ADORATION: ( A Meditation on Psalm 8)

ADORATION: PSALM 8:1-8

Illustration: In 1977, Jack Hayford, the founding pastor of the Church on the Way in Van Nuys California, was vacationing with his wife Anna in Britain during the 25th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. While there, the Hayfords saw constant reminders of royalty. That, along with visits to several castles, caused Hayford to sense what it might be like to be "raised as a child in such regal settings."

            With this in mind, he asked Anna one day, as they drove through the countryside, to write down these words: "Majesty, worship His majesty. Unto Jesus be all glory, power, and praise." Thus "Majesty," one of today’s most glorious praise songs, was born.

            How do we define the word Majesty? “impressive stateliness, dignity, or beauty. Magnificence · pomp · solemnity · grandeur, royal power. Sovereignty · authority · power · dominion. Who could be indeed called, “Your Majesty?  Who truly deserves the adoration?

            No human kings nor queens fit the criteria but the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords of this known universe.  Let us unpack Psalm eight to discover God’s hidden glory in His creation so that we might join the children and infants to give Him praise.  May we also join collectively with nature in adoring and declaring the glories of our Great King and God.

I. OUR MAJESTIC GOD

            Vs. 1, “O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens. “What do we see in this verse? We see God as our personal God and His majestic name filling the whole earth (reverberating in the world). This Psalm begins and ends with God and his name. Therefore, it is worth noting who this God is and what his name is.

            The Jews have a much deeper understanding of who God is. In the Hebrew Bible, ten prominent names are given to who we call “God” in the English language. They are Elohim (God the Creator Gen 2:4-5). Yahweh. (I AM Who I AM Ex 3:14).

            Abba (Father/Daddy). While all the names of God are essential in many ways, the name “Abba an Aramaic word for Father” is one of the most notable names of God in understanding how He relates to His people.  Abba was a common term that expressed affection and confidence and trust. Jesus used often called God, “Abba” father. Mark 14:36.

             El Elyon (God Most High Psalm 47:2) El Roi (The God who sees me. (Genesis 16:13-14). El Shaddai (God of the Mountains/ God Almighty, All sufficient One Ex 6:2,3) Yahweh Yireh (The LORD will provide, Gen 22:14) Yahweh Nissi (The Lord our banner Ex 17:15) Jehovah Rapha. (The Lord who heals Ex 15:6) Yahweh Shalom, The Lord is Peace Judges 6:24

            Coming to the New Testament, all these invisible names of God have been personified in one name Yeshua, which was a common alternative form of the name "Yehoshuah" – Joshua. The name corresponds to the Greek spelling Iesous, from which comes the English name, Jesus.

            Philippians 2:9-11, “Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” This scripture tells us that Jesus is worthy of our worship and adoration.            Our Sunday worship is all about Jesus. We lift Him by studying the scriptures, in our prayers, through our praise and worship, by preaching of His word, through our offerings, and fellowship. We do all these and many more as our offering unto our Lord Jesus Christ.

II. CHILDREN AND INFANTS PRAISE GOD.  

            Vs. 2. You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength, silencing your enemies and all who oppose you.” “Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you; toddlers shout the songs That drown out enemy talk, and silence atheist babble.” (The Message). What do we see in these verses? We see children and infants have something to teach us grown-ups.

            Through their innocent laughter and absolute wonder and amazement of the creation, they are proclaiming praises to God, and a stark warning to all those who oppose God and atheists who foolishly say there is no God. For the past two weeks, I have been at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. It has been an intense but enriching experience. 

            I have learned more about focusing on my inner soul, and grow in my intimate love for God, for my wife and others. It was not about strategies on how to increase the size of our Church numerically but to help our members to grow spiritually.

            This past Sunday, instead of going to another church, we decided to spend our time a little differently and visited Franklin Zoo in Boston. We became like kids; we marveled at God’s amazing creation. We adored and admired God in worship as we looked at the work of his hands: the peacock with regal bearing, the majestic lion.  Colorful finches reminded us not to worry about the future. If God could take care of the birds, how much more would he take care of us?    The beautiful stripes on the Zebra made us wonder about God’s perfection.  Above all, the playful and naughty prairie dogs taught us how we should not take life too seriously but learn to enjoy and have fun from time to time. I could go on and on, but you get the point.

            At the end of our time, we have connected with God by just merely being among God’s beautiful creatures. I would encourage you to step out into God’s beautiful world and discover the glory of God, delight in Him in Worship, and you too will come away refreshed.

            Children, infants, animals, and the whole creation are glorifying God. How about if we to join them in praising God by singing “All Creatures of God and King.” The words of the hymn were initially written by St. Francis of Assisi in 1225 in the Canticle of the Sun poem, which was based on Psalm 148. William Draper, a rector of a Church of England, paraphrased and set the music between 1899 and 1919. Let’s arise and adore the God of creation in worship.

III WORSHIP IS ADORING GOD

            What is worship? Is it singing a few songs of praise and thanksgiving? Is it praying and studying the scriptures? Is it preaching? Is it communion and fellowship? Or Is it all the above and more? The essence of worship we get from this passage is one word: ADORATION.

            The definition of “Adoration” is deep love and respect. Other synonyms: love, devotion, care, fondness, warmth, affection, admiration, regard. In worship it is to glorify, praise revere, to exalt, to esteem, pay tribute to and to magnify. The best picture of adoration comes to my mind is the “Adoration of the Magi.” These kings, or the royal astrologers of the orient who came in search of the newborn king of the Jews. They went straight to Herod’s Palace.

            They couldn’t find him the royal palace but in the humble abode of Mary and Joseph. In Matthew 2:11, They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” The magi were overawed in the presence of the King of the Universe.

            That is the picture of adoration, delighting in the presence of someone who is genuinely impressive. Each time we worship we adore God for all his beautiful creation and His wonderful attributes of who He is and what He can do.  Evelyn Underhill notes, “We define worship as the total adoring response of man to the one Eternal God, self-revealed in time.”

IV.  WORSHIP AND WORK

            Based on Underhill’s definition, if worship is the “total response of man to the Eternal God, self-revealed in time,” how could that be done practically. In Psalm 8, we see the adoring responses of the animals and the mankind happening day and night. How?  One of the purest and adorable sights to see is when mothers breastfeed their infants.

            When fathers play with their children, and when we hear the laughter of children it is like music to the ears. These are some of the precious moments where humanity can adore God in worship. Unfortunately, in our current busy working society those precious moments have been stolen by duty of our work. The other day a father of two young boys said, to me, “After a busy day I cherish the time when I can hold my boys, read books, and put them to sleep.”

            My advice to young parents is, adore your children; they are a gift from God before they grow out of your hands and become unmanageable. Worship could happen while we are at work also. In Psalm eight after reading about all the handy works of God, we read about God’s commission to man, which is to work with his hands. Psalm 8:6-7 “You put us in charge of your handcrafted world, repeated to us your Genesis-charge, made us lords of sheep and cattle, even animals out in the wild, Birds flying and fish swimming, whales singing in the ocean deeps.”

            Worship is not only adoring and giving praise to God, but it also means work.  Worship involves the whole person includes what we do on Monday through Saturday as well as on Sunday. David Currie in his book the BIG IDEA of Biblical Worship notes, “Work and Worship are two enduring realities for believers, as Isaac Watts summed up simply and beautifully in his paraphrase of Psalm 23, “The sure provision of my God attend all my days; oh, may your house be my abode, and all my work be praise.”

            So dear friends, in closing! On Sunday mornings, we come to Church to Praise and Adore the God who created the universe. As we do that, we are refreshed, energized, and challenged to go back into the world from Monday to make it a better place through all that we do. Then we come back again on Sunday for more of God in worship and fellowship. These are the beautiful rhythms of Christ’s followers. “We come to God to be with God, then go back into the world to do the work for God.” May God be glorified through all that we do. Amen!

                       

Holy Spirit Empowered

HOLY SPIRIT- EMPOWERED

Introduction: What comes to your mind when you hear the word Empowered? Do we think of a police officer in uniform who flagged your car and gave you a traffic violation ticket? What provides the policeman with authority and makes him powerful? The police department’s badge and the uniform give him authority, and the gun in his hands makes him powerful. So, we better listen to him in the traffic. When he removes his policeman’s clothes, he has no more authority.

            We respect and admire people who are empowered, right?  But did you know that every born-again believer is also empowered?  You may be wondering by whom, how, and why? Last week we began our journey to understand Hope Church’s Core values. To refresh your memory, what is a core value? It is a principle that guides an organization's internal conduct as well as its relationship with the external world. Before my arrival here as a pastor, a team of people may have prayerfully identified six core values that would guide internal conduct and help Hope Church in their relationship with the outside world.

            For the next several weeks, we will look at our Core Values and what they mean to us as a church. How are they shaping our internal conduct, and how are they influencing us in our relationships with the outside world? Our first core value is that we are a Biblically-Centered Church. This means God’s word the scriptures are our final authority in all matters of life. Our second Core Value is that we are a Holy Spirit-Empowered Church.

            We all hunger for life in the Spirit; without the Spirit’s influence, no amount of Bible knowledge amounts to anything of eternal value. At Hope Church, we earnestly pray for the Holy Spirit to convict non-believers and empower believers to be powerful witnesses for Him.

 I title this message, Holy Spirit-Empowered.  John 16:5-15

            If we truly hunger for life in the Spirit and are convinced that the Sprit’s empowerment is necessary for a fruitful and purposeful living, then it is essential that we understand all the Holy Spirit has in store for us. Let’s bear the fruit and use the gifts of the Holy Spirit for God’s glory.

            John Maxwell notes, “Leaders can never empower anyone else until they are first supernaturally empowered themselves…Whenever someone is filled with the Holy Spirit, something happens. Empowered leaders express God’s power; then empower others.” Before we look further, how do we understand who the Holy Spirit is, and what are his workings in the life of a believer? How and why He empowers believers? 

I. Who is the Holy Spirit?

            The context for our passage is set in John chapter 14, where Jesus consoled his grieving disciples that they were not going to be left as orphans because he was going to send another helper or advocate. The Greek term here literally means, “one called alongside to help.  This helper will be with them and in them forever. He will make a permanent residence in believers.

            In Vs. 17, Jesus clarified who this helper was by saying, “He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth.” That brings us to the question of who is the Holy Spirit? If you have grown up in the church, you have been taught about the Holy Spirit as the third person in the Trinity. The scriptures teach us that God has manifested himself as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We see this concept of the Triune God throughout the Bible. For example.  

            Genesis 1:1-3 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

The Bible begins, continues, and ends with the working of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. For that reason, at Hope Church, we believe and worship the Triune God.

II. Why did the Holy Spirit come into this world?

            The Holy Spirit came into the world to continue and complete what Jesu came to do, which is to save the lost and to represent Jesus here on the earth. John 14: 26, “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative that is the Holy Spirit, he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.”

            Jesus further explained the three exclusive works that the Holy Spirit only could do. John 16:8-11, “And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me. Righteousness is available because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more. Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged.”

            The first work of the Holy Spirit is the conviction of Sin. Though all humanity is depraved and cursed by their violation of God’s law and sinful by nature, what ultimately the Holy Spirit convicts of them is their sin of unbelief. Their unwillingness to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as savior. I still remember how I came under the compelling conviction of the Holy Spirit in that evangelistic meeting three decades ago and surrendered my life to Christ.

            Secondly, the Holy Spirit will convict people about true righteousness by exposing their self-righteousness and hypocrisy. Jesus often called out those who were righteous in their own eyes. He called them blind guides, hypocrites, whitewashed tombs, and the children of the devil.   After Jesus ascended to heaven, now it is the work of the Holy Spirit to call out and expose the darkness of the human heart. We can feel the weight of such conviction when we come under it. Thirdly, the Holy Spirit convicts the individual believer and the world about the upcoming judgment. God has already pronounced judgment upon Satan, the great deceiver.

            The Holy Spirit inspired John the evangelist to record what will happen to Satan, and those who follow him, and the glorious future of all those who have believed in Jesus in the last two chapters of the book of Revelation. That brings us to our third point, how and why the Holy Spirit empowers all believers in Christ.

III. Holy Spirit-Empowered.

            Besides convicting people of unbelief, righteousness, and judgment, the Holy Spirit is sent into the world to come alongside and help the believers in their spiritual journey. It is one thing to be born again, pray, read your bible, and attend church regularly, but it is another thing to be Empowered by the Holy Spirit. You might be wondering why I need empowerment?

            If you want to live a life that is pleasing and honoring to God, and if you want your life to count, if you're going to impact this world for Christ, then you need this empowerment. Jesus had promised to His disciples that they would be empowered by the Holy Spirit, for what?

            Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere-in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The Greek word Dunamis means power from where we get the English word dynamite. In other words, when the Holy Spirit comes upon God’s people, they will become bold and explosive for the sake of the Kingdom of God.

             We knew by reading the Church history, what happened to an uneducated, and dejected disciple of Christ named Peter?  When He was filled with the Holy Spirit, he gave a powerful sermon and three thousand people were convicted by the Holy Spirit and were baptized. 

            That was the beginning of the worldwide church of Jesus Christ. God is not yet done. God desires that all his followers would be empowered by the Holy Spirit so that they can be powerful witnesses for Him in this world and bring more people into His Kingdom.

            How is the Holy Spirit empowering individual believers and the church at large? By causing them to bear fruit and equipping them with various ministry gifts. The apostle Paul encourages the believers in Galatia to live and be guided by the Holy Spirit so that Holy Spirit will produce fruit in them. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23.

            How are you bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life? Now about the gifts. I Peter 4:10, “God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.” These gifts are not meant for us to enjoy but to serve one another. The Bible records three categories of Gifts. Today we only have time to look at them briefly.

            The first category, a set of seven motivational gifts: Romans 12:6-8, 1. Prophecy. 2. Server. 3. Teacher. 4. Exhorter. 5. Giver. 6. Leadership. 7. Mercy. The second category, a set of nine manifestation gifts: I Corinthians 12:7-10, 1. The word of wisdom. 2. The word of knowledge. 3. Faith. 4. Gifts of healings. 5. Working of miracles. 6. Prophecy. 7. Discerning of spirits. 8. Various kinds of tongues. 9. Interpretation of tongues.

            The third category, a set of five ministry or equipping gifts: Ephesians 4:11, 1. The apostle. 2. The prophet. 3. The evangelist. 4. The pastor. 5. The teacher. These are not titles, but functions. I encourage you to go home and read about these different gifts; I am sure you will find one or two gifts the Holy Spirit may have given you. If so, how are you using those gifts?

            The Holy Spirit gives us these gifts so that we might serve one another. If being empowered by the Holy Spirit is one of our core values, then we must study and learn about all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, including the gift of speaking in tongues. It is not enough to know about them but use them in the Lord’s service. My prayer is that the Lord will continue to fill us with His Holy Spirit. That is what makes Hope Church Holy Spirit-Empowered. Amen!