OUR LORD DEFINES TRUE WORSHIP (Outline)
July 17, 2011 -
Pentecost 5 -
ISAIAH 58:5-11
INTRO: Christian worship has taken on various forms since the creation of the world. Early believers built altars and worshipped at any place where God blessed them. Jacob worships God after his dream. Noah sacrifices after the flood. In the New Testament believers gathered daily in the temple. They also went to each other’s homes for fellowship. The Samaritan woman at the well wondered about worship. Jesus taught her. "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth" (JOHN 14:23, 24). The worship of our loving Lord is not limited to a place or space or time-frame. Our verses show us worship is a way of life.
OUR LORD DEFINES TRUE WORSHIP. I. It is more than an obligation. II. It is our shining, thankful lives.
I. OUR LORD DEFINES TRUE WORSHIP AS MORE THAN A ONE-TIME OBLIGATION
A. Verse 5. To fast is to go without food or water as a sign of sorrow and/or repentance.
1. Fasting became a sense of duty to fulfill worship requirements. Believers fasted as a show.
2. The people wanted to fast for a day and be done. Day of fasting referred to a day of worship.
B. Verse 6. There was injustice and oppression in the land. Believers were overlooking these people.
1. Verse 7. The believers were so concerned about their fasting they forget about the needy.
2. They were not to give up things for themselves. They were to give up themselves for others.
C. Verse 9b, 10a. Believers were not only to look to their love for others but also their actions + words.
D. Our lives are filled with obligations that we take seriously. We carry out our obligations with a Christian sense of duty to keep our commitments. This is a good thing, a very good thing. Sometimes the feeling of our sense of duty can become a snare. We may attend worship out of sense of duty to God. We come to worship and think: “Well, that is done for another week.” Or our daily Bible reading can very easily be done in a very wooden way. We want to get it out of the way so that we can get on with other “more important things”. Such is our sinful nature. "He replied, ‘Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: `These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.'"(MARK 7:6, 7). How hard it can be to pay close attention the entire worship service. The Bible is God’s teaching, not men’s.
E. Isaiah made quite a list of things that the believer is privileged to accomplish. Understand that all of these works of “fasting” are only done by and through faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God. Also understand that all our righteous acts are like filthy rags. It is God alone who calls us to faith. It is the Holy Spirit alone who gives us the gift of faith in our hearts for our lives. It is Jesus alone who buys us back from the power of sin, death, and the devil. "God… has saved us and called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time" (2 TIMOTHY 1:9). God has known us from before creation!
F. Our eternal salvation is always God’s gift to us not the other way around. Time and time again Scripture makes it crystal clear that we are saved by grace alone. All too many today emphasize what one must do to be saved. This is a false teaching. We cannot save ourselves. God freely, lovingly saves us by his mercy, love, grace. "(We are saved by grace) not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (EPHESIANS 2:9, 10). Today, tomorrow, and in our entire life God has prepared good things for us to do. What are they? Who will we help? How can we help? I do not know. But know this God will place someone or something in our paths to do as fruits of faith. May our eyes, ears, and lips always be open.
OUR LORD DEFINES TRUE WORSHIP. We worship as a fruit of faith not an obligation.
II. OUR LORD DEFINES TRUE WORSHIP AS OUR SHINING, THANKFUL LIVES.
A. The outward fasting of the day was being done in a wrong way and for the wrong reasons.
1. Jesus warned against fasting in his day. Some were making a great show of their fasting.
2. Verse 10. It was what was in their hearts that mattered. God’s light would shine in their lives.
3. Verse 8a. The Lord emphasizes the importance of light. Light was valuable for God’s people.
B. Verse 8b. The Lord God Almighty would direct them ahead and protect them from behind.
1. God’s glory protected Israel when trapped at the Red Sea. Egypt in the dark, Israel in the light.
2. Verse 9. In the depths of despair or defeat God’s people cry out. The Lord: “Here am I!”
C. Verse 11. The Lord would never ever forsake his people. “Here am I!” The Lord satisfies.
1. God’s people would be well watered. Water, like light, was very important in their lives.
2. There was no electricity or running water. God’s promises stand out boldly and powerfully.
D. Our heavenly Father uses such earthly examples to connect our understanding with the importance of the spiritual truths he wants us to treasure. We are in the midst of summer and overwhelming heat. Every one of us knows the importance of drinking plenty of water. Without water we thirst. The challenge for each of us is to recognize that without the water of life our souls thirst. "O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water" (PSALM 63:1). Today, we still live “in a dry and weary land where there is no water". Christianity is asked to take second place for the sake of religious freedom. This world is no friend of Christ or the gospel that waters human souls. Our land is dry and weary. We thirst for the purity of God’s word.
E. It is all the more important for believers to take to heart the Lord’s definition of true worship. The Lord would have us remember that our lives are lives of worship. Our worship lives cannot be limited to an hour on Sunday. We dare not think that Sunday is an obligation to come to fulfill our duty to God. The world is darkened by sin. Jesus is the Light of the world. Jesus is the Light in our hearts. Jesus is the Light that breaks forth from our hearts to scatter the darkness of this sinful world. "In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven"(MATTHEW 5:16). May others see in our lives shining good deeds in order to praise God’s glory.
F. How are we to reflect God’s glory? There are times when our lives may not seem so glorious. After a few days the heat of summer can take its toll. We can get a bit grumpy. Will our crabbiness glorify our heavenly Father? How are we to shine in our own sinful lives? "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness" (COLOSSIANS 2:6, 7). Thankful people do shine brightly.
CONC: Our spiritual act of worship is a lifetime of loving the Lord who first loved us. Our lifetime of loving the Lord leads us to love our fellow man. We worship God in church. We worship God in our daily reading and study of God’s word. We worship God as we reflect the glory of God in our thankful lives. "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased" (HEBREWS 13:15, 16). OUR LORD DEFINES TRUE WORSHIP. True worship is more than a day of obligation. It is more than a sense of duty that we have to do. True worship is our way of life that shines with thankfulness and brings glory to our heavenly father. Amen.
Pastor Timm O. Meyer
PENTECOST 5 rdgs: JEREMIAH 20:7-13; ROMANS 5:12-15; MATTHEW 10:24-33; (PSALM 31)
SERVICES: 1:00pm @ NCF Min. (Sat)/12:00pm @ NCF Medium (Sun) / 9:30am @ Redeemer (Sun) / 7:00pm @ Hays (Sun)
BIBLE STUDIES: 10:55am @ Redeemer (SUN) / 6:00pm (Min) + 7:30pm (Med) @ NCF (TUES.)
/ Sunday radio broadcast @ 9:05am on KQNK 106.7FM or 1530AM, www.kqnkradio.com
