Above All

Introduction

Good to see you all today. We’ve engaged in some wonderful things together already. And now we can reflect for a few minutes on the word of our Creator. Alexander McLaren, don’t know who he is, but he said something I really like. Fruitful and acceptable worship begins before it begins. Digest that for a moment. And I want to take you to two passages of Scripture quickly. The first is 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 1 Corinthians 11, 20 through 22. And I really think that’s part of the idea of what Paul is saying there to the church at Corinth when he says, When you meet together, it’s not to eat the Lord’s supper. Now, if you were to ask them what their purpose for coming together was, it was indeed to eat the Lord’s supper, but their attitudes were such that’s not what they were accomplishing, at least not to the glory of God, because he says in eating your supper, one takes his own supper first, one is hungry and another is drunk.

He says, Some of you are getting filled, fairly substantial partaking of the Lord’s Supper, it appears. Unleavened bread and fruit of the vine. He goes, Some of you are getting stuffed and others are left with nothing. He says, What? And I love the exclamation. This is outlandish. Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Keep the secular and the spiritual separate as you assemble. Focus on spiritual things. Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? I will not praise you in this. And so some thought needs to be given, not just to engaging in the right acts of worship together, but how we engage in them. Worship often begins before it begins.

And the other passage is Matthew chapter 5, and it just occurred to me this week I don’t mention this one very much, so I’m going to mention it this morning. You have heard that the ancients were told, you shall not commit murder. And whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court. And whoever shall say to his brother, Rachel shall be guilty before the Supreme Court. And whoever shall say, You fool shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. What is your regard for others? He says, if therefore you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you.

Leave your offering there before the altar, and go your way. First, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. And it seems to me that these two passages are somewhat in the same vein. Fix your relationship with your brother before you come to offer something before me. He is saying worship often begins before it begins. And so I want to talk to you about the subject of worship this morning, beginning in Psalm 95. I don’t know if there is a quintessential psalm on the subject of worship, since all of them are about worship of God. But this one particularly stands out in my mind, some wonderful phrasing that has to do with our worship of God. Above all, in what sense? Verse 3 says, For the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods.

Above everything, period. Of course, he mentions these gods that don’t really exist, but many in his time would offer devotion to. But the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods. And some wonderful phrases surround that statement in Psalm 95. Shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. It is my hope that’s what we’ve done today. That the wonderful words we have sung have come from a joyful heart. And it was a beautiful sound, I know that. Shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Come before his presence with thanksgiving, in whose hand are the depths of the earth and the peaks of the mountains are his. Worship and bow down, as we have sung. Kneel before our Maker, because we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.

And this should put some perspective on worship for us.

May this not be all that we ever do in the realm of worship. This collective extension, if you will, of what we do together should only be a part of what our lives reflect in worship to God. This is just doing it collectively, and I really like it. Because I know that at certain periods of the week, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, I’m going to be collectively worshiping with God’s people that is built in health for me. But I want to talk about these occasions together. And I want to talk about three important principles that I want you to think about as they relate to the subject of our corporate gatherings for worship. Three things, and if I could get these across this morning, it will have been successful.

1. Reverence: The Proper Respect to Our God

Number one, reverence. The proper respect to our God.

Exalt or extol the Lord our God and worship at his footstool holy is he.

And come before him. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness or in holy array. Tremble before him. All the earth. I like what C.S. Lewis said. A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word darkness on the walls of his cell. I like that. We cannot diminish the glory of God by refusing to worship him. His glory emanates, whether we acknowledge it or not. And I think about one of the problems that we have in corporate worship, and I want to address this at the very beginning. Though we are here collectively to derive encouragement and strength from others who regard God and His will the way we do. This is also one of the things that presents a distraction for us.

The people.

I love this little doxology that Paul inserts here. Doxology being a little praise of God as he says in 1 Timothy 1 and verse 17, now to the king, and this is after he talks about, he’s really overwhelmed by the fact that God can use the likes of him in his service. That he had mercy on him. The chief of sinners. And he says, now to the king. He just breaks forth in praise. Now to the king, eternal, immortal, invisible. The only God. The honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. And then flip over quickly to chapter 6, where he talks about the good confession being made in the presence of many witnesses, and he admonishes Timothy to keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of the Lord Jesus.

And he says in verse 15, which he will bring about at the proper time, as God always does, he who is the blessed and only sovereign. He is the one above all. He is the only sovereign, King of kings, and Lord of Lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. Last week we looked at 2 Peter chapter 1. Where Peter describes the voice that emanated from heaven at the transfiguration that he and James and John saw and heard on that great occasion, as we were eyewitnesses of his majesty, he said, the majestic glory uttered these words. This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him.

The majestic glory is what I want to get you to pay attention to in that text this morning. That’s an awesome way to encapsulate our God. He is the majestic glory. Around God is awesome majesty, Elihu said in Job 37 and verse 22. And I say that to say that words are somewhat inadequate to convey what I’m talking about this morning. I mean, just use the greatest superlatives that you can imagine. These things can be said of our God. The most awesome and beautiful words that you could possibly put together, these belong to our God. Our songs can’t be beautiful enough. Our service can’t be fervent enough. Because of this awesome majestic glory. As Terry Slack taught us a couple of years back, and most of us still remember that sermon about the audience of ones.

And how that we again, we get distracted by all that goes on in this place and forget about the fact that we have come together to come into the audience of the one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and to render our devotion to him. Words are inadequate. And while sometimes we have humor in this place, I don’t think that’s necessarily a lack of reverence for the occasion. But if it’s all funny, then there would be a problem, of course. There’s nothing flippant or casual about this. This is not about entertainment or pleasing the consumer. I am not a consumer, nor are you. We are offerers. We are givers. We are participants, and we bring our very best to the throne of the living God.

And if there is one place where we ought to say no to the flesh, it is this place.

For bagels, coffee, and donuts.

And he mentioned, in contrast, the Muslims who will prostrate themselves on a daily basis toward Mecca and offer prayers, they will physically put themselves in a humbly, a humble posture. And he compared that to what he often sees in his assemblies, but I’m not sure what he is religiously, of Christians coming together sipping on latte. And he speaks of giving God a nod when we take a second from our totally absorbed lives, thinking that it will make him happy. And of course, he says that sarcastically. And then in his powerful ending statement, and I’m saying that sarcastically, he throws in a profane word. I thought, man, this article was going so well. You’ve got it, you captured it, and for some reason he thought to have a powerful ending, you need to throw in some profanity.

It’s like, let me make a point there about inconsistency. We can get on our high horse about certain things and ignore equally egregious things in ourselves. Sometimes while we see others’ actions clearly for what they are, as we said in our Bible class, we struggle to honestly assess ourselves and our own actions, and that’s what Jesus is talking about in the Sermon on the Mount when he said, Judge not, but you be not judged. And by what standard of measurement you use, it shall be returned to you. But I’ve said all of that to say that what we’re doing here, though we have done it many times before, should never be treated as routine.

2. Modesty: Properly Attired

What we do in this place is supreme. It should be done thoughtfully and carefully. And with great respect for our God, who is our creator, redeemer, and ultimate judge, and may he have mercy on our soul. I could spend the rest of our corporate gatherings that I want to talk to you about this morning is modesty.

And no, I don’t see anybody in bikinis today. I’m not talking about that. Well, that’d be an issue.

But I’m afraid our casualness in the first point may affect what we do in relation to this point as well. Wait, whoa, hold on just a second, preacher. Are you saying we have a dress code for worship? What passage is that? And that’s a good question because the only passage that mentions the dress of people corporately in worship is James chapter 2 that mentions the poor person that comes into the assembly without the kind of clothing that most everybody else is wearing, and then to be regarded as less than or unimportant. And he talks about that’s not a way to hold our faith with an attitude of personal favoritism. And somebody might also argue this. Well, now, if you’re talking about formality or dressing formally like you are, preacher.

Could it be that being overly formal might discourage one who does not have finer apparel, making them feel like they don’t belong? Well, that’s a good question to consider. Could it also be argued that being overly formal could cause us to confine the worship of God to a special place at a special time? Yes. And don’t passages on modesty in the New Testament more directly address overdressing than underdressing or even provocative attire. And I would acknowledge, yes, they do. Because that was a problem in their culture. And so one thing we should get from 1 Peter 4 and 1 Timothy 2, passages that directly address the subject of modesty in Scripture. One thing we should get from that is that our attire should not be worn for the purpose of saying, hey, everybody, look at me.

And again, that would sort of detract from the fact that we’re coming here to come into the presence of God together. It’s not about me. Don’t I just look exquisite today? But we must acknowledge that in our culture, we dress for the occasion. And some attire is not considered appropriate. Look. Even workout facilities where immodesty runs rampant, even workout facilities have a dress code. If you come to a workout facility in pajamas or blue jeans, that’s considered unacceptable. At least it’s some of them. Sherry and I were talking about casual Friday at her work recently. And of course, this is a hospital. And shouldn’t that have some limitations for some of the people who work in the hospital? Let’s suppose that you are deathly ill and you need heart surgery and it’s imminent, and the doctor comes in jeans and a polo.

He’s not looking like a medical professional. Hey, who is this guy? Did we just pull this guy off the street and now he’s going to perform heart surgery? I sort of want him to look like a doctor.

If I’m going to put my heart in his hands. Again, this is at least one place where we need to be saying no to the flesh. Consider the occasion. Consider others. This is not about self. Now, in the absence of specific guidelines would everyday dress fit the bill? And I think of first century worship. I’m not sure that they donned their Sunday best to come together collectively for worship. I’m not sure that they did that. But our culture is not first century culture. And it’s interesting to me that the patterns that have developed in our time, how that we tend to dress more formally on Sunday morning, a little less formally on Sunday night, and even a little less on Wednesday night. And we would all acknowledge that if you’re coming from the workplace, it’s better for you to come than to have to not come because you don’t have the quote proper clothing.

So what kind of rules are you making for me?

Just ask yourself. What does the way I dress reflect about my regard for this activity?

This is a special occasion. And need to be regarded as that. And I guess this is the same point as the first point. Approach the living God thoughtfully. Give it some thought. What is appropriate for the occasion? If this is all you have, fine. Come as you are.

But you know, what does it say about that? I mean, just think about this. Again, there are no guidelines in the New Testament. Let’s just say this. Oh man, I slept late. I’m not even going to comb my hair. I’m going to wear my pajamas to worship. What would that reflect? A lack of preparation. It’s what it reflects. A casualness toward God is what it reflects. Often worship begins before it begins. And that’s one of the things I say. People drag in here, and I’m not talking about here. I’m talking about in other places I’ve seen this. People drag in on Sunday morning, and they’re just dead dog tired. They can’t invest themselves. They stayed out till 3 a.m. Saturday night, the night before. You’re not going to be really vibrant alive the next day.

3. Sobriety: A Mind Not Impaired

Not at 9 a.m. Worship begins before it begins. And if there’s, hey, have you gotten the point yet? Approach God thoughtfully. Think about the proper respect for God. And the way we’re coming into his presence. Can’t give you any specifics. The New Testament doesn’t give me the specifics. But I know that we are to be modest, properly attired. And we need to give some thought to that. What does that look like? Give it some thought. And finally, principle number three in relation to worship. Sobriety. And again, maybe that’s all contained in the first two points that I’ve already mentioned. Sobriety. Somebody said, well, like I’m not going to show up in swimwear. Well, of course I’m not going to show up inebriated. That’s actually happened in places.

Where someone shows up to an assembly and they’re intoxicated. Not sure why they show up in that condition, but I’ve seen it a couple of times. So it’s I’m not going to do that. Listen. Sobriety in the New Testament is not just about refraining from a beverage that causes your mind to be impaired. People’s minds can be impaired by a lot of other things other than just alcohol. The world can impair our thinking. And so often people don’t render to God and worship what they should because their mind is impaired by a love for this world. And one of the things that I love about our assemblies is that my sobriety is never greater than when I am right here. This is where I get crystal clear clarity.

This is what God made me for. This is what life is really all about. It’s fulfilling the wishes of my creator. And giving him the proper honor to him. I’ll tell you, there is a clarity that comes from Sundays.

But I wouldn’t pray for anything. Ecclesiastes 5. Ecclesiastes 5 and verse 1. This passage was written at a time when the temple was a special place of worship where they would go, a little bit different than what we do. But I think the principles involved here are equally applicable. This is not the house of God in the sense that the temple was. This is just a place for Christians who are now the house of God to come together and meet. But in regard to how this is special because we’re doing it corporately, think about that. Guard your steps as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools. See, the way you approach it matters.

For they do not know that they are doing evil. Someone who comes flippantly and casually is certainly fitting the bill of this verse in Ecclesiastes 5 and verse 1. Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. And then this goes to our point in the Bible class. For God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore, let your words be few. Know your place. For the dream comes through much effort and the voice of a fool through many words. When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it. For he takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow. And you know, really, that’s what we’re doing today. We are giving God what we vowed to give him ourselves.

Pay what you vow. When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it. Boy, that’s pretty foolish, isn’t it? When somebody borrows you money, you’ve learned, you borrow money from somebody, you’ve learned don’t be late in paying it, right? There are penalties. And then creditors come to seek your life if you refuse to pay. But what about when you offer something to God? God, do not be late in paying it. It is better that you should not bow than you should bow and not pay. Do not let your speech cause you to sin. And do not say in the presence of the messenger of God that it was a mistake. Don’t tell the one who is delivering God’s message that it’s a mistake.

Conclusion

Why should God be angry on account of your voice and destroy the work of your hands? For in many dreams and in many words there is emptiness. Rather fear God. And the moral of these verses is quit talking so much and listen. Be still and know that I am God. May the Lord help us to pay what we have vowed. And stay committed and fervent in our service to him. I’ll tell you this, these slides today have been very simple. Because it’s what I wanted to take home with you. How do we approach God? Reverence. Modesty. Sobriety. Above all, those two words appear a handful of times in Scripture together. And this is appropriate. Our God and Father who is above all and through all and in all.

And in the same book in Ephesians 6 and verse 16, explaining our confidence in Him, above all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one. And finally, in 1 Peter 4 and verse 8, above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. As we have been taught to love by God. Keep love stoked and kindled toward each other as it contributes to the covering of sin. And now we have come to the part of this sermon where we invite someone who needs to have the covering of their sins to take action. While there’s time and opportunity, and we sing a song of encouragement. Let’s stand and sing together.