Tuesday, October 30, 2018

The Hinge




The Hinge

I want to share a teaching by my American pastor, Michael Miller – Upper Room Dallas. This will be in the form of my notes taken from his message. I rarely take notes word for word but rather put then into my thoughts. Any text in brackets [] are my side notes. You can go to https://www.urdallas.com/podcast/ for the actual podcast.

Praise and worship has a hinge that opens the door to the presence of God.

Jesus said in Matthew 22 that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God. He did not say love Him by doing things for Him. Jesus went on to say that the second commandment was to love others.

[Now in Matthew 24, Jesus does say to those who are to inherit eternal life,  “for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.” This strongly suggest doing unto others as a way of ministering to the Lord.]

We, as the Church, have gotten this backwards. We get busy ministering to others but neglect ministering to Him. [God, the Father, does desire our attention.]

The best way you can love your spouse is to give them your undivided attention. God desires that also.

To God, It is not about what we do but who we are.

It is easy to measure our doing for others but hard to measure our love and attention given to God. [It is hard to measure love. I can never fully explain why I love my wife; when I try, it just seems to limit what can’t be measured.] How do you measure turning your attention toward God and gazing into His goodness?

There is a real release of pressure when you do not have to measure success. There is just a relief from the pressure of required performance.

How do we minister to Him?

1 Chronicles 13:3 and let us bring the ark of our God back to us, for we have not inquired at it since the days of Saul.”  In this story of David returning the Ark, this verse is the pivotal verse. This return and inquiring into God is the key to success for Israel. A grace meets you when you give your life to returning to God. Do you need a course-correction?

We must have His presence in front of us. What David did in this act was to make God the center of everything for Israel.

(Pastor Michael goes into what this means in regards to David’s leadership and how that can be seen in today’s church but I will not cover that here.)

1 Chronicles 15:2 The priest were “… to carry the Ark and minister to Him forever.” In the New Testament: 1 Peter 2:9  … you are a royal priesthood … [As priest, the proper order is to minister to Him first and then to others. I know we cannot properly minister to others without ministering to Him first.]

This is not about God’s need, but rather His desire for us. [God knows that as we minister to Him we are transformed from our will to His will.]

1 Chronicles 16:4 And he appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord, to commemorate, to thank, and to praise the Lord God of Israel: (NKJV)

To commemorate (celebrate), to thank and to praise the Lord.

Then Chr. 16:7 Asaph (the leader) and his brethren were “to thank the Lord”.

Okay, here is the hinge: To thank the Lord.

Give thanks; so simple. [It is very hard to develop this lifestyle but the rewards are overwhelming. Your flesh will struggle with sitting in a room and just thanking, praising and celebrating the Lord.]

Romans 1:20-21 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and [g]Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

They failed because they “were not thankful”.

Although the podcast goes on, I will stop with this important point: Giving thanks is the hinge that opens the door to His courts.

A Psalm of Thanksgiving.

Psalms 100 
Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!
Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before His presence with singing.
Know that the Lord, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations.


The Hinge of the gate to His courts is thanksgiving.