A Matter Of The Heart Series

You may have noticed we spent an extended period in worship this morning. Amen. To be honest, the reason we did it is because we wanted to truly prove that we do value worship here at Bellevue Christian Church. I imagine that some of you aren’t used to spending time singing that many songs. I was standing in the back and I could look around and see that maybe people were starting to think about other things. Maybe checking the watch or checking the phone to see what time it is. Some of you might have even been a little bit distracted. Your mind was wandering off somewhere else throughout the songs, and it was hard to stay focused. There might have been the few of you that were even getting a little bit nervous and antsy because you are just not used to that much singing. Then there are the people that are just getting tired. They were just getting tired of standing. They are thinking I would really like to sit down but if I sit down then maybe people will look around and think that person isn’t very spiritual. They should just keep standing like me. Then I know there are those people that are thinking we spent that much time in worship and now if Chuck goes on and preaches the length he normally preaches, we are going to have big trouble on our hands. We will get out of here at midnight. The good news is that my sermon is actually going to be a lot shorter. Actually probably about ten minutes shorter. The bad news is that what I have to say is probably going to sting a little bit. I am putting out the primary idea that the attitude that you have in any sort of worship can be a reflection of whether or not you really do value worship and more importantly whether or not you really value and love God. What I am saying really is that worship at its core is a matter of the heart.

If you have your Bibles with you, please open up to Mark 12:29. I know a lot of people weren’t here last week. Last week we opened up the whole idea of where we are going in the fall. Really, in the fall, we are heading towards a focus on our four core values, which are worship, discipleship, outreach, and community. There is a little clue over there so you might be able to get an idea. The idea is that you are going to remember what those values are. Last week, I talked about how those values were a vital part of the first century church. We looked at the book of Acts. We looked at chapter 2, verses 42-47. We saw those elements present. We saw a church that was really excited about Christ. They had just come off of the reality of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, so they were excited about worshiping the triune God. They also had a bunch of believers that were new to the faith so they wanted to learn about this God. They wanted to learn about Jesus. They wanted to start connecting the dots between the Old Testament and the New, so they wanted to study. They wanted to disciple each other. We also know we had a church that was intentional about outreach because as they were getting saved, as they were getting renewed, as they were putting away their old ways, they were intentional about going out and telling other people about it. It was all surrounded by just this sense of community where people were dining together, enjoying each other’s company, taking care of each other. That was the environment that was there at the first century church. What I said was that little band of disciples from that first church ended up growing up to be the largest religion currently in the world. I also mentioned that, unfortunately, in America, the church seems to be going backwards. The church seems to be dying a long, slow death. I felt that the reason was that the church had gotten away from these core values. I also said at Bellevue Christian the good news seems to be that we seem to be bucking the trend a little bit. We have actually been increasing in numbers. But I also said that we cannot sit back on our laurels and just be complacent because pretty soon we could die a slow death too and not even know it.

So the focus for the next several months actually will be on these four core values. The four values that are really summarized nicely in our church logo. We are actually able to break the logo down and each part has a reference to one of our values. The tree represents worship. It is the upraised hands of worship. We have the roots going down which represents the deep-rooted discipleship. We have the tree that is budding which represents the intentional outreach that is happening. And all enclosed by the circle that represents community. That is what we are going to do over the next few months actually. Each week, what we are going to do is highlight one particular value. You will see a banner relating to the values. In your bulletin you will see a devotional or bible study related to that value. You will also see some real practical opportunities where you can work out those values throughout the week. The idea or what we are getting to is we don’t want to be a church that just hangs banners and talks about these ideas or puts them on the bulletin or whatever. We want to be a church that truly does value worship, discipleship, outreach, and community.