Participants: John Lomacang
Series Code: ASHF
Program Code: ASHF000053
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00:19 Hello friends. Welcome to another Wednesday Night Live 00:22 here in Thompsonville, Illinois at the 3ABN Worship Center 00:26 where it seems like it's summer. Aren't we glad for the warm 00:29 weather, amen anyone. And tonight we're also thankful that 00:33 the Spirit of God is going to be here. You know sometimes you 00:37 realize that everything about the word of God sometimes is 00:40 encased on the battlefield and we've been going through a lot 00:44 of issues here today that, praise God, haven't stopped us 00:48 from saying hello to you wherever you're tuning in from 00:52 around the world. And so the Lord always wins. It makes a 00:56 live program fun when everybody is scurrying around. I don't 00:59 think everybody would agree with me on that, but we're here 01:03 tonight. Can we all say amen to that? Tonight we'd like to 01:06 encourage you to get your Bibles invite your friends, maybe your 01:10 family members. We're going to study tonight A Servant's Life. 01:13 And if you'd like a copy of the lesson go to the website 01:18 ASF.3ABN.ORG. Just to let you know, download lesson number 01:23 16. Now after the lesson is over tonight you'll be able to go 01:27 ahead and go back to that website, hopefully tomorrow, and 01:31 download the complete lesson of number 16 because chances are 01:36 you'll only get number 1-9. We actually have 17 questions. But 01:41 the good thing about watching the program is you will see 01:43 those questions on the television and because you have 01:46 your Bible, you'll also be able to look up the texts and you'll 01:50 also see the answers to the scriptures that will appear on 01:53 the screen. But before we have our song for tonight which we 01:56 enjoy singing, let's invite the Lord to be here. Let's pray 01:59 together. Heavenly Father we thank you that in the midst of 02:03 the battle of doing your will that you are on the battlefield 02:08 with us. You're fighting the battle for your honor and for 02:13 your glory. And you said that when we cast out your word, your 02:17 word will never return void. So we pray that even now, Father, 02:22 you'll speak to the hearts of those who are listening and 02:25 watching this program. You'll bring them into your presence. 02:28 and truly this will not be just the conveyance of information 02:31 but the reminder of how beautiful it is to worship an 02:36 eternal and a wonderful Lord. This we pray in Jesus' name amen 02:40 Well we always like to sing our song and our theme song is 02:45 Victory in Jesus. Oh I tell you we had a wonderful victory 02:49 in Jesus to get all the cameras working and make all the 02:53 connections. I mean, I even forgot my thumb drive at home 02:56 my i-pad. The devil was working hard today. But we 03:02 had victory in Jesus. So let's sing this song tonight in honor 03:05 of the victory we find in Christ ¤ ¤ 03:15 ¤I heard an old, old story how the Savior came from glory¤ 03:22 ¤How he gave his life on Calvary to save a wretch like me. ¤ 03:30 ¤I heard about his groaning Of his precious blood atoning¤ 03:37 ¤Then I repented of my sin and won the victory¤ 03:46 ¤Oh victory in Jesus My Savior forever¤ 03:52 ¤He sought and bought me in His redeeming love¤ 04:00 ¤He loved me e'er I knew Him and all my love is due Him¤ 04:07 ¤He plunged me to victory Beneath the cleansing flood¤ 04:15 ¤I heard about a mansion He has built for me in glory¤ 04:23 ¤And I heard about the streets of gold¤ 04:27 ¤Beyond the crystal sea¤ 04:30 ¤About the angels singing and the old redemption story¤ 04:37 ¤And some sweet day I'll sing up there the song of victory¤ 04:45 Key change. 04:46 ¤Oh victory in Jesus My Savior forever¤ 04:53 ¤He sought me and bought me with His redeeming love¤ 05:02 ¤He loved me e'er I knew Him and all my love is due Him¤ 05:09 ¤He plunged me to victory Beneath the cleansing flood¤ 05:20 Amen for that. Tonight we're going to be talking about The 05:31 The Servant's Worship. What is the title? Say 05:35 that with me together. The Servant's Worship. Now if you 05:41 are a servant of the Lord, the highest honor that you can give 05:48 to Him is to worship Him. Now not to sing songs to Him or to 05:54 preach sermons for Him, but to worship Him. When you read the 06:00 story of Revelation you find in Revelation 4 and 5 that 24 hours 06:07 a day, seven days a week, I would say 365 days a year, but 06:11 there is no limitation of time in heaven, that the angels in 06:15 glory, that the 24 elders, the four beasts there in Revelation 06:20 are bowing down and worshipping the Lord, the One who reigns 06:24 forever and ever and ever and ever. And if there's something 06:28 that we do every day and we're going to do that when we get to 06:32 glory, we're going to worship God eternally and when you think 06:36 of the word eternally, how long is eternally? Somebody tell me. 06:40 Eternally is eternally. I mean that's a long time. So if 06:45 there's something that we're going to be doing eternally we 06:49 ought to know about. We ought not wait till we get there to 06:53 God, well how do we worship you? What do you require of us as it 06:59 pertains to worship? And so tonight's topic we're going to 07:03 covering a number of issues and also the pitfalls of not 07:06 worshipping the Lord, the beauty of worshipping the Lord and a 07:10 number of things are going to be covered. So tonight as we 07:14 prepare for our topic, I'd like to have you go with me to 07:17 question number 1, question number 1. Now some of you have 07:21 been diligent and have gone ahead and have filled out some 07:24 of the answers of questions number 1 tonight. We're going 07:28 to try our best to get through this entire lesson. Question 07:33 number 1: What is the only way that God can be worshipped? 07:37 The only way that God can be worshipped. The Bible makes it 07:44 very clear. Let's go to John chapter 4 verse 23 and verse 24. 07:48 I like to hear the pages turning even those of who are here they 07:53 know the answer is going to be here on the screen but I can 07:58 still hear the pages turning. John chapter 4 verse 23 and 08:03 verse 24. Okay, let's look at that together. Here I am. Now 08:10 John chapter 4, here I am. Okay I have it on the screen but I 08:17 want to look at the text in particular. This particular 08:22 story comes together and the Lord is talking to a woman at 08:27 the well. Now let me ask you a question. What do you get when 08:30 you go to a well, or what are you looking for? Okay, you're 08:34 not looking for dirt, you're not looking for sand, you're not 08:38 looking for rocks. You're lowering your water pot and you 08:43 hoping to get water. What that says to me, and I'm using the 08:47 story in exploded manner, thinking about the church, 08:51 thinking about what we receive from Christ. You know day by day 08:54 it is our privilege... in this story, the woman went to that 08:58 well day by day by day by day and she understood the 09:01 importance of drinking water. Well when our days begin we 09:05 ought to understand the importance of spiritual water. 09:09 Jesus is the water of life. He made that very clear. So day by 09:14 day she went to the well seeking water but on this day she was 09:18 about to be introduced to the Living Water. And this is a 09:23 conversation... and when the Lord gets down to verse 23 He 09:27 had to battle through a whole lot of issues about worship. So 09:31 what I want to do before we get to verse 23 is I want to 09:34 introduce you to some of those issues of worship. One of the 09:37 issues of worship that the Lord dealt with her pretty quickly 09:41 here was go call your husband. Now I want to deal with this 09:45 very carefully here because the Bible speaks of two husbands. 09:50 How many husbands? Say it with some umph. How many? Two. The 09:54 Bible speaks of two husbands. In the book of Romans chapter 7, 09:56 you don't have to go there, I'm just going to talk about it. 10:00 Romans chapter 7, the Bible says a woman is bound by the law to 10:04 her husband as long as he lives but if he dies she is free to 10:09 marry another man. But if she marries another man while he 10:12 liveth, she is an adulteress. And then he uses the context. 10:16 He is speaking to the church. So the church has a husband. This 10:20 woman had five husbands. She was with the sixth husband when 10:25 Jesus met her and Jesus became the seventh man in her life. 10:29 Amen? So he was last and he was the only perfect man in her life 10:34 He became the seventh man she'd met. And there were changes 10:38 after she met Jesus. So the first imagery we find here is 10:43 the woman has a husband. The church is the bride and Christ 10:48 is the husband. But the second thing is she was stumbling over 10:54 the issue of worshipping and that's the reason why we're 10:56 going to be leading out with this particular text. Because 11:00 when Jesus talked to her about her husbands she flipped the 11:03 topic altogether. She went from her husband. Notice what she 11:08 went to. You're in John chapter 4, right? Look at verse 18. I 11:12 want you to see how she flipped the script on Jesus. Well verse 11:17 17 has got to be the context because verse 18 is the 11:19 continuance of verse 17. The woman answered and said, I have 11:24 no husband. Jesus said to her you have well said. I have no 11:28 husband, for you have had how many? Five 11:32 husbands and the one whom you now have is not your husband. 11:39 In that you spoke truly. The Lord in essence is saying to her 11:44 You've been with so many men you don't really have one. So one of 11:47 the things we have to decide when it comes to worship we have 11:51 to decide who is going to be our husband man. You can't be going 11:55 from church to church to church to church to church to church. 11:58 And when you find the right church, you won't be going back 12:02 to where you were before. That's the lesson in this particular 12:05 story. She didn't go back to any of those five husbands, any of 12:09 those six husbands after she met Jesus. Do you get that? And 12:12 Divinity must have given that to me because I've never said 12:15 that before. My wife knows. She's heard me preach this 12:18 sermon for many, many years. She never went back to any of those 12:21 men after she met Jesus. When you find the truth, you never go 12:25 back to examine the journey you took on the way to Christ. You 12:28 never go back and say well I wonder if I found the right man? 12:32 She made so many changes she even left her water pot because 12:36 she found the right water, the living water. But here's 12:38 something else. She changed the topic altogether. Look at verse 12:43 The woman said to Him, Sir I perceive that you are a 12:46 prophet. Is that an understatement. I perceive that 12:50 you understand prophecy, you seem to know a whole lot, in 12:54 other words. And then she goes our fathers worshipped on this 12:59 mountain and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where 13:03 you ought to worship. Notice how she flips the topic to worship. 13:07 Now what's amazing, it seems as though she switched the topic to 13:11 worship but you know what... Let me get back to the marriage 13:14 counseling side. Who you're married to determines whether or 13:17 not you can worship the Lord the way he wants to be worshipped. 13:20 Sometimes that's a barrier and she realized, wait a minute, the 13:23 Lord is getting to the root of the issue here and the root of 13:25 the issue as she perceived the root of the issue was worship. 13:29 So now look at verse 21 and we're going to get down to the 13:34 answer. Jesus said to her, woman believe me... Can you hear Jesus 13:39 saying that, woman believe me. The hour is coming when you will 13:44 neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. 13:50 He's saying to her location is what you're focusing on, I'm 13:56 focusing on how. Look at verse 22. You worship what you do not 14:01 know. We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. 14:05 The Lord gave that message to them to communicate to the 14:09 world. And here's the answer to number 1. Let's read it together 14:13 and it's going to be on the screen. Are you ready. Let's 14:15 read this together with some strength. But the hour is coming 14:19 and now is when the true worshippers will worship the 14:24 Father in spirit and in truth for the Father is seeking such 14:30 to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must 14:36 worship in Spirit and truth. So what is the only way that God 14:42 can be worshipped? In Spirit and truth. Write that down if you 14:46 haven't already done so. Some of you have done so. God wants to 14:51 be worshipped in Spirit and in truth Sometimes location becomes 14:55 the issue so people jump around from one place to the other to 14:59 the other to the other. The Bible makes it very clear and 15:02 Paul talks about... Matter of fact, go with me to the book of 15:04 Ephesians. Go to Ephesians. You see one of the reasons why the 15:10 woman jumped around and I'm using the woman now in a 15:14 metaphorical way to represent the church, one of the reasons 15:16 why the woman kept going from husband to husband to husband 15:20 to husband was because she had no anchor in any one of them. 15:23 And when one came along she went with that one. Another came 15:27 along, she went with that one. She was like a person tossed 15:32 back and forth with any wind of doctrine. You see the context 15:35 there. That's what happens when you have no anchor and we're 15:39 going to talk about what the anchor is. One of the most 15:41 important anchors that you can have in worship is worship God 15:45 in spirit through the leading of His Holy Spirit and in truth. 15:49 Now let me tell you this. The Holy Spirit will never lead 15:53 anyone to reject the truth of God's word. Never. If you say 15:57 the truth doesn't matter, then worshipping the true God really 16:01 is not what you're doing. Because God says must. Look at 16:05 that word. And those who worship Him, what's the next word? Must 16:10 worship in spirit and truth. And the Holy Spirit never says this 16:15 can be ignored, that can be ignored and God will still 16:18 accept your worship. He has established the parameters. But 16:21 look at one of the reasons why. Ephesians chapter 4, okay notice 16:26 this. And let's begin with verse 13. I'll just go ahead and use 16:31 verse 13 because verses 13 and 14 and 15 are going to really 16:36 pull out what I'm trying to bring out tonight. He says, till 16:42 we all come to the what? Unity of the faith and the knowledge 16:46 of the Son of God to a what kind of man? Perfect man. The word 16:51 there perfect means mature, to the measure of the stature of 16:55 the fullness of Christ that we should no longer be what? 17:00 Children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind 17:07 of doctrine. By the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness 17:13 by which they lie in wait to do what? To deceive. But what 17:19 they're not doing is telling you the truth and they're not being 17:23 led by the Spirit. The very next verse is so vitally important. 17:28 Verse 15. But speaking the truth in love they grow up in all 17:33 things into Him who is the Head, Christ. And what I want 17:37 to get here, lot of people... This is something that's very 17:40 important, and I want you to focus on the words grow up. Say 17:44 that together with me. Grow up. Now here's the point. Jesus said 17:48 spirit and He said truth. There are those who claim to be in the 17:52 spirit and all they do is jump up and blow up and there are 17:56 those who claim to be in the truth but they have no spirit 18:01 They're like the hills of Gilboa They dry up. But when you 18:05 worship God in spirit and in truth you don't just blow up and 18:09 jump up and dry up. When you worship in spirit and in truth, 18:13 text made it very clear, you grow up. Notice the phrase 18:18 there. Circle that in your Bible Just so you can remember that. 18:21 You grow up. You can choose to do that or not. But if you want 18:24 to do that write it down on your paper. Write Ephesians chapter 18:28 4 and the importance of truth in verse 15, Ephesians 4 verse 18:31 15 is that we may grow up. You know if you become a Christian 18:35 and you never grow, the evidence is that you're not studying the 18:39 Bible. If you're studying the Bible, you will be exposed to 18:42 the truth of God and then you cannot be exposed to the truth 18:46 of God if the Spirit of God is not leading you. Because John 18:49 16 verse 13, write that down, go to that again very quickly, John 18:54 16:13 to show you how the Spirit and the truth work together. 18:59 John 16:13. I tell people when I talk to people about the truth 19:03 in God's word and they'll say well I'll wait till God reveals 19:08 it to me. I'll wait till God impresses me. And I'm thinking 19:12 impress. I'd like them to have the same attitude if I give them 19:17 a check for $100,000. Now I don't believe what it says. I'll 19:21 wait till I feel impressed. They'll be impressed instantly. 19:25 And they'll be so impressed they'll find their way to the 19:28 nearest bank at least to theirs. But notice what the Bible says 19:31 about the Spirit of God. And once again I reiterate, you 19:34 never are under the leading of the Spirit to reject the truth 19:37 of God's word. It may make you uncomfortable but it says that 19:41 you need to be adjusting, not the word of God. Okay, look at 19:45 this. However, or howbeit, as the King James Version says, 19:50 when He the Spirit of truth has come or is come He will guide 19:54 you into all truth for He will not speak on his own authority, 19:59 for whatever he hears he will speak and he will tell you 20:02 things to come. That's what the Spirit does. When the Lord was 20:06 told by the woman that she perceived he's a prophet. Yes a 20:10 prophet tells you things to come. The Lord saw her past, her 20:13 present, and her future and he saw the need of the truth of 20:17 God's word. He came to show her that this is the time to change 20:21 your life. Get rid of all those other husbands and pick a 20:24 husband that will give you the true interpretation of the 20:28 Spirit and the power and the importance of the truth. There 20:32 are a lot of movements, there are a lot of churches. The earth 20:36 is filled with them, but I can't say that they all are being 20:40 under the direction of the Holy Spirit. There may be a spirit 20:44 there because you cannot go into a church where the truth is not 20:48 important and they say that God's spirit is leading here. 20:51 Right? Let's go to the next question, question number 2. 20:55 Question number 2, here it is. All right. How are we instructed 21:01 to worship the Lord? All right. Okay. How are we instructed to 21:08 worship the Lord? Psalms 29, okay. Even I'm turning in my 21:16 Bible. I just don't want you guys to turn there by yourself 21:24 I don't want you to feel alone. We're doing this in unity. Okay? 21:29 Psalms 29 verse 2 is the answer. And we'll read this together. It 21:34 says, Give unto the Lord the glory due His name. Sounds like 21:40 a message of Revelation. It says also, Worship the Lord in the 21:45 beauty of holiness. How are we instructed to worship the Lord? 21:49 In the what? Beauty of Holiness. You know, Ellen White talks 21:54 about bringing loveliness into our Christian experience. You 21:58 know, it's important for people that say they are filled with 22:03 God's Spirit because the Spirit brings fruits and what are the 22:09 the fruit of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, 22:14 gentleness, meekness, patience, kindness. All those important 22:19 factors. And, by the way, the fruit, so when you bite that one 22:23 fruit these are the vitamins you get: Love, joy, peace, long 22:27 suffering, gentleness, meekness, patience. You don't have to 22:31 choose a loving fruit, or a gentle fruit, or a patient fruit 22:35 it's all in one. It only took one fruit to plunge us into sin 22:39 it takes one fruit to be led back into a relationship with 22:43 Christ and when the Spirit of God is involved in your walk, 22:46 there's going to be something else. Not only the truth, the 22:50 intellectual aspect of it, but there's going to be a beauty to 22:53 your worship. People that are under the Spirit's leading 22:56 should present the truth in a holy way but also in a beautiful 23:00 way. Right? Now let me just make clear what I'm talking about 23:04 here. If you hammer the truth away and you preach the truth 23:08 with an ugly face and an attitude, people say wow has the 23:12 truth transformed him. It's the attractiveness of the truth that 23:16 makes the difference. It is the goodness of God that leads 23:20 people to repentance, not the anger of God, not the wrath of 23:25 God but the goodness of God, Paul says, that leads men to 23:29 repentance. Obviously the love of God is a drawing factor but 23:33 it's the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. So how 23:36 are we instructed to worship God or the Lord, in the what? Beauty 23:40 of holiness. Holiness ought to be beautiful. When you meet 23:43 Christians you ought to be impressed; wow what a nice, 23:46 patient, kind person. And even when we get into a controversy 23:50 with someone... I remember a number of years ago when I was 23:54 involved in a television program won't mention what the network 23:57 was, but more than what I said was how I responded to the 24:01 issues of controversy. I was in a studio. It was not an 24:04 Adventist television program. I was invited by another 24:07 denomination to represent a particular topic that we had in 24:11 common and I was being hammered by a pastor that was there and I 24:14 was told afterwards, the host of the program said, he said one of 24:17 of the camera crew came me and said what impressed them the 24:21 most was the attitude that I maintained while I was being 24:24 hammered, particularly by a pastor. We were sitting at a 24:27 table. There was the moderator in the center and I was on one 24:31 side and the pastor was on the other. He was of a denomination 24:34 and I won't mention the denomination. I don't want 24:36 people to feel that I'm labeling any particular person. I believe 24:39 this personal pastor, this individual pastor, had a real 24:43 problem with attitude. And I said to him, we were talking 24:46 about the law of God. And I said, you know, the commandments 24:49 are important because God wrote them with his own finger on 24:52 tables of stone. And he said which finger did He use, His 24:55 index which one did he use, which one was it, was it His 24:58 thumb, which one did He use? And that was so sacrilegious. 25:02 I could have said to him, you are a sacrilegious hypocrite, but 25:07 I let him expose his own character. So when we share the 25:11 truth, even if we're backed into a corner, my brother, my sister, 25:16 it's not my truth, it's God's truth. If you love Him, you'll 25:19 keep his commandments. That's all He's asking. That where the 25:22 beauty comes in. Let's go to the next one, question number 3. 25:25 Question number 3: What attitude will the servant have 25:31 toward worshipping God? What attitude will the servant have 25:36 towards worshipping God? A servant. When you are a servant 25:41 there's not only a manuscript for the truth of God's word but 25:45 there's an attitude that should come with that. All right. Let's 25:53 look at this. Psalm 100 verse 2. Okay. I went ahead of myself 26:02 here. Let me go back a slide. Okay, here it is. Okay. Okay 26:09 Psalm 100 verse 2, here it is. Let's read it together. Let me 26:15 just look at my site here very quickly. I'm correct right? 26:20 Okay, let's read the answer together because I have it out 26:24 of context here. So let's read it together. What's the answer 26:29 you got? Okay. Serve the Lord with what? Gladness. Come before 26:36 his presence with what? Singing and that's it. So what attitude 26:41 will the servant have toward God? Serve the Lord with what? 26:47 Gladness. Serve the Lord with gladness. So I had here in my 26:52 own particular one I had Psalm 95 and verse 6, okay, which I 26:56 enjoy that. It says, Oh come, let us worship and bow down; 27:02 let us kneel before the Lord our God our Maker. So one of the 27:06 other attitudes we have is we do what when we come into the 27:11 presence of God? We worship and we do what else? We bow down. 27:16 You know the attitude of bowing down before the Lord... Matter 27:21 of fact, even more recently I talked about this with my wife. 27:26 I said whenever it is possible we should kneel before the Lord 27:31 when we pray, because if you think about the awesome majesty 27:35 of God, if you think about who He is, you know, you wouldn't 27:41 come to God and say, Okay God let's pray. You kneel before the 27:45 presence of God. What impressed me so much when we were in India 27:51 was we went to church on Sabbath and there were people from the 27:57 community, Hindus in the community and after Sabbath 28:00 School was done they came to the church service and I can tell 28:04 when they were coming in because you heard all the jewels 28:08 jangling. You could hear them coming in because they really 28:13 believe in adorning themselves. But as soon as they walked in, 28:17 they prostrated themselves knees bent, face down on the ground 28:21 and you hearing them praying as soon as they walked into the 28:25 house of God. And I thought that's so impressive, that's so 28:28 wonderful, that's so beautiful. Now I'm not saying that 28:30 Christians ought to do that in their worship services, 28:33 prostrate themselves, but if you look at the Bible and you look 28:37 at the examples that are put forth there, on many occasions 28:41 when the person who came before God and prayed, he bowed his 28:45 knees. Sometimes he bowed his head. There were sometimes the 28:48 Bible said he lifted up his eyes towards heaven. There were 28:51 other times he lifted his hands and he lifted his eyes towards 28:54 heaven, various ways. But one of the humbling ways that you find 28:57 in the Bible, they came and they bowed before the Lord, they 29:02 knelt before the Lord. Amen? Let's go to number 4, number 29:08 4. Okay. When we come into the presence of God what are we 29:12 to do? When we come into the presence of God what are we to 29:18 do? All right. What are we to do? That's going to be in Psalm 29:25 100 and verse 4, Psalm 100 and verse 4. Okay, here we are and 29:30 it's on the screen. You all have it? Let's read this one together 29:36 Let's look at the screen. Here it is. Enter his gate with 29:41 thanksgiving, and into His courts with what? Praise. Be 29:46 thankful to Him, and bless His name. I learned something else. 29:51 And you know while there are... I believe my personal conviction 29:55 is God has given us one of the greatest understandings of the 30:00 truth of His word, but I noticed practices as I grew up. Now let 30:05 me give you an example. My mom, the lady who raised me, some 30:09 people get confused when they hear my life story, the lady who 30:13 raised me, her mother was Catholic. And whenever Christmas 30:19 came we had a Catholic church right across the street from our 30:23 house so it was traditional for her mother, who was in some 30:28 sense my grandmother and her name was Nina. Nina was such a 30:32 grandmother. I mean, a strong loving lady. This particular 30:36 incident I'm talking about it was a cold winter and she had a 30:40 thick, thick, thick coat and she wanted to go across the street 30:44 to the Catholic church. And when we got there and she walked in 30:47 we noticed that she had her coat on and she had the hanger on too 30:51 I saw the top of the hanger out of the top. She put on the coat 30:56 and the hanger. And I said Nina you have on the hanger. I was a 31:01 little boy at the time. I mean, all of six, seven years old. But 31:05 I never forgot that hanger sticking out the top of her 31:08 thick, thick coat. But I noticed when she walked in, when she sat 31:13 down she immediately bowed her head and she prayed. She entered 31:18 into God's presence with prayer and I'm sure that whatever was 31:24 there I'm sure there was thanksgiving and there was 31:27 praise and, you know, we could learn something from various 31:30 Christians. We won't say that everything that they believe is 31:34 what we ought to adopt, but I would say wouldn't it be 31:36 wonderful when you come into the house of God that you pause, 31:39 that you bow your head, you realize you're in the presence 31:43 of God. Even more recently as a pastor I've been ending our 31:46 church services, instead of just breaking off into conversation, 31:50 I guys let's pause. Just give 30 seconds, whatever time you need 31:54 let's just allow the message to marinate. Let's not rush out of 31:59 the presence of God. Because I tell you what, if the Lord was 32:03 there, there'd be a different attitude at the end of the 32:05 sermon, wouldn't there be? We would not say okay God I got to 32:09 go, got to go. I've got to go to the Garden of the Gods. 32:12 That's a place down here in Southern Illinois. I got to rush 32:16 home. We would actually hesitate to leave the presence of God as 32:20 a corporate body of worshipers. So I said to myself, that's a 32:23 wonderful thing. So when we come into the house of God at least 32:26 we should come not with a long face, not with how long am I 32:30 going to be here but come with thanksgiving and what else in 32:33 our heart? Praise. Sing praises to God. Sometimes when a hymn 32:37 is played, sometimes when the praise songs are played, people 32:42 sing what a friend we have in Jesus. Like would you sing that 32:46 way if Jesus was standing in front of you? You would give it 32:50 all your heart. You would pour forth your soul to the Lord. 32:54 Let's come into His presence with thanksgiving and always 32:58 give Him what's due His name, praise. All right. So you put 33:03 down thanksgiving and what else? Praise. Be thankful to Him and 33:07 bless his name. The Bible says His name is worthy to be praised 33:12 What a name. You know when my name is mentioned, somebody know 33:16 it, they don't know it. Demons don't tremble when they say John 33:21 But at the name of Jesus what happens? Demons tremble. There's 33:26 no other name whereby we can be saved but the name of Jesus. So 33:31 there's a beautiful reason why we should bless His name. Number 33:35 5, number 5. Here it is. What are we to expect when we 33:40 worship in God's presence? What are we to expect? You know 33:45 sometimes we come to church and you know the only expectation we 33:50 get, and I'm talking about the late comers. Some people come 33:53 and you know some people battle through various things but I 33:58 remember growing up in New York City. The ushers, well I can't 34:01 use the ushers as an example here, but in our church whenever 34:05 people enter, it was traditional they always entered through the 34:08 back door and you always tell who the late comers were because 34:12 is our church the ushers ushered people to their seats. They 34:16 didn't just say go find a seat. You remember that, they ushered 34:20 them to their seats. And so what happened if there was 34:25 prayer being done nobody's going in. If there was a song being 34:29 sung wait till the song is done. If the preacher's preaching or 34:34 if something is happening up front, wait till that song is 34:36 done, wait till the prayer is over. They don't have people 34:39 walking in. They come into the house of God with solemnity, 34:43 with order, recognizing... Can you imaging if the president is 34:47 preaching, speaking, or a dignitary is speaking, you just 34:51 walk down to the front, just walk right in front of him. If 34:56 you want to be yanked by the secret service and asked to 35:01 leave. Honestly, really. There's a decorum when you come into 35:03 the presence of dignitaries and presidents and people of high 35:05 office. We should exercise the very same thing when we come 35:08 into the presence of God. Amen? But sometimes we just don't know 35:11 that. We don't come into his presence as He is God. Tradition 35:15 and not recognizing that by faith He's really there. And we 35:19 just come any old how. Talking. Talk about what happened last 35:23 week and all our stuff we have just gotten. Let's honor the 35:27 Lord. That's why when you come here's what you should expect. 35:30 The Lord says in Psalm 16:11: You will show me the path of 35:37 what? Life. In Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right 35:43 hand are what? Pleasures ever more, forever more, at the right 35:47 hand of God. That's what's there pleasures forever more. That's 35:53 what we find when we come into the presence of God. Joy and 35:58 pleasure. Fullness of joy. I know we've been joyful but can 36:03 you imagine fullness of joy. In the presence of God there's a 36:08 fullness of joy. In other words He is the source of joy. That's 36:12 how the Spirit can give to us the fruit of the Spirit which is 36:15 love, joy. The fruit of the Spirit doesn't manufacture that 36:20 because he said in John 16:13 whatever I hear I'll speak and I 36:25 will not speak on my own authority. He's the conveyor 36:28 of what God gives to Him. All right, so put there fullness of 36:34 joy and pleasures forever more for number 5. Now let's go to 36:39 number 6, number 6. When we worship God what are we 36:44 encouraged to do? When we worship God what are we 36:49 encouraged to do. And Psalm 52:9 You notice how we've been in 36:55 Psalms for 2, 3, 4, 5, and now number 6? And 37:01 we're going to go to Isaiah in just a moment here. When we 37:05 worship God what are we encouraged to do? Okay, here it 37:09 is. I will praise you for how long? Forever. Because You have 37:15 done it; And in the presence of Your saints I will wait on Your 37:20 name for what? For it is good. Now I want to just revisit this. 37:25 When we worship God what are we encouraged to do? What do you 37:28 think the answer is in this verse? What am I looking for? 37:35 Say it again. Wait, wait. You know the promise has been given 37:41 to those who don't hurry, to those who don't rush. When you 37:45 go to somebody's house and they're cooking a good dinner, 37:50 like Sister Zita here is a great cook, wonderful cook. When 37:53 I go over and I smell the food in the kitchen, I'm thinking oh 37:58 this is good, this is worth the, worth the wait. When you go to 38:02 somebody's house and you walk in, maybe it's Thanksgiving or 38:06 a special occasion, or just somebody who invites you that 38:10 cooks really well and you take a friend with you that had never 38:15 been there before, you say to them, just wait, you just wait. 38:19 You're not going to believe how good this is. We wait. We wait 38:23 for good meals, and then other times we're sitting at home and 38:26 we're saying, I can't wait for my show to come on. What do we 38:31 do? We what? We wait. And I must use this example because I've 38:36 always said this growing up. A dog lives a life of waiting. He 38:40 waits to go out, waits for his owner to pet him, waits for his 38:43 owner to give him a walk, waits for his owner to give him water. 38:48 He waits. Animals wait on us. But sometimes we don't wait on 38:53 God. So what I want you to put there is wait. When we worship 38:58 God what are we encouraged to do? Wait. Sometimes even when 39:04 we pray sometimes we rush through our prayers. Heavenly 39:09 Father, thank you for... Pachew. And he says wait a minute, I 39:13 have something to say. But we're gone. But you'll notice if you 39:17 linger in the presence of God and you know we have those 39:19 phrases. What does it mean to linger in the presence of God? 39:22 When you read the word of God sometimes you sit down and 39:25 meditate on the word of God. David said he meditated on the 39:28 law of God day and night. And you find the word meditate. I'm 39:32 not talking about ummmm. That's not what we're talking about. 39:36 We're saying Lord I know You are real. I know You exist. Lord I'm 39:40 going to wait. And sometimes we have answers that don't come 39:44 right away and we pray Father today at 2 o'clock I've got an 39:47 interview. I need an answer. And he says to us as his 39:53 children, okay, wait, I'll be there. You got to wait on the 39:56 Lord. Right? Let's go to the next one. You'll see how 39:58 beautiful this is. You see how wonderful and the blessing that 40:02 comes when you wait on the Lord. Here it is, number 7. What 40:07 is the blessing promised to those that are not in a hurry? 40:12 That are not in a hurry. Okay. Those that are not in a hurry. 40:18 And Isaiah 40:31, Isaiah 40:31. What is the blessing promised to 40:25 those that are not in a hurry? In this world, I tell you, 40:29 everything is rough. Microwaves. There were the days when people 40:33 used to write things down. I remember when I bought my first 40:37 typewriter to do my sermon. Typewriters? Does anybody have 40:41 typewriters anymore? Do you know they still sell typewriters? 40:47 Typewriters are still sold. With all this magnificent computer 40:52 stuff, typewriters are still sold. Some people still use 40:55 typewriters. I found one of my typewriters the other day, in 40:58 excellent condition, the first and only typewriter I ever 41:01 bought. That's what I used to use to do my sermons. And my 41:05 typewriter was high tech. You see my typewriter had a screen 41:10 A thin, single-line screen and when I typed the characters 41:14 showed up. If I agreed with what I wrote, then I hit enter and it 41:17 typed it out. It actually was a computer in the making. If I 41:21 didn't agree, I could backspace and fix it and then hit enter 41:24 then print it out, then type it out rather than have to spend 41:27 all that time, whiteout and tearing out and crumple. 41:33 Remember those days. Boy I tell you white out's probably going 41:36 out of business with all this new electronics. But let's look 41:39 at the blessing that God promises to those that wait on 41:43 Him. Isaiah 40:31: But those who wait on the Lord shall what? 41:49 Renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, 41:55 they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. 41:59 I tell you, how many of us need our strength to be renewed? Come 42:04 on give me a hand. Come on, everybody put a hand up. Now 42:07 let's just use this as an example; when you go to a gas 42:09 station and you're car's tank is almost empty do you fill it up 42:13 in a minute? What do you do when you get to the gas station? 42:19 Now if it only has two pumps and there are a lot people what do? 42:24 You wait to get to the pump and when you get to the pump what 42:29 do you do. You see you put the nozzle in and you're waiting to 42:34 fill it up right? And when you're done you kind of leave. 42:38 Now I don't know, just examine this action, you kind of leave 42:42 feeling a lot better than you did when you got there. You get 42:45 in your car and you don't drive gingerly. You kind of feel like, 42:48 got a full tank now I can really drive with purpose. But you 42:52 drive differently when your car is filled. How do you feel when 42:59 your gut is filled? Aw, that was a good meal. You see we feel 43:04 good when we receive something and in all those cases there's a 43:08 strength that comes. I speak first for the inanimate object. 43:12 The car can run better on fuel. I remember when I was in New 43:17 York City there was a highway patrolman, actually in 43:20 California, his name was Gary Cooper, remember that name, not 43:25 an actor, but that is an actor's name. This highway patrolman 43:29 his name was Gary Cooper and I remember, who told me about it? 43:32 Somebody had gone to a class and they said that they met this guy 43:35 named Gary Cooper, patrolman names Gary Cooper. They told me 43:38 the story. And I want to tell you, it was not my story. Just 43:42 trying to be very honest. But he said some of you guys don't 43:47 remember that a car needs fuel to run and some of you run it 43:51 all the way down, you see the light is on, you see it on E and 43:54 you keep on driving until you can't go any farther. Some of 43:57 you I've pulled over on the highway to stop behind you 44:01 because you've run out of fuel. You know, and the very same way 44:04 unless we are having our strength renewed we can't run on 44:08 empty and expect to serve God if our spiritual life is empty. 44:12 Now what's the best way to fill up your spiritual life? Study 44:16 and prayer. Everything else is going to find a place in your 44:19 life but if you're not studying God's word, if you're not 44:23 praying, you'd try to go on empty and it's hard. I remember 44:27 there's a song I sang you know it's hard to serve the Lord when 44:32 your spirit is empty. There's a longing in my heart and there's 44:37 a song I sang called I Miss My Time With You. So we have to 44:41 find that joy and that longing in the presence of God and there 44:45 we will find our fill. And then also our strength will be 44:49 renewed. So you want to put the answer down. What is the 44:52 blessing promised to those that are not in a hurry? Their 44:57 strength will be renewed and they will not be weary and will 45:01 not faint. You can put that whole thing: Your strength will 45:06 be renewed. Now let's transition into some of the hindrances. 45:11 Number 8, number 8. What does the Bible reveal as a 45:20 hindrance to worship? What's a hindrance to worship? Matthew 45:28 15:8-9. I know this is kind of like a parent to a child context 45:34 here because sometimes parents would ask a child when they've 45:40 done something wrong, now what do you say? What do you say? 45:45 And they say I'm sorry. Now right now they honor their 45:50 parents with their lips but what do you think of their heart? 45:54 They're heart is far from that place for sorry. Now they know 45:56 if they don't say sorry there's something else in mind for them. 45:59 So sorry; I'm sorry. Do you think they mean it. And I've 46:04 learned, I didn't learn this because I had children but I was 46:09 listening to a, I was listening to a psychologist one day. Take 46:14 a breath and the psychologist said one of the things that we 46:18 should tell a child to do rather than say I'm sorry is say I 46:23 apologize. Because sorrow is something that comes out of 46:27 conviction. You know, sorrow, when they feel the sorrow. It's 46:30 almost natural. If a person never feels sorrow they never 46:35 return to say, you know, I was thinking about what I did. I am 46:37 so sorry. You can tell an apology is sincere. And so in 46:44 the very same way this text talks about we can come into the 46:47 presence of God and when we do we have to make sure that we 46:50 come into God's presence with a sincerity, not just with lip 46:55 service. Here it is, Matthew 15: 8-9. These people draw near to 47:00 Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their heart 47:05 is what? Far from Me, and in vain they worship Me, teaching 47:12 as doctrines the what? The commandments of men. 47:15 So what does the Bible reveal as a hindrance to worship? Lip 47:22 service, lip service, lip service. That's the answer. 47:28 Say anything. You know, you can say anything you want in church 47:32 you could sing anything you want that is in the sense of Yeah I 47:36 love you Lord, and then you go outside of the church. One young 47:40 man told me about an experience he had. He went to a church that 47:43 claimed to be Holy Ghost filled. And right after that he saw some 47:47 people that were in the Spirit, so to speak, smoking outside the 47:50 church, another guy was hitting on a woman, another guy was 47:53 cursing on his phone to somebody who got him angry. He thought 47:55 to himself, wait a minute, aren't those some of the three 47:57 people that I just saw in that church that claimed to be in the 48:01 Spirit. Slain in the Spirit. And they came outside and it was 48:05 just lip service. Because what was coming out of their mouths 48:09 and the actions that followed "being" in the Spirit were quite 48:13 opposite. What they saw was not connected to the God they 48:19 claimed to be filled by. So it's important that when we worship 48:22 God we don't come to God with just lip service. He doesn't 48:26 want us to just say these things We must come out of the 48:29 abundance of our heart. If we're worshipping God with our whole 48:32 heart then those things that would come forth... Go with me 48:38 to Psalm 1, Psalm 1. Okay. Show you the resume of a true 48:44 worshiper, the resume of a person that is connected to God. 48:53 All right. Psalm 1, the resume. And this talks about the whole 48:59 life and I want you to get the picture of it. Psalm 1 Everybody 49:04 find Psalm 1. Here it is. Here's what the Bible says. Blessed 49:09 is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor 49:14 stands in the way or path of what? Sinners nor sit in the 49:19 seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the 49:24 Lord, and in his law he does what? Meditate day and night. 49:30 I made that reference a moment ago. Now notice what the benefit 49:32 is going to be. If this is how he's living his life look at the 49:37 benefits, starting with verse 3. He shall be like a tree planted 49:42 by the rivers of waters that brings forth its fruit in its 49:45 season. That's what I'm talking about. When you're planted by 49:50 the living water you have to bring forth and the fruits that 49:56 come forth from the water of life are the fruits of life. It 50:02 says whose leaf also shall not wither and whatever he does 50:06 shall what? Shall prosper. But look at the comparison. Look at 50:10 the comparison to those who just give lip service and their heart 50:14 is not in it. He says the ungodly are not so but like the 50:20 chaff which the wind drives away Therefore the ungodly shall not 50:25 stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of 50:29 the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous 50:32 but the way of the ungodly shall what? Shall perish. So it is 50:36 important, here's the counsel it's important not just to say 50:39 things that are worship 50:40 sayings. Because you know we've got all these clichés: yeah I'm 50:45 filled, I want to be kind here and not just go down the line 50:49 and mention something that may be a part of somebody's worship. 50:52 But make sure that whatever you say is not lip service, but it's 50:56 coming from the heart in which Christ is really dwelling and 50:59 transforming you. Let it not just be good sayings. A song 51:04 years ago sung by the group Harvest Celebration, the words 51:08 impressed me so much. It says lofty words, biased repetition, 51:14 praises great and grand but not what He demands. See you could 51:19 make it sound so holy. But if it's not coming from the heart 51:24 the Lord will say yeah I hear what you're saying but his heart 51:28 is somewhere outside, not in here. Look at number 9, 51:32 number 9. Okay. What caution does the Bible give concerning 51:38 the heart and worship? The heart and worship. Okay. What caution 51:50 does the Bible give? Deuteronomy 11:16. God gives counsel. The 52:00 heart and worship. Okay. Here we are. And it begins with two 52:09 words. What are those two words? Take heed to whom? Yourselves, 52:17 lest your heart be what? Deceived, and you turn aside and 52:23 serve other gods and what else and worship them Worship is very 52:30 much about God. I mean, worship is about God. Somebody once said 52:36 everybody worships something, everybody has a god in his or 52:39 her life. Sometimes all you have to do is see how they spend 52:42 their money to decide what god it is. Or the things that they 52:46 spend most of their time with. Because somebody's on that 52:49 throne. Somebody's worshipping something. Let me say it this 52:53 way; everybody is worshipping something. But here the Lord 52:57 says be careful, don't let your heart be deceived because what 53:02 happens when deception comes in then we turn aside from serving 53:06 the true God and we serve other gods and then we end up doing 53:10 what? Worshipping them. Anything you serve you're going to end up 53:14 worshipping. It starts out with just a casual connection but as 53:17 you know if you do anything repetitiously over and over and 53:21 over and over again it becomes an action that turns into a 53:25 habit, well an action that turns into a habit. See, a thought, an 53:31 action, a habit. Anytime we are involved in worship that is not 53:36 true, it turns our hearts away from the God of true worship 53:41 and then we end up serving other gods and worshipping them. In 53:44 your time you should read the context because this is very 53:48 important. The Lord was trying to lead His people to keep His 53:51 commandments, but they found themselves at the feet of other 53:55 gods worshipping false gods. Thus we transition into some 53:59 very heavy texts as we go forth in our study tonight. All right. 54:04 Let's go to question number 10. What is the end result of not 54:09 worshipping the Lord in truth? What is the end result of not 54:13 worshipping the Lord in truth? Let's go to a book that's really 54:17 hard to find, Revelation. Revelation chapter 13 and we're 54:23 going to look together at verse 12. Revelation, as my good 54:28 friend John Malkovich in Australia would say "thirdeen. " 54:33 Revelation 13:12. Okay, here's the answer. And it says: And he 54:42 exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, 54:51 and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to do what? 54:57 Worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. Now 55:03 the end result of not worshipping the Lord is this. 55:07 Another power is going to direct your worship and that worship is 55:11 going to be turned away from God and where is the worship going 55:14 to be focused? On the beast. Now this is really a powerful 55:19 context, a powerful topic. What I'm not going to do right now is 55:23 define who the beast is. But the point of the text is this, the 55:28 end result of not worshipping the Lord. You cannot be deceived 55:31 if you're worshipping God, you won't be deceived. Because the 55:34 text pointed out that the foundation of this entire result 55:39 that ended up leading people to worship the first beast, there 55:43 was deception that existed there There was deception, the whole 55:49 world was deceived and only those who are deceived are those 55:53 who will end up worshipping the beast. What is the truth 55:56 intended to do? The truth is intended to keep up from being 56:00 deceived. Can you say amen to that? Because the truth of God 56:04 makes your mind clear. So now let me just go ahead and try an 56:10 experiment. What's two and two? What's four minus two? Isn't 56:16 two plus two five? I mean just because you were told it's four 56:22 but the real answer is five isn't it? Really, I mean, don't 56:27 I look honest? Isn't two and two five? What am I trying to do. 56:33 I'm trying to deceive you, right But how do you know that two and 56:40 two is four. Because you know how to count. One two, two plus 56:45 one, two, three, four. You just got to add it up. See here's my 56:50 point, if it doesn't add up, it's not the truth. God's word 56:54 will never allow it not to add up. I'm going to get to this 56:59 last text. I may or may not get to it very quickly but let me 57:03 try. I'll at least go ahead. So the answer is, what is the end 57:07 result of not worshipping the Lord in truth? You'll end up 57:09 worshipping the beast. You'll end up worshipping the beast. 57:15 Or you can put down false worship. You can never lose your 57:20 way or end up on the wrong path if you worship God in spirit and 57:27 in truth. He is the compass. He is the GPS, God's Programming 57:32 System. He'll guide you to where you must be. He'll never allow 57:37 you to be in a position of deception. So it's not just 57:40 about worship. Because a lot of people say I'm worshipping this 57:43 weekend, come worship with me. And that word today, you know, 57:47 worship services, worship music, worship songs, worship style, 57:50 worship experience. God is in essence saying, in all of that 57:54 please don't forget to worship me in spirit and in truth and if 57:58 you do that, whatever doesn't make sense one day will become 58:02 A Sharper Focus. God bless you. |
Revised 2019-01-10