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.

Authentic: Sermon on Romans 12

Our theme for the year was introduced several weeks back as “Back to the Future – Rediscovering Church. And as part of that theme, four words were identified by session to describe the Church that we see in Antioch in Acts 11, but also that we believe needs to be true for our current setting today – rediscovering what Church really means.

And so today we begin a series for the month of June unpacking these four words, starting with the word Authentic. You will see in your leaflets that Theo wrote an explanation of each of these words and for Authentic he wrote:

“…to be genuine, consistent and relevant in living out the truths we proclaim and to be real and trustworthy in our community. The disciples in Antioch were called “Christians” by the community because there was continuity between Jesus life and work and the lives of the disciples in Antioch.”

 Christian literally translated means: little Christ’s – little Jesus’s. Those believing in Christ in Antioch were so Authentic that not only did they look like Jesus, talk like Jesus, serve like Jesus – but the community actually started calling them – little Jesus’s.

And this is what authenticity really means – for something to be Authentic it can’t be a copy or a replica – it needs to be the real thing. The real deal. The original.

Our world is so desperately looking for something real. We are inundated with false advertising, false promises, and false prophets. From the big scale politicians who promise the earth but deliver dust, to close friends who lie to us – we all know what it’s like to look for truth, for authentic love, authentic relationships, authentic leadership – and the world is looking for the authentic church.

Brennan Manning made the following statement that has often been quoted “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."

And apparently Ghandi said, “I love your Christ, but I dislike your Christianity.” Whether he said it or not the truth remains. People look at the church today and they judge us on being Authentic.

Are we for real? What does it mean to be authentic?

I’m going to be unpacking Romans chapter 12, where Paul is writing to the Church in Rome, in the ESV translation, the last section is actually entitled: Marks of the True Christian. It is well-known and you’ll recognise many of the verses. It’s not a long chapter but contains so much truth. Starting in verse 1:

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching let him teach; if it is encouragement let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge I will repay” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

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 pleasing and acceptable to you and bring you glory. Spirit we invite you to speak to our hearts. In Jesus name. Amen.

What is the authentic church?

To start with, it needs to have in it authentic followers.

The first part of our passage says, “offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

The first question that needs to be asked here is – are we, each one of us, authentic followers of Christ? Do each one of us here have an authentic faith? To be a follower of Jesus we need to have come to a point in our lives where we have realised who he is – and who we are, that we have recognised that we can’t do this alone. We have understood that our sin and brokenness creates a barrier between the God who is holy and us and that we have no way of removing the barrier ourselves. And that’s why there is a cross in the front of our church – that is why I and many others here wear a cross around our necks – as a reminder that this is what made a way for us. That Jesus died so we don’t have to. Jesus switched places with us – he took the dirt of our sin and selfishness on himself – died with it – and offered us his innocence and purity in exchange. The way into a relationship with God is through accepting that. Our passage says that we offer ourselves as living sacrifices.

This means we die to the old way of living – the way of living that has me, my and mine at the centre, and to live a new life with Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:17 reads, “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, the old is gone, the new has come!”

The reason that our sacrifice is holy and pleasing to God, is because he sees Jesus when he looks at us.

This is a decision, an action, the biggest change in fact that can ever happen to us. Once we have chosen to things God’s way, rather than our own the Spirit comes to live in us and he starts changing us from the inside. This is why we don’t conform any longer to the ways of this world – in fact… as the Spirit does His work in us we lose our taste for it. We have chosen a different path, a different drum beat to march to, a different voice to listen to.

I have heard that Muslims look to the West, they look at the porn industry running, they look at the greed, they look at the immorality, they look at the lack of care for the poor and they say – see this is what a Christian country does. The truth however, is how many authentic Christians live there? How many people have died to themselves and their pride and selfishness and greed and are followers of Jesus? The question that has always challenged me says, If you were to be taken to court for being a Christian – would they find enough evidence to convict you? Would your life be an obvious display of the Spirit at work? How many in our Western Countries are authentic?

This is not that we are perfect! By no means. In fact in our truthfulness we’ll never even claim such. But we are journeying. We are getting to know Jesus more, we are learning to love Him more, we are starting little by little to look like Him.

An Authentic Church has authentic followers, and secondly, they’re an authentic flock.

The second part of our reading picks up in verse 3

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

Each member belongs to all the others. A flock is a cohesive bunch of sheep that together follow each other as they follow the shepherd. They receive food and shelter together and comfort each other by their presence. When one strays and gets into danger, it’s almost always because he’s been separated from his flock.

We need each other. People have many different reasons for belonging to a church – some of you may be here because you have friends and you enjoy the company, some of you may come for the preaching, some maybe because you have felt cared for and at home here – maybe your children enjoy Kings kids, or you have just always come here from when you were a child.

Whatever your reason, maybe even a combination of those – your being here is not an accident and not without purpose. We are told in our passage that each of us belong to each other. Your work here is to love each other, to care for each other, to stand up for each other and to pray for each other. The reason we take a moment to greet each other right up front is because we need to know each other. If you don’t know the people sitting around you – may I encourage you – don’t leave today without at least learning their names. We are a gift to each other. The fact that there are so many of us sitting here is an encouragement. I know that there are some here who caught a lift with someone else, some who were visited in the week by others here, some here who are praying for each other.

An authentic church, has an authentic flock – a place where we can know and be known, love and be loved, serve and be served.

Finally our authentic flock produces authentic fruit.

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

The word “sincere” comes from the Latin words sine cera, which means “without wax”. The phrase comes from a practice where people would hide the cracks in cheap pottery or statues with wax in order to pass it off as being worth more than it actually was.

Our love for each other must be “without wax”. Now some may argue then that it must be pure love, untarnished, un-cracked to be without wax – but I believe the opposite is true. Our love for each other needs to be real in that we do it in spite of our cracks. So often in the church we believe that we have to hide our brokenness, we have to pretend our lives are all together and perfect and going well, we have to wax up our cracks.

This is not authentic, and this is not true love. True love says, I love you regardless. I love you in the good spaces and in the hard spaces. I love you when you are succeeding and when you are failing. I love you enough to challenge you and speak truth into areas that need truth. I love you enough to hug you on a bad day and encourage you when you are weak. True love honours each other, is devoted and faithful.

The fruit of the church grows out of a community where the Spirit has worked in the hearts of the followers, and so in the heart of the flock. The list of attributes we read from verses 9-21 are not a check list. They’re not a to-do list either. They are rather the evidence of the Spirit at work. These are things that will happen in a community of true followers who have become a true flock.

And if we look around we see so much of it here… We see people devoted to each other, we see people with spiritual fervour, I have witnessed many who have been patient in affliction, joyful with hope, faithful in prayer. I have seen the harmony and humility. I have seen evil overcome by good.

What do you see? What would you like to see more of? How can we pray that the Spirit will grow us more and more into that which is real and authentic and loving?

We as the leadership believe that being an Authentic church means that we will be a family of God’s people, learning to follow Jesus everyday, and making a difference in our neighbourhood.

In order to be a part of this journey is a commitment. Firstly a commitment to Jesus, to follow Him and love him more each day. Secondly a commitment to His flock, his church – to be a gift, to belong to each other.

Today we are going to share in communion. And meeting with Jesus at this table is such a beautiful opportunity to do both these things. As you eat and drink, you are committing to Him saying, less of me and more of you Jesus – you’re saying, just as these elements become a part of me, I want you to live in and through me. You’re also sharing in one loaf, one body – each of us a part. As you eat you are eating the same as those sitting around you. You belong to each other, and as you share the peace remind yourself of that.

I pray that we together may be an Authentic Church of Jesus Christ.

Let us pray.