Glorious Intimacy with God Part 3
Glorious Intimacy with God • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Worship Through the Word
Worship Through the Word
We serve a God is not created but the creator of all things. He is not from the minds or imaginations of men but the one who was, who is , and is to come, the great I AM. He is eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, holy, just and full of lovingkindness. His mercies endure unto a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments. His commandments are not burdensome but redeeming and life giving drawing us to His favor and mercy. From His heart and hands we were created for His glory not for His amusement. We were created for divine purpose according to His sovereign will. We were given a choice to reciprocate such a great love but man chose selfish deceit, rebellion, and discontentment. Man chose to be his own god in enmity against God. This is called sin that arises from our iniquity or desires from a fallen carnal nature. As a result man could not remain in the the eternal and holy presence of God. So, God covered man’s nakedness of rebellion with the sacrifice of an innocent from His creation. But the blood of a lamb could not atone for man’s sin or transform his heart back to a love for God. But in God’s great love He had a plan to redeem us as sons and daughters through a perfect sacrifice. That sacrifice came and lived a perfect sinless life. He was not born of the seed of man and could not be condemned by the law of sin and death. Therefore, the grave could not keep Him and sin could not condemn Him. The prophets of old had spoken of He who was to come for thousands of years. He was the promise of the gospel God spoke to Abraham and Jacob. He was born of virgin birth, lived a sinless life, revealed God’s mercy, conquered the grave and made a way through the power of the Holy Spirit for us to be reconciled to a Holy God. He was the Word of God from the beginning and is the Word of God alive in us today. Unfortunately, many do not care for the Word, they prefer the entertainment we often call worship.
I love Christian music and I love to worship God in Psalm. I want us to grow in the maturity of Christ. But it must be said that most people can listen to music for hours and can tolerate long worship services but struggle to sit and read, study, or listen to the exposition of the Word of God. Statistically, over the past several years we have declined to a people where only 18% read, engage or apply the Word of God to their lives in the professing church.
Brother Jonathan Chamblee shared a video with me of a culturally popular young preacher who made this statement, “Many people pick the church they will go to based on the preaching of the Word. But God chooses the church He visits based on the worship.” The people shouted and applauded as he was so proud of his assumed revelation. Unfortunately, it was riddled with heresy. This was not a well thought out theological concept. He threw it out there because it sounded clever and the people loved it like jelly in a doughnut. Clever cliches cannot become substitute for sincere theological pursuit of God.
A bit later you hear this young idolized preacher with a man bun state that he was liberated from having to put his sermons together. He said he so dislikes having to read and study the Scriptures. So, he assembled a team who puts his sermons together for him. Church, this is indicative of the spirit that permeates the Body of Christ and we wonder why we do not see the true power of God evident in the church. Where there is no sacrifice to God, there is no intimacy with God. And where there is no intimacy with God, there is no power of God. There are no shortcuts to maturity in Christ. If you take shortcuts, you get cultural church icons instead of true spiritual leaders. You get men and women filled with ideological pride but void of the Spirit of Truth. They have clever quotes but no sound doctrine.
The Apostle Paul said very emphatically, 2 Timothy 2:15
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
A.W. Tozer said this about the relationship between the Word of God and true worship.
“I can safely say, on the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of God, that any man or woman on this earth who is bored and turned off by worship is not ready for heaven.” ― A.W. Tozer
The Apostle John said this about worship in John 4:24
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
What does that even mean? Add to it these:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
How do you separate the Word of God from worship to God? How can you intimately worship God without intimate knowledge of God?
There are several words for “worship” in the Hebrew language. Some speak of serving, bowing down or even manufacture. But the word that best describes what God desires is darash דָּרַשׁ meaning to seek with care; to investigate; to make supplication; to be intent on. How do I know this is God’s desire and intent of our worship to Him? Because His Word says so.
I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.
You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
So, to darash God is not a one hour once a week set of songs. It is more than the 45 minutes of singing your favorite songs in the car. It is a continual desire to seek out and know Him. The singing is fine, assuming it is theologically correct, as many worship songs today are not. In fact, many Christian music artist are not even Christian. Many have come right out and said they were not. They have confessed they were just in it for the money and the market. Some are less blunt. Many say they are Christian artist but they align their theology with the culture of compromise. They have bought into the lie that in order for God to be a loving God he has to compromise the integrity of His righteousness. He cannot be loving and just at the same time in their eyes of their Carnal Cultural Christianity.
To darash God is to think about Him all the day long. It is to let his Word be stored in your heart that it may be always first thing on your mind in any situation or circumstance. It is to allow the Word of God to shape your way of life. This is halak דָּרַשׁ, to live worship. This is what the Apostle Paul means in Romans 12:1
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
He is not talking about what type of songs you are singing, how loud or soft, or what the tempo is or how many instruments or vocalist you have, or how clever the lyrics are and if you can squeeze some King James Version curse words in there for shock effect. He is not talking about you being a one or two hand raiser or Holy Ghost shuffler. He is talking about presenting (bringing before God) your entire being (spirit, soul and body), in your entire daily routine of life, an absolute surrender, denying all of self, that you may be counted to God as being sacred, belonging solely to Him alone, that your entire way of life may be received as acceptable worship to the Lord. This is done by a heart, soul, mind, and way of life that is correctly shaped by one who has sought to rightly divide the Word of Truth.
I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.
My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word!
I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word.
The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.
My tongue will sing of your word, for all your commandments are right.
These are not just clever words in a book. These are words of worship to the Most High God. These words came from the heart of the Father through His servant who sought the Lord diligently with all of his heart. This is what it means that David was a man “after God’s own heart”. We find the opposite in Solomon.
For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.
I am seeing so many whose hearts are being influenced by culture that is shaping their theology instead of letting sound and sincere theology shape their culture. Christian, do not fall victim to Cultural Compromising Christianity. Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus.
A true worshipper of God at heat will love and desire to seek God in His Word. And the more He seeks God, the more He finds God and the more He finds God the more He seeks God and it becomes evident in all of his worship to God from his singing, hand raising, shouting, weeping, attitudes, words, actions, countenance, everything in his life is filled with passion for the Lord. Christ becomes his greatest passion.
I have been passionate about many things in life that have come and gone as I have matured. But the passions that are the strongest remain and endure the longest. They are my passion for the Lord, my passion for His Word, my passion to please Him with my whole heart, my passion to please Him as a servant, a son, a husband and a father.
I don’t want to be one who just enjoys some good music or is moved with mere emotion void of the intimate knowledge of the one to whom I am singing and praying. I do not want to just preach provoking messages filled with many words but there is no life transforming substance. I want to impart truth that changes your lives and draws you closer to the Lord. May the Holy Spirit restore unto you a passion to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. May we know the power of God in the passion of our worship. May the Lord God restore unto His church a desire to truly worship Him intimately. May He find us a bride that is passionate for intimate worship founded in the integrity of His truth.
