The Creator King, Deserving of our Worship
Notes
Transcript
The Creator King in Psalms 93 to 100
Scene 1. When Toni & I were at College they were certain compulsory activities.
Things you had to do if you wanted to graduate.
One of those things was called week of evangelism.
You would be put into a team and sent off to a church for a week.
You would be billeted out in the house of someone from the church; not always a pleasant experience.
And through out the week you would be expected to perform certain duties.
Now I always held the belief that the things they got us to do were the things the people in the church knew had to be done but didn’t want to do themselves.
One of those things was door-to-door work.
Now most Aussies hate religious nuts who knock on their door.
And I loathed it; it really isn’t my cup of tea.
But I actually discovered something on a couple of those occasions.
When door to door work is done right;
That is when you give stuff away with no pressure and invite people to free community events
It can actually be quite effective and warmly received.
And you actually feel like you have achieved something worthwhile for God and for the community.
The problem is most church people and nearly all non-church people have the idea that evangelism, talking to people about God, is difficult and embarrassing.
It is said, never to talk about two things at dinner parties: politics and religion
Add to that the current rhetoric of pluralism and we have the recipe for a fairly hostile environment
Scene 2. So why would we want to be involved with evangelism?
Evangelism, sharing the Christian message.
The message of the cross and Christ’s victory over sin and death and then asking people to commit their life to following Christ.
Is sometimes likened to one athlete passing the baton onto the next in a relay.
If that is the case we might be prompted to ask, why?
Why not just hang onto it ourselves and just run our race the best we can?
There are at least two reasons:
Firstly, because people matter to God.
In Luke 15, Jesus tells the parable of the lost things , which we looked at a few weeks ago.
Jesus was showing those who were condemning him for eating with sinners.
That all people matter, no matter who they are or what they do.
In the first part of the parable, a shepherd with a hundred sheep leaves the ninety-nine of them to go and search for one lost one.
When he finds it there is great rejoicing.
In the second part of the parable, a woman with ten coins, who loses one, lights a candle and searches the house until she finds it.
In the third part of the parable, a son takes his inheritance and travels to a distant land where he plunders his wealth.
When he decides to return home his father sees him from afar and runs to greet him and throws a big party to celebrate his return.
Through this parable, in three different but related stories, a common thread runs.
Firstly, in each something of great value was lost: a sheep, a coin and a son.
The sheep was only one hundredth of the flock, but it was a significant loss.
The coin was a tenth of the woman’s life savings.
She may well have struggled to survive without it.
The son was a half of the father's legacy; it broke his heart to lose him.
But in each of the three parts of this parable, it was something of great value to the one who lost it.
Secondly, in each there was an all out search for the thing that was lost.
The shepherd left the 99 other sheep to search.
The woman stopped what she was doing to look.
The father scanned the horizon for the first sign of his son.
In each no effort was spared in searching for the lost thing.
Thirdly, in each when the thing that was lost was found, there was great rejoicing.
The shepherd called his friends and neighbours and said, "Rejoice with me," as did the woman who lost the coin.
When the lost son returned to the father, he slaughtered the fattened calf for a celebration feast.
And in each part of this parable the message to the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, was clear.
They thought Jesus was wasting his time with sinners and tax collectors, but Jesus was saying, "People matter to God."
And it is the same with our friends and neighbours, with anyone who isn’t an active part of God’s family.
People might be God haters,
They might be selfish,
They might be destroying their hearts and bodies by their sinful behaviour,
Or they might be really great people who just don’t know God
Whatever their situation, in God's eyes they are lost and precious and of great value.
And that is the message of the cross.
If God didn’t believe that people mattered.
If his love for us didn’t compel him to act.
Then there would have been no Easter.
No sacrifice for sin.
No victory over death
There is great rejoicing in heaven when one of these lost ones accepts Jesus as Saviour and Lord.
Scene 3. But there is another reason why we proclaim the Gospel.
We tell others because God deserves it.
Proclaiming the universal lordship of Yahweh is a recurring theme throughout the Bible.
One of the fundamental doctrines of the Bible is a thing called monotheism-there is only one God.
Deuteronomy 6:4 says
4 “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.
And 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 also talks of the absolute exclusivity of God.
4 So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God. 5 There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords. 6 But for us, There is one God, the Father, by whom all things were created, and for whom we live. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created, and through whom we live.
There are not many equal gods and you can pick whichever one you like.
There is only one God.
He deserves to be worshipped above all else.
This is made very clear in Psalm 96
God's greatness is to be declared among the nations, among all people.
There is one Creator to whom all people belong and owe their allegiance.
Monotheism demands mission.
In Psalm 96 verse 2 it is God's salvation, which is to be declared.
In Psalm 96 verse 4 he is to be feared, the word used carries the sense of to be awe struck by the awesomeness of God.
To encounter a being so powerful, so glorious, so magestic that you are overcome with a sense of dread.
This is the God who created the heavens and the earth.
Who are we in his presence.
Think about this.
In this contemporary society people don’t seem to feel that they need to be saved from something.
There is an expectation that everyone gets to heaven, unless you are really bad and cause great harm to others.
Everyone else gets a free pass.
There is no sense of dread, no sense of awe at the majesty of God.
Could it be that when we talk about God in an attempt to share with them their need for salvation that we are missing something.
Are we missing what they need to be saved from?
Psalm 96:7-10 starts with a call for the nations to recognise the Lord and ends with the statement that he will judge peoples fairly.
Psalm 96:11-13 starts with a call for all creation to rejoice at the Lord’s impending arrival and ends with the fact that he is coming to judge.
In a similar way Psalms 97 to 100 all speak of the Glory of God, his righteousness and justice, his coming judgement and a call for all peoples to turn to him.
Scene 4. The universal Lordship of God is reaffirmed in the Great Commission.
When Jesus ascended into heaven he said, "all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples …"
We promote God's glory to the end of the earth not principally because of any human need.
But fundamentally because of God's unique worthiness as the lord of heaven and earth.
Promoting the Gospel to the world is more than a rescue mission (though it is certainly that as well) it is a reality mission.
Why promote Christ to your atheist friend with a nice car and self-confidence to match?
Not simply because he would be happier or more fulfilled with Jesus, but because in reality your friend belongs to the one true Lord.
Your friend can deny God’s existence.
But that doesn’t change the fact that God exists.
Your friend can say they don’t need God.
But that doesn’t change the fact that Jesus came and died on the cross to take the penalty for your friend’s sins.
Your friend can say there is no penalty for ignoring God.
But that doesn’t change the fact that on judgement day everyone will be held to account.
Only those who have accepted Jesus and his work upon the cross will be deemed acceptable to God.
Why be involved in sharing the Gospel message.
Because lost people matter to God, as Luke 15 makes clear
Because God deserves the worship of all people, because he is God, as Psalm 96 makes clear
And because we are told by Jesus to proclaim what he did upon the cross to all people.
Starting with our friends and neighbours.
References: Promoting the Gospel by John Dickson; Contagious Christianity by Bill Hybels