Faithful through Generations

Intro

Object lesson:

What was this made for? What is this?

In order to know what it was made for, you must first know what it is.

Have you ever wondered what you’re purpose is?

Psalm 100 (NIV)

A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

2 Worship the Lord with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

3 Know that the Lord is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalm 100 is all about worship. Worship is one of the most commonly experienced but least understood phenomenon in human existence. Worship is commonly experienced because all of us worship something. We just don’t often think of it as worship.

Psalm 100 opens with an exclamation, “Shout for joy.”

Story of shouting for joy upon seeing my family at the race this weekend.

Nobody thought about it this way, but it was a moment of worship. We were collectively celebrating the arrival of something we had longed for.

We all have shouts of joy in our lives:

§ When an Olympic runner edges out the rest of the field to win gold in a dramatic race we exclaim, “Did you see that?”

§ At a concert, the orchestra performs beautifully and the concert hall breaks into joyful applause.

§ We raise a joyful shout when are accepted into the college of our choice.

§ We joyfully shout when we cross the finish line of a challenging race.

§ We give a little fist pump when the stock hits a 52-week high.

But we don’t think about this as worship. But we are ascribing value, recognizing greatness, or we are declaring something to be worthy of our attention and devotion. We are saying, of all the things in life, this one was worthy of our time to celebrate, talk about, or watch a replay. It is in our nature to worship. We can’t not worship.

But because we are often unaware we are worshiping, we don’t realize what worship is doing to us.

The Psalm continues, verse two says, “Worship the Lord with gladness…”

Psalm 100:2 NIV

2 Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

This psalm was originally written in Hebrew and the word that is translated into our English Bibles as worship literally means “serve.”

ʿāḇaḏ - עָבַד -

It is the same word in Hebrew that is used elsewhere in the Old Testament to describe the work the priest does in the Temple or Tabernacle. So the same word that describes the vocation of the priest is the same word we can translate to worship.

Which further makes the point that worship is one of the most commonly experienced phenomenon because we all serve something. Our vocation is a form of worship. We just don’t think about it this way, but it is.

§ If your vocation is taking care of your family and raising your kids, you are serving your family and you are serving and working toward a vision for your family. It is a form of worship.

§ If your vocation is a career, you are serving some sort of mission, either personally or corporately, and when you give your life to serve a mission, it is a form of worship.

§ Hobbies, exercise, volunteering, coaching youth sports, are all in service of something and are a form of worship.

So we all worship something. It is a commonly experienced phenomenon. But it is one of the least understood because we don’t realize the effect worship has on us.

Worship shapes our sense of identity.

Whatever we worship the most, shapes who we are.

This is what Psalm 100 is all about. I mentioned that the Psalms were written in the Hebrew language. In Hebrew poetry, which is the genre of the Psalms, there are times when the psalm will be constructed in a way where the central idea of the psalm is written in the center of the psalm. The central idea of this Psalm comes in verse 3, what we translate as the phrase “we are his.” This is the center point or inflection point of this psalm. All of the words before it build to this word and then all the ideas that follow are a consequence of this central idea.

This is what Psalm 100 is telling us, if you want to know how healthy your soul is, or if you want to know the health of a church, look at what or who you worship.

We were created to worship God, this is the core of our sense of identity, so in order for us to worship properly, we must first know who we are; we need to know our identity.

But here is the slippery thing about identity, we don’t find our identity by focusing on ourselves. You and I can’t find our true identity just thinking about and focusing on ourselves.

Psalm 100 tells us, you can’t find yourself. In fact, you don’t need to. God is the one who tells you who you area. Verse three says, 3 Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

You likely have a little footnote in the Bible you are reading; those are there to help us when the translation from Hebrew or Greek into English is a little difficult. Those are always wise to read. The footnote on verse three says, “or and not we ourselves.” Which means, “God made us, we didn’t make ourselves.”

If we created ourselves, we could find our own identity. But none of us did. In fact, none of us could. All of us were created, none of us created ourselves. So if all of us are created beings, we need to look not to ourselves for our sense of identity, but to our Creator. Which means, when we know who God is, we know who we are.

When we know who God is, we know who we are.

I believe one of the most pressing issues for the church in our Nation today is to know who we are. I am convinced that the key to being faithful followers of Jesus in our day comes down to our sense of identity. If we want the next generation to be spiritually resilient we must, and they must, know who they are. The only way for us to know who we are is to know who God is and who God says we are. He says we are His. We need to know that and believe that and live that out.

I deeply want you to know who you are in Christ. I want us at Wooddale to know that we are God’s. But in order for us to know who we are, we must start with knowing who God is.

That is what we are going to spend the next year at Wooddale Church understanding. Now, for those who think this sounds a little too basic, there is a difference between knowing about God and knowing God. There are many of us who know a lot about God. And that is good. But worshipers don’t just know about God. They know God.

Insert own story

Can I suggest this is the experience many of us need with Jesus?

A church that just knows about God will be anxious in our environment. They will see what is happening around us and get worried.

But, a church that knows God will worship God and will change the atmosphere. When we know the Creator of Heaven and Earth and we experience the truth, justice and heart of our Heavenly Father we become different people because we know who we are.

So who is God? Psalm 100 verse five tells us.

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. Psalm 100:5 (NIV)

Here is what I hope for us at Wooddale in the coming year, I want us to know that God is good. I don’t want us to know about God’s goodness, I long for us to know God’s goodness. I don’t want us to know about His enduring love, I long for us to know His love that endures forever. I don’t want us to know about His faithfulness that is ongoing, I long for us to know His faithfulness endures through all generations.

Problem is not his faithfulness but ours.

Examples when i’ve been tempted to walk away; from Jesus.

Yet God’s aways been faithful, give examples.

God promised Abraham that he would have many descendants through his son, Isaac, and grandson, Jacob. God eventually brought Jacob's descendants out of Egypt and into the land he promised Abraham.

God promised to send a savior and then He did. God sacrificed his son, Jesus, to pay the debt of sin and redeem people from its power.

So what does this mean for us practically at Wooddale Church? This is also why we have selected Psalm 100:5 as our verse of the year at Wooddale.

Next week we will be celebrating Dale and Marcia Hummel and I’ve asked Dale to give us a message next week as a charge as we head into the next chapter of Wooddale Church. But then on September 15 we are starting this year of focusing on who God is with a series called, “The God I Wish You Knew.” To guide us in learning about the nature and character of God, we will be going through the entire book of Ruth. Then, we will be exploring themes throughout this year of what it means when God calls us His friend. What does it mean when God says He is with us? How can we practically live in and experience rest in God? What vision does God have for our lives, how can we live the Good Life? What role does the Holy Spirit play in our lives and how does He help guide us in the Good Life? How can we tell others about this incredible God who calls us His own? And how can we live and be the church which He calls His Body? Through all of these series, we will see the Lord is good. We will know His love endures forever. We will be reminded how His faithfulness continues through all generations.

The more we focus on who God is and we see Him rightly, we will respond in worship. That worship will form us into the church God calls us to be.

When we know who God is, we know who we are. When we know who we are, we know who to worship. And worshipers are powerful forces in this world.

Author and pastor A.W. Tozer, who lived and wrote in the first half of the twentieth century, has described the importance of worship.

“Practically every great deed done in the church of Christ all the way back to the apostle Paul was done by people blazing with the radiant worship of their God… – A.W. Tozer

A survey of church history will tell you this is true. It was not people who casually attended church who changed the world. Consider the major institutions of the world which were formed by Christians.

§ It was Christians who worshiped God and saw the great need to help provide healthcare to those sick and dying who created the first hospitals.

§ It was Christian worshipers who were compelled to make education more accessible that created colleges and universities.

Tozer goes on to say:

“…wherever the church has come out of her lethargy, rising from her sleep and into the tides of revival and spiritual renewal, always the worshipers were back of it.” – A.W. Tozer

I believe God is wanting to bring revival to the Twin Cities and we have an opportunity to play a small role in it. I believe 20 or 25 years from now people may look at our community and say, “What happened in the Twin Cities? Why is the Twin Cites doing so well? Why are people thriving, why are they healthier, why is the community unified and stronger?” It won’t be because of politics, policies, or programs. It will happen because people become worshippers of God. Worshippers transform the atmosphere of a community and when we worship we know who God is and then we know who we are and then we know what God wants us to do.

This isn’t just our future; it is also our past.

82 years ago God placed Wooddale Church in the Twin Cities. We started in Richfield with a group worshipers who had a passion for God and His Word. Several generations ago Wooddale was known for our passionate and excellent worship of God through music. Many of you have told me stories of coming to Wooddale to hear the music. God allowed Wooddale to grow.

Then in the early 1980’s Wooddale took a huge step of faith. We had grown to the point where we couldn’t stay in the building in Richfield, so we moved all the way to Eden Prairie. It was a group of Worshipers who led the way. In 1990, it was a group of Worshipers who sacrificed to build this room. In 1990 this room was commissioned, but then a group of Worshipers did something shocking.

Most churches, when building a new building that involves a mortgage, want to fill up the room. Not the Worshipers at Wooddale. Their focus was on making room for all the people who would come who needed to know who God was. So right after we opened this impressive new building the Worshipers at Wooddale hired a guy named Paul Johnson to recruit a few hundred people to leave Wooddale and go with him to start a new church. This was our first daughter church. A daughter church simply means a church that was started from another church. We don’t own our daughter churches, we are friends with them and encourage them but we have no legal affiliation with them. Planting a daughter church actually brings no numeric gain for the planting church, we give away people, we give away staff, and we give away money to launch that church. Why would an organization do that? Because we worship and follow Jesus. He is the head over every church and we work for Him, not ourselves. He made us. We didn’t make ourselves. So we serve Him, not ourselves.

But the worshipers at Wooddale didn’t stop there. They planted nine more daughter churches so far. And the daughter churches we’ve planted have gone on to plant their own daughter churches. Recently, our friends at Westwood created a chart of all the daughter churches we have planted and Pastor Joel Johnson sent this to me the other day. [Show Wooddale Family Tree].

There are 30 churches throughout the state of Minnesota represented on this family tree. From one, thirty. Do you know why? Because worshipers held a deep conviction that the Twin Cities needs more local churches. Over the last year and half I have spent more time with our daughter church pastors and I can tell you these churches are passionate worshipers of God and they are making an impact in their own communities.

But we don’t want Wooddale’s greatest moments of faith to be behind us. We want Wooddale’s greatest moments of faith to be ahead of us.

So where do we start? What do we do?

We must begin with Worship of God. We must devote ourselves to know God, not just know about God, but know God, personally from His Word and from our worship of Him.

So how can you be part of this movement of God? Let me give you two specific actions:

1. Plan Personal Worship

If you are not currently having a personal time where you read God’s Word and give Him worship through prayer, reflection, reading, or song, I want to challenge you to start. Here is why I say “plan” personal worship. If you aren’t doing this, or if you aren’t doing this consistently, this can feel like a guilt trip. That isn’t my purpose. Likely the reason it isn’t happening is because you aren’t planning a time for it. Schedule this in. We are busy people, we live busy lives. Put this into your calendar.

2. Prioritize Corporate Worship

Worship is formative. It shapes our sense of identity. If we are going to show the Twin Cities a better way to live and create a better community, we must be formed as Worshipers. This won’t happen with you doing all of your worship alone because we need you. When we are together we are formed together with our sense of identity. Make church a priority. If your kids are in traveling sports, I get it, but can I challenge you to have a family meeting and pick one tournament you will intentionally skips games on Sunday to be in church instead. Just start with one and see what message it sends to your kids about the importance of corporate worship. If you travel for work, can you schedule your flights around Sunday services? Or if you are out of town, visit another church committed to Godly worship or plan to join us online.

Main Passage

Psalm 100 ESV

A Psalm for giving thanks. 1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! 3 Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! 5 For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

Intro

Have you ever been loved-kindof?

Have you ever experienced a counterfeit type love that was conditional or had an expiration date?

Give Example:

God’s love is not like mankind’s love.

Psalm 100:5 ESV

5 For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

It is without end.

Example love for Gram Cracker.

God’s love has been made manifest by His faithfulness.

Faithful to Abram when he was raiding and lying.

Faithful to Israel amidst for thousands of years. Amidst their rebellion in the desert, in Jerusalem, Judges, etc.

Faithful to His disciples even unto death, even when they were faithless.

All of us at some point have betrayed God and failed to be faithful, yet He remains faithful to us.

His faithfulness is generational & everlasting.