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Discussion Forum : Revivals And Church History : THE GLORY OF GOD IN MINISTERING TO THE LORD by Paul Washer

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arkp
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 THE GLORY OF GOD IN MINISTERING TO THE LORD by Paul Washer

Here is a sermon by Paul Washer. These are his exact words.

I want to thank those who have ministered in Songs, the last two days . I believe there is a real sense in which in our Worship there ought to be a passion there ought to be a dignity that is lacking in many ways and in many places. I feel there is passion for Christ to be communicated in Song but also in dignity in worthy dignity.

I want to confess something, a problem my wife is not here she usually keeps me in line. But, She is not here. After I preached the last sermon, I had a lot of questions from a lot of different people and it brought back something to me, that my wife is always warning me about. She says Paul, when you have seven or eight days of preaching in one place she goes you are careful , your clear, you start a theme and you follow it all the way through. Paul the thing I love about you is there is so much you have in side you want to tell people. But my dear husband listen to me, sometimes you just try to tell too much in one time. You will start a taught and leave people hanging and go on to something else, and there saying well what did he really mean by that, she says one day son you are going to get yourself in a lot of trouble. Well she is right.

Lets turn to Act chapter 13, we are going to look at worship from two sides. I also, while our brother was preaching this last stand. I believe that the Lord has really really helped me see something that I was blind too. I'm just so amazed, you know just, in one second how the Lord through preaching will just open up your mind, and you will just see something you 've not seen.

I have two little boys one is almost three and the other one is seven months. They have not been traveling with me. Because well there little and things like that an put alot of pressure on maybe my host and me traveling. I just saw that the Lord seem to make clear to me that although not every time will they be able to go. I need to take my boys with me, i need to take my wife and my boys with me; even if it means turning a one day journey into two days; even if it means my host will have to find a bigger place for me; even if it means that i can't study as much during the day cause what does it matter is a man gain the world and looses his children?

It was just like a light you know, it was like whatever your excuse is? It's just not good enough. This really got me excited because the hardest thing for me in preaching is leaving behind my wife and my two boys. Were are going to look like the Beverly Hill Billie. I was telling brother Don's wife, and she said "bascially been there, done that got the t-shirt. It can be done, It can be done" What a Joy, what a joy. You know I have found that even when the Lord directs me into something that would seem ackward or even difficult that there is joy and I have joy right now great joy.

Acts Chapter 13

NOW there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, "Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them"

If you have done any studying about missions, especially any studying about missions in any instituion you know that this is the pivito point in the history of Christian Missions. I mean this is it. You want to talk about the beginning, of at least what we know to be the modern missionary movement to the nations this is it, this is it. I find it amazing that this is not a gathering here in Antioch of a bunch of mission experts coming to dialogue about the proper way of doing missions. This is not a mission conference sow to speak about how they are going to strategize on how they are going to manage the evangelization of the entire world. But what is it? That is a difficut question. What is realing going on here because the words that are being used are so unusual to us. As a matter of fact, I have never been in a Baptist Church that practice what I'm seeing in this text.

Now, I am going to open this up for a moment. If the Lord lays an answer on your heart please give it to us, but remember i'm the one preaching not you okay so keep it short.

I want to ask you a question "What does it mean that they ministered to the Lord". I want to hear from you what does that mean? Does any one have the answer? Anyone have an opinion, i'm sure there is someone out there. Don't leave me hanging boys, does anyone have an idea? Don't think i'm going to shoot you down, because I don't think my idea is very good either.

Prayer and Fasting, Prayer and Fasting - good answer. They ministered to the Lord. How did they minister to the Lord? Worship! They were praying they were worshipping and praizing. It did please him, he was the focus the person of God was the focus. Mission was not the focus, God was the focus. Anyone else, anyone else. There was singing, part of worship. They were ministering and serving Him in some way, they were ministering the Lord in some way.
Now, when you and I think of ministering or serving the Lord. We always think of it as going out from the Lord to minister and serve someone else in his name. But that is not what is going on here. They are ministering to the Lord. Now, there isn't a hole lot to go on. But let's first of all realize, this isn't a Wednesday night service where someone gets up and lead us in a few songs. It seems to be quite different from that. It seems to be that these men of God came together for no other reason, then to Worship the Lord.

I want to be very careful here because if we simply say praying; I know what you are going to think. You are going to think about the type of praying that we usually do. Whenever someone says we are going to have a prayer meeting, what does that mean? A lot of people come before God and start asking him for things. Is that not basic ally what a prayer meeting is? And especially a Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting, in most churches! Where we are more concerned about keeping six saints out of heaven, then getting sinners into the kingdom. Where most of our time is spent on praying for ailments and other such things, rather then the promotion of the Kingdom of God.

So, I hestitate that they gather there to pray because what we would think automatically is that a bunch of men gather together and they said a bunch of prayer about the needs of some people. King of dry but obedient.

That's not what it says. It's says they were ministering unto the Lord. We hear this type of language in the Old Testament, bascially with the Levites. Those Priest! And what did they do? They ministered to the Lord in the Temple. And mainly it was a ministery other then a sacrifical ministery which we don't have to worry about anymore. That was done away with when Christ, the great high priest came. What is going on here? I want to tell you, that I sincerely believe that these men came before the Lord and what was coming out of there mouth was probably something like the book of Psalms.

Interned as lead by the Holy Spirit sometimes maybe in uninson sometimes maybe as individuals. How do you bless the Lord, can the lesser bless the greater? How do you bless the Lord? By acknowledging his blessedness, by speaking forth his attributes by crying out his works, by making known his goodness, his greatness, his holiness, his righteouness, taking in as much as you can of the attributes of God the workings of God and speaking them forth to the throne of God. Worshiping Him, Praising Him, Thanking Him, demonstration of gratidude, demonstrations of tears, demonstration of God. You are everything we desire, everything we need, everything we want, you have been there for us in everytime.

They were together worshiping the Lord. What comes out of it? Probably well, the beginning of missions to the world, as we know it. Let me ask you something Pastors, Leaders, Churchman, Layman when was the last time you did this? I don't mean call together a church meeting have a song leader up here, he leads a few songs and then you start praying. I am asking when was the last time, a group of men, a group of leaders in your church came together or the entire church for that matter and got on there knees or maybe fell on there faces and spoke forth the glory's and majesty of God and worshipped him with tears and singing and with prayer. Calling forth his attributes, worshiping just being here all together, crying out to God.Not asking not necessarily lifting up even a petitions unless it is, Oh God make your name great among the nations. But simply ministering unto the Lord. Maybe one person breaks forth in prayer about the Holiness of God and goes on and on speaking about the grangure and majesty of Gods Holiness. Another one breaks forth too and begin's to speak about the faithfullness of God crying out to him, extorting him and worshiping him for his faithfulness. Another one who has just been delivered from a terrible trial begins to break forth in tears crying out that God is his deliverer. And you Spend the Night - Worshiping God.

When was the last time you did that? I would have to say that this language is foreign to us. You know, I am going to speak about this a bit tomorrow. That It bothers me, I am asked to speak in alot of mission conference and that the speaker always ased the Motivation for Mission , its the dying lost the Un-Evangelized lost. That is the motivation for missions, really it's not!.

I asked missionary's this; Is there ever a time when you could not sleep at night because literally you were so concern about the lostness of a certain people group, that you stayed up all night crying and asking for there deliverance and most missionarys will say, Yes. Then I asked them this; was there ever a time ever a night that you pass a sleepness night miserable beyong comfort becasue there are places on this earth that belongs to God, where men are worshiping rocks and stones and self and not worshiping the one true God. Are you burden with the fact that there a places where the banner of Christ is not raised, and he is not worshiped as God over all. You see you think we are God centered, but we are still man centered. We are still man centered. And then when someone is called to the Ministry, been called the Ministry, what Ministry? I've never heard someone say, I feel like God is raising me up to do this one thing, to minister unto Him even music people. Even though there language might say something else, In there attitude I see basically that they see worship still as the ministry unto men. It is a ministry unto the Lord.

If you are a minister you are first and foremost a minister unto the Lord, you are to minister first to Him. Will that not be our occupation throughout eternity. Is that not the occupation of the happy saints that dwell there now? Has that not always been the occupation servants and the angels thousand upon thousand upon ten thousand thousands. Have we missed the boat? Church men of God , Pastors ask yourself this quesiton. I don't have to sit here and go through the newons of this text, I don't have to break it down into a million different sub-headings. I don't have to disect it, have you ever done anything closed to what we seeing here? And isn't it amazing that in the middle of all of this the greastest mission movement in the history of the world is born. Maybe we got it backwards no maybe about it, we do have it backwards. You began with man, you don't end with God. You began with God you end with man.

Remember the Great Commandment, love the Lord your God. Then there is a second don't ever forget, it is the second love your neighbor love your neighbor. We are not a people given to worship. You can't fight me on this because I travel to churches all over this country and I have yet to see anything close to this. I see song services, I see prayer meetings. But I don't see anything like this. What is so wrong with this? Is this Charasmatic or something? Is this Liberal? Or is it Biblical? I challenge you Men, Pastor's go home to your churches, call your most trusted most Godly men together for a night. Say come out at seven going to last till well till we finish. We are going to Worship the Lord. We are not going to ask anything from him accept that he might glorify himself. We are going to exhort his attributes, were going to rejoice in his greatness and we are going to speak in prayer back to the throne of God, exhauting all the greatness of our Lord and that's what we are going to do.

I can just here the voice of some -What for? Well I have never heard of such a thing? Well you ought to read the bible more. You say, well I don't know how to do this, I don't know how to praise the Lord? Well let me give you a wonderful wonderful book that was written take this down it's a absoutley wonderful book, it's pin by a few different authors and one main editor he's compiled this it's called Psalms.

You know, when young men tell me they want to learn how to preach. I tell them don't listen to me. I tell you, hear this is what you do. I always recommend to them three different preachers, if you would read these men, read there sermons: CHARLES SPURGEON, MARTIN LLOYD JONES, ALEXANDER MCCLAURIN, so read them and you'll learn how to preach. You want to learn how to praise God, read the book of Psalm, read the book of Psalms, read the book of Psalms and memorize portions from the book of Psalms then when you open your mouth the book of Psalms will come out.

You see again much of our Baptistic Theology is reactionary we don't want to have anything like a church of England prayer book. But we have a biblical prayer book. The book of Psalm. Another thing about the Catholic that has taken the so called Lords prayer and twisted it into a meaningless ritual a repeition. But we as Baptist I don't even ever hear the thing among us and yet the only time the Lord was asked how do you pray he gave us that. You seen we need to be very very careful.

What should we do Baptist? Baptist come together, Christians that are here Presbyterian come together and do what? Worship the Lord.




* The reason for me doing this, is so that; Come On! Does everyone really listen to the audio sermons?







 2013/1/17 23:31Profile





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