WORSHIP AND WITNESS

WORSHIP AND WITNESS Psalm 105:1-4 July 11, 2010 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introduction The two duties of every believer are made clear in verse 1: First, we are called to worship the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; this is how the psalmist summarizes the first of these two vital duties of the believer. We sing the words of our local worship leader and songwriter, Rick Vines, I’m built for worship and I want to celebrate; I will arise and shine . . . And that is exactly true. We are never really fulfilled as when we give honor and thanks to the only one we know in our hearts is worthy of that glory. Our very nature as created beings demands it. We are fashioned by God and given life from Him, and it is a perfectly natural, cosmically proper thing that we should praise Him. All of creation adores Him, and by doing what they are built to do, each segment of His magnificent created order offers honor and worship to Him. The trees grow, flower, reproduce by His design. Even when they wave in the breeze they glorify God—as Isaiah 55 says, all the trees of the fields will clap their hands for joy. Birds sing, antelope run, lions roar, mountains stand in grandeur, the seas team with life, seasons change, the sun blasts forth its energies, planets stay in their courses, gravity pulls . . . They all in intricately different and uniquely perfect ways reflect and declare the glory of God the Creator. How much more should we, the singularly blessed creatures who have been, by His own design, made in his image, use the wonderful apparatus he has given us to praise Him? He’s given us minds with which to know Him beyond the capacity of all the rest of creation; souls and hearts to appreciate His love toward us and with which to love Him in return; wisdom to perceive and respect His glory wondrously displayed in all His creation, let alone our very selves; voices to lift in adoration with words that hold deep and profound meaning; the ability to appreciate and produce music unto Him; the privilege to humble ourselves and ask our beneficent Provider to meet our every need; and faith to be able to anticipate His gracious response. So, give thanks to the Lord, call on his name – it is our duty and our great honor to worship Him. Duty number two is also captured in the words of the first verse: Witness. We, the people of His pasture (as Psalm 95 puts it), the chosen people by virtue of His grace and our response of belief, not only may place our faith in Him, we are called & commanded to do so. And as we do, we are conscripted into His great corps of ambassadors throughout the world and throughout history—those who bear witness to all of creation concerning the person and nature of the only true and living God. Make known among the nations what he has done. As we worship Him we are declaring His glory; as we live for Him in humble obedience, we are showing forth His glory; and certainly as we intentionally inform people of Him and publish His plans for His cosmos, we are blending most perfectly into that very plan. Ephesians 2:10-12 summarizes that calling: His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made know to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. We are ambassadors of the eternal truth of, by, for and about God! Declaring that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us this message of reconciliation! 2 Cor. 5:19 Very simply, we are to subpoena God’s own, beloved but rebellious creation—particularly its people, who subjected the creation to decay and frustration—to return to God and join us in glorifying Him. So the psalm continues. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. I hear in these words that our worship and our witness blend in a marvelous way. When we worship God through singing, and when we serve Him in obedience—in either and in both—we are bringing Him the glory He deserves. We are fulfilling our key life’s purpose. Two quick thoughts closing out this passage: 1) we must remember that it is by His power vested in us that we get anything as holy as divine witness done. We should never kid ourselves into thinking that we are bringing God praise through our own strength and ingenuity. In our own sinful selves we don’t even understand we are to do that, let alone have the verve or endurance to accomplish anything good for God. It is He who is at work in [us] to will and to act according to his good purpose. So the psalmist encourages us to always look to the Lord and his strength. The second closing observation is also in verse 4: Seek His face always. We who have been drawn to faith in Christ, are called, very simply, to maintain our trust and devotion to Him and Him alone. We can do that only by seeking His face, and doing it always. You see the secret of successfully living for Him as worshipers and witnesses is just this: staying close to Him to receive His wisdom, His power, His endless love and grace, His ongoing, faithful forgiveness, and His direction. Without His leading we would never know any of the specifics of His will for our lives, as individuals or as a church. He said, we are to declare among the nations what he has done, for example. Where do we start? What do we do? We know that one single Christian, or even one single church congregation can get it all done, can we? What part do we play? Whom do we target? How exactly are we to participate? This is one of the many reasons why I thank God for MECF. We are becoming, by His grace, a church that is growing in our capacity to hear and heed His voice. I am grateful for a Kingdom Expansion Ministry Team that is leaning into God, alongside the elders of this church, seeking his face always, and looking to the Lord for His strength. Last year, a team of 8 or so labored in northern Brazil teaching English and serving a large group of eager Portuguese-speaking people not only lessons in our language, but the Word of God, and several came to faith in Jesus. A year before that, another team of laborers from this little church went to pave the way for that ministry by building a soccer field for the local church to help them witness for Christ to a soccer-crazed community. Then we met them and led a couple of them to the Lord. Two and three years before that some from MECF went to Brazil to come alongside the Gregory family for times of encouragement and service. That led to the more recent service. And, of course, 8 years ago, an elder of this church felt called to serve on a full time basis as missionaries with his family in that part of Brazil. In obedience to the Lord, we as a church have been heavily supporting them since the time they left a very good job and nice house here and moved there in faith. Connie was just here and reported on all the wonderful things happening through the agency of PAZ ministries, and what a key part of that great ministry in the Amazon that the Gregory family has become. Listen, we could never, would never, have known to go that direction without leaning into the Lord, seeking His face and finding in Him the strength and resource to follow through. It was, and still is, a matter of blending worship (praising Him and seeking His face) and witness (obeying the calling to declare His glory among the nations). May we continue to faithfully seek his face always. Time fails me to rehearse the fascinating stories of how a little church in the Midwest sought the Lord’s leading for an unreached people group somewhere/anywhere in the world that He wanted us to partner in reaching, and how God miraculously led us to the Fulani-Wodaabe people of Niger’s Sahara desert region. Without the leading and strength of God, half a dozen of our people could not have gone in person to the Sahara (into an area that even seasoned missionaries would not go) to meet the believers and unbelievers among that nomadic tribe. By the grace of God we have come to network with Tim and Sue Eckert and a host of faithful servants in SIM, not to mention a promising young man with a pastoral calling on his life, named Tambaya, who has now grown into key leadership in the growing church in Niger, writing Bible training materials in the Fulfulde language. And we are privileged, 10 years later to be the sole support of this servant of Christ and his family. Because of seeking the Lord’s face, we came into contact with Ken and Martha Shirkey, who actually taught us virtually all we know about mission work, and whom we have been able to support now for some 15 years. By extension through them we are at work declaring the Lord in Haiti, Uganda and Brazil. In a recent report Ken included a letter from a pastor he has served in Haiti and gotten involved in a national prayer group: We were going to do a water baptism in the creek near our church. When we went down, the voodoo priest came and told us that we could not use this water, that he had put a spirit into the water, and it now belonged to them (the voodoo believers). We argued that the stream was Haitian and belonged to everyone in Haiti and we were going to proceed, which we did. The voodoo priest started screaming at us and cursing us. As we entered the water, the voodoo priest also sat down at the edge of the water with his feet in the stream. He told us that his was going to send a snake to bite and kill those in the water. He continued to curse us. All of the sudden he fell face down into the water. He was pulled out and died soon after. To our great God all praise and glory!- Pastor from Grand Anse Department of Haiti Beyond these, we have been enabled by the Lord to help send another of our church family into mission service in such fields as Jericho, Iraq, Russia and most recently in Ukraine in an interesting blend of serving in a new home for widows, and laying the foundation for planting churches in that key area of Ukraine. Bob and Jan Claus have been members of this church family for most of its history. Your giving helps to support their fine work as well. More locally, a wonderful ministry of serving women and families facing crisis pregnancies and STD’s is called Mosaic. We have partnered with them for nearly all of their 20 year history, with several of our folks working as counselors. By seeking God’s face concerning His intended work through us we have been faithfully led and resourced by Him. Finally, back in September of 09, our KET felt the leading of God in the direction of serving in Mexico in partnership with Casas por Cristo, to build a home for an indigent family there in the Jarez area. The church has heard similarly and responded to the invitation to serve in this way as a strategy for declaring God’s love in a most tangible way. We have looked to the Lord for His strength and resources over the past seven months particularly, and here is what God has done. He has forged a team of seventeen adults and teenagers who have their hammers and gloves ready, the love of the Lord in their hearts, their church family squarely behind them, and they leave in just a few minutes for the airport and their mission. Meanwhile, through their very dedicated efforts and the prayers and planning of team leader Charlotte Bersett and KET leader and organizer extraordinaire, Tonia Paul, this whole trip has come together beautifully. We share with you all that just 3 weeks ago we were not even half way to our necessary financial goal of funding this endeavor completely. The total cost was to be approximately $16,500, which pays for everything—the entire team’s transportation, room and board, the entire house to be built, from the ground to the rooftop, including every board and every yard of concrete, not to mention gifts to the Casa por Cristo mission and to the new occupants of the house. Not even a month ago a little over $5,000 of that had come in. Today, we have come to within $500 of the total, and we are confident that God will engineer the balance of that need before the team touches ground in El Paso Texas. Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice (and those who get this new home) rejoice. Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. Amen!       [ Back to Top]