Psalm 100 Heart of Love

Intro: Picking up from last week, we talked about our worship or thanksgiving being genuine and how we are to focus on the object of our worship.

How do you give value to something? For some people it was worth getting up early or going out late for deals at Black Friday shopping. I am not criticizing those of you who did, but for me, sleeping is more valuable than shopping. We spend our resources on what is valuable to us.

When I was a kid, I collected baseball and football cards. I could own my favorite players. I checked the pricing guides to see how much this player’s rookie card was worth. I would spend my time in the local card shop discussing players and seeing how much things would cost. I then spent my money on the cards I deemed worthy. At the time one of my prized possessions was an Art Monk Rookie Card. He was a receiver for the Washington Redskins and now a hall of famer. When I was about 14 or 15, I paid 33 dollars for his card, which was how much the card cost at retail. I was so proud of it. I have had that card for almost 30 years now and do you know how much it is worth today? You can pick one up for about 3 dollars. If I get it graded by a professional company it may be worth a little more, but one website said it may be worth about 15 dollars at that point.

What I focused on as kid and thought was very worthy of my effort is now worth ten percent of what I paid for it monetarily. I spent more time looking for one and waiting for it to come into the shop. What I focused on was not worth my effort.

The card is now essentially worthless. But God and the relationship I have with him is always increasing in its value.

And so, God should be the focus of our worship and when we focus on God that draws us closer to Him.

Read Verses:

MP: God is Worthy of all our praise and thanksgiving

I. Our Worship Can Draw Us Closer to God (4)

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name.

If you are invited to dinner, it is usually thought of as proper etiquette to bring a gift or perhaps a side dish to the meal. This is a way to show the host your thanks.

Depending on who it is you are having dinner with, finding the right gift may be easy or difficult. Sometimes you know exactly what to get and other times it may take you a while and then, even when you select something, you hope that it is something useful or at least acceptable to the host.

How do you get to know the person? If you are really good friends or family then it is pretty easy. If they are new friends or co-workers it may take some time so you have to ask questions and observe. Then you decide on kind of gift works best for you and your situation.

The same works with getting to know God. You will not know God extensively but you can start. He is forever so there is plenty to learn.

Application Point # 1 When we deem something as worthy, we want to possess it or be near it. We want to worship it or Him or Her.

What do we mean by Worthy? How do we determine a worth? The word worship is actually from the Old English word Worthship, originally referred to the action of human beings in expressing homage to God because he is worthy of it.

In our lives though, if we are not careful, we give other people or things more worth than God. For me at the time, it was the card and how much the players meant to me. For some it is a car or collection of cars. What is it for you?

But what draws you to God? In the simplest terms God draws us to himself.

What ways draw us closer to God in a meaningful way?

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Puritan theologian Richard Baxter says this about worship and how it can either be just going through the motions or do you truly use your heart to worship. For that which is done by the body alone, without the concurrence of the heart, is not true worship, but an hypocritical image

You have to let your heart lead you in being drawn near.

This is why the greatest commandment is Love your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength. The heart leads the way.

Baxter goes on to say, The right worshipping of God, by bringing the heart into a cleansed, holy, and obedient frame, doth prepare it to command the body, and make us upright and regular in all the actions of our lives; for the fruit will be like the tree; and as men are, so will they do.

Our heart drives our motives.

1) Come to Church—The psalmist is telling you to come to God. Enter into his gates. Come to Him. There is noting better than sharing a meal with people. That is part of the whole point of our Holiday. Its hard to share a meal over the phone. says let us not neglect our gathering together.

The church is an earthly assembly, with a heavenly destiny. The letters in the New Testament are written to churches so they can carry on toward that destiny. The Old Testament, Israel is the church. They are God’s people. The Gentiles are grafted into that family with the Death of Jesus. He signed our adoption papers with his blood.

If you are coming to church for any other reason than to worship the Almighty God, then you are selfish and taking away the focus and the purpose of why we gather.

2) Pray—this is talking to God. If all you do is talk and not listen it is a one-sided conversation and your heart is still being selfish

3) Read the Scripture Your heart should be affected when you read the Bible.

All of these items should never be just a to do list that you check off, but it should be a worthy, meaningful event in your life, that you intentionally make time for.

"As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man." ()

We are worthy to God when we believe that Jesus has paid our debt. We go from being worthless to worthy in the eyes of the King We are made worthy because that is what is transferred from Jesus to us when we believe in Him and accept the sacrifice he provided for us and the covenant that was made at the cross.

II. Our Worship Can be a Reflection (5)

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

This idea that David talks about in the Psalms and shows up in other places in the Bible comes from God’s own explanation of Himself to Moses.

In when Moses was on Mt Sinai with God and reestablished the covenant; We get a clear idea of God’s character. Ver 6-9 6

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” 8 And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. 9 And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”

Moses worshipped God when he saw God and heard His explanation of who he is. God is good, ad his faithful love endures forever. He never stopped loving the Israelites. He disciplined them, he made sure that the people who were causing His people to go astray in from God paid the price. But His plan is always to bring back His people because the savior of the world would come through the nation of Israel.

When the Israelites brought the Ark of the Covenant in to the Tent that David had pitched for it, In David composed a psalm of thanksgiving saying to be sung in verse 36 David says, Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!

35 Say also “Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather and deliver us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. 36 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting!”

We have the same terminology because through everything in David’s life, he knew that God loved him. No matter what happened, because David gave his life over to God, that God would not turn his back on him.

God the Father shows His love to the world through His son Jesus Christ. That is why we get excited about Christmas. This is the time of the year that everyone talks about love.

Application Point #2 We can show the people around us the same goodness and lovingkindness that God has shown us.

Here is as story to illustrate how this works.

One Thanksgiving afternoon, while waiting for the expected feast, two sisters went outside to play. Being a bit mischievous, they soon found something that looked like fun to do, which all too soon led them to something they had been told not to do. Their father came into the backyard and found the evidence of their disobedience and called them to him. He explained to the girls that they must go to their room and that neither would be allowed to eat Thanksgiving dinner until the one who had disobeyed him confessed. The girls went to their room.

A while later the girls heard their mother calling them for dinner. Not knowing what was going to happen, they went and took their usual places around the table. The girls noticed that their father was not seated at the table as usual and asked, “Where is Daddy.”

The mother replied, “Daddy said that you girls could not eat Thanksgiving dinner with us today until one of you came to him and confessed your disobedience. Since neither of you came, Daddy decided that he would take your punishment himself—and so he will not be eating Thanksgiving dinner with us today.”[1]

The dad followed Christ’s example by taking the punishment that he imposed. His act of lovingkindness forgave his daughters transgressions, their sin. The dad was a reflection of Christ’s love.

How do we emulate God’s Loving Kindness?

1) Check your heart

This goes back to the first point today. God is Love. We are not, but when we rely on the Holy Spirit in our lives, our heart is changed and we are now capable to love on a different, deeper level. Ask God to work on your heart to show you what you need to get rid of, the hardness, the harshness, maybe too much self-pity or self-loathing.

Paul says in for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

2) Take the initiative

Paul tells the Philippians in his letter 2:7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges[b]; he took the humble position of a slave[c] and was born as a human being.

3) Be Humble

Going on in the same chapter to the rest of verse 7 and then into verse 8, Paul says When Jesus appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Hebrews echoes a similar sentiment that Jesus willingly came to earth, was born into the world and lived a sinless life.

The father in the story humbled himself to take the punishment himself so his children could be free from the wrath. He was the only one that could be ok with not getting his dinner. If the father went back on his word with no punishment, he just proved himself a liar and wrong

Conclusion

It sounds odd but that is exactly why Jesus came to earth. He is God and God is the only one that can make atonement for our sins. Because the Law is God’s law. And it God’s good pleasure to make a way to save sinners. It is in His heart and nature to show love, even when we do not show love to him. Our relationship is not quid pro quo, or this for that.

[1] Michael P. Green, ed., Illustrations for Biblical Preaching: Over 1500 Sermon Illustrations Arranged by Topic and Indexed Exhaustively, Revised edition of: The expositor’s illustration file. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1989).