In the culture, large, I think worship undergoes a similar sort of challenge in that a lot of people will dismiss worship too hastily. That it's just for the irrational or the fanatical that worship is kind of like for the other kind of people who don't really think my wife got me a book for Christmas called stuff white people like. Which is written by a white guy and I'm a white guy and so I guess was just one more reason to laugh at myself. But the number two thing he says that white people like are religions their parents don't belong to. He says white people will often say they are spiritual but not religious. This usually means that they will believe in any religion that doesn't involve Jesus. The most popular choices include Buddhism, Hinduism, Kabbalah and to a lesser extent Scientology. A few even dip into Islam but that's much rare since you have to make real sacrifices and actually go to a mosque. For the most part white people prefer religions that produce artifacts and furniture that fit into their home or their wardrobe. They are also particularly drawn to religions that do not require a lot of commitment or donations. In that crowd worship is just this nebulous appreciation of the spiritual and anything beyond that is over the top and passe. Believers in Christ I submit to you that we are prone and susceptible to those two errors ourselves. We can define it too narrowly. And though we may not dismiss it too hastily we can so conceive of it so vaguely that it ceases to mean anything really important to us. But brothers and sisters I want to submit to you that having a clear sense of what worship is is crucial. Crucial. If you spent any time at PCPC you've heard about these five identity statements that we're all about and the first one is we're a people who long to worship the Lord together. The other four statements derive from that first statement and if that first statement isn't true for us the other four won't follow not truly. It's important to have a sense of what worshiping the Lord means but there's an even more crucial reason why you should. And it's because where you live on the earth this place this world has an enormous capacity to suck you into anything that could steal your joy in your peace like anxiety or anger or anguish. Or do you remember that word that you learned in high school English that you probably forgot shortly thereafter called on we French means malaise means indifference it means you're just bored. Brothers and sisters that's life on this planet and there ain't no switch you can just flip to come out of it. It's a war to escape that stuff. And I want to say to you that in order to escape you have to understand who our Lord is and what it means to worship him. And so I want to look at a text this morning from the book a second chronicles that speaks to what I think is the essence of worship. Now it's not a manual on worship like how to change the break pads on your car. It's a narrative installment from a moment in Israel's history that demonstrates the essence of worship and its cruciality for your life. So that all this singing and praying and talking now you'll finally understand where all of that is really aimed. And so that's where we're going to go if you'll stand for a reading of God's word from second chronicles chapter 20. Second chronicles chapter 20 it is a long passage so bend your knees. Second chronicles chapter 20 after this the Moabites and Ammonites and with them some of the munites came against Jehosephat for battle. Some men came and told Jehosephat a great multitude is coming against you for medium from beyond the sea and behold they are in Hazazan Tamar that is in Gettie. Then Jehosephat was afraid and set his face to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah and Judah assembled to seek help from the Lord from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord. And Jehosephat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before the new court and said oh Lord God of our fathers are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations in your hand our power and might so that none is able to withstand you did you not our God drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend. And they have lived in it and have built for you in it a sanctuary for your name saying if disaster comes upon us the sword judgment or pestilence or famine we will stand before this house and before you for your name is in this house. And cry out to you on our flexion and you will hear and save. And now behold the men of Eman and Moab and Mount Sayer whom you would not let Israel invade when they came from the land of Egypt and whom they avoided and did not destroy behold they reward us by coming to drive us out of your possession which you have given us to inherit. Oh our God will you not execute judgment on them for we are powerless against this great hoard that is coming against us. We do not know what to do but our eyes are on you. Meanwhile all Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones their wives and their children and the spirit of the Lord came upon you Haseyel the son of Zechariah, son of Benayah, son of Jial, son of Matanayah, a Levite of the sons of Asaf in the midst of the assembly. And he said listen all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehosefat thus says the Lord to you do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great hoard for the battle is not yours but God's. Tomorrow go down against them behold they will come up by the ascent of Ziz you will find them at the end of the valley east of the wilderness of Jerusalem you will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm hold your position and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf O Judah and Jerusalem do not be afraid and do not be dismayed tomorrow go out against them and the Lord will be with you. Then Jehosefat bowed his head with his face to the ground and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord worshipping the Lord. And the Levites of the Koathites and the Korahites stood up to praise the Lord the God of Israel with a very loud voice and they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of tokoah. And when they went out Jehosefat stood and said hear me Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem believe in the Lord your God and you will be established believe his prophets and you will succeed. And when he had taken counsel with the people he appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and praise him and hold the attire as they went before the army and say give thanks to the Lord for his steadfast love and yours forever. And when they began to sing and praise the Lord said an ambush against the men of Ammon Moab and Mount Sayer who would come against Judah so that they were routed for the men of Ammon and Moab rose against the inhabitants of Mount Sayer devoting them to destruction. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Sayer they all helped to destroy one another. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Maybe seated. If you spend any time in first and second chronicles you know that it's a blazing fast tour through patriarchical history and it then slows down into an inventory of the kings starting with King David. It's focus therefore is parallel to what you find in first and second kings. But those who compiled first and second kings and those who compiled first and second chronicles had different purposes for including what they did. The compiler of first and second kings in his recount of Israelite history was in a sense trying to answer the question how in the world did Israel that chosen people end up being dispossessed? In place and exiled in a nation that was pagan. The chronicle of chronicles was trying to recount the history of Israel by trying to answer the question perhaps. How will the Lord ever have us back if he ever repatriates us to the land? They have distinctives in what they include in their respective accounts but the one thing they have in common is this. Both kings and chronicles are unashamed about sharing what is shameful about those who reigned over Israel. Our text however represents one of the brighter spots in Judas history led by none other than the one King Jehosephat whose name I love and I confess whose name I probably first heard from Yosemite Sam before I heard it from Sunday school. Great name, great king, a diamond in the rough to be commended for his reform of worship in Israel. His name even shows up in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew chapter 1 so he is not a person to be lightly considered. We encounter Jehosephat while he is under siege. Two armies, those that Israel had fought with or rather had avoided prior to their entrance into the Promised Land, they are now arrayed against Judah. Judah is not a cowardly man. He has stood against the marauding Syrian army in the chapter before but here in our chapter in our text in verse 3 it says Jehosephat was afraid but he doesn't cower. He doesn't run. The text says he set his face to seek the Lord. He calls the entire nation together calls for a nationwide fast and calls them to seek the Lord. Three times in those two verses you hear the phrase seek the Lord. We are talking about worship of course but there is one dimension of it that I want to bring to your attention first of all. There is no hesitancy in Jehosephat response. There is no nonchalance about it. He is not distracted about what he is supposed to do. He is deliberate. He is decisive about what has to happen and in that sense he shows us first of all that worship is a matter of intentionality. It is a matter of intentionality. He understands his predicament. He understands his Lord and he realizes the only fitting response is a decisive focused pursuit of God. It is that kind of intentional pursuit that you are going to find from cover to cover in the scriptures. Deuteronomy 4 you will hear you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart. Isaiah says seek the Lord while he may be found. He brews eleven. What is faith? He says for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who are not seeking him. This is not willy nilly activity. This is not an afterthought on his part. It is intentional because worship is a matter of intentionality. I don't want to press the metaphor of pursuit too far. It is not as if by our intentional pursuit of God that means God is hiding or that he is elusive or that he is plain possum with us. Earlier in 2 Chronicles you hear the Lord say the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless towards him. In that situation it is the Lord searching after people. Because Jesus say you didn't choose me I chose you. The Apostle Paul when he is still called Saul he is quite going in quite the opposite direction from God when it is God who finds him so to speak on the road to Damascus. At the end of Tim Keller's book the reason for God he speaks of a story of one parishioner who told him that for the longest time she prayed the same prayer over and over again. She would say God help me find you until a friend of her said you need to change your prayer. You need to pray God come and find me after all you are the good shepherd who goes looking for the lost sheep right. The reason Tim Keller knows that story is because the one who told him is the one who prayed that very prayer and in good time the Lord came and found her. We find that when we pursue him we discover that it was him pursuing us all along. He is the hound of heaven. I mention worship's intentionality to you for a reason because you and I live in a culture that loves to multitask. We think we are being derelict if we are not involved in eight things at the same time. And you and I also like to use the phrase man we are just so much on our plate right now just can't do it. And sometimes that is true probably more often than not and other times it is just an excuse for not doing something that we know we ought to. But if part of what it means to worship is to express intentionality in doing so then worshiping requires that you clear your plate a little at times. And then you give yourself to what Jesus called the one thing needed. The unencumbered pursuit of the knowledge and the presence of God. George Herbert was a theologian, an author and a poet. And I don't know if he had anything spiritual in mind when he wrote this proverb but he said he that rise at first is first dressed. I think you could reasonably infer that those who are intentional about seeking the Lord who are rising first so to speak. They are the ones who are most prepared to face whatever may come their way. They are the ones that are dressed. Worship is a matter of intentionality but it's something else too. It's also a matter of recollection. We talk about worship being a pursuit or that God being a pursuit of him but pursue him in what sense what does it mean to pursue him. The second dimension of worship I want you to notice is that worship is a matter of recollection. In verses 6 through 9, Jehoseph had in Judah bring to mind three things. God as he is, God as he has been and God as he is promised to be. Who is God? Verse 6 says the one who rules over the kings and the nations. What's he done? He's driven out the inhabitants of the land and given it to Israel. What is he promised to be and do if disaster comes to his people they will cry out to him and he will save. All of that is consideration and verbalization of what they know is true of God and all of that is recollection. Why is that even necessary? Why do we need to consider much less speak things that we already know are true and certainly God already knows is true? Is it that he is ignorant of those things? Oh, I forgot, I'm God, you're my people right. Sorry, it passed me. He's not ignorant. Is it because that God needs encouragement? He needs to be like catalyzed to respond. God, remember you're God for us and he's going, oh, stop it, go on, please. That's not God either. The recollection is not for his sake, it's for ours. It was for Israel's. We forget. We have a tendency to replace what we trust about God with what we've only heard or experienced recently. This room is open every Sunday. Rain or shine, why? Because God is worthy of worship but also because our frail and headstrong selves forget that he is worthy and we have to recollect that worthiness. Scripture itself. It's an invitation to recollection, otherwise why write it down? Mark's been preaching through Joshua last year. And you remember what Moses tells Joshua in chapter 1. Do not let the book of the law depart from out of your mouth but meditate upon it day and night. In Eastern faith traditions, meditation is mostly a matter of emptying the mind in order to find some measure of stability and peace. But within a Christian tradition, meditation is all about filling your mind with what is true of God, what is true of his presence, his past and his future, that we might know that stability again. Worship, my friends, is a matter of recollection. Intentionality, you're called to that not because you got to prove something. And recollection, you're called to that not because you need some sort of mental exercise. It's because both intentionality and recollection prepare you for what I think might be the heart of worship. Two dimensions that go tightly together. Worship is a matter of relinquishment and worship is a matter of receptivity. Let me put it this way. In verses 10 and 11, Jehosephat will vocalize his predicament. We're being threatened with displacement or worse. And therefore he besieges the Lord for deliverance. But he does so in a very candid way. He says, we don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you. He is relinquishing any illusions about knowing the solution to his situation. He is letting go of any pride that might tempt him to pretend that he has an insight or plan. That's worship. Because it's suspending the long-standing, deep-seated tradition that goes all the way back to the Garden of Eve and where we think that we can live independently of God. But in that act of relinquishment, it's not an act of abdication. It's not an act of passivity. It's at last an honest acknowledgement of your own limitations and of God's sufficiency. How many of you on this day need to drop the pretensions that you know what your marriage needs or what your kids need or what your outlook needs? How many of you just need to sit there and say, Lord, I don't know what to do, but my eyes are on you. It might be the very best memorization first memorized verse for this year. Lord, we don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you. See, relinquishment is part of Jehosephat's worship because then that makes him receptive to the insight that he needs. In verses 15 through 17, that insight comes from outside him. It comes from a prophet named Yahazel, who says essentially two things. Don't be afraid. He says it at the beginning and at the end of his prophecy. And then he says this, don't be afraid because this battle, it's the Lord's. They're under siege, but they're not alone. And the prophet's word is there to help set Jehosephat's circumstance in a divine context. And it's asking him therefore to receive the truth at one. There's a larger context to this moment and that fear is a fail to recognize that context. Like I mentioned at the outset, this world does a crack job of soliciting chronic anxiety, brooding anger, the kind of anguish that leads to cynicism, but when that's at work in you, there's something else at work. What's really at work is the blindness to the divine context in which you live. We'll get more deeply into what that is towards the end of the sermon, but it's enough to know this. You and I are better prepared to face our moment when we recognize that worship is a matter of relinquishment and receptivity. Now, I know that sounds awfully esoteric right now, very abstract, a little bit maybe too cut and dried. Something a pastor says, but doesn't only believe, so let me try to put it in a little bit more concrete set. This week, line on my bed, I was reminded that I'm going to die. I'm not sick so far as I know. I haven't had a near-death experience any time recently, but I have two friends that are facing death like they never have before. And their line in my bed, I was reminded that's my destiny too. I will stop breathing one day. You will too. That's context. But then some more context entered into my head. Context that came from the lips of Jesus himself from John chapter 11 when he says, I'm the resurrection and the life. Can you believe in me? Though he dies, it shall he live. That's divine context. And I think that's what Jehosephat and the Lord are calling us to do when it comes to worship, is to set our moment in the larger moment. How does it end in 2 Chronicles 20? Both Jehosephat and Judah demonstrate two final dimensions of worship that go together. Some might call them expressions of worship. Some might call them what worship requires, but these last two are the most demonstrative dimensions of worship. In verse 18 and 19, you have the king, the one who is in charge of all Judah, the one to whom everyone would bow where they in his presence. And it's this king, he bows. He bows his head and his face to the ground. One so high in authority gets as low as he can and all Judah does the same along with him. And what are they demonstrating in their worship? That worship is a matter of humility. Humility comes from that Latin word hummus for the ground. They get down on the ground from dust you came, to dust you shall return. And the lower you get, the more you recognize what is true of you. Why is it important to remember what perhaps is so patently obvious to you that worships a matter of humility? Let me tell you. The Lord has given us minds to contemplate him, and in so doing we end up worshiping him in a sense. And in fact, reformed people, if they're known for anything, it's for the vigorous use of their mind. But brothers and sisters, the Lord has given us minds, but he's also given us bodies. And our bodies are no less an instrument of worship as our minds are. So Hosephat calls a nationwide fast. He uses his body by depriving his body in order to focus his mind and his heart on worship. He and the whole nation prostrate themselves with their bodies to the ground, to those of you who are physically capable as many of you are. Do you ever use your bodies as an act of humility in your worship? I know it's not our custom around here, but it's certainly not out of line. If you were here on Christmas Eve, you saw Miss Mabius and Miss Howland dance, an interpretive dance to Mary, did you know? And though not all of us could do something like what they do, all of us have bodies that can express our humility before him in some form or fashion. And if the Apostle Paul says the word offer our bodies as living sacrifices, then why not use them in an act of humility from time to time in our worship? Worship is a matter of humility. Last of all, worship is a matter of faith. In verses 20 and 21, Jehosephat gathers Judah once more, and then he, who was afraid in verse 3, and who acknowledged his cluelessness in verse 12, he says to Judah, believe the Lord, believe the Lord. That's his message, and that message is an expression of faith. It's a matter of faith because Jehosephat calls them to believe, and he calls the choir to stand in front of the army as they head out to battle, and he does all of that before the battle starts. Now, there would be a celebration after the battle is over, but he asks them to do all of that, believe, sing God's praise before the battle has taken place. Why is that important for you to remember that worship is a matter of faith? Until you and I see God face to face, worship will always be a matter of faith. Jehosephat, in his recollection, had reasons for faith, but to actually call for trust and sing God's praise, was still an act not of certainty but of faith.
In a world that craves certainty before they'll do anything, I say to this to you, if certainty is the threshold that you demand before you will give yourself to worship, you will never worship. You will also never marry. For when a man says a vow to a woman in marriage, he has reasons to believe or love is true, but it will always be an act of faith to step into a marriage. You cannot ask for certainty, and neither can you do so when it comes to worship in the Lord, worships a matter of faith. That's worship. It's a matter of intentionality, recollection, it's a matter of relinquishment and receptivity, it's a matter of humility and faith, and where does that get you, Jehosephat? At the end of the passage, you know, he and the nation gather in the wilderness of Takoa, they are armed, they are ready for battle, and then astonishingly the armies array against them, mistake one another for Judah and end up annihilating one another. Battles over, pieces won, and without Judah so much as unsheating a sword, it's all quiet on the eastern front, and they didn't lift a finger. I said at the beginning of the sermon that the chronicler had a reason, had a purpose for including this episode in his history, and the question is why include it? Was it to say, if you just worship the Lord in the full sense of the word, you'll never have to fight off threats yourself. That's not it. Look at the rest of Israel's history, there were moments in which they really did have to fight in the Lord's strength rather than just witnessing it. So what's the message? Let me suggest it to you. The chronicler includes this story, so that Israel would know, and so that you and I would know that we worship a God in whom a piece is found, which doesn't require firing a shot to obtain it. Say it again, we worship a God in whom a piece is found, which doesn't require firing a shot to obtain it. On Christmas Eve in 1915, early in World War I, three armies were on a battleground in Belgium. There was a Scots Army aligned with the French Army, trying to route a German army which had already occupied Belgium. And in honor of the sacred holiday, there was a ceasefire called amongst the armies. Stories been told countless times. I think it even showed up in a music video with the God from the Beals. Nevermind. Came out in a film a few years ago called Joyou Noel, and according to its telling on Christmas Eve, there was a silence and a stillness reign that night, Paul McCartney, that was it. Silence, stillness, reigned on that night, and the only thing that interrupted it was music. The Scotsmen, they play their pipes. Germans, they step out and start singing silent night. And the French, not to be outdone, they bring the liquor. They join in a music of solidarity, of a wistfulness for home, of a respect for the king born in a manger, and all of it leads them to lay down their weapons, and climb out of their foxholes, and carefully approach one another until they begin to socialize, and tell stories, and share pictures, and exchange goodies, and even play a game of football. Right there, a piece, a real piece had been obtained without any of them firing a shot. It was surreal, it was unimaginable, and to those who heard about it later who were at a distance, they thought it was unconscionable. How can there be a piece one without somebody winning it? But it was a real kind of piece, and without them having to secure it. I've told you all what it is to worship, but now I want to tell you what drives it. It was on the field of Flanders in World War I, as it was in the wilderness of Tacoma, so it was on a hill outside Jerusalem, that a piece was obtained without the beneficiaries of that piece lifting a finger. Before the battle ran out of Tacoma, the choir sang, give thanks to the Lord for his steadfast love endures forever, but before the battle of sorts ensued outside of Bethlehem, the angel sang, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men with whom he is pleased. Christmas is and always shall be married for one reason only, because Jesus fought one and obtained a piece for those who believe in him without them making a single move. And we worship him for it, and when we do so in all the fullness and concreteness of what worship is, we find our joy again. In fact, I dare say the most potent weapon you will ever wield is faith in a war that you won but didn't fight. The war against sin, against death, and against hell, which he won, but which you could not. And if you don't like the militaristic language of all of that, let me put it this way. The most effective way of facing whatever challenges your capacity for love, or for joy, or for peace, or for patience, or for all those things we know that we want, but we find it so hard to be, which feels like sometimes a war to actually live that way, the most effective way of facing those things that steal those things is worshiping the God for the peace he secured for you in Christ. And some of you are saying right now, yeah, heard that, don't dispute it, but that's so up there, and I'm so down here. It's in the stratosphere, dude. Bring it low. Let me try. Are you anxious today? For whatever reason, this text calls you to worship the Lord in all His fullness. So that you can see that the one true threat that ought to have frightened you most profoundly, that's been resolved in Jesus, and all other fears have to be seen in that context. Are you angry today? This text calls you to worship the Lord in all His fullness so that you can see that there was a much fiercer and justifiable anger in God against you, which Jesus took upon Himself. Are you an anguish today so much that you become cynical? Worship the Lord in His fullness so that you can see that though your loss may be great, what Christ has gained for you is greater still and can never be taken from you. And lastly, are you stuck in that thing we call on we worship the Lord in His fullness so that you can see, again, that if Christ was willing to die out of love for your life, then life and love are worth the risk when there's a fullness to your worship in the fullness of God, then at last you see worship is far broader than just some musical style or texture or mood. And then you will see it is far richer and deeper than some nebulous appreciation of that which is spiritual. And then finally you will see it is crucial to your joy. Let's pray. Father, I know that every soul in this room could fill in the blank to reflect what Jehoseph said when he said, we don't know what to do. But father, we ask that by your grace, you would teach us what it means to keep our eyes on you. Amen.