08-09-2026 - RETURN TO WORSHIP - 2 Chronicles 29:1-19

   MESSAGE BY PASTOR DANIEL PARK 

      FROM BETHANY BAPTIST IN RICHMOND, BC.

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I invite you to pray and make this prayer personal, and for whoever needs support in difficult times, we mention the names of those who are in need, and also pray for the members of the family and friends.

You can also mention the name in need.

(Vicky O, Nancy R, Tere G,  Stevie A, Socrates D, Sara’s mom H, Margarita G,  Rosy Ch, Patricia L, Lina J, Manuel D, Silvia H, Magda-, Miguel H.L, Manuel D.H, Alicia G, Margarita G, Brianda M, Alejandro M, Natalia M. Maria Elena C, Oscar N.D, Luis Carlos V, Alicia R.)

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I ask for your healing over every part of my life – physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. I ask that you make me strong and resilient for the days ahead. I know that you have a great purpose for those who believe in your name.

Help me not to allow the distractions and struggles of my days to weigh me down to the point of exhaustion. I know that your desire is for me to live this life abundantly and free. And my greatest desire is to reflect your love and light to a world that so desperately needs your hope.

For those I love who are facing cancer or a hard diagnosis, I pray for your covering of healing and grace. I pray for your strength and your great peace to fill their lives, reminding them that you are close. Thank you, nothing is impossible with you. Thank you for fighting for us, and you are bigger than anything this world throws our way.

I lean fully on You, Lord, for You alone are able. We love you; We need you this day, and always.

In Jesus' Name,

Amen.

My call to vocational ministry came through my love and passion for praise and worship music and leading worship at church

• My very first tax return I ever got, I spent almost all of it on a complete set of worship music books from a particular Christian music label - Hosanna Music 

  • Which produced and introduced some of the most well-known and respected worship songwriters and worship leaders of all time - starting with Don Moen, Ron Kenoly, 

  • As well as some of the most sung and beloved worship songs - like Give Thanks, Ancient of Days, God will Make a Way

Hosanna Music is a label under a Christian record company called Integrity Music, and this was their Vision Statement:

There is one thing we do on earth that we will continue to do in heaven. That is to praise and worship God. That is why we view life on earth, for those who love Jesus, as choir practice for heaven. To say that praise and worship is the most important category of music today is an understatement. In light of that, there is no more important activity of the human heart than to praise and worship God. That is the reason we exist. That is our purpose. That is also the corporate mission of our company.

To worship God is the reason we exist

• Worship IS the most important activity in our lives 

• Worship encapsulates and encompasses everything to do with our spirituality 

  • The Lordship of God and everything He IS

  • His love for us and everything He did for that love

  • And everything to do with our response to God’s love for us

Worship is the true and most important message of the the Chronicles of the Kings and Israel and  Judah 

• The importance of the proper worship of God

We see throughout the Chronicles, the rise and fall of the people of Israel 

• And it all has to do with the quality of their relationship with God 

• Whether they worshipped God or not

King Hezekiah stands shoulder-to-shoulder with 3 other kings who worshipped God properly

• King David, Solomon, and Jehoshaphat 

• But Hezekiah came right after Ahaz - who is probably the worst king ever - the most wicked 

As we see in the history of the people of Israel, our lives can easily fall into a pattern of highs and lows when it comes to our relationship with God - even as we experience a slow upward trend 

• How do we break this cycle? 

• How can we smooth out the extreme swings to a steadier and healthier progression? 

By doing well the most important thing in our lives - worship 

• And it is something we have to keep coming back to - again and again 

I want to keep things simple today, so we are going to draw out 2 major points for us to take away

• The Priority of Worship and The Call to Worship 

[The Priority of Worship]

First off, and simply put, worship is the prioritizing 

of God.

• With our heart, mind, soul, and strength 

• The act of prioritizing God - in our heart and mind, AND our activities 

Worship that is in spirit and truth as John 4 says is to be obsessed with who we worship 

Worship is probably a lot MORE, not LESS than what we think it is 

• Meaning, is much more expansive and encompassing than limited or restricted 

The most common way we use the word, “worship” today is as music

• People might say, “Today’s worship was great!” And they are probably talking about the music 

• But worship is not limited to the music or songs 

Rob, 2 weeks ago said, “Worship is not about the song, but the heart that sings the song.”

Our heart that sings and God’s heart that receives the song.

Just as you cannot define and limit worship as music, you cannot define and limit worship music as one thing or other

• Every generation and culture develops their own expression of music and worship that is expressed in musical form 

• What is important is the heart that sings the song in a way that prioritizes God 

We can see the opposite or lack of worship in verses 6-7, which was the state the country and people were in before Hezekiah became king.

6 For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They have forsaken him and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord and turned their backs. 7 They also shut the doors of the vestibule and put out the lamps and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the Holy Place to the God of Israel.

• Unfaithful to God and doing what God deems evil

• Forsaken and turned away and turned their backs on God

• Restricted access to and knowledge of God

• Ignored the presence of God 

Not seeking God in prayer of dependence or repentance.

Hezekiah commanded that the physical symptoms of all that be removed and cleaned away so that they could return to worship 

Worship being,

• Faithful to do and live according to God’s commands

• Always seeking and running to God

• Always open and welcoming of God to come to God

• Always acknowledging and abiding in the presence of God

• Praying continually of how much we need God for His providence and His forgiveness.

This is to be our priority in life 

• And if it’s a priority and obsession, we don’t let anything stop or distract us.

• Not our age - Hezekiah was only 25 years old as the king of an entire country

• Hezekiah sprang into action as soon as he became king - in the first month of the first year

  • In fact, returning his country and people to worship was the very first thing Hezekiah did

  • Verse 17 says it started in the first day of the first month

• And it is urgent

  • The priests and Levites finished cleaning up decades of filth - the physical representing the spiritual filth as well - in 16 days

  • Minus 2 days for Sabbath and it means they finished everything in 14 work days 

Wow we have a lot to learn

All that filth was not just left on the street for someone else to deal with either

• It was taken out to the brook Kidron

• Also known as the Kidron Valley - a place of desolation far away and removed from the temple and where they lived 

Prioritizing worship means preparing ourselves and our lives physically and even spatially 

• Orienting ourselves to God.

Is the scripture pointing out any clean up that is necessary in us today? 

• To have worship as a priority

• But also possibly that we are prioritizing the prioritizing 

  • Missing the heart of worship

Returning to Worship requires us to have the first Thing first

• God and worshipping God as the priority 

• Which is what Hezekiah calls and encourages people to do 

[The Call to Worship]

On Day 1 of becoming king, Hezekiah calls together all the priests and Levites, the people in charge of leading and facilitating worship to consecrate themselves and the house of the Lord - the temple 

Worship begins with consecration, or as the NLT translated - purification 

• Which involved carrying out filth from the temple

• Filth referring to impure things

• NLT translates this word as “defiled things”

This filth that accumulated as a symptom of decades of unfaithfulness prior to Hezekiah becoming king

• Probably a lot of foreign idols and peripheral objects to do with the worship of foreign idols and gods 

• The physical evidence of people directly disobeying the first 2 of the 10 Commandments 

  • You shall have no other gods before Me

  • You shall not make for yourselves graven or carved images for worship 

To consecrate is to remove everything that takes the place of God in our lives 

• And setting ourselves and our lives exclusively for God 

• Without compromises

As part of the consecration, Hezekiah declares that it is in his heart to make a covenant with God

• This is not a new covenant 

• Hezekiah knew the covenant God made with his fore-fathers, from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, King David and Solomon

• The covenant Hezekiah makes is a response to God’s existing covenant that was first gifted to Abraham 

• This response is something that needs to be consistent as it reminds us of God’s grace and call 

• And we continually make, responding to God’s covenant with us a priority 

Worship is a continual act of consecration and covenant 

• Purification of the temptation to worship other things than God

• And reminding ourselves of the promises we have in God 

Hezekiah’s call to worship did not come out of nowhere 

• As Pastor Wonuola spoke last week, parents are the first mentors who can teach their children about God

• I did not do an exhaustive study, but going back a few chapters, most of the godly kings have their mothers mentioned while the wicked kings’ mothers are not mentioned 

• One wicked king’s mother is mentioned, but it was to say that she led her son away from God 

• While not an absolute thing, there is an implication that godly mothers have a huge impact on the spirituality of their children 

• I know I owe a lot to my mother’s continual prayer for me growing up and even now.

• Mothers - and fathers - pray for your children

• Brothers and sisters of Bethany Baptist Church, pray for all the children you see running around

In Hezekiah’s case, his father was one of the worst and most wicked kings

• Maybe Hezekiah’s mother had a lot to do with it, but either way, Hezekiah was also not fated or limited by the sins of his father 

• Ultimately, we stand before God as individuals and He calls us all individually and we each have the responsibility to respond and prioritize our lives 

• Even raised by a father who did not fear God, Hezekiah did learn the scriptures and when the time came, he knew what God wanted him to do

  • For himself, but also as a leader 

As Hezekiah courageously called his people back to worship, reminding everyone of their priority, others rose with him and rallied around him 

Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah; and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; and of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel.

 These names may not mean a whole lot of us today, and they are only mentioned once

• But think about it - their names are forever written in the Scripture 

• Like in the Book of Life 

• As people who rose up and were part of the crew that restored worship to a whole nation

• Who kept the faith through a time when their own king hated them for being faithful to God and did everything to get people to forget their God and worship something else 

• Who were ready to do their part in service to God in obeying the word of God to lead and help others to worship God 

• Who did the work of opening the doors of the temple and cleaning and setting up 

• Like our hospitality team, greeters, tech team, worship team and our staff 

• These people who serve are ministers who facilitates worship - who call and answer the call to worship.

There is no worship without service and people who serve others 

That is why worship is also called a service - ideally, everyone should be 

serving somebody in a worship service 

That is what we are called to.

www.bethanybaptist.bc.ca