Worship: Contributing to Kingdom Building
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Open your bibles this morning to Exodus 25...
This morning I want to look together at what it means to worship God. Worship is the first and most basic response of a true believer to the true God. How does this work? Well, God reveals himself, the person sees, and in response to beholding the great glory of God they worship. We will talk about what this means… But keep in mind, John 1:18
No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
Jesus, the son of the living God. God incarnate. God condescending to our level, to our understanding, in order to show us who He is. Jesus has explained Him. Because He is Him. In language and material we can grasp.Thus, when we come to know Jesus, we have seen God. We know God through Jesus Christ. And no one comes to the father except through Him.
But let me get at the heart of this thing called worship by taking you back into exodus 25 to see a picture painted for us that tells us at least three things about genuine worship… That is that Genuine worship is marked by giving to God, that genuine worship is voluntary, and that the end of genuine worship is the glory of God.
Let's stand for the reading of God’s word in Exodus 25…
Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
“Speak with the sons of Israel so that they take a contribution for Me; from every man whose heart is willing you shall take My contribution.
“And this is the contribution which you shall take from them: gold, silver, and bronze,
blue, purple, and scarlet material, fine linen, goat hair,
rams’ skins dyed red, porpoise skins, acacia wood,
oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense,
onyx stones, and setting stones for the ephod and for the breastpiece.
“And let them make a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them.
“According to all that I am going to show you, as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furniture, just so you shall make it.
I. Genuine worship is marked by giving to God.
What does it mean to worship something or someone? My short in a nutshell definition is this: To worship means to ascribe value through adoration. Essentially, to worship is to act, or serve, in response to something because of how it makes us feel. We have for so long tied the word worship to singing alone. This is why I don’t like the phrase, worship team. We are all worshippers, and worship is more than just singing. Worship is our life. We were created to worship. We were created with a discernment and feelings and bodies that respond in worship.
I also don’t like this style of worship that plays to the emotions. We don’t worship the lord in emotions, we worship him in spirit and in truth. Can music that drives us to worship the Lord make us feel emotional? Yes. We should feel something about God, but it should not be based on vibes alone. It should be from truth. Feelings that worship the Lord stem from your faith in fact. Because it is true. And thus, it makes you feel xyz…
What else does this? Only our God.
He acts. He feels. He responds. He speaks. But He is holy, He is the perfect, He is the original, and we are the copy. Therefore, his worship is perfect. His worship is of Himself. Because there is nothing of greater value on this earth than Him. There is no source of life, or reality, or truth other than him. He acts and responds and speaks because of his own good and perfect will. This concept can cause our heads to spin, so let me turn to what is supposed to be a copy of God’s worship. Our worship.
In Exodus 25 Moses has already been up with God and he has already received the civil law. The ten commandments and the laws for everyone’s civil life. Now he is back with God and he is receiving religious laws. In chapter 24 the people enter into a covenant with God based on the foundational civil laws. The truth of the matter. The laws they agree to establish Yahweh as their God and no other. Immediately after the covenant ceremony ends, Moses is back up the mountain to receive laws about worship. About serving God.
This is because the end of the picture God is setting up with His people is that He will be their God and they will be His people and He will dwell in the midst of them. A tabernacle was to be erected and placed at the center, at the heart, of their community. Everything they would do would involve this tabernacle. Their house would be build around it. And everything they did at the tabernacle would affect them. That is because, the worship of God is directly tied to fruit or judgment of the community worshiping. They were to worship him there. Meaning, they were to see him as first. As preeminent. Their lives, all their eating and drinking and sleeping, in other words all of their actions, were to revolve around the reality of God’s goodness toward them.
All of their religious life was to originate from the holy places of God. For example, Leviticus 17:3-5
“Any man from the house of Israel who slaughters an ox or a lamb or a goat in the camp, or who slaughters it outside the camp,
and has not brought it to the doorway of the tent of meeting to bring it near as an offering to Yahweh before the tabernacle of Yahweh, it will be counted as bloodguiltiness to that man. He has shed blood, and that man shall be cut off from among his people.
“The reason is so that the sons of Israel may bring their sacrifices which they were sacrificing in the open field, that they may bring them in to Yahweh, at the doorway of the tent of meeting to the priest, and sacrifice them as sacrifices of peace offerings to Yahweh.
They didn’t eat like you and I do. Everything they did was in the name of something. Or was to the praise of something. Do you think about that? Every time to buy groceries, in whose name do you buy them? Every time you eat a meal, in the praise of Who or What are you eating? You might think, well I am not eating in the name or to the praise of anyone, I am just eating because I am hungry. Because I need to or I won’t live. Well then in that case you are eating to the adoration of yourself. You are hungry, fact drives you to feeling, hunger. And in this simple case you eat to satisfy your stomach. To please you, you must have food… So you eat.
Here is the difference. God’s wants you to eat. He wants you to live. But not to yourself. God wants Ηis people to eat and drink and do all things unto His glory. Not their own. Not to idols. That all things be given to him. And this is why the covenant is given, the foundational truth, terms and conditions, and immediately we are talking about building a tabernacle. The end as I said, is to build an epicenter for their community where God will dwell on display for all to see and drive the everyday living and everyday worship of the community. But even in the erection of this tabernacle God is aiming at their hearts. God could have provided everything needed for the erecting of that tabernacle. He could have ploped it all down in front of them like a lego set and said, build kids. But he didn’t. God delegates this to his people as the initial act of worship.
Does God matter to you? Is He worthy of your adoration? Is He worthy of your best, your most prized possession, your life? Than give it to Him. Gold, silver, fine linen, fine spices, fine oil, fine jewels.… All of great value. Do you see the correlation? God wants the best from his people. Because he has given the best of himself to them… Himself. He is teaching them to worship. Because of the greatness of God in covenanting with them, they now respond by giving what they have. But not because of obligation. Which is why our second observation is that…
II. Genuine worship is voluntary.
God is asking for contributions from his people, all of his people, but at the same time, not all of his people. The call to worship goes out to everyone. God wants everyone to worship him in this way, but with stipulations. From every man whose heart is willing. Or more precisely, from each man whose heart prompts him to give. In other words, the ones who will give cannot help themselves. They must give because of the goodness of God. The apostle Paul picks up on this principle in 2 Corinthians 9 when he says,
Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
God did not say, ALL MUST GIVE. No, you are free to give or not to give. You are free to respond to the Lord by contributing or not. However, understand that the response is telling of the heart. Either your heart is not compelled by the goodness of God or it is. All of Israel JUST agreed to enter into this covenant with God. We are your members, God! They saw his power on display, heard his good laws, and heard his promises, they saw the terror on the mountain, and tasted of his joy. Therefore, the contribution is an act of worship that says something about their heart.
Not all of them will be able to give the same amount. It’s not about the amount. It is about the heart. Some had lots of gold, some had little gold, some had no gold. Some had lots of fine linen, some had little, some had none. You get the point. But all of them had something on this list. There is no excuse. God knows because he gave it to them. The question became, would they freely give it back to the service of God on earth. Would they trust him to take whatever they had to offer and use it well. Make note of this, Worship is an act of faith. God cuts a covenant with them, and promises them all of these things, and then says, I need x y and z… Do you trust him? Your response of adoration of God is tied to your trust in God.
God is not going to force everyone to trust in him. He isn’t going to force the buiding of his dwelling place. There is no beauty in that. But his purposes will be accomplished. And they will be accomplished by those who genuinely love Him. Make no mistake, it is the same today. Those who build the kingdom of God do it out of love. I don’t mean the building of church buildings, or denominations, or multi site campuses. Don’t you see, there is more going on here. God doesn’t dwell in a house…
Thus says Yahweh,
“Heaven is My throne, and the earth is the footstool of My feet.
Where then is a house you could build for Me?
And where is a place that I may rest?
It was about drawing out their adoration of God. Therfore, the volunteering of expensive materials was an act of worship, saying God is worthy of silver and gold and much much more. Gold and silver won’t save me no matter how much I could sell them for. Not even if they bring in $4400 an oz…That may save me from my physical enemy because I can bribe them,… But it won’t save my soul. He doesn’t force us to see this, because it is true and genuine worship when someone sees the truth, and freely voluntarily acts in Ascribing adoration to the one who saves. And this is the end then…
III. The end of genuine worship is God’s glory.
The word for glory is weightiness. You know how everything is measured in a balance to prove how much it is worth? 1 oz of gold, equals out the scale with $4400 on the other side… This is glory. The glory of a small amount of gold is greater than a small amount of money. What God deserves is for us to see the truth. And the truth is that if I put God on this side of the scale, there is nothing that can be added to the other side which would cause God’s side to rise. Glory is weightiness and you ascribe glory, you ascribe weight and value in your life to things regularly. This is worshipping. Worshipping is the act of ascribing value. You are always weighing things in the balances and making decisions based on your scale’s results.
Yet the end of genuine worship is that God matters the most. He is worthy of it all. The contribution being taken was not a contribution for the community. The text says this is HIS contribution. This was not a sanctuary for the people by the people… This was a sanctuary for God. Though we have established that God dwells in heaven, he was about to put his spirit in that tabernacle and in a very real way be there. Just as he was with moses on the mountain. God doesn’t dwell on earth, but the ones who respond because their heart is willing, it is these people who truely want to see on earth as it is in heaven. The tabernacle will become a shadow, a copy of something heavenly. Even now, we know that our bodies are the temple of the lord. He dwells in us. This is not final. It is a copy of what is to come. A final dwelling place of perfection where the Lord will perfectly be ascribed the weight he is due. Nothing will be of more importance in heaven that Him.
Which is the problem the inhabitants of this earth have now, right? It is a glory problem. Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” There is no distinction. No jew, no gentile. All need to be saved from their glory problem because one day they will be judged accordingly. God is a jealous God. And righteous. To be his people you must have a heart that ascribes him perfect glory. But this is the problem. You can’t. I can’t. The people who respond to Exodus 25 can’t. IN the end, their glory giving will fall short.
So God solved that problem through Jesus Christ. He gave God perfect glory by living a sinless life and being obedient to the point of death on the cross. Genuine worship ends in death. Because it is to say, my life, the thing that I value most, must be given to him also. So Christ died to save sinners. So that we didn’t have to die. The death we are to die is a spiritual one. A supernatural one. So that we might be born again by the spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit is indicating this, that the way into the holy places has not yet been manifested while that first part of the tabernacle is still standing,
which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience,
since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, requirements for the body imposed until a time of reformation.
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation,
and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy places once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
The Tabernacle, an earthly picture of a heavenly reality, pointed out that without the blood of Christ our worship is incomplete. Therfore, anyone who comes to God based on Christ’s merit, Christ’s goodness will be received by Him.
The pattern of worship was to create a longing for and hope of heaven in the hearts of God’s people. A desire to be in His presence forever. A desire to see his kingdom built on earth. And this is what we are doing through the spreading of the gospel, right? Making more temples of the lord. Filling the earth with true and genuine worshippers.
The call to those in exodus 25 is the same call that we as the modern church have today. God is the same yesterday today and forever. God deserves genuine worship. God will have genuine worshippers. Therefore, those who truly know and have tasted and love the one true God respond to him with willing worship. As Paul says in Romans 12:1
Therefore I exhort you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
Your duty, your one passion in this life should be Christ. He should be in the center of your life. Everything revolving around Him. Everything in the heavens does! So to truly see heaven on earth is to make it all about him. All of Christ, for all of life. Everything that you say and do is to be aimed at pleasing God. And there has only been one person to genuinely do that! So, it is our goal to see to it that every aspect of our life is sprinkled with the blood of christ, is sanctified, is atoned for, is redeemed.
Ultimately, your life will tell you if you value the Lord. But one simple beginning step is to look into your bank account. What gold, what silver, what fine linen, fine spices, etc are still being guarded there? I have kept the entire law, on person once said to Jesus. And Jesus responded, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me. But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property. And Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:22-23)
What do you have that is still of more value to you than God? This is not to say that everyone should be poor… This is to say that all of your life is to be for all of Christ. One of the most obvious gauges of this is our modern religious life. Do you give freely to the ministry happening in this church? I will tell you back in march when we first addressed our finances many of you responded. I believe, by our estimation, we will meet our budget for the first time this year in nearly a decade. Praise God! You have responded to the word, to the truth, in worship.
But all the more, do you give freely not just of money, but in prayer for the church, in service of the church etc. But take it beyond that… Is the way you treat your spouse a direct response to the way you value God? How you treat others tells of what you know to be true about God.
Willing contributions to the worship of God in your life are directly correlated to how much you love of God. So let me leave you with this…
When you serve your family, or neighbor, or that sick person that meal, to who’s adoration do you make it? When you eat that meal, to who’s weighty value to you eat it? When you consider reconciliation with family or friends, for who’s namesake do you seek it? When you order your finances, and spend that money, to who’s fame and remembrance do you dedicate it?
