Sunday, May 30, 2010
Let the Worshipers Arise
4th in a Series
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Psalm 51:17
Worship in Spirit and Truth
The exaltation of God, the presentation of an offering of praise to His Presence, reflects the reality of the condition of the worshiper: Broken.
Psalm 51:16-17
Worship is the presentation of brokenness to the healer.
Story of David, Bathsheba, & Samuel
Brokenness is not
depression (it’s more like constant recognition)
Psalm 51:1-3
Depression is feeling sad about everything all the time. It’s feeling sad about things that you would normally find joy in! Brokenness is a constant recognition of sinfulness. It’s a constant awareness that in and of myself, there is no way for me to stand justified before God. I understand that I will never reach the point of perfection, or completely sinless living, and therefore the only posture I can ever approach the King of Heaven with is that of the “tax collector” and sinner who says “have mercy on me, a sinner.”
It’s not only constant recognition of my sin, but it’s also constant submission of my will to the Father’s will, it’s the submission of the “right” to lead my own life and instead live a life that is led by God’s Spirit.
A broken spirit, a broken heart, a person living in brokenness before God will not only not be depressed, that person will be joyfully thankful for God’s leading in their life!
self-loathing (it’s more like sin loathing)
Psalm 51:4-6
Self-loathing, or self-hatred is never encouraged in scripture. I think that anyone who hates what God created as good, who hates what God loves, is not Godly! Self loathing comes from a focus on the wrong thing. It comes from a focus on a person’s comparing themselves to other people. They notice every little thing in or about themselves that someone whom they are trying to impress or imitate would find flawed. This is not brokenness.
Brokenness comes from a focus on a person’s comparing their behavior and attitude to that of Jesus Christ and loathing or hating my sin that tarnishes or falsifies my imitation of Him.
It’s not just in my outward behavior that need to allow God to do a makeover, but even “in the inner parts…in the inmost place.” I need to call the sin that’s in my heart and in my mind what it is: sin. I need to hate it in my thoughts just as bad as I would hate it in my behavior! (To God, they’re both sin! Matthew 5:27-28). David should have recognized the lust on the rooftop, stopped right there, fell on his knees and prayed to God: “have mercy on me, a sinner.”
We have no problem hating the sin of adultery and it’s horrible effects on a marriage and the difficult road it paves for a couple to walk down, but we need to equally hate the lust of our eyes guys, or the lust of our emotions, gals, as we hate the sin of adultery!
The reality is that men today have “David’s rooftop” on every computer and tv in existence. And men, if we don’t hate the idea of cheating on our wives in our thoughts and with our eyes, then we are not yet broken worshipers of the Exalted God of Heaven.
Hopelessness (it’s more like desperation for restoration)
Hopelessness is the sense of knowing that there is no future better than the present. (So if the present is bad, the future is bad or worse as well.) Brokenness is desperation for restoration to the one who is your hope for life now and in the future!
Psalm 51:7-15
Brokenness is what the estranged son of a rich father came to after realizing that all of his youthful plans to really live life the way it was meant to be lived, with fun, and friends, and “gusto”, had led to absolutely no where. A brokenness so complete that he acknowledged that had no right to even consider himself his father’s son.
Luke 15:17-19
This leads us back to where we started…
Restoration begins at the confession of brokenness.
For many of us, this is harder than it should be…
Philip Yancey, in his book "Reaching for the Invisible God" describes the way God not only doesn’t hear needed confessions, but actually gets blamed for things instead:
"When Princess Diana died in an automobile accident, a minister was interviewed and was asked the question “How can God allow such a terrible tragedy?” And I loved his response. He said, “Could it have had something to do with a drunk driver going ninety miles an hour in a narrow tunnel? Just How, exactly, was God involved.”
Years ago, boxer, Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, killed a Korean opponent with a hard right hand to the head. At the press conference after the Korean’s death, Mancini said, “sometimes I wonder why God does the things he does.”
In a letter to Dr. Dobson, a young woman asked this anguished question, “Four years ago, I was dating a man and became pregnant. I was devastated. I asked God, “Why have you allowed this to happen to me?”
Susan Smith, the south Carolina mother a couple years ago who pushed her two sons into a lake to drown and then blamed a fictional car-jacker for the deed, wrote in her confession: “I dropped to the lowest point when I allowed my children to go down that ramp into the water without me. I took off running and screaming, ‘Oh God! Oh God, no! What have I done? Why did you let this happen?”
Now the question remains, exactly what role did God play in a boxer beating his opponent to death, a teenage couple giving into temptation in the back seat of a car, or a mother drowning her children?
Is God responsible for these acts? To the contrary, they are examples of incredible human free will being exercised on a fallen planet. And yet it’s in our nature as mortal, frail, fallen people to lash out at one who is not, that being God."
Are all negative or sorrowful events in life a result of our sin? No.
But why are we quick to question God for being responsible for the sins we commit?
Let us be worshipers who present their brokenness to the only healer of our hearts and our souls.
When there is evil in my life for which I am responsible, “why did you God?” is not the place to start…the place to start is “Have mercy on me, O God…cleanse me from my sin…against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight…Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”
