deu12-05

3 June 2007

“THE CHURCH GOD CHOOSES”

Deuteronomy 12:5

I want us to be a little more specific because our vision of worship should sit inside our vision of church.   Worship is one of the things we do.  As we establish a place God chooses, we should want to be the church God chooses. 

We cannot assume just because we put God’s name on our building that God is present in our work.  I would be bold enough today to say there are a lot of places open in the name of God but God Is not there.  That’s a judgment and an awful indictment.  WE do not want to be a place where God is not.

Now I know these new and freshly anointed contemporary performers have told you that because God is everywhere at the same time, you ought not to sing some of our old music, “Do not Pass me BY” but our forebearers had great insight.  That although God is in fact everywhere at the same time, God chooses to be active and manifest.  Sometimes God is present but not active.  Sometimes God does what some of us do, God comes to be a spectator, a bystander as we muster up half-hearted praise or full praise devoted to someone else other than God -  the pastor, the choir member, the board member some ram-rod (RNS). 

Our text today declares that we are to worship in the place God chooses.  Partly because the people who surrounded the Israelites would worship anywhere.  You cannot think that you can wake up in the morning, read the newspaper and say a little prayer and believe you have worshiped. 

Read this text very carefully

:

 But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes as his habitation to put his name there.

You shall go there, [1]

We do not realize how blessed we are.  We are in an unpredictable world, filled with twists and turns and circumstances that shake the very foundations of what we believe.  Since some of us will not come to Bible Study, I will bring the Bible Study here.  Turn in Hebrews 12:

27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of what is shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; 29 for indeed our God is a consuming fire.

[2]

God is giving you something that cannot be shaken in a world that not only rotates on its axis and revolves around the sun but at any moment can have an earth-splitting tremor.  

Time is filled with swift transition…

What does the church look like that God chooses?

I.              It’s a place where God is first in all things.

If this is going to be God’s house, God has to be first.

Where the spirit of God is there is liberty!

II.             Because of that, it’s a place of love

A sanctuary

A rescue station

A place of rest

III.            it’s a place of forgiveness

“The one, who forgives, ends the struggle.”

IV.           it’s a place of power

Healing power

                Redemptive power

                                Rescuing power

                                                Fix it Power

                                                                Life changing Power

                                                                                Soul cleansing power

Transforming power

                Holy Ghost Power

                                Habit kicking power

                                                Family restoring Power

Empowering Power

                Enabling Power

                                Edifying Power

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[1]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1996, c1989 (Dt 12:5). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[2]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1996, c1989 (Heb 12:27). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.