Dangerous God

There is a section in our closet that I would call Christmas fails. It contains numerous articles of clothing, including several night gowns that I bought for my wife, but she hated.

How did so many of these “failed gifts” get there? Here’s how.

Shannon would say, “I would like a nightgown for Christmas and then she would describe it perfectly.” I want it this length, made out of this fabric, not like this, but like that. And she would be very specific.

All I heard her say is, “I want a nightgown.” I didn’t pay attention to the rest of it. So I would buy her a nightgown that I thought she should like - but she didn’t.

So after about 10 Christmases like that, now she gives me a list of EXACTLY what she wants. And when I say EXACTLY, I mean that she finds it online and give me a link to it. And here’s the deal. She knows EXACTLY what she’s getting for Christmas - but she likes it! She’s really happy to get it because she gets what she wants. No surprises.

You know who else doesn’t like surprises? You know who else is really into you giving them EXACTLY what they want?

God is!

Now, there is a HUGE difference between God and Shannon. Shannon will hang your failed attempt at a gift in the closet and never wear it.

God will burn your face off.

Did you know that there are several places in the Bible in which God strikes someone dead because they did something very careless - they didn’t pay attention to the details of how to approach Him.

The Lord’s supper - Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 1 Cor. 11:27-30

In Acts 5 a couple lies about an offering and they fall dead.

In 2 Samuel 6 there is a story of David transporting the ark on a cart. One of the oxen stumbles and a man named Uzzah reaches up to steady the cart. When he touches the ark, God strikes him dead. The reason that happened is because David didn’t pay attention to God’s instructions. You don’t haul the ark of the covenant on a cart like you do a lawnmower in the back of your truck. You carry the ark on poles, by hand. No one is allowed to directly touch it.

The one I want to talk about tonight comes in Leviticus 10. This is a significant, and very exciting moment. To help you understand it, I want to take a moment and let’s set the story up.

Leviticus is the answer of God to an impassioned prayer of Moses after the golden calf incident. In Exodus the people made a major worship mistake and committed idolatry. God told them that he would keep his promise and get them to the promised land, but that His presence would not be with them. They would go without him.

Moses begs God to go with them. So how can they enter again into the presence of God?

So Leviticus is the answer.

In the first 9 chapters you get a set of offerings and a group of men chosen to be priests. They are the only ones allowed to approach God on behalf of the people. So with all of the instructions given the stage is set. Moses tells the people in the opening of 9 to bring certain offerings because “TODAY THE LORD WILL APPEAR TO YOU (9:4).”

And chapter 9 couldn’t end any better. It goes exactly the way Moses said it would.

Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them, and he came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, and when they came out they blessed the people, and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. Leviticus 9:22-24

So we turn the page on chapter 10. We are in the heat of worship. We are back before God. And so Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, take censur’s and put fire in them and they bring an offering before the Lord

And tragedy strikes.

Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’ ” And Aaron held his peace. Levitucus 10:1-3

You talk about putting a chill on the meeting - two dead bodies will do it. And so everything stops for a few moments. Moses instructs two cousins of the dead men, to come out and haul the bodies away.

And notice Aaron, the father. He’s just lost two sons, but he says nothing. He’s not even allowed to mourn. It’s a very hard chapter to read.

And at the end of it, there is supposed to be a part of the sacrifice that Aaron and the other priests eat. But Aaron doesn’t eat it. Moses is upset, but Aaron explains why. And we need to pay attention to this. This is very important.

“Why have you not eaten the sin offering in the place of the sanctuary, since it is a thing most holy and has been given to you that you may bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord? Behold, its blood was not brought into the inner part of the sanctuary. You certainly ought to have eaten it in the sanctuary, as I commanded.” And Aaron said to Moses, “Behold, today they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord, and yet such things as these have happened to me! If I had eaten the sin offering today, would the Lord have approved?” And when Moses heard that, he approved. Lev. 10:17-20

Aaron’s response here is VERY important. I’ll explain why at the end of the message. But for now here is what I want us to pay attention to.

We are called to worship a dangerous God.

C.S. Lewis, in Chronicles of Narnia, has an interesting way of describing Jesus. In the book Jesus is represented by Aslan, a majestic lion. And Susan, one of the human character is nervous about meeting him. And she asks if he is safe. And here is the response.

"Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”

God is good, but He isn’t safe. And the problem with worship is the same problem I have with my wife’s Christmas gifts. We just hear “worship” but we don’t pay attention to what pleases him - and that ended badly for Nadab and Abihu.

I’m not here to tell you that God is going to start striking people dead who mess up in worship. But I am telling you that we need to be extremely careful - and here’s why?

Group 1 - you get tired of being told to do something or feel something that’s not there. and i think you’d like it to be there - to truly connect with God. But you know What we are doing isn’t working. The most important thing we can do as humans is worship God. It is the reason we were created and it is our highest call. But we aren’t connecting - are we. And you know it! You’re sitting there, some of you acting one way in all of this but inside thinking - there’s nothing there. Others of you feel guilty because you are told to do something and bring out something inside of you, that isn’t in there - is it? And I’ll tell you why it isn’t working. It’s because God is not pleased with it. He’s not going to honor it - because it’s not what He wants.

Group 2 - they enjoy it and get into it - but there’s a problem they like the songs, not the God. It will be the ultimate tragedy for us to sing all the songs, go to all the camps, do all the stuff in church only to realize in the end that none of it pleased God and it amounted to nothing because we did not know Jesus - we did not know the one we worship.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ Matthew 7:21-23.

So what I want to do tonight is two things.

I want to talk about some strange fires that we need to avoid. Not just because it helps us to avoid the ultimate tragedy of misguided worship that Jesus describes, but because if we can bring God what He wants it will be the most fulfilling thing you’ve ever done. You will be so blessed by pleasing God - it will be the greatest freedom you’ve ever experienced.

And

I want us to end by explaining Aaron. Why is he as he is at the end of the chapter? Why is he so heartbroken, but says nothing? Why does he refuse to take the next sacrifice and why does Moses change his attitude after Aaron explains himself?

So let’s talk first about some strange fires of worship that we need to avoid.

Strange Fires

The fires were “strange” because they didn’t come about the way they were supposed to come about. The censures carry fire. The incense is a part of worshipping God. The problem is that the fire came from the wrong place. It didn’t have the proper, authorized source. They didn’t follow God’s instructions on where the fire should come from.

Two strange fires come from an important passage, John 4, where Jesus says something earth shattering about worship. A lot of people want to make it into a lot of things. But in this passage Jesus makes it very plain what God desires. So much so that Jesus calls the people who put these two things together in worship - “true worshipers.”

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:21-25

Jesus is talking to a Samaritan - the epitome of a people who got it wrong when it comes to worship. Because of tension they had with Jews in the past, they just went ahead and made their own way of worship. And Jesus is telling this woman now - that for decades you’ve been doing it all wrong - you don’t even know what you’re worshipping anymore.

So he says that TRUE WORSHIPERS worship the Lord in spirit and truth.

There are a lot of strange fires in worship right now because we have one without the other.

Truth without Spirit.

Truth is important for worship. Our God is the TRUE God. Jesus is the way, the TRUTH, and the life. The Word of God is THE truth.

But the problem with worship that has truth without spirit is at some point you begin to just worship truth and you’re not worshipping God at all.

People who worship with truth without spirit get very possessive and demanding about the way one worships. They want to make it about styles and traditions. They like to argue to try and prove their point.

when we have truth and not spirit we tend to take over, dictate terms - who’s right and who’s wrong.

This is EXACTLY what the woman was trying to do when Jesus called her out on it. It’s about this mountain or that mountain - these traditions or those traditions. Jesus said notice the words - You worship and you don’t even know what it is - it isn’t God.

And that’s the danger with truth without spirit. In your mind you are convinced you’re saying and doing all the right things - but you aren’t worshipping God at all. You’re worshipping truth.

doctrine without conversion - many of you have all the right answers because you’ve been indoctrinated in truth.

It is innoculation, not infection

It is an unconverted worshiper - there is no spiritual activity in them

I would also call it - Groove without grace. You get every word right. The songs are Scriptural. But you don’t do what they tell you to do.

Spirit without Truth.

The above worship truth. These worship worship. This is the person that as soon as the music comes on they are in a different place. They go from “did you see the latest episode of Stranger Things” to hands out worship sway in 2 seconds

This person is all about the experience - what they get out of it. It’s all about the expression - what they put into it.

But the problem is that they are paying ZERO attention to what is being said or what any of it means. They just like the song, the moment, the environment.

This is the epitome of people being in an exciting worship service and your parents say it like this on social media - GOD SHOWED UP AND SHOWED OUT. It’s you going to a Christian concert and saying it was AWESOME - man, they are really good.

Question - was there any brokenness? What changes? Was there any seeking of God?

Notice in the midst of a conversation on worship, Jesus looks at her and says - go get your husband. She’s convicted. There’s a brokenness now about her.

He hits her with truth. It impacts her spirit. She comes to Christ.

The problem with spirit without truth is that once the music is turned off, there is no relationship with God beyond it. There is no challenge of now - what did you hear and what is it that God is telling you to do?

Spirit is not the groove of the song - it’s the grace of connecting with the crucifixion. It’s taking the words to heart. It is truth resonating with your life. It is you sitting before the Lord this week, looking for an answer and then the worship leader picks a song and it is as if God shouts the answer in the lyrics.

Or - Commotion without commitment.

Isaiah 1 is a great explanation of what God wants in worship. This is God’s gift list of what he likes with links.

Talk through passage.

“When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Isaiah 1:12-20

Come let us reason together - conversation with God - the before and after

Make you clean - an encounter with Jesus will make you a worshiper.

What is it we think we will experience with no preparation. No time in the Word. No prep in prayer before we get In here.

So it doesn’t depend on the worship leader’s performance or the list of songs you like. You’ve already talked with God. You’ve come in here searching.

Illustration: When you hear certain songs it makes you think about certain times in your life - certain experiences you had - when the words on the screen begin to describe your experiences with God - it all changes.

NO WORSHIP LEADER WILL EVER BE ABLE TO GIVE YOU A GOOD ENOUGH SONG SET TO CONNECT YOU TO GOD. ONLY JESUS CAN DO THAT.

Worship is an admiration and submission before God that makes a difference in the real world.

Explain Aaron

So now let’s dissect Aaron at a very pivotal moment. He’s just lost two sons in an act of worship gone wrong.

He was heartbroken, but careful. And he acknowledged that he could have eaten the sacrifice. That was what the law required, but his heart wasn’t in it. What Aaron said is the essence of what God articulates is wrong with worship in Isaiah 1.

Approved - Aaron gets that it’s not about him. It’s about what God approves. He’s better off mourning than trying to manufacture something g that isn’t real.

And Aaron said to Moses, “Behold, today they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord, and yet such things as these have happened to me! If I had eaten the sin offering today, would the Lord have approved?” And when Moses heard that, he approved. Lev. 10:19

Aaron is now tuned in to a very important aspect of worship. This is a dangerous God. And if we are to approach Him, we must do so in a way that He approves.

He didn’t just say “worship me.” He has given us His Word and His Spirit that reveal His heart - His desires - what He wants as we approach Him. He has pointed us to His Son.

ask Jesus to save you. Redeem your heart. Connect you to God and turn you into a passionate worshiper.