Believe and Turn - Sermon on Acts 11:19-21 & Numbers 21 4-9

We’re continuing in our sermon series which is an unpacking of the Acts 11 passage by looking into the different key phrases we find in the passage.

This morning I want to pick up on the phrase “Believe and Turn”. It’s a phrase found right near the beginning of the Acts 11 passage – so we’ll start by reading just the first few verses there to see it in context.

“Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus.

The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.”

May God bless to us the reading of his Holy Word, now and forever.

Let us pray. Father may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable and bring you honour and glory. Thank you for your word to us this morning. In Jesus name Amen.

“The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.”

Believe and turn.

When I first saw this phrase my initial reaction was “I’ll probably pick that one last!” I’m not entirely sure why – I think it has something to with how I associated it with the ‘turn or burn’ sermon style… a frightening sermon where the minister would threaten the congregation with judgement and hell if they didn’t turn and believe.

But then I read the passage again, and again, and suddenly this phrase actually became appealing. I began to see it in a different light altogether. One of the Bible stories that I believe can help us understand this phrase well comes from the Old Testament – Numbers 21

The background to this text is that it takes place during the 40 years of wandering in the desert. The Israelites received the Law at Mount Sinai, travelled to the borders of Canaan where the twelve spies went in and brought back reports – ten of them saying – we cannot do this, its impossible, and only Joshua and Caleb saying, Yes there are giants, but the Lord is on our side – we can do this! 

The people trust the 10 spies over the two and God declares that because of their lack of trust in him, they would wander for 40 years before being able to enter into the land again. God has been providing food in the form of Manna – bread from heaven, and by sending flocks of quail for meat. He’s provided water in miraculous ways, like pouring out of a rock. And yet time and again the people lose faith, complain and begin to look back to Egypt. In the beginning of chapter 21, God has just given them victory over a King who attacked them. And so we begin our reading in verse 4:

“They travelled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”

Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us. So Moses prayed for the people.

The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then wen anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.”

Believe and turn.

There are a couple of interesting things to pick up in the passage. Firstly, this is the harshest complaint against the Lord given – “We detest this miserable food.” No bread, no water. And yet time and time again God has provided for them. They have again forgotten that the provision they receive daily is pure grace. They don’t have to harvest wheat and bake bread – they’re in a desert. There is nothing… and yet God provides his Bread to nourish and sustain them. Purely by grace. And they at first battle t trust that it will arrive every day – yet God is proved faithful there. Now they are so used to it arriving that they now despise it. How shallow, how arrogant… and yet how human. Are we not like this? We simply expect our provisions because we believe that we’ve worked or studied or gotten the job we have by our own sweat, and therefore nothing dare threaten it. Because we deserve it. It’s a powerful reminder that all we have, our sweat and blood, our very next breath, our ability to work, the job we have – are gifts, they’re a grace.

The other interesting thing to notice is that God doesn’t do what they ask… Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us. So Moses prayed for the people. God doesn’t take the snakes away. Rather he provides a way to escape the death that follows. And the provision comes through believing Him to provide healing and then turning from wherever they are, and whatever they are doing and gazing upon the snake of bronze, lifted up high to be seen by all. Fast-forward about 1500 years… Jesus applied this well-known event to his own lifting up on the cross. In the conversation he has with Nicodemus, the Pharisee in John 3, He said, “As Moses lifted up the snake on a pole in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up. Then,” said Jesus, “Everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

The symbol of the snake on the pole, while Moses and the Israelites at the time had no idea, was one of the many pointers to Christ, the promised Messiah, and it was a picture of what He would do not only for the Israelites, but for all mankind.

Many times in Scripture, snakes or serpents are indicative of sin. We see the snake In the Garden of Eden – and because of that people may question, how Jesus can equate Himself hanging on the cross with the snake hanging on the pole – and yet while Jesus hung on the cross, he was covered and carrying the sin of the world, the brokenness of humanity from the moment time began until it will end one day – all the filth and evil and despair that goes with it was poured onto him. His physical suffering there, while terrible, was only part of the terrible agony. And so covered by sins, your and mine, he is separated from God. And so a snake is a fitting symbol, because all of our sin hung on that cross with Jesus.

Believe and turn.

Just as the snakes were not taken away, so sin has not been removed from our world yet. We still see the effects of it all around us, and we still see its effects inside us. We don’t have to look far to see brokenness and injustice in our world. We have all been touched by grief, by illness, by the insensitivity of another. And while we are being changed inside, we still struggle and fight sin within. Paul writes in Romans 7,

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.

So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?”

And then beautifully, in the last verse of the chapter – he answers his own question:

“Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

This is belief. I believe that sin does not have the final say. I believe that brokenness does not rule my life. I believe that evil will not win in the world. I believe that I cannot fix this myself. I believe that Jesus has done it for me, and for you, and for the world.

When the men from Cyprus and Cyrene brought the good news to the Greeks in Antioch – this was the good news they brought. Your sins do not need to rule over you, they will no longer bring death. Just as the Israelites could believe in God healing them when looking upon the serpent, we can believe in God saving us too – by looking upon the cross.

And this is what we sing of – In How great Thou Art we sing the words:

And when I think that God his son not sparing,

Sent him to die - I scarce can take it in,

That on the cross my burden gladly bearing,

He bled and died to take away my sin:

The hymn it is well with my soul has this verse:

 My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!

My sin, not in part but the whole,

Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

This is what we believe.

And because this is what we believe – we turn. Acts 11 says,

“The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.”

Just as those bitten in the desert, acted in belief and literally would turn from where they were towards the bronze snake to look up at it – so because of their belief in Antioch, because of what we believe, we turn to the Lord.

In Christian lingo we use the word repentance. But it’s important to remember that it is not repentance that saves us, but rather the sign that I believe what I believe. It goes together. The belief in God’s healing resulted in a turning to the snake on the pole, the belief in God’s salvation for us, results in us turning to the cross. Oswald Chambers explains it like this:

“There is a danger to put the emphasis on the effect instead of on the cause. Is it my obedience that puts me right with God? Never! I am put right with God because prior to all else, Christ died. When I turn to God and by belief accept what God reveals, instantly the stupendous atonement of Jesus Christ rushes me into a right relationship with God. By the miracle of God's grace I stand justified, not because of anything I have done, but because of what Jesus has done. The salvation of God does not stand on human logic; it stands on the sacrificial death of Jesus. Sinful men and women can be changed into new creatures by the marvellous work of God in Christ Jesus, which is prior to all experience.”

And so the turning is as a result of what we believe, is as a result of what Christ has already done for us.

And so there are two responses from this for us today. If believing and turning is something you have never done, if you have never come to the point where you have recognised that because of your sin and brokenness, you cannot save yourself – then there is the call to salvation, where I can say, Listen – this is what Jesus has done for you and it is a beautiful thing – freely available to everyone, everywhere – it is a gift– believe and turn! Believe that he has done it, turn to Him, and receive his salvation. Turn to Him, talk to Him this morning, admit this to Him, thank Him for the cross and ask Him to live in you and change you, to be your Lord from today onwards.

But many of you here have done that – many of you have been walking with Jesus, loving and serving him as Lord for many many years.

To you I would encourage two things.

Remember what you believe. Be reminded of the horror and the beauty of the cross. Remember that this free gift cost God his very heart – the life of his only Son. Remember that it was done because he loves you. Remember that you didn’t do this – That He did it all.

And then turn…  Because turning is not a once off thing. We turn each Sunday when we come here and pray our prayer of confession, we turn away from the things that have kept us from God and begin again, in fact every time we come to God and confess our sins we are turning to Him.

But I believe that it goes even further than that. Every day we are faced with choices. Every single choice we make turns us towards God or away from Him. CS Lewis talks about this in his book Mere Christianity, where he argues that each choice we make either journeys us towards becoming a more heavenly being, or more hellish. Every moral choice we make is either saying yes to God and to His ways, or No. Either moving us towards Him, or further away. The choice of getting up this morning and coming to church, a time where you could focus on Him and worship… The choice of reaching out in kindness to someone even if it costs us precious time. The choice of telling the truth even when we feel it will count against us. The choice of speaking hopelessness and negativity, or speaking life. Each of these choices is a turning.

Believe and turn.

I pray that this morning the reality of your salvation will be real to you once again… that you will realise as the Israelites did with the snakes, that Jesus is our only hope – and because of that has become our everything. I pray that you remember what it is that you believe and be amazed once again by its beauty. I pray too that you will always choose when confronted by the snake of sin, to turn to the cross, to choose Jesus and His way.

Let us pray.

Good News! - Sermon on Acts 11:19-30

Good morning!

We begin a new series this morning based on our Theme for the year – Back to the Future. Our key text for this theme is Acts 11:19-30, so if you’ll turn there with me in your Bibles...

“Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus.

The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When we arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.

During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) The disciples each according to his ability decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.”

May God bless to us the reading of his Holy Word.

Let us pray. Father may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable and bring you honour and glory. Thank you for your word to us this morning. In Jesus name Amen.

This text teaches us about a church that is vibrant and growing. A church where there is evidence of the grace of God. A church where there is solid teaching and encouragement during a difficult time. A church that reached out to others, that was generous and trusted God with their best. And all of this began because some men from Cyprus and Cyrene decided that this news about Jesus was so good, they couldn’t keep it in house any longer – they couldn’t only tell the Jews, and so travelling to Antioch they begin telling this news to the Greeks who live there too and a Church grew – a church so dynamic that they were called Christians. Little Christ’s.

And so we will be unpacking this text, and unpacking phrases within this text over the next few weeks to understand what God was doing among them. We have looked at our four words of Worshipping, Missional, Dynamic and Authentic – and now we are starting to look at the different phrases you see on the banner at the back of the Church – the Banner that reads, Called Christians and Remain true and God’s grace, and Believe and turn…

This morning however I want to focus on the phrase “Good news” that was preached to them. Verse 20 reads:

Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus.

 The word Gospel is also translated as good news – and throughout the New Testament is used around a hundred times.

We hear of Jesus preaching the Good news of the kingdom, at Jesus birth the angels declare Good news of great joy for all people, Mark begins his gospel by saying that he’s writing the gospel about Jesus Christ the Son of God. And throughout the epistles we are told that the Good news is about peace through Jesus who is Lord of all, and that the Gospel is the power of God to bring salvation to all.

But what is this Gospel? And why is it good news?

Chuck Colson, a Christian writer and man who did incredible work in the prisons of America, wrote that at a convention he was attending, primarily with others in Christian leadership, he asked the question to the table he was sitting at – What is the Gospel? And was shocked that very few of them could actually articulate it. You will often hear stories of missionaries or evangelists who travel somewhere say by plane, and on the journey strike up a conversation with the business man sitting next to them – and share the gospel… And we all smile and say that is wonderful – but have you stopped to consider – what did he actually say? How did he unpack this gospel for the person sitting beside him?

At Emmanuel we have taught this many times. In 2013 we ran the “Just walk across the room” course, which taught a way to explain the Gospel in simple terms, in the new members course and in confirmation we look at the Gospel according to Joe, a cartoon that many of you will know with God offering a relationship and Joe choosing his own way, but then a cross bridging the gap and allowing Joe to come back into that relationship, we’ve also had many children’s addresses that explain using different coloured cardboard or beads for the Gospel.

In Scripture – Paul unpacks the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 15 saying:

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. ² By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

³ For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵ and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve.

Peter, in his very first sermon preached on Pentecost Sunday – preached the Gospel like this:

“Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man  accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. ²³ This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men,^[d]put him to death by nailing him to the cross. ²⁴ But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.³³ Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

And throughout Acts, whenever you read what the disciples spoke of, they speak of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

And so each Sunday, we stand here, and we preach the Gospel. We speak of the cross and why it was important, we speak of the life of Jesus and how he is God, we speak of the resurrection as the central truth to all we hold onto and believe.

And so the good news is that God – the God Almighty, became one of us, to do what we could not do. He made a way for us to know Him and be in relationship with Him – in spite of our sins, in spite of our brokenness, in spite of the filth of the world… he loves us so much, that he took that on to Himself, and all the punishment that deserves. So that we, believing in Him, recognising Him as Lord, might be free from sins power, and from death.

And there are three elements I want to look at this morning just to emphasise why this is really good news, in fact, why this is the best news you will ever hear. I desperately want this to be real in our lives. It can be so easy to say and hear the right words, words like salvation and eternal life and freedom from sin, and yet never actually equate them to how that practically changes my life or my community. How is my Christianity good news for me… How has this good news that I know, impacted those around me?

Firstly it means that God has not forsaken us.

We have not been abandoned. No one in the world has ever been abandoned. God, who created you, who formed you personally in the womb of your mother, God has been with you and will be with you. If you look at the person next to you, God has been with them too. Always.

Our world is on a downward spiral. There is plenty bad news which tends to only get worse. Our country at the moment in fact is in a state of desperation and our leadership is failing. The world news simply carries stories of war and brokenness and heartache.

Where is God?

God has not abandoned us. God is in the midst of us. God suffers with us. God will make it right.

That is some really good news right there. While it may look hopeless – it is not. While it may look dark, there is always light. While the world throws muck and greed and deceit, we can remember that God was born in the muck of a stable, lived as a refugee because of the greed of a King, and was betrayed by the deceit of a friend.

The good news to tell to a lonely and scared world is that God is here. He has not forsaken us. And he has the power to put things right.

The second thing which builds on this concept, the second piece of good news – is that this does not depend on us. This offer of a new way of living, this offer of hope is not because we’ve earned it, or because we ticked the right boxes.

The Bible clearly tells us that it is while we were sinners that Christ died for us. Most Gospel presentations begin with God creating us for relationship with him, but we rejected him and went our own way, Romans 5:8 reads

“But God, demonstrates his own love for us in this, While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

In a world that drills the concept into our heads that everything we get is based on merit and work and achievement. You earn respect you don’t just get it. We have sayings like, ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch’, or ‘You get nothing for nothing in this world’.  

And yet here is a love that is offered freely, a gift, because of who God is, not because of who we are.

And so in this world that is pushing us to perfection and getting it right all the time, and achieving the next thing and striving and getting and rushing and going…

Here, in this place, we say No. That’s not what this is about.

Here it is ok to be broken, to fail, to learn, to stumble, to stop striving and to simply be. Here you are loved. Here you are accepted. Here God does the work when we simply trust Him to do it. This is not about improving your self-esteem. This is not a self-help plan. This is coming to the place of admitting, We can’t do it. We can’t get it right. And that’s why Jesus died. That’s why it’s been done.

Take a moment to realise that nothing you can do (or you have done) will ever make God love you less, on the flip side, nothing you can do will make him love you more. You are loved.

And because we are loved we live differently. Our lives change because of what God does in and through us.

The good news is that God has not forsaken us. The good news is that this love isn’t earned, it’s given.

Finally – the Good news is that we now have purpose and meaning in our lives. Good news is made for sharing. The disciples in Acts 4 when brought before the religious leaders respond by saying:

“For we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard”

The men of Cyprus and Cyrene couldn’t keep this good news to themselves – in fact they couldn’t even keep it to the Jews, it was so good it needed to be told. And in doing so it changed an entire community.

The purpose we have, is to live lives of love. To love others enough to tell them Good news. To love others enough to serve them as Jesus did for us. To love others enough to see them as God sees them – and to live as a transformed community.

To finish then, I want to read a quote from John Piper. It just takes us back to the point that all of this is all about Jesus. The Good news is that Jesus came lived, died, and rose again to forgive us and reconcile us back to Him – John Piper simply expands on this and it is, I believe, a beautiful way to end.

"Forgiveness of sins and justification are good news because they remove obstacles to the only lasting, all-satisfying source of joy: Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not merely the means of our rescue from damnation; he is the goal of our salvation. If he is not satisfying to be with, there is no salvation. He is not merely the rope that pulls us from the threatening waves; he is the solid beach under our feet, and the air in our lungs, and the beat of our heart, and the warm sun on our skin, and the song in our ears, and the arms of our beloved.

The words Jesus will speak when we come to heaven are: "Enter into the joy of your Master" (Matthew 25:21). The prayer he prayed for us ended on this note: "Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory" (John 17:24). The glory he wants us to see is the "unsearchable riches of Christ." It is "the immeasurable riches of [God's] grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:7).

The superlatives "unsearchable" and "immeasurable" mean that there will be no end to our discovery and enjoyment. There will be no boredom. Every day will bring forth new and stunning things about Christ which will cause yesterday's wonder to be seen in new light, so that not only will there be new sights of glory everyday, but the accumulated glory will become more glorious with every new revelation.

The gospel is the good news that the everlasting and ever-increasing joy of the never-boring, ever-satisfying Christ is ours freely and eternally by faith in the sin-forgiving death and hope-giving resurrection of Jesus Christ.

May God give you "strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge" (Ephesians 3:18-19)."

I pray that as you go into your week – remember there is Good good news. Don’t keep it to yourselves.

Let us pray.

Worth-ship: Sermon on Psalm 29

Psalm 29

Ascribe to the Lord, oh Mighty ones,

Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to his name;

Worship the Lord in the splendour of his holiness.

The voice of the Lord is over the waters;

The God of glory thunders.

The Lord thunders over the mighty waters.

The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic

The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, Sirion like a young wild ox.

The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightening.

The voice of the Lord shakes the desert; the Lord shakes the desert of Kadesh.

The voice of the Lord twists the oaks and strips the forest bare.

And in his temple all cry “Glory!”

The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;

The Lord is enthroned as King forever.

The Lord gives strength to his people;

The Lord blesses his people with peace.

Let us pray: Lord Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts bring your glory and honour. Amen.

Our reading this evening speaks of God as the God of the storm. It describes a storm coming in from the sea, over the land churning up the desert and the trees and the mountains.

To remind you back to your school geography days: A storm is what happens because evaporation changes water into vapour on a hot day, the water vapour being hotter than the air around it rises and cools. At a certain point in the atmosphere, the water vapour cools to a point where it reforms water droplets and high up in the sky we see the clouds beginning to form. Within the clouds the air keeps rising creating tall columns of cloud which result in the water droplets high up freezing into hailstones. As more water vapour rises the cloud grows until the air is saturated with water, and when the cloud cannot hold any more, the water droplets and hail fall to the ground. With the air moving in the cloud, static is created and the charge of the static discharges to the ground with a spark – creating lightening, the air particles vibrate with the power of the spark and we hear thunder.

 

When we look at a storm today we forget that in the days of the Psalmist, storms were huge scary entities that were not understood. There were no instruments or predictions, and the cause of rain was attributed to gods of nature.

But if we stop and consider it – a storm is so much more than the geographical description. If you remember two years back we had that series of horrific storms passing through Gauteng – remember where the hail did so much damage that in areas of Joburg it was difficult to source glass panels, and if you wanted PG Autoglass to come fix something there was a 6 week waiting list because so much had been destroyed. Theo’s car got pitted while he and I were on a pastoral visit, simply because it stood uncovered for 5 minutes too long. I had a meeting that November in Benoni, and I drove into one of these storms. It had to be one of the most terrifying experiences of my life – golf ball size hail pelted my car, I couldn’t see the road for the sheer amount of water that was pouring from the sky and I contacted the office here and asked for prayers. By the time I arrived at my destination I was in tears, my car damaged and my adrenaline pumped. At that moment, all the geography in the world meant nothing to me. A storm is so much more than a bunch of water droplets that have unbalanced and fallen.

Have you ever watched a lightening display from a hill top – or lay awake at night in amazement at the power and force of the rain coming down, or heard thunder so loud that it shook your house?

This is what a storm is.

In talking about storms Theo shared with me about John Muir, an explorer. And he sent me this quote from Eugene Peterson describing him: “He tramped up and down through our God-created wonders, from the California Sierras to the Alaskan glaciers, observing, reporting, praising, and experiencing–entering into whatever he found with childlike delight and mature reverence.”
In 1874, Muir was staying at a friend’s cabin in the Sierra Mountains. A storm set in one December day. It was a fierce storm– trees were bending over backwards. Instead of retreating to the safety and security of the cabin, Muir left the cabin and entered the storm. He found a mountain ridge and climbed to the top of a giant Douglas Fir. He held on for dear life “experiencing the kaleidoscope of colour and sound, scent and motion.” Muir rode out the storm “relishing weather: taking it all in–its rich sensuality, its primal energy.”

Our Psalmist describes God as the Storm God – as the God whose voice thunders…. Listen to how the Message Bible interprets verse  3-9:

God thunders across the waters,
Brilliant, his voice and his face, streaming brightness—
God, across the flood waters.

⁴ God’s thunder tympanic,
God’s thunder symphonic.

⁵ God’s thunder smashes cedars,
God topples the northern cedars.

⁶ The mountain ranges skip like spring colts,
The high ridges jump like wild kid goats.

^7-8 God’s thunder spits fire.
God thunders, the wilderness quakes;
He makes the desert of Kadesh shake.

⁹ God’s thunder sets the oak trees dancing
A wild dance, whirling; the pelting rain strips their branches.

A Storm is so much more than a bunch of air particles vibrating and water droplets forming.

God too, is so much more than the way we name or describe or analyse him.

Our theme for this week is Worship – looking at what it means to be a worshipping congregation. In our blurb given on the leaflet it reads that worshipping is:

 to respond to God's goodness and love with the whole of our beings and to become the kind of community where God's presence is recognized and celebrated. The church in Antioch was marked by the "evidence of the grace of God." People could see that God had touched their lives.

Where God’s presence is recognised and  celebrated.

I was interested in the word worship – and discovered that it comes from the word “Worth” – literally meaning worth-ship - or the condition of being worthy. Worship at its heart, at its center is about a God who is worthy.

It’s not about the music or the song choice. It’s not about church. It’s not about orders of service. In fact it’s not about us at all.

It’s about God. A God who is worthy. It’s about seeing who God is, and once we see Him – Worship is the only response that is possible.

And the trap I believe we so often fall into here – is that we talk about and understand who God is and what Jesus has done for us, we unpack Scripture and learn about His character and His promises. If we are especially interested we could even start studying the theology of His imminence, or His Trinitarian being or His incarnation. All of which is good and wonderful and right.

But the danger is that we get stuck in the geography and forget to go and stand in the storm.

That we know all about God, all about how present and powerful he is.

And we forget to encounter his presence and experience his power.

And so our worship becomes functional obedience rather than an awestruck response.

The Psalmist begins by saying: Ascribe to the Lord, oh Mighty ones,

Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to his name;

Worship the Lord in the splendour of his holiness.

This is speaking of an encounter – ascribe, give to the Lord the glory that he is worthy of, Worship him because you have seen him in the splendour of his holiness.

The power described here speaks of a God who is so beyond and above our studying and our descriptions anyway; a God who is so powerful that not only did he speak creation into being, but he orders and controls it. And while today we have the unbelievable privilege of relating to Him as our Father, as our friend, as our comforter – let us never lose sight of the truth that our God is GOD. Is Lord. Is Master. Is Majestic in holiness. The mistake we make is we think of God as like us. He is Not.

Listen to a few times in Scripture where people have encountered God.

In Exodus 33, Moses on Mount Sinai, asks to see God’s glory and God’s response is:

“I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.²⁰ But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

You cannot see me and live.

Isaiah chapter 6 reads:

I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³ And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
    the whole earth is full of his glory.”

⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

Job on encountering God says:

“I am unworthy—how can I reply to you?
    I put my hand over my mouth.
⁵ I spoke once, but I have no answer—
    twice, but I will say no more.” My ears had heard of you

    but now my eyes have seen you.

6 Therefore I despise myself

    and repent in dust and ashes.”

And John in revelation 1 describes encountering Jesus:

¹² I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, ¹³ and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man,^[d] dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. ¹⁴ The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. ¹⁵ His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. ¹⁶ In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. ¹⁸ I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

I fell at his feet as though dead.

Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to his name;

We fall to our knees—we call out, “Glory!”

There are times and sermons where I stand in holy terror realising who it is that I preach about. At times I feel like Job where I simply want to say – I put my hands over my mouth because I speak of that which is too great for me.

And yet the inconceivable has happened. As we encounter God today, we have Jesus who can place his hand on us and say – do not be afraid. I am alive. I hold all the power. And because of what I have done you can know my Father, you can encounter Him, you can worship Him.

The last part of the Psalm is the result of our Worship. Not the purpose – but the result.

                                                                     

The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;

The Lord is enthroned as King forever.

The Lord gives strength to his people;

The Lord blesses his people with peace.

The God we worship is present with us over the floods, and as our King. When we recognise His greatness, we can know that he is powerful enough to reign over the storms in our lives, to reign over the confusion and doubt and fear in our lives, that He is greater than our problems or our limitations. That His Lordship gives Him authority to change us, to change our circumstances, to change our world. He is powerful enough to give us strength.

And He is close enough to give us peace.

I pray that as a congregation, as individuals, we will not only analyse the storm and actually step into the rain. That when we gather together that we realise that we are singing and speaking TO our God, the God of power and might and strength and not just about him. That worship becomes entirely about encountering Him, encountering Him here in our music and prayer and teaching – and responding with hearts wide open saying, “Forever you will be, the Lamb upon the throne – I gladly bow my knee and worship you alone.”

And I pray that as you go out into your week that you live a life of worship, a life that recognises who God is, and so trusting that He is able, that He is present and that He is willing to give you his strength and his peace through any storm. That He is Lord over the floods in our lives.

Revelation 5:11-14

¹¹ Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. ¹² In a loud voice they were saying:

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
    to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
    and honor and glory and praise!”

¹³ Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
    be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!”

¹⁴ The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

Let us do the same.