Why do I worship?
Last week we asked that question and answered it with the first of many answers, because God’s Presence leads me to respond in worship.
Worship, as we defined it last week is a response of all that I am to all that God is. In other words, it is a RESPONSE to God’s revelation of Himself.
This week, we will find another answer to this question of “why do I worship?”
It is because I worship, because I am forgiven.
Our Cast of Characters for this sermon are: David, Bathsheba, Uriah, and Nathan. Some of you may think you are familiar with the story. I hope that you will see something about yourself that you have not seen before.
Overview:
David’s army goes to war, David remains behind in Jerusalem. He goes for a walk on the roof of his palace one evening. The palace roof is the highest in the city. It is there that he notices a woman bathing, probably he sees her through the window of her home or on her own roof. He asks a servant to find out who the woman is, and finds out it is Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.
Uriah is one of David’s “mighty men.” If we were to modernize this term, he would be one of the winners of the Congressional Medal of Honor and most likely, one of the leaders of his army.
Being a hero of the army, he may have had a home very close to the kings palace, thus, the circumstances of how David was able to see Uriah’s wife.
The bible says that after he inquired who she was, he ordered her to come to him at the palace and they had relations. We don’t know her willingness, but no one tells the king “no.”
Well, Bathsheba discovers she is pregnant, and there is no way her husband could be the father, because he has been away at war.
And then David does the first thing that most people do when they sin.
He covers it up.
He calls Uriah back from the front lines and tries twice to talk Uriah into sleeping with Bathsheba, his wife, so that Uriah won’t know that the child isn’t his own. But Uriah will have nothing to do with her, his loyalties to the army won’t allow him to enjoy himself while his comrades are experiencing the discomforts of the field of battle.
So finally, David writes a letter to his commander and sends it back to the line with Uriah. Little does Uriah know, but he is carrying his own death warrant. Uriah is exposed to the most dangerous place of battle and is killed, at the orders of David.
So now David believes he has hidden his sin.
In fact, at the root of Uriah’s murder is David’s desire to protect his own reputation, his position and his prestige as a man who is known to be “after God’s own heart.” Those things, at the time, are more valuable than the glory of God.
David is more interested in hiding the fact that he commited adultery than he is in glorifying God with his conduct. He must know he has sinned. But he has swept it under the rug, and in so doing, is dishonoring God.
But isn’t that the way we all act?
When we sin, we don’t want others to find out…we don’t want the shame, we don’t want to lose face, we don’t want to ADMIT that we are weak or that we gave in to some embarrassing deed or gave in to an appetite that we shouldn’t have.
We cover up our sin. But the bible says, “Your sin will find you out.”
That means that every sin we hide will be uncovered.
You essentially have two choices… to either uncover it and present it to God for forgiveness...Or have it exposed for all to see. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Heb 4:13)
Sin is always discovered.
In the long run, there are no secret sins. As Jesus states,
There is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. 3 Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. (Luke 12:2,3)
Which would you choose? To expose your sin to God or let Him expose it and you?
Before I go on, we need to understand something else about the nature of sin.
Sin always deceives.
Sin always promises something it cannot deliver.
Temptation to sin comes across as a shortcut to fulfillment -- when really it is a dead end to death and destruction.
It is an attempt to meet our own needs apart from God’s provision.
When we hear the lies that sin utters, we are tempted to give in, to accept the deception and justify our action.
David must have done that; he knew he was doing wrong, but he may have simply justified himself, perhaps by saying
"It’s only one night -- I can go back to delighting in God’s law tomorrow;" or,
"No one is hurt by this; Uriah will never know; or,
"Think of all I’ve done for this country; surely I deserve this one little fling!"
Have you ever heard such temptations?
David was faced with a choice when he found out Bathsheba was pregnant. He knew he couldn’t hide that. He couldn’t excuse his conduct.
Rather than call Uriah back from the front to cover up his indiscretion, his sin, he could have chosen to value what God thought about him more than what others thought about him, or worrying about Uriah ‘s reaction.
If he indeed had been concerned about God’s reaction to his sin, he would have instead confessed to Uriah and asked his forgiveness.
But at this point in time, he is involved in the apex of self-worship and self-preservation.
What God thinks about him is secondary to what he wants others to believe about him, what he wants to think about himself, and how he desires to preserve his own reputation.
Have you ever covered up sin to protect yourself?
Sure you have!
We all have. At the root of such hiding is SELF and not God.
When people feel the conviction of the Spirit here on Sunday morning, they have a choice of whether to obey God and respond to the move of the Spirit in their lives, or to worry about what others will think about them coming up for prayer.
Do you think we think you are perfect? That your life is in order? That you never sin?
You are as broken as every one of us. You are as broken as me. Why hide that. If God touches you and tells you that you need ministry or prayer, then come and get it. Worry less about your own image and more about what God thinks about you.
When God is your focus, then there is no barrier too great to cross,
No shame too great to bear,
No self-image too important to hold onto,
Because you act for the love of God and for GOD’S EYE ALONE!
Let’s pick up the story from 2 Samuel 11:26
Now when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. 27 When the time of mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife; then she bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD.
12:1 Then the LORD sent Nathan to David. And he came to him and said, "There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. 2 "The rich man had a great many flocks and herds. 3 "But the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb Which he bought and nourished; And it grew up together with him and his children. It would eat of his bread and drink of his cup and lie in his bosom, And was like a daughter to him. 4 "Now a traveler came to the rich man, And he was unwilling to take from his own flock or his own herd, To prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him; Rather he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him."
5 Then David’s anger burned greatly against the man, and he said to Nathan, "As the LORD lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die. 6 "He must make restitution for the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and had no compassion." 7 Nathan then said to David, "You are the man! Thus says the LORD God of Israel, `It is I who anointed you king over Israel and it is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 `I also gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your care, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these! 9 `Why have you despised the word of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon.”
V13: “Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." And Nathan said to David, "The LORD also has taken away your sin; you shall not die.”
There are several key points to this story that you and I need to pay special attention to.
The first is found in verse 5 of Chapter 12. “the man who has done this deserves to die.”
The second is found in v. 13, “I have sinned.”
The third is found in v. 13 also, “The Lord has taken away your sin; you shall not die.”
Lets examine why these are so important to our subject today, and how they help us answer the question of “Why do I worship?”
I worship Because I deserved to die for my sin - is the righteous pronouncement by God upon every person who sins.
The bible says that the “wages of sin is death.”
Now, doesn’t that sound awfully severe for sin? But it was the penalty for our first parents, Adam and Eve. They were designed to not die, and they chose to meet their own needs, to act like they were God, and as a result they were separated from God.
The ‘death” we speak of isn’t physical, although the physical death is a very clear mirror of the spiritual death that we are speaking about.
The death we speak of is separation from God. It is eternal and it is spiritual.
We all deserve to die for our sin.
Our wages we earn is death for our sin. And all of us have sinned.
“I worship because you have led me to acknowledge my sin.”
David had always known he’d sinned against God, but after this conversation with Nathan, the weight of his sin sunk in. He became very aware that God knows. What do you do when you know that God knows?
His predecessor, King Saul, had denied his sin when confronted by a prophet, and lost his kingdom because of his stubbornness.
David responds differently. The words of Nathan had to be like a punch to his mid-section. His heart is broken, his defenses are crushed.
It is amazing what being “caught in your sin” does to your illusion of self-righteousness.
Some folks will continue to create bigger lies to cover up their lies.
Like, “it depends on what the meaning of “is” is.”
But those who recognize their sin, allow the light to not only expose their sin, but to bring them to their knees.
I have heard of wives saying, “he is only repentant because he got caught.”
That is very true. Most folks will not repent until they are caught! By then it can become tragic, as in David’s case. He hadn’t just committed adultery, he had murdered one of his nation’s heroes.
And sin has its consequences, which cannot be avoided. Damaged relationships and destroyed reputations are the fallout from hidden sin.
This is because sin always destroys.
Here is the good news: “I worship because you have taken away my sin and died in my place”
When David confessed his sin, he met God’s judgment, but it was tempered with mercy.
Yes it is true that the first part of Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death;" as I quoted early in this message, but the last part says, "but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
David was suffered consequences of his sin - It cost him his son and his reputation.
But David didn’t get what he really deserved. He got mercy. In fact, he got what he didn’t deserve: He got forgiveness.
Mercy – not getting what we deserve.
Grace – getting what we don’t deserve.
But in the midst of God’s judgment, His grace flowed freely. His sin was forgiven. Grace was extended.
That is the power of confession.
In the midst of confession, God’s grace freely flows and gives us what we don’t deserve-forgiveness and his mercy falls down on us and doesn’t give us what we do deserve-death.
Without confession, there is no forgiveness.
Without forgiveness, there is no worship.
The next point in this sermon is found in Psalm 51, a great poetic prayer of David as he reflects upon God’s response to his sin.
Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
Verse three describes most of us when we have sinned and we regret it. We desire to be clean and free of our sin, but its memory stays with us.
It describes the feeling of guilt and shame for our actions.
It also describes the way we sometimes beat ourselves up over and over for failing to obey in some area of our life.
I believe that when we do this “beating ourselves up” that we are actually trying to “pay” some of the price that our sin demands.
But we cannot pay. The penalty is death. There is nothing I can pay for this sin with.
Until I come to grips with this fact, I am helpless. I am condemned. I am without hope.
4 Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge.
How could David say, ‘Against You alone have I sinned” when he clearly sinned against Uriah, and Bathsheba?
Because at the root of his sin was self-worship and self-glory.
It wasn’t just the adultery or the murder. Those were sin. Horrible sins.
David is saying what we all must say. “I am wrong. You are right. My sin is really against you. But my real sin was in desiring to glorify myself and be god and not glorify You.”
We cannot minimize our sin, saying, “It was just once this week, Lord…see, I’m doing better.”
That isn’t what owning our sin is about. That is minimizing it. That is excusing it.
True confession says, “I have sinned, I am wrong.”
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. 6 Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. 7 Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which You have broken rejoice. 9 Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
A pure heart and steadfast spirit. It has to be God’s work. I cannot create a new person. I cannot change my own heart. It is a God work. And it will only come as I come in my weakness to Him and acknowledge my sin and inability to change, until you come to the end of yourself and your self-rule.
Can you see your inability to change? Can you see that you cannot do it? That all your reasons for trying to change are self-oriented and not God oriented?
When God alone is your reason for hating sin, then you will find victory.
11 Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You. 14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness. 15 O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Your praise. 16 For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. 18 By Your favor do good to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem. 19 Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices, In burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then young bulls will be offered on Your altar.
Finally David experiences the forgiveness that comes with confession. He has surrendered his heart back to God. He realizes that his sin’s root was in self-worship and glory. And as he experiences the truth that he doesn’t receive what he deserves, he worships.
Are you worshipping? Has Jesus paid the price for your sins? If you confess them to Him He promise to…”If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
The broken and contrite heart is what God seeks in worship.
Not perfection.
Not pretense.
Not self-preservation.
Not hiding of sin.
God wants the real you. He already knows you. He knows every secret sin. Will you surrender those to Him now? Will you come to Him for forgiveness and freedom?
Here is a very important point about forgiveness causing me to worship.
Why are you repenting and confessing your sin?
Because of shame?
Because you were caught?
Because you want to feel better about yourself?
These are shallow reasons for worship, because they are about FEELING FORGIVEN rather than about worshipping God.
We want the weight off our shoulders so we confess.
That is good, the Holy Spirit wants us to confess our sins.
But we must go one step further. Our motive must not be for ourselves.
It must be to honor and bring glory to God with our lives BECAUSE He paid the highest price we can imagine for our sin.
He gave His only son to pay the price that sin deserved…DEATH.
Catch a vision of Jesus on the cross and you will see the COST of your sin.
He says, “I will pay it for you. I will die in your place.”
Guilt – we don’t let it go!
Dietrich Bonhoffer said that guilt is one of the hardest idols to ever break down or let go of. Because we carry our guilt around with us and it’s almost as if we say, "You know God, you can’t love me because I am so bad, and so by dwelling on my past, I am going to prove that I am beyond your forgiveness."
There is nothing so bad that God cannot forgive. God wants to forgive. The problem is with us.
Admit your sin like David did in Psalm 51:3 "For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me." ( KJV)
Request forgiveness like David did in Psalm 51:1-2 "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. [2] Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin." (KJV)
Invite God to change your life like David did in Psalm 51:10 "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." (KJV)
Will you ask for your joy back like David did in Psalm 51:12 "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit." Do you wonder where the joy of the Christian life went? Could it be that you have lost sight of the free gift of Jesus and the price he alone could pay?
