If one looks at this at face value, you cry out, “Life isn’t fair God!  Why did you cause or even allow these things to happen?”  What does reality teach us about life and how are we to make sense of the painful things in life?  Who is this God who created all things?  Life is hard at times, and sometimes it doesn’t make much sense.  This is why it is so important to have good theology– which simply means we believe what the Bible reveals about the character of God and do not make Him in our image.  If one looks a little deeper, even in this situation, one can see a deeper faith emanating from Kristen and from her church, and little Katherine displays a depth of faith in Christ rarely found in adults.  God’s plan is not always clear to us, but His character never changes!

Part of my thought for this sermon came from a book by Mark Buchanon, Your God is Too Safe.  His premise is:  the God of the Bible is very different from the God portrayed in most churches in the West.  In many churches, God is portrayed as a safe God, a nice God, a God who will not rock your boat very much.  Buchanon correctly has a problem with this false portrayal of the God of the universe– He is anything but safe.  He will rock your life, especially if you have tried to control everything around you.  One of the big problems with portraying this false God is that we don’t know what to do when God is God and shows up and rocks our lives.  We get angry and confused and struggle to rebuild a safe environment for ourselves.  This mentality has affected men even more than women, because many men do not feel like they are able to be real men in church.  This is false and unhealthy, and comes from a false view of the nature of God.

We are in a sermon series attempting to reaffirm who God has called us to be as Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church.  We are called to be whole-hearted in our love for Jesus Christ.  Second, we are called to be a people who worship the Lord for who He is.  One of the huge problems with idolatry is that we worship a god made in our image, in our likeness, who is not worthy of our worship.  You become like what you worship.    This is why it is so critical that we continue to grow in our capacity to know and worship our God for who He is.  Our theme this morning is The God of the Bible is worthy of our worship, if we see Him for who He really is!

I. God, our Judge comes to justly judge the world.
In the USA today, when the judge walks into the courtroom, the deputy in charge asks everyone present to rise as the judge enters, takes his seat, and then invites everyone else to sit down.  It is a rite of respect towards the position of the judge in our courtroom today.  This idea of rising to give respect to the judge is not a new idea.  It dates way back, to the heart of God.  In our passage this morning, the Psalmist declares what happens when the true Judge of the universe comes into His courtroom.  It is frighteningly awesome to behold!!

The Psalmist is grasping for language to describe the Lord in verse 1 of this passage– God the Creator, the God of gods, even the Lord– meaning the covenant keeping God of Israel.  This is sort of like saying the Judge, the Supreme Judge of all judges and judgements, the covenant keeping, faithful Judge who will rule with justice– He has come to take His place on His throne!  There is a trembling in the voice of the deputy angel who announces that God, the Judge, takes His place and summons the earth.  Note that all the peoples of the earth– which is the meaning of the phrase “from the rising of the sun to the setting” in this passage– all these will know the awesome glory of the Lord one day, so they are summoned to see, to experience the just judgement the Lord will give over His people.  We are told that God arises from Zion, from the temple where He dwells.  His glory shines in front of Him as He ascends to take His place on the throne of judgement.  He will not be silent.  In other words, the Judge of the universe is going to have His say.  Everyone whom He has gathered as witnesses will know that He is just and that He alone is God.

One of the huge problems we have in America is that we often place ourselves as God and as judge.  Some of you are thinking, I don’t do that, but I think many of us do.  We like to be in control, when the truth is that only God is in control.  We like and often feel the need to control, which means put ourselves in God’s position.  The one example which gets me is driving.  I like to be on time.  I leave in enough time to be on time... if everyone in front of me cooperates with me– you know, they are actually paying attention to driving, they aren’t talking on their phone in the car, and they actually know that the gas pedal is on the right and bake on the left...  I give people driving lessons when I am behind them and they are doing one of these things.  The problem is that they are in my way and keeping me from being on time– the nerve of these people.  Don’t they know I am in a hurry!!...  I can get frustrated with others when I am not in control.  We like to be in control.  Being in control means making ourselves God and judge.  I could give some examples which might touch on things you do too...  Like the mother who was screaming at her kids in the parking lot, because they were unruly in the store and made her look like a bad mom, according  to her...  She was out of control and embarrassed by it.  Or the golfer who knows how to play the game, but the tee shot is sliced so badly that it hits the roof of the house on the fairway and rolls into the gutter and clamors down the drain spout, while all the other golfers waiting to tee off stair at their shoes because they are all embarrassed for the guy.  He tees up another ball, sputtering and cursing under his breath...  We like to be in control.

I will tell you how you can tell whether you like to play God or not– take away your cell phone and your car– they are both broken for the next 4 days, and see how you react.  I know how most of you would react– oh praise the Lord I am stuck at home and can’t talk to any of my friends...  I don’t think so...  We like to be in control; but I have news for all of us– God has taken His throne and rules and reigns as God from there!  Our response should be one of recognition of who He is in worship, of submission to who He is as Lord, and obedience to anything our Judge asks of us– these are three aspects of what we call worship!  Recognition of who God is, submission to Him as our Lord and service– complete and immediate obedience– this is worship.

You may be thinking– I thought worship is what we do on Sunday morning?  It is, but worship is what we do every moment of every day also.  You are either recognizing that God is God, and is worthy of your worship, or you are recognizing someone else– usually self– is on the throne.  On Sunday morning, we simply set everything else aside so we can focus all our attention on Him in worship.  But worship is what you do every minute of every day.  How is your worship life all week long?  The answer to that question will tell me what will happen on Sunday morning when we set everything else aside to worship corporately.   There is a dynamic connection between the two.

II. God is awesome in His splendor, powerful in His majesty.

When God shows up in the room, everything reacts.  First, there is the awe of His beauty, His splendor, His glory.  It would sort of be like when you see a striking sunset and something inside of you is struck with a “wow”– “Ohhhh, look at that!”  With God, it will be much greater awe and response than this!
Before Him a fire devours and around Him a tempest rages.  Why does the Psalmist use these pictures?  Fire consumes everything in front of it.  God’s presence is like a consuming fire– everything else disappears and is absolutely irrelevant when you see Him for who He is.  Nothing else matters at all when we are in the presence of God.  It is my fervent desire that we would be consumed with the presence and glory of God like this so that everything else disappears and is counted as irrelevant! This is true worship!  You aren’t thinking about your problems, or the way someone is dressed because you are lost in adoration of the Lord!
Around God is a hurricane– think Hugo, but stronger.  Awe at the power of God is the response of all of creation.  I still remember the awe of watching a hurricane out the window– siding peeling off of the neighbors house, pine trees snap under the power of a gust of wind, everything not nailed down hurled through the air by the windstorm.  There is fear which goes with this word “tempest”.  All of creation cowers at the presence of the Lord!!

Think of the power of Niagra Falls all around you...  Think of an earthquake shaking everything with such power that you are afraid to move...  Think of a tidal wave coming towards you which is 60 feet high, spawned by an underwater volcano...  These images should evoke fear in you- a stunned recognition of your weakness next to the power of these things.  God is so much greater than any of these examples, it isn’t worth mentioning them next to His presence! 

Why is it then, that most Christians have no awe of God?  I believe the answer is because we have made god in our image, in our likeness.  It is true that God took on human flesh in the incarnation of Jesus Christ.  But, that truth does not change the reality of the awesome presence and power of our God!  The incarnation should increase our awe of God, that His love is so great that this incredible, almighty God would allow Himself to be subject to the pettiness of human experience, all because He loves us so!!  The truth of these thoughts ought to lead us deeper into worship!

III. God will judge His people, and He will judge the nations.

As you read the rest of the Psalm, it speaks of God assembling the heavens– meaning the heavenly host– who proclaim the righteous judgements of the Lord.  He is about to say some very harsh things about the people of God, so the heavenly choir proclaims His righteousness before there is even the chance to question whether or not the Lord sees thing clearly or justly.  He calls on His people to continue offering sacrifices they are required to offer, but with their whole hearts.  This is worship– when we offer ourselves as living sacrifices.  He doesn’t need their sacrifices, so going through the motions of offering a sacrifice will not ultimately cut it; but He does delight in their worship.  He asks for thank offerings, a fulfillment of vows they have taken towards the Lord and invites them to call upon Him so He can deliver them.  You see, this great and awesome God whom we worship is not interested in what we do, but in our heart response.  Give the Lord your heart of thanksgiving for what He has done for you.  Offer yourself back to the Lord to do what He has asked you to do.  Call out to Him in prayer, meaning that God’s people value and recognize the relationship they have with the Lord as His people and Him as their God.  In other words, acknowledge the Lord as your God and honor Him!!

In verse 16ff, to those leaders– priests or Pharisees– the Lord rebukes them for hating His law.  They know the law of the Lord, but don’t do what it says and so hate it.  God calls them His enemies!  This would have been like a slap in the face to God’s people.  It would have been hard to swallow– that those who have been going through the motions of religion are not accepted by their God.  Their main sin is spoken of in verse 21– your main sin is that you have thought that I (the Lord) was altogether like you.  This is false– God is God and we are not!!  He does not think as we think or act was we would act.  His motives are perfect and His ways pure.  We must lay down the false images we have made of God– that He is nice or safe– and pick up what the Bible actually says about Him as true.  God will judge you and me one day for those things we have done.  I am not speaking about salvation in this statement– we will all stand before the judgement seat of Christ.  It will be an awful and terrible day.  If you know Christ, you will be welcomed into paradise, but only after giving an account for what you have done with what the Lord has given to you.  People talk about the reward of heaven, and rightly so, but I believe there will be many tears at the judgement seat of Christ.  The Lord is rebuking His people in this passage.  Someone once said, “In the choir of life, it’s easy to fake the words–but someday each of us will have to sing solo before God.”  Yes, non-Christians will be judged and eternally separated from the Lord and His love, but Christians will have to deal with what they have done with what God has given to them as they stand before this consuming fire of God’s presence.

These thoughts should lead us to worship.  We are to worship Him for who He is as God, as Judge and as our Lord.  We come into His presence and delight ourselves in Him as our God, and then delight in the joy of relationship with Him.  Have you believed the Scriptures– what they say about who you are?  If you know Jesus Christ this mornign and so are saved, you are a forgiven child, a righteous person who has been gifted with many gifts to serve the Lord.  You have been given a treasure– Christ in you, and have been called ambassadors of your Lord.  How are you doing?  We are accountable before the Lord for what we have done with what He has given to us. 

Let me be clear– judgement will happen one day.  You will be called to give an account for what you have done, before this incredible and holy God of the universe.  I believe there will be much grief and repentance there, before we enter into paradise and enjoy our rewards.  How else does a holy God maintain His standard of holiness, and at the same time reveal His perfectly selfless love to us.  As we remember who God is in worship, it leads us to deeper awe of Him in worship.  When you wake up tomorrow, set your alarm so you can spend some time reflecting on the incredible God we worship.  Let go of control and acknowledge that He alone is God.  Delight in His presence and love.  Ask for forgiveness for ways you have sinned against Him.  And then receive that forgiveness.  Appropriate the truth of the gospel by faith, so that you can remain in His love.  This is the Christian life: day by day walking in the power of His Spirit, acknowledging His grace and love, appropriating His forgiveness throughout the day, delighting in what He is doing in and through you.