Our very own Dr. Brent Thomason will be sharing a message with us entitled, “Saved, Sanctified and Standing Firm,” a message from 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17. It is a blessing to have sanctified saints who stand firm in their works and words. We invite you to explore 2 Thessalonians 2 in preparation for this sermon!
Our Sunday messages have been about worship as our response of loyal devotion to God’s self-revelation. Because worship is our response to God’s gracious initiative, every time we draw close to the Lord we are reminded that he is the one who has sought us first. As we come to our last message in the series, please read Revelation chapters 4 and 5 to catch a vision of God’s glory.
We were made to worship God. The tree of life is a symbol of the life-giving relationship of God in fellowship with his people. We were made to feed on the inexhaustible and ever-life-giving presence of God. Worship is all about enjoying the nourishment of God’s presence in obedience to his will. True worship is obedience to God’s word. Nothing is more spiritually nourishing to us than the perfect and pleasing word of God.
God knows our deepest needs and wants to meet our deepest needs. Ever since Genesis 3, we keep trying to meet these needs with idolatrous substitutes. But God in his love, sent Jesus to seek and save the lost. In this story, Jesus gently and firmly shows the Samaritan woman that the only one able to meet her needs is God. The thirst she has for the water of life can only be quenched in a personal encounter with God through the Messiah which is what worship is all about.
In order to come into God’s presence in worship, Old Testament believers needed to make sure they were ceremonially clean. Uncleanness disqualified those who sought to worship God. In this passage, we see a leper bowing down to Jesus (worship) with nothing to offer but his overwhelming need. Jesus is the provision that washes all uncleanness away. Coming to God has never been something those sinful human beings can do on their own. The only way to God is not our righteousness but the righteousness of the Lamb of God who opened a new and living way through the blood of his sacrifice.
“These people… honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” (Is. 29:13)
With these words, the prophet Isaiah showed that worship is not just about what we say but about what we treasure in our hearts. God does not want us to simply say we believe; he wants us to believe. In this passage, we see the contrast between the lip worship of Herod and the authentic worship of the magi surrendering their time, talents, and treasures at the feet of the King.
We were made for worship. Worship is the bridge through which our humanity connects with God’s divinity in humble submission. This side of Eden worship is, however, a cosmic battlefield. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned, our rebellious hearts struggle with worship. Sin’s self-centered tendencies make it impossible to surrender to God apart from his grace and the enabling of the Holy Spirit by faith. Knowing this, Satan seeks every opportunity to deceive us, promising the world if we just bow down and worship him instead of God but delivering none of his promises. In this passage, Jesus shows us that true worship is about loving God supremely.
Some legacies are defined by their failures. When we hear names such as Adolf Hitler, Charles Manson, and Lee Harvey Oswald, we cannot help but reduce the lives of these individuals to the heinous acts that made them famous. The father of humanity, Adam, is also on the list of names known for catastrophic failure. In Genesis 5, however, we catch a rare glimpse of the God of redemption who is able to rescue and restore us in spite of our biggest failures. Chapter 5 is a witness to his mercy and hope for our imperfect families in every generation.
In this painful episode, we see the full fruit of sin in our vertical and horizontal relationships. Not only are we alienated from other human beings but the root of our brokenness and pain is that we are alienated from God. Families can be a source of comfort and healing or can be the source of inexpressible pain.
