The presence of God fits in a life that’s ordered. Worship is the answer — we value our time with Him and with God’s people. This gives us a sense of discernment and conviction. We rejoice. We pray. We have life. And we don’t make a mock at sin. We take it very seriously. (Psalm 122:1-3; Proverbs 14:9; 1 Chronicles 16:1)

Speaker(s): Pastor Thomas Schaller
Sermon 11840
7:00 PM on 2/19/2020

P. Schaller –

Before you’re seated, let’s give a couple shout outs. Julius does a great job with the music. Yes, he does.
Indonesia, the country is on our radar. We got Barry Quirk and Darryl Jones and a bunch of guys
thinking about it. That’s added to our list for this summer. Anyone want to go sometime this
coming year, think and pray about it, and we’ll go with the gospel. Someone under a tree will
hear the gospel and be saved. Their sins are going to be forgiven.

The Holy Spirit is going to speak to them, and they will go to bed that night. God is so real. I feel I can reach out my hand and touch him. Can’t that happen? It has. Thirdly,  a taste of Africa. This Sunday afternoon down
at the Fellowship Hall, P. Renaldo and a team of people have put together a whole plan for
African immigrants. Anyone is welcome to have lunch down there. Africans will be serving us.
We will be serving them. Eating fried banana and many other delicacies. Get in a good attitude.
Daleigne is over here.

Get in a good attitude. Praise the Lord in faith and give a warm greeting
to the person next to you, behind you and under your chair! They did a great job. That was so
sweet. Words in songs. Thank you, ladies. That was so good. Introductory thought tonight. Proverbs.
14:9, tonight we are speaking on worship. Public worship like here tonight. We come together
and we worship. Private worship at home, in our homes, in our car when we are driving.
Worship. It’s a Christian thing. The Spirit of God teaches us worship. Worship is from head to
toe. Augustine said a Christian has worship from head to toe.

It’s something new that people don’t do in a natural sense. They have moments when at the seashore and see something beautiful in the mountains or on a starry night. They have a moment of worship. There’s P.
Brian and Paula. Good to see you. Worship. A few things to say about it. Before we go there, I
want you to see a verse, Proverbs 14:9. In life, I don’t know if you noticed it, but there are so many
people we could talk to and with and they don’t have the same sense about sin, a sense that
you have. For them, it may be more like a joke.

The Hebrew word “mock” – to scorn, to speak arrogantly, to scoff, because of an inflated attitude. If we took the word “sin” and brought it to heaven and said in heaven, what do you say about sin, what would heaven say about sin?
Maybe it would go like this. It’s very serious. It’s horrible. It’s a plague. It’s death. It’s rebellion.
It’s unholy. Sin is incredibly dangerous. Sin is the enemy of the human race. If you went to
heaven and spoke to God, what would he say about sin. When we come into this world, what
do the fools say about it? Don’t be so uptight. What is your problem? Everybody does it.

Who cares. It doesn’t hurt anybody. I’ve lived like this my whole life. I have a good time. If you
interview Sodom and Gomorrah about sin, what would they say? Arrogantly with an inflated
attitude scoff and say that’s ridiculous. Before the flood of Noah, if you asked the human race
what they think about it, they would make a mock or a joke about sin. Why have our lives
changed? Why have we taken on a new gravity or sense of seriousness about it? Where did it
come from? How did it happen? Jesus Christ brought it into our lives.

The Spirit of God came into our hearts when we were born again and started to understand three things I want to
share tonight that I think relate. I wonder actually, if we went to heaven and asked about sin,
they would give an answer. Christ would give an answer and we have it in our heart. We go to
Sodom and Gomorrah and the time of Noah and the world today in the U.S.A., then also maybe
if we went to hell and asked them what they think of sin. They would probably salivate.

It’s like food. Do it. Go for it. You only live once. Please take it. Please go for it. Remember the serpent
was cursed and would go on his belly and eat the dust. That’s what we are made of, dust. They
would love for us to sin. They would love to destroy us. They know how serious and powerful
this poison is. When we were saved, we received something we feel, and sense is very precious,
that is that God is showing us something the world would never show us. The world will never
tell us what sin really is. The world cannot do it because they are in darkness.

They receive it not in John 1:10. We have developed by God’s grace an amazing new habit, something new we
didn’t have before. Worship. Worship is Holy Spirit appreciation. Worship is like, if you want to
remember it this way, worth- ship. I find value or worth in God above everything. Worship. It’s
when we come before God and find three things. P. Pete Westera gave me a book by Eugene
Peterson. I was reading it today. I read this part where he did a pastoral visit. “The person I
came to see was sitting in a window embroidering a piece of cloth…she said pastor, while
waiting for you to come, I realized what’s wrong with me.

I don’t have a frame. My feelings, my thoughts, my activities…there is no border to my life. I never know where I am. I need a frame for my life like this one I have for my embroidery.” Have you ever driven through a construction
site and see those black plastic fences around the building site about this high? There is a frame
and everything that has gone in that fenced off area is under the authority of a manager or
builder. They have many frames going on to get the job done. I’m sure in the I.T. world with all
this technology and computer programming imagine the frames used to hold everything
together.

What about me? What about the loose ends of my life? What about my
disappointments and fears and unbelief and sins? I need a frame. This frame is worship. Psalm. 122.
1 Chronicles 13 see what David did when he became king in Israel. Vs. 1. Ark. The ark. The presence
of God. Let’s get the ark. David, you are our king. What should we do? Get the ark. We need to
worship. We need a frame. If we are to build a country, we have to have a frame. God gave us a
frame with the priests and Levites and ark and tabernacle.

We will be a different kind of people because we will worship. The church is a place where we come and maybe I don’t feel like it but that is the frame God has given me to hold my life together. Maybe I don’t understand
everything and I’m a young kid doing a coloring book at the feet of my parents. I don’t know
what it is but it’s a frame, the Body, the ministry of God to us. This is what he did. He said, let’s
get the ark. There are problems with it. The man dies. There is disappoint, a hesitation to get
the ark in the city but eventually in vs. 14-15 he does it.

1 Chronicles 16:1-2, 1) Worship is what I mean by the ark. The national worship of the Jewish people. The ark. It was not used in the time of Saul. What happened in the time of Saul? A lot of carnality, a lot of personality, a lot of
feeling, preferences and ideas. King Saul is kind of out of his mind. Not a spiritual man. David is
different. David is somehow – has a sense this is big. This requires God. This is about God. What
I need is God in my life. I can’t package him. I can worship him and honor him and respect him.
Let’s bring the ark in the city.

There was a revival and the Spirit of God ministered in the city. Every man had a piece of bread. Vs. 3. It seems to me that Israel was blessed with food. There was joy, strength. There was a sense of God and his blessing. 1) The frame you need in your life. If you don’t have it, you might also be people that think sin is some kind of a joke. It doesn’t matter. When we are before God and the ark of God is in our presence, we love righteousness and we seek him. 2) That frame holds us together and we have a relationship with God. You
help me in my relationship with God.

You help me by your love, your spirit, our heart, your attitude, your words. We don’t realize that with each other, but this is how the church goes. The love we have for God and the clarity of understanding develops and we start to think and be corrected and helped and start to desire and grow in our relationship. Psalm 122:1, I was glad
when they said unto me let’s go up to the house of God. What is in the house of God? There is a
frame that I need that holds the loose ends of my life together. When I’m sick, there is a frame.
When a child is sick or troubled, there is a frame.

When I’m bored, there is a frame. When I fail, there is a frame. 3) Judgments. Sometimes when we use the word is has a hard sound but soften it. We get judgments all the time. I think of driving my car and all the gadgets and
accessories that help me drive my car are like judgments. My mirrors, my blinkers, my gas
gauge, my speedometer, checking my oil – everything that makes it work in the right way…I
believe in this meeting there are judgments that happen that come from God because he is a
God that does things decently and in order.

He is the wise God. It says he is the only wise God. All the other gods are fools. He’s the only wise God. I sometimes wonder how could I have ever lived my life. I know the answer is worship. Nobody is smart enough. I could never do it, but I could, but would it ever be what it is we are given by promise from our God. 1 Corinthians 4:5 it’s hard to evaluate. I’m not interested in evaluating it, but worship is something we put high regard to.
In that worship are these three functions that happen in the house of God or the city of God.
Psalm 122, someone said about feeling.

This is the age of feeling. The Bible wastes very little time
on the way we feel. The Bible doesn’t talk about the way we feel. 1 Thessalonians 5:16 rejoice evermore.
“I don’t feel like rejoicing.” Doesn’t matter. Rejoice evermore. It doesn’t say how you do it.
Rejoice evermore. You got it? Any questions? Knock it off. Rejoice evermore. I just made the
point. Go to the next one. Pray without ceasing. How do you do it? It doesn’t say. Just do it. “I
don’t feel like it.” Who cares what you feel like.

You do it. You might say this is very hard. Oh my gosh! There is no compassion. No, worship is something – it doesn’t have to do with our feelings. Worship is recognizing the person in my heart, recognizing the awesomeness of the person. He is worthy. Worship has all of this good stuff and has very little to do with my feeling.
We think if we don’t feel something, there can be no authenticity in doing it. If I fake it, it is not
real. We are not asking you to fake it. We are asking you to do it. How do you forgive? I don’t
know. Just forgive. Isn’t that good.

Prayer. “I don’t feel like praying.” Pray and the Lord will meet you in the prayer. “I don’t feel like going to church.” Just go to church. It’s the frame you need. The Spirit of God will give you the relationship you are hungry for and made for. Judgments will come and say sin is not a joke. Sin is a high powered voltage box. Remember P.
Teplov. How many remember the story? He’s the Moscow Greater Grace pastor. He lives in an
apartment building. The lights go out and he goes over to the box, skull and bones, danger, high
voltage, 400 volts and took a screwdriver and opens the box and sticks it in there.

There is a huge flash and he goes blind. The flash blinds him. And he makes his way to his apartment.
Remember, he is a very wise man! He’s a Greater Grace pastor! He knows so much! He’s called
of God. He lies down and stays with his eyes closed hoping he will see again. He wakes up and
he can see. He used it to talk about sin. He said sin is dangerous. You get the point. I won’t know that but if I have worship and I worship not only at home but in my heart and in my day
and I assemble. In my assembly, God gives us frame.

This is a frame you need for your life. You are increasing with the increase of God. I’m giving you wisdom and judgments happening in your heart and mind. You are being warned and edified and fed. You are being anointed. You are getting gifts of the Spirit. There is something going on in your heart and life and sometimes
ever so slowly it grows. But it does. Psalm 122. I was glad. The Underground Railroad is in the back
hallway in the church. It’s a beautiful story in our history how slaves from the South made their
way North to find freedom.

People put their lives on the line to hide runaway slaves from bounty hunters that hunted them to bring them back to the plantation. Many of them that did this great service were believers. What does it mean when we  ind Jesus Christ in a personal way? There is something that happens inside, and we start to be a believer in righteousness
and hate iniquity. What happens when a person walks uprightly. I make a man more than the
gold of Ophir. Sweet like honey. Better than rubies and gold and silver. Hard to find it, Job 28.
You can’t find it by mining in the ground.

Birds can’t find it in the air or fish in the sea. We find it in our Bible school, our prayer, our meditation, when we live by faith. We find it as worshipers of God. Don’t let reason stop you. You cannot let reason stop your life. God is bigger than reason. Vs. 2. I think we will finish with this verse. I want to draw a picture of Legos. They fit.
You know how they go. Do they fit perfectly? They do. Everyone of them fits together. I feel this
is what happened in my life. I don’t even know how that happened. Things started to fit
together. When there was something that happened from God that said put me first and all
these things will come along.

I’ll take care of you and guide you and give you thoughts in the night. I’ll give you comfort in pain. I’ll give you a friend. We’ll have a staff in GGWO. We’ll have a network. Things are coming together, a variety of people and many differences and many loose ends, but this city is compact together. There is something that makes a lot of sense. You’ll say thank you Jesus. Jesus, you did that. You put it together. What did we do? We just showed up
and worshiped God. The Holy Spirit did much more than we thought. We had a worship night
and then we come again. I’m glad when I go to the house of God.

I’m with people that make godly sense. I got a Bible that is starting to make sense to me. I have a life that is starting to work somehow. It’s the Holy Spirit giving us peace and direction. That’s it. That’s a good word. I
don’t underestimate what it is that happens in this world of worship. The world doesn’t know
it. They laugh about certain things that are not a joke. They don’t know what they are playing
with. They put the screwdriver in the big thing. They don’t know what they are doing.
Worshipers. David said get the ark.

I would say the brilliance of the church is seen this way. When we have this as a priority and shoot for this, not for this. We shoot for this. Where is Jesus? What is he saying? When we shoot for worship and leave our stuff down, the lower stuff, the reason, the feelings and humanity and disappointment and people and everything. I want
to be a worshiper. When the ark comes into Jerusalem, something happens. When Jesus is
there in the midst of his people, something good is going on.

Something organized together with a frame and a relationship and judgments are happening in a regular and consistent way. Can you imagine raising a family without a frame. The frame is what my dad taught me but it’s
not good enough when I fail. I need another frame. I failed my dad. I failed the concept. I didn’t measure up to my dad. Where is my frame? I got guilt. The frame is the worship of Jesus Christ.
It’s God. He will never fail you. He will build your family. He will take care of you. He will help
you. If you lost your family, he will heal you and help you.

If you sin, he will take your sin away. If you are lost, he is the way, the truth and the life. Did we make it up? No, he gave us himself. Worship. That’s what the world does not do. They make a joke about sinful things and live in
danger. They are empty people walking around and don’t have a clue. They have the Oscar
awards or a reputation or a bank account or money or doctor so and so but it’s nuts to have life
without the worship of God.

Amen.

Please enjoy these sermon notes from the messages preached at Greater Grace Church in Baltimore. These notes are provided to aid in your study and understanding of the Word. Note that these notes do not represent complete, word-for-word transcriptions. Also, they may contain omissions as well as some errors in spelling and structure, etc., as we attempt to provide them as soon as possible. Our hope is that these notes serve as a way to help you search and connect with messages on related subjects and passages. Thank you for your interest in the ministry of Greater Grace.