Made New Through Worship

Message Transcription

Well, my wife Debbie and I are delighted to be with you at Broadway today. As Gary mentioned, I recently retired from full time church ministry. I know I do not look the age, but almost 50 years in full time church ministry. The last 23 with the Monterey church here in Lubbock, and during those 23 years, the opportunity to get to know so many of you here at Broadway, to build friendships, to build relationships. I'm so grateful for the partnership that we share together in ministry, for those friendships that have formed, and certainly grateful for the kind of ministry that you do in this community and around the globe. Uh, certainly grateful to Carl for the invitation to speak today in his absence. Uh, he's in the midst of a Lenten series titled Made New. And so today I want to talk briefly about what it is to be made new in worship. Uh, in fact, I want you to imagine for a moment that you have been invited to compose an invitation inviting folks to join you at Broadway for a time of worship. Uh, might be an invitation that is going to go out via email. Uh, perhaps through radio or TV advertising. I want you to imagine the words that you would use in composing that invitation. And when the invitation is written, I wonder if the words you write or the words that I write would sound anything like the words that Thomas just read from Psalm 95.

In fact, I would guess that at some level, this Old Testament book we know as the Psalms, I would guess at some level, the Psalms are an important part of the devotional life of every one of us sitting in this room, these 150 psalms that capture the full range of human emotions, words of praise and thanksgiving on one hand, and on other occasions, words of lament and distress. In fact, if I were to ask you this morning to identify your favorite Psalm. Uh, most of you could probably do that very, very quickly. Some of you might reference Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in want. Perhaps Psalm one blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord. Or perhaps Psalm eight, O Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. My favorite psalm for many, many years has been this psalm that you just heard, Psalm 95. Not only because this psalm is all about worship God's people gathering for worship, but because this Psalm indicts me every time I read it. I don't know what your typical Sunday morning looks like. I don't know what your typical Saturday evening looks like as you think about gathering with God's people for worship on Sunday morning.

If you are at all normal, your Sunday mornings may be pretty hectic, especially if you still have children at home. Uh, hurrying the kids out of bed, getting breakfast, getting dressed, the conversations that take place in the car as you drive to the church building. Maybe those conversations are something like this. You need to sit down and shut up. We're headed to church. What a contrast. To the words of this great 95th Psalm, a psalm which was read in preparation for the worship of God's assembled people. At the heart of Psalm 95 is an invitation to worship even beyond that, in line with this particular series, an invitation to be made new. The People of God gathering at the Autumn Festival, reading together the words of this Psalm as they were called into the sanctuary, and as they gave their praise to the great and glorious and powerful God. In fact, as we reflect on this Psalm this morning, I want us to see the different perspectives that the psalmist brings to these moments of worship, if you please, the movement of the Psalm, the different moods that are represented in the psalm, typical even of the songs that Gary and the team led us in this morning. Uh, the different movements of those songs, the moods that are represented as those songs build in momentum. As this psalm invites the people of God to worship.

The psalm begins with a movement, begins with a mood of celebration. Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving, and extol him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hands are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sky is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. You see church in worship we are invited. We are called to sing words of praise to our God. And so we sing for joy. And we are called to shout aloud to the rock of our salvation. Worship is a time to celebrate. It is a time to burst forth in praise from the very depths of our beings, to shout aloud to the rock of our salvation. But beyond words like that that we might sing in songs. Can you imagine, even for a moment, can you imagine someone having the audacity to stand in the midst of this assembly and to shout? You see, for the most part we are not a shouting people when it comes to worship. And quite frankly, we've learned as adults that it's not appropriate for us to shout, well, that's what children do. Children shout, children scream. In fact, I can testify to that. Even related to this past week, Debbie and I just got back from a few days in Dallas where we visited not just our son and daughter in law.

We visited our grandchildren. We can testify to the fact that children shout, uh, two of the four grandchildren who live in Dallas are six years old, twin boys who know how to shout at 5:30 a.m. or you think about Vacation Bible School, where perhaps all of us in this room learned to sing songs like If you're Happy and you Know it, then clap your hands, stomp your feet, shout. Amen. But we don't shout as adults unless we're engaged in childlike activities, or unless we're too tech or LCU basketball game, or perhaps participating in games that we would play or watching our children play. Uh, you've no doubt noticed along with me, the way that parents can shout at Little League ball games. But we've learned that in church we do not do anything that is so inappropriate because church is a quiet place. Church is a somber place. Somehow we leave the impression that God is a grouch, that he wants us to be absolutely quiet in here. And so we turn and stare at the mom or dad who doesn't take out the child when the child cries, or we turn and stare when somebody does something else that we deem inappropriate. I want you to contrast that to some of the great scenes that we see in Scripture.

The extraordinary scene in Second Samuel chapter six is David, the King of Israel, leads the victorious procession of the troops from battle into the streets of Jerusalem, bringing back the Ark of the covenant. And the text tells us that he dances and he leaps for joy, shouting and singing God's praises. And his wife, Saul's daughter is disgusted. She is embarrassed, tells him to be quiet. And if you would allow me to paraphrase, David says, honey, you haven't seen anything yet. This extraordinary scene, or perhaps the scene of Ezra chapter three, the rebuilding of the temple and the foundation has been laid. And when the people see the foundation that has been laid, they stand and shout, and some of the older ones cry and weep as they remember the old temple. And you can hear the noise from miles around. Can you imagine the scene in the Philippian jail that we read about in acts chapter 16? The prisoners, including Paul and Silas, who are chained and strapped to those walls and suddenly. Paul and Silas began to sing and to pray. Again and again. God's people, when called into the presence of the great and glorious and powerful God, they praise him with every aspect of their beings, with every aspect of their emotions. And if you'll watch very closely in the process, we are made new.

We find renewal. In fact, can you imagine the glory of sin in which we will all participate in heaven as all of the creatures of the world cry out to God and to the lamb, and the words of revelation five to our God be praise and honor and glory and power, forever and ever. Church. We're called to be a people who celebrate, a people who let their celebration erupt from their very being. Now, I want you to hear me carefully. We don't come in and program our celebration. It is a celebration that bubbles forth from a life devoted to God. A life that pursues and longs for an even deeper relationship with God. Because you see, and we know. Because God is so good. Because God is a great God. Because God is creator. Because God has acted in human history on our behalf. But in this invitation to worship. In this invitation to worship. The Psalm doesn't end there. At verse six, the mood changes as the momentum in the psalm moves in another direction. It is a mood of reverence. Come. And bow down and worship. Come and reverence. Come with respect. Come in fear. Come. Recognizing a healthy distance between you and your God. Come knowing who God, who God is. Come seeing God's judgment and his grace, his glory and his mercy. Come and see who God is and recognize where you are in relation to God.

You know, if you think about it for just a moment, we at times are so terribly flippant in the culture in which we live. We are so casual about so many things to the point. That we often have such a difficult time in sensing all and wonder in anything at all. That's not to deny that God has come near. But I hope we never lose sight of God who is a transcendent God, a glorious God, and ultimate God. It's one of my favorite Old Testament theologies, puts it. Dennis Bailey, in his Old Testament theology, describes God as an absolutely other God. The people of Israel as they worship Jehovah God, in contrast to all of the other gods among all of the peoples around them. Bailey words it well, in my judgment, we worship a God who is an absolutely other God. God is holy and we offer him our dependence because we know who we are in relation to God. And as we offer him our dependence, hear me. As we offer him our dependence, we also find renewal. When we truly see the holiness of God, we cannot just come to these assemblies and sit and then go home and evaluate it as if it were a performance. No, we are called to genuine reverence, at times called down on our knees. You see, sometimes it is not so much a shout as it is silence in the presence of a holy God that is needed.

And so it's Moses who stands before God at the burning bush, who takes off his shoes because he's standing on holy ground. It's Ezra and Nehemiah, chapter eight, who opens the book of God. And the congregation stands, raises their hands as the Word of God is read. And then they fall down and they worship with their faces to the ground. We are called to worship God with reverence, and while the emphasis is not on posture, posture does play a role in our response to God. At times, hearts or heads that are bowed at times, at times on our knees, at times with our hands raised, at times with our faces to the ground. Come, let us bow down in worship to our God. A mood of celebration and joy. And a mood of reverence at times even. Silence. And if that's where this psalm ended, we would still have a great psalm. In fact, many times when we read this psalm, that is exactly where we stop. If this is where the psalm ended, we would still have a great Psalm. But that is not where Psalm 95 ends. There is a third piece of this invitation to worship a third movement, a third mood that, quite frankly, we may find unsettling, that we may find disturbing. It is a call to repentance. It is a call for a changed life.

It is a call for holy living. It is a mood of warning. And so the psalmist says today, if only you would hear his voice. Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness where your ancestors tested me. They tried me, though they had seen what I did. For 40 years I was angry with that generation. I said, they are a people whose hearts go astray and they've not known my ways. And so I declared on oath in my anger, they shall never enter my rest. You say the psalm doesn't end with a glorious word of praise. It ends with a warning. And the warning, I would suggest, should also stand in the midst of our assemblies. There needs to be that reminder today. If you would hear the voice of God, don't harden your hearts. Don't turn your back on the Lord. Don't be like your ancestors who were there in the wilderness after God delivered them and they grumbled against Moses, they grumbled against God. They complained. They complained of hunger and thirst. And God said, strike the rock and water came out and they drank. And they called the place Massah because they tested God in Meribah, because they quarreled against God. And because they tested God and because they quarreled against God, they did not enter the Promised Land.

There is the warning. The closing words of the psalm remind us where our hearts need to be, where our lives need to be. They are words that call us to repentance, to change hearts, to holy living. The words call us to be made new. And so, just as Carl is doing in this series, we look at so many different aspects of life. It may be the challenges we face. It may be when we walk through suffering. It may be when we gather for worship. All of those moments in life where if we will open our hearts and our minds to God, that God is able to work and to bring renewal. That is precisely what genuine worship is. Genuine worship makes us new. Some of you may know the name Harold Shank. Uh, Harold preached for a number of years for the Highland church in Memphis, Tennessee, and I still remember in a conference, Harold telling the story of a man who visited the Highland church. In fact, the man prior to visiting had never gone to church in his entire life. He was invited by a friend to begin attending Highland. Harold said after six weeks of the man coming to church at Highland. The man came up to Harold and said, you know, there's still a lot of things that you guys do that I do not understand. There are words that you use in your sermons that I do not understand.

But one thing has become clear to me. The more I come to church, the more I am convinced my life is headed in the wrong direction. And so I've reached this conclusion. I've either got to change my life or quit coming to church. Fortunately, Harold said, the man was so open to God that he kept coming, and he kept coming and he became a follower of Jesus. You see, this invitation to the people of Israel to worship God reminds us that worship is about more than just what we do when we are together in this assembly. Worship is a way of life. And so I'm so fond of pulling a number of texts from the New Testament that talk about all of life being worshiped. As Moses in the Old Testament, gave his departing sermons to Israel, recorded in the Book of Deuteronomy. He reminds them again and again and again of who they were and what God had done for them. And he will say over and over again, do not forget the Lord your God who brought you out of captivity. There is a warning that stands in the midst of this assembly as well. We're called not only to celebration, not only to an atmosphere of reverence, but we are called to turn our hearts toward God in our daily lives. Genuine worship changes us. We don't leave this assembly the same as when we walked in.

Not because of the singing or the shouting or the kneeling, not because the sermon was so good, but because we've encountered a holy God and we simply cannot be the same. And so the task before the church is not to construct a period in which we can shout, nor is the task to by kneeling benches, even though I personally think that might be a good idea. The task is to change our hearts, or better yet, to be open to the power of God so that God can change our hearts. And though I believe the heart is connected to the voice, and though I believe the heart is connected to the knees and reverent worship, it is ultimately the heart that is able to cry out to God. I delight in your presence, O Lord. I know who you are. Hopefully am increasingly learning who you are and God. I've discovered how desperately I need you. And I will remember. Oh, God, who you have called me to be. And so let me invite you again. To hear the words of Psalm 95. We invite the team to come ahead and join us as well, and I'm going to invite you to stand, if you will. As we hear again the words of this great Psalm 95. And so come, let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation.

Let us come before him with thanksgiving, and extol him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great King, above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come. Let us bow down and worship. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. And so, church, today, if only you would hear his voice. Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah as you did that day at Massa in the wilderness where your ancestors tested me. They tried me, though they had seen what I did. For 40 years I was angry with that generation. I said, they are a people whose hearts go astray and they've not known my ways. And so I declared on oath in my anger, they shall never enter my rest. May we never. Hardened our hearts. May we find renewal every time we gather for worship. And as we close today. Let's join together in song and in life. By placing God on the highest place. And glorifying his name. And if this church can bless or serve you in any way, we would invite you. Let's sing together.