True Worship

Haggai 1:1-11

Praise God for loving True Light Community Church and granting us this new space of worship. And we welcome and thank all of you for coming and worshipping us. We are glad that many visitors are here as well, celebrating this first worship service at the new location. As I have stated last week, we’ve prayed for a location that was within the 5-mile radius of H-Mart. And God granted this place, which is directly across H-Mart. We pray that here, as we begin our new journey together, we will be able to shine the light of Jesus Christ, who came as the True Light to this world, and carry out the ministry God called us to. In order for us to do that, every one of us need to do our part, praying and serving faithfully.

As we have been discussing for the past few weeks, we would like to continue looking at the heart and mindset we need to have as we move into this new location God blessed us with. What is the first thing, the most important thing, that we need to think about as we live out our faith. As we live in this world, many unexpected things happen in our lives. There are times where we are not able to do what we set out to do because of these unexpected things. But it is important that we think about what is important and try to do those things despite the circumstances.

One of the pastors I heard long ago said this.
“There are, amongst the things we need to do, things that are urgent as well as things that are important. When we open our eyes in the morning, we are faced with urgent things we need to do. These are the things that require our immediate attention. But one thing we need to know is that just because something is urgent does not mean it is important. We need to look back and see whether we have neglected important things for the sake of urgent things.”

That’s right. Unless we are spiritually awake, Satan will sneak into our lives, changing the priorities upside down. We need to know what is important. We need to know what our priorities ought to be.

For us, the most important thing we can do is worshipping and praising God. Some people say that the missions is what’s important. And certain missions is important. But according to John Piper, missions exist because worship doesn’t. We go on missions to places where worship does not exist, and we serve there in order for worship to happen there. The worship is the most important thing in Christian life. So the question is, how much of priority does this worship take place in our hearts? How important is worship for you?

Unfortunately, in our text today, we see that the people of God, their own needs and comfort took priority over God. The background to our text is that many people are sent to exiles after Assyria and then later Babylon came and destroyed Israel. After some time in exile, Cyrus, in BC 538, gave an edict to Zerubbabel and the high priest Jeshua to go and rebuild the temple of God. So 42,360 people returned to Jerusalem, with the purpose of rebuilding God’s temple. But people started giving various excuses, saying it is not time yet to rebuild the temple. There were oppositions from both outside and inside, which led to conflict and discouragement. Some said that they were too weak and poor to build the temple. Yet, they built their own houses first.

This shows how Israelites were selfish, and did not care much about the work of God. This is the attitude that all people share. So people care more about their own well-being than the work of God. They care about meeting their physical needs before all else.

But the fact remains that people’s job is to honor and glorify God. The greatest priority for them was to rebuild the temple, which is a place of worship. We also need to understand what ought to be our greatest priority.

Today, we are worshipping at this new location. I am thankful that many people have put in their time and effort to make this place ready for worship. They worked with their hands and feet. Yes, it is not perfect, and there are still more work to be done. And it certainly would be a mistake if we think that our work is done, since we have moved in here. We need to know what is our greatest priority, now that we are in this new place. And that ought to be true worship through the right relationship with God.

What is a sanctuary, or a temple? It is a place to meet God. It is place to meet God and have a right relationship with him. It is a place where we the creatures are worshipping God the Creator. Building the temple meant establishing a right relationship with God and living for God. But is that really how we live? Do we truly value worship, meditate on God’s Word, and live the life of prayer? Do we not try to build our own houses first? Do we not try to build our own careers first? Do not try to improve our own personal lives first?

Why do we come to church? There are people who come to church for the Lord, but there are also those who come out habitually. There are those who come in order to show to others. There are those who come for work. There are those who come in order to make them feel less guilty. Do we come for the Lord or for our own selves?

There is a way to know where our heart is. Look at your actions. Look at your bank statements. Look at where you spend most of your time. Those are the places your heart is.

What, then, happens when we put our top priorities behind and live for ourselves first? Our text, in verses 6, tells us that we will work for our own profit, but will never be satisfied. As a result of working for their own selves, they are unsatisfied and poor. Only to those who do what is right before the Lord will be satisfied, because God is God who is sovereign over all things. How do we expect satisfying result, living for our own profit, when it is God who gives rain as well as the sun, and is sovereign over the results?

This is what happened during my sophomore year in college. I almost lost the scholarship that I was receiving. Rather than studying, I was playing too much. But that was not the real problem. I served at the church I was attending, but it was more about me than God. I was put in a leadership position from my freshman year, as the missions committee head. I became arrogant, after putting together a successful missions conference. Enjoying the praises others, church work became more important than my relationship with God. And then things were not working out and I was never satisfied.

But then one retreat changed me. By the grace of God, my life changed. I was in the Christian Lounge at 7:00AM every morning, praying and meditating on the Word. Many of you know that 7AM for college students is really early. But this not only changed my spiritual life, but all of my life as well.

I am not trying to brag. I am sure many of you have experienced that. How sweet was our lives when we were fervent in our prayers and study of God’s Word? It is our spiritual apathy that took that sweetness away from us.

We need to return to the Lord. We need to restore worship. We need to worship God in Spirit and in truth, not worship that I enjoy or like or is for me. Yes, it is not easy. Israelites faced many opposition as they tried to rebuild the temple. Books of Ezra and Nehemiah tells us of those oppositions. What were the reasons for opposition? Most of it is because of self-centeredness. Because they did not ask for my opinion, or ask for my help, or did not recognize me. It is also because there are more urgent things that I need to do for my own profit.

One does not need to taught to have this “me first” attitude. It is natural to us. But what happens when this “me first” attitude dominates in our relationships? What happens in marriage, the most intimate form of relationships, if one or both parties live with this “me first” attitude? What would happen if both had “you first” attitude?

Same can be said of our relationship with God. What would it be like if the worship that we give, the spiritual life we live, and the religious activities we engage in are all dominated by “me first” attitude? We need to think of God first and think of those whom God loves first. We need to recover the worship that seeks to honor and glorify God first.

There is one who did not live this “me first” attitude, but lived with “God first,” and “those whom God loves first” attitude. He did not think about himself, but thought of God and those whom God loves first. He is our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus was faithful, when we were unfaithful in our relationship with God. He took the cross upon his shoulder in order to forgive and restore us, who were so selfish. And he was resurrected on the Third Day, in order that we can see and meet God. The temple, or the sanctuary, is the place to meet God. Jesus “tabernacled” with us and became the way to meet God. To this gracious Lord, what can we offer up?

We need to give true and faithful worship, given in Spirit and in truth, not a worship that is for us and for our gain. We need to offer up the worship that is focused on God at the center of our hearts.

I will close with one famous story. It is a story about the song we sang in our praise time today, called “The Heart of Worship.” In late 1990, there were lots of praise music coming out of England. Praise teams like Vineyard were releasing floods of songs. Matt Redman, a praise leader at the Soul Survivor Church in Watford, England, was also beloved praise song writer. But the church felt that something was missing from their worship, even though people were enjoying the well written and well performed music. They felt that the focus shifted towards the music, rather than worshipping God truthfully. The pastor of the church made an important decision. He ordered all instruments and sound systems be taken away. Pastor Mike Pilavachi, then, asked the congregation this important question. “When you walk through the doors of the church, what did you bring to offer to God?” There was an awkward silence at first, but soon people broke into spontaneous acapella, praising God, and fervent prayer. In the midst of this “revival” of worship, the song “the Heart of Worship,” which is still loved today, was born.

“I will bring you more than a song, for a song in itself is not what you have required. You search much deeper within, through the way things appear, you are looking into my heart.”

What God desires of us is our heart. I pray that, as we thank and praise God for giving us this gift of space, we can offer onto him the true worship that he desires, from the deepest part of our heart.