Living a Good Life: The Rhythm of Worship, Part 3

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Did God require a different kind of worship in the Old Testament than in the New? What does true worship look like? What does it mean to worship God? And what foolish pitfalls must we watch for as we cultivate a rhythm of worship? These are questions that Pastor Rich answers from Ecclesiastes 5, 1-7 in this sermon series titled, Living a Good Life, Making Sense of the Journey. If you'd like to hear more messages from this series, you can go to www.delightingrace.com. Today is the final part of the message, Ecclesiastes 5, 1-7.

It was first preached at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem on April 22nd, 2018. He wants you. He wants all your heart and all your mind.

He wants you. So let's be very careful that we don't come in here and just engage in doing worship. Meanwhile, our hearts and our minds are somewhere else. What we do in here is completely detached from what we do outside of these walls. And when we leave these walls, let's make sure that the things that we do are not utterly detached from what we have gained in here. Worship is not relegated to this.

It's not limited to this place. We worship throughout the course of the week and when we come together, then we worship with each other. What are the outcomes of foolish worship?

We go through these quickly. Verse 1 says very clearly we're doing evil because we start engaging in behavior that is not informed by God's self-disclosure and we're giving glory to self and not God. That's the result of foolish worship. Also, God has no pleasure in it.

I've said that before. Proverbs 21, 3, to do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. You see, God cares about the heart.

He's got that stethoscope on the heart. And Jesus quoted Isaiah 29, 13. Isaiah 29, 13, people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips while their hearts are far from me. You see, that doesn't impress God at all. In fact, this sort of thing is an affront to the holiness of God. It is odious to Him.

And we see that a lot in the Minor Prophets where God says, take it away. I don't want it. I don't want you just going through the motions. I don't want you to come and just do worship. Meanwhile, your hearts, your treasure is somewhere else.

I don't want that. It is odious to God. In fact, it becomes useless. Look at verse 6 with me again. Let not your mouth lead you into sin and do not save for the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? What you commit to, whatever commitment you may make or something, maybe it'll become a useless thing. And in fact, God may take away from you what you actually trust.

Because He knows you're not trusting Him. He knows He's not the treasure of your heart. God may take away what truly is the treasure of your heart just to get your attention. But also, foolish worship is empty. It's what it says in verse 7. Dreams increase and words grow many. There is vanity.

But God is the one you must fear. There is vanity. It's empty. It's void of substance. It's meaningless.

In other words, it's irrelevant. Our worship can become irrelevant. Why do you think so many people are just leaving church? Because they don't see a connection between church and their lives.

Far too many people are in that category today. God doesn't work for me. That's because they've been far too involved in the sacrifice of fools. There are two aspects of worship that we need to consider from this text. Two aspects of worship and I mentioned it already before at the beginning. Deuteronomy 5 27 says, speak to us all the Lord, all that the Lord our God will speak to you and we will hear and do it. That's the two aspects of worship.

We will hear and do it. And the two aspects of worship go very much in line with the two words that are translated to worship in Greek in the New Testament. The first aspect of worship is sensing God. Sensing God.

And the Greek word that correlates with that is proskuneo. That is draw near to listen. We hear God and we hear from beyond the sun because we are under the sun. But God is beyond the sun and we need to hear from God. You need to hear from God. I need to hear from God. I need a heart attentive to God.

Why? Because that alone is the antidote for self preoccupation. And so worship is about a heart attentive to God. Not just in here but outside these walls as well. So what does it mean to listen, to draw near, to listen to God? I'm going to quote David Gibson here.

He does a very good job with this. The orientation to perfect wholeness as an undivided worshiper starts here. Listening to God.

Here's what it looks like. You get what God says in through your ears and lodged in your mental processes and immovably part of who you are as a person. Let his truth seep into the way you look at the world.

It's a very good statement. And so again, as the truth is coming in, as you are engaging the word of God and hopefully this isn't the only place you do that. But as you're listening to hear the authoritative presentation of the word of God, are you engaging the word of God? God's got his stethoscope up to your heart right now and he's listening.

What's going on in there? Is there so much noise that you can't absorb the truth of the word of God? Let's be careful that that doesn't become reality. You need reference from beyond the sun because we live under the sun. And if we don't have reference from beyond the sun, we will end up with the same kind of despair that we see described in Ecclesiastes. We need a word from God. And there is a difference between one who is a student and one who just attends the lectures.

There's a difference. And God's self-disclosure, as I've said many times, is given to us not just for our information, but for our transformation. And so when we come to the word of God in here or when you come to the word of God when you're at home, if you do it in the morning, in the middle of the day or in the evening, when you approach the word of God, God, disclose yourself to me to the degree that it changes my life, that it informs my heart and mind and alters my course of action.

It's not just for information. And if all we come here is just to hear a good resounding sermon and get some good theological and doctrinal information and be able to compliment the pastor afterwards as you're shaking his hand going out the door, if that's all it is, we're wasting our time. Because God's self-disclosure is given to us for transformation. So listen to learn, listen to learn, listen for life change, listen to be shaped to have a God-ordered life. That's worship, a God-ordered life. Romans 12, 1, present your bodies a living sacrifice.

That's a God-ordered life. And that leads us to the second sense of worship. The first aspect of worship is sensing God. Number one, sensing God, proskuneo, worship, adore, bow down, be quiet, be still and know that I am God. Second aspect of worship is serving God. Both of these, these are equal sides of the coin.

If you have a coin that just has one side on it, that coin is worthless, isn't it? Because if all you're doing is just sensing God and sensing, you want to sense more and sense more and sense more God, but it's not translating into serving God, could it be that you're offering the sacrifice of fools? Serving God. This is the word latruo. Latruo, that's the word that's used in Romans 12, 1 by the way. Reasonable service of worship. Instead of a contract, instead of, if you're worship, instead of it being a contract, it's outflow, it's fruit-bearing. Instead of doing evil, you're doing good. You're magnifying Christ, not yourself. Instead of preoccupation with self, you are focused on God's glory. Focused on God's glory means you are about pointing people to the goodness and grace and the majesty of God. That's what it means to glorify God.

That's your intent. And it means to live, to walk in a manner worthy of Him. Paul says in Philippians, several times in the New Testament, and in his prayer for the church at Colossae, that you are fully pleasing Him in every good work.

Colossians 1, 10. Serving God. This is a part of worship. So that the work of your hands, as he says in verse 6, Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? Because you've offered the sacrifice of fools.

God may take away what you're trusting. But if you present your instruments as members of righteousness, your work becomes worship. Your work becomes worship. And so, let me quote Jay Stafford Wright.

This is good. This is about our approach to God. Our worship of God, our approach to God. Our approach to God must be a realistic response to what He has shown us. That word we receive from Him. Not a wordy presentation of what we dream of for ourselves. We should put ourselves in a position to discover God and His way to use what He has given us in our daily life.

I really like that last sentence. We should put ourselves in a position to discover God and His way to use what He has given us in our daily lives. All of that is a part of worship.

All of it. If we pick and choose, we're going to be offering the sacrifice of fools. Because God is not divided. He's looking for whole worshipers. That's why Jesus said, whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

For apart from me, you can do nothing. So what comes first in that equation? What comes first is this.

Are you listening? What comes first is abiding in Him. You cannot bear much fruit unless you are abiding in Him. It has to come in that order. Otherwise you're forcing the fruit.

And that can very quickly become a sacrifice of fools. It starts with listening. It starts with listening. Draw near to listen. He begins chapter 5. Draw near to listen.

And then live in the outflow. The two senses, the two aspects of worship. Sensing God and serving God. They're both equal parts of worship. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him. The one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.