Draw Near | Moved To Worship (October 6th, 2019) - Mike Armstrong

If you would uh turn in your Bibles now to uh Psalm 145.

Psalm 145.

We are uh finishing up, wrapping up our uh our fall series, the series that we launched uh uh our our fall uh ministry year with, and it's called Draw Near, and talking about what that is all about as we draw near to the Lord.

So Psalm 145 is uh is how we're bringing it home uh today.

So as you're getting turned there, um I don't know if you saw this uh on the news this week, but uh one of the most uh moving uh moments I have seen in a really long time uh was uh in a video that went viral uh earlier this week.

All right, it all stemmed uh from a tragic incident in uh 2018 uh where a young man named Botham Jean was tragically shot and killed by Dallas police officer uh Amber Geiger when she uh mistakenly entered his apartment uh instead of her own.

Uh the situation uh has inflamed uh racial tension between the black community and police, as you can uh imagine.

Uh now where this story took a particularly shocking turn uh was just again this week when Brandt Jean, the brother of the victim, uh spoke at Officer Geiger's sentencing.

And uh because as at yeah, he's a believer, he's a Christian, and he told her in front of everybody that he had forgiven her.

Even saying that he hoped that the court would not send her to jail, uh, that he wanted the best for her, even saying that um, again, that she would not spend time in prison, even going as far as to say that he really wished that he would, she would devote her life to Christ.

Pretty amazing.

He said that this is what his slain brother Botham would have wanted.

And after uh telling the officer that he even loved her as a person, uh was pretty wild.

He actually asked the judge if it would be appropriate for him to get down off the stand, go over and give her a hug.

Now, the judge uh allowed this to take place.

I believe we have a uh a picture of this uh on the screen of this moment, so you can kind of see it uh there.

Um pretty amazing.

Uh my son Wyatt and I were watching this uh uh on my phone on the couch earlier this week, and uh the the judge herself was uh was moved to tears, and as it goes, she actually uh stepped down from her bench and way went and gave the officer uh her own Bible and told her to read uh John 3, 16.

What a powerful uh example of what Christ has done for us, right?

Amazing.

Right?

This kind of response, if you think about it, from from Brant Jean, the brother, is is really only possible truly, uh, because the gospel has had a uh major and profound impact on his own life.

Right?

And as uh Wyatt and I uh watched this unfold, both of us, I mean, we were just so, so moved.

And and he was like, Man, I gotta go show mom uh this video.

This is incredible.

Now, I uh I share this with you uh this morning because our our series has been about drawing near to the Lord, right?

And being moved within, right, within our our hearts is something that really should happen, right?

That's something that should happen in you and I as we get close to him, right?

As we experience his goodness, right?

His power in our lives, his loving kindness, right?

As we draw near to him, it it moves us, okay, ultimately, to worship.

Right?

That's the effect that it has.

And I mean, we definitely see this in King David's life.

I mean, you you think about the different experiences that that David had in the course of his life and his relationship with God.

I mean, you think about kind of the epic story of David and Goliath, right?

And how God gave Goliath uh into the hands of David, and the victory was Israel.

You can just imagine the elation and the jubilation in that moment as the Lord provided for him.

And I mean, again, it was just uh the other week that we talked about, you know, a real low point in David's life as well, and his sin with Bathsheba, and just, you know, the repentance that he had to go through, and and and how the Lord uh drew near to David in that, as David repented and humbled himself and drew near to him.

We saw the, you know, we know many ups and downs throughout his life, right?

From the victories in battle and the difficulties with his his sons as they grew older, right?

As as he drew near to the Lord and as as God drew near to him, you know, and he you know experienced the satisfaction in all of that, it moved David, right?

It moved him to offer his worship, right?

To to offer his praise.

And so again, we see this in Psalm 145.

The entire psalm is an incredible one, and I commend it to you.

I'm just gonna read uh the first uh three verses here this morning.

Join along with me.

It says, I will extol you, my God and king, and bless your name forever and ever.

Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.

Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.

Lord, as your church uh gathers here this morning, Father, and uh we come before you, Lord.

We Lord, we want to honestly, we want to worship you, Lord.

We want this to be something that comes from our hearts.

We want this uh to be something that is real and authentic, Lord.

We want this uh to be just the kind of the natural outpouring of a week that has been, you know, with you, Lord, walking with you closely.

Lord, we know that we don't do that perfectly.

We know that we stumble, trip, and fall all over ourselves uh many different times.

And so, Lord, we praise you for your grace.

Uh, we thank you for forgiveness, we thank you for the redemption that is found in Jesus.

And so, Lord, I pray that as we talk about these things, we look at the, you know, a great example that David is for us, Lord, I pray that you would stir up passion in us, Lord.

I pray that we would be truly moved in our hearts as your Holy Spirit is working in us to give you glory, to give you honor, to give you praise.

Father, we pray all of these things in the matchless name of Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, in this series already that we've been kind of going through, we've covered some uh really key aspects of drawing near to God.

Right?

You might remember the launch just about a month ago now was uh about drawing near to God being the number one priority of our lives, right?

Is that like, is that the thing that we are going after?

Right?

Every other thing that we that we like to do and have to do in life are important things, many of them anyways, uh, but they're all to be kind of slotted, you know, in line underneath or behind this number one priority of going after Jesus full out.

Are we doing that?

Right?

Are there things that have kind of taken precedent over pursuing the Lord?

Other things have become our first priority.

Lots for us to think through with that.

Right?

We also looked at how our our sin is really the barrier that blocks us from enjoying intimacy with Christ.

Right?

Sin is the thing that gets in the way.

If we want to be close to the Lord, if we want to draw close to him, we we have to deal with that.

We have to we have to face that.

We can't, you know, kind of throw a rug over that and pretend that it's you know it's all good.

We we've we've got to deal with it.

And and the topic there that day was was brokenness.

Again, looking at the story of David, how brokenness is required.

Are we willing to invite brokenness uh into our hearts?

Are we willing to allow the Lord to break us?

If we sense that the Lord is breaking us and he is bringing conviction into our lives, and he's pointing out some of the things that aren't right and need to go and need to be confessed.

Are we softening our hearts?

Are we allowing the Lord to move?

Or do we do we harden our hearts?

Do we continue to push against him?

Brokenness is pretty key if we want to be close to the Lord.

We also looked at some of the awesome benefits of our salvation and being near God, right?

And the benefits of uh of what it means to know him and all the great things that he gives us and the reality of that.

Because I mean, again, as as tricky and as challenging as as life can be, and as outright brutal and difficult as life can be, um, it shouldn't all be that, right?

We should be enjoying our relationship with God.

There's an immense joy to be found uh in knowing him and being close with him.

Right?

And then, of course, it was just last week that we looked at the sweet security that is found in being close to the Lord, being near the Most High.

Remember, we looked at these titles, right?

That God is almighty, you know, and being near him in his shelter, right?

And in his shadow, as as life is difficult, we can go to him and he protects us and he shows us his power, and we see there that he's with us in the battle and our hope is found in him.

Now, I think it just kind of makes sense here that you know if if these things are happening in our lives and and you know, and we are pursuing those things and being near the Lord, and again, we don't do that perfectly and we stumble and and fall down plenty of times, but if we're like honestly searching for these things and pursuing this and the Lord is growing us, I think really the the inevitable outcome of being near God is is that you and I will be fired up to worship.

Right?

We really will.

You know, our worship won't be just some you know kind of you know forced thing.

It won't just be this mechanical kind of stiff in wooden thing.

It wouldn't be done out of out of guilt or or out of legalism.

You know, I feel like I better worship the Lord so that you know he can give me his favor.

Like we're trying to earn that.

You know, I need his love, so therefore I'll jump through a bunch of hoops, worship being one of them, and therefore God will forgive me or or or show me his love.

No, we already have all of those things through the gospel by way of our relationship with Jesus, right?

So our worship won't be any of these things.

No, we'll we'll be moved if we're actually close to him.

We'll be genuinely and passionately propelled forward to worship our amazing creator and and king.

And again, this is where David's really at here in this psalm.

And so you know we've already read it.

Let's just kind of jump into this here.

We've got uh two kind of points this morning.

If uh if you're taking notes, uh here's the first thing.

All right, when I draw near to God, it moves me to worship as I resolve to bless his name always.

All right, now you can definitely tell here as you kind of read this that David is is definitely moved uh within his heart, right?

He is he is provoked in his spirit.

And here's what he says in verse one.

Take a look at it.

It says this It says, I I will extol you.

Okay, those those first two words there, I I will.

He actually uses them twice in this verse, and and it conveys uh you know a focus, right?

This determined uh this this this driven resolve.

Right?

I I will do this.

This is something that I am committed to.

I mean, you can just imagine here that that David is compelled by by just a jaw-dropping reality that you know he get gets to be near a God like this.

I get to be near him, and this is amazing.

I'm I'm compelled by that and and and kind of blown away that this God, you know, actually wants to be near uh somebody like me.

Right?

And because of that truth, because of that amazing reality, he's stirred within, and he decides, I'm gonna declare my worship.

This is what I will do.

He can't hold it back.

Right?

He can tell that he wouldn't even want to.

Right?

It's just natural, it flows, it comes out.

And then, of course, you see how he uses that word, extol.

I don't know when the last time was that you use that word in just your everyday language, uh, but extol is really just a synonym uh for praise, right?

It's just a synonym for worship.

He actually uses a number of synonyms uh here uh throughout these three verses, as we'll see as we go.

Uh, but it really means uh proclaim.

Right?

I'm gonna proclaim.

This is uh this was actually uh written as a song.

You see that in the note there, likely in your uh copy of the Bible there at the very uh top of Psalm uh 145.

He's like, I will proclaim this, I will sing this out.

Well, what is he proclaiming?

He's he's proclaiming how how high and you know how how God is above all else.

Where he's above everything.

Now, he doesn't just mean that in terms of God's position, though that is certainly true, but really in terms of his superiority of his greatness, right?

Compared to everything else, anything you can name, anything you can think of, anything you can see or can't see, God is superior to all of it, everything, everything.

This is this is what he wants to praise and sing and and extol God for.

And if you keep going there in the verse, he calls him uh my God and king.

Right?

So you see how he's he's personalizing that?

Right?

He knows that the Lord is not some like you know, standoffish being.

Right?

That the world doesn't exist over here, and God is like, you know, way over here, and you know, just kind of aloof and you know, just kind of letting the world just kind of roll and turn and work out however it's gonna work out.

No, he he he he sees that that Yahweh is is his God, right?

This is deeply personal for him.

He's my king.

Right?

There you can tell there's a relationship there for David with God, right?

There's an attachment, there's uh there's a closeness there.

And so David, he has this profound sense of being near to the Lord, right?

And experiencing the joy of God's presence.

You ever experience the joy of God's presence when you sense that like the Lord is near you?

That's that's like the sweetest thing ever.

Right?

There's there's nothing, but nothing touches that.

And that's what David is experiencing.

He's he's my God, he he is my king.

We are close, yet, and you know, at the same time, he's he's recognizing that there is a hierarchy here.

Right?

God is king and and David is servant.

Okay, but far from that being a negative concept, I know our day and age, we don't like authority at all, but far from this being a negative concept for David, it actually moves him to even more deeper worship.

All right, look what he says.

He says, He says, I will I will bless your name forever and ever.

Every day I will.

You see that resolve again, right?

I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.

Now, a couple of things there.

Okay, first of all, that word bless, again, it's used twice uh in that verse, it's it's really another synonym, right?

We said there would be a few of those.

It's another synonym for worship, and and specifically it refers to uh speaking well of God.

Okay, I will bless you, I will, I will bless your name, means that I will say things that are good and true about you, and not just about you, but to you.

David says a couple of times there, he says, I will do this forever and ever.

Right?

I will do this always, right?

Which indicates that you know, as as Christians, worship is something that you and I uh will participate in and get to participate in for all eternity.

Now, I don't know about you, but I kind of find that uh kind of encouraging that you know, as as weak and as you know, easily distracted and you know, as lacking as my worship can often be in, you know, kind of any given day, you know, I think that's sort of just a result of, let's be honest, we live in a fallen world.

Right?

We live in a fallen world.

We're distracted by all kinds of things, we've got sin in our lives, all of that.

I find it encouraging, it's encouraging to me to know that someday soon I'm gonna be able to, you know, stand face to face with Christ in glory and worship, right?

And just the purity of that experience and those moments and you know, and all the other dross and all the other negativity and all the other nonsense, let's be honest, of sometimes life in this world, we're not gonna experience that.

Right?

And we're just gonna, it's gonna be pure and we're gonna see him and we're gonna be able to express our worship and our joy and give him glory, just free of any shortcomings.

Right?

And the purity of that worship experience in heaven, that that's something that we'll that we'll get to do.

We're gonna want to do that.

That's that is what our heart is gonna be moved to do.

We're gonna want to do it, you know, not just once, not just a thousand times, we're gonna wanna do it constantly, always, right?

He says, forever and ever.

Now, just because our expressions of worship, you know, here and now will always pale in comparison to what it'll be like in glory, right?

It doesn't exactly mean that we're off the hook today from growing in that in the here and now.

Right?

Because it says there in verse 2, take a look at this.

It says, every day, right?

Every day, meaning, you know, today.

It means means tomorrow.

It means, you know, the day after that, and every every day that I have the blessing of life, I will bless you and praise your name.

So, okay, given all of that, we looked at that, read that.

How are we doing with this, church?

How are we doing?

Do we do we bless his name always?

Are we continually doing that?

Now, I think if if we're even half honest, I think we would readily admit, like, no, this is this is not happening for me.

Not constantly, not always, and and certainly never perfectly.

Might even be thinking, after all, like who has the time to do that?

Right?

Who has the time to just you know sing worship songs all day?

Right?

Like I like I've got a job, man, like I've got a family to take care of.

Uh, you know, there's other interests, there's other things I've got going on in my life.

I I can't just you know sit in a room and you know sing songs and you know do that all the time.

That's not really reality.

And well, of course, um, that's not exactly all that worship is, right?

It's it's a little bit um more than that.

It's certainly not limited to the songs that we sing.

Now, I love this from uh John Piper.

I think he gives us a very uh simple yet helpful definition of worship to kind of help us understand this a little bit.

Uh, and so we're gonna have this on the screen for you.

But here's how he describes it.

He says that it is displaying worth to God.

Right?

That's pretty tight and succinct, I think.

That's what worship is.

It's displaying worth to God.

Now he goes on to describe it, you see it there, as the the inner, inner valuing of God that becomes visible outwardly.

I love that.

Okay, so this this is where our our hearts, okay?

Our our hearts treasure the Lord.

Right?

Like we we we love him, we treasure, we value him, and and then and then our actions inevitably reflect that.

Okay, like how can you tell if someone loves sports?

Right?

Like, how can you tell this?

Well, because you can see them like wearing the Raptors hat.

Right?

They've got the Kawhi jersey, they've got the Austin Matthews jersey on.

Notice how I'm pro-Toron sports.

Okay?

They watch the game, they watch the games at home, they they go to the games, they talk about the game.

Hey, did you see that?

Right?

It comes out of them.

It's obvious to them.

How can you tell if if someone loves a band?

Well, probably because they listen to the music and you can either hear them singing it, maybe not always well, right?

Or they're playing that music, they've got it in their earbuds, they go to the concerts, they, you know, they wear the band t-shirt, they've got that kind of thing going on.

Right?

What we value inwardly comes out of us.

Does that make sense?

That's worship.

Right?

That's how uh it works, that's what it is.

Okay, and and really, this is why we talk about the heart so much around here.

Right?

Because actual worship is so much more than mouthing words to a song, right?

So much more than showing up into a building where someone is playing a guitar and singing music, right?

It's it's far more than that.

It's more than the 30 minutes or so that we give it in a service, right?

Though all of that stuff is so important, right?

It's to be to be an expression of our worship, the singing, the giving, all of that.

But we have to understand that that worship begins with valuing, right?

Valuing, admiring, uh, treasuring, cherishing God in our hearts.

Right?

That's that that's where worship originates.

That's where it begins.

Right?

If you and I don't do that, if we don't have that going on in our hearts, then all the singing, right, all the music, all the worship albums that we have downloaded onto our devices, all the money that we might put in the offering, all of those things, all of it is in is in vain.

Right?

All of it at the end of the day doesn't really matter in the sense that it's not actually worshipful.

It's not.

Jesus actually pointed that out to us very clearly in Matthew chapter 15, and this verse kind of smoked me this week.

Matthew 15 · chapter mention

It says, uh, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is where?

Far from me.

And he says, In vain do they worship me.

See, the concern here, not just my concern, God's concern, is that we would hear, you know, kind of bits and pieces or parts of this message, and our takeaway would be to resolve to, you know, merely do the outward things.

Right?

Like I'm gonna I'm gonna actually sing out loud during the service, right?

I'm gonna sing louder, I'm gonna, I'm gonna raise my hand higher, I'm gonna scrunch my eyes up tighter during the bridge and during the chorus of that song that I like, and and and that's gonna be the thing I resolve to do.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna give you know greater amounts, I'm gonna give more often in the offering, all of that.

Okay?

But the concern would be that in our resolve, it would be really just improving superficial things.

You know, where outwardly these acts may look impressive, but inwardly we're unmoved.

True biblical worship only happens as as you and I draw near to God.

Right?

That that that's it.

Drawing near to him.

And then it's really, you know, who he is, right?

And and and what he has done and and and the amazing reality of the gospel, that begins to transform our hearts, right?

That that begins to move us and change us, and our and our desires actually transform.

And from from there, you know, we from there we resolve to sing, right?

From there we resolve to you know love God hard, right?

From from there we did we resolve to to give.

Right?

All of those expressions of worship at that point, then they become legitimate, right?

Then they become real and then they become natural.

Where we don't even really have to think about it.

We don't, we, we it just kind of happens organically.

Right?

You ever experienced that before in your walk with the Lord?

Where you're like you're so close to him, and you're like, man, I I need to praise him, I need to, I need to thank him.

Right?

I I want to do whatever it takes to pour into the church and and show God's love to other people.

I want to make much of him, I want to devote my life to him.

Right?

Why do you think there's stories of people who who leave the workforce and decide to go like plant a church?

Right?

Not because they're gonna make money doing that, right?

Not because it's it's easier, it's because the Lord has compelled them, he's transformed their hearts to go do something like that.

Right, we're compelled by the Holy Spirit to worship.

That's what's that's what's happening in David here.

Right?

So as you think about your you know, your own individual and and personal response to these things, just consider again the you know, kind of the four topics, the four main buckets, if you will, of the things that we've covered over the last four weeks.

Right?

Is God my number one priority?

Right?

I I heard that message a little while ago.

Have I have actually changed?

Have I actually surrendered the things that that vie for the throne?

Have I surrendered those things to the Lord?

If I confess those, and am I broken?

Am I willing to be broken?

Am I crying out to the Lord to soften my heart, create in me a clean heart?

As I'm drawing near to him, am I experiencing the benefits of my relationship with him?

When life is difficult and tough?

Do I go to him?

Do I look for my security in him, or am I looking for my security in other things?

Am I resolving to truly worship and bless his name?

None of that can really happen unless these things are happening.

Right?

We must be near him for this to all kind of work, quote unquote.

Second thing here, final thing.

When I draw near to God and it moves me to worship, right, as I resolve to bless his name always, second thing, because of his great because his greatness reveals how worthy he is.

Okay, take a look at verse 3.

It says, Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.

Because the Lord is so astonishingly great, right?

Our our mindset, our our our attitude, and the attitude of our hearts should be to worship him greatly, right?

To go hard after that, meaning that when you know it comes to our inner adoration and the resulting outward expressions of that, you and I, we should be absolutely flooring it.

Right, right?

The pedal should be mashed to the floor here, just going full out in praise to the Lord.

And not just talking about the volume of our voices exactly, but but again, the passion in our souls that that comes out.

Because he's worthy, right?

He's worthy of nothing less than absolutely everything that we've got.

We definitely see his worthiness here in the next part of that.

Look what it says.

It says, in his greatness is unsearchable.

That his greatness is unsearchable is not to say that you can't find evidence of his greatness anywhere.

You can't find it, so don't even bother searching for it.

No, that's not what it's saying at all.

Right?

Examples of his greatness exist all over the place, right?

On every single page of scripture, you can see multiple aspects and components of God's greatness.

You know, you know, in the different, you know, every you know, different places you can go in creation.

You look outside, you you go into the mountains, you you know, go to the desert, you go to the ocean, you just see, man, the glories of his creation, the greatness of our God.

Right?

We think about the different ways that God has moved and worked in our lives and all the different stories that we could tell of how he has moved and worked.

His greatness exists everywhere.

It really does.

It's really to say when speaking of his greatness being unsearchable, it's that it's inexhaustible.

Right?

It's unlimited, it is it is infinite.

Okay, you you cannot, you you you you will not ever get to the bottom of his greatness.

Isn't that amazing to think?

You won't like, you won't get to the bottom, you'll never hit the bottom of that, right?

And be like, okay, I'm done.

I've kind of got God figured out now.

That just doesn't work that way.

Right?

When when you and I get get bored or kind of disinterested in our walk with the Lord, you know, or we get kind of bored in our in our times in the word and and and reading the scriptures and all of that, and he no longer seems all that great to us.

Okay, the problem isn't God, right?

The problem isn't the Bible, the problem is that his greatness has stopped penetrating our hearts and and wowing us.

And when that happens, and because we're hardwired and created by God to worship, what we end up doing is we end up just looking elsewhere, right?

Gonna look to other things to worship, and look to other things to value and cherish and treasure.

Right?

And so we go after those things, and those things become the idols of our hearts.

Those are the things that we see and think are worthy of our attention and our affection and our praise.

And so, really, what we want to do here this morning is kind of take an off, take the opportunity to stoke that fire of worship again.

And trust that that has already been happening as God's spirit moves.

I'm gonna pray here in just a second for us, and and as I'm doing that, I would invite you to you know, even join me kind of in your spirit as I'm praying, and you know, agree you know, in your own heart and in your own mind with what I will pray and use as an opportunity to praise the Lord.

You know, thank God for his greatness and how worthy he is of our praise, of our worship.

And then when we're done with that, we're gonna actually express our worship in a couple of different ways.

Right?

Some of you might have been thinking, well, hold on a second, did we forget to do the offering today?

No, we didn't.

It's just that our offering is it's an expression of worship, right?

So it's supposed it's to be a worshipful thing.

And so we're gonna take an offering, the worship team uh is going to come up, we're gonna sing a number of songs, and we're gonna allow our hearts to be stirred by this.

We're gonna praise the Lord.

Let's pray together.

Lord, we thank you for this time.

Lord, we thank you for your goodness to us, Lord.

We thank you for your greatness.

Lord, we thank you for how we can see it even just with our own eyes today, and being in a new location and having all of that uh taken care of, Lord, that is a good gift, and that is evidence of your greatness, Lord.

I know that if we were to stop and even just begin to think, Lord, it wouldn't it wouldn't take much time for us to just kind of recount, even over the last several days, how you have been great to us.

And so, Lord, we praise you for this, we thank you for this.

Lord, I pray that as we as we give an offering right now, Lord, I pray that uh this would be a moment where you are honored and you are glorified.

Father, I pray that those of us who are giving today, Lord, would give with uh hearts of joy.

Lord, we would we would give knowing that this is really all yours anyways, Lord, and it would be an expression of our trust in you, Lord, of our adoration.

And so, Father, we pray that you would be pleased by this, Lord.

I pray that uh you would be honored as as we sing, Father.

I pray that our voices would be lifted up to you, Lord.

We pray that you would be glorified.

We pray these things in the powerful name of Jesus.

Amen.