Video Transcript: Worship and the Works of Faith

In the last two lectures, we've been looking at one of the foundational truths of  Scripture, the creator creature distinction. And God is the author of the whole of  creation. And people along with plants and animals and inanimate things are His creatures. But in what follows seems almost too obvious to have to emphasize  God is sovereign over his creation, and every part of it depends moment by  moment on its creator for the ability to exist and function. Most of creation has  no problem with this arrangement. The air the dirt, the planets and other lifeless  stuff of the universe, as well as all the sub human forms of life, we find are  neither inclined nor equipped to disobey their Creator. Humans, on the other  hand, often give in to the fantasy that the Creator creature distinction is not such a big deal after all, and that they can as the serpent serpent tip, tempted Eve,  that they can become like God, we cannot become like God, God is sovereign,  we are dependent, and every rebellion against the God established order results sooner or later in chaos and death, God will never give up his position as  sovereign or slack off on his providential care for the work of his hands. And  humans can flourish only as we recognize our continuing dependence on our  Creator. In fact, it is the acknowledgment of who God is and who we are that  both gives God the credit and honor he deserves, and enables us to give him  the service for which we are created, giving God credit an honor we call  worship. In the Service God intends, we call engaging in work so faith that  scripture often speaks of our call to worship or to fear the Lord. These reminders are necessary in view of all the alternative claimants to the worship of God. In  the Exodus story, it was Egypt's Pharaoh who demanded Israel's worship and  service, but God conclusively demonstrated his right to what Pharaoh  demanded by freeing his people from Egypt and demolishing the opposition.  After that, however, God's people were constantly tempted to give their worship  and service to one or more of the false gods of their neighboring nations or to try to worship the Lord with the use of images. God specifically addressed both of  these matters in the 10 commandments, the first commandment, You shall have  no other gods before Me, forbade service to any other gods. And the second  commandment You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything  in heaven above or in the earth, beneath or in the waters below. You shall not  bow down to them or worship them. The second commandment forbade the use of idols or images, even if the intention and using them was to worship the Lord.  An example of Israel's violation of the First Commandment was a worship of the  Canaanite fertility gods, Baal and Asherah in the time of Ahab and Elijah. An  example of Israel's violation of the second commandment was their attempt,  shortly after the they had been delivered from Egypt, to worship the Lord by  means of the golden calves Aaron made. But it must be noted that Israel also  failed to give God the worship he desired and commanded when they obeyed  the letter of God's law, but without their hearts, in their worship. Listen to Moses, in Deuteronomy 10:12-13. says, And now Israel, what does the Lord your God 

ask of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to Him, to love  Him, to serve the Lord your God, with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord's commands and decrees that I'm giving you today for your  own good. This makes clear that the worship God wants is not superficial. It's a  matter of the heart. Isaiah 29:13, describes people whose worship of God was  not a matter of the heart. God says through Isaiah, these people come near to  me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from  me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. Maybe the  people Isaiah described suppose that God's actions could be programmed by  their rule keeping so that if they gave him a sacrifice, he was bound to give them what they wanted. If so, they were very much like the pagan idol worshipers who thought that by the right actions they can force their gods to do their bidding.  What's more likely, however, is that their hearts just weren't in their worship.  Religion for them had become little more than the habit of keeping a certain set  of rules. And they had no problem using these rules to judge other people to try  to keep them under control. So Scripture is very clear that the call to worship  God cannot be satisfied merely by keeping the rules. Worship is a matter  demanding one's whole attention and energy and personality. Worship as Jesus  would instruct the Samaritan woman on a later occasion is a matter of spirit. In  truth. It's worship of the heart. That doesn't mean that outward actions aren't,  aren't important. It only means that it's not enough to worship outwardly, our  outward worship must reflect the innermost desires of our hearts, which of  course cannot be seen, even though they do sometimes have a way of exposing themselves. But even if I can fool you, and you can fool me, neither of us can  fool God. He knows what we think of Him. And He knows our deepest desires.  The actions of worship must be accompanied by what Jonathan Edwards called  heat in the heart. Listen to some of the feelings or affections just displayed in the inspired songs and hymns of the Old Testament. Perhaps the first response of  the heart that seeing the majestic holiness of God is, is stunned silence is Psalm 46:10 puts it, be still and know that I am God. And in the silence rises, a sense  of awe and reverence and wonder at the sheer magnitude of God. Psalm 33:8  expressing sadness by saying, Let all the earth fear the Lord, but all the people  of the world revere him. And because we're all sinners, there is an our reverence a holy dread of God's righteous power. Isaiah 8:13, says, The Lord Almighty is  the one you are to regard as holy. He is the one you are to fear he is the one  you are to dread. But this dread is not a paralyzing fright full of resentment  against God's absolute authority. It finds release in brokenness and grief for our  ungodliness The sacrifices of God, Psalm 51:17, says, are a broken spirit, a  broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Mingled with this feeling  of genuine brokenness and contrition, there arises a longing for God, expressed  in Psalm 73:25-26, Whom have I in heaven, but you in Earth has nothing I  desire beside you. My flesh in my heart may fail, but God is a strength of my 

heart and my portion, forever. God is responsive to the longing of our souls. He  comes and lifts the load of sin and fills our hearts with gladness and gratitude.  The Psalmist in verse 30:11-12 expresses that this way, you turned my wailing  into dancing, you remove my sackcloth, and clothed me with joy, that my heart  may sing to you and not be silent, oh Lord, my God, I give you thanks forever. In the end, the heart longs not as much for any of God's good gifts, is for God  himself, to see God, to know Him, to be in His presence is the best thing in all  the world. Beyond this, there is nothing more to discover. Psalm 16:11, you have made known to me the path of life, you will fill me with joy in your presence with  eternal pleasures at your right hand. Well, these are some of the affections of  the heart, expressed in Scripture, that keep worship from being in vain. Worship  of the heart is a way of gladly reflecting back to God, the radiance of his worth,  not a mere act of willpower, of which we perform the outward acts of worship is  duty bound to do so. True worship is engagement of the heart, the coming alive,  or the feelings, emotions and affections of the heart. Because get this where  feelings for God are dead. Worship is dead. What this means is that worship is  an end in itself. It's not something simply to be engaged in as a means to get  something else we want in our lives. If we worship merely because we think it's  a way to keep our parents happy, or our spouse happy or because it's good for  our children or even ourselves. We can't really worship. All these things may be  true. But real worship involves true emotion that arises from our hearts over the  amazing grace and work of God. Such worship cannot be confined to one day a  week or even a portion of each day, it must spill over into works of faith into a life of service to the one we worshiped. That's what God had in mind in the very  beginning when he gave his mandate mandate, to Adam and Eve, Genesis  1:26. Or he didn't give his mandate. This is prior to the mandate, Genesis 1:26- 28. Let us meet mankind in our image and likeness, so that they may rule over  the fish of the sea, and the birds in the sky, or the livestock and all the wild  animals, over all the creatures that move on the ground. And then it tells us So  God created mankind in his own image in the image of God, He created them,  male and female, He created them. And here comes a mandate, God bless him  and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it,  rule over the fish of the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living  creature that moves along the ground. This mandate gives humans  responsibility and permission to use and develop the creation. According to  some people, that's where God went wrong. The argument goes something like  this, Christians think they have God's blessing to do whatever they want in the  development of technology and culture. And the Christian nations have done so  with little regard to the effects of their actions on other peoples or cultures or on  the earth as a whole or on future generations. While there can be little doubt that there is much misuse of created things in our world, and in sometimes this  happens in Christianized nations, but the philosophy that says people are free to

do whatever their hearts desire without regard to consequences or other people  or creatures is not a Christian philosophy. It is a heresy, the perversion of the  God given mandate to rule having been misused. So it has come to mean  something entirely different from what God intended. God's intention after all,  was never to have men and women, usurp his place as rightful Lord of Creation, but to have them be His servants in developing the potential that he brought into this world. Contrary to the view of radical or some radical environmentalists, this  is not merely a matter merely of returning as much of the world as possible to  wilderness. It's a matter of using the resources of creation responsibly, and with  care for future generations. This is not a anti development, but pro responsible  development. Nor is this a matter merely to concern only those in positions of  power because God values each individual response. That means all of us  being as responsible as we can be, but also seeking to increase our  effectiveness as people are aware of and responsible for all the gifts of God.  Other aspects of stewardship besides environmental stewardship, they're  mentioned to parents are stewards of their children, and will have to answer for  how well they fulfill their responsibilities. In sometimes children, in turn, become  responsible for aging parents, and they'll have to answer for their stewardship in  that role. Members of the Body of Christ are stewards of each other, they bear  some responsibility for each other for mutual love and support and sometimes  discipline to call a wayward brother or sister back to obedient living. We are also stewards of justice in society. To the extent that we have a voice in such matters, then all of us do insofar as our personal actions are concerned. And as we are  able, we must also do our best to promote public policies that treat people fairly.  As Christians, we bear certain stewardship responsibilities for those who do not  know the Lord. God expects us to share our faith as we have opportunity, even  with those who may deem highly unlikely to repent and turn to God. We are not  the best judge in such matters, and God can do anything he wants. And of  course, stewardship also involves the use of our material resources. You may  have worked hard for the money you call your own. But where did you get the  intelligence and initiative and even the job you have? Prosperity, when it does  not come by exploitation is a sign of God's grace, but it also tempts God's  people to behave in unstewardly waste, in many ways prosperity has seduced  and paralyze the church. But let no Christian say about costly clothing or  extravagant lifestyle, how I dress and spend my money is no one's business but  my own. You must defend your lifestyle before the one who owns the whole  world and everything in it. After all, what do you have, that you did not receive?  That's a rhetorical point, the apostle Paul made to the Christians in Corinth, the I Corinthians 4:7, it means that all we are and have we owe to God. And so we  must not forget our accountability for how we use all that God has trusted us  with, including our time. Evangelists, Juan Carlos Ortez puts it like this.  Sometimes a Christian says to himself, well, now that I'm finished working for 

the day, I'll go home and take a shower, then I'll watch television for a while and  then I'll go to bed. Yes, I know. There's a meeting tonight. But after all, I'm  entitled to a little rest, but you are entitled to nothing. Your a slave, not by Jesus  Christ and he owns all the hours of your day. Ortez says, We're all upside down  the Lord sit in the pews, we treat Jesus as if we were our slave. We pray, Lord,  our attitude is the opposite. We pray, Lord, I'm leaving now. Please watch the  house that no one breaks in while I'm gone. Please keep me from an accident  while I drive. There's no doubt that God wants his children to ask them for  things. But such requests presuppose a proper relationship. God's children are  servants who try to please Him and everything they do. So servants spend most of their time praying, Lord, what do you want me to do? In the things servants  asked for are so they can accomplish their jobs. Their satisfaction comes in  doing the will of God. Wait a minute he said. If my time is God's does that mean  I don't get any time to myself? That's right. That's what it means. You don't get a  vacation from being the servant, the slave of Jesus Christ. But does that mean I  don't get any time for recreation? No, it doesn't mean that unless Jesus Christ  does not come along on your recreation outings. You see the issue is one of  taking care what God owns. If you over work, then you're probably not being a  good steward of your health or probably of your family. To do that you need time  to think time to be energized and recreation can be part of such a process.  Here's the key. Does your lifestyle show that you are God's steward? Are you  watching and hoping for opportunities to serve God or running away from them  hoping for some privacy? Because slaves are not allowed to say no to their  masters requests or orders? And you're not allowed to answer no to a request  for something that you know God needs done. Unless you're doing something  that you know has a higher priority. That doesn't mean you'll be spending all  your time doing church work any more than you give all your money in the  collection plate and save none for groceries or rent. No, you might spend time  playing with your children or taking a nap or shoveling snow or working  overtime. And you spend a good part of your money on rather ordinary things.  All your activities and all your expenditures are legitimate if they're part of your  service to God, but when they become excuses for avoiding service, when they  become self centered, that's when you're not being a good steward. Stewards  know that everything finds its origin and meaning in Jesus Christ is Colossians  1:16-17 says, For by Him Jesus Christ, by him all things were created, all things  were created by Him and for Him He is before all things and in Him. all things  hold together. That means everything, all of God's purposes, all of creative  reality, everything in the universe. stewards. Remember, Psalm 24:1, the earth is the Lord's, and everything in it. stewards. Remember that God's glory is  supposed to fill the earth stewards. Remember that they're supposed to  represent God's reign over the earth so that all his creatures might bow before  Him and praise Him. stewards, remember that there to care for and adorn God's

visible glory robe that is this world with all its potential stewards worship the Lord with all our hearts and they care for everything God has given them  responsibility for the world, other people, their time, their money, their  opportunities. so that no one in all creation can say I've seen no sign of God and so that God will say to them in the end well done good and faithful servant come in and make yourself at home.