Worship Preparation Guide for Sunday, August 13

Worship Preparation Guide for Sunday, August 13

Sermon Text: Isaiah 63:15 – 64:12

Songs of worship include: Great Are You Lord, Before the Throne of God Above, Sweet Hour of Prayer, Give Us Clean Hands

“Look down from heaven and see, 

from your holy and beautiful habitation.” (Is 63:15)

“Our holy and beautiful house where our fathers praised you 

has been burned by fire,

and all our pleasant places have become ruins.” (Is 64:11)

Isaiah uses the words “holy and beautiful” to describe shared distinctives in two very different places.  Alec Moyter helps us see the significance of these shared distinctives: “the former (Is 63:15) is inviolable in holiness and beauty; the latter (Is 64:11), given into the charge of his earthly people, is caught up in the disaster caused by their sin.” (Isaiah By The Day, p. 306)

God desire and design if that his people would reflect his character in our lives, in our fellowship, in our worship.  “The Lord’s earthly people are themselves the temple in which he lives by his Spirit, the locus and display of his holiness and beauty.” (Moyter)

But Isaiah is lamenting the fact that this is not what he sees when he looks at himself, and when he looks at God’s people.  What we in this week’s passage is a deep mourning over sin and desperation in seeking the Lord for healing and restoration. 

That is what we should see in our lives – in our prayers- as well.  “Well may we mourn that our sinfulness, divisiveness, our failure in biblical distinctives, and our manifest lack of holiness have marred the image.” (Moyter)

As I prepare for worship this passage makes me deeply aware of this reality in my life.  I wrote these words in my journal this morning: “My awareness of this reality, this sin-sickness, should drive me to seek You diligently, to draw near to You with a holy desperation.  For only in You will I find healing and wholeness.”  “Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually.” (Ps 105:4 

This Sunday we will sing this song when we gather.  May it be the desperate prayer of our hearts.

We bow our Hearts; We bend our knees;  

Oh Spirit come make us humble.

We turn our eyes from evil things; 

Oh Lord we cast down our idols.

So give us clean hands, Give us pure hearts; 

Let us not lift our souls to another.

Give us clean hands, Give us pure hearts; 

Let us not lift our souls to another.

And God let us be a generation that seeks, 

That seeks your face Oh God of Jacob.

And God let us be a generation that seeks, 

That seeks your face Oh God of Jacob.

I look forward to seeing you and worshipping with you this Sunday.