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Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
This is an important weekend as we draw the month of August 2020 to a close. But oh our world is so different this year from last August, isn’t it? So today, let’s hear some good news from God, some clear, straight talk, about how God has designed life to be lived, even in such chaotic times as this COVID season.
We’re completing our study of one very powerful statement from God given to us through the prophet Ezekiel 2600 years ago: “Then the nations (ethne: distinct people groups) will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show Myself holy through YOU before their eyes.” (Ezekiel 36:23)
This message was intended to be received and understood by God’s Jewish people, who at that time had been scattered forcibly, by God, out of their homeland Israel. Most were living in captivity, in exile, in what is today the regions of Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria and some of Turkey. God had explained WHY He had dispersed them… “I dispersed them among the nations…I judged them according to their conduct. They had profaned my Holy name. And wherever they went among the nations, they profaned My Holy Name…” (Ezekiel 36:16-21)
But then, God promised that He would make a wonderful example of the power of His great love, His mercy and His forgiveness, by bringing His people back to their homeland, and He would show Himself HOLY through them. God miraculously accomplished this for Jews in exile in Babylon, when He moved the Emperor of the Persian kingdom Cyrus, to issue a decree permitting any Jew who so desired, to return, to rebuild, and live in Jerusalem, and even rebuild the Jewish Temple, which Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed 70 years before. That remarkable story is found in Ezra chapters 1-6.
It’s also important to recognize God did it again, in our lifetime, in an even larger, more global way, when in 1948, the land of Israel was again deeded to the Jewish people by the United Nations, in a miraculous and historic move. And since that day God has been accomplishing Ezekiel 36:24, “I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back to your own land.”
Now this week I’ve been calling you, if you have trusted Jesus to be your Savior, to recognize that this challenge of God, that He wants to show Himself HOLY through His people, is just as much applied to us Gentile Christians as it is to Jews, and Jewish Messianic Christians. Why? Because of what Paul so wonderfully explains in Ephesians 2, that God has united Jewish and Gentile Christians IN Jesus Christ, to form God’s global people, the Church. The word Jesus used when He said “I will build My Church and the gates of hades will not prevail…” (Matt. 16:18)is “Ekklesia” and it means “a people called out from the darkness”. Remember that from 1 Peter 2:9,10 and Colossians 1:13?
So God’s desire, in August 2020, is that every person in the world, who is an authentic, ‘born again’ follower of Jesus, is reflecting the HOLINESS of God through their daily life. Their lives will be lived in stark contrast to how most of the world is living, and authentic Christians are designed to be contagious Christians, drawing the skeptics to Jesus. The past several days I’ve shown you how this is done as we live God’s 10 Commandments. This weekend would you consider how this is done through our daily, LIVING WORSHIP of God as the Holy Spirit of God lives within us?
Shortly after God finished speaking those 10 Commandments to Moses and the 1 million Hebrew slaves, God called Moses back up the mountain again, this time for a 40 day, very important orientation. Now think about this for a moment. These Hebrews had lived in Egypt all their lives, for many generations. All they knew was Egypt. Egyptian culture, Egyptian language, Egyptian food and Egyptian religions.
In Egypt the people worshiped many things… some things made by God like the sun and moon, but also things they, the people fabricated, like golden images of oxen and other animals. Egyptians also worshiped the Pharaoh as a human god. He had unrestricted human power and when he died, his burial process was elaborate, and he was often worshiped long after death. Egyptian worship often was immoral, sometimes with orgies. Egyptian worship was sometimes bloody and brutal, with priests cutting themselves or sacrificing animals or even sacrificing children on altars of worship.
In Exodus 24 Moses calls the Hebrew people to make a covenant with God, that they promise to be His people, living according to the 10 Commandments He had given them. Then Moses and Joshua hiked up Mount Sinai and Moses continued into the cloud, alone, to meet with God. There, over the next 40 days, God gave Moses detailed instructions about a type of worship no people on earth had ever seen or experienced. It was rooted in two major realities: God is Holy and humans are sinful. Holy and sin are not compatible. They are so opposed, they actually annihilate each other! Sin destroys Holiness. Holiness destroys sin! Think about that a moment.
So the worship God designed for Moses and His people celebrated God’s Holiness and with remorse, recognized sinful people need to change and cannot bring sin into God’s Holy presence. Sin separates God and humans and prevents a relationship between them. Sinful people cannot fix their own sin problem, they need God’s help. Thus God instituted daily prayer, morning and evening, providing people the chance to repent of their sin and worship a holy God. And weekly, a special day of “Sabbath” for physical, emotional and spiritual renewal. And annually a ‘Day of Atonement’ for national repentance. And sacrifices which acknowledge that sin is very serious and is punishable by death. And God designed a place of worship, the Tabernacle, and an Ark of the Covenant for holding the 10 Commandments, with a ‘mercy seat’ on the top where His “Shekinah Glory” would hover, and a specific Holy place for the Priest to meet with God. And more. . .
It was radically different from Egyptian worship. But it also was all pointing forward in time to something even more radical: GOD was planning to come here to earth, taking on the form of a human being, for the purpose of making Himself visible, and clarifying God’s truth for all humanity to understand, and finally becoming our sin sacrifice, paying the sin price of death, for any and every person who would trust in Him for their salvation!
When Jesus did all that, my friends, He fulfilled the entire sacrificial system God explained to Moses on Mount Sinai in those 40 days. Therefore our worship of Holy God, since the days of Jesus’ resurrection, is based now ENTIRELY upon HIM, Jesus! Our acknowledgment of our sin, our prayer in His name, our repentance, our celebrating the Holiness and majesty of God, even the celebration of Communion, is ALL done with our reliance upon Jesus! His death, His resurrection, and His ascension back to heaven where He is our advocate (1 Timothy 2:3-6) make it possible for a sinful person to approach Holy God in worship!
Listen to Hebrews 4:14-16 “Therefore since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have One who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet He did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
But there’s more… Worship can actually be a LIFESTYLE! Yes my friends, God has called His people to LIVE our lives, everyday, in every situation as worship. I mean, everything we say, we say in God’s honor. Every choice we make, we make for God’s glory. Every action we take, we take it as an act of worship, in obedience to Jesus and honoring God’s Holiness! So listen to this from Romans. “He (Jesus) was delivered over to death for our sins, and raised to life for our justification. Therefore since we have been justified through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” (Rom. 4:25-5:2) We stand justified, sin-forgiven, before God. We live in God’s grace every day, as our act of worship.
My ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends around the world, I’d like you to consider WORSHIP for us, Redeemed followers of Jesus, is a daily act of living, not just a once per week worship service! Regardless of where or when… I urge you to consider these things which should be part of our daily, living, holy, worship of our holy God:
1. Praise & adoration… Psalm 95,96,98,150 are four of MANY Psalms which help us do this well! “Sing to the LORD all the earth…praise His name, proclaim His salvation day after day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples…” You and I can do that all day long, every day! Holy God deserves our praise!
2. Confession and Repentance of sin… Psalm 51. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, blot out my transgressions. Wash away my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” (Ps. 51:1,2) It’s really important we acknowledge our sinfulness, repent and ask God’s cleansing of us regularly. It is only possible because of Jesus! (1 John 1:5-9)
3. Learning from God as He teaches us, guides us. Yielding our lives to Him… Psalm 86 “Teach me Your ways O LORD, and I will walk in Your truth. Give me an undivided heart that I may fear Your name. I will glorify Your name forever…”
Can you see my friends, that as our lives worship God through our daily living, God’s promise comes alive in us… “Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show Myself Holy through you before their eyes.” (Ez. 36:23) Now that, my friends, is living life with a God honoring purpose!! Oh I hope you live it well this weekend!
Thank you Holy Spirit for how you have taught us this week in our expanding understanding of God’s Word and this one verse in particular. Now help us live worship today in Jesus’ name!
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Click to read today’s chapter: Ezekiel 36:16-24. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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