Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped. He said,
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked I shall return there.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.
Job 1:20-22 NASB
Have you ever gone through a difficult time? It is not always easy to worship God, is it? We can go through terrible hardships in this life. As Jesus said, "In this world you will have trouble." (John 16:33, NIV) He was right. But trouble is not new. Some believe the book of Job to be one of the earliest books, chronologically speaking. And boy, did Job go through trouble! By the time our passage appears, in the first chapter, no less, Job had already lost everything he owned and almost everyone he cared about. But what did he do? He fell to the ground and worshiped! Wow. What a reaction. And not one I usually have when things go wrong, by the way. If you're like me, you need to hear the three truths about worship that Reverend Singleton shared with us this morning.
1. Worship is Being Honest with God.
Did you know that worship is not about your feelings? Our human tendency is to worship God because we feel happy. But that is not truly what worship is. That's an emotional reaction. Can you imagine if God worked this way? What if he didn't feel like sending his son to live as a man on earth? For that matter, what if Jesus didn't feel like going to the cross? We would have no hope, and no salvation. So what do you do when you feel down? You praise Him anyway. What do you do when you are having troubles in your life? You praise Him anyway. But why? That leads us to our second truth.
2. When We Worship God, We Have To Trust Him.
We trust that He is sovereign. He is the supreme power and authority. God is in control of everything. He is never going to drop you. You are his child. A father won't take his hands away and drop his own baby, so why do you think God would drop you? God rules over everything. He rules over nature, over earthly kings, and even over Satan and the demons. You'll notice if you continue reading the book of Job that Satan had to get permission before he was allowed to do anything at all to Job. And in the end, Job wins, not Satan. We have to trust God's plans. Fanny Crosby, who wrote at least 8000 hymns, credited her blindness as a key to her abilities. She showed no bitterness toward the physician who caused her blindness as an infant, but said she would thank him for the gift. She knew to trust God's plans, and to praise Him anyway. So how do you do this?
3. Worship is an act of faith.
You cannot worship God without faith. Job did not understand why he had to suffer as he did, but he trusted God. Faith requires obedience. Remember that it isn't something based on emotions! Jesus went to the cross as an act of obedience. Baptism, especially immersion as we practice in the Baptist church, requires faith. Otherwise why would you ever let someone put you under the water, where you are mostly helpless to get yourself back up? You trust that pastor to pull you out of that water. We can trust God to pull us out of whatever we are in even when we can't see the way out. And if we can trust God, we can praise him.
So, how do you get to this place? How do you get to where worshiping God is all about Him, and not about you? You have to lay your life at His feet. All of your pain, hurt, and fears. Jesus said he would take them all. So I'll leave you with a song we like to sing - "Give Them All to Jesus."