1096s
Jesus and the Tortilla
A few years ago the Chicago Tribune reported the story of a New Mexico woman who was frying TORTILLAS when she noticed that the skillet burns on one of her tortillas resembled the face of Jesus. Excited, she showed it to her husband and neighbors, and they all agreed that there was a face etched on the tortilla and that it truly bore a resemblance to Jesus.
So the woman went to her priest to have the tortilla blessed. She testified that the tortilla had changed her life, and her husband agreed that she has been more peaceful, happy, submissive wife since the tortilla had arrived. The priest, not accustomed to blessing tortillas was somewhat reluctant but agreed to do it.
The woman took the tortilla home, put it in a glass case with piles of cotton to make it look like it was floating on clouds, built a special altar for it, and opened the little shrine to visitors. Within a few months, more than eight thousand people came to the shrine of the Jesus of the Tortilla, and all of them agreed that the face in the burn marks on the tortilla was the face of Jesus. (except for one reporter who said he thought it looked like former heavy weight boxing champion Leon Spinks).
It seems incredible that so many people would worship a tortilla, but such a distorted concept of worship is not unusual in contemporary society. Tragically, although the Bible is clear about how and whom and when we are to worship, little genuine worship takes place today.
THE CHURCH HAS SUFFERED THE THEFT OF ONE OF HER GREATEST TREASURES – WORSHIP. At some time in the not so distant past the church was victimized. The result is that worship is no longer central in its program.
Out of the past comes a parable of this theft.
Read I Kings l0:l4-l7.
The 200 large shields of gold contained 7 1/2 pounds of gold at $50,000 per shield.
The 300 small shields of gold contained 3 l/2 pounds of gold at $30,000 per shield.
The shields were symbols of splendor and blessing.
You know the story of how Solomon’s heart began to turn away from God in his later years. Married foreign women and began to adopt their gods as his own. His heart became spiritually dull.
Later the kingdom was split into the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. The kingdom was weakened.
Let’s see what happened to those shields, the symbol of God’s blessing and praise.
Read I Kings l4:25-26.
What is Rehoboam’s response? He has them craft brass shields to replace the golden ones.
Read I Kings l4:27-28.
In our weakness the enemy stole Biblical worship. We have substituted brass for gold.
Gold and Worship are a lot alike. In almost any society gold is a standard of value and has been through the centuries. Gold is a gauge of values and a sign of blessing. The Bible tells us that gold is plentiful in Heaven. The same is true of worship.
Alas, we have substituted the brass of monotonous form for the gold of true worship.
In JOHN 4, John relates an interesting encounter between Jesus and a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. The woman had a longing inside her which she did not know how to satisfy.
She had sought contentment through relationships with men (having been married five times and then living in adultery with a sixth man), but she was not satisfied – she needed God!
Within every person there is a longing for God, a desire to know Him. Most people misinterpret this yearning and attempt to fill the void with fleshly activities. Some turn to a hobby, others to a relationship, others to alcohol or narcotics. When God designed man, He built in a need for God that nothing else will satisfy.
Read John 4:l9-24.
The divine pursuit mentioned in John chapter four has always intrigued me: the Father seeks those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. It is expedient for us to seek the Lord and we are encouraged to do so many times in Scripture, but it seems unusual that He would seek us. I find it amazing that God would seek our worship.
WHAT IS WORSHIP?
Read I Chronicles l6:28-29.
“O people of all nations of the earth,
Ascribe great strength and glory to his name!
29 Yes, ascribe to the Lord
The glory due his name!
Bring an offering and come before him;
Worship the Lord when clothed with holiness!”
Some definitions may help to further our understanding.
The Hebrew word for worship is “Shaha.” It means to “bow low” or to “prostrate” oneself. Worship involves our bowing low before the Lord, not only physically, but in our hearts.
The Greek word is “proskyneo.” This means “to kiss the hand of one who is revered.”
Dog licking hand: Becky: “That is her hand.”
Simple definition: Homage paid to a supreme being.
THE MINISTRY OF PRAISE AND THE EXPERIENCE OF WORSHIP ARE NOT THE SAME.
Praise is unidirectional – we praise God; He does not praise us. Praise is our acknowledgement of His power, authority, wisdom and worthiness. Praise does not require a response from the one who is being praised; it is one-way communication. Worship, however, is relational; it is not only our confession to God, but His response to us.
Illustrate praise that is not worship.
Many years ago, watching playoff game between Steelers and Raiders. Raiders had won game. Final seconds ticking off! Terry Bradshaw passes far down field and Raider breaks up pass, ball leading toward ground like shot and along comes Franco Harris and scoops ball off shoelaces and runs to end zone for touchdown! Called immaculate reception! Wow. I shouted for mom and dad! “You’ve got to see this!” It took my breath away! I couldn’t believe it!
Might praise them, but I would never get on my knees and pay homage to them.
WORSHIP IS COMMUNING WITH GOD.
Praise usually precedes worship. The Psalmist has written, “Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise” (Psalm l00:4 NAS).
We come into His presence with worship.
Perhaps the most beautiful and illustrative verse on worship in the entire Bible is Revelation 3:20.
READ REVELATION 3:20.
For years we have missed the meaning of this verse because we have misinterpreted to whom the Lord is speaking.
I have shared the gospel message with scores of people and used this verse as part of my closing. In essence, I say to the lost man, “if you will simply open your heart and invite Jesus to come in, He will save you.”
I am sure this approach meets with God’s approval, because the basic concept is reinforced throughout the Scriptures.
However, we know that Revelation was written for the church – not for the unsaved. Revelation 3:20 offers us a beautiful invitation from the Father to come and worship Him.
And notice the reciprocal approach which is advocated: we will dine with Him, and He will dine with us! This is the dynamic of worship: we give ourselves to Him, but He also give himself to us!
When Brie was small, she came in where I was reading, “Want to play? Eat?…” “No, I just came to be with you.” Moments like that don’t last long; must grab them while we can.
Worship is communing with God. The very act of worship draws us near to the heart of God. In the Act of Worship we get to know God.
WORSHIP IS NOT RELATED TO CIRCUMSTANCES.
Seen in two contrasting incidents in Scripture.
2 Chronicles 20. Jehoshaphat and Israel about to be attacked. Read verses l-4. Jehoshaphat prays. Read verses l2-l7. God intervened and next day the enemy destroyed itself. Look at their response. Read verse l8.
Job, promising life all shattered and fell apart. Read Job l:l3-l9. Job’s response. Read Job l:20.
Both fell to ground and worshipped! Whatever worship is it is just as natural and automatic when God fulfills your dreams as when He destroys them!
Worship is more than thanking or praising God in good circumstances! The worship of God is to transcend our circumstances.
Many of us only want to worship when God does something nice for us.
If worship is not happening among God’s people today it’s because we have shaped our own concepts of God to fit our own understanding.
Now that we’ve brought God down to our level we have little reason to fall on our faces to the ground before God who takes our breath away.
So we only worship when we decide that God has lived up to our expectations!
Oh, that God would free us from seeing Him as a spiritual Santa Claus. He longs to give to us Himself, which is worth more than any gift. Blessed is the man who desires God more than what God can give. It is worship that we best draw near to God in order to commune with Him.
Two men standing before Grand Canyon:
One said, “This is the hand of God. I’m amazed.”
Man next to him looked over edge and spit: “That’s the first time that I ever spit a mile.”
Can you believe that? Standing in front of the Grand Canyon and one guy says, “It’s the hand of God,” and another man just spits.
Do you know why? Because one has deep insight and the other is insensitive to the working of God.
The Grand Canyon is the Grand Canyon whether I recognize its greatness or not. God is God whether things are going well in my life or not.
Maybe Jehoshaphat is sitting beside you at this moment. He’s thinking, “Wow, God is so great…loving…gracious.
Job may be on the other side of you, crushed with grief, no hope, no more figuring or planning or dreaming. Only closed doors, windows, and ceilings. Falls on his face before the sovereign mystery of an all powerful God and still says, “God, I love you.”
Maybe the person next to you has no picture of God at all.
THE ACTIVITIES OF WORSHIP WILL BRING US INTO THE PRESENCE OF GOD.
A. Falling Down
Psalm 95:6 – “Come, let us bow down and worship…”
Matthew 4:8-9 – Satan to Jesus, “Fall down and worship me…”
No worship takes place without a bowing down in submission and humility before one of greater honor.
B. Casting Down
Cast down crowns before the throne.
Read Revelation 4:l0.
What is a crown? A crown is anything that exalts the wearer. If it draws attention to you, then it’s a crown.
No man who worships Jesus ever wants to be exalted. The more that I’m taken up with Him, the less that I demand that my crowns go untouched.
A man can’t worship God and be controlled by pride.
Paul’s greatest chapter on humility (Philippians 2) is followed by his greatest chapter on worship (Philippians 3). One leads to the other! Must be a falling down before there can be worship!
Perfect example of this in John l2. Read John l2:l-3.
Probably a year’s wages for just that amount. She took it and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.
I Corinthians chapter ll says the glory of a woman is her hair. So, she uses her glory for the lowliest task imaginable.
Anybody in that part of the world who washed people’s feet would have been thought of as the most menial slave. She uses that which is her glory to wash the dusty, dirty feet of Jesus. She doesn’t just use water but pours out the costly fragrance.
Now, that’s the essence of worship.
Worship is self-humiliating, and worship is profuse in its giving.
C. Acknowledging God’s worth.
Telling God his worth-ship.
Doesn’t He already know? Yes, but it’s in the act of worship that God reveals Himself to us and we become what we worship.
Revelation 4:ll – “Worthy art Thou!”
Get alone with God and tell Him what He’s worth to you. Write a letter to the Lord; sing psalms and hymns,. Praise pages in diary. List God’s worth and attributes.
Soon the communion can begin.
WORSHIP FLOWS BOTH WAYS. GOD WANTS TO BE WITH ME. I WANT TO BE WITH GOD.
Luke l0 shows God’s desire to be near us.
READ LUKE l0:38-39.
Note Mary’s position, on knees in attitude of worship.
READ LUKE l0:40.
Martha commands Jesus Christ to do something! The audacity! She was playing the role of anyone of us who gets distracted by doing things for God and thus loses the priority of worship.
Look at Christ’s response.
Luke l0:4l-42.
See His countdown: Many things…few things… one thing. The Christian life is full of many duties. A few are important… One thing, however, is mandatory, the worship of God. All else will fade away
.
Exodus 33 is a preeminent Biblical passage on worship! See here Moses’s desire to see God.
READ EXODUS 33:13-17.
Note that Moses was not satisfied with God’s presence. He wanted to see His glory.
READ EXODUS 33:18-23.
Then God’s Glory came by.
READ EXODUS 34:5-8.
The key to endurance and follow through in the Christian life is worship! Time with God, knowing Him, enables us to live for Christ in this world!
Today we saints can’t endure much. We constantly talk about our hurts… problems… feelings… rejections…
Little worship = little endurance among the children of God.
If we ever were to catch a glimpse of God’s glory we would quit all of that nonsense. Moses wanted more than presence. He wanted to see glory. God shared it with him. We will never see God’s glory outside of true worship.
What a worship experience! Did Moses see God’s glory! Yes.
READ HEBREWS 11:27: “He persevered because he saw Him who is invisible.”
That will change your life and help you through the tough times. I still go to pew where God called me to Christ. Called to preach at 7…God called me to stay at Casas.
George Gallup: “33% of Americans have had a supernatural experience with God but they are afraid to tell about it.”
Prayed to see God’s Glory Story.
I was running one morning and prayed. “God, show me your glory!” Thought no more about it.
One Sunday months later and I saw a blinding light in the congregation. It was coming from a teenager near the back of the church. I told him to turn off the Flashlight. I couldn’t see my notes. A second time the bright light appeared. I told the young man to please turn off the flashlight. Finally, at the end of the service, everyone was leaving. I rushed to the young man and asked him why he was doing that. He denied it. Then I inquired, “Do you mind if I frisk you.”
His parents were appalled. Mike wasn’t even a Christian. Three weeks later I received a call from his dad. Mike, the son had called him. He was weeping. He said, “I had asked God on that Sunday that if the pastor would say three things to me in the sermon, I would believe.” I tried to think of three things in the sermon that applied to me, but I couldn’t think of them. Then I realized that God had spoken to me three times during the sermon. Roger pointed to me twice and told me to turn off the flashlight. Then he came to see me after the service to find out where the flashlight was. It dawned on me, those three times were God answering my prayer. So I gave my life to Jesus.”
God answered two prayers that Sunday. I prayed to see God’s glory and Mike prayed to see God speak directly to him.
Mike Blevins called dad. Asked God to have Roger speak to me three times.
Only I saw the light. I didn’t recognize it.
This worship center is a special place to me.
INVITATION.
When have you last worshipped God? Do you have any special experiences to look back upon to give you strength in the midst of your trials?