All right, thank you again Doug and quiet, it's good to have you all back there really is Here to worship. Let's talk about Worship a little bit this morning big good thing to talk about in worship service when you say You give you the a classic definition of worship. I've shared this with you before But it's one that I go back to often from a former art species of Canterbury man And by the name of William temple. He said to worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God To feed the mind with the truth of God To purge the imagination by the beauty of God To open the heart to the love of God To devote the will to the purpose of God And you notice that all of those they are all based on the attributes of God But they all have an impact on the worshiper Let's read another text this morning that says a lot about About worship his first Chronicles chapter 29 verses 10 through 20 before we read it Let me give you a little bit of context King David is addressing the people of Israel after God is revealed to David As great a king as David was he said David you're not going to be the man to build my temple because you've been a warrior You've got blood on your hands, but I'm going to let your son Solomon build my temple And so David's proclaim this to his people. He's told his people to bring in offerings for the commissioning if you will at the temple He's told him to bring in gold and silver and jewels and they've bought in lots of gold and silver and jewels and So they respond overwhelmingly and then what I want to do here is I want to have you read old Testament old Dirt Testament worship was very interactive very engaging very participatory So I'd like to do is I'd like to have you read the first four verses of the text with me responsibly and then I'll have you sit again And I'll read the last six verses just as an narrative. So would you stand and read responsibly with me responsibly with me from first Chronicles 29 10 through 20 David praise the Lord and the presence of the whole assembly saying Praise beat you Lord God of our Father Israel from everlasting to everlasting Yours yours. Oh Lord is the kingdom you were exalted his head overall Wealth and honor in your hands our strength and power to exalt and give strength to all Now our God Thank you. You can be seated. Let me continue now the reading from my David's prayer But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this Everything comes from you. We've given you only what comes from your hand We are aliens and strangers in your sight as we're all our forefathers our days on earth are like a shadow Without hope oh Lord our God as for all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your holy name It comes from your hand and all of it belongs to you I know my God that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity all these things that I given willingly and with honest intent And now I've seen with joy how willing your people who are here have given to you oh Lord God of our fathers Abraham Isaac and Israel Keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever and keep their hearts loyal to you And give my son Solomon the whole hearted devotion to keep your commands Requirements and decrees and to do everything to build the palatial structure for which I have provided Then David said the whole assembly Praise the Lord your God So they all praise the Lord the God of their fathers that bowed low and fell prostrate before the Lord and the King Let's pray together Father, thank you so much for the good things you do for us Thank you that we have this privilege to worship you to come in here and being in contact with the creator of the universe Thank you that we do it openly and freely and we thank you again for those who have Pay it and continue to pay the price Freedom is not free. We thank you for the freedom of worship. We have here in this country. We don't take it lightly Now Father, I pray that you and annoying me to preach your word to your people These are your words, Father your word is truth sanctify us in the truth. I pray in Jesus name Amen Well in a lot of ways what we're gonna talk about this more sort of family talk for the for the Kendall Presbyterian Church family But I want you to know if you're a guest in our home today First of all, we're glad to have you and you're welcome to sit in an eavesdrop We're not gonna say anything we wouldn't say without you being here But there's a lot of family taught that goes on in here What do we have to learn about worship from David's prayer here given three thousand years ago a lot? Let me start with this In worship, we are to look up with wonder At God's glory. We look up With wonder at God's glory the last couple of Sundays I referenced a book by Francis Collins called the language of God relax No quotes today Somebody's saying stop him before he quotes again. No quotes today I just want you to know that as I finish reading that book and I would recommend it to you I don't like all that I don't agree with all that as I told you I sure don't understand all of it But I would recommend it to you the the overwhelming impression that I leave that book with is That these brilliant minds Humanly speaking he's incredibly brilliant men Dr. Collins ahead of the human genome project and and Robert Jastro the astrophysicist and so many others that he quotes in there These men who understand the creative universe from the macro level to the micro from the infinite to the infinitesimal They understand the creative universe as well as anybody and how they conclude increasingly This is no accident This is no accident a Tornado does not blow through a junkyard and build a 747 You don't have an explosion in a print factory come down with the complete works of Shakespeare. This is not an accident This is intentional There is a power above Beyond and behind the universe we look up with wonder at the glory of God and In verses 10 through 13. I won't reread them all here, but look at the look at the adjectives Look at the look at the the attributes of God the David praises here is eternal nature his greatness is power Glory majesty and splendor his sovereign ownership of everything in heaven and earth It's so basic, but we miss it so much. It's the nature of worship folks. This is not about us This is not about us. It's for us. They're great benefits in it for us, but it's not about us. It's about God You're not the audience ladies and gentlemen. You're the congregation. We have an audience of one and that's God almighty And we come together before him as the people to lift up our worship and our praise to him We say we hope you're pleased with what we offer you We offer to you in spirit and in truth as best we know how You're the audience. We're the participants It's four guys glory first. It has benefits for us as I read from William typhus description based on the attributes of God, but with impact on the worshipers it has stuff for us It's from the Greeks stuff. Oh, so if you're wondering it has stuff for us, but it's not about us So if you come here for worship and you have a good time, that's great Mark Twain like to say that churches are placed where they make bad people good and good people miserable I hope not. I hope that's not true of us Let me give you a better definition from Eugene Peterson. I'm gonna give you several definitions I've got pages of these. I'm gonna give you a couple of my favorites this morning Eugene Peterson Worship is a strategy by which we interrupt our preoccupation with ourselves and attend to the presence of God So if you come here for a worship service and you have a good time. That's great I'm glad if you feel uplifted by the music and you're warmed by the fellowship maybe even enlightened by the sermon That's great. We're glad for that I hope that happens every every single Sunday you're here by the way, but if that's all that happens If you come here and you get all that, but you don't have an encounter with God if you don't get God You have worship You've had a nice pleasant morning, but you haven't really worshiped. Now, it may be our fault Maybe to myself and the other leaders maybe we've done such a poor job of Getting out of the way and pointing into the presence of God. Maybe it's our fault Maybe it's your fault Maybe you came in here still a little too affected by last night's activities Or you came in here and so much stress and pressure that you just can't get out of your own way to attend the God or Maybe you might be here this morning and maybe you know the the entryway into the presence of God Just have a living relationship with Jesus Christ. Maybe you've never done that Maybe you've never received Christ as Lord. So it could be all kinds of reasons But if you leave this place and you don't get God then you missed it now when I say get God What do I mean by that? It's got a commodity we do dispense at church a lot of people think that and to be honest some preachers act that way Some guys that stand behind popus like we act like we've got the Holy Spirit right in here in our pockets And will this dishy amount as we feel led? God forbid that we ever Talk about God or act toward God that way What I mean when I say if you don't get God what I mean is if you get all these other benefits From being here the good music the warm fellowship spectacular sermons Okay, just want to make sure if you're still with me If you get all these other goodies and you don't have a genuine encounter with God you've missed it You've missed out. Let me say a word here to anybody who if this is your first time with us again We're so glad you're here You're not here by accident But if you're here today and you're saying what's this guy talking about a living relationship with Christ I just got to go to this building once a week Check it off my list and I feel better if you never opened up your heart to Christ as Lord did it today Ignore who he is as Lord and Savior acknowledge your sins before him Turn from your sins with genuine solemn repentance and say what I'd rather do it your way Help me out ask him in your heart. You know, I feel calm And if you do that today, this could be your first true worship experience right here This could be the first time you genuinely worship God with a bunch of brothers and sisters in Christ First thing we see in this page. We're to look up with wonder at the glory of God We'll also see that we are to look within with honesty with humility at who we are Before this holy God look at verse 14 But who am I? This is King David the king of Israel the greatest king Israel ever had Who am I and who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you. We've given you only what comes from your hand We are aliens and strangers in your sight as we're all of our forefathers our days on earth are like a shadow without hope Meaning without hope apart from you Lord That's that's the attitude we got to bring to worship It's the attitude we got to bring to life Who am I Lord? Who are we that you bless us like this? That you've given us what you've given us that you've given us the ability to be a part of what you're doing in this world that you You've picked us to be on your team Who am I? Lord that you would show me that kind of honor who are we as I read this I couldn't help but think of the pastors in Luke 18 where Jesus tells the parable about the Pharisee the The religious leader and a task collector and they weren't even more popular with them than they are now And the Pharisee went before the Lord and looked at that task collector and said I'm so glad God. I'm not like that guy I thank you God. I'm so much better. He is I tie and I worship and I do it right The other guy the task collector he wouldn't even take his eyes up off his shoes He said Lord have mercy on me the sinner and Then Jesus said to a bunch of Pharisees Which one do you think went home justified? Folks you may not like to hear that It's not politically correct to say that that's who we are before God Lord have mercy on me the sinner Will it surprise you or or scan lie to you at all? If I tell you that's about the last thing I pray in my office before I come over here
Lord have mercy on me the sinner. I Tell them a lot of other things too that I'm probably not going to share with you But I pray that prayer Lord have mercy on me this who are we who are we that God would show us that favor Well on one hand with the image bearers of God Almighty Let us make man in our image The image of God he made them may own female with the image bears of God unique in all creation That's the good news We're also radically and pervasively to praise sinners before holy God and And that's the bad news. That's our glory and that's our shame Bad news is you're more sinful than you've ever imagined Good news is you're more loved than you've ever dreamed and that's the good news of the hot of the gospel
John Piper says Worship is nothing less than obedience to the command of God Delight yourself in the Lord got in cost to himself because of what he saw on us He called us to himself in spite of what he saw on us. He didn't look at you and say you know He is just so cool. I can't stand thought of spending eternity without him She is just so fine. I can't stand the thought of what eternity would be like without her He didn't do that He looked down and we just confessed it in Romans 5 or say that why we were still sinners Why we're still sinners Christ died for us See us Lewis says the real test of being in the presence of God is that you either forget about yourself all together Or see yourself as a small dirty object It is better to forget about yourself all together Now I think Dr. Lewis might have been having a bad hair day when he said that what hair he had left But I would say when you stand in the presence of God you might also consider yourself to be a beloved child and that's true But it's still better to forget about yourself all together and just attend to the presence of God second Corinthians 13 5 Paul writes Exam in yourselves to see whether you are in the faith test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you Unless of course you fail the test That's examine ourselves. Let's look within With humility with honesty and candor as we look up to God with wonder at his grace And there's glory. There's the third thing I've seen this passage. There's a lot more But this is what we can do this morning if we looked up with wonder look within with honesty and humility look around With gratitude and our blessings and our blessedness go back to verse 16. Oh Lord our God As for all this abundance that we have provided for building a temple for your holy name It comes from your hand and all of it all of it comes from you Do we realize how blessed we are ladies and gentlemen? Do you appreciate how blessed we are? You know, it's sometimes it's hard to remember because the steady drumbeat of all the horrible news We get on in our on our televisions and our radios and and we get from the newspapers and so forth In fact, I know of them one maximum of security prison They started reading the front page and the New York Times over the loudspeakers every morning first thing and attempted escapes have dropped off 80% I know people in the news business. They'll say well, it's not the 99 houses that don't catch on fire That's not news. It's the one that does catch on fire. I understand that there were about 225 countries in the world And if 220 of them are a piece they're not in the news. It's the five that are war. I understand that But we get such a steady drumbeat of this horrible news day after day and it is a scary world I understand that it is a scary world some ways it's more frightening now Then it has ever been before but let's don't forget folks We've got it pretty good We've really got it pretty good in fact when I pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world And I think what they would think when we talk about our sufferings they'd say what do you know? You know nothing of suffering. You know nothing of deprivation. It's true. We don't we've got it good folks Do you know statistically the average Westerner lives better than 99.4% of all the human beings who have ever lived ever You say what you mean? How can you say it? You know Alexander the great great conqueror military hero conquered the known world And his known world at the time He never once experienced air conditioning Julius Caesar the great emperor all the splendors of Rome He never once saw toilet flushed Hending in the eighth. He may have all those wives. He never once Got a glass of water from a faucet and took it over and pushed a button and got ice in it Folks, we've got it good. We've got it so good our standard of living Has risen to levels our great grandparents could not have imagined life Expense it has nearly doubled in the last century and it's increasing Real per capita income has doubled since 1960 in the period following World War two the average new American home was 1100 square feet Today the average is 2,300 square feet at that time the average was two people per room in a house Now it's two rooms per person in a house You know what pods are PODS? I think it's personal on the man's storage You go by houses every now you see these big gun. They're just miniature warehouses basically Or glorified outdoor closets whatever you own college. It's a storage space pods It's one of the fastest growing Manufacturing industries in the country today What does it say about a people? We have these increasingly large houses, but we have so much stuff We still can't get it all in there. So we ran a little warehouse to stick out beside our house What does that say about how blessed we are? You're wondering about what our children or grandchildren are going to tell their kids that they did without You ever think about that? Well, and I was your age. We didn't have robots We could program to do our homework and clean our rooms and eat our broccoli. We had to do it ourselves And I was your age. We didn't have holographic video games. We had to hold the controls in our hands and work them with our own thumbs What are they going to say they do that? My parents said the same thing about me What are you ever going to say you were denied now? I can't think of a thing Folks, we've got it so good and yet we seem to be seeing you live any short on the virtue of gratitude. Have you noticed? Have you noticed how rare it is to have someone just in casual conversation? Just in passing say thank you very much last time you went to a drive-through you got your order and the person handed you the bag and said Thank you so much for buying our stuff. We know there's 15 other drive-through drive-through. Thank you for thank you Do they even speak to you? Do they even acknowledge you? Gratitude is in such short supply. I told you about our experience last June We took our younger two to Disney World. They've never been there before we had boycotted Disney Personal boycott for about 10 years and finally for some changes. We see it Disney We took our kids there ladies and gentlemen boys and girls. Welcome to the happiest place on earth There were a bunch of kids there that apparently didn't hear that message We heard kids crying and whining and cranking at one another and squabbling and Finally, I know I told you about this. We're at one ride and the line was long two kids right in front of me were squabbling Cranking eight to five. I couldn't take it. I reached up and I grabbed the the older one by the wrist. I said stop it Their mother looked at me like I was some sort of thank god their own daughters
Actually our girls really were pretty good about it. No kidding So don't go out there and tell them your dad said and guys don't do that. I'm in the doghouse. Not the pod the doghouse And these kids are so mean they're a Disney world 99.4% of the rest of the world will never see the inside the magic kingdom in their gripe and in their wine and God forgive us For forgetting for losing side of how good we got it The Roman order cistero called gratitude not only the greatest of the virtues, but the parent of all others An Immanuel Kant said that in gratitude is the essence of vileness Young people and you can decide who I'm talking to. I have an assignment for you Tomorrow go up to one of your teachers and say thank you for teaching me I know you don't have to do this I know there are things you could do where you could put in less hours make better money You wouldn't get combat paying and thank you for teaching me I have another assignment for you go up to your parents if you have a parent still alive Go up to your parents and say thank you for being my mom or my dad. Thank you for raising me If you're a teenager make sure you do it where there's a carpet room or a caster when your parents fall over You don't want to get hurt Christian I have an assignment for you look at verse 16 O Lord our God ask for all this abundance that we are provided for building you a temple for your holy name It comes from your hand and all it belongs to you today Thank God For being your God and for all that he's giving you thank him and say now Lord what would you have me do with this What would you have me do my friend Richard Pratt our friend My mentor Richard Pratt surprised me Thursday. Call me about 11-20. The morning said I'm in town. Can you pick me up? Well share Richard I didn't have anything else to do today But I learned a long time ago that friends have a certain amount of blank checks. They can run on one another's one another's friendships Richard's got a lot of blank checks for me So I went and picked him up and we spent some time together It was wonderful and I thought back you've heard Richard preach a lot of you if you haven't heard him his Cerminus of June 12 I think it was still on the web y'all to get it off our website Richard was and I had some marvelous seminary teachers. Richard was by far the best professor. I had Old Testament Hebrew Old Testament Hebrew and I asked him one day Richard The guy could do anything. He's so multi-talented So Richard I guess you just really particularly liked the Old Testament you like the Hebrew language. That's why you're teaching. He said no No That's not your favorite. No, it's not my favorite. I mean rattled off five or six other things He would enjoy teaching more Richard if you like those other things more why are you teaching Hebrew and Old Testament He said and I quote I am bought with a price This is what God's called me to do And he's done it better than anybody I've ever known It's not what he wants to do. It's what God's called him and gifted him and equipped him to do And that's what he's doing Let me ask again. What is God giving you? What's he calling you to do with what he's giving you? We look up with wonder at the glory of God. We look within with honesty and humility and who we are Before that holy God. We look around with gratitude at our blessings and our blessedness and then finally we look ahead with conviction With conviction at the needs of our children or the next generation look at verse 18 again O Lord God of our fathers Abraham Isaac and Israel by the way That's Jacob if you're wondering why Jacob and Israel the same person Keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever And keep their hearts loyal to you And give my son Solomon the whole hearted devotion to learn your commands Requirements and decrees and to do everything to build the polatial structure For which I have provided David's concern isn't just for himself and for his legacy He's not concerned just for the dazzling amount of material wealth as people run in and it must have been spectacular folks He's not concerned just for his own legacy not just for the material wealth His concern is for the next generation for his son Solomon For the people for their hearts for their obedience to the God of Abraham Isaac and Israel Parents listen to me If we give our kids everything else material wealth educational opportunities We're giving the skills that they need to get out the workforce and make it if we give them all those things We don't point them to Christ What are we giving them We've given them what it takes to make a living But we haven't given them what they need to make a life worth living And that's why it's so important ladies and gentlemen That you have them here in church on Sundays and you're with them If you can get them in a Christian school, I know some of you can't It's such a marvelous marvelous blessing And that you have some some input at home some of y'all know you wouldn't begin to know how to a family devotion I know that I just pray the Lord's prayer with him once in a while Just let him know you're praying for them I've been to churches. I've spoken in churches Talking about looking for the next generation. I've been to churches and spoken churches where That they just they just saw themselves basically is just a a spiritual holding facility a a rest stop a shelter To get until they could get to heaven. They're just holding out. Just keep it together for me here. You can have my funeral I mean, they're like the people we saw in the rooftops after Katrina asking for somebody to come rescue them That's that was their view of the church. What any young person in sight and they liked it that way It's quieter Much quieter no mess I want to say something to you guys up here. I'm so glad you're here teenagers Not yet teenagers The kids are out there in children's church. I'm so glad you guys are here I don't know what our our church should be quieter with that you but it wouldn't be a church. I want to be a part of I'm so glad you're here You say something else too that Richard told me on Thursday because it rings so on target what we're talking about today Richard's dad Richard's growing up Richard played a bunch of different sports when every go off to different sporting event Richard dad always saying I'd be a good sport By which Richard today is tell me I know you're gonna lose So at least be a good sport about it Folks some of you have that idea about the church You think you're on a losing team You think you're you think you're in this for the sportsmanship award You're trying to get an honorable mention or a moral victory You see this as a religious holding station till you get to heaven No We're on the winning team We win in the end We're not holding out Hope we can just hang on until we die and somebody will do our funeral We're in the same to win it and if you're not you're in the wrong church
We're in the same because God has said Jesus didn't have enough sportsmanship trophies He's now now he's gonna have crowns Victors crowns and you cross the finish line says well done That's what this church is about that's the church I want to be a part of and that's what I'm here for and nothing less and let me tell you some folks We better win We better win There's an enemy out there The doesn't want to coexist with us doesn't want to negotiate with us it wants to eat us alive and destroy us his name is Satan His most useful and visible tool right now is called radical Islam They don't want to negotiate they don't want to place it the table they don't want all just get long Islam means submission You submit to Allah or else Now if you didn't know it now you do that's the world we live in We better win We better win our weapons Our weapons won't be the tanks of the bombs that's the military's job Our weapons are prayer and evangelism And acts of service and kindness even toward our enemies And we will win Let's work together to be a part of the winning team. I want you know something to Look around the western world. You think we're getting cream y'all you hear his bad news What's just something the worldwide church is doing marvelously well I hear numbers between 1.2 and 2.2 billion People who name the name of Christ. I don't know if their Christians are not but they profess to be Christians And I don't know if it's 1.2 billion or 2.2 billion but I know this we're bigger than Second place which is Islam and we are growing faster Not in the west but in South America Africa Asia churches growing like wildfire And it's after you know the two continents where Christianity is not growing today Europe North America We've gotten too smart We've gotten too successful. We don't know we need God Well now you know don't you We need to cry out to God Christianity has been the engine that has been driving the advance of what we call western culture We're understood to be the salt and the light Preserving the world from decaying any further lying the dark corners There were wherever the gospel of Christ goes the world is better People's lives are lifted up and human dignity freedom compassionate advances And people who espouse that kind of thinking we're not content to simply watch the world go to hell And hope it'll be okay long enough for us. We're worried about that next generation We're worried about our children and our grandchildren. We're worried about teenagers The next generation we're working actively to make this earthly realm a lot more like The heavenly one. I think we said something about that a while ago in prayer, didn't we? Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it isn't heaven. How do you think that's gonna happen? Through the church The church this church your church Folks the kingdom of God advances two ways You plant new churches you make existing churches bigger I'm for both Right now in the past of this church We're working hard to make this church bigger better deeper stronger and more effective as a tool in God's hands. What's your vision for the church? The church in this church my vision for this church is God will continue to bless and to grow this ministry and candle Christian school and the early start and infant father program and he's doing it They're being blessed and they're growing these ministries will be agents of transformation In a dark and dying world that's crying out For the good news of the gospel it's gonna take all of us It's gonna take all of us being willing to do our part to give our utmost for his highest It takes all of us and all that God has given us that has all come from his hand We want to give it back honestly and openly and willingly and with joy We're part of something spectacular Then we do win in the end You see I can't who lives like that who really lives like that? All people do John Wesley if you grew up Methodist like I did As a Presbyterian I'm one of his biggest fans. What a man great great preacher evangelist of 18th century England His first year salary made 30 pounds which is an okay way to that time he gave two pounds back to God Next year he got a raise to 60 pounds He decided he could keep his expenses where they were 28 pounds a year he gave way 32 pounds Then he got a raise to 90 pounds he gave way 62 And he kept that as his practice kept it his expenses where they were as best he could until one point Preacher wester was making 1400 pounds a year He gave almost every bit of his way We died His his earthly possessions what he had not given away was a silver candle labra and the coins and his pockets and in the drawers of his room He said I'll be my own executor of my estate And I'll make sure I get it into the places where God leaves me You heard me talk about rich mullings a lot how much I admired his music I admired his music. Yeah, I also admired his life Rich mullings was until his death in 97 one of the most One of the foremost Christian singer songwriters His music was recorded by all kinds of people. He made a lot of money through his royalties 1992 rich mullings said this is not for me And pretty much Took of our poverty and moved to a Navajo Indian reservation in New Mexico In a 96 the last year full year of rich's life His accountant got with him one day and said I got to do your taxes rich how much money do you make last year or just said I don't know What do you mean you don't know? I don't know. I'll keep up. Well when you get your royalty checks every month How much they for they said? I don't know What do you mean you don't know he said I never see those checks What do you do with them those checks they go to the elders in my church and out of those checks They pay me the average wage of a person living in this area 24,000 dollars All the rest of it the elders use as they see fit for the kingdom of God He said I don't ever want to see those royalties checks because then I might know how much money I'm giving away It might make it hard to do Who lives like this folks? I know a lot of you do. I don't know your names I know I don't know what you give but I know that a lot of you do God bless you Last definition knows what chambers worship is giving God the best he is giving you worship is giving God the best he is giving you what is God giving you What are you doing with? Let's pray Father you have been so gracious so generous so overwhelmingly Compassionate toward us You're doing so far above me on all we could ask or expect Lord my prayer today for all of these my friends my brothers and sisters in Christ For myself that you'll give us hearts of gratitude and wonder Enjoy and integrity And hearts that are more than willing to give back you the best of what you've given us. I pray in Jesus name. Amen
As you prepare to see the man addiction, let me just remind you again That all of our members we need you to stay if you have children in children's church Please go get them as quickly as you can some of the children's church workers will need to be back here for the Congregation meeting as well. I'm gonna stay back here just to say a quick hello to all of our KCS folks and some others And then in just maybe seven or eight minutes folks I'm gonna try to get back up in here and we'll convene the congregational meeting all right now. We see the Lord's benediction Go now in the love of God the Father the grace and mercy of God the Son the fellowship and companionship of God the Holy Spirit and live the life Amen