue.

Romans 9:33 “…See I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

Jesus is the rock on which we can stand secure. But once we are standing in Christ, God then begins a great work in our hearts. He give us a new heart, a heart for worship.

· God gives us hearts for worship: Once we have found our safety and security in Christ, God then touches our hearts. He helps us to see all things in a new way. Our eyes are slowly opened to a new awareness of our world. The Holy Spirit of Jesus gives us new eyes to see things from God’s perspective. We then can begin to respond with hearts of worship.

Psalm 40:3 “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.”

As Christians respond with grateful hearts to all that God has done for them, they will not be able to remain silent! This response can take many forms but one of the most obvious is that of song. Christians should be joyful singers! The church of God down through the ages has always been a singing church, even during times of severe persecution, Christians would sing. I did a quick check in the bible and was amazed at how many times we are commanded to sing out in praise to God! The psalms themselves were intended to be sung, for being set to music, this aided memory.

It doesn’t matter if you are not too good a singer… just make a joyful noise. One of the amazing outcomes of such worship is that it touches the hearts of people who are outside of the faith community. In Psalm 40:3 we read “Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.” Worship in song in response to all that God has done for us will touch and transform the hearts of others and draw them to faith. Thus our hearts should respond to God’s grace and mercy by us becoming people of praise. But worship is more than singing and performing religious ritual. Worship has at its heart is deep-felt obedience to God.

· God sees obedience as the heart of worship: As we contemplate all that God has created and all that he has done for us in Christ Jesus to re-create us, our only legitimate response should be that of wholehearted obedience. God is not looking for religious ritual and spiritual gymnastics.

Psalm 40: 6 “Sacrifice and offering you do not desire… burnt offerings and sin offerings you do not require.”

While there was nothing wrong with these rituals, there is something far more important than these external activities.

Psalm 40:7 “Here I am, I have come – it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do you will, O my God.”

Singing songs of worship and praise are wonderful, but that is not the heart of worship. Bringing our offerings to God and other acts of worship are positive, but there is something much more important. What God desires as true worship is walking humbly with him, of living a life of obedience, of having a deep desire to do his will. That is true worship in the eyes of God. True worship is the response of a grateful servant to a mighty master. In Psalm 40:6 we read “…but my ears you have pierced.” This is a fascinating link to an OT practice. There is a lot of body piercing going on these days, but this is one piercing I would encourage! Concerning these words, many people feel that this refers to the practice in OT times of piercing the ears of a servant who had served his time but who wished to stay voluntarily with his master.

Exodus 21:6 “He shall….pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.”

As an act of freewill obedience, the freed servant would seek to stay with the master and live in obedience to him for life. That I sense is what is being spoken of here. Worship is walking humbly, as a freewill choice, with our God forever.

For most of us, this is difficult. We like to come up with a compromise. We feel we can negotiate with God, to find conditions that are agreeable to both parties. We see an example of such partial obedience in the life of King Saul. Saul was told by God to go and wipe out the Amelikites and their livestock. He was not to spare anything. Saul started to do that but then felt he had a better plan. He thus spared the enemy king to have him to display around the country as a trophy of war.

He also spared the best of the sheep and cattle to offer up, he claimed, in sacrifice to God. Saul thus placed his plans and desires over and above God’s will for his life. Such was not what God intended. Thus we read in 1 Samuel 15:22 “…To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.” God was grieved then that he had made Saul king. This was the beginning of the end for Saul.

We too can be like King Saul. We hear how God wants us to live, but feel we have a better plan. We think we know better than God, and that he can be brought on side. Such is not so. God wishes to have us as servants whose ears have been pierced by his word and who now seek to live in obedience to him, to worship him by walking humbly with him.

The Apostle Paul summed this up well in Romans 12:1 “Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” Servants of God offering ourselves willingly up to him as people excited about his will for our lives and seeking with all our hearts to do it.

Where does this find you? Have you been rescued by God from the pit and are now standing firmly on Christ? Has your heart responded in praise to him for all that he has done for you? Have you grown to see that true worship is to walk in humble obedience to God, putting your plans to one side and rather seeking to listen to his voice alone. That is the heart of true worship.

In July 1976 an Israeli aircraft had been hijacked by terrorists and flown to Entebbe airport, Uganda . In a daring raid Israeli commandos stormed the airport terminal, shouting to the Jewish passengers in Hebrew “Get down, crawl, stay down”. The passengers, who all understood Hebrew, fell to the ground while the terrorists were caught on their feet. In all, 103 of the hostages were freed and all seven of the kidnappers killed in a hail of bullets. Three hostages however were killed in the raid, which lasted about 15 minutes. In the analysis of the rescue, it was found that the three passengers who were killed had disobeyed the commands of their ‘would be rescuers’ and stood up to see what was happening. They thought they had a better plan. If they had obeyed they would not have lost their lives.

Let us seek to worship God by walking in humble obedience to him, seeking to fulfil his will for our lives. Let us not try to come up with a better plan for there isn’t one! Rather, walk humbly with God.

Be part of the 40 Days journey as we discover together what God’s purposes for our lives are:

Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry, Mission

Pastor Colin Meadows

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