Craig: Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation, for the Lord is the great God, the Great King above all gods. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. It's awesome to have all of you with us today from all of our LifeChurches and our Network Churches, and those of you all over the world at church online. I'm going to take a moment to wish you a very, very Merry Christmas, focusing on the Christ in Christmas as we celebrate the virgin birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I pray that you take a moment to pause and to recognize who he is and what he means not only to the world but what he can mean to you as you experience the power of Christ in Christmas. If you're new with us, we're actually going through different themes all year long, and we've been talking about worship. The title of our series has been Come to Worship, based on a text in the Bible when the wise men said, "We have come to worship Jesus, we've come to worship him." In this message series we've looked at 4 different postures of worship. The first week we looked at where the Bible teaches us to lift up holy hands to God. The second week we talked about bringing our gifts to God as an act or worship. Last weekend we looked at pouring out our hearts to God in praise for his faithfulness. Today what I want to do is talk to you about bowing your knees, kneeling before God in the act of surrender and worship. In fact I want to start today with a portion of the Christmas story in Matthew's gospel, Matthew chapter 2, verses 10 and 11. This is talking about when the wise men actually experienced Christ. The story goes like this. When the wise men saw the star they were overjoyed. Now why were they overjoyed? Because for literally centuries upon centuries they were hoping, praying, believing that one day God would send a Messiah, the Savior of the world, and the wise men believed that this was that moment when Jesus was born. Verse 11 says on coming to the house they saw the child with his mother Mary. What did they do? Let's all say this aloud, all of our churches, what did they do when they saw Jesus? They bowed down and worshiped him. They bowed down and worshiped him. Now what's interesting is most of the time when we picture this what we visualize is we visualize the wise men kneeling down to the baby Jesus, little bitty 4 day old baby, 8 day old baby, 2 week old baby or whatever. Why do we do that? Because every Christmas card you get has the wise men bowing down to a little baby. But in reality, and many of you may not know this, but scholars believe that Jesus was not a baby but chances are very good he was a toddler. He was very likely around 2 years of age when the wise men got there.
Remember they traveled 900 or so miles to get to him, and according to their judgment Jesus was probably around 2 years of age. Now to me that changes the dynamics of the whole story. Think about it. Just for fun, how many of you right now, all of our churches, have a 2 year old? Raise your hands up right now, have a 2 year old. How many of you have had a 2 year old? You've had a 2 year old. The rest of you, how many of you have been around a 2 year old, you've been around one? I'll be real honest with you, I'll tell you like it is. I used to judge parents with unruly 2 year olds all the time, until I had one. I would judge you like crazy. Before we had kids I knew more about parenting than anybody. I'd see your stupid, wild 2 year old banging his fist on the restaurant table, taking mashed potatoes and throwing it on the ground, and then when you try to pick the kid up they kind of go limp. You know, like come on, walk. I would look at you and think, when I'm a parent I'm going to do so much better than that. Oh I did. I read the books, I watched the videos. I knew about time out, the interrupt rule, I knew it all. But when I had my own 2 year old, dear God, everything changed. Everything changed. For a long time we'd stand strong, we'd do the rules, we'd discipline, we'd stand firm, we'd say no, and then they wear you down, and they wear you down, and they wear you down. When finally you couldn't do any more you caved in and became like those other parents: I'll do whatever you want, I'll give you anything, just shut up, anything you want. Candy, money, a race car, you want a race car?, sure I'll get you a pony, a cat. Listen. You know how I feel about cats. Well, we had 2 of them. Why? Because we had 2 year olds and that was the only thing that worked: "Shut up and I'll get you a stupid cat, just don't ever do that again." I heard a comedian say that 2 year olds are like tiny crazy crackheads. They're like crackheads, right. They're tiny, they look like crackheads, their clothes are all... stuff all over, they got no teeth, they look drunk all the time. They'll lie to you, they lie to you like, "I can fly." "You can't fly, you're a liar, and you're gross, you've got crackers shoved up your nose, you are gross. That's disgusting." In fact there is no other creature alive that will do what a 2 year old will do. A 2 year old will look you in the eye, never break eye contact, stare you down, and take a dump in his pants right there, every single... can you say that on Christmas, that sure as hashtag that just happened. They will stare at you. You won't even see it coming. The only thing may notice if you've got a trained eye is you may see their lip tighten. They're like... Then you say, "Are you doing a dookie?" "No." They lie to you. Tiny, crazy crackheads. Come_To_Worship_Week_4 Page 2 of 10
All of this to say when the wise men were bowing down, they were bowing down to a 2 year old. To me that rivals the virgin birth, to lay down and say, "I worship you." Now, I want to talk today about kneeling in the presence of God. Let's call it what it is. In our culture most of you aren't going to go, "Oh, that's easy, I'm kneeling right now." It's like lifting your hands. A lot of us did that for the very first time as an act of worship, and it pushes us out of our comfort zone. Guys, let's call it like it is. You may kneel 2 times in your life. Number 1 when you are proposing, and there's a payday on the other side of that kneel. Or number 2 when you're getting your football picture taken, right, you've got helmet and the ball and you're kneeling down. That's the only time you're doing it. Girls, I don't know if they ever kneel. There's no football pictures. They do do that little thing where they go like this in pictures, kind of kneeling. Why they do that I don't know. Right, girls, call it what it is. Not to be confused with the leg pop and all that stuff. Come on, have some fun with me. Culturally speaking, most of us don't go around kneeling. Yet when you look at God's word you're going to see over and over and over again opportunities to kneel down in humble submission and awe to the goodness of God. In fact Psalm 95 verses 6 and 7, the psalmist speaks to us and says this, "Come, let us- " do what, let's all say this aloud, all of our churches, everybody together this Christmas, "Come, let us bow down in worship." Let us do what? Let us "kneel before the Lord our Maker." Let us bow down in worship. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, because he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Come, let us bow down in worship. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. Now there's an interesting hebrew word that's actually translated as worship. It's the word shachah. Not to be confused with Chaka Khan, for those of you in the 80s, little love for you there. Everybody else just let it go right on by you, don't look it up, don't waste your time. Shachah, this word is used 170 times in the Bible. What this word means is it means to bow down low, to kneel in worship. It doesn't mean just worship, but inside this word is the posture of kneeling in worship. 170 times in scripture we're told in this word to kneel before God in worship. One of the reasons why I believe culturally we don't kneel more often is because fundamentally we do not understand and comprehend the holiness of God. You see, if we understood just how holy God is then we would want to be low before him in worship. You see, so holy is God that mortal man cannot look upon him in his essential being and live. Come_To_Worship_Week_4 Page 3 of 10
Whenever Moses wanted to see the glory of God, Moses said, "You can't handle my full glory. I'll pass by you but you've got to cover your face. You can only see the tail when it goes by, because you cannot look upon my face and live." In fact in the Old Testament no one was allowed to go into the Holy of Holies except for the high priest, and only once a year, because it was believed you could not go into where they believed that God would dwell, or you w not live. They would actually... when the high priest would go in they would tie a rope to his leg, and if they heard a thump they were pulling him out, because they weren't even sure if he could live in the presence of God. So holy is God that mortal man cannot look upon him in his purest essence and even live. Suddenly when you start to comprehend that God, the glory of God, the one who spoke and created everything, suddenly kneeling down before him seems like the right thing to do. In fact what's incredibly interesting to me is I cannot find a single place in the Bible where God tells us to bow down to him. God does not tell us to bow down to him. It's almost as if he just assumes we will, because he knows who he is and what he's done for us. Think about it, God doesn't tell us to bow down. The only thing he says about it is don't bow down to someone else. God says don't bow down to any false idols, don't put any other gods before me. Because God literally almost assumes that when we know who he is we'll want to kneel before him in worship. Come, let us bow down in worship before our God. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. What I want to do is I want to inspiration you to come to worship, to come to worship him. Not just to worship at church, but to let your life be full of worship to God, to lift up holy hands every now and then to God in worship, to bring your gifts as an act of worship to God, to pour out your heart to him in worship, and every now and then, or perhaps for you even often to get down on your knees, or maybe a little lower and get down on your face and say, "God, I want there to be less of me and more of you" and worship him. What better time when we pause in the middle of all the hustle and bustle in this world and think about the birth of Christ, that God so loved the world that he became one of us. Not born in a palace but in a hole in the wall, in a cave, to symbolize that he is not too far reaching, that he came for the lowest of the low. Based on who he is and what he did sometimes our only reasonable response is to bow and to worship him. What I want to do to help you along is to give you 3 different reasons why you might want to bow. The first one, if you're taking notes, is this. Some of you, you might want to kneel in pursuit, to kneel before him in pursuit. In fact in Mark's gospel in the 10th Come_To_Worship_Week_4 Page 4 of 10
chapter there's a really interesting story about a very rich guy. He had everything that everybody would think that he needed, and yet he was missing something and he knew it. Here's how the story goes. Verse 17: "As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him," and what did this guy do? Say it aloud, he what? "He fell on his knees before Jesus. He said, 'Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?'" Now I want to be honest with you. I bet you I've taught some version of that story 20 times over the history of leading this church, probably 20 different times. I never ever noticed his posture. I always focused on the question: what must I do to inherit eternal life? I never recognized that this guy literally fell on his knees. He collapsed before Jesus. He was so desperate. Knowing he had everything that everybody else wants, but he was missing what everybody needs, and in pursuit of the answer to that question he feel on his knees before God. Some of you right now, you may be at a place like that in your life, when you're not a committed God follower and you know it. You may believe in God but he is not the sole pursuit of your heart. You're not a fully devoted follower of Jesus. Some of you, you may not even know what you believe, you're questioning is there a God, could there be a God, if there is a God where does Jesus fit in this and with other religions, and all these kind of things. This is a great place to investigate that. I want to encourage you, if that's where you are, here's what you might do. You might decide this is pretty important, I don't want to miss this so therefore I'm going to kneel. I don't even know if I'm kneeling to a God I believe in, I don't know who he is, but I'm going to kneel just in case and ask some questions. You might kneel in pursuit and pray something along the lines, "God, if you're really there, show me. If it's really you, reveal yourself to me." Listen to me, just want to warn you, when you pray something like that, get ready. Because when you draw near to him, God draws near to you, and there may be some of you at some point you say, "You know what, this is a pretty serious thing. I'm going to kneel in pursuit just like this rich young ruler did." There are others of you, you are a follower of Jesus and you don't necessarily need to kneel in pursuit, but you may need to kneel in repentance, you may need to kneel in repentance. You see, every now and then or sometimes often we do things that really break the heart of God and hurt our lives or hurt other people. I tell you, I don't know why, but Christmas is like a magnifier, isn't it. Christmas seems to make the good times really good and the hard times really, really hard. It's a magnifier. If you've done something against someone, directly against God or directly against someone you love, this time magnifies the weight Come_To_Worship_Week_4 Page 5 of 10
of sin. It's a magnifier. Some of you right now, you may be smiling on the outside but you're grieving on the inside because you've done something to hurt someone that you love deeply. There's a powerful example of kneeling in repentance in Luke's gospel in the 5th chapter. Peter was a fisherman, he was fishing all day long, and he didn't catch anything. Jesus comes up and he says, "Hey, why don't you throw the net on the other side of the boat?" Now you got to put yourself in Peter's place. The boat's a narrow little thing, like maybe this wide. I'm thinking if I'm Peter: you're a carpenter, you go build me a table, and I'll put fish on it, don't give me advice. That's what I'm thinking. You imagine, think of it, I just threw the net on this side, no fishies here. Why? Because there's some smart fish on the other side going: over here guys, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, and they're all over here. Then if the net comes over here they're all going to swim under there quickly: oh, oh, oh, missed us, ah hah, we're ready for you. This is stupid advice, this is never going to work. So Peter, like "Oh because you say so I'll give it a try" he throws his net on the other side, and there are so many the net's breaking. Suddenly he looks up and he's "Oh, I didn't realize who you were." Watch his response, verse 8: "When Simon Peter realized what had happened" what did he do? Let's all say it aloud, what did he do? He did what, he what? He "fell on his knees before Jesus" and in an act of repentance, watch his heart. He doesn't say, "Oh, I worship, you're so good, give me more fish." He says, "Oh Lord, please leave me, I'm too much of a sinner to be around you." I'm too much of a sinner. There's an act of repentance. Here's the beautiful thing. Jesus never turns away a sinner with a repentant heart. He never does. There's some of you right now, you're even surprised you're in church. You're thinking, "If I go in church the roof might fall on me. People are going to look at me and know what I did" and you get this really uncomfortable feeling like I don't belong. Listen to me, it doesn't matter how bad you are, you belong in the presence of God with a repentant heart. Jesus never tuns anyone away who comes to him and says, "I've fallen, I feel." He falls... Peter was a bad dude, and he falls on his knees in repentance. And Jesus says, "Guess what, from now on you're not just going to fish for fish, but you're going to become a fisher of men." Another version, this is the single ladies' favorite verse. Single ladies, write this down and put it on your refrigerator. He says, "From now on you will catch men." I won't say that ever again, but it could work for somebody. If you catch them, don't mount them and put them up on your wall, do something... So here we see him kneeling down in repentance, and there will be some of you that that's what you're going to need to do and kneel down and say, "I've sinned against you, God. I've sinned." Come_To_Worship_Week_4 Page 6 of 10
Here's the good news. Scripture teaches us that when you confess your sins, our God is faithful and just to forgive all of your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. In the song O Holy Night there's a verse that says "fall on your knees." You might collapse and say, "God, I've done something wrong, will you forgive me?" In that moment you will experience the grace of God, and you may want to stay on your knees for a little while to worship the one who freely forgives you. Some of you, you're going to want to kneel in pursuit. Some of you, you're going to want to kneel in repentance. There are others of you, you're going to want to kneel in submission. Maybe for the first time in your life or maybe in a particular area where you won't let go because you want to control it, you're going to kneel in submission. Now I'm going to confess this and I know it's going to bother a lot of people. I know as a pastor I shouldn't but I do, I love UFC fighting. I love it. I know I shouldn't but I love to see them hit each other. There's something in me, if I wasn't a pastor I might get beat up in UFC fighting. I love it. I love it. Who else likes it, anybody else like it? God bless you, you can be forgiven too, because Jesus never turns away a repentant sinner. When somebody gets somebody in a hold and they're like... at the very end, what do they do? If they can't breathe or their arm's about to snap, what do they do, what do they do? They tap: I tap out, I submit, I surrender, I give up, I can't do this. I wrestle with my 2 boys Sam and Bukie. Bukie's real name is Steven, but when he was a little kid Sam called him Boobie. We said, "That's not going to work" so we changed it to Bukie, so he goes by Bukie but his real name's Steven. Anyway, Bukie won't tap. Bukie will not tap. I have every one of my kids, I hold them down and I make them say, "Daddy's the greatest." That's tapping, Daddy's the greatest. Bukie, I'll hold him down: "Mommy's the greatest." "No." "Ahhhh." "I'm going to break your arm." "Mommy's the greatest." "I'm going to break that arm." "I'm the greatest." "No, Daddy's the greatest." "Ahhh." Listen to me, he will pee in his pants but he will not bow, he will not do it. There are some of you, you're like that with God, aren't you. There's some area of your life and you won't tap. "I want it this way, I want it my way." Listen, there are some of you, God has been reaching out to you for years and you won't tap. You won't surrender to his plan for you, which is far better than your own plan. Some of you, you need to tap, and kneel and surrender. What's crazy to me to think about is that Jesus did this. Jesus that we celebrate, born of a virgin in the little manger, was born to die, was born to die. Jesus being God in the flesh knew what was coming ahead. He never sinned against God and yet he knew the agony that he would face becoming sin. Everything we've ever done wrong, that's what he became, so much so that God turned away from him, and he faced the terror of dying on the cross without the presence of his Come_To_Worship_Week_4 Page 7 of 10
Father who had sustained him through everything. Jesus understood this was coming, and this is what he did in that moment. Luke 22, verse 41 and 42. "Jesus withdrew," he was with the disciples in the Garden, "and he withdrew about a stone's throw beyond the disciples." What did Jesus the Son of God do? He knelt down and he prayed. He got down on his knees and he prayed. What did he pray? He prayed a prayer of surrender. He said, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me. Yet- " let's all say it aloud, "yet not my will but yours be done." Not my will. Not my will, but yours be done. Some of you, that's what you need to pray today. Tap. "Not my will, but your will be done. I surrender." Sometimes you look at people and you say, "You seem so strong. How do you do it?" Sometimes people will say, "Craig, how do you keep going in the midst of opposition?" I'd say this. Kneeling to pray is often what gives you the strength to stand. Kneeling to pray is often what gives you the strength to stand. Some of you, it's time to lift up holy hands before God, to bring our gifts, to pour out our hearts. Maybe for you a new and very worshipful surrendered, submissive positive of worship in awe before God is literally to kneel down before him. Come, let us kneel before our God and worship him, the Lord God our Maker. Now, I'll let you in on a little secret. You ready for this? You can kneel now, or you can kneel later, but you're going to kneel to him. You're going to kneel to him. You can kneel now in pursuit and repentance and in submission and worship, or one day when it wasn't your choice you'll kneel then. Because this is what the story teaches us. Philippians 2, 8 through 11: "And being found in the appearance as a man," Jesus, why was he born? To humble himself and become obedient to death, even death on a cross. "Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus", say it with me, "every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under earth, and every tongue acknowledge" the good news and the reason we celebrate for Christmas today, is that, say it aloud, "Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory God the Father." Our God never asked us to bow before him because he knew that when we knew who he was, sometimes our only reasonable response would be to bow down and worship him. He is that good. On this Christmas time of the year, I want to give you the chance to bow down and worship him. Speaker 2: Craig: (singing) Continuing to [inaudible 00:31:22] your worship, let's all pray together. Father, we thank you so much for who you are, and for what you did for us 2000 years ago. For centuries people anticipated the birth of the Messiah, and now we Come_To_Worship_Week_4 Page 8 of 10
look back and celebrate who he is, what he did for us on the cross, and what that means for us, that we can glorify you today. All of our churches, as you reflect in prayer right now, some of you recognize you may never have knelt before God in worship before. You may have had a chance to do so... hang on a second. I don't know how I'm going to close this service. Okay, I'll try again. As we continue in the attitude of worship in all of our churches, let's pray together. Father, we thank you that you are so holy, that you give us the chance to bow down and worship you. God, during this Christmas season we take a moment to recognize the amazing truth of the grace you have for us, that you came to earth through the virgin birth, your Son Jesus born to die so we could live. God, because of that we worship you. All of our churches, as you take a moment to pray, some of you are going to recognize in your life that it's time to kneel down in surrender before him. There may be an area of your life that you're trying to control, something you're not willing to tap, and you recognize, "I need to let this go. I'm trying to have my will, but I need to surrender it and say, 'God, not will, but I trust that your will be done.'" All of our churches, those of you who would say, "Yes, there is an area I've been trying to control, and either symbolically or even physically today I choose to kneel before God, and I want to let go of my control and trust for his perfect will in my life. I kneel by faith, in surrender before him." If that's for you today, would you lift up your hands right now, all over the churches, and say, "Yes, I really surrender to him in this way. God, I thank you that in this holy moment you're doing a work in hearts, in churches and at church online all over the world. I pray, God, that your Holy Spirit would work in us, that there would be less of us, God, and more of you. Just like Jesus in that garden when he didn't want to physically endure the same and pain of the cross, he surrendered, kneeling in prayer before you to your perfect will. God, give us the ability to do that in our hearts today, not what we want, God, but we kneel before you in surrender, saying we want what you want." As you keep praying today at all of our different churches, we've talked about other reasons we might kneel. We would kneel in pursuit of God, we might kneel in repentance. There's some of you today, you're going to recognize if you look at the posture of your heart symbolically, you have never... not just physically, but symbolically, you've never knelt before God. Please do not miss the power of Christmas, that God recognized that we were separated from him by our sins, and the only way that we could be forgiveness is that a perfect person would die in our place. "God we thank you that you sent Jesus who was born of a virgin, Come_To_Worship_Week_4 Page 9 of 10
not inheriting the sin nature of an earthly father, so that he could live the perfect life and die the perfect death for all of our imperfections, all of our sins on the cross." In all of our churches, there are some of you, you're going to recognize you have never knelt in your heart before God. In other words, you're still the lord of your own life, you're doing life your way, and you recognize today you want to surrender to him. Whether it's physically kneeling if you can, or kneeling simply in your heart, some of you are going to recognize "I need to surrender my life completely to him. I'm pursuing him. I repent of my sins." When you call on him, God is faithful and just to forgive your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Years from now you'll look back and say, "It was during that Christmas time that I knelt in surrender before God and he changed my life, because Jesus was born to give his life for me so I could live for him." All of our churches, you recognize you're trying to control, and you want to surrender to him, to make him Lord and Savior of your life by faith today, you give your life to him, that's your prayer. Would you lift your hands right now and say, "Yes, I surrender my life to Christ." All of our churches, lift your hands and say, "Yes, I give my life to him." Those of you at church online, you click right below me and we're all going to pray. No one prays alone. Everybody pray aloud, pray "Heavenly Father, forgive me for all of my sins. Make me brand new. Just as Jesus was born in this world, may he be born in my heart. I surrender, and kneel before you, making you my Savior and my Lord. My life is not my own. Today I give it to you. Thank you for new life. Now you have mine. In Jesus' name I pray." Would you all celebrate the best Christmas ever. Welcome those born into God's family. Come_To_Worship_Week_4 Page 10 of 10