I am going to say something to you which will sound strange. It even sounds strange to me as I say it, because we are not used to hearing it within our Christian fellowships. We are saved to worship God. All that Christ has done for us in the past and all that He is doing now leads to this one end.
– A.W. Tozer -- Whatever Happened to Worship
He’s speaking about the importance of worship: How the promise of God comes through worship. Today, I want to take the time to examine
worship: What it is, what does it mean
to our lives? How many of us realize
that worship is necessary to the Christian Walk? I want to look at worship because I believe there are three key
things that demonstrate the importance of worship.
Genesis 12:6-8
6 Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land.7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.8 And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.
Faith Begins
Through Worship
In our text we see
Abram. This takes place after he has
heard the call of God to follow God to a place He would show Abram. He has picked up and left his father’s house
and he has traveled to Canaan: The land
of promise. This is the land that God
said that he would give to Abram’s descendents. He arrives there and God shows him the land. God tells him, “Look around this is the land
I will give to your descendents. Abram sees the promise of God and builds an
altar.
He’s seen the
promise of God and it has moved him, to do what? What is an altar for? The
Hebrew word for Altar comes from the Hebrew word for slaughter, so he has built
this altar to offer sacrifices to God.
Sacrifice is a form of worship.
He’s worshipping God. He’s seen
the promise; glimpsed what God will do and it has driven him to worship.
Can you look at
your life and see what God is doing there?
Can you see the promise that’s on the horizon for you if you will remain
in the will of God? What does it
motivate you to do? Does it motivate
you to worship? Worship is the natural
thing and that’s what Abram did, he worshipped God.
He sees the promise
of God and he builds an altar to worship the one who has given the promise and
in that moment something is established in his life. This isn’t a one-time shot for Abram. He begins to worship at many points in his journey. A pattern of worship is established in his
life.
How many times do
we see Abraham, build an altar? He
builds altars over and over throughout his life. Worship has become a pattern in his life and we can see from his
life that worship strengthened his
faith.
Look at the Book of
geneisis, in Chapter 12 we see that Abram hears from God and even though he is
raised in the pagan environment of Ur he recognizes the voice of God and
responds to the call that’s there. God
calls him to go to a place that I will show you. Abram leaves the house of his father, follows God to that place
and he worships God there.
But then he leaves
that place where he has worshipped God and travels down to Egypt. He becomes afraid that the Egyptians will
kill him so he tells his wife to say that she is his sister so protect
himself. Where has the faith gone? What happened to the man who believed
God? He has left the place of worship
and his faith has been lost. Afterward
he returns to bethel from Egypt.
Genesis 13:3-4
3 And he went on his journey from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,4 to the place of the altar which he had made there at first. And there Abram called on the name of the Lord.
He rebuilds the
altar that he had built before and in the process his faith is reanimated. This is the time when Lot’s shepherds and
Abram’s shepherds begin to fight, so Abraham tells Lot pick a direction and go
that way I’ll go the other way. Lot
looks to toward Sodom. He sees that in
that direction he will have more opportunity to find prosperity so he chooses
to go in that direction. Abram goes in
the opposite direction out into the desert; into the place that God had showed
him and trusted God for provision. Lot
has chosen the direction through the wisdom of mankind. He sees a better chance for success so he
goes that way. Abram on the other hand,
has chosen to trust God and has chosen his direction in faith. he stays in the Land God has promised his
descendants and worships God.
Finally, we see the
powerful faith of Abram, who by now is called Abraham, in the test that God
gives him when he asks him to sacrifice his son Isaac. Issac is the child of Abraham’s old
age. He is the child that God said will
be the heir through whom the promise is fulfilled. So when God asks him to sacrifice Isaac he is really testing
whether or not Abraham has the faith to obey God. Remember, he had a son through Sarah’s handmaiden, Hagar, because
they didn’t believe that God could give barren Sarah a child. So this is a test to see whether Abraham can
obey God, knowing what’s at stake.
Abraham responds to
the test by placing Isaac on the altar and preparing to sacrifice him. This is a great act of faith look at this
statement regarding Abraham’s faith:
Hebrews 11:17-19
11:17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18 of whom it was said, "In Isaac your seed shall be called," 19 concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.
He had becomes so
full of faith that he knew if necessary for God to keep the promise that he
would raise Isaac from the dead. This
is a far cry from the man who doubted that God could deliver him from the
Egyptians.
What’s the key to
Abraham’s faith? I believe it is the
act of worshipping God. Every time God
spoke the promise to Abraham he built an altar and worshipped God. He called on the name of the Lord.
Faith comes by
hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Abraham’s faith was ignited by the word of God spoken in the form of a
promise. But the building of the altar
signifies an openness to hearing from God.
It isn’t automatic that if you speak the word of God that everyone you
speak it to will respond I faith. If it
was then everyone you witnessed to would get saved. We know that doesn’t happen.
But it is an openness to the word of God that allows it to build faith
in our lives. Worship opens us up to
the word of God and the will of God and establishes in us the faith that God is
a God who will deliver on His promises.
That’s why worship is so important in our church services. It’s also why we have worhip service before
the preaching.
Here are some
interesting statistics:
Nearly two-thirds of
regular church attendees have not experienced God’s presence in a church
service. 48% of regular church
attendees have not experienced God’s presence in the last year. But yet 65%
(two-thirds) of church-going adults are very satisfied with the ability to
worship God afforded by their church.
The problem here is
that there has not been a pattern of real worship that has been built in most
churches. It’s too bad that we don’t
have to build altars anymore because people come to church and expect the
presence of God to just fall on them:
That it is God’s responsibility to pour Himself out. Some churches have professional worship
groups, the have the perfect mood inducing lighting, all the right high tech
effects. Those things induce a mood but
they don’t always bring about heartfelt worship. There isn’t a formula; worship doesn’t come from singing,
clapping, mood lighting and musicianship.
It comes from the heart. It
comes from being inspired by the promise of God. That’s what motivated Abraham.
We have to ask ourselves are we inspired by what God is doing in our
lives? Is that what motivates us, or
are we just going through the motions?
Do you want to feel the presence of God? If you do then you need to worship from your heart and you ill
feel the presence of God, powerfully.
Song service and the preaching will come to life for you because God
will show up.
The House of God is
Established in Worship
The word Bethel
means “House of God.” This is the place
where God dwells, this is the place where Abram built that first altar. This is also the place where Jacob sees the
vision of the ladder of God and names it Bethel.
Genesis 28:16-19
16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” 18 Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it.19 And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously.
When Abraham was
there it was called Luz it was built by the Canaanites, who lived there. It wasn’t called Bethel until Jacob’s
time. He called it that in a time of
worship. That’s what he was doing when
he raised up a stone and anointed it.
He was worshipping God. This is
the same place where Abram built that first altar; it is the same place where
Abram worshipped God. The worship of
God in that place established it as the House of God. Jacob says, “this is none other than the House of God,” and what
is it? It’s a place of worship.
Take a moment and
look forward in history into the nation of Israel. Look into a time after the people have received their
inheritance; after the four hundred years of captivity in Egypt. This is centuries after Jacob’s time.
Judges 20:18
18 Then the children of Israel arose and went up to the house of God to inquire of God. They said, “Which of us shall go up first to battle against the children of Benjamin?” The Lord said, “Judah first!”
Judges 20:26-27
26 Then all the children of Israel, that is, all the people, went up and came to the house of God and wept. They sat there before the Lord and fasted that day until evening; and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.27 So the children of Israel inquired of the Lord (the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,
Judges 21:2-4
2 Then the people came to the house of God, and remained there before God till evening. They lifted up their voices and wept bitterly,3 and said, “O Lord God of Israel, why has this come to pass in Israel, that today there should be one tribe missing in Israel?”4 So it was, on the next morning, that the people rose early and built an altar there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.
This place is
established as the House of God and it was established there all those years
ago when Abram first worshipped there.
Worship establishes the place of God.
Our church is in an
old building. There have been a number
of businesses in that building. One of
them, a KTV business, where men pay women to entertain them as they drank and
sing karaoke, not really the type of business that would establish the place as
the House of God. But now it’s our
church, now it’s a House of God where we regularly experience the presence of
God. What establishes it as the House
of God? It’s the worship of God by God’s
people.
But let’s make this
personal for a moment. If you worship
God from your heart, will your heart not be established as a House of God. If your heart is established as a dwelling
place of God what fruit would be visible from that?
Luke 6:45
45 “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Worship will build
in your heart a [ace where God can dwell and we will see the fruit of a heart
given over to God. What will that fruit
look like?
Psalm 45:7
7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions.
God is not a God of
depression. He’s not a God of
suicide. God is a God of Joy. Do you want the joy of salvation to be the
fruit of your life? Worship will usher
in the oil of gladness. As we build a
habitation for God in our hearts, then out of our hearts will come the
abundance of what is there, which is the oil of gladness. Worship establishes the dwelling of God in
our hearts, in other words worship is what will bring about the indwelling of
God in our hearts.
Worship is a Refuge
Jeroboam, when he
was king of Israel desecrated the place of God through the worship of
idols.
1 Kings 12:32-33
32 Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did at Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And at Bethel he installed the priests of the high places which he had made.33 So he made offerings on the altar which he had made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had devised in his own heart. And he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and offered sacrifices on the altar and burned incense.
He perverted the
House of God by setting up an abomination there. In time the people came to be ashamed of that perversion of God’s
house.
Jeremiah 48:13
13 Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh,
As the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence.
The word translated
as confidence can be more properly translated as refuge. So what is this saying? It’s saying that the people of God came to
be ashamed of that that was once their refuge.
Jeroboam, through his worship of golden calves in the house fo God caused
God to depart from that place. We are
in danger of the same thing if we allow some form of idolatry to take the place
of God in our hearts.
What do we
worship? We worship the thing that has
the greatest priority in our hearts.
It’s that thing we put before God:
That thing that keeps us out of church.
The thing that we worship is the thing that keeps us from worshipping
God.
I spoke to a young
man who didn’t want to serve God because he knew that if served God he wouldn’t
be able to be sexually immoral. His
conscience wouldn’t allow it. He knew
that. So Sexual Immorality is thing that he worships.
He is in bondage to
that thing, there is no place of refuge from that bondage available to him,
until he puts God back in the place of worship in his heart.
What is a place of
refuge? In our times we have appointed places called Wildlife Refuges. These are places where wildlife can live
without fear of being hunted and killed by men. They are a place of safety and security.
That’s what bethel
was for Israel. It was a place where
they could have confidence that God would protect them and provide for them;
safety and security. That place of
refuge was destroyed by jeroboam as he worshipped idols there. This is the last place in the Bible where
bethel is referred to as the place of God.
The last mention of Bethel is in the Book of Amos:
Amos 7:11-13
11 “For thus Amos has said: ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, And Israel shall surely be led away captive From their own land.’ ” 12 Then Amaziah said to Amos: “Go, you seer! Flee to the land of Judah. There eat bread, And there prophesy.13 But never again prophesy at Bethel, For it is the king’s sanctuary, And it is the royal residence.”
The people have
grown ashamed of Bethel.
Worshipping God
creates for us a refuge from the bondage of sin, from the assault of the one
who seeks to destroy us. How many times
have you gone into church, bogged down, feeling the weight of the day or some
assault from the pit of hell. You walk
in, allow yourself to enter into a place of worship, allow God’s presence to be
established once again in your heart, and you are buoyed up, leaving glad once
more. That’s the power of refuge. It’s what makes the worship group such an
important part of the service; they are the ones who usher us into
worship. They are the ones who, in a
sense, build that altar. But don’t get
me wrong worship is an individual responsibility. Worship should come from the heart. It’s the opening of our hearts to God and shouldn’t be taken
lightly. Not giving it all we’re worth
profanes it.
Worship can
establish and strengthen our faith.
Worship can build the House of God.
Worship can be a refuge from the assaults of hell. It depends on you.
One final thought,
we think of worship as a personal thing: That we are the only ones affected by
the intensity of our worship, but that isn’t true. Abraham’s worship built his faith, but it also built the faith
of Isaac and Jacob. Have you thought
about how much faith it took for Isaac to let his father offer him on the
altar?
Isaac was about
twenty and Abraham about one hundred twenty.
Isaac could have outrun him certainly.
Could have fought him, but we don’t see that. Isaac submitted to the sacrifice. Where did Jacob learn to worship God by standing up a stone and
pouring oil on it.? He learned that
from his father and grandfather. The
House of God was established by one man’s worship but it remained the House of
God for all of Israel for centuries.
The lack of worship on the part of Jeroboam destroyed that place as a
place of refuge.
Do you realize that
your faith is dependent on your pastor’s?
His faith is dependent in part on yours. Together we strengthen each other’s faith, so we owe it to each
other to build our faith as much as we can and we do that partly through
worship. Together we establish a refuge
from the assaults of the devil as we come into the sanctuary and worship. We, through worship, make it a refuge. Let’s establish a pattern of worship in our
lives and see the promises of God come true in our lives.
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