Bowing Your Knees

Introduction:

Merry Christmas!

Join us Christmas Eve 2pm, 3:30pm, 5:00pm

Finishing up Sermon Series, “Come to Worship”

So far have looked at 3 different postures of worship. (Lifting Hands, Giving, Pouring out our Heart)

Today we are going to look at one last posture of worship.

SERMON:

If you are taking notes, today’s sermon title is, “Bowing Your Knees.”

Bowing your knees is an act of surrender and worship before God.

Let’s start off by looking at a portion of the Christmas Story in Matthew.

Matthew 2:10–11 NIV

10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

The moment that the Wisemen went into the house, they bowed down and worshiped him.

* Not a week old baby! Approx. 2 years old!

How many of you have a 2 year old child? How many of you have had a 2 year old child? How many of you have been around a 2 year old?

That image of a 2 year old… That’s who the Wisemen bowed down before and worshiped!

Let’s talk about this whole kneeling thing.

There are a few times we may kneel, but for the most part it is not a part of our culture.

Most of us aren’t very comfortable with kneeling. Kinda like the whole Lifting our hands.

Yet, when we look at God’s word, we see kneeling over and over again.

For example: (elaborate on Bow down and kneel before)

Psalm 95:6–7 NIV

6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; 7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear his voice,

Shachah: an Hebrew word that's translated as worship, and used 170 times in the Bible.

Shachah literally means: To worship in the posture of kneeling low before the Lord.

One of the reasons I believe culturally we don’t kneel more often is because we do not understand or comprehend the holiness of God.

If we truly understand how Holy He is, we would want to bow low to worship Him.

Because His Holiness is so great we can not stand before Him and live.

When Moses asked to see the Glory of God, God instructed Moses to to cover his face until He had finished passing, and Moses was only able to get a glimpse of the Lord from behind.

That’s how Holy He is!

Even in the Old Testament when the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies once a year, there was a chance that they would not live if there was any sin in their life. So they would tie a rope on the the Priest’s leg to be able to pull him out if he died.

That’s how Holy God is!

So it’s not a far stretch to see why our response to a Holy God should be to bow before Him.

My desire through this sermon series is to inspire you to grow in your worship to the Lord.

Not just at Church but in every area of your life.

To worship Him in greater ways by lifting up Holy Hands in worship, by bringing your gifts to God in worship, by pouring out your hearts in worship, and even to get down on your knees, (Maybe even a little lower onto your face) and say, “God, I want there to be less of me and more of you in my life.

And to help you to grow in your worship with kneeling before the Lord, I want to give you

3 reasons why you kneel in worship.

1. Kneel in Pursuit

Mark 10:17 NIV

17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Have you noticed this before?

The rich man literally fell on his knees before Jesus.

As he pursued Christ, he knelt down for the one thing he didn’t have:

Remember… He had everything that this world has to offer, but he was missing what everybody needs…

SALVATION

Some of you right now, may be in a similar place like that in your life.

You may believe in God but he is not the sole pursuit of your heart.

You're not a fully devoted follower of Jesus.

I want to encourage you, if that's where you are, here's what you need to do.

When we finish up the sermon this morning, take a moment to kneel before the Lord and ask Him to give you eternal life.

Ask Him to be the Lord of your life.

When you pray that prayer, get ready. Because the Word of God tells us that when you draw near to Him, God draws near to you.

A Powerful Truth:

If you find yourself in a place where life is more than you can stand… Kneel before the Lord.

Pursue Him on your knees and He will draw near to you!

The second reason you might want to bow in worship is to:

2. Kneel in Repentance

Maybe you don’t need to kneel in pursuit, but you may need to kneel in repentance.

Each and every one of us needs to from time to time.

There is a great example of kneeling in repentance found in the book of Luke chapter 5.

Luke 5:1–8 The Message

1 Once when he was standing on the shore of Lake Gennesaret, the crowd was pushing in on him to better hear the Word of God. 2 He noticed two boats tied up. The fishermen had just left them and were out scrubbing their nets. 3 He climbed into the boat that was Simon’s and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Sitting there, using the boat for a pulpit, he taught the crowd. 4 When he finished teaching, he said to Simon, “Push out into deep water and let your nets out for a catch.” 5 Simon said, “Master, we’ve been fishing hard all night and haven’t caught even a minnow. But if you say so, I’ll let out the nets.” 6 It was no sooner said than done—a huge haul of fish, straining the nets past capacity. 7 They waved to their partners in the other boat to come help them. They filled both boats, nearly swamping them with the catch. 8 Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell to his knees before Jesus. “Master, leave. I’m a sinner and can’t handle this holiness. Leave me to myself.”

Notice Peter fell to his knees before Jesus as an act of repentance...

Here's the beautiful thing.

Jesus never turns away a sinner with a repentant heart.

He never does.

There may be some of you here right now who don’t really feel comfortable being here because you don’t feel like you belong.

But, Listen to me, it doesn't matter how bad you are, you belong in the presence of God with a repentant heart.

Peter repented and look at what happened next.

Luke 5:9–10 The Message

9 When they pulled in that catch of fish, awe overwhelmed Simon and everyone with him. 10 It was the same with James and John, Zebedee’s sons, coworkers with Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “There is nothing to fear. From now on you’ll be fishing for men and women.”

Here's the good news.

Scripture teaches us that when you confess your sins, our God is faithful and just to forgive all of your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

When we finish today’s sermon, there will be a moment you can kneel before the Lord for repentance.

And when you kneel in repentance and say, "God, I've done something wrong, will you forgive me?"

In that moment you will experience the grace of God!

And you may want to stay on your knees for a little while to worship the one who freely forgives you.

A Powerful Truth:

Kneeling before Christ empowers you to stand back up and keep going.

The third reason you might want to bow in worship is to:

3. Kneel in Submission

Some of you, you're going to want to kneel in pursuit. Some of you, you're going to want to kneel in repentance. There are others of you, you're going to want to kneel in submission.

Maybe for the first time in your life or maybe in a particular area where you won't let go because you want to control it, you're going to kneel in submission.

UFC fighting:

When somebody gets somebody in a hold and they can't breathe or their arm's about to snap, what do they do?

They tap-out… They surrender or submit… They give up.

Our Culture in America doesn’t like to submit.

We will be stubborn and refuse to submit.

And sadly, there are many of us that are like that with God.

There's some areas of our lives we won't tap out and surrender to God’s ways.

Listen, there are some of you, God has been reaching out to you for years and you won't tap out.

You won't surrender to his plan for you, which is far better than your own plan.

Some of you, you need to kneel and submit.

And what's crazy is that Jesus did this and we struggle to follow His example.

Jesus being God in the flesh knew what was coming in His last days with us on Earth.

He knew of the suffering He would have to endure for our salvation. When He didn’t deserve it.

And with him knowing all of this… listen to what He did in that moment.

Luke 22:41–42 NIV

41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

Yet not my will, but yours be done.

Some of us, that's what we need to pray today.

We need to kneel and say, “I surrender Lord, not my will but your will be done.”

A powerful truth:

Kneeling to submit is often what gives you the strength to overcome.

CLOSING:

Will you stand with me…

Now, I'll let you in on a little secret. You ready for this?

You can kneel now, or you can kneel later, but eventually you're going to kneel to Him.

You can kneel now in pursuit and repentance and in submission and worship, or one day when it isn’t your choice you'll kneel then.

Philippians 2:8–11 NIV

8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This morning we are going to end with an opportunity to kneel before the Lord. (if you can’t kneel for physical reasons, Sit and bow in reverence)

As Pastor Josh leads us through a song. I want each of us to Kneel.

Some of us will Kneel in Pursuit of Christ and His gift of salvation, Others will kneel in repentance, and yet others of us will kneel in submission.

However you kneel… Kneel in worship.

Worship Song

Salvation Call:

Prayers for the Sick:

Dismissal: