FBC Morning Light – July 8, 2023

Good Sunday morning, people of faith. This is Saturday, July 8th, and this will be our last Saturday together for a little while. We will be doing this again on August 12th, but we're going to take a few weeks off.

And so hopefully today you'll be blessed by this devotional. We are in 2 Chronicles chapter 5, and in 2 Chronicles chapter 5 we have the dedication of the temple. And of all the different chapters throughout the Old Testament, this might be the most epic worship experience of them all.

I'm going to point out just a couple of things about that worship experience. First of all, in verses 2 through 5, you have an gathering of the leaders of the nation of Israel. It says in verse 2,. Now Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of tribes, chief fathers of the children of Israel in Jerusalem, that they might bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord up from the city of David, which is Zion.

Therefore all the men of Israel assembled with the king at the feast, which was in the seventh month. So all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites took up the ark. Then they brought up the ark, the tabernacle of meeting, all the holy furnishings that were in the tabernacle.

The priests and the Levites brought them up. So you've got the king there, you've got the leaders of the chief fathers, you've got the heads of the tribes, you've got the Levites, you're bringing in everybody here.

There's a tremendous in-gathering on a much smaller scale, but in a similar sense, when I am here on a Sunday morning and I look around and I see the men that I look up to in this church, people who are leaders in their homes, leaders within this church, it is an honor to worship with them in this church.

And so in a smaller sense, but a similar sense, I believe we have that here at Faith Baptist Church. In verse 6, we notice something to me, it's just a little thing, but it's quite profound to me as well.

It says, also King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who were assembled with him before the ark were sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted or numbered for the multitude. Now, when I see that and I think, you know, I've taught math for a long time and I learned how to count at a very young age, I can count awfully high, and yet there's a number of sheep and oxen that were sacrificed that couldn't be counted.

That's a lot, right? And so when you gather for worship, there's things, there's been sacrifices made on the parts of many people in the congregation that sometimes go unnoticed. How much time is put into preparing a message?

How much time is put into preparing to play accompaniment with the piano or the organ, right? How much time is put into the planning of the order of the service or even into the little thing like a bulletin, to the things that go into the bulletin.

There's time invested and sacrificed for that worship gathering to occur. Another thing is there is singing and praising. Let's look at verses 11 through 13. It says, and it came to pass when the priests came out of the most holy place, for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves without keeping to their divisions.

And the Levites, who were the singers, all those of Asaph and Heman and Jaduthun, with their sons and their brethren, stood at the east end of the altar, clothed in white linen, having cymbals, stringed instruments, and harps, and with them 120 priests sounding with trumpets.

Indeed, it came to pass when the trumpeters and singers were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord. And when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music and praised the Lord saying, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever, that the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud.

So, this singing and playing of music was in one accord. It wasn't just somebody off doing one thing, another thing. There wasn't disorder here, all right? I'm certain with 120 trumpeters that it was a very loud sound.

I don't have any doubt about that. But the people there were singing in one accord. Notice also what they were singing, for He is good and His mercy endures forever. Worship is meant to bring us to a closer understanding of what God is like and what God likes, right?

And so, it is meant that during worship, it's not just about getting excited about the music or excited about the sights or the sounds or the smells. It's about learning in a personal way and a congregational way a better understanding of who the Lord is and what He is like.

And finally, we saw that the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud. Verse 14 then says, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of a cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God, all right?

So, as you are gathered together for worship, this is something that the Lord did, okay? And I say that because there's people and places and things you could go to where they will play, they will have a fog machine during the worship service, or they will have gold dust falling out of the vents when the air conditioning comes on.

And this is not a man-manufactured event, all right? Worship is not meant to be that way. Worship is meant to be us coming under humble submission of the Lord and finding out better who the Lord is. And we do that in song, we do that in prayer, we do that in the reading of the Word, and we do that in the teaching of the Word.

And those four things for the last 2 ,000 years have been a constant of real worship. Why do I say for the last 2 ,000 years? Because in around 100 AD, there was a book written called the Didache that cites those four things being elements of regular worship amongst the people of God.

So, there's an illustration I want to give you here. And my wife and I are planning a little getaway for our 30th anniversary, and we hope to see some waterfalls during that time. So, I'd like you to think about Niagara Falls.

Maybe you've been there, maybe you haven't been there. So, what are some things you could do? You could watch a video about the Niagara Falls, you could see pictures, you could listen to other people's stories.

And none of those things would be experiencing Niagara Falls. However, if you went to Niagara Falls and you were able to smell what it was like, if you were able to feel the mist, hear the sound of the crashing water and see it for yourself, that is what real worship... that's the analogy for what real worship should be.

It's not something where you're able to watch what someone else is doing. It's not something that regularly will happen as you're watching a YouTube video. It's something that as we gather together, that the congregation itself and us individually within that congregation will learn better of what the Lord has for us through those four things I mentioned earlier, through prayer, through singing, through the hearing of the Word, through the teaching of the Word.

And those things happen best when you are experiencing them yourself. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much that we are able to gather together as a church. May it be that we let the worship of you be a focus for us as we gather together, as we look to encourage one another even more so as we see the day approaching.

May you be glorified in us and through us on this day. It's in your Son's name, Jesus we pray. Amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.