[0:00] What a stellar group of kids there. What a blessing to have all of those kids that we get to pour into in the life of the church. Keep praying for those student leaders, those children's leaders as the next wave and generation of the church are being raised up.
[0:19] Good morning, everybody. My name is David Corrente. I have the joy and privilege of being a pastor here. If you are new, welcome. Hopefully we get to meet you and encourage you and strengthen you in the word of God as we get to gather together.
[0:35] I invite you to open your Bibles this morning. God's inspired word to Isaiah chapter 66. Isaiah chapter 66. Thank you so much, music team, for leading us this morning and just wonderful singing, everybody, before we come into God's word.
[1:00] Let me pray for us. Father, we come to your holy and inspired word. I pray that as you are with us this morning, that you are awesome in our sight.
[1:17] That you are the majestic holy one. Whose words bring life to our bones. Brings life to our mind and our heart and our wills.
[1:34] Father, may you be glorious this morning as you build up your people. From your word. And your son's precious and holy name.
[1:46] Amen. Isaiah chapter 66, verses 1 and 2. Thus says the Lord, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.
[2:02] Where then is a house you could build for me? And where is a place that I may rest? For my hand made all these things. Thus all these things came into being, declares the Lord.
[2:16] But to this one I will look. To him who is humble, could tread of spirit, and he trembles at my word.
[2:31] Certainly a joy to open up the word of God with you this morning. And I am excited to get into the book of Romans. As a congregation next week, Isaiah is usually referred to from commentators as the Romans of the Old Testament.
[2:45] Or Romans could be the Isaiah of the New Testament. When I have opportunity to preach in my new role here, my goal is to bring out issues that relate to us as a congregation.
[3:00] That relate to the heartbeat of our ministry. To keep us engaged in all that the Lord is doing. I'd like to connect the truths that we have been learning together as a congregation.
[3:13] And how might that affect other areas of our lives. If you are new here, and you do not know what has been happening over the past number of months, and maybe even the past year, that there is now two congregations into one.
[3:26] The Lord has united two bodies, two families, and now we are growing together as one plant, one seed, one vine. The heartbeat of our elders meetings over the past number of months, since this merge, has been pretty much focused on one thing.
[3:47] How are you growing in Christ? How are we as a church maturing and growing in this body to conform all of us into the image of Christ?
[4:05] How are we doing that? That is the call of leadership. That is the call of the church. Are we cultivating the soil of ministry and planting on fertile ground as the Lord leads and guides each and every one of us from one stage of glory to the next?
[4:24] From one stage of growth to the next. It is a desire for this congregation to mature and to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[4:39] And so this text of Scripture, I believe, will help us as we transition and become one body from two, where we need to start together as a congregation to cultivate this reality.
[4:53] To cultivate this fertile ground and to ask the Lord to provide the right atmosphere and the right conditions for us to produce the harvest of ministry that He is farming out.
[5:07] It is springtime, so please forgive all of these gardening and farming analogies. But it's right because Paul uses them a bunch as well.
[5:18] Here is a question that we keep trying to analyze as leaders, and it is the question all of us should be analyzing and think about in our daily lives.
[5:28] Are we concerned about the same things that God is? Are we prioritizing our ministry life the way that the Lord Himself would desire us to prioritize it?
[5:42] Do you wake up in the morning concerned about the same things that God is concerned about for your life? The same things that God is prioritizing in this church ministry and body life?
[5:53] How would it be evaluated? How could we evaluate it? It is the constant question we are asking ourselves.
[6:08] What is growth? What is unity? What is maturity? What does that mean for us? And are we being faithful to what God is calling us to be and calling us to do?
[6:19] Are these your concerns as well? In your home? In your relationships? In your Christian life?
[6:30] Do we as a church think about how we worship the Lord individually, collectively, from a Sunday morning gathering to the dinner table at home, or reading a book to the kids at night, or from one Bible study to a coffee to another interaction with a brother and sister in Christ?
[6:52] Or maybe even someone who needs the gospel, who needs the truth. This text is begging that question, do we evaluate our lives as worshipers?
[7:02] So let's take some time this morning to allow the Lord to do some evaluating of our own hearts as well. What is the state of worship, of our worship?
[7:13] And how will that determine our ministry, discipleship, and unity as a church? As Pastor B.K. has said, we want to capture the heart of worship in this ministry.
[7:27] So here's the proposition coming from Isaiah 66, that the heart of worship is the heart of the relationship you have and we have as a congregation with God as He reveals His Word to us.
[7:42] The heart of worship is the heart of the relationship you have and we have as a congregation with God and His revealed Word to us. Therefore, for us as a church, striving to grow as one, mature in growth, unity will be cultivated by the pursuit of the Lord together, in His instructions for us.
[8:06] As a church, striving to grow as one, mature in growth and unity, will be cultivated by the pursuit of the Lord together, in His instructions for us, so that He may bless us according to His grace.
[8:22] He blesses His Word in His people. He blesses His people. He blesses His people. He blesses His people. He blesses His people. When His people honor Him and His Word.
[8:36] Here's kind of the main point. God defines all of our spiritual life. Look at the text this morning. God says, It's the Lord. It's my throne, He says about heaven.
[8:50] It's my footstool, He says about earth. Where is the house you could build me? Where is the place that I may rest? My hand made all these things.
[9:03] I made all these things come into being, declares the Lord. But to this one, I will look. The one who trembles at my word.
[9:17] God is the one who is defining worship. God is the one who is defining discipleship, growth in worship. God defines the relationship between His creation and Himself.
[9:29] His worshipers and Himself. The one who is to be worshipped. He defines the boundaries of acceptable and unacceptable worship, acceptable and unacceptable discipleship.
[9:42] So we need to grow. We all do. If you're a disciple, you are a learner. And you will not stop learning until you see glory. And then you get to know all the things you got wrong.
[9:56] We all do. It will all be revealed then. And it will be glorious. And it will be without sin. So we're not even going to point fingers at each other. This passage will help set the trajectory.
[10:12] It will be a great encouragement before we get into Romans. Because Romans is going to say a lot of heavy things. A lot of good things. A lot of hard things. But what's the context here?
[10:26] What's the context here? Six chapters. Why is He saying this now? Well, they're in a grave situation. There's a split in the kingdom. As we already know.
[10:38] Because we walked through this, right? In the Old Testament over the past number of months. There's grave sin. There's grave sin in the kingdom. There's political alliances with other nations.
[10:49] There's foreign worship altars set up all around Israel. Israel. All the while, they still head to the temple and present their offerings to the Lord.
[11:03] Israel thought, well, if we just have the temple and if we just go to the temple. And then approach our sacrifices superficially and live how we want.
[11:14] God's still going to favor us. We're His people. He won't judge us. He won't discipline us. The book of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah tells a very different story coming from heaven.
[11:30] I want you to walk through this with me. Go to chapter 1 for a moment. Go to chapter 1 of Isaiah. What was the adjudication from heaven?
[11:44] How was God seeing their situation? Isaiah chapter 1 verse 4.
[11:56] At the end of the verse there, they have abandoned the Lord. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They have turned away from Him. They have abandoned God.
[12:08] Now, did they abandon Him completely? Did they run away and become atheists and kind of start a new nation? No. They were still calling themselves Israel.
[12:19] They were still calling themselves followers of Yahweh, the one true and living God. Did they abandon the sacrifices? Did they abandon the temple? No. No.
[12:31] Look at verse 11. What are your multiplied sacrifices to me? I've had enough of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle.
[12:46] I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs or goats. When you come to appear before me, who requires of you this trampling of my courts? Bring your worthless offerings no longer.
[13:01] They were still bringing sacrifices. They were still saying and proposing that they were worshiping. Verse 14, I hate your new moons, festivals, your appointed feasts.
[13:13] They become a burden to me. They were mixing pagan and righteous worship practices together. Look at verse 15, when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you.
[13:25] Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. They were still praying. They were still offering up their spiritual life.
[13:37] And yet, they were full of hypocrisy. It was hypocritical. Look at chapter 2. Chapter 2, verse 6.
[13:51] They become filled with influences from the east. Soothsayers like the Philistines. Their land has become filled with silver and gold.
[14:03] There's no end to their treasures. Their land has been filled with horses. There's no end to their chariots. Their land has been filled with idols. They worship the work of their hands.
[14:15] That which their fingers have made. Look at all the things we have done. That's what they were saying. They were worshiping what they were bringing.
[14:27] They were worshiping themselves, ultimately. Go to chapter 5. Chapter 5, verse 24. Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubble and dry grass collapses into the flames, so their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away as dust.
[14:50] Here's the judgment. For they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
[15:01] They rejected the very thing that God said, Here is how we have a relationship. Here is how you worship me. Here is how you will be blessed as a nation.
[15:15] Here is how I am going to condescend to you and dwell with you and relate to you and uplift you and help you and protect you.
[15:27] And they rejected it. Do parents ever feel like that sometimes? Where does it get down to?
[15:41] Go to chapter 29. Chapter 29. You've heard this verse numerous times.
[15:54] Jesus quotes it in the New Testament. Here's ultimately the reason for the judgment that was coming upon Israel. The way that they drew near to God with all of their multiplied sacrifices, worthless offerings, mixture of pagan rituals, vain prayers because of a hypocritical life.
[16:15] Verse 13. Then the Lord said, Because this people draw near me with their words and honor me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from me and their reverence for me consists of tradition learned by rot or traditions of men.
[16:37] It was the heart. It was the inner life. It was what was happening on the inside. No matter what was happening on the outside, this is where God looks to.
[16:52] And we know that from David, right? God doesn't look to us the way that other people look to us. God sees us and He sees the heart.
[17:02] God will look upon us. He will look upon you. He will look upon this church. He will see the heart of what we are bringing to God. They wanted a self-defined worship.
[17:15] They wanted a self-defined spiritual life. They already told Samuel, We want a king like all the other nations. So God had to encourage Samuel and say, They're not rejecting you.
[17:27] They're rejecting me. Turn back to Isaiah chapter 66. You now know why in Isaiah chapter 6, God sends down that burning coal to touch the lips of Isaiah, to purify Him.
[17:49] Because that's what Israel needed. They needed a purification of God. They needed a right heart and a right mind and a right inner life to worship Him.
[17:59] But they could not do that on their own. How can we know that this text, as well as speaking of worship and discipleship, with God, even here in this context?
[18:12] Well, if you look down, it says, Where is my throne? Where is the house that you're going to build for me? We read 1 Kings 8.
[18:23] David read 1 Kings 8, talking about this building and this home for God. The temple. This footstool that God is resting His foot on is also in Psalm 132, verse 7.
[18:39] Let us go to His dwelling place. Let us worship at His footstool. So the footstool is also used where God is dwelling, even at the temple. The temple was the presence of God in the midst of His people.
[18:53] The meeting place with God, therefore a symbol of God's choice of Israel. But it was also a barometer of what the relationship with God was like.
[19:06] So just as Pastor B.K. preached about the exile, when they were away from the temple and the temple was destroyed, that was a symbol of what their relationship was truly like with God.
[19:18] Look back at chapter 65. The problem is still there.
[19:33] Verse 2, a people, sorry, verse 2, who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts.
[19:44] A people who continually provoke me to my face. And then He talks about the sacrifices. Offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense and bricks.
[19:58] Go back to chapter 66. Go to verse 3. But he who kills an ox is one like, one who slays a man.
[20:09] He who sacrifices a lamb is like the one who breaks a dog's neck. He who offers a grain offering is like one who offers swine's blood. He who burns incense is one who blesses an idol as they have chosen their own ways and their soul delights in their abominations.
[20:28] They're bringing sacrifices and He equates it to murder. He says, you might as well sacrifice a dog. There's no difference than you're bringing a pig or what I've called you to.
[20:44] It's their relationship with their God and how they relate to Him and what He has called them to be and called them to do. This was God's concern for Israel and His concern for us.
[20:59] Our worship of Him through our relationship to Him and His word. So we want to get to that this morning. The heart of worship.
[21:09] Three keys to the heart of worship. And I might even interchange discipleship because we use that terminology because that's the life of the church. To make disciples. That's what He said.
[21:20] Jesus said in Matthew 28. So from this text in Isaiah 66, three keys to the heart of worship. And you could even say maturing, growing, cultivating worship and discipleship.
[21:35] And here's our first point this morning that God declares. Here's our first key this morning to the heart of worship that God declares. And the question is, what does God say?
[21:45] Or what did God say about this? Look at verse 1. Thus says the Lord, Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.
[21:57] When it comes to this world, when it comes to your relationship with the one true and living God, when it comes to all of spiritual life, we must be in the habit of asking ourselves, what does God say?
[22:09] What did God say about this? We're used to choices and options in this life. We're used to customer service. We're used to being waiting on.
[22:21] Many of you go to maybe all-inclusive resorts for a week. And then by the end of it, you're like, I could not live like this. Why? I hope so. So many options.
[22:35] We're used to customizing. We're used to modifying because of our preferences don't meet the proposed availability of what's there. Can I get this instead of that?
[22:48] Can I put this on top of that? Can I choose this option and this package because it's my preference? Unfortunately, we cannot make that kind of transition into our relationship with God.
[23:02] The God of the universe who created you and I, who created the body of the church and believed that somehow he is going to bend his will to our whims and pleasures and preferences.
[23:18] Thus says the Lord, God speaks as sovereign authority and righteous judge. Sovereign authority just means he's in control because he made it all.
[23:32] And righteous judge means that he is the dividing line between moral and immoral, right and wrong. God defines all spiritual life, worship, discipleship, because he created it all and has the authority to command his creation.
[23:51] And he is not apologetic about his word. He doesn't make excuses, nor does he have to justify himself before us as if our approval is needed when he speaks.
[24:02] You notice here where he is speaking from. Heaven. He is speaking from heaven on his throne where the place of seating and position dictates the reality of those before him.
[24:21] You go into a courtroom, the one who sits on the throne, that judge, dictates what happens in the rest of that courtroom. You go to a CEO's office on the 50th floor, he starts to dictate what happens all in the rest of the business.
[24:36] The seat matters. The position matters. The name matters. He is high above in heaven and we are below on the earth.
[24:48] He is sitting on his glorious throne in his glorious seat and we are laid low on the earth. We are the ones that are but a vapor, are here today and gone tomorrow. He is the one who is eternal from beginning to end.
[25:02] Both of these realities reveal our physical and spiritual position before God. God wanted Israel to see the gap of what was happening between him and them. His proposed requirements of worship and their practice of the worship.
[25:22] God condemned Israel in Psalm 50 verse 21 when he said, you thought I was just like you. We might not say it out loud, beloved, but we probably act like it more than we give ourselves credit for.
[25:39] That we think it would be a little bit better if God would took some of the advice that we gave him about our life or even the world. God's love but no, we are underneath, we are the footstool.
[25:53] Psalm 110, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet and if you are in Christ this morning, you are not an enemy. Hallelujah and amen. Resurrection, Passion Week last week declares that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
[26:14] If you are not in Christ this morning, you are an enemy of God. But the position still, remember the position, we are underneath his feet which is demonstrating his right over whatever his feet are on.
[26:31] He has full rights to everything under his foot. Are you under his foot? He has sovereign rights over your life.
[26:44] Is your family, your marriage, your kids under your feet? He has sovereign rights over all of it.
[26:56] Your job, each dollar you earn, he has sovereign rights over it. What about this ministry and everything that is conducted in this place?
[27:09] Is it under his feet? He has sovereign rights. Authority and a right to it all. God defines how we relate to him.
[27:24] When he speaks, he reveals his creation doesn't arbitrate, they do not evaluate the divine command and the order of his sovereign right and will.
[27:40] So if you go back into that earthly courtroom setting and you start doing what our hearts do sometimes, in reality, what is that courtroom judge going to say?
[27:51] You're not going to get very far. God's God's So for us, our maturity as a church, our growth and our discipleship and the pursuit of our worship towards this one true, holy and living God is a true north compass.
[28:10] When the God of heaven declares, when he speaks, any dispute we have, any question we have, any struggle, any burden of sin, any process, any calculation, any investment, any practice, we must begin to ask ourselves, what does God say?
[28:32] What has he spoken about this issue? You don't turn there, but just reference Isaiah 8, 19. He says, when you say consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter and God says, should a people not consult their God?
[28:52] He's sitting there in heaven on his throne going, why are they asking me? I created them. Why aren't they coming to me? The throne of heaven is open.
[29:05] I've condescended. I'm bringing myself to the temple. You remember what the temple was? House of prayer. house of prayer for all the nations.
[29:18] They could all come and consult God. The deep well of wisdom and maturity and unity within the life of the body will only be drawn from those who consult their God when he declares his word in a particular situation.
[29:42] We want to get to the heart of worship as a people. God declares and what does he say? Second key to the heart of worship growing and maturing worship is that God examines.
[29:55] God examines and the question that we're asking ourselves here is how is God wanting me to think? God declared something from heaven. I'm under him. How does God want me to think now?
[30:09] Look at verse 1 again. Where is the house that you could build for me and where is the place that I may rest? For my hand made all these things thus all these things came into being declares the Lord.
[30:23] I love it when the Lord does this. I love it when he asks such obvious questions to us. Do you get insulted sometimes when someone asks you an obvious question?
[30:35] Maybe a snide remark, thank you Captain Obvious. Jesus. But you know deep down inside you might have missed that question. Ah man, I missed it. This is so needed for our hearts.
[30:47] Jesus did it all the time, didn't he? We just ask the obvious questions. Think of the Pharisees, the rich young ruler. It kind of sounds like at first glance that God's not even concerned about the temple at all.
[31:03] Almost nonchalant about it. Where is the house you can build me? Where is the place of my rest? It's not the case. He told them to build the temple to the exact specifications, with the exact materials.
[31:15] And then he came and he presented himself and he filled it with all of his glory. What is he doing here? He's examining their thinking and making Israel examine their thinking about where is their hope?
[31:28] Where is their security? Where are they going to find their rest as a nation and as a people? And ultimately what is the status of their hearts?
[31:42] He's asking, do you think I really need this? Do I really need the wood and the mortar and the metal? Everything that constructs the material?
[31:56] Am I really going to be confined to the space? Even Solomon in 1 Kings 8 when he prayed, he told Israel, no, he's not going to be confined here. But he will dwell with us.
[32:08] He will be in the midst of this. Israel took the temple for granted. They assumed their relationship with God as a covenant people just wouldn't change despite the way that they're living.
[32:24] Like they could just go on as if his law didn't tell them the ways that he would judge for disobedience. God is saying, I made this.
[32:36] The wood that you made this from, I grew the tree. The minerals and the elements for the metals that you casted, the worship material, I made all that by the power of my word.
[32:54] And I can take it all back. It isn't a need of existence for me. But it's not meaningless.
[33:07] Just like this place, the drywall and the wood, the foundation, the carpets, it's not meaningless. It means something. This is where the people of God meet together. This thing is just made of wood, this pulpit, but it is where the word of God is proclaimed to its people.
[33:23] There is meaning and significance in it, but we don't put our hope in it. Think, what's happening in the next hundred years and whether you'll be here and whether this building will actually be here?
[33:37] They didn't examine God's word as their warning before judgment, going into exile or his plea to them to turn in repentance. They didn't examine their responses in light of all that he said about the temple and its true meaning.
[33:53] When God examined the heart, when he examines our heart, the goal is to reveal these areas that we are not thinking as we ought to. Are we taking part of our spiritual life for granted?
[34:07] Are we taking some of the blessings that he gives us in Christ for granted? He wants us to think after him. He wants us to conform to him.
[34:20] He declares his word as he is also unveiling our need to conform to it. Not just simply knowledge, but by the way we apply the knowledge.
[34:33] Remember Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12. It gets down into the thoughts and the intentions of your heart. It gets down to all the way to why you do something. All the way to why you think the way that you think.
[34:47] The very recesses of your soul that sometimes you have a hard time communicating or even understanding yourself. God's word gets into there and then the spirit of God comes in and helps you understand those.
[35:02] Convicts. Encourages. He's concerned about your inner life and how you think about him and how you draw near to him.
[35:16] So in that maturity is drawing closer to God in the inner life, in the heart, as he's examining your spiritual life, as he's examining our spiritual life, our body and the church, how we are growing, how we are discipling, how we are taking his word.
[35:38] Unity is cultivated not merely by thinking alike on a human level, right? That was what God has already said about Israel. they were trying to have unity amongst each other by something they drew up, by something they came up with together.
[35:58] But unity is going to be cultivated as we think about coming Christ-like. It's what Paul said in Philippians 2, think as Christ thought.
[36:10] thought. The beauty of unity is that God creates us all differently. He doesn't create us all the same. We do have different desires and preferences and giftings and thoughts, but we are still coming together in the same way that the body has different purposes, different systems and cells, but it all functions together.
[36:37] So we need to examine how we think about life and ministry. And when God declares, He's examining that thought process, and we ought to allow God to do that.
[36:53] Lastly here, our third key to the heart of worship is that God favors. God favors. What is God wanting me to change?
[37:04] verse 2, but to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit and who trembles at my word.
[37:19] The one whom I will look, but to this one, one of the most precious realities that a child of God must wake up remembering that God looks upon us.
[37:32] God looks down on his creation, the infinite looks down towards the finite, the sovereign authority and righteous judge has a tender regard for his creation.
[37:45] Everything that he has made, especially those who are worshiping him, who he's created in the image of his son, Jesus Christ. Beloved, he looks to give.
[37:58] He looks to bless. He looks to uplift. He looks to reveal himself and conform us to him. He's doing that.
[38:11] That's why I said God favors. This word is to gaze upon or to behold. Think of a father tenderly looking towards their child, seeing all that they do, even the bad, even the struggles, even the heartaches, disobedience, to bring them up and to nurture them and to see the joy that it brings you, that you are a cherished one in his heart.
[38:42] That we would desire, that we would desire the Lord to look at us with the joy of a father, to behold this ministry, to behold our homes, to behold our marriages, to behold our parenting, to behold whatever life status we're in right now, that he would look upon us in this way.
[39:10] Just one particular point of thought here. That God's favor towards his children is that he would change us. That he doesn't shy away from that reality.
[39:27] God's love. Remember in Old Testament Israel that part of the blessings for them in that covenant was to physically change their surroundings. He could make the plants, grow the way he wanted to.
[39:43] He could keep armies away. He could change the landscape topographically, geographically. We tend to think that God's favor upon us is keeping us in our comfortable place.
[40:03] Just don't rock the boat, God. Don't make me go through this hard thing. God's favor upon us as a child is changing us and transforming us, which means as we examine our lives when he declares his word that something's going to come up.
[40:23] Sin is going to come up. You can't have this many people in a room and not sin come up. This is the house of God you know in your homes. The closer range you get to people, the more exposure you have to people, the more that sin is revealed.
[40:40] That's why I love this. This is to the one I will look, to this one, which means it starts with us individually. It starts with your own heart.
[40:51] It starts with you standing before God and having the accountability as if it was just you and the Lord, to be concerned with whatever log might be in your eye and not concerned about the specks that are in others.
[41:05] The human heart loves to blame shift, loves to look at others, hates the accountability when there's no excuses. And we have to take full responsibility.
[41:19] But this one is to one whom I will look, who is humble, contrite of spirit, and who trembles at my word. The one who is humble sees their desperate spiritual position.
[41:35] This is the word for affliction or poverty. You're overwhelmed by your lack of need. You see it. You come to the king, you come to the judge, and you just open up and hold out your pockets and there's nothing in them.
[41:51] Nothing you can offer. It is total dependency upon God for everything in your life. You see God's word, what it declares, and you allow your mind to be examined by God and your heart to realize that without it, I have nothing and I can do nothing.
[42:10] Not merely when you're in trouble, not merely when you want something, but you know you have nothing before your God. You come in a state of desperate spiritual accountability, contrite of spirit.
[42:31] Really interesting word because the only other time that this is used is with Mephibosheth. remember the son of Jonathan, grandson of Saul. The contrite of spirit is a brokenness of spirit.
[42:49] Meshubbeth, he was lame, he was crippled, and David came to him and invited him to his table and participated in the king's choice banquet when his grandfather was the one that was trying to kill him.
[43:09] Mephibosheth didn't qualify for that. He didn't qualify for that banquet. He didn't qualify to come and to be in the presence of the king in that way. David's graciousness brought him near.
[43:20] Broken in spirit means you know you don't qualify to be in this presence of the God who sits on the throne and whose foot is the earth stool on the earth.
[43:32] To be looked upon by him and to be drawn into his family that you do not qualify on your own merits. And you do not deserve to be in that position, but because of God's mercy and his grace drew you near.
[43:48] Isaiah 57, 15, For thus says the high and exalted one who lives forever, whose name is holy, I dwell on high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit.
[44:00] Why? In order to revive the hearts, revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite. It's a good thing to say that you have spiritual poverty, a desperate need for God, and that you are broken in spirit, and there's no other place that you can go because he revives that.
[44:20] He brings it to life. Lastly, who trembles at my word. This just means a sense of reverential fear, a sense of seriousness when you open God's word.
[44:38] The question here is how seriously do we take God's word? When you read it, when you hear it, does it register that the holy, sovereign, righteous God, and the one that has the power to judge and the power to save is speaking?
[44:52] the one who looks upon you as a father with tenderness and love. When the God of the universe speaks, when he declares, do you listen?
[45:05] Do you turn your ear? Is there a sense of worshipful reverence for what he is trying to say? When you open up your Bible, are you taking it as seriously as if God were saying it to you personally there as you sip your morning coffee on your couch?
[45:25] It was already prayed today that God never changes. Yesterday, today, and forever. The same God who said, let there be light, and it was, and the same one who says, thus says the Lord. Same God.
[45:37] Same truth. Is there a reverential joy and encouragement when he comforts you and strengthens you? Is there a reverential trembling when he examines you and your thinking is not quite right or there's revealing a pattern of sin and the possibility of consequences when you disobey?
[45:56] When God speaks, do you tremble? Do you take it, receive it, cling to it? God told Moses in Deuteronomy 32, take this to your heart with the words I'm warning you.
[46:10] It is not an idle word for you. Indeed, it is your life. It's your life. Jesus is our precious example of this.
[46:23] He is the one that, although he was rich, became poor for our sakes. He was the one that is humble at heart. He is the one contrite of spirit who did not regarded equality with God a thing to be grasped, although he was the most qualified.
[46:40] He came to our lowly position. He trembled at his father's words in the garden of Gethsemane and said, not my will but yours be done.
[46:51] Jesus lights the path of discipleship for us. Lights the path of worship for us. So that as we grow together in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, God will look upon us.
[47:09] We will be pleasing. Doesn't mean it's not going to be hard. If you go to the passages in Scripture that talk about Scripture, think of 1 Timothy 4.
[47:20] You know, preach the word in season and out of season. What does it say? Reprove, rebuke, and exhort. It's heavy. It's going to be hard. What about 1 Peter 2?
[47:33] Right? We want to long for the pure milk of the word, but what does he say before that? Peter says, put away all malice and deceit and hypocrisy as you're longing for the pure milk of the word.
[47:49] Read Psalm 19 sometime this week and just see all of the ways that the word of God helps change you. what happens to your heart when it's confronted?
[48:06] What happens when your own ideas and way of thinking and perceptions are challenged by the word of God? Maybe you've heard someone say this before.
[48:17] Well, I feel like God would want me to do this. Or I feel like God is telling me to do this. or God would never want this for my life.
[48:31] Stop. Before you make that next statement, you better have God's word directing that statement. lest you be taking the Lord's name in vain.
[48:47] If you think you have God's approval, you better have God's word and God's instruction. If you want to take your own spiritual temperature, your relationship with God is going to be in connection with the relationship with his word and his people.
[49:09] That's what this text is saying. Here's the one I look. Here's the one that I relate to. Here's the one that I favor. Here's the one that I change. The one who is humble, contrite of spirit and trembles at my word.
[49:24] The Lord has been so kind to us. I look about this room and I do smile. So thankful. The opportunities that we have here in this ministry to grow.
[49:39] The different ages, stages of life, demographics, spiritual gift, maturities of faith. There is no lack of ways that we have to unify together.
[49:53] No lack. We have no lack of ways to mature. We have no lack of ways to grow together. But we must start here. We must anchor here.
[50:05] in a life of worship, of humility, dependency, and trembling on God's word for him to look upon us and to bless the work of our hands because it comes from him.
[50:22] Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this passage. what a grace it was to Israel. What a grace it was to them to be reminded that it is not the external that you look upon, but it's the internal.
[50:44] Lord, I pray that we would be a needy people. That we would not be self-sufficient and prideful. Lord, Lord, Lord, would you continue to remind us of this lowly position so that you would exalt us in due time.
[51:07] So that you would look upon us with favor and bless the work of our hands and whatever comes from this ministry as we grow together, we can look back and say, look what you did.
[51:19] Look what God did. May you look upon us and say, well done, good and faithful servant. We ask in the only way we can, through the living word of God, your Son, Jesus Christ.
[51:36] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.