The Worship Is His | Like 2:22-35

• Sermon Transcript

  All right, good morning. You're part of the frozen chosen here this morning. Good to have you here. It's cold. Sunday, what a great job for a worship band, Let's have another round of applause for them. Great job leading us into worship today. We have a great band that does that every week. But you know, not every church does. There's just one church that had a worship band similar to ours. And they had someone singing on stage who just couldn't sing kind of a background vocalist, but the man just could not sing. And people were really getting irritated about and the band members are getting irritated about it. So they came to the pastor and said, Pastor, we had this man, Brother Jones, who sings kind of background vocals on our on our worship team up here and worship band and he, he just can't sing, he can't sing. And and the worship leader said, and I need you to do something about it, or else I'm gonna have to quit. Or if I don't quit, the band is gonna quit, and they're gonna have nobody up there singing, but that poor man who can't sing in the first place. So that put the pastor in a little bit of a conundrum. So he had to go and he talked to the worship band, and they said, Oh, yeah, I know, he can't sing. And Johnson is crazy. And he just doesn't have the gift of singing. And they tried to help them go to other places like door greeters, and, and other places he could do and serve the church. And he just said, No, I feel called to sing, and I'm going to be called to sing. So the pastor finally said, Well, I guess I'm gonna have to tell him, he can't sing anymore. So the pastor came to the member, their Brother Jones and said, Listen, you're, you're not gonna be able to sing anymore, right? And he said, he said, Well, why, why? Why should I leave the band? And he said, well, the band and other people have told me that you can't sing. He said, Well, that's nothing. 50 people have told me that you can't preach. But you're still here. That's why the pastor never has that job to tell people to quit. I never know what's gonna happen. Anyway. So thankfully, we don't have that we don't have that problem. But if we did I get somebody else to deal with it. But anyway. Anyway, what does it take? What does it take to worship? Right? Is it a good praise band? Is it a good performance? Just a perfect, we had great music today. And it helped me it helps me worship today, and help get my heart right. Does it take a good sermon and a good preacher preaching? Yes, it helps for sure performance, all those things can help. And we touched on a little bit that this last week. But But what helps us with worship today, we're gonna be looking at that because worship is all about Jesus. We have all these modern advancements and microphones and sound and everything that that help us. But really, worship is just us worshiping Jesus Christ. We're spending this entire calendar year going through the entire life of Jesus, and we're in his still in its early stages. So some of these sermons may seem like a Christmas sermon, because they're about the birth and when he Jesus when he was young. And today we are in Luke chapter two, starting in verse 22. And when the time came, for their purification, according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord. Every male who first opens the womb, shall be called holy to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said, in the law of the Lord, pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons. And there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon. And this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him. And he had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the spirit, into the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him, according to the custom of the law, he took them up in his arms, bless God and said, Lord, now you're letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word. From my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people, Israel. And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them, and said to marry his mother, Behold, this child is is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel. And for a sign that is opposed, and a sword will pierce through your own, so awesome, so that thoughts for many hearts may be revealed. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this passage you've given us. Show us today, how we can better worship you. When we come into this place. On Sundays, Wednesdays, wherever we find ourselves, worshiping you, especially Lord, on these corporate worship days, how we can come into here believe the things we have in our lives behind and focus on giving you the praise and glory that you deserve for being the savior that you are. Or show us how we can be better worshippers Father, Lord, we thank You for this message. This passage you've given us today, what I pray that it's through my words that you speak through me, that you you take this vessel and make it something that you can use, or we pray that I pray that you fill me with your Spirit, and that your Spirit works in this room today among the hearers of this message, and we ask these things in Jesus name, amen. Today, I want to give you three actions, three actions that we can take, that will allow us a better worship, experience. Three actions you can take to allow us a better worship experience and doesn't involve replacing the preacher or any members of the band. actions we can take, number one, we need to be able to purify our hearts for worship, we should purify our hearts for worship, because verse 22, when the time came for their purification, according to the law of Moses, what's happening here? Well, Mary had given birth, and according to the Jewish law, she had a time of ritual purification process that had to go about Leviticus 12 talks about this, this is the command they're talking about. Leviticus 12 says, The Lord spoke to Moses saying, Speak to the people of Israel, saying, if a woman conceives, and bears a male child, and she shall be unclean seven days, at the time of her menstruation shall shall be unclean. And on the eighth day of the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised, then she can, shall continue for 33 days in the blood of a purifying, she shall not touch anything holy, nor come into the sanctuary, to the days where purifying are completed. So when I went when a woman in this stage was, was what we call it ceremonially ritualistically, unclean, she was unable to enter the temple, unable to enter the worship area. So she had to be go through this cleansing process, because she had given birth. So for her to worship, she had to be cleansed physically, ceremonially. Now, it was a ritual, cleansing, a ritual that was meant to be symbolic. There's nothing immoral about Mary, giving birth, it was a ritual thing, it was a symbolic thing. And it was a picture of her own need, for cleansing of sin of her moral sin. See, holiness is very important to God. And so all the rituals, all the cleansing rituals were a constant reminder given to the Jewish people that they needed their sin, to be cleansed, to be taken, clean and clear, to be clear, to be taken care of. Holiness is important to God. And so upon being cleansed, and going through that process, she understood going through this ritual, the very real sense of being a sinner in front of a holy God. So that was the purpose of it. Now, we live under what's called the New Covenant of the blood of Jesus. We don't have these type of rituals. We're not Jews and the Old Testament, the Old Covenant. And when we think about the words, impurity, and uncleanness, at least how it's written in the New Testament, it's thought of more of as a moral impurity. And sometimes it's also thought of as a motive. Whether this there's more and more moral purity or a motive that is impure. And so, one element the word refers to living an excessive lifestyle. That's the what the word impurity in New Testament means that it's a lusting lusting after money, lusting after pleasure, lusting after power. It's it's doing what the kids say the You Only Live Once life kind of just doing everything for yourself. That's an impure way to live just everything's about you. And so as we prepare for worship these week, think about this, how can you start to purify yourself from any moral uncleanness? What are some things that you lust after? That, you know, is not right. That you know, you don't need, what are some of the extravagances that you just need to go without. That's how we can purify ourselves for worship. Mary was once she was ritually purified. They brought Jesus to be dedicated says in verse 22, and 23, that they they brought him up to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord. Every male who first opens the womb, shall be called holy, to the lord of Exodus 13 says right here, the Lord said to Moses, consecrate to me all the firstborn, whatever is the first open the womb among the people of Israel, both man and beast is mine. Now, this is some imagery, referring back to God, and Moses, his time allowing the firstborn in Egypt to die, because they didn't let his people go. And so in this dedication service, the Jews were also reminded from God, saving them, redeeming them from Egypt. So Jesus's dedication was what they would do with any firstborn child. And it was a way of increasing the faith of the parents by presenting the child to the Lord. Now, we do some similar this kind of thing from now, every now and then in our own church, we have a parent, child dedication, it's, it's not a guarantee your child will be saved. It's not guaranteed that they'll come in faith, but it's us saying this is important. We want our child to know that this is important. We expect the church to help us raise his child and the Lord and for the child to grow in the Lord. Verse 24, said as part of this, they can offer a sacrifice, according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons, married Joseph were young, teenagers, probably, they were like most teenagers are financially poor. If a couple cannot afford a lamb, for this sacrifice, God made an allowance. He allowed them to sacrifice birds, which are much cheaper. And additionally, their need for sacrifice shows us that Mary and Joseph to are sinners. Mary was sinless as some believe she also needed a Savior. But God made the allowances for them to worship. Now, sometimes when people don't come to church, they'll tell me that or they'll say, Well, I just gotta get my life together, before I can come. Right. And that's that's kind of a common misperception that they kind of have to get their life together before they can come to worship. That's not really necessary, because no one has their life together. Amen. Oh, come on. Now. You all should be aiming me on that one. Let's try that again. No one has their life together. There we go. Right. You can't lie in God's house here, right? No one truly has her life all together. God will take you as you are. You can come at any point in the worship, but but you will certainly grow closer to Christ, if you purify yourself before worship. Look at Second Timothy two. Now in a great house, Paul writes Timothy, they're not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wooden clay, some for honorable use some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is this honorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as wholly useful for the master of the house, ready for every good work. So the fact of the matter is that God accepts us all to come and worship him. But when we start purifying ourselves and turning from sin in our lives, and making lifestyle changes, then he can use us even more than if we don't. That's where he wants us to be. He wants us to purify our hearts. We come into worship, and then that worship is even sweeter than it would be, if not. Secondly, as we purify to, we should prepare our hearts for worship. prepare our hearts for worship. Look at verse 25. There was a man in Jerusalem. His name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him. And when they said that Simeon was righteous doesn't mean that he was perfect that he was a believer, much like Abraham was deemed righteous by his faith. Devout means God fearing hit a lifestyle, not of rule keeping but a lifestyle of seeking to honor God and all that he did. And he was waiting for what he called the constellation, the comfort, the encouragement of Israel, and the Messiah would bring this. And here's a man who have been purifying preparing his heart for decades. So as you purified his heart as he turned from sin, as he followed God, he was prepared for the day, he would see Jesus. He was prepared for it. Perhaps because of his devotion to God, God revealed to him the special blessing and verse 26. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, that he wouldn't see death. Before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Simeon has spent his life preparing his heart for the reality of the Messiah. He had grown older, but never lost faith. That one day, he'd see the Messiah. One day, the spirit. It says in verse 27, led him to the temple. Now, this is not the New Testament spirit, the New Testament, every believer, the Spirit came down and acts every believer has, has the Holy Spirit. But at that point, that wasn't the case. The Spirit made a special stop the Simeon and led him into the temple, verse 27. And when his parents brought in the child, Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, Simeon took them up in his arms, and bless God. 40 days after the birth of Jesus, Simeon came under the spirits, leadership, the spirits guiding had not been prepared for he might not you might have missed the spirits leading. You might have missed it. But he's prepared. And he knew the day and he knew the time and he went into the temple and there was the baby and he knew who it was the Messiah. What a thrill. It would have been for this old believer who was no doubt living the rest of his life to see the Messiah. See that? Messiah. Hold that baby, knowing you'd be Jesus. And he says a prayer when he holds in verse 29. Lord, now you're letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word. From my eyes have seen your salvation. Amen. Then you've prepared in the presence for all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people of Israel. See as we prepare our hearts to worship, God has prepared Jesus for us, amen. A sister in law turned 40 this weekend. She's had a couple of lunches and dinners for me and my wife and her parents and we've gone down and we've eaten some really nice restaurants, and downtown Charleston ever go to a nice restaurant in downtown Charleston. I kind of feel like cousin Eddie from lampoon's big Christmas vacation, I feel a little bit out of place. And they're right like I had a home a fork. I don't know right now. When you go to those restaurants, they are preparing a wonderful meal for you. Right? And so we have to be prepared to eat that wonderful meal. If I ate a bunch of Twinkies and Twizzlers and things like this, when I went when I go there and they give me this great food, I wouldn't want it. I have to make sure I have to wait long enough to eat so I can enjoy the incredible grits that came from heaven that I ate last night. Incredible collard greens that were made gourmet Southern cooking right. I had to enjoy how horrible would have been if I had no taste buds. If my taste buds were seared, I could enjoy what was prepared for me. See, worship is supposed to be a feast you have to prepare your heart to feast on the meal that's what we have to do when we come in here. A big part of your worship experience we base so how you have prepared for today. Jesus has the meal ready for is prepared. It's top notch. But does your heart prepared? Your heart prepared for just step foods sits in front of you don't eat it It's not a blessing to you. And they wasted their time making it. So we always get to go boxes. But a big part of your experience how you prepare yourself for the day, how do you prepare yourself for worship during the week? It's simple that can be difficult. Consistently reading your Bible consistently praying, praying not only for God to work in your life, but asking God how you can help others. How you can be blessings to other people's lives repenting of sin turning from sin. The wonderful thing about sin is we know we're guilty when we do it yet God forgives us every time purifying your heart from the the world's drawl the world's entanglement, it may it might mean that you your turn your cell phone off for a few days. It might mean that you delete some apps on your phone that that take your heart away from the Lord. You have to be aggressive in our world to prepare your heart to worship on Sundays. You do I think now more than ever, you have to be aggressive about it. What can you do to do it? Doing these things goes a long way to prepare you to worship Jesus on Sunday morning so you can eat and enjoy them feast. Look at Psalm 24 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place? He law he who has clean hands and a pure heart who does not live to Seoul up to what is false and does not swear? deceitfully. See the rewards of worship and following Christ are so much better when you've prepared your heart for worship. So much better. So we prepare our hearts number two, and number three, we should examine our hearts for worship. Which is exactly examine our hearts for worship. Verse 33, his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him, and Simeon blessed them and said to marry his mother, Behold, this child making it gives it a lot of things. Shell is gonna be wonderful, Greg is going to heal the sick, he's going to do wonderful things. That's not what he says. She knew he's gonna do wonderful things. What he says to this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel when his estranged thing to tell a mother at a child dedication ceremony, and for a sign that is opposed. He says Your son is going to call cause people to fall. Your son is going to cause people to rise. In the words, he's going to be divisive. Some will follow some will not. Now, he addressed these words to Mary, I believe. So that Mary would understand from the beginning, the opposition that her son would face in life, none of us want our children to face any hardship. Unless they started getting a little. What's the word I don't know too big for their britches, then we want them to suffer a little bit every now and then. Right? But we don't really want them to face hardship. But Mary needed to understand this now. He didn't talk to Joseph. Joseph apparently wasn't around for the hostility Jesus was with suffer. The last that we even hear of Joseph was when Jesus was 12 when he got lost in the temple. So many people believe that that he died before Jesus ever began his ministry. But Simeon is prophesying to Mary that people will oppose her son. What a difficult thing to hear. But it's the truth about her calling and the truth of Jesus's calling. People would speak against him, but it was why he came look at Isaiah 53. prophesied about the Christ. He grew up before him like a young plant. Like a root out of dry ground, he had no form, or majesty that we should look at him no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised, rejected by men, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, as one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken, Smit My God and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and With his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. The sorrow, Jesus would feel as He hung on the cross, the sorrow married would feel as she saw her little baby boy hanging on the cross as a 33 year old man was because we put him there. Our sin, put them on the cross, your sin, my sin. When Jesus suffered he no marriage suffered, what an amazing thing would be to be the mother, or the Son of God. But what a difficult assignment to watch your son, knowing from a little baby 40 Dale baby was suffer for the sins of the world. Hard to imagine. And then he tells him in verse 35, and a sword will pierce through your own soul also. And that thoughts for many hearts may be revealed. Mary would also have to be convicted of her sin. Her sin put him on the cross as well. Imagine the thought of that your child dying because of something you did. She had to wrestle with that. Her own sin, put him on the cross. She would suffer as she watched him suffer. But she would also have to come know him as Lord. This is why many scholars believe that when he does the first miracle at the wedding in Cana, he doesn't call her mother. He calls her a woman. It seems disrespectful. If I call my wife, woman or my mom, mother, Woman. I do call my wife, woman. But if I call my mother woman, my dad would been upset with me. Don't call her that right? Why is it called a woman? Because he knew that he needed to start distancing himself from his mother. Because yes, she was his mother, but he was her savior. He was her lord. Amazing. See, as children grow up and become adults, and many of you know this, they start to distance themselves from their parents. And it can be difficult for parents to accept all of our out all of our children's still in the house. But I see how they start doing that as they get older, can be a little difficult adjustment. It's difficult because for two decades, we're taking care of them, addressing them, we're driving them all over tarnation, right, all around Charleston, take them to all the different places, wiping their noses, doing their homework for them. I didn't say that out loud. Doing everything for him. And then they just start going further apart. It can be difficult to accept. But children have to do that. They have to do that in order to become who God's called them to be. In Jesus had to do that as well. Mary had an even worse. She had to see her hon. Her son grow distant to die for the sins of the world. She had not only see him grow as a grown man, this man that she nursed as a baby that brought up and did everything for him. She had to see him grow into being God even though he was already God, and his savior. her own son made her examine her heart. Every now and then my child when my children will tell me something, and I realized I'm wrong. It's kind of a tough pill to swallow, isn't it? Going to have to examine your heart. Imagined for some was Jesus. sinless. Never done anybody wrong. The suffering like only we should, like only the worst sinner shed our son made her examine her heart and we are to do the same. Look at Psalm 139. Search me O God, know my heart. try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. What a bold prayer. I dare you to pray that you really want God to search you and to know your heart to know your thoughts. He already knows them. Know your intentions. What a courageous prayer, to pray that prayer to say, Lord, I want you to change me. Mary had to come to that place. Because Jesus is the sword that pierces every soul. Even his mother's even those who knew him the most. Jesus pierces our soul. See, worship is not just about good lighting, great instruments. Great leading. It's about what have we done for our heart? As we enter in here on Sunday? Have we purified ourselves have we prepared ourselves how we examined ourselves here from the Lord, Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for giving us the grace every day to follow you. We know that there's those in here today that they have escaped the cold to come in and worship you. But they've also escaped cold things in their own lives. Difficulties. They don't want to be around. That's one maybe one reason why they're here. So Lord, if there is one here today that's never placed their faith in you that today they would do so that they would believe in you that you died for our sins on the cross. And then on the that you were buried, and on third day, you were resurrected, proving that you had power over death and sin proving that you are the Lord son, and purchasing salvation for all who would believe but they would believe today. Or maybe there's ones in here today that I've been following you but have not been purifying their lives and I've been preparing their hearts have not been examining the heart since the day they would make a commitment to do some may they just need to come down to this from his church early steps and just do business with you today, Lord, maybe they need prayer. Maybe they just need me to pray with them. I'd be loved to pray for whatever it is Lord, as you work in people's hearts today. And you would lead them to make the decision they need to make love we love you. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.