HoHum:
In 1990 A woman entered an ice cream shop for an ice cream cone. While she was ordering another customer entered the store. She placed her order, turned around and found herself staring face to face with Paul Newman. He was in town filming a movie. His blue eyes made her knees buckle. She finished paying and quickly walked out of the store with her heart still pounding. Gaining her composure she suddenly realized she did not have her ice cream cone so she turned to go back in. At the door she met Paul Newman who was coming out. He said to her, “Are you looking for your ice cream cone?” Unable to utter a word she nodded yes. “You put it in your purse with your change.” When was the last time the presence of God made us forget what was going on around us? Made us forget the dishes? Made us forget the ball game? Made us forget our bank account? Made us forget… where we put our ice cream cone?
WBTU:
The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks: What is the chief end of man? Answer: Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Love that- emphasized through Scripture that we are to bring glory to God through who we are and what we do.
Our mission is to love people and lead them to a relationship with Jesus Christ. Love that as well. Would have loved to have that in other churches.
Rich Warren expands upon all of this in his book called the Purpose Driving Life. Dr. Warren writes, “If you want to know the purpose of life, you have to either talk to the Creator who made you, or look in the owner’s manual. You were made by God and you were made for God. And until you understand that, life isn’t going to make sense.” In the Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren says God has 5 purposes for your life. Worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and evangelism. Another way to say it is with words that begin with “M.” We are made to magnify God’s presence in worship. We are made for a mission to communicate God’s Word through evangelism. We are made for membership through the fellowship of the church. We are molded to become mature through discipleship. We are made for ministry to demonstrate God’s love through service. Today, we are going to look at the first of God’s purposes and see how God’s people discovered them in Nehemiah’s day. Our first purpose in life is to glorify God. We have a fantastic team of musicians and singers here to assist us in our praise and worship. But when we hear the word “worship” what do we think of? Think of music but it is so much more. Nehemiah 12 describes the dedication service for the newly constructed walls. Read Nehemiah 12:27-28, 30-31 (In vs. 36 we notice that Ezra the scribe led this procession), 38 (Nehemiah in second group), 40, 43. Vs. 31- Assigned two large choirs to give thanks while walking around the wall. Vs. 27 gives 3 purposes in worship:
Thesis: Celebration, thanksgiving and dedication
For instances:
1. The Heart of worship is celebration
They celebrated “joyfully” vs. 27. Notice the descriptions in vs. 31, and 43. “I assigned 2 large choirs to give thanks… And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy.” Large choirs, great joy. Worship is not about me, but about who God is- the Lord God Almighty, King of the universe, Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, Savior and Lord. Worship is focusing my heart and my mind on who God is. Why does God want my undivided attention? God wants our attention because He is focused on us. Look at what the Bible says in Psalm 139: You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. God has focused his attention on us. Why do this? Because He loves us. Sometimes hear: My wife, my kids, they say I don’t love them. I work long hours every day for them. How can they say I don’t love them?” They want our attention. Attention is an incredible expression of love. God puts his attention constantly on us.
Remember the first time fell in love? Couldn’t get that person out of mind. Thought about them when woke up in the morning. Thought about them all day. Then what happened? Wore off. Infatuation has to give way to real love. The Bible tells us how to rekindle our first love. 1 John 4:19: We love because he first loved us. God’s love for us is eternal. He is always focused on us, and He wants to teach us to focus our heart and our attention on Him. That’s difficult. Love the song sung several weeks ago: I’m comin' back to the heart of worship, And it's all about You, It’s all about You, Jesus, I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it, When it's all about You, It’s all about You, Jesus
Isaiah 26:3 says “you will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.” Another translation says, “Whose thoughts are fixed on you.” When we focus on ourselves the results are worry, insecurity, anxiety, guilt, fear, discouragement. When we fix our thoughts on God, we begin to sense gratitude and hope and confidence and love.
This is infectious. Worship that is celebration can be evangelistic. Here we have Nehemiah wanting the worship to start on the walls. Why? They were bearing witness to the watching world that God alone should be glorified. The enemy had said in 4:3 that the walls were so weak that a fox could knock them down, but here the people are marching on the walls! In Nehemiah 6:16 their enemies realized, “This work had been done with the help of our God.” As they marched on top of the walls, unbelievers could hear the sound of praise far away- Vs. 43.
Celebrate who God is. Hard to stay just on who God is, naturally go to what God has done
2. The Grounds for Worship is Thanksgiving
Vs. 31 tells us that the choirs were appointed “to give thanks.” That was their role. This is our purpose too. Worship is expressing my appreciation and affection, my heartfelt thankfulness for what God has done. Look what the Lord has done X2, he healed my body, he touched my mind, he save me, oh just in time. I’m going to praise His name, each day is just the same, come on and praise him, look what the Lord has done. By grace we became his children (John 1:12). Jesus says our purpose in life is “that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3). God is good all the time, he put a song of praise in this heart of mine, God is good all the time, through the darkness night, his love will shine. God is good, he’s so good, all the time. “Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20). Sometimes this is difficult because have families that were less than affectionate, didn’t say “I love you,” didn’t say, “Thank you,” very often. Maybe we are the silent type. Not easy to express because scared of what people will think. Remember the first time we said, “I love you” to somebody? Uneasy. Great thing with God is that he said it first. Our purpose is to know and love God. Most important thing to know is that God loves us. Most important thing we can do in life is to love him back. This is why still breathing and heart still beating is to know and love God. God really doesn’t want ritual and religion. He wants a relationship. He’s passionate about it. How do we start? How do we lead them to a relationship with Jesus Christ? Believe, repent, confess and be baptized. Born again of water and Spirit
3. The Response to Worship is Dedication
The response of worship is dedicating my assets, my talents and abilities to God. Turning worship into service. Vs. 27 tells us twice that it was at the dedication of the walls, “They celebrated joyfully the dedication with songs of thanksgiving.” Celebration and thanksgiving leads to dedication. Worship is giving back to God. He gives to us, and we give back to Him. Whenever we give back to God, whenever we offer anything to God, that’s called worship. That brings pleasure to God. When my children express appreciation, that brings me pleasure. When we are grateful to our heavenly Father, that brings pleasure to Him. By offering themselves in dedication, they were surrounding themselves to God. Colossians 3:23 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as through you were working for the Lord and not for people.” If we do this it will revolutionize our lives. We don’t need to go into a monastery to worship. We just need to change who we are working for. And when we change who we are working for, our work becomes worship. Whether a carpet cleaner, a lawyer, a nurse, a social worker, an executive, sales person, truck driver, we work for God and that is worship. Chapter 12 shows us how they dedicated themselves. After the exciting service was over, provision was made for the continuing worship of God’s people. Read vs. 44-47. This was organized, specific, grateful, regular and for everyone. Most of all, the people gave in response to who God is and what He had done for them. Thomas Adams said this: “Let us do good with our goods while we live… to part with what we cannot keep, that we may get what we cannot lose.” In 2 weeks time start talking about Faith Promise. Asking everyone to make a pledge of what they believe the Lord would have them give to missions. Don’t give out of what already have, give out of what the Lord would have us to pledge. God will provide the increase.
I challenge us to make as #1 goal of getting to know and love God, because that brings Him pleasure. As the Apostle Paul said, “So we make it our goal to please him” (2 Corinthians 5:9).
So what?
What does this have to do with our mission of loving people and leading them to a relationship with Jesus Christ? In 1 Corinthians Paul is speaking about prophesying but something he says there applies to worship and evangelism. 1 Corinthians 14:24-25: if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!” “The sound could be hear far away”- vs. 43.
