Welcome to Delight in Grace. The Teaching Ministry of Rich Powell. pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Mankind, made in the image of God. cannot help but worship.
It's built into us. The question for each of us is, who or what will we worship? Deuteronomy 12 gives a portrait of what it looks like to worship the Lord God of the Bible. In this message titled A People Who Worship You Shall Rejoice in the Lord, Pastor Rich lays out seven principles for worshiping our Lord God. Let's listen in.
This is part two of a message first preached on July 14th, 2024 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. That doesn't mean that sensation is not a part of worship, but our worship is to be anchored in objective truth, God's self-disclosure. And the worship. That we exercise is not a human construction. It is a divine ordination.
This chapter makes that very clear. We were made to delight And so that's why in our worship we come here to make much of God. We also come here to hear from him so that his revelation shapes our lives. And when we leave here, our worship continues so that our lives reflect Him. That's worship.
Number three, our worship of God is to be with a corporate centrality. A corporate centrality. Look at verse five with me in the text. But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go.
Now, again, this is under the Mosaic law. And God set up a place, the tent of meeting, the place where his name would dwell. And his name being there was the fact that his presence was there. God was among his people, and he called his people together to worship in a particular place. There's reasons for that.
This tent, the tabernacle that they had at this time, was the tent of meeting. Why was the corporate centrality important? Why were people called to come together to worship at a particular place? Four reasons among many. Number one, unity.
It promoted the unity of the people. Secondly, It promoted community among the people. Community. Community. Working together, we commune together.
We fellowship with each other. We do life together. We worship together. Because we serve the same God. It also provided stability.
Stability. For the people, for the nation. It provided stability. And then lastly, accuracy. We need to make sure that our worship is accurate according to God's prescription.
to make sure that it is indeed anchored in God's revelation. Accuracy. You'll remember in Psalm 73, the psalmist is looking at people. He's a follower of God, and he's looking at the wicked who couldn't care less about God. He's not on their thoughts, but they seem to be prospering.
They're doing just fine, they're comfortable. And he's like, all this suffering that I'm enduring and I'm a follower of God, they couldn't care less about God, and they seem to be just fine. What's up with that? That's a Rich Powell translation. And he says, it about ruined me until what?
I went into the sanctuary of God and there what I considered their end. There it is, truth, objective truth. God's revelation. Accuracy. Accuracy.
So bring that over now to the New Testament. God does not have one specific place for all of his people to work. That'd be pretty hard because the Christian church is a global faith, right? But he does call us together to worship. That's why we're here this morning.
Corporate worship is a vital element of the New Testament church. That's why The church in the New Testament, the metaphors for the church are a family. A building. A body. That vital connection, the oneness.
That is there. It was Jesus' prayer, if you'll remember, recorded in John chapter 17. The night he was betrayed, the night before he was crucified, he prayed for us. He prayed for us that night. What did he pray for?
That we would be one. That's what he prayed for. 1 John 4, 12. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us.
That's powerful. You have to be together to love one another. Right. We are called the assembly of God. It's assumed that God's people come together.
God's people gather. The you in the New Testament, so many times the pronoun you speaking of the church is in the plural. For example, 1 Corinthians 6, 19. Do you not know that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit? Who is in you?
And you are purchased at a price. You are not your own. All of those, you, every one of them, are in the plural. Those are all plural U's. What we must understand is the church's people.
We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. God dwells among us. He dwells in us. And so we are called together into harmonious unity.
So we see. That in the Old Testament covenant. The Mosaic covenant, there was a corporate centrality to worship, but there is. Also in the New Testament. corporate centrality.
Our worship of God must be that way. And that contrasts to a church called the First Recliner Fellowship. You've been there, First Recliner Fellowship? It's like the high places in the shrines. They're just doing their own thing, doing what's right in their own eyes.
And the Lord says in verse 8. Don't just do what's right in your own eyes. You are called together as God's people. If you're a member of First Recliner Fellowship, You struggle to be under the authority of God's word. You struggle to be accountable to God's people, to God's ordained leaders.
And staying away is not love.
Well, enough of that. Number four. Our worship of God is to be rooted in sacrifice. rooted in sacrifice. Look at verse 6 to 16 with me, only you shall not eat the blood, you shall pour it out on the earth like water.
You may not eat within your towns. And he mentions also in verse 23, in verse 27, he talks about blood quite a bit. in this chapter. What is the blood? What is the significance of the blood?
Why does he say, don't eat the blood? Why? Because the life is in the blood. That helps us understand the significance of the blood. And some people would come in and we sing about blood, we talk about blood, we preach about blood.
What's all this blood stuff? It's sacrifice, that's what it is. And when blood is spilt, what it's meaning is. For a forfeited life, life has been forfeited. Sacrifice.
And our worship of God must be rooted in sacrifice. That's why there were many, so many sacrifices in the Old Covenant, in the Old Testament. Levitical worship system. because they foreshadowed. the reality that would come in Jesus Christ.
Good verse verse twenty three with me. Only be sure that you do not eat the blood for the life. For the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life. With the flesh, and then look down at verse 27, and offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your sacrifice shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God.
but the flesh you may eat. A forfeited life. All of this foreshadowing the reality that would come in Jesus Christ. Sacrifice was necessary. Why?
Because it reminds us of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man, the sin that separates us from God. Because the Bible tells us very clearly that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. Sacrifice. Hebrews tells us that the Lord Jesus entered the Holy of Holies not with the blood of goats. or bulls.
He entered with what? His own blood. He forfeited his own life. John tells us the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. And the night that he was betrayed.
He established the right of the Lord's table of communion with his disciples, and he took the cup, and he says, this cup is the new covenant. What? in my blood. My forfeited life. launches this new covenant for you.
That washes away, cleanses you from all sin.
So We worship through our sacrifice of praise and service. Why? Because it is anchored in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
So our worship is to be Our worship of God is to be rooted in sacrifice. Number five. Our worship of God is to be affirming Rest. Look at verse 8 with me. You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, for you have not yet, for you have not as yet come to the The rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving to you.
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.
