FaceDown
Clutch Student Ministries Pastor Jordan Biel Rock of Grace A/G 01.04.2006
Because
of Who God is and who we are, we fall facedown before Him.
Prayer>
1
Sam 5:1-10
“After the Philistines captured the
2 They carried the
3 But when the
citizens of Ashdod went to see it the next morning,
Dagon had fallen with his face to the ground in front
of the
the idol had fallen face down before the
in the doorway.
Only the trunk of his body was left intact. 5 That is why to this day neither
the priests of Dagon nor anyone who
enters the
Story
of when I fell
“facedown” at the gas station in
Because
of Who God is, Because of Who Jesus is and what He’s done on the cross for us,
we will always be facedown.
FaceDown in Humility
When
So
the Philistines thought that if they only had the
it’s
about worshipping God for real.
This is a good example of those who
only want the name Christian or even “pastor” yet don’t really worship
God. They have a form of
godliness,
but deny the power of God and the power of the cross.
In
this story, there was One God Too Many!
When there is another god, idol, or anything that’s taking the place of
God, it will fall facedown
in God’s
presence.
God
won’t be worshiped with other gods.
(God won’t share His glory)
Notice how they placed the Ark of God’s presence beside the idol of Dagon.
Dagon was a god that was in the shape of a fish – the people worshipped it because their families had turned from God Almighty years before.
They really believed this wooden fish-god would protect them and provide their needs… Many cultures around the world still believe in and worship
wooden idols and false-gods.
Lifeless
idols fall facedown in the presence of God.
Idols – things or people that take the place of God. They are worthless in God’s presence.
God
loves you, but if you love your sins – and the ways of the world, you don’t
really love God.
1 John 2:15-17 Your fellowship with God enables you to gain
victory over the evil one (satan). Don’t love the world’s ways.
Don’t love the world’s goods.
Love of the world squeezes our love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the
world –
wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear
important – has nothing to do with God, the Father.
It just isolates you from Him.
The world and all it’s wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out – but
whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.
We
can’t serve 2 Gods. Like
we talked about last week – leaving a legacy and not a monument.
We
leave a monument when we live for ourselves and we leave a legacy when we live
for God.
In
the same way, we cannot live for ourselves and for God – for money and success
and for God. We cannot place any idol –
anything
of importance next to God – it will simply fall facedown.
Matt
1 John
So
what does God want?
God
simply wants our hearts. He wants us to
love Him like He loves us.
He
wants us to spend time with Him in worship and reading His Word – and for our
own good-
He
wants us to obey His Word and love people.
He wants us to choose Him over the world.
James 4:4-9
“Don't you know that
friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a
friend of the world becomes
an enemy of God. 5 Or
do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in
us envies intensely?”
6 “But He gives us
more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives
grace to the humble."
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee
from you. 8 Come near to God and He will
come near to
you…
Wash your hands, you
sinners, and purify your hearts…” NIV
FaceDown in Life
“Dear friends, I urge
you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful
desires, which war against your soul.
12 Live such good
lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may
see your good deeds
and glorify God on the day he visits
us.”
Your
life – your example as a Christian – not doing the things your friends do, but
doing the opposite –
loving
the loser, taking time for the lonely kid – these things bring worship and
glory to God and soon,
they’ll
make others worship God.
Notice
it says, you are in the world, but not of the
world.
Our
spirit is constantly at war with the ways of the world. When you embrace the cross of Christ as most
important,
the
desires of the world fade away – you don’t care about popularity anymore or the
right clothes –
or
anything that the world says is important.
Paul
said in Gal 6:14-15
“As for me, God
forbid that I should brag about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Because of that cross,
my interest in all the attractive things
of the world was killed long ago, and the world's interest in me is also long
dead.” TLB
When
we are facedown before God with our lives, He actually rewards us for it. He
lifts our heads when we bow.
He
comforts our hearts when we repent. He
encourages us when we are down.
James
Our life, lived facedown before
God is worship to Him.
FaceDown in Worship
God has chosen us and created us to worship Him.
1 Peter 2:9-10 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
people belonging to God,
that you may declare the praises of
Him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
In
this, I mean our time of worship here at C.S.M. – it’s a Holy time – a time set
apart for us to enter God’s presence.
IT”S
NOT a time to goof-around, joke, or get your groove on. Going into God’s presence and worshipping
Him
is an honor and a priveledge.
It’s
what we were made for.
You
can worship and enter God’s presence any time of the week and any time of the
day!
You
don’t need the DRIVEN band to lead you.
You can just put on a worship CD in your room in your car –
(Joe
E. going crazy in his van…) God is now
attainable and approachable by what Christ did on the cross.
His
death and defeat of sin gives us access 24/7 to His presence!
We
were created for this! - worshipping God
in His presence.
God created Adam and Eve for his
pleasure. Just them hanging out with God
–“Walking in the cool of the day”
was
giving worship to God.
God’s
presence isn’t just
something to take casually, we must realize that God is Holy and we need to ask
God to
make us holy and forgive us of our
sins – wash our hands so to speak.
Ps 24:3-4
3 “Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy
place? (go into God’s presence)
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his
soul to an idol or swear by what is false.” NIV
THE MESSAGE says it
like this:
“Who can climb
Men who won’t cheat, women who won’t seduce.” It goes on to say, “God is at
their side; with God’s help they make it.
This is what happens
to God-seekers…”
Let’s
make an effort to live everyday with our ambitions, our goals, our lives facedown before God.
One
day we’ll all be facedown before Jesus, but it is our privledge
to live facedown lives now.
It’s
our response to what He’s done on the cross that causes us to
surrender our lives to Him and live our lives
facedown. It’s because of Jesus’ death
on the cross that gave us access to God – access to Heaven!
The
veil was torn! There used to be a veil
in the church between the
(Where
God’s real, tangible presence was.)
When
Jesus breathed His last breath, that veil (3 inches thick!) was torn down the
middle.
This
was sign from God to us that He is now accessible through only repenting of our
sins that Jesus died for!
It’s
so awesome to be able to go into His presence and worship Him!
You
don’t have to be perfect, or do everything right to
worship. You don’t have to be a priest,
a pastor,
a
student leader. All you have to be is
sincere – honest – humble.
We
switched things around tonight so that this message on worship can be applied
in our time of worship.
Let’s
pray and ask God to give us clean hands and a pure heart and for His presence
to come into this place
and
saturate our hearts.
Prayer of 1. corporate
repentance of sins 2. receiving
a clean heart 3. God’s presence