back to index2015-03-22 BCC Vision 1: God-Centered Worship
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John chapter 4. We're going to be taking the next four weeks. I'm just going to be reading 00:00:08.800 |
this text. I'm going to be, we're not going to be in this text this morning, but John 00:00:12.200 |
chapter 4, verse 21 through 24. If you look at your program, you'll notice that on the 00:00:21.240 |
bottom of the front sheet, there is fourfold vision of our church. In the past, every beginning 00:00:28.080 |
of the year, we would take at least one month to go over the fourfold vision because it's 00:00:33.160 |
extremely important for us as a church, whether you've been here for 18 years or you're just 00:00:37.380 |
joining us now, that these are things that we didn't just put this up on here on the 00:00:42.380 |
program saying this is what our church believes in, but these are things that we're trying 00:00:45.960 |
to pursue. And so we want to remind the church that these are our doctrines. These are what 00:00:51.480 |
we value and these are the reasons why we do what we do, why our worship is done the 00:00:56.680 |
way we do, why we have certain people serve the way we serve. And so all of these things 00:01:01.120 |
are foundational to our church. And again, bringing community to church is not unique 00:01:06.440 |
in the sense that we have this vision. This is not something that we just kind of sat 00:01:09.920 |
in a circle and had the leader say, Hey, what do we want our church to be about? This is 00:01:15.080 |
true of every single church. We just decided to write this down and to be deliberate about 00:01:19.460 |
trying to pursue it. And so we want to make sure that every person in the church, again, 00:01:23.520 |
whether you're coming in or you've been here for a while to remind the church that this 00:01:27.680 |
is who we are, this is what God has given us, and this is what we're pursuing. And so 00:01:32.640 |
every year, so we can be reminded and pursue this together as a foundation. So for the 00:01:36.440 |
next four weeks that I'm up here, so this week and the next week, Pastor Alex is going 00:01:40.240 |
to be here and week after that is Easter. But the next four times that I'm up here, 00:01:43.640 |
including today, we're going to be going over the fourfold vision of the church. So I want 00:01:46.960 |
to read the fourfold vision again. And I know everybody who went through BCC goes through 00:01:51.760 |
this. And if you've been here for a while, hopefully you have it memorized by now. But 00:01:56.800 |
basically our vision is to glorify God by establishing one, a church that engages, engages 00:02:04.040 |
in God-centered worship, not man-centered. And so that's what we're going to be focused 00:02:07.640 |
on today. Second vision, a church that equips every believer with God's inerrant word. Third, 00:02:14.280 |
a church that builds a community through love and accountability. Fourth, a church that 00:02:19.400 |
reaches out to its community with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so each one of these 00:02:24.280 |
visions are things that we examine and evaluate the church. What are we weak in? What are 00:02:29.800 |
some things that we kind of drifted out in? Are we in need of a stronger community? Are 00:02:34.200 |
we in need of better outreach? So last couple of years, we've been focused on missions and 00:02:38.240 |
evangelism. A couple of years prior to that, we've been focused on prayer. And again, we've 00:02:44.320 |
been focused on evangelism missions for a while, but every year we try to evaluate and 00:02:48.480 |
to see what areas of the church that we need to focus on. And so we evaluate this again 00:02:54.400 |
on a yearly basis. And that's why we kind of project our retreats, our Bible studies 00:02:59.200 |
and certain sermons to address some of these issues. So again, so today we're going to 00:03:04.880 |
be focused on worship. Why is God-centered worship so essential to our church? So I'm 00:03:09.960 |
going to read the text. I'm not going to be in this text, but just to just kind of like 00:03:13.640 |
a platform foundation for us to build upon John chapter four, verses 21 through 24. Jesus 00:03:20.840 |
said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor 00:03:25.360 |
in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You will worship what you do not know. We 00:03:30.240 |
worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and now is 00:03:34.880 |
here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the 00:03:39.240 |
Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit and those who worship Him must 00:03:44.400 |
worship in spirit and in truth." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this morning. 00:03:51.480 |
We pray for your blessing upon this time that your word would go forth, Lord God, powerfully, 00:03:57.320 |
that you would give us fertile hearts, Lord, that it may bear fruit. We pray for your blessing 00:04:02.760 |
and the power of your Holy Spirit to accompany the preaching of your word. In Jesus' name 00:04:07.720 |
we pray, amen. If you've ever read through the book of Judges, sometimes you can read 00:04:14.720 |
that book and kind of get lost because you see sins being repeated and God restoring 00:04:19.640 |
them back and forth and you see a cycle of this over and over. But there's one theme 00:04:24.160 |
in the book of Judges and it kind of captures the period of Israel's history where they 00:04:29.400 |
were constantly just doing their own thing. In Judges 17, 6, it kind of captures the theme 00:04:36.080 |
of the book of Judges and it kind of captures the attitude of the Israelites during that 00:04:39.800 |
period. It says, "In those days there were no kings in Israel. Everyone did what was 00:04:45.320 |
right in his own eyes." So, that kind of captures the attitude of the Israelites during 00:04:51.040 |
that period. So, if you've ever read the book of Judges, you know that there's a constant 00:04:55.320 |
cycle of sinning against God, God bringing judgment through a foreign nation or a foreign 00:05:01.280 |
God or some other power and they would be under their subjection, they cry out to God, 00:05:06.200 |
He sends a judge to deliver them and then after they get delivered, soon after that 00:05:10.160 |
they start to fall and forget about God and this cycle goes over and over again. And at 00:05:15.200 |
the end of the book it's just kind of like you get to a point where you just throw up 00:05:18.800 |
your hand, when are these people going to learn? But again the theme of Israelites is 00:05:24.000 |
that they just kept on doing what they thought was right in their own eyes. It doesn't say 00:05:30.160 |
that they came out and they decided, "Ah, we're not going to worship Yahweh anymore." 00:05:34.320 |
If you were to bring an average Jew at that time and say, "You know, who is your God?" 00:05:38.200 |
They would have told you, "Yahweh is our God. I'm a worshiper of Yahweh." They would have 00:05:42.840 |
told you that. But the problem with what they were doing was they just worshipped Yahweh 00:05:48.840 |
the way they wanted to. And so they just kind of went along with whatever they thought was 00:05:53.360 |
right in their own mind, they just went along and did that and then it incurred God's wrath 00:05:58.480 |
upon them because of that. You know, today there's so much confusion as to what is the 00:06:05.840 |
purpose of the church. You know, there's all kinds of conferences going on, how to grow 00:06:11.000 |
the church, how to reach our generation, how to be effective. You know, there's all kinds 00:06:15.160 |
of conferences and meetings going on about that. But the central part of what the church 00:06:21.040 |
must be, scripturally, not what you would make of it, not what I make of it, not what 00:06:26.240 |
our generation wants the church to be. What does Jesus want the church to be? Why did 00:06:31.000 |
He establish the church first and foremost? What does the scripture say? Today, if a church 00:06:38.600 |
down the street is growing large, it has 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 people, automatically we look 00:06:45.160 |
at that and say, "Well, what are they doing? What are they doing right that they're attracting 00:06:49.240 |
all these people? What is that doing? How are they preaching? How is their church organized?" 00:06:55.080 |
And immediately that gets duplicated and then it just kind of gets multiplied. Not just 00:07:00.720 |
locally but nationally and oftentimes internationally. And the only criteria as to duplicating that 00:07:08.720 |
is it's growing. It's huge. It's attracting a lot of people. And there's a lot of people 00:07:14.400 |
saying good things about it. But we know from scripture that at the peak of Jesus' ministry, 00:07:21.560 |
when He fed the 5,000, the actual number probably closer to 20,000 people and it could have 00:07:27.400 |
kept on growing. But Jesus straight up says, "You have to eat my flesh and drink of my 00:07:32.240 |
blood." And He says something very strange. It would have been, if they misunderstood 00:07:37.160 |
what He was saying, it would have actually been blasphemous for Him to say that. Yet 00:07:42.000 |
He deliberately does that because He says He knew what was in their heart because what 00:07:44.960 |
Jesus was looking for was true worshipers. Just like Jesus said to the Samaritan woman. 00:07:52.280 |
He's not looking for the crowd. He's looking for true worshipers. What God desires is not 00:07:58.400 |
to fill the church. Not that He doesn't care about the multitudes because He sends us to 00:08:03.840 |
make disciples of all the nations. But His greatest desire is to have genuine worship. 00:08:11.040 |
A. W. Tozer says this about worship, the importance of worship in the church. He says, "Worship 00:08:16.840 |
is the reason why Christ came. Worship is the reason He was crucified and worship was 00:08:21.960 |
the reason He rose again." Now you can't exaggerate what he's saying. Basically he's saying Christianity 00:08:27.240 |
is about worship. The reason why He was incarnate was for the purpose of worship. The reason 00:08:31.760 |
why He died was for the worship. The reason why He was resurrected was for the purpose 00:08:36.440 |
of worship. Our modern day, our more recent writing from John Piper in Let the Nations 00:08:42.900 |
Be Glad, and I'm sure many of you have read that book, and he says, "Missions exist because 00:08:47.340 |
worship doesn't." So he says it in a little bit more concise manner. Basically what Piper 00:08:52.400 |
is saying is the same thing that A. W. Tozer is saying. That the central thing about Christianity, 00:08:59.040 |
the central thing about my walk with God is about worship. Without worship, if we get 00:09:06.000 |
worship wrong, or if it's superficial, or if it's a worship that God rejects, everything 00:09:12.400 |
that we're doing here this morning, everything we've done up to this point, everything that 00:09:15.840 |
we will do from this point on would be for nothing. So it's extremely important for us. 00:09:21.320 |
What does God mean by that? In fact, if you look at the beginning of the nation of Israel, 00:09:29.040 |
when Moses comes back to God and says, "God, if you send me to Pharaoh," and they say, 00:09:33.760 |
"What do you want from me? What do I say to him?" And this is what God says to Abraham 00:09:39.840 |
in Exodus 7, 16. "Then he said to him, 'The Lord, the God of Hebrews, has sent me to say 00:09:44.600 |
to you, 'Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert.'" In the NIV, it 00:09:51.280 |
says "worship." In some of your other translations, it'll say "serve." But the Hebrew word for 00:09:56.080 |
that word is also translated "worship" or "serve." It's the same word. But he repeats 00:10:01.160 |
that phrase over and over again. Why does the nation of Israel need to have freedom? 00:10:07.040 |
Why they need to be delivered? He says that same phrase, "so that they may come out and 00:10:10.760 |
worship me." He says it in Exodus 7, 16. He says it in Exodus 8, 1, in verse 20. Chapter 00:10:17.200 |
9, verse 1. Chapter 9, 13. Chapter 10, verse 3. Chapter 10, verse 7. Chapter 28, verse 00:10:23.640 |
41. Chapter 29, verse 1. And I could go on and on and on and on. He repeats that phrase 00:10:30.220 |
multiple times, over and over again. That this is why the nation needs to be set free. 00:10:35.960 |
It is so that they may come and worship me. If you look at the Ten Commandments, what 00:10:41.920 |
is the first of the Ten Commandments? "You shall worship no other gods." So if you were 00:10:47.880 |
to turn that and to understand it properly, biblically, what is he saying? That we ought 00:10:52.640 |
to worship God and God alone. So the first commandment of the Ten Commandments is about 00:10:58.080 |
worshiping Him. But it's not just the first commandment. If you look at the first four 00:11:03.000 |
commandments, it relates to our relationship with God. If you look at the second six commandments, 00:11:08.080 |
it's about our relationship with one another. But all four commandments of the first, the 00:11:13.400 |
Ten Commandments, is about worship. One is that you will worship no other gods. Second, 00:11:18.960 |
that you will have no graven images of me. In other words, you won't worship me in the 00:11:23.800 |
form of another thing. The third one is not to take His name in vain. Meaning that you 00:11:30.800 |
don't approach God and you don't use His name in worship in the wrong way. Fourth commandment, 00:11:35.200 |
"Thou shalt keep the Sabbath holy." What does it mean to keep it holy? To set it apart. 00:11:40.520 |
That it is a day of corporate worship. So all four commandments given to us in the Ten 00:11:45.800 |
Commandments is about giving proper worship to God. So it is no surprise to us when Jesus 00:11:52.960 |
has this encounter with the Samaritan woman. The Samaritan woman says, "You know, you seem 00:11:59.240 |
like a prophet. You seem like you have the truth." And then she says, "Well, you Jews 00:12:03.080 |
say that you're going to worship here and we worship in this mountain. And who's true?" 00:12:08.160 |
Jesus' response to her is, "If you're asking for who's right and who's wrong, right, who 00:12:12.720 |
has the truth and who doesn't have the truth, the Jews have the truth. They have the law 00:12:16.520 |
of God." So if you're trying to see like are the Jews right? Are the Samaritans right? 00:12:21.600 |
They have the law of God. But a time is coming and has already come that God is not looking 00:12:27.200 |
to see who has the right doctrine only. That whether if you worship at the temple God is 00:12:32.560 |
pleased and if you worship on this mountain that God is not pleased. The time is coming 00:12:37.160 |
and has now come that true worshipers will worship Him in spirit and in truth. Meaning 00:12:43.520 |
you may have the right heart but you don't have the truth. The Jews may have the truth 00:12:48.680 |
but they don't have the right heart. What God is looking for are people who will worship 00:12:52.960 |
Him in spirit and in truth. And so it should be no surprise to us that worshipping God 00:13:00.920 |
is at the center of what we're doing. You know there was a time where I thought that 00:13:06.040 |
the primary reason why we got together is for the purpose of discipleship and evangelism. 00:13:11.040 |
And I realized as I was studying through scripture that that is not it. Without proper worship 00:13:17.840 |
evangelism is fruitless. Without genuine worship our prayers become frustrated. Without genuine 00:13:26.340 |
worship our service eventually becomes a burden. Without proper worship our fellowship eventually 00:13:33.080 |
becomes old. It just becomes a bunch of religious duties that we have to check off and do. And 00:13:37.840 |
some people happen to be better at others. Some people are more disciplined than others. 00:13:43.520 |
Some people are better at reading and studying than others. They just have interest in it. 00:13:46.720 |
Some people are more sacrificial than others. But true fruit always comes as a result of 00:13:53.700 |
true worship. And that's why the first of the four visions of our church is really all-encompassing. 00:14:01.880 |
Because if we don't have the first one, the second, third, fourth thing that we're trying 00:14:05.600 |
to pursue we pursue out of our own strength and eventually they'll get frustrated. And 00:14:10.480 |
again that kind of lays the foundation for us as a church. Why do we do what we do? Again 00:14:16.120 |
I know you took BCC and I know you've probably heard this before but I think it's important 00:14:22.000 |
for us as a church. You know again whether you've been you're new to our church or whether 00:14:26.560 |
you've been here for 18 years that as Jen was talking about every few months she says 00:14:30.920 |
she's re-evaluates what's the big picture? Why are we doing this? That if we lose focus 00:14:36.040 |
of this big picture we can just easily get caught up in the growth of the church and 00:14:41.360 |
oh I love these people they love me and you know and as long as there's a positive vibe 00:14:47.200 |
in the church the church will grow. As long as you're surrounding yourself with friendly 00:14:51.480 |
people and you know then and oh I love being with these people I want to raise my kids 00:14:55.780 |
you know with your family and the church will grow. But that doesn't mean that God is honored. 00:15:03.120 |
That doesn't mean just because the church grows in size that we're bearing fruit. Fruit 00:15:08.920 |
always comes as a result of genuine worship. So this morning I want to focus on three specific 00:15:15.680 |
words there in fact if you did a study of the word worship in the New Testament Old 00:15:20.760 |
Testament there's more than two dozen different words used. But some of the words are only 00:15:24.840 |
used once or twice in the whole Bible. But there's three words that really are prominent 00:15:30.040 |
that captures the meaning the theology of worship in the scripture and out of the three 00:15:35.100 |
the first one is the most significant because the other two meaning flow from the understanding 00:15:41.560 |
of the first one. So I'm going to be going through these three words for you this morning 00:15:45.560 |
and again to re-establish the foundation for the church. The first word in Hebrew is shakha. 00:15:54.120 |
It means to lay down or to prostrate oneself. That same word that's translated again the 00:16:00.560 |
equivalent word in the New Testament the Greek word is proskuneo. It means again to prostrate 00:16:06.160 |
oneself in some translations but the literal understanding of that is to go forth and kiss. 00:16:12.920 |
It means adoration to love but the root word the root understanding of the word proskuneo 00:16:18.600 |
when that word is used in the New Testament is what is that when they encounter God they 00:16:23.520 |
end up prostrating themselves falling down in worship. So the understanding of this word 00:16:30.760 |
and the most important understanding of what true worship is true worship is what happens 00:16:36.920 |
when we are in the presence of something we are awed by. Let me say that again. True worship 00:16:44.300 |
is what happens when we are in the presence of something we are awed by. Worship is not 00:16:50.400 |
something that we generate. I can't just put this up here okay now we're going to worship 00:16:54.920 |
this this morning right and just put that up there. Worship it. You're so good you know. 00:17:03.240 |
You could you could describe you could fake it right but real worship happens when you 00:17:07.800 |
actually believe this is awesome. When you encounter something awesome it's kind of like 00:17:12.480 |
when you go to some of you guys who are watching March Madness and there's some crazy stuff 00:17:16.840 |
that's happened UCI almost beat Kentucky you know what I mean and you guys were worshiping 00:17:21.560 |
it up to that point until he missed that shot right. Some of you guys who are watching and 00:17:26.080 |
we have a lot of UCI alumni's here right. Like that's worship when you get so like engrossed 00:17:32.240 |
in it you forget you know you forget what time maybe you guys some of you guys are watching 00:17:36.360 |
it in at work and you forgot what time it was and you know what I mean and you got in 00:17:39.920 |
trouble because you weren't paying attention to anything else. Like when you are so awed 00:17:44.360 |
by what you see that you completely forget about anything else but that right. That's 00:17:50.320 |
genuine worship. Now we never worship something that is plain and pedestrian. We never worship 00:17:56.760 |
something that we can relate to and say I could do that. You know I mean if I can relate 00:18:01.600 |
to that and if it's common we don't worship it. We worship things that are above us. We 00:18:07.080 |
worship things and we say whoa did you see that. So worship the word proskuneo is when 00:18:13.880 |
we encounter something above us. Something that we can't possibly imagine and we are 00:18:18.680 |
affected by it. That's what genuine worship is. You can tell a difference between somebody 00:18:26.480 |
who is a true worshiper of God versus somebody who is self-righteous. A self-righteous person 00:18:32.720 |
always talks about what they've accomplished. A self-righteous Pharisee is somebody who 00:18:38.320 |
is always talking about this is what I've done. This is what I did and this is what 00:18:41.680 |
I didn't. These are the accomplishments I have. Versus somebody who is genuinely worshiping 00:18:46.760 |
God they are lost. They're all they do is did you see God. You know what God did for 00:18:53.000 |
us and they're constantly talking about the awesomeness of the God that we worship. That's 00:18:57.280 |
the difference. That's the meaning of this word. In fact every time this word is used 00:19:03.680 |
it's used to describe somebody who is prostrate before God. Isaiah chapter 6 1 through 7 you 00:19:10.920 |
know that encounter that Isaiah has. Isaiah sees a picture of a holy holy holy God and 00:19:18.040 |
as soon as he is in the presence it says he falls down says woe is me woe is me. This 00:19:24.320 |
is a righteous man in anybody else's definition Isaiah was a prophet among prophets. He was 00:19:29.920 |
being prepared to speak on God's behalf and go speak to the nation of Israel. Well when 00:19:37.200 |
he sees this holy scene he's on the ground. He's like woe is me. I'm a man of unclean 00:19:42.200 |
lips from a people of unclean lips. He all of a sudden recognizes his filth in the light 00:19:47.000 |
of this holy holy holy God. We see the same scene in Ezekiel chapter 1 28 when Ezekiel 00:19:53.800 |
is shown the vision of God he says he describes this vision of God this way like the appearance 00:19:59.520 |
of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain. So was the appearance of the brightness 00:20:04.360 |
all around such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when 00:20:07.960 |
I saw it I fell on my face and I heard the voice of one speaking. Ezekiel in the presence 00:20:16.360 |
of God he prostrates himself shakka and he completely loses himself. You know we talk 00:20:24.560 |
about how humility we try so hard to try to be humble you know on your own. You know I 00:20:30.080 |
mean it's so fake. I mean when we try to be humble with each other it comes out fake. 00:20:38.040 |
So oh no I'm no good you must so much better than me. You're so much better looking than 00:20:42.880 |
me. You know I mean it's it comes out so fake. Humility happens when you genuinely recognize 00:20:51.160 |
somebody is greater than you. You're not just saying it's not just your word. That's what 00:20:55.080 |
you believe. And when you're in the presence of this holy God you can't help but to lose 00:21:01.520 |
yourself. There's nothing to brag about. There's nothing to point at. Once you've seen the 00:21:08.800 |
glory of God you can't look at that and then look at yourself and say look at me look at 00:21:12.600 |
me. It just you just get lost. See that's what worship is when somebody is in genuine 00:21:20.560 |
worship they forget who they are. That's what happens in Matthew 17 5 through 6. At the 00:21:28.080 |
scene of the transfiguration the three inner disciples are given a glimpse of Jesus' true 00:21:34.160 |
identity his true glory. Because Jesus needed these three to be the inner witness that he's 00:21:40.920 |
about to go to the cross and they need to know who he really is. So that after he dies 00:21:46.600 |
and resurrects that these three people will go out and say I saw his glory I heard the 00:21:50.960 |
voice of God. So they were given the privilege to see a glimpse of the glory of Jesus not 00:21:57.160 |
simply his humanity. And this is what happens. He was still speaking talking about the father 00:22:02.520 |
behold a bright cloud overshadowed them and a voice from the cloud said this is my beloved 00:22:07.720 |
son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. And when the disciples heard this they 00:22:13.060 |
fell on their faces and were terrified. Proscenio. They fell down they completely lost themselves. 00:22:23.440 |
Revelation chapter 117 when John is given a glimpse of the glory of Jesus he says when 00:22:28.640 |
I saw him I fell at his feet as though dead. The same response of the disciples same response 00:22:36.080 |
of Isaiah same response of Ezekiel when they were in the presence of this glorious God 00:22:42.400 |
they're in awe and they worship. Oh my gosh. Did you see that. The same reason why we pay 00:22:49.720 |
hundreds of dollars to get the best seats to watch these athletes do crazy things. You 00:22:56.800 |
know they catch crazy catches that they do things that physically it is impossible for 00:23:01.200 |
an average person to do. You don't pay money to go see Little League baseball. You know 00:23:08.440 |
you privilege them by your presence. See we pay big time money to go watch things that 00:23:14.520 |
are beyond us. And why do we do that. Why are we paying money so that they can play 00:23:19.600 |
basketball because you and I have been created to worship. The problem is we worship the 00:23:28.920 |
wrong things. We find temporary life in the wrong things. You and I feel alive in the 00:23:36.440 |
presence of this holy God. And when we feel the most alive is when we are examining and 00:23:43.840 |
being affected by the all of our God when the scripture says that because Adam and Eve 00:23:50.880 |
sin we've been separated from God. And because as a result of that we died we died from being 00:23:56.920 |
in the presence of which brings life. When you watch these basketball and for temporarily 00:24:01.680 |
you paid all that money something spectacular happens. Do you not feel alive at that moment. 00:24:07.920 |
Do you not forget about the distance that you travel. Do you not forget the money that 00:24:11.760 |
you paid and how ridiculous expensive that hot dog was that you bought to eat. For that 00:24:17.840 |
moment you forget everything because of what you're watching. That's how the Bible describes 00:24:24.880 |
genuine worship. That's how it illustrates for us every time these holy men are in the 00:24:29.920 |
presence of this holy holy holy God they completely lose themselves. Whether it's a revelations 00:24:36.560 |
513 whether it's the four beasts that are flying around declaring who he is. Twenty 00:24:42.680 |
four elders they fall down again prostrate themselves and they worship him. Revelations 00:24:48.240 |
7 11 through 12 even the angels the picture of heaven that we see are all these holy angels 00:24:54.400 |
are surrounding the throne worshiping him night and day. Anybody who's ever experienced 00:25:01.840 |
the ecstasy of worshiping God know exactly what that is. If you've never been in the 00:25:08.000 |
presence of this holy God. You would have no idea why would we go to heaven is such 00:25:14.440 |
a burden you know. Imagine I listen to this guy 40 45 minutes every day and then if he 00:25:19.400 |
goes off 50 minutes you know we go to heaven we're going to see this for eternity. Like 00:25:23.840 |
that's what we think what worship is. Worship is in the being the presence of this God and 00:25:28.640 |
you can't help but to celebrate him. And the more we celebrate him more we're in this 00:25:33.440 |
presence the more we desire more we feel alive. We encounter this God sometimes in creation 00:25:41.240 |
we look at the awesomeness of creation and we see his imprint in creation we say wow 00:25:45.680 |
God is so awesome. You know the more we see I see that you know I talk to students and 00:25:52.400 |
you know people who are studying science you know like more advanced we get it kind of 00:25:55.760 |
makes me question God and you know I think exactly the opposite. The more advanced we 00:26:02.600 |
are with technology it causes me to take a look back and say if human beings are capable 00:26:07.520 |
of this I think about all the stuff that's kind of like the 3D printing you know. Recently 00:26:13.840 |
we've been talking about people who lost their limbs and they can attach it and they can 00:26:16.840 |
control their limbs you know open their hands you know with just their thought. We look 00:26:23.080 |
at all the stuff that's coming out that are already here and think about the self-driving 00:26:27.720 |
cars can't wait till that happens right. Supposedly Google is going to come out with that pretty 00:26:32.520 |
soon and more advanced this technology becomes it's like well maybe we just created God because 00:26:38.040 |
look what we're capable of. I think exactly the opposite. The more that we're capable 00:26:43.720 |
of more that a computer is capable of doing do you take a step back like that computer 00:26:47.640 |
is awesome. Don't you take a step back like who created that right. Because more complex 00:26:54.360 |
more powerful that computer is the more it reflects on the creator. It's the creator 00:26:59.880 |
it's his genius it is his intellect that caused him to do that. It's man's foolishness to 00:27:04.600 |
look at look at the technology advancing and look at that all human beings are so awesome. 00:27:11.520 |
You we can encounter God in his creation we can encounter God in his word. Why the preaching 00:27:18.440 |
of the word is so important you know we can we can dress up our church to make it more 00:27:24.880 |
attractive. I know the tons of stuff that we could possibly do we just don't have time 00:27:28.840 |
to do it you know it'll cost a lot of money but I know people will come right. Build a 00:27:34.200 |
gym people will come right. Give good food people will come. Have a great singles retreat 00:27:42.880 |
people will come. There's all kinds of stuff that we can do keep my sermon shorter people 00:27:48.320 |
come. I've had plenty of people saying like I love the people at your church but your 00:27:52.560 |
sermons are too long. I cannot go to your church right. So if I shorten my church sermon 00:27:57.900 |
just a little bit I know at least four or five people that I talked to in the last year 00:28:01.960 |
that they would they would be here right now right. There's tons of stuff that we can do 00:28:06.960 |
to to tweak it to make make it more attractive to people right. But you don't encounter God 00:28:14.880 |
because of how I articulate things you don't encounter God because you met some people 00:28:20.400 |
who who do certain things and oh they're so nice they reach out to me and you know and 00:28:25.240 |
none of these things are bad. But if that's why you choose church at one point you're 00:28:30.640 |
not going to choose church for the same reason. Have you ever met anybody anybody in your 00:28:35.520 |
life who consistently never let you down. Anybody. Liar. Nobody. Your best friend your 00:28:44.960 |
mom your dad your your soul mate in life right. There's nobody. We're all sinners we're all 00:28:51.480 |
selfish and at some point it comes out right. The only place where we find true life is 00:28:58.500 |
in the presence of his glory. And the scripture says my sheep they will hear my voice and 00:29:05.000 |
they will follow me. And the mistake that we make at church sometimes is that we want 00:29:09.800 |
them to follow us. We want them to follow Berean. We want them to follow me. And that's 00:29:16.080 |
the mistake we make because because if people start following me they will stop not following 00:29:20.520 |
me. If we get them to love Berean at some point they're not going to love Berean. And 00:29:26.640 |
whatever we present to them outside of Christ at some point they're going to be disappointed. 00:29:31.880 |
So there'll be periods of growth and periods of disappointment. The only one who can give 00:29:36.600 |
this true life is Christ and Christ alone. And he said if they're truly my children they're 00:29:44.800 |
going to hunger for my word. We encounter God primarily through his words. Through what 00:29:51.680 |
he says and that's where we saw his glory that's what we saw his love. That's how we 00:29:55.680 |
understand life. That's how we understand church is through his word. It is when we 00:30:02.860 |
encounter God we find life. You look at the book of Job. I mean you're talking about somebody 00:30:08.360 |
who suffered all his life. I mean this guy has excruciatingly painful life. Not only 00:30:15.040 |
does he lose all his money he loses all his family and then he loses his health. Like 00:30:21.060 |
everything that we hold on to dear life every decision we make is to protect that. Protect 00:30:25.640 |
our wealth. Protect our family. Protect their health. Right. Think about it. Everything 00:30:30.440 |
that we do we're so afraid we buy insurance for this and we buy houses there because we 00:30:34.560 |
want to be safe. Everything that we do God strips everything away from him. For what 00:30:38.480 |
reason? Because he was righteous. See but his friends didn't understand that. His friends 00:30:43.880 |
came to him and said well that's happening to you because you must have something wrong. 00:30:47.800 |
Doesn't make sense. Why would God put you through that you know if you've been good. 00:30:52.380 |
And so his friends would come and take turns. I mean even if they were coming and encouraging 00:30:57.240 |
him it would have been difficult. But in the midst of all that one by one you know one 00:31:02.240 |
guy's done the other guy would come. Another guy's done another guy would come. And then 00:31:04.680 |
you have three separate cycles of this with these three friends. He finally cracks at 00:31:10.520 |
the end of his life. But he doesn't curse God. He just says God why? Why are you doing 00:31:16.480 |
this? I've remained faithful to you and and he did. All his life he was the one defending 00:31:22.080 |
he's like no you know I've been righteous and God's still good. I'm still going to worship 00:31:25.440 |
him. But at the end he's like oh my gosh enough. Why are you doing that? I don't get you God. 00:31:31.200 |
Then God finally shows up. And it's so interesting the way he says it. And I'm not going to read 00:31:37.760 |
it for the sake of time but at the end of his life God shows up and he says put your 00:31:41.720 |
pants put your pants on basically as a modern translation. You're going to take it like 00:31:46.680 |
a man. Okay. Don't take my word for it. Go read it. That's what he says. Gird up your 00:31:52.000 |
going like a man. You're going to take it like a man. Okay. And then he says did you 00:31:57.200 |
put the stars up? Did you make this creation? Did you do this? And and so you know as God 00:32:03.800 |
is showing him you know you think you understand you don't know what you're talking about. 00:32:06.960 |
And you can just see Job just like wah wah wah. And then he finally encounters this God. 00:32:16.440 |
My ways are above your way. You don't know. And this is how he responds to God in Job 00:32:21.640 |
42 1 through 6. And this is the lesson that he learned. And Job answered the Lord and 00:32:26.640 |
said I know that you can do all things. And that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 00:32:32.040 |
Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand. 00:32:38.360 |
Things too wonderful for me which I did not know. Hear and I will speak. I will question 00:32:42.320 |
you and you make it known to me. I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear. But now 00:32:47.200 |
my eyes see you. Therefore I despise myself and repent and in dust and ashes. He encounters 00:32:55.360 |
this holy God. He forgets about everything. He said I was speaking things I could not 00:33:01.320 |
understand and I was asking you. I was questioning you because I didn't understand why you were 00:33:04.800 |
doing this. But I've heard of you now that I've seen you. It is enough. And just like 00:33:11.480 |
every other person who encounters God, he falls down in worship. Proskeneo. Saka. That's 00:33:20.320 |
what genuine worship is. And why our corporate worship is so important is not because oh 00:33:27.240 |
we check off a lesson. If we check it off, oh I did my part this week. But because this 00:33:32.760 |
is where we meet Christ. Why do we do quiet time? It's like oh if I do, good Christians 00:33:40.080 |
do quiet time. They read the Bible. Why do we emphasize going to the Word of God? Because 00:33:44.760 |
this is where we encounter Christ. And when we encounter him and when we are in worship 00:33:51.200 |
and when we are in awe, all of a sudden. It's not you encounter him all of a sudden you 00:33:57.720 |
find money. You encounter him all of a sudden you are sick and now you're healthy. You don't 00:34:05.240 |
encounter him and all of a sudden all your problems are gone. But in light of who he 00:34:10.200 |
is you forget. It doesn't seem as important in the light of his glory. Our financial concerns 00:34:18.320 |
don't seem as big in the light of who he is. And all the problems, anxieties that we have 00:34:24.920 |
about paying bills and raising children and all of that stuff. We still have it but it 00:34:30.800 |
doesn't seem as tremendous in the light of his presence. And we feel alive. We may still 00:34:40.640 |
be sick but we feel alive. We may still have interpersonal relationship issues but we feel 00:34:47.880 |
alive. Because that's where we find life. That's why he says we're seeking for people 00:34:53.320 |
who are worshipping him in spirit and in truth. He's not just asking or looking for people 00:34:57.640 |
who are going to submit and do the right things. Because God created us for worship. It is 00:35:05.040 |
when we feel worship, it is when we are worshipping God and we are in awe with him we feel alive. 00:35:12.480 |
Isn't that why how you became a Christian in the first place? That your eyes got open. 00:35:17.520 |
What you did not understand at one point. Your eyes got open and you saw the glory of 00:35:21.800 |
the gospel of Jesus Christ and you were all by him. And your sins were justified. Sanctification 00:35:30.640 |
isn't different than that. Sanctification is a continual, continual experience of his 00:35:39.640 |
all. It is when Christ becomes mundane. When the word of God becomes a chore. When serving 00:35:48.840 |
becomes a duty. When Christianity becomes drudgery. So first and foremost, are we meeting 00:35:57.280 |
God? Are we meeting God corporately? Are we meeting God privately? Are you pursuing God 00:36:03.920 |
or are you pursuing a religious set of duties? On the surface it may look the same. But the 00:36:12.000 |
fruit of that is night and day. See along with that, and again the other two I'm going 00:36:17.320 |
to go pretty quickly because it's related to the first one. The second word is sublimi. 00:36:21.800 |
True worship happens internally. The word means to revere internally. To have sense 00:36:26.740 |
of all. So when Jesus says he's looking for people who worship in spirit and in truth, 00:36:34.520 |
he's talking about in your heart as well as the truth. Not just, oh I read the Bible and 00:36:38.840 |
I'm doing the right thing. But is there genuine worship happening? Right? You guys have been, 00:36:44.200 |
most of you guys have been in church long enough to know just checking in on church 00:36:48.160 |
Sunday and checking out on church Sunday doesn't mean that you've worshipped God. True worship 00:36:52.760 |
in this room is happening in your heart. Are you meeting God or not? Are you in awe with 00:36:58.520 |
him or not? See Jesus described in Matthew 15, 8 through 9, these people honor me with 00:37:03.480 |
their lips but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain. So there's three 00:37:08.960 |
things that he says about fake worship. One, it's done simply by lip service. It's just 00:37:15.880 |
what we say. It's just what we acknowledge. Well these are a set of doctrines. I believe 00:37:19.360 |
that. These are things that we believe. I believe that. It's all words. It's only words. 00:37:25.240 |
Second thing he says, their hearts or desires are far from me. It's fake worship. We check 00:37:31.080 |
in and we check out. This is not where we find life. We don't go there. We go to the 00:37:35.880 |
world for pleasure. We come to church to do the right thing. But there's no pleasure in 00:37:41.920 |
our heart to meet God. He says one, it's just lip service. Second, their hearts are far 00:37:48.320 |
from me. Why is our heart far from God? I mean the Bible says where your treasure is 00:37:56.720 |
there your heart will be. Sometimes we come into worship with no appetite for the things 00:38:03.200 |
of God. If I'm invited for a wedding and I know that there's going to be filet mignon, 00:38:09.240 |
right, like it's at 12 o'clock and the wedding's at 10, 12 o'clock there's going to be filet 00:38:13.360 |
mignon, 10 o'clock I'm not eating cup ramen. Because I know that when the good stuff comes 00:38:19.560 |
I won't have an appetite. So I save myself. I might eat cereal or something or yogurt 00:38:24.880 |
in the morning, you know what I mean, but I know filet mignon is coming. So I save myself. 00:38:31.600 |
Sometimes we get so filled with things that don't matter and then we say, how come I don't 00:38:38.160 |
have the same heart? There's no appetite. We feel, and I think as John Piper said, we 00:38:45.560 |
nibble at the table of the world, right, I don't know who said it, but we nibble at the 00:38:49.880 |
table of the world that there's no room for the things of God. So we only have enough 00:38:55.600 |
to just hear it. It's kind of like if you've ever tried to feed somebody who's full, it 00:38:59.840 |
doesn't matter how great the food is. If you've come to the table already full, I mean, you 00:39:04.800 |
can have the best steak right there. It's just not going to taste the same. So you go 00:39:10.440 |
through the motion of eating. We don't want to offend the person who made it. It's an 00:39:15.080 |
expensive steak. They put a lot of money and thought and work into it. So we just go through 00:39:19.720 |
the motion, take a bite, eat it. How is it? It's good. It's good. Because we don't want 00:39:25.640 |
to offend that person. So we're eating and we just kind of take it, and we just do what 00:39:29.800 |
we absolutely need to do to not to offend them. Like, is this enough? If I stop here, 00:39:35.120 |
they're going to be offended. So maybe I should eat just a little bit more, you know. And 00:39:39.120 |
so what do we do? We do, we eat just enough to satisfy the person who created it. It's 00:39:44.240 |
not, I'm not eating it for myself. I'm eating it to satisfy you because you did so much 00:39:49.000 |
work to do this. See, that's religiousness. That's legalism. That we're not coming to 00:39:56.120 |
God because I want to be fed. We're not coming to church because I want to meet Christ. We're 00:40:01.840 |
coming to church to appease the people, the people who are watching us, the leaders. So 00:40:07.360 |
we do just enough, not so that I can be satisfied, but that the people can be satisfied. And 00:40:14.960 |
we never fully are satisfied with this. So when the church is done, we talk about things 00:40:21.280 |
that we're excited about. Fantasy football. Certain games that we're involved with. Trips 00:40:30.800 |
that we're taking. Is this too close to home? But that's the reality, isn't it? That's 00:40:37.720 |
the reality. And I'm not saying this to say that we can't enjoy certain things. I mean, 00:40:45.120 |
I think we should enjoy it. There's nothing wrong. It's not sin. But we need to take a 00:40:50.320 |
step back and look. Am I worshiping God? Am I worshiping something else? What am I awed 00:40:56.600 |
by? What's going on in my heart? He says, it's just lip service. Heart's not really 00:41:03.600 |
there. And they worship in vain. It's fruitless. How many farmers do you think will be able 00:41:11.040 |
to go out to the field and work six months to plant seed, water it, cultivate it, and 00:41:15.080 |
then when it's time for the harvest comes, there's no fruit? I screwed up. This year 00:41:19.880 |
it's no good. Next year you come back and you work, plant seeds, you harvest, and you 00:41:24.440 |
do everything. Harvest time comes, boom, there's no fruit. How many times do you think that 00:41:30.720 |
farmer is going to keep doing that and find no fruit and just keep...two years? Three 00:41:35.960 |
years? Five years? You think five years they just cultivated, worked hard, woke up early 00:41:41.640 |
in the morning, went to sleep late, took care of it, and then come back, no fruit. That's 00:41:49.200 |
what happens to a lot of Christians. They go through the motions and go to church and 00:41:53.840 |
do this and then there's no fruit. And so after a while, they're like, man, doing all 00:42:00.360 |
this stuff, serving the church and doing all this stuff, there's no fruit. And then you 00:42:03.560 |
internally just give up. You just, oh, I guess you're not supposed to bear fruit. I guess 00:42:08.360 |
this is normal. And every once in a while we look at other people bearing fruit or we 00:42:12.400 |
read about other people bearing fruit and it's like, oh, okay, that's an anomaly. That's 00:42:17.120 |
not normal. Christian life becomes a drudgery when there's no fruit. And he says there is 00:42:24.480 |
no fruit in superficial worship. There is no fruit. There's a lot of work, a lot of 00:42:31.200 |
labor, a lot of sacrifices, a lot of reading, a lot of working, a lot of discipline, but 00:42:36.720 |
no fruit. Because true fruit always is an outcome of true worship. When there's life 00:42:46.520 |
in us, when Jesus is our treasure, when Jesus is our life, coming to Jesus and coming to 00:42:54.120 |
church is going to the living water. Like a deer panteth for the water. It's my favorite 00:42:59.800 |
song. I pant for thee. Like a thirsty human who wants a drink of water. It's like my thirst 00:43:07.920 |
can only be quenched by you. Not you, not my children, not my wife, not a bank account, 00:43:14.240 |
not him. And if that's what's drawing us to him and we are giving him our heart, he says 00:43:20.960 |
fruit comes. That's why he says you can bear no fruit if you don't abide in me. That's 00:43:26.880 |
why he says you have to abide in me. You want to truly bear fruit? Abide in me. Let me wrap 00:43:33.480 |
it up with the third and final word. The word is "Letruo" and the word means to serve. That 00:43:39.000 |
you encounter God and as a result of encountering God, there's a radical change that takes place 00:43:43.440 |
in your heart. And when your heart is changed, then you serve. In that order. The word "Letruo" 00:43:52.120 |
in some places is translated worship, some places translated serve. But it means to worship. 00:43:57.920 |
Romans 12, 1 it says, "I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies 00:44:02.240 |
as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship." 00:44:07.960 |
You notice here he says your spiritual act of worship is not in light of how beautiful 00:44:12.640 |
the people are. In view of all the needs of the world. He says in view of his mercy. 11 00:44:22.600 |
chapters Paul expounds about the details of the mercies that we received in Christ. How 00:44:28.840 |
we were once slaves to sin, now we're slaves to righteousness. How we've been set free 00:44:33.000 |
and the Holy Spirit is interceding on our behalf. Nothing can separate us from this 00:44:36.440 |
love of Christ. For 11 chapters he's been presenting us with the glory of Christ. What 00:44:42.480 |
he has done. So at the end of this, once you encounter this God in view of this mercy, 00:44:47.640 |
he says give your bodies as a living sacrifice. Letruo. And this is why, again, in the book 00:44:56.700 |
of Acts when they're choosing deacons, why they choose men who are filled with the Spirit 00:45:02.720 |
with good reputation to pass out food. Because they're looking for people who will worship 00:45:09.320 |
Him. What we do, our worship doesn't end with me stop, you know, if I talk, stop talking, 00:45:16.320 |
then our worship stops. Right? What people do before the service, that's letruo. That's 00:45:23.240 |
act of worship. What people do after service, that's act of worship. You know some of the 00:45:28.240 |
people who are the most bitter about church are the people at one point who were the most 00:45:32.560 |
committed. You know, they gave everything. They sacrificed their homes, they came in 00:45:38.920 |
and served night and day, and they cooked and cleaned, and at the end of all of that 00:45:43.160 |
it's like, these people are not worth it. I sacrificed so much for them and they didn't 00:45:48.440 |
give it back to me. They're not worth it. And so you meet some people out on the streets 00:45:54.360 |
and you say, yeah I used to be at church, I used to be a deacon, I used to be an elder, 00:45:57.680 |
you know, I used to serve, I used to go out to missions, do all of that, but I hate the 00:46:01.240 |
church. I still believe in Jesus, but I hate the church. Got burnt out. Because it was 00:46:08.360 |
an act of worship. Anytime we serve, anytime we sacrifice and give, for any other reason 00:46:14.160 |
other than an act of worship, you're going to be disappointed. You're going to be disappointed. 00:46:22.000 |
If you come to church because people are nice, you're going to leave because people are not 00:46:26.240 |
nice. If you come to church because, oh there's a lot of people my age here. You know, I know 00:46:34.880 |
people who say, I don't want to go to church with people my age. I want to go somewhere 00:46:38.800 |
where there's a lot of old people where I can learn from. Then there's some people who 00:46:42.240 |
come and say, I want to go where there's a lot of young people I can influence. You know? 00:46:46.960 |
Only thing that this core of what we need to be looking for in a church is, am I encountering 00:46:52.240 |
God? Am I meeting Christ? Am I coming to the river of water, the living water, that if 00:47:01.600 |
I drink of it I would not thirst again? But all these other stuff the world can provide 00:47:06.560 |
through different channels. But there's one thing, and one thing only, that the world 00:47:12.240 |
cannot compete with is Christ. We can't compete with Hollywood. We can't compete with sports. 00:47:19.920 |
We can't compete with money. We can't compete with that stuff. If that's the reason why 00:47:23.800 |
you come here, there are much better organized people. There's people who are nicer. I've 00:47:28.880 |
met plenty of people who weren't Christians, who were so nice, so generous. We can't compete 00:47:35.400 |
with any of that. The only thing that stands out in the church that the world cannot even 00:47:41.400 |
possibly begin to imagine competing with is the glory of Christ. And that's why worship 00:47:48.920 |
has to be at the center of the church. And that's why the reason why you come, the reason 00:47:54.960 |
why I come, and the goal that I have on every single Sunday is first and foremost for me, 00:48:02.040 |
before I even think about you, for me, am I worshiping God today? And then the second 00:48:07.880 |
goal I have is are you worshiping God today? And like I said, everything else that we talk 00:48:14.160 |
about in our second, third, fourth vision is founded upon that. So if we get that wrong, 00:48:19.800 |
everything else that we do, we do in vain. Would you take a minute to close your eyes? 00:48:24.200 |
I'm going to ask the praise team to come up and take a few minutes to come before the 00:48:28.000 |
Lord in prayer. Again, ask honestly. If Christ is what we want, we need to hunger and thirst 00:48:38.760 |
for it. To come before the Lord in prayer. Lord, I desire to have you. I've been coming 00:48:47.000 |
to church and I've been going through the motion, but you are not what I was pursuing. 00:48:54.560 |
That this morning we come before the Lord, honestly confess, Lord, search me and know 00:48:57.960 |
me, see if there's any hurtful ways in me. It is you that I want, not the people, not 00:49:03.720 |
the circumstance, not even health. It's you. And I pray that this morning that we would 00:49:09.200 |
hear his invitation and to honestly confess, Lord, help me. Help me come to you. So let's