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Week Of: May 3, 2009
Title: The Names of God
Series: Ministry of Worship – Part 6
Scripture: Exodus 3:1-14
1. A long, long time ago I said that ancient but not necessarily ignorant people wanted to know two things about the god that they worshiped. One, where was this god thought to dwell and two, what was this god’s name.
2. We’ve talked about the God of Israel appearing to the Patriarchs, Moses on Mount Sinai, and then dwelling not only in heaven but also in the Tabernacle, Temple, and among men in the person of Jesus Christ. And then finally in the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. By the way, did you know that Christians are Spirit possessed? J
3. Today, I would like for us to consider the importance of the name God and its importance for worship.
4. First of all, according this little pamphlet published by Rose publishing, there are at least 21 different names for God in the Bible. One name for God is “El.” It is found over 200 times in the Bible. It is the most generic name for God and is even used by other cultures to refer to their gods. It is used often as a compound word, for example in Genesis 28:19 where Jacob names the place he wrestles with as Beth-el meaning “beth” for house there “House of God.”
5. The plural of “El” is “Elohim,” it also is translated “God.” Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created..” However, it is plural, meaning more than one. It is strange to me that Judaism being strongly monotheistic as it is, refers to God in this plural way over 2300 times in the Bible. Some suggest that this is proof of the Christian understanding of the Trinity.
6. The most numerous reference to God in the Bible is the word that the Kings James Version sometimes translates “Jehovah” and other translations simply translate “Lord.” It is literally written as “Y-H-W-H” (don’t say it). It was such a sacred name that it didn’t have a vowel in the name, which was evidently to discourage it from being spoken. It is a very ancient name dating back at least around 850 B.C. and was thought to be the name that God gave Moses in our scripture today. It means “I am who I am.”
7. A name in the ancient world was thought to exercise power or control over that the person or the thing that you sought to know its name. Even in our society if someone comes up to you, or calls you on the phone, if they don’t identify themselves one of first things you ask is “what is your name?” Why? You feel on equal ground with them. You feel more in control if you know who you are talking to. Ancient people felt that way about their gods too. So, when Moses meets the Lord God in the burning bush and is being told to do all these things, it is very natural that he wants to know who is talking to him.
8. We don’t know for certain but the name God gave Moses may not have originally been a proper name. Because God seeing that Moses might be trying to gain some control over Him might just be saying, “I am who I am, do as you are told to do.” In other words, never mind what my name is just get my people out of Egypt.
9. This name for God—Y-H-W-H, which is used over 6800 times in the Bible, became such a Holy name for God that around 300 B.C. the Jews stopped speaking it because they were afraid they might be speaking it in vain; thus breaking the 3rd commandment. Even today a devout Jew would be highly offended if he heard us speaking this name for God. It was no wonder that Jesus Himself offended so many people in so many ways when He said “I tell you the truth before Abraham was born, I am.” He was literally saying out loud “I am who I am.”
10. But the names of God were far more than just something to call Him, like you or I might say Mike, Tim, Harry, or Suzie. The names of God literally made amazing statements about the character and purpose of God Himself.
11. For example, just the little “El” means “the strong one.” When used by Israel it was a testimony “that God was more powerful, and would overcome all obstacles that got in His way.” It was their way of saying we can depend on Him.
12. “Elohim” the plural of El was the “all-powerful one, the Creator of the universe. God who knows all, creates all, and is all places at the same time.”
13. One of my favorites is found in Genesis 22 where Abraham is going to sacrifice his son Isaac, and God provides a ram sacrifice as a substitute for Isaac. Abraham names the place Jehovah-jireh “the Lord will provide.” God has provided a substitute for our sins, and our personal sacrifice by His Son Jesus Christ. God will provide our needs, both large and small.
14. Of course the name we are all captivated by is Jesus. Jesus means “Jehovah saves.” What does the word “Christ” mean then? Christ means “the anointed one.” Christ is not His last name—it is His title. It is Jesus of Nazareth the Christ. Together they form a name and title that is as the Apostle Paul says: “…is above every name, (and) that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and (at the mention of this name) every tongue (will) confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2: 9-11). Jesus Christ is most powerful name above all names. There is no other name mightier than Jesus Christ. Swearing to the name of Jesus Christ is taking this Holy Name in vain—and rubbing it in filth.
15. According to our Bible, “to call sincerely and genuinely upon the name of Jesus,” is to invoke God’s presence and power. It is to speak on God’s behalf with power and authority.
16. Have you ever considered why we end our prayers in Jesus’ name? It is because what we are asking—we are asking in Jesus’ name. We are asking in a name “above all names” that when it is used sincerely can move heaven and earth, a name in which someday the whole universe will bow down before.
17. And yet when we speak it, I would imagine that we never give a thought to whose name we are praying in. We just simply sign off—say good-bye in our prayers with “in Jesus’ name I pray—amen.” It is instead we are ending our prayers “in the name above all names.”
18. We are praying in the name of a power beyond all powers and principalities and saying “so be it according to His will.”
19. Try this when you pray. Start drawing attention, if no other place than in your heart, to fact that you are praying in Jesus’ name, a name above all other names—a name with power and authority and see if your prayers begin to be more effective, and more spiritual.
The names of God
1. “Adonai” means “the Lord My Great Lord.”( Ps. 8; Isaiah 40: 3-5; Ezek. 16:8)
2. “El” means “the Strong One.” (Exodus 15:2; Number 23:22; Deut. 7:9.)
3. “El Elyon” means “the God Most High.” (Gen. 14:17-22; Ps. 78:35)
4. “Elohim” means “The All-Powerful One, Creator” (Genesis 1: 1-3; Psalm 68)
5. “El Roi” means “the God Who See Me.” (Psalm 139: 7-12)
6. “El Shaddai” means “the All Sufficient One, God Almighty.” (Genesis 17: 1-3)
7. “YHWH” (Jehovah) means “ I am who I am.” Exodus 3: 14; Psalm 102.
8. “Jehovah-Jireh” means “The Lord Will Provide” (Gen. 22:13,14; Psalm 23)
9. “Jesus (literally ‘Jehovah saves’) of Nazareth the Christ (the anointed one)”
10. “Immanuel” means “God with us” (Matthew 1:23)
Week Of: May 10, 2009
Title: Praising God
Series: Ministry of Worship – Part 7
Scripture: Proverbs 31:10-31
1. Praise is not a very hard term to understand! We praise our children when they please us. We praise our pets when they learn a new trick. We praise our preachers when they preach a good sermon or let us out on time.
2. In our scripture, I could not help to notice how many times the writer of Proverbs praises the virtuous woman. He says her children rise up and call her blessed. Her husband sings her praises. A woman, who really fears God, according to the writer, is to be truly praised. Even the works of her hands and the good deeds of her heart praise how wonderful a woman she is.
3. Since it is mother’s day, I thought it might be nice to say some nice things about our mothers this morning? What nice things would you like to say about your mother, dead or living?
4. There are times that we feel so strongly about something that we’ll sing our praises no matter who is listening. Sometimes it does not matter the circumstances, we just simply have an unexplainable desire to sing the praises of something or someone. Have you ever had moment like that? J
5. I like the story that a fellow by the name of Frederick Buechner tells about his Army infantry training. According to him, it was night, and there was a cold drizzle of rain coming down. He was wet, cold, tried, and, most of all, he was hungry. The infantry man setting next to Buechner had a raw turnip left over from his meal, and Buechner asked if he could have the turnip. The man said, “sure” and threw it to him. He missed the catch, and the turnip landed in the mud. Buechner grabbed it and began eating the cold muddy turnip, and now years later he wrote:
“Time deepened and slowed down. With a lurch of the heart, I saw suddenly that not only was the turnip good, but the mud as good too, even the drizzle and cold was good, even the Army that I had dreaded for months was good. Sitting there on a cold winter day with a mouth full of cold turnip and mud, I could see at least for a moment how if you ever took truly to heart the ultimate goodness (of God’s creation) and the joy of things, even at their bleakest (moments), the need to praise someone or something for it would be so great that you might even have to go out and speak of it to the birds of the air.”
6. Now I am not really sure about a muddy turnip on a cold winter day while training for the Army, but what about on a warm summer day watching a beautiful sunset while sitting on a beach? If it is possible to feel a need to praise someone or something for a day like that, then how much more should it be true for a Christian to feel the need to praise God for what we know He has given us?
7. Let me quickly give you some reasons that we should praise God.
1) We praise him because we are commanded to do so. Psalms 150:1 declares “Praise ye the Lord”.
2) According Psalms 22:3, God is enthroned in our praise. He loves it!
3) There is power in praise. When we learn to praise our God, even in the most difficult times, He fights our battles for us.
4) We were created to praise Him.
5) We need to praise God.
6) He is worthy of our praise. Psalms 48:1 says “Great is the Lord, and most worthy of our praise.”
8. To praise God is to be preoccupied with who God is and what He has done. The word praise itself means “to commend; to applaud; to express approval or admiration; to magnify and glorify” something or someone. To praise our living God is to focus on His incomparable character, His indescribable love, His glorious power, and the beauty of His Holiness. It is to say I am forever drawn to my indescribable, glorious, and wonderful God. He has made me and saved me and I am forever in love with Him.
9. Now the issue for many Christians is how do we go about praising God? Can we praise someone without them knowing it, maybe being a silent admirer? Is praising God something that is by definition vocalized or shown forth in a noticeable way? If you are truly feeling genuine gratitude and praise in your heart for someone shouldn’t it come out sooner or later? Yes it should!
10. Listen the Psalmist “Praise our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard” (Psalm 66:8 NIV). Praise has to come out sooner or later if it is genuine and heartfelt.
11. So why don’t we? First off, we do? Ephesians 5:18 says “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
12. We are to make joyful noises to God. And music is a wonderful way of doing that. If it is done the right way!!! What is the right way? It has nothing to do with our sound but everything to do with our face and our bodies.
13. Choir, solos, congregational singing, we joy in our hearts that reflects on our faces.
14. Why don’t we more? Maybe we are not happy to be here. Or maybe we have a problem with pride and dignity? Turn to 2 Samuel 6:16. “As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart.”
15. Why did David rejoice and praise God? 2 Samuel 6:21 explains: “It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD”S people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD.” Have you celebrated (praised) the LORD today?
Week Of: May 17, 2009
Title: Longing For God
Series: Ministry of Worship – Part 8
Scripture: Proverbs 31:10-31
1. What are some of the things that you are passionate about? Passion is normally associated with lusts, and sexually in our culture, but really it is a lot more than that.
2. You might define “passion” as a strong feeling about a subject or person, usually of intense desire and attraction. In truth, passions can be strong feelings both negative and possible about most anything. What sort things are you passionate about?
3. Around 300 B.C in Athens Greece there originated a philosophy of living called Stoicism. Stoicism taught that the development of self-control and fortitude was a means of overcoming destructive emotions such as anger, envy, and jealousy. The world’s problems could be solved if human beings could just control their destructive passions. Logic, reflection, and concentration were the methods of such self-discipline. Uncontrollable anger, envy, and jealousy were considered to be the weaknesses of imperfection, weaknesses of those whose animal instincts still controled them.
4. They believed in god, but not a god that was given to a lot of emotion, like anger, wrath, joy, jealousy, and pleasure. After all, any god that could be made to lose control wasn’t perfect and therefore wasn’t god.
5. But really, this philosophy of God as being a stoic figure is not very biblical! Look at the book of Nahum (just after Micah, before Habbakkuk). Nahum writes in 1:2, “God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; the Lord revengeth, and is furious; the Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.” Let me tell you how strong the word “wrath” is. It has all the passion, the energy, (of what some might say) of an orgy, but it is all about the release of anger.
6. Of course, the writers of the Bible excuse God by saying while He may get mad, really mad; He is “slow to anger” and “steadfast in His love.” I look at it this way; God can be passionately angry, but His greatest characteristic is love, meaning He is passionately in love with His creation. And the reason that God has let you and I, and the world we live in, survive and continue as long as it has is because His Love for us is so much greater than His anger could ever be.
7. The bottom line of what I want you to see is that the perfect God of the Bible is not stoic in any shape, fashion, or form. He is passionate about His creation.
8. Let’s look at another aspect of His passion. In our scripture this morning, the glory of the Lord has appeared before Moses and the Israelites. The reason for God’s appearing is that the Israelites were about to stone Moses and Aaron because they wanted them to enter into the Land of Canaan that was just full of giants who they think would destroy them. So they were trying to rebel, by wanting to kill poor old Moses and Aaron.
9. So God appears and says to Moses, “I am going to destroy them and start over again with you.” Then verse 11 says: “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have done among them.” In other words, how long will I have to put up with this? Can you not see the heartache of God, and how He longs for His people to straighten up? Like a mother and father long for their prodigal son or daughter to come back to his or her senses.
10. This is how God longs for us to trust Him and have a close relationship with Him.
11. But if God longs for us then we certainly are to long for Him. Look at Psalms 42:1, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants (or longs) for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?”
12. I know as Christians we have the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and lives. I know that God lives here in my heart, but I still believe as Christians that we should do everything in our power to cultivate the presence of God in our lives. I believe we should desire more and more of God’s presence. I believe we should long for God, just as a deer that is running from a pack of dogs, longs for a cool drink in crystal clear mountain stream of water. Have you ever been so thirsty that you could not stand it?
13. I think as Christians we sometimes become complacent about God because we believe or fear that our best times with God are behind us. Nothing can be further from the truth…as long as you still want, still desire and long for God in your life your best experiences with God are in front of you. If nothing else, your best experiences with God are just a heartbeat away.
14. There is something that was written in the 1200’s that is absolutely beautiful about longing for God. It reads: “the closer I am to the embrace of God, the sweeter the kiss of God. The more lovingly we both embrace, the more difficult it is for me to depart. The more God gives me, the more I can give and still have more. The more quickly I leave the Lord, the sooner I must return. The more the fire burns, the more my own light increases. The more I am consumed by love, the brighter I shall shine! The greater my praise of God, greater my desire is to love the Lord” (Mechtilde of Magdeburg, The Flowering Light of the Godhead).
15. The principle way to satisfy and at the same time become more hungry for God is through praise, worship, and prayer.
16. The practice of these things leads to great love. Great love leads to unity with God. Dimitri of Rostov, a Russian orthodox saint in the 16th century, once wrote: “No unity with God is possible except by an exceedingly great love.”
17. What are you passionate about? Try to be passionate about God. There are a lot of things I know you care deeply about, and for some of you God is something that you do feel strongly about, but you could still feel stronger. And then for some you’re curious about God, but it just doesn’t make sense to you to get all excited about God. And then for others, who know why you come to church… maybe you’re a young person who is made to come to church. Maybe you’re coming because that’s what good and respectful people do. Who knows—only God knows for sure.
18. Anyone can fall in love! Anyone can fall in love with someone who longs for them the way God longs for you. Open up your heart to God and you’ll find out that He will not disappoint you.
Week Of: May 17, 2009
Title: When and Where Do We Worship?
Series: Ministry of Worship – Part 9
Scripture: Psalms 42:1-11
1. Do you like to do things that you don’t feel like doing? Of course not, no one likes to do things they don’t feel like doing.
2. Let’s put it this way: “Do you do things that you don’t feel like doing?” All the time!!!
3. When you do things that you don’t feel like doing, how do you feel? Good! Bad! Indifferent! Hypocritical!
4. Well, when you don’t feel like worshiping God what do you do? I’ve heard people say: “I might as well have stayed home today, for all the good it’s done me.” Or, “I am not going to church today, because that would be hypocritical considering the way that I feel.” People say these things because they don’t feel good physically, mentally, spiritually, or their minds are pre-occupied with something else, or because they hold a grudge against someone. Maybe I am wrong, but I honestly feel like folks today are looking for any excuse they possibly can for not worshiping God. Even some folks in the church are way too easily discouraged from worshiping God. And many people outside the church, even if they acknowledge their need to worship, they don’t necessarily believe it is important to worship with other Christians. Hence we have a group that says I can just as easily stay home and worship God on TV than come to church.
5. But what does the Bible say about when and where we worship God? You might answer the question with simply anywhere and anytime, which I would no doubt say that, in theory, you’d be absolutely correct.
6. However, putting the theory of anywhere-anytime worship into practice is easier said than done. For example, look at our scripture this morning. In this Psalm which is really a hymn of praise, the Psalmist is singing about his desire to have union with the living God. Things are not going particularly well for him. He has been crying night and day (for what reason, we do not know). The folks who know him are mocking his faith in God who has not helped him out of the situation he is in, by saying, “Where is your God?”
7. He remembers that he has praised God in the best of times, and wonders why it is such a struggle praising God during the difficult times. In verses 5 and 11 he says: “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?” Have you ever asked yourself that question? Why, considering all that God has done for me, am I so unhappy and praise less before God?
8. For some people it is so hard to praise God when things are difficult. Maybe we forget that God himself is the only consistent thing that we have in our lives. Maybe we forget that He is the same today, yesterday, and tomorrow. In other words, you and I may change from day to day, depending on our mood swings or even our change of heart, but God is the same God no matter what is happening to us. His love is the only truly consistent thing we can depend on. So why should we just praise him only on our good days?
9. Habakkuk 3:17-18 says we shouldn’t! “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”
10. In our day and time we might say: Though the economy is in a recession, and jobs are hard to find... Though prices are rising, and the dollar is not what it used to be… Though the world is unstable, and terrorism abounds… Though my county raises my taxes, closes my schools and gives me nothing in return… Though sickness is all around me, and my insurance has ran out, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior!
11. But considering the above things and more, what if we don’t feel like it? Turn to Hebrews 13:15; there are two things I want us to see from this scripture: one, we are to continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God.
And that means when we don’t feel like it. Why? Because, we are commanded to. Psalm 34:1 says we are to praise God at all times: “I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” I don’t believe the Psalmist or the writer of Hebrews is saying that they only praise God when they feel like it. There are times when we cannot worship God simply based on how we feel. Instead, we are to worship God despite our feelings.
12. Second, notice that things in the Christian life always going to go through Jesus: “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer…” Jesus takes our imperfect lives, our imperfect prayers, our imperfect praise and songs, our imperfect worship and makes them perfect.
13. In addition, we might also be surprised to learn that when we try to do anything in faith, with God’s help we will succeed.
14. Well what about the place of worship? Yes, we can praise God anywhere we are at anytime, but it does seem like God expects His people to praise Him in the community of God. Psalm 22:22, “I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you…” Psalm 27: 4 says: “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.” Hebrews 10:11 is the most famous scripture on that topic. A scripture that preachers love to quote and many Christians love to ignore. “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing…”
15. To get the full meaning of that scripture, you need to read on: “but let us encourage one another…” (verse 25). You cannot be a community of believers who want to be there for one another, and love and encourage one another without meeting together.
Week Of: May 31, 2009
Title: Spiritual Babies
Series: Spiritual Formations/Second Series – Part 1
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:1-3; 14:20
1. How old were you when you took your first step? Leroy? What is your earliest childhood memory? How old were you then?
2. What is your earliest spiritual memory? For example, do you remember when you were first saved? Do you remember when you first felt a strong stirring of the Holy Spirit in your heart? At what age where you when you had a personal encounter with Christ?
3. What is our spiritual age now? I wonder, as we get older does our spiritual age and maturity increase as well? Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t.
4. This morning, I’ve picked a scripture that mentions the spiritual maturity of the people in the church of Corinth. Paul refers to them in 3:1 as being babies or infants, mainly because “there is jealousy and strife among you.” In this particular case, the little church at Corinth is evidently divided over leadership with one group saying, “I am of Paul,” “I am of Apollos”, “I am of Peter,” and “I am of Christ.”
5. This means to me that maturity, especially spiritual maturity, is being able to deal with diversity and diverse opinions without divisions. For Paul, the major concern next to the purity of the Gospel in his churches was how well his congregation got along.
6. Some people and some churches are always looking for a fight, something to quarrel about and complain about. People like that are not mature spiritually or otherwise. To Paul at least unity is the sign of Christian maturity.
7. What would you think would be some signs of maturity; spiritual or otherwise? Faith, hope, and love! 1 Corinthians 13, “Now these three will remain: ‘Faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.’”
8. Being able to give, rather than take. Children are great takers, and they need to have their needs met and they take, don’t they? But maturity in children means that they learn to give as well as receive. They learn to consider other people’s needs and wants rather just always what they want.
9. Think about worship for a minute: We’ve said repeatedly that worship is primarily about giving to God, first and foremost, and secondarily about receiving a blessing by being here. But how many people go to worship not thinking about giving anything to God, and walk away because they are disappointed, feeling like they didn’t receive anything? As we would say, “they got the cart before the horse, and that load won’t pull.”
10. Another sign of spiritual maturity is responsibility. Yes, God has saved us, yes He has blessed us, and by the grace of God will continue blessing us in ways that we cannot imagine, but in doing so He expects us to be responsible to Him. We are supposed to be responsible children of God. By doing what? By doing what He wants us to do—by loving Him, having faith in Him, trusting, serving, and being obedient to Him.
11. And how about persistence? I like what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:8, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” An immature person has a hard time sticking with anything…a spiritually mature person has the attitude of Job which says, “though he slay me I will trust in Him” (Job 13: 15).
12. How about maturity in the way we think? In 1 Corinthians 14:20, Paul tells his readers to “stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.” Children and the spiritually immature don’t always think things through. In what we do and say we are supposed to count the cost and think before we act. God himself is “slow to anger” and steadfast in His love. A mature and godly person is supposed to be as well.
13. But there is another aspect of spiritual maturity that is very much implied in the word maturity—change.
All of our life is about changing; from the moment we are born we are about changing and growing old. In fact when we haven’t seen someone for a long time, one of the more kind things that might be said is, “Oh, you really have changed.” J
14. Spiritual maturity is about changing and moving on. It is about learning and growing…too many adults don’t want to learn anything new. We get satisfied and I think we just don’t want to take the time and energy to expose ourselves anything that will challenge us. And while there is just not enough time, money, and desire to try every new thing that comes our way spiritually we’ve got to want to grow. And we need to make a considerable investment of time and energy in that direction as well.
15. And then growth that comes from inside will eventually make its way to the outside! It is the desire to make meaningful and lasting changes in Jesus’ name outside of ourselves, in our church in our community, and maybe even in the world. Carrying out meaningful and lasting change prompted by a sense of justice, compassion, love, and faith in God causes us to grow in the process as well.
16. Take a legitimate godly interest in someone else other than yourself and your family. Take someone else under your care. Don’t you know someone who needs your help and needs someone to care about them?