We’ve been having a conference, you and I, these last couple of days, having to do with prayer and worship. And I think that what we’re seeing in this matter is that prayer and worship are not entities unto themselves, but it all has to do with spiritual connection.
It all has to do with being joined to the Lord in a real and living way. It actually becomes not so much something that we do, but a way of life.
If you have your Bibles, please turn to Genesis 22. I’m just going to read some Scripture together first, starting with Genesis 22.
Genesis 22:5:
And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder; and we will worship, and come again to you.
This is the first place, really, in the Bible that we see this matter of worship. We see this proper response.
The next Scripture is Leviticus 10. Here we have an improper response to worship.
Leviticus 10:1-3:
And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took each of them his censer, and put fire therein, and laid incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them.
And there came forth fire from before the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.
Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh Me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace.
You know, this matter of worship is something that is not our idea. It is something that is initiated by the Lord. Just like we said last night, real prayer is something that is initiated by the Lord, comes to us, processes us, and returns to the Lord in a fruitful way. And it is the same with worship.
Real worship is directly connected to love—to loving the Lord. That is what worship is.
In fact, the Old Testament Hebrew word for worship—putting it in an English sound—would be something similar to shachah. That is the Hebrew word most translated as worship. Now, the Greek word in the New Testament most translated worship, and the word that I am told represents the Hebrew—the partner of the Hebrew word—is proskuneo. I do not know how to pronounce it.
But the root word of that New Testament Greek word most translated as worship—guess what it means? It means kiss. Interesting, isn’t it?
To worship, to bow down—that Old Testament viewpoint, the correct viewpoint of bowing down, humbling yourself, altering yourself down below, taking your rightful place and giving the Lord His rightful place—it literally means to bow down.
And the Greek word, also carrying on the same spiritual thought, to bow down and to kiss, becomes very personal, doesn’t it? It becomes very personal.
You know, when you kiss someone—by the way, I do not ever kiss anyone. If I ever kiss anyone, it is a big deal.
Now, the only person I reserve my intimate kisses for is my bride. The Scripture says that we give each other a holy kiss, but I do not just go around kissing everybody. But I do kiss some people sometimes, and people kiss me sometimes.
When that happens, it shows real affection. You see, if you kissed everybody, it would not mean anything.
I have been to meetings before—in other countries, so no one here can be condemned—where everybody in the meeting, at the beginning of the meeting, seemed to feel obligated to shake everyone else’s hand.
The only problem was that after the meeting was over, some people would talk to me and say, “Sonny, this person over here, boy, they are such-and-such a kind of person. Watch out for them.” Then other people would come saying, “You know, old so-and-so over here, I just do not know about them.”
Well, essentially, we were all just shaking hands, but apparently there were some issues in our hearts toward each other. So this outward thing sometimes does not really mean so much, does it?
It is possible to do outward things and have them not really mean anything. But true worship must always mean something, or else it is not worship.
True worship is akin to love. It is a cousin of love. That is why it is a matter of kissing the Lord.
You do not have to turn there, but Psalm 2:12 says:
Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish in the way.
You might meditate on that, this matter of what it means to kiss the Lord. It is directly related to this matter of worshiping the Lord.
Nadab and Abihu—it is interesting that they are sons of Aaron. They are in the priesthood. The Scripture does not say that they are bad guys. The Scripture does not indicate that they are wicked. It does not indicate anything bad about them.
Not only that, but look at what they did. All they did was the same thing they had seen their father do, and the same thing they had seen Moses do. How many times had they seen their dad, Aaron, put incense in his fire pan? How many times had they seen Moses do it?
All they were doing was copying, mimicking, the very thing they had seen happen over and over. Should that not be a good thing to do? Should we not just mimic the things we have seen our older spiritual brothers do?
No. What is the motive? What are we really doing? And what is the Lord’s criticism of what they did?
They did something that they had not been commanded to do.
I do not want to say too much about too many things and rock and jam everybody in the room, but it is amazing how we Christians do things all the time—traditions about holidays, about our meetings, about all sorts of things.
We incorporate all sorts of things that seem like a good idea to us. It seems completely logical and okay to us, but it is not something that the Holy Spirit nor the Scripture has commanded us to do.
Many times, what we do simply comes out of our own understanding, simply a creation of our own mind—a good idea. Not a wicked idea. Not an evil idea. Just a good idea. But it is not pleasing to the Lord.
All He wants us to do is so simple. We do not have to sit around trying to think up things to do. All we have to do is obey what He wants us to do, what He tells us to do. That is all.
And it becomes a heart issue. You see, because what He wants most—and this is the real key, guys, this is the real key—if we do not love Him from our heart, it is all wasted. He is not pleased.
This morning, we were singing song after song that, to me, are the most wonderful songs. I am telling you, I was sitting back here this morning, and as far as I am concerned, it was all for me. I am serious. I was so blessed hearing the singing and worshiping and praising the Lord with you.
And I sensed that we really were, from our hearts, loving the Lord this morning; that many of us were really worshiping the Lord in spirit and in truth.
But I did think about something as we were singing the words of some of these songs, because they are amazing:
Lord, You are all I want.
I lay it all down again.
You are all I need.
Draw me close to You.
By the way, the Scripture says if you draw near to Him, He will draw near to you. Maybe we ought to be singing, “Lord, help me draw near to You,” and then He will draw close to us.
It is possible—and someone prayed this in the morning—you guys, this is so important. This is so important. I am going to give you the punch line right now: it is very possible for us to go through the motions.
It is possible for us to move our lips, “Draw me close to You.” I am not making fun of anybody, but you get the point. It is possible for us to go through the motions of singing, or even praying out loud, and it is just tradition, or just emotion, or just singing. But it is not love worship.
Oh, how different everything is when we are just loving the Lord, expressing love to Him, that we are in totally the right place, doing the right thing.
And you know what is amazing? When we do that, we are blessing the Lord. Do you realize?
I think most of you in this room already understand this, but just in case, I want to say it. I hope everybody in this room understands that the reason the Lord revealed Himself to you and brought you into His kingdom was not to keep you from going to hell.
Now, that is the benefit. What a good benefit. But the reason He saved you is because He wants to have relationship with you and receive relationship back.
He wants to be loved by you and have an actual living, love-kind of, marriage-type relationship with you personally. We all know this, and yet sometimes we live as if God were just an idea.
Have you ever noticed that sometimes the Lord’s own people are sort of like Christian atheists? Sometimes we just go through the motions of things as if we really do not believe.
Nadab and Abihu, I believe, show us why this thing happens and why it is in the Scripture: seemingly good religious behavior brings death.
Fortunately, in the dispensation we are in now, the Lord is not physically killing us for doing this kind of thing, or else there would probably be a large pile of bodies—with me on the bottom.
But it does bring about a kind of spiritual death when we just do things out of tradition.
Over the years that I have worked with teenagers at the Richmond Conference, we have had a really good group of people coming in the morning for prayer.
A lot of the brothers and sisters who come in the morning for prayer show up early. These are the ones who are really committed, right? Some come because they want to. Their parents are not even in the conference, and nobody would know if they slept in or not. They just come because they want to.
But I also know that a large portion come because they are expected to. And I have noticed that during prayer time, there are certain people who seem disinterested. They got up and came to the prayer meeting, yet they seem disconnected, like what we call a bump on a log.
They are just sitting there like a bump on a log—not really connected, not really seeming interested. You wonder why they even came to the prayer meeting.
But if I call on them to pray and say, “Brother Enoch,” or “Brother Taylor,” or whoever, “Would you pray?” immediately, man, they can pray a prayer that has a little message in it, three points, and ends exactly the right way.
They know exactly what to say. And if I ask them a question about the Scripture, they know exactly what they are supposed to say. They are obviously familiar with the Scripture, and they know how to pray. They know exactly what to do.
Sometimes I take one of those brothers or sisters aside. I have done this over the years; I do it every year. Maybe I have done it to some of you. And I say, “Would you just tell me honestly, how is your relationship with the Lord? How is your personal life with the Lord?”
Every single person I have asked has been honest enough to tell me that they did not have much relationship with the Lord. They knew how to act. I already knew they knew how to act. But they did not really have a relationship with the Lord.
It is us, guys. Sometimes this is us. We know what to say. We know how to act. But there is no relationship there.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord Jesus just wants to have personal relationship with you because He loves you.
Let me liken it to one more thing, and then we will go on. I always liken it to marriage. Most of you cannot relate to marriage because you are not married yet, and some of you never will be.
Let me just divert for a second. I saw the shocked looks on your faces. That was not a prophetic statement. May you all be married, and some of you will be happy.
You know what the problem is? Here again, we are Christian atheists. We do not believe the Bible. Paul says it is better not to be married—to those to whom it is able to receive it.
I was not able to receive it. The Lord knew what I needed and gave me what He had for me. The only thing that matters is that we get what the Lord has for us, and everything will be just right.
I have known plenty of people who insisted on getting a husband or wife: “I just have to have it. I have to have it. I have to have it.” And the gracious, kind Lord—you beat on that door long enough, and you will probably get what you asked for. Then it is too late to back out.
It is really good to get what the Lord has for you, isn’t it? He knows what is best. Sometimes we do not actually believe that the Lord has our best interest at heart and knows what is best for us.
Have you ever felt that way? Most of us do sometimes. We have an enemy speaking to our subconscious, always saying, “The Lord does not really love you, does not really care about you, does not really have your best interest at heart. He is way off somewhere. You had better take matters into your own hands.”
It is a lie. And when you say something like that, you are a liar. God is never a liar. He does care about you, and He knows what is best. We know what we want; He knows what we need, and He cares about us.
So if we entrust ourselves to Him, we always get the right thing. And it is the same with worship.
Now, back to marriage. No one, I do not think—I am not sure exactly how it works in China, but I think it is the same way here—gets married because they want to have a slave around the house.
I cannot imagine anybody getting married in order to have a cook. I cannot imagine any girl wanting to get married so she would have somebody to take the garbage out.
You get married because you have a great passion for the person, you love them, and you want to share all of your happiness with them.
When you have a good thing happen to you and you share it with somebody, it is better. My wife and I went to Orlando one time and did all the things there are to do in Orlando. We saw all the sights, did everything, and had a really good time.
A few years later, we went back and took a dear friend, a girl from Japan who lived with us. It was a hundred times as much fun taking somebody and sharing all of this with them. It totally changed the whole thing.
When you have something wonderful and share it with somebody, it is more wonderful. And when you love somebody, you want to share all the good stuff with them. You also share your sorrow, pain, and trials of life with them. And guess what? It takes the edge off.
When you love somebody, you share with them the wonderful things and the difficult things. It changes everything.
This is the kind of relationship that the Lord wants to have with us. It is like a marriage, not a distant relationship. He wants a loving, sharing relationship with you and me.
That is why true worship is directly related to this matter of love. It is not just going through the motions. This is what the story of Nadab and Abihu is about. I believe they were just going through the motions, and this is not acceptable to the Lord.
Heart relationship—that is what real worship is about. Not just imitating something, but heart-love relationship.
And remember, we said yesterday: you have the Holy Spirit living in your spirit, so you can know the right way to go.
The next Scripture is Hebrews 12. Again, this is really just reviewing the Scripture that was read yesterday.
Hebrews 12:1—oh, I am sorry. What did I say? Romans 12:1. I am glad we have Bible scholars in the room to catch me.
Romans 12:1:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your spiritual service.
But since you already have your finger in Hebrews, turn to Hebrews 11:4. We talked about Cain and Abel yesterday.
Hebrews 11:4 says of Abel that he “obtained witness that he was righteous, God bearing witness in respect of his gifts.”
Nadab and Abihu did not get witness to their offering. Abel got witness to his offering that it was acceptable. Part of the issue of worship, one of the aspects of real worship, is that there is a witness.
Worship is an offering. When you worship the Lord, you are kissing the Lord, loving the Lord, bowing down before Him. You are offering yourself to Him. You are giving Him His rightful place in your heart.
You are presenting yourself as a living sacrifice, and you are saying, “Lord, You are worthy.” We all say that with our lips, but when you really worship the Lord, you are saying, “Lord, You are worthy. You are worthy for me to completely entrust myself to You—my life, everything. I give myself to You. You are faithful.”
Oh, Lord, You are so wonderful. You are so wonderful. I appreciate You.
I learned something a long time ago. I will tell you a little trick they do in business, but it works. If you have a bunch of people working for you and want to get all the mileage out of them, they teach you, if you are managing a grocery store, to go to old Joe in the produce department every once in a while and say, “Joe, man, you are doing a good job. I just want you to know I appreciate you.”
I am telling you, it is almost like giving somebody a raise. Now, in my case, I always say, “Well, how much do you appreciate me?” Put your money where your mouth is there, boss.
But I am telling you, it really does something to people when you tell them you appreciate them, especially when you mean it. And it does something to you when people appreciate you, doesn’t it? When you are appreciated, it means something to you. It really does.
You are created in the image of God. The Lord wants to be appreciated, not because He is selfish or egotistical. It is a trait that He has given to us. He wants to be appreciated.
That is what worship is: you are expressing real, living appreciation to the Lord. It is ministry to the Lord—not going through the motions, but real worship.
I want to go back to Genesis for a minute. We already read it, and we will look at it a little more in a minute. Our brother talked to us yesterday about this matter of Abraham bowing down and worshiping the Lord when the Lord told him to sacrifice his son Isaac.
But in Genesis 18, starting with verse 1—this is Abraham again. This is before that situation with Isaac; this is before Isaac was born.
Genesis 18:1:
And the Lord appeared unto him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day.
Stop. I believe that everything in the Old Testament means something. You do not have to believe this; I may be wrong. But I believe that the geography means something, that what time of day it is means something. I believe everything in the Old Testament is a type and picture of a greater spiritual reality on some level.
Mamre means the place of fullness. That is what it means literally: a place of fullness.
Isn’t it interesting? Here Abraham is. What do we think of Abraham as? He is the father of those who believe, right? Abraham is faith. We all know Abraham is the father of faith, the father of all those who believe.
Abraham was an idol worshiper. The Scripture is very clear about that. Abraham was not so wonderful and great that the Lord came and got him and said, “Boy, Abraham, I can use a guy like you.” No. Abraham was an idol worshiper.
The Lord came and revealed Himself to Abraham and began to work in Abraham’s life, the same way He works in your life and mine.
Abraham became a person in a process. He became a person on a spiritual journey, a lifelong spiritual journey, and a lifelong process of increase in his own life.
Abraham was a person who, to some degree, knew what it was to live in the place of spiritual fullness—richness, enjoying the Lord, appreciating the Lord, just having something in his heart toward the Lord.
Why did Abraham agree with the Lord? I do not know. God knows. Why did Abraham enter into fullness?
And the Lord came in the heat of the day. I believe the significance of the heat of the day is that the sun is directly overhead. It is the time of maximum light.
Here Abraham is, dwelling in the place of fullness at the time of maximum light. I think it is a picture of Abraham being a person who walked in the light, loved the light, trusted the light, loved the Lord, and simply trusted the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, trust and love go hand in hand. If you say you love me but do not trust me, then you do not love me. Little children trust their parents. Love and trust go hand in hand.
Abraham trusted the Lord. He had faith. He loved the Lord. Why did he love the Lord? I do not know. I just know he did.
And the Lord drew near to Abraham. So, in the heat of the day, in the place of increasing light, the Lord came and revealed Himself to Abraham.
Genesis 18:2-5:
And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood over against him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth,
And said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in Thy sight, pass not away, I pray Thee, from Thy servant:
Let now a little water be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree:
And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and strengthen ye your heart; after that ye shall pass on, forasmuch as ye are come to your servant.
Abraham’s immediate response when he saw these three men, who I believe are really the Lord, was that he ran, bowed down, and said, “My Lord, if now I have found favor in Your sight, please do not pass Your servant by.”
Then Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly, prepare three measures of fine flour, knead it, and make bread cakes.” Abraham also ran to the herd and took a tender and choice calf and gave it to the servant, who hurried to prepare it.
One of the aspects of worshiping the Lord is this: when you enter into real worship, the Lord has a tendency to reveal Himself.
It is in those times of loss of self-consciousness, when we are not afraid and not interested in being cool, that He reveals Himself.
It is in those moments of loss of self and increase of God-consciousness that He reveals Himself.
Sometimes we are so unlike the Lord. Sometimes we are so hung up about maintaining an image of being cool. But the Lord loves to reveal Himself to those who are humble, to those who love Him enough to lose face.
And when we do that, He has a tendency to reveal Himself.
Now here is another thing: when the Lord does reveal Himself, what is your response? Do you run to meet Him? Do you say, “Lord, let me prepare something for You, that You might rest, that You might be washed. Oh, Lord, let me bless You”?
That is what Abraham did. That was exactly his response: to bless the Lord. What a great, amazing opportunity we have to actually find out what it means to bless the Lord.
Abraham was camped out in the place of fullness, in the light, ready to respond. That raises a question: where are we camped out? Where are you camped? How much light is in your camp? How much fullness are you living in?
These are good questions. They are not condemning, and they are not introspective things. It is good for us to ask ourselves in the light of the Lord, “Lord, how much am I walking in the light? How much am I living in the light with You? Lord, where am I living exactly? What camp? Lord, would You show me where I am camped?”
Am I living in my own place? Am I living in a place of Your fullness? It is a really good thing to be asking the Lord.
If Abraham is the father of all those who believe, the representative of spiritual faith, then Abraham is also the father of worship.
Some old-timers say that Sarah is a spiritual picture, a type, of grace.
After Abraham and Sarah prepared this meal for the Lord, Abraham went and got a costly animal—something precious. Brothers and sisters, worship is costly. True worship is not cheap.
Anything that is of spiritual worth—worth-ship—costs something. If it does not cost you something, it is probably not worth anything. It is going to cost you something: some pride, some losing face, something.
It is costly to worship the Lord. That is the significance of the costly, precious animal that he went and got.
The next thing in this story is that the Lord says to Abraham, “Where is Sarah?” Then He says, “At this time next year you will have a son.” That was Isaac.
Brothers and sisters, the fruit of the marriage of faith and grace is sonship. Isaac represents sonship.
I want to say it again: the fruit of the marriage of faith and worship and grace is sonship.
Worship is one of the things that produces spiritual fruit. It is not just a thing we do. It is a spiritual, living thing that brings about fruit.
I want to veer off for a second to say something about idol worship. What is an idol?
Anything that takes God’s rightful place, the place He wants for Himself, is an idol.
Sports can be an idol. There is nothing wrong with sports. Sports are good. But if you love sports more, if you allow it to take the place in your life that the Lord has reserved for Himself, it becomes an idol.
Recreation can become an idol. Ministry can become an idol too. I do not think this is any of your problem yet, but it is a real problem sometimes.
The Lord gives gifts to all of us—gifts of music, gifts of teaching, different gifts. Sometimes we fall in love with that gift: “Boy, I have a gift of whatever it is.”
Especially if your gift creates attention toward you, it is so easy for that thing to become perverted and become all about you and not about the Lord.
How many times have you heard some rock star or athlete score a touchdown or win a game, and after the game say, “I just want to thank God for giving me the strength and speed and making me the greatest guy out here”? He is not giving any glory to God.
You see people in football, basketball, and baseball pointing to heaven every time they hit a home run or score a touchdown. You know what I think they are really doing? I really believe they are pointing to themselves.
One of my favorite songs is “It Is All About You.” It is hard for me not to weep every time we sing that song. It is so beautiful and touching to me.
Yet every time we sing that song, I wonder a little bit how many of us, if we were honest and the truth came out, would see that we make it all about us.
Sometimes there is a little chatter going on in our hearts, no matter what we say or do: “Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me.”
Sometimes it is all about me. That is not worship. That is false worship. That is strange fire. But it can be all about the Lord.
We talked yesterday a little bit about the bad Enoch. I do not know how bad he was; he is in the line of Cain. What I meant was that his dad built a city and named it after his son. The self was self-worship.
I think one of the greatest idols Christians have is children. Now, children are a blessing from the Lord. Let me tell you what I mean.
When people have a baby, the whole world changes. Everybody who has a baby thinks they are the first person this has ever happened to in all history. “Look at this!” I cannot say how many times I have had to sit through films of friends seeing their child take his first step, and on and on.
My wife and I did not get to have any children. We want to share in that joy. It is a wonderful thing.
But when the child grows up a little and gets some appearance and looks like his parents—oh boy, now you have this thing that looks like you. It came from you. It is sort of your creation. It is your deal, and it has your input going into it.
I think the Lord probably made it this way. Raising children can be the most wonderful thing, full of all kinds of spiritual reality. It can be such a glory to the Lord, or it can become such self-exaltation among Christians.
Anything that takes the place the Lord has reserved for Himself becomes an idol.
That is why it is so significant that with Abraham, the one who is going to be true worship, what does the Lord demand? Does He say, “Give Me all your money”? Does He say, “Give Me all your time”? Does He say, “Go do this for Me”?
No. He says, “Give Me the most precious thing.” The Lord made it so it would not make any sense. He made it almost impossible. “Give Me the thing I have given you, the thing I have already told you is going to be a blessing to you. Give Me this.”
One of the biggest miracles in the Bible is that Abraham did not have an argument with God. Most of us would have had some sort of argument: “But Lord, You said this. Lord, You cannot mean this.”
Abraham said, “You men wait here. The boy—my precious, most valuable thing—and I, we will go and worship the Lord.”
So the question comes back to you and me in these days: what is our idea of worship?
What we are really talking about is spiritual connection with the living God. What is real worship? It is laying down your own life, giving everything to the Lord—not just saying it, but actually doing it.
And we can do it because He has given us His Holy Spirit. He has given us faith.
It is so easy to justify self-worship. I think one of the stories in the Bible that probably goes the farthest in showing a person change from a life of self-worship to true worship is the familiar story of Jacob.
Genesis 28. You are all familiar with the story, I think. Jacob is the continuing fruit down the line of Abraham and Sarah, through Isaac and Rebekah.
We all know that Jacob is a twister. Have you ever known anybody—and do not point to them if they are in the room—who always figures out a way to come out on top in every situation?
Every time you go somewhere, it is going to be in your car. You are going to wind up paying for lunch. Somehow they always figure out a way to come out on top in every situation. It is just in their nature.
They are a mover and shaker. They know how to get everything twisted around to their advantage. This was Jacob’s nature.
Jacob was chosen of God, beloved of God. He was a brother; Jacob was a Christian, so to speak. He belonged to the Lord. Yet he had this nature of always twisting things to his own advantage.
He got his brother’s birthright. From the moment he came out of the womb, he was trying to get ahead. Then his brother finally decided he was going to kill him, and his mama said, “Jake, you need to get out of town, buddy.”
He went on his journey and came to that place where he lay down on a stone, had that dream, and saw that spiritual connection between himself and heaven.
He woke up in the morning and said, “God was in this place, and I did not even know it. This is an awesome place.” He poured oil on that stone, a picture of coming into a new place—a place of worship, change, transformation, and understanding.
Jacob’s story is pretty much your story and my story. He was on a spiritual journey, though I do not think he knew it. He was strong-willed and capable.
Oh, how the Lord knows how to put something in your life and my life to stop us in our tracks and get our attention. The thing the Lord put in Jacob’s life was Rachel—beautiful Rachel.
The Scripture says she was beautiful of face and form. In other words, it is a double compliment. Man, she was good-looking.
Jacob saw her and did the only sensible thing. He said, “I am going to have this girl. This is the one I want.”
Then, being the guy that he was, he went to her daddy and said, “Laban, let us make a deal. You give me Rachel, your youngest daughter; I will work for you seven years.”
Laban, being a smart guy himself, said, “Sure.” Jacob worked seven years, which went by quickly because of his love for Rachel.
The wedding night came. The bride had a veil over her face, so he could not really see her. They had the wedding and went to the tent. He woke up the next morning, and it was not Rachel; it was Leah, the older sister.
He went to Laban and said, “Why have you done this to me? Seven years I worked for Rachel. Why have you done this to me?”
I can just see Laban: “There is nothing personal. Just business. It is our tradition. The older daughter has to be married off before the younger daughter.”
Why do you suppose the Lord allowed this thing to happen to His boy Jacob? Why did the Lord, who loved Jacob, allow this terrible thing to happen to him?
So that he could find out what he was like. When Jacob met Laban, he was looking in a mirror.
One of the things the Lord uses in our life is putting us with people in close relationship who show us something about ourselves.
You know what you resent the most about other people? It is the thing that makes you dislike somebody so much: when you recognize something in that person which, subconsciously, you see in yourself.
But you do not see it in yourself until you see it in your brother or sister. Eventually, the Holy Spirit uses that person to show you what you are like. This was all part of Jacob’s process.
Go back to Hebrews 11. Let us look at the end of the story, when Jacob is an old man.
Hebrews 11:21:
By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.
Jacob had been kind of an idol worshiper too, really—worshiping his ability to maneuver, his ability to manipulate, his ability to get things done.
But as he was dying, he leaned on his staff and worshiped. You see the strong man becoming a weak man, and being a picture of worship: leaning on the staff, leaning on the Lord Jesus, not leaning on his own understanding.
This is the calling for you and for me: to really know what worship is, to be able to give everything to the Lord.
May it be ours today and for the rest of our lives. May we be those who are sensitive to the work of the Holy Spirit and come into that place of true worship.
Lord, we do want to thank You and praise You this morning for Your lovingkindness to us.
Lord, we do say that You are worthy to be praised. Lord, You alone are worthy to be worshiped.
Lord, You put it into us to want to love You, to want to worship You, and to give You Your rightful place.
Lord, we just ask that You would take the things that we are hearing this weekend and cause them to go deep into our hearts.
Lord, that we would be people who are able to bless You by loving You, by worshiping You, by being sensitive to You.
Oh, Lord, increase our sensitivity through everything that You are saying in these last days.
And Lord, give it to us, young and old, to be those who enter in quickly, giving You Your rightful place and blessing You in everything.
Oh, Lord, we do give ourselves to You in all of these things. Lord, in Your precious name we pray. Amen.