“The
Foundations of Our Worship”
2
Chronicles 20:1-4
Sermon
Series: Pure
Praise1
The
central passage for this story is Second Chronicles 20. In this
chapter is a story about hundreds of thousands of people who all came
to a unique understanding about God at the same time. Three large
armies were marching against Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah.
Jehoshaphat's response was to call everyone in Judah to a giant
prayer meeting. Each week we will draw from a different element of
this narrative.
I
don't know about you, but I'm certain I would not have responded the
way the people of Judah did when they learned of their imminent
danger. In face of probable disaster and death they made the choice
to worship.
Second
Chronicles 20 is a chapter about an incredible worship service. In
the midst of a frightening circumstance they had a supernatural
encounter with almighty God. In fact, they fell down and worshiped
Him. The
word worship means “to bow down, prostrate oneself, before a
superior in homage.” God is our superior. Submitting to Him as our
master is the essence of worship.
Deuteronomy
6:4 tells us we are to love the Lord with our heart, soul, mind, and
body. When we do this, we are paying homage to him as our superior.
Just as the people of Judah bowed in surrender, we must surrender to
Him as our Lord.
Jesus
verified the priority of worship when He quoted
Deut. 6:4-5. When He was asked, “Of all the commandments, which is
the most important?” Jesus replied, “The
most important commandment is this: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our
God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God
with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your
strength”
(Mark 12:28-30 NLT).
Worship
is not something we do on Sundays at church. And it is more than
singing or attending a service, although those are included. Worship
is a lifestyle. It involves everything we do and think and are. It
means loving God with every breath we take. Rick Warren says worship
is, “bringing pleasure to God.”
In
1 Corinthians 10:31 Paul wrote, “Whether
you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
Paul
chose the examples of eating and drinking to illustrate how our most
command and everyday activities can and should bring glory and honor
to Christ.
So
what does this kind of worship look like in everyday life? It is
really possible to worship God when you are at home, school, or work?
How can the most mundane and simple tasks bring glory to God?
I.
The
Basis
of
Our Worship.
1.
We
were created in the image of God to bring Him glory.
If
you have kids or grand kids you understand that they don't have to be
doing something to bring your pleasure. They simply bring you joy and
happiness because of who they are.
When
God finished creating man and woman on the sixth day He said it was
“very good” (Genesis 1:31).
Think
about that. They had not even had a chance to do anything, yet God
was pleased with them. He enjoyed their company as He walked in the
cool of the day with them. They were made in His image; they were a
reflection of Him. They brought Him glory. As God's children we bring
Him glory too.
Ephesians
1:3-6, “Blessed
be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with
every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places
in Christ,
4 just
as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we
would be holy and blameless before Him. In love
5 He
predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself,
according to the kind intention of His will,
6 to
the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us
in the Beloved.”
As
you read, notice how Paul keeps repeating this theme: “to the
praise of His glory.”
Paul wanted us to see the purpose for our being created. H.A.
Ironside believed that in eternity we will be part of a great
exhibition. As Dr. Ironside explains it, the Lord will then show “to
all created intelligences how it has been the delight of His heart to
show great grace to great sinners. That is our future-a future that
does not depend on our faithfulness but on His, who saved us by grace
in order that we might show His glories forevermore.”
2.
We
are God’s witnesses now as living proof of His goodness and mercy.
First
Peter 2:9 states, “You
are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God's very
own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God,
for He called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light”
(NLT).
In
the Old Testament, God chose Israel to represent Him to the nations.
God called Israel His witnesses (Isaiah 43:10). It is no wonder
Jehoshaphat, in his prayer in 2 Chronicles 20, reminded God of His
dealings with the Jews in the past. God had always displayed His
might and willingness to protect and provide for His people.
Second
Chronicles 20:29 clearly states that the nations feared the Lord,
rather than the children of Judah. It was the Lord who won the
battle. He alone prompted those enemy armies to turn on each other.
The
people of Judah did nothing but obediently “stand
still and see the salvation of the Lord”
(v. 17).
Once again, God worked through His people to bring glory and praise
to Himself.
And
so it should be in all of our lives. The fact that we are even here
is a testament of His grace and goodness. No
wonder the people of Judah shouted, “Praise
the Lord, for His mercy endures forever”
(2 Chronicles 20:21, NJKV).
May our lives shout it so loud this world can't help but take notice!
3.
As
a result, we are to surrender our lives completely to God.
Romans
12:1-2, “Therefore
I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a
living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which
is
your spiritual service of worship.
2 And
do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that
which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
In
view of God's mercy, Paul tells us that our spiritual act of worship
is to lay ourselves down on an altar of surrender. God wants our
hearts yielded to Him, pure and simple. That is what is acceptable to
God: giving up control and allowing Him to do whatever He wants to do
in and through us.
The
King James Version calls presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice
to Him a “reasonable service.” As we lay our lives down for Him
to fill and to use, we become expressions of praise to Him. And,
considering we were designed to bring Him glory, such an act is very
“reasonable.” Write a prayer of surrender right now.
II.
The Dimensions
of Our Worship.
Perhaps
you are like many people who, when they hear the word worship, assume
it is mostly about singing, clapping, and talking to God. Worship is
much more than that. True biblical worship encompasses our entire
lives. In fact, in his book, The Ultimate Priority, John MacArthur
Jr. explains that for our worship to be “whole-life” it must
include three aspects or directions. Most certainly, we worship God
when we focus directly on Him, pointing our worship upward (as we
normally think of worship). However, we should also worship God
inwardly. The third direction we should worship Him is outwardly, to
those around us.2
You
might think of three-directional worship like this: imagine you say
to your boss, “You are the greatest boss to ever walk the face of
the earth. Furthermore, this is the best job I've ever had or ever
will have. In fact, I practically worship at your feet for just
letting me do this job every day.”
Having
said such a mouthful upward toward your boss, how should you behave
when no one's looking? If you really meant what you said, you will
talk well of your boss and your job when he or she is not around, and
you will work hard and enthusiastically even when no one's watching
you. Why? Because inwardly you really do love your boss and you want
to please him or her.
Now
let's take this idea a step further. Let's say you are in the service
industry, and your job involves assisting other people. Every time
you cheerfully seek to help someone, every time you go out of your
way to meet someone's needs, you are outwardly honoring your employer
and saying by your actions how much you appreciate working for him or
her. In much the same way, our God is honored, or worshiped, not only
by what we say to Him, but also by how much we love Him on the inside
and by how we respond to those He died for.
1.
The
inward direction of our worship refers to who I am when no one is
looking.
It's
not really difficult to lift up praises to God when we are at church
or around other Christians. In those environments we are encouraged,
even expected, to do so. But what about when we are in the privacy of
our own homes, browsing the Internet, or glancing at a magazine? Are
we being careful to please God with our private thoughts, with the
things we see, and with the places we visit?
Worshiping
inwardly by being good is perhaps the litmus test for all of worship.
If our heart's desire is to please God, we can no longer enjoy our
former sins.
Second
Corinthians 5:17 says, “If
anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new
has come!”
This
refers to a change inside of us. According
to Psalm 51:16-17, God wants a broken and contrite heart more than
our outward sacrifices.
He knows that if our hearts are purely devoted to Him, that can't
help but affect our outward behavior.
Proverbs
4:23, “Watch
over your heart with all diligence,
for
from it flow
the springs of life.”
A
wellspring is the source from which water flows. Likewise our hearts
are the source of all our thoughts, motives, and actions. The
importance of this inward direction of worship cannot be overstated.
As
I read 2 Chronicles 16:9, God is searching the earth not to support
those who sing the best. Rather, He seeks for those “who hearts are
fully committed to Him.”
As believers, that must our foremost goal. Without that commitment,
all other expressions of worship are actually sickening to God (Amos
5:21-23; Psalm 51).
2.
The
outward direction of worship has to do with our relationships with
other people.
Because
our entire study is based on 2 Chronicles 20, I want to focusing for
a moment on Jehoshaphat, the story's main character. The
Bible says, “Jehoshaphat
was a good king, following the example of his father, Asa. He did
what was pleasing in the Lord's sight” (1
Kings 22:43 NLT).
He
was obviously a man of character, a good man on the inside. He also
respected his people and taught them the Word of God (2 Chronicles
17:7). He protected them. In fact, he had over a million men ready
and willing to fight in his army.
No
wonder he was “highly esteemed” by the people (2 Chronicles 17:5,
NLT).
In short, Jehoshaphat not only said he loved and honored God, he
exemplified his passion and commitment to God by who he was and how
he acted toward others. He was a man who worshiped God with his whole
life.
3.
The
third dimension of worship is pointed upward toward God.
This
is the idea most people have when you mention the word worship. It
involves both corporate and private worship.
III.
The Applications
of Our Worship.
First,
God is worshiped when we share our faith with someone, or play a part
in a person coming to faith in Christ.
In
Romans 15:16, Paul says God gave him the “priestly
duty of proclaiming the gospel...so that the Gentiles might become an
offering acceptable to God.”
What a privilege to take part in such an offering! Once we have
helped someone become eternally transformed, we will be hooked on
sharing our faith for life.
Second,
we worship God when we help others.
These
days, old-fashioned neighborly help can be hard to find. And if we
are really honest, most of us are OK with that trend. We often lack
the motivation to lend a hand. We build privacy fences so we don't
see our neighbors, and then we fill up our schedules so we don't have
time to notice if they need our help. But
as followers of Jesus we can't afford not to be the good Samaritans
he has called us to be (Luke 10:33). Jesus clearly taught us to give
“a cup of cold water” in his name (Matthew 10:42).
In
Philippians 4:14-19 Paul described the Philippians gifts as “a
fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God”
(v. 18).
Giving
financial aid to those in need is a third wonderful way to express
our love for God.
However,
it's imperative that we be cheerful when we give, not grudgingly,
because that represents the real motives of our hearts (2 Corinthians
9:7). Once again, God considers our willing and compassionate hearts
as the source of true worship.
The
fourth way we worship God outwardly is by being sensitive to our
weaker brothers and sisters.
The
entirety of Romans 14 focuses on strong and weak Christians.
According to verse 13, we are to “live
in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and
fall”
(NLT). Verse
18 shows God's view of this: “If
you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God”
(NLT).
In
Hebrews 13:15 the upward direction involves two specific actions:
praise and thanksgiving:
“Let
us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit
of our lips, giving thanks to His name”
(NKJV).
Praise
is primarily acknowledging God for who He is. Thanksgiving, on the
other hand, is giving thanks to God for what He has done for us.
We
can be sure nothing ever happens to us that our loving God does not
permit. After
all, like Moses, He protects us “in the cleft of the rock” as He
covers us with His mighty hand (Exodus 33:22, NKJV).
His
rod of correction and His staff of protection and direction should
bring us great comfort at all times (Psalm 23:4).
But
let's be honest here. We know we should be humbly grateful. Yet there
are times when we are tempted to be grumbly hateful!
Before
any of us can give thanks and praise to the Father and really mean
it, we too, must accept God's sovereignty in our hearts.
There
is a throne in heaven. And it is occupied! Our great God, mighty and
majestic Father, is sitting on that throne right now. This world may
seem as if it's spinning out of control, but God is still the
all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present King of Kings and Lord of
Lords-the same God who loves you and me.
1
Thessalonians 5:18, “…in
everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ
Jesus.”
Notice
that we are not told to give thanks for all circumstances, but rather
in them. We are not expected to be thankful for problems and
hardships that come our way. However, if we clearly understand that
God reigns and that He is using our circumstances to make us more
like Him and to bring greater glory, then we can be thankful to Him
constantly, even while we are going through the tough times. This is
sometimes called an attitude of gratitude.
Dr.
Ben Haden shared a story during his radio broadcast of a young couple
who entered the hospital to have their baby. Complications
arose. Tests results showed their baby had Down syndrome. By this
time, word had spread throughout the hospital about this couple and
their yet-to-be-born baby.
Word
had also gotten around that these parents were Christians. So,
several nurses and doctors began to speculate about how these
“God-fearing” people would respond. Many, including the hospital
switchboard operator, expected them to become angry at God. However,
the couple maintained an upbeat attitude.
Not
to be proven wrong, the switchboard operator decided to listen in on
their private phone conversations. What she heard would change her
life forever. Rather than spewing bitterness and doubt toward God,
the young couple state their trust and thankfulness in their Lord.
They said that no matter what, they knew God would work the situation
out for their good and His glory.
Not
only did that switchboard operator surrender her life to Christ, but
as a result of those parent’s faith, over 20 nurses and doctors
walked the isle of that couple’s church the following Sunday and
placed their faith in Jesus as their Savior!
An
old song tells us, “Count your many blessings; see what God has
done.” From time to time, I've found it both humbling and thrilling
to make a list of things I'm thankful for: the good, the bad, and the
ugly. Take some time to write down every blessing you can think of.
Remember, blessings can come disguised as heartaches.
Talk
to God about anything in your life for which you are finding it hard
to be thankful. Be honest and open with Him. He already knows what
you are feeling anyway. Ask Him to help you be thankful in that
situation. Ask Him to change your heart. Then decide to be thankful
throughout your day today, deliberately looking for God's presence in
each and every circumstance.
1
This
material is taken from Dwayne Moore's Pure
Praise
(Loveland, CO: Group Publishing, 2009), 17-23.
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