THE HEART OF WORSHIP (PART 5)

LYDIA - A WORSHIPER OF GOD

"One of those listening was a women named Lydia.

a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira,

who was a worshiper of God. 

The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message"

(Acts 16:14)

The Bible tells us that Lydia was a businesswoman, a dealer of purple cloth. She must have been successful since, as we see later, her home was large enough to house Paul, his three companions, Lydia's family and servants. The Bible tell us that she was a worshiper of God. She was a Gentile who believed in the True God but she had not yet become a believer in Christ.

Lydia's attendance at the prayer gathering demonstrated her hunger for God and willingness to respond to as much about God as she knew. God responded to her heart quest by providing her with more truth  (John 4;23 - "the kind of worshiper the Father seeks"). When she heard the Gospel message about Jesus Christ, she listened and believed. She is remembered as Paul's first European convert. Actually it wasn't Paul's dynamic preaching that caused Lydia's conversion even though he may have been dynamic. The Bible says that the LORD opened her heart to respond to the message. 
Luke (the author of the book of Acts) described with swift strokes the first two steps in Lydia's life as a disciple:
(1) She was baptized, (2) She brought the rest of the members of her household to Paul and they apparently believed and was baptized as well. We also learned that Lydia's house had become a meeting place. When Paul and Silas were released from a Roman prison, they went to her house where they met with and encouraged believers.
This Woman of the Bible is mentioned in only two short passages, both in the book of Acts, but what is said tells us a lot about her as a True Worshiper:
a) A successful businesswoman but one who is passionate and hungry for God (Acts 16:14) - this is a great example of one who has been blessed and yet passionate for the Kingdom of God
b) A woman whose heart God opened (Acts 16:14) - Listened to God's WORD, responded in faith and obedience in following the WORD in water baptism
c) A generous and willing servant (Acts 16:40) - in good deeds and not afraid of the opposing authority who has prison Paul and Silas when she hosted them after their released
As soon as Lydia believed, she served the LORD. She shared her faith with her family and servants. She opened her home to God's people and continued being of service to the church - Lydia's worship to the LORD was both inward and outward.

THE ESSENCE OF WORSHIP - MOSES PART 2 (WORSHIPING GOD'S SOVERIEGN WAY)

In Exodus 32 to 34 we read of a difficult situation Moses encountered. Alone on Mount Sinai with God, the ten commandments written on two tablets were committed to Him. Meanwhile, trouble had broken out on the plain. The people had made a golden calf and worshiped it. This provoked God to great displeasure and He said to Moses: “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’” And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.” (Exodus 32:7-10 NKJV)


When Moses saw that God's wrath was stirred against His people he entreated God for them, then went down to deal with the situation on the plain. Thereafter he ascended the mount again and in obedience to God's command hewed two stone tablets like the first which he had broken, and with these in his hand he went to the top of Mount Sinai where God made a solemn proclamation, And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6-7)

At this point, it would have been most appropriate for Moses to bow down and worshiped God: but it was after the second part of the proclamation that he did so, and the second part was totally different from the first. The earlier part spoke of God's compassion, and grace, and mercy and forgiveness; but the latter was this: "Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished; He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation." (Exodus 34:7 NKJV) It was when God had proclaimed His awesome majesty and holiness that "Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped." (verse 8). It is not merely grace that stirs worship; if we are to be worshipers of God we need to know His holiness.


So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. Then he said, “If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.” (Exodus 34:8-9 NKJV)


Comparing verse 8 and 9 of Exodus chapter 34, Moses first worship, then prayed. He first acknowledged the sovereignty of God's ways, then he seeks God's grace. He does not beseech God on the ground of His compassion, and grace, and plenteous mercies, and readiness to forgive to reverse His decision. Our prayer would be like that. We are always trying to persuade God not to do what He has said He would do. Moses was different. He took his right place before God and bowed to His ways.


Beloved, have we been guilty of asking God to do what we knew was contary to His ways of working? Have we sought Him to forgive a certain brother and cease to chasten him even when we knew that His dealings with that brother were right? That is not worshiping God. How often our prayers amount to requesting God to change His ways! Without considering His ways we just open our lips and ask Him to remove the pressure here, the sickness there and the domestic problems elsewhere. To pray after this fashion is seeking grace and ignoring the ways of God. Prayer is the expression of our will but worship is the acceptance of God's will.


How we need to learn from Moses! God made His ways known to him and seeing His majesty and holiness, he fell down before God and worshiped. He did not reason with God about the consequences of God visiting their iniquity to the third and fourth generation. Let us not only learn to accept God's will and do His work, we must also learn to acknowledge His sovereign ways and accept all that He does are for His own good pleasure. This act of Moses is the ESSENCE of True Worship!