Come and Worship: Kneel Down

[podcast]http://www.revkwon.com/podcast/come_worship-kneel_down.mp3[/podcast] Last week, we concluded that we as a church, especially in this time of the year, need to come and worship together, and the two or three people next to us must lift our hands up when we get tired of life. We need to lift each other’s hands up so God can embrace us with his love. This is so important because without each other, we’re so tired. Without lifting our hands up to God we couldn’t possibly surrender before God or flag Him down. Today, I want to build on the idea of lifting our hands up in worship with kneeling down in worship. I know the two ideas seem counterintuitive when I say it like that but really, when you think about the two ideas together, we will see that both are instinctual. I really want the Pentecostal to come out of all of us as we practice this today. Let’s go to Matthew 2, where the idea of this series comes from. Now?after Jesus was born in?Bethlehem of Judea?in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men?from?the east came to Jerusalem,?saying, “Where is he who has been born?king of the Jews? For we saw?his star when it rose?and have come to?worship him.” (Matthew 2:1-2) When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.??And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. (Matthew 2:10-11a) Why did the wisemen fall down to worship an infant? I always thought this story was funny and bit weird. You have these three rich men coming a great long distance and they’re worshipping a child who couldn’t even go to the bathroom on his own? The baby was born in the back of a barn! The wisemen “rejoiced” the Bible says. They fell down to worship because of their excitement and joy. There’s something instinctual about worshipping while kneeling down. When you watch movies or shows about people worshipping images and statues, you see people kneeling down before things that they built. There is something crazy about kneeling down that puts us in a posture of worship that means and does differently than we know. There’s something innately built within us that makes us kneel down in worship. Let’s go to Psalm 95:6-7. Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the?Lord?our maker, for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, ?the flock under his care. (Psalm 95:6-7) We kneel because God is our maker. We kneel to worship. We kneel to show God we come to Him. We kneel because we’re in pursuit of God. We kneel because we’re repentant before God’s holiness. We kneel because He watches us and we submit to His watching of us. We kneel before God because we are not worthy yet we come into the presence of a God who is much more awesome than we can attempt to obtain. I want you to see this here. The Psalmist doesn’t write that God asks us to bow down before Him. Rather, God only tells us not to bow to something besides Him. What is implied is that you only kneel down to something greater than yourself. In the case that the Psalmist is making, God, and worship toward God is worthy of your kneeling. We are the people God watches. We are the people God cares for. We are part of something greater than just ourselves when we kneel and worship God. I want to make kneeling before God part of our everyday lives so that when we kneel, perhaps not physically because we can’t all kneel physically in worship every time, we worship God because we know we’re part of something greater. This morning I want to look at three instances of kneeling that we need to get familiar with because they happen often in our lives abstractly and we need to know that in these three types of instances it is good for us to worship God with knees down. You have to understand that this series isn’t about worship on Sundays, it’s about worship at Christmas time when worship to God doesn’t come easy and it is masked by worship of stuff. The reason we’re sharing these stories of people worshipping kneeling down in their entirety is so that we can capture the essence of the situation and wrangling going on in the stories as we understand why people are doing what they’re doing when they find themselves kneeling before God. Here’s the first instance in life when we need to be kneeling before God in worship. When we pursue in life and it’s greater than we can stand, we have to kneel. When we’re pursuing life and at our wits end, we kneel before God because God will draw near to you in your pursuit. Like, have you ever just stopped and worshipped God in the posture of kneeling down because you’re over your head? Go to Mark 10. 17?And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and?knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to?inherit eternal life?”?18?And Jesus said to him,?“Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.?19?You know the commandments:?‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’”?20?And he said to him, “Teacher,?all these I have kept from my youth.”?21?And Jesus,?looking at him,?loved him, and said to him,?“You lack one thing: go,?sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have?treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22?Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. (Mark 10:17-22) The reason anybody would run to see Jesus as Jesus was about to leave was if there was nothing else that could be done. You don’t run out to see somebody as their leaving unless it was super urgent and there was nothing else you could to catch them. In this case, the man was rich and his wealth was keeping him from doing something greater in his life. He was in a place he didn’t want to be in. He knew all the right things, he had all the answers, he just didn’t understand why his life was so empty and dry. That’s what made him run up to Jesus and kneel down in pursuit of Jesus; because he did not know what else to do. When we can’t stand, we have to kneel. Some of us aren’t on the path we know we’re destined for. We just continue down the wrong path when really we need to just come before Jesus and kneel down and ask Jesus, “What must I do?” Draw near to God and Jesus will tell you what you need to do if you. The second instance in our lives where we are compelled to kneel in worship is when we need to repent. We fall to our knees because the weight of our sin is so heavy. The weight of our inadequacy is immensely too much for us to bear. Let’s go to Luke 5:1-10. On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by?the lake of Gennesaret,?2?and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were?washing their nets.?3?Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And?he sat down and taught the people from the boat.?4?And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon,?“Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”?5?And Simon answered, “Master,?we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”?6?And when they had done this,?they enclosed a large number of fish, and?their nets were breaking.?7?They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them.?And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.?8?But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying,?“Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”?9?For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken,?10?and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon,?“Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”?11?And when they had brought their boats to land,?they left everything and followed him. (Luke 5:1-10) Peter fell before Jesus repentant. The feeling of repentance in our lives doesn’t come from guilt. It actually comes from the thrill of new hope flooding our lives. Peter couldn’t have gone home empty handed, he had a family to feed. He had partners, he had staff on the boat. They were empty, they failed. Then there was Jesus that told him to try again and there were so many fish that the nets were breaking. For Peter, the inability to provide and the hope Jesus gave him with the sudden influx of possibility caused Peter to fall on his knees with repentance. Kneeling before Christ empowers us to stand before men. Have you been in a place in your life where you just didn’t get anywhere but Jesus out of nowhere comes into your life with love and there is sudden hope that you didn’t have previously? That’s exactly the feeling and the place for us to worship knees down. When confess our sin like Peter did in his inadequacy with knees bent, God is faithful. Jesus says to Peter, James and John: you will be catching men.” Jesus changes where you come from and where you head when you kneel down and worship Him.  A third situation in life we face that will cause us to kneel in worship are situations where we need to submit before God. These situations face us when God wants to take us to places we don’t want to go. These are times of suffering, trials and tribulations. Let’s look at this story from the end of Jesus’ life in Luke 22. 41?And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and?knelt down and prayed,?42?saying,?“Father, if you are willing, remove?this cup from me.?Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”?43?And there appeared to him?an angel from heaven, strengthening him. (Luke 22:41-43) Kneeling to worship in these situations are what gives us the strength to stand. Jesus could not bear it anymore, so Jesus knelt down and prayed. This is worship before God. This is why so many people get down on their knees before God to pray. Because it is only after we kneel that God gives us the strength to stand and move forward in our lives. Jesus was being bogged down by the past, present and future sins of the world. He was carrying the sins of everybody he knew, knows, and foreknew—it had to be God’s will. He needed to kneel before His Father so He could be strengthened to get up and continue the work he came to finish. I want you to understand that while we kneel in worship when life has brought to places where we would not traditionally worship God, we are kneeling at Jesus’ name because Jesus finished the work he came to do for you and me. Let’s go to Philippians 2:4-11. 4?Let each of you?look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.?5?Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,?6?who, though he was in?the form of God, did not count equality with God?a thing to be grasped,?7?but?emptied himself, by taking the form of a?servant,?being born in the likeness of men.?8?And being found in human form, he humbled himself by?becoming obedient to the point of death,?even death on a cross.?9?Therefore?God has?highly exalted him and bestowed on him?the name that is above every name,?10?so that at the name of Jesus?every knee should bow,?in heaven and on earth and under the earth,?11?and?every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is?Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:4-11) He rescues and conquers the world for us, so that in our kneeling moments he can bestow his glory on us. This Christmas season, you need to stop thinking about your own interests, but look at the interests God has for the others around you. Then you need to kneel before Jesus, you will eventually have to kneel before something greater than yourself. Let’s pray.