Worship Beyond Sunday
Hebrews 13:15-17
George Barna is a popular name in the Christian community. Barna has become well known because of his polling of Christians and non-Christians on religious issues. In a recent research study on worship, Barna found some disturbing facts. Among regular church going adults, one third have said that they have never experienced God’s presence. One half of all regular church members claimed that they have not experienced God in a worship service in the past year.
When I saw the results of this study, a number of things came to my mind. Firstly, I thought that the church is dropping the ball when it comes to leading people into worship if half of its members are not experiencing God in worship. Then, I got to wonder if the church was solely at fault. It wasn’t long until I came upon our Scripture for this morning. Turn with me to Hebrews 13:15-17.
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess His Name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that your work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.
As I read this passage, one phrase stuck out. We are commanded of God to continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise. To continually praise is to do it more than just in a church service on Sunday morning for an hour. Continually is 24 hours a day for all seven days of the week. We as Christians have a duty to worship God at all times. When we get lax on this, our worship on Sunday will suffer because our worship for an hour on Sunday is a reflection of our worship during the other 167 hours of the week.
All of us know that we should be reading our Bible, privately worshipping and praying through the week. If all of us would make the commitment to do this for even an hour each week, we would see dramatic improvement in our worship times each week. Even with this improvement, we still have 23 hours left to worship to make it continual, so how do we worship with the rest of the time we have in the day? From this passage, I think we can glean four praise actions that can fill our days with worship to God. These praise actions will help us to take our worship beyond Sunday. Let’s ask the Lord to bless our time.
Praise Action #1: Confess the Name of Jesus
An old deacon was leading in prayer using one of his stereotypical phrases, which was, “Oh Lord, touch the unsaved with Thy finger.”
As he intoned this phrase in this particular prayer, he stopped short.
Other members came to his side and asked if he were ill. “No,” he replied, “but something seemed to say to me, “Thou art the finger.” The man is right. We are the finger of God that is responsible for touching the unsaved, and we cannot touch them if we never proclaim the Name of Jesus.
This morning I want you to think about something you love. If you love something, it is normally evident in your conversation. You talk about the person or thing that you love even when the conversation does not really involve that thing or person. I had a friend in college that I loved to go fishing with. No matter what we talked about, the conversation would eventually turn to fishing. We both loved the activity, so when we talked, it naturally would come up because it was at the front of our thoughts.
After we are saved, we make the commitment to make God the number one love of our lives. If that is truly the case, shouldn’t He naturally pop up in just about ever conversation we have? Shouldn’t his faithfulness and kindness be passed on through our words? Won’t our words reflect our thankfulness and love towards what He has done for us? We should naturally come to the topic of God in most of our conversations.
When people think about proclaiming and confessing the Name of Jesus, they usually think of two things. First of all, they are afraid to seem pushy or overly religious, so they put off all talk about God unless they are in a church setting. They don’t want people putting them in the box labeling “religious fanatic”. Secondly, they point to the fact that God knows their hearts and how they feel towards Him, so they don’t have to use words. Although this is true, He still requires us to confess His Name.
Why do we put God in the midst of our conversation? It shows his importance to us, our gratefulness for what He has done, and our willingness to be unashamed for the gospel. It also paves the way for sharing our faith and spreading the gospel. And, to top it all off, it pleases God. When we start including God in our talk outside of church, it is a type of worship.
Praise Action #2: Do Good
A small boy was writing a letter to God about the Christmas presents he badly wanted. “I’ve been good for six months now,” he wrote. But after a moment’s reflection he crossed out "six months" and wrote "three". After a pause, that was crossed out and he put "two weeks". There was another pause and that was crossed out two. He got up from the table and went over to the little crib scene that had the figures of Mary and Joseph. He picked up the figure of Mary and went back to his writing and started again: “Dear God, if ever you want to see your mother again, you’ll make sure I get a bike and a new ball glove.”
As Christmas time approaches, many children start thinking about their behavior a little more. Why does this happen? It happens because Santa Claus is always watching. His eyes are always open to see whether you are naughty or nice. All the children want to make sure that they are good to avoid the coal that comes along with being bad.
Now, most of us have grown out of the Santa phase, but I must tell you that we have someone watching our every action as well. Also, he does not watch us during the Christmas season – He is always watching. Of course I am talking about God. He is everywhere and sees everything. That is just another reason that we should be continually praising Him. One of the ways we can praise Him is through our actions. Since He is watching, we might as well be obedient and live a life of praise by doing good.
2 Thessalonians 3:13 says it best when it comes to doing good works. It instructs us by saying, “And as for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right.” Basically, this is saying that we can never do enough good works. They should never be draining, and they should continue on until we depart from this life. The only question left then is, “What does it mean to do good?”
In Luke, chapter 18, a rich, young ruler comes to Jesus and says, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus reply is as follows. “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God.” Jesus goes on to tell the man to keep all of the Ten Commandments, and tells the man to give to the poor. In order for us to do good deeds, we must go through the only One who is good. We must do the deeds God tells us is good. We must keep ourselves pure and obey the Ten Commandments. That is a good deed and is thus considered good. We must give to the poor. Later in James we are told to look after orphans and widows in their distress, and in chapter 2 we are told to supply those with no food or clothes with what they need. James goes on to point out in verse 17 that “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”
Doing good is a form of worship, and if we show no action of doing good deeds before men, we have no faith. I pray that you make a commitment like the boy scouts and do one good deed a day. There are plenty of opportunities. You could help out with the area food bank this Tuesday to provide needy families with food. You can give money to help buy gifts for the children of prisoners. You can ring the bell in at Riverside to help raise the money to buy Christmas presents for underprivileged children in the area. You could help with the fruit baskets and packages for our servicemen and shut-ins that were just done last week. There are an abundance of opportunities to do good deeds – all you need to do is pick one and start doing it. Doing good for people is not a chore; it is an act of worship.
Praise Action #3: Share With Others
A major company was hiring for a position and had several candidates who were equally qualified for the job opening. To break the tie, they issued a “What would you do challenge?” as part of the interview process. It went something like this. You are driving along in your car on a wild, stormy night. You pass by a bus stop, and you see three people waiting for the bus:
1. An older woman who looks as if she is about to die.
2. An old friend who once saved your life.
3. The perfect man (or) woman you have been dreaming about.
Which one would you choose to offer a ride to, knowing that there could only be one passenger in your car.
This question poses a number of moral and ethical dilemmas. You could pick up the older woman, because she is going to die, and thus you should save her first. Or you could take the old friend because he once saved your life, and this would be the perfect chance to pay him back. However, you may never be able to find your perfect dream lover again.
Now, the candidate who was hired, out of 200 applicants still in the running, had no trouble coming up with his answer. I love what he came up with. He simply answered: “I would give the car keys to my old friend, and let him take the lady to the hospital. I would stay behind and wait for the bus with the woman of my dreams.”
You have to admit that this was a brilliant solution to the problem, and I believe there is an important lesson we can take away from it. You are always better off when you are willing to share everything God has given you. Just think about it. Because this man had a sharing heart, the old lady got to the hospital, his friend had a ride, and he got to spend an extended time alone with the woman of his dreams. To top it all off, the man got this great job because of his willingness to share his possessions.
I love how this principal is laid out in Scripture. 1 John 3:17-18 tells us this. “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on Him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” Basically, God has given us everything we need to survive in this world. The catch is this. We must make sure that if he has blessed us with more than our share, that we share it with those who are less fortunate so that they are not left in need. After all, it is God who has given us all things. He gave us the mind to achieve great things. He gave us our abilities to earn a living. He blesses us with more than we deserve. All things truly belong to God and not to us, so we need to share. When we get to the point where we share even our most prized possessions, we are truly worshipping God.
Praise Action #4: Obedience to Authorities
How many of you find it hard to go to work every day? We all have those days where we are under the weather or would rather be somewhere other than work? Because of this, billions of manpower hours of work are lost in the United States each year. If you don’t feel well, or if you don’t feel like going to work, you can call in sick so many times a year.
Several years ago, a Toyota plant in Kentucky set an attendance record. 65% of their workers in the plant never missed a day of work for the entire year. Why was their attendance so great? The Toyota Corporation bribed them. At the end of every year, they decided to raffle off 15 new cars to their employees in the Kentucky plant. The catch was this – in order to be eligible for the raffle, you had to have perfect attendance. That made coming to work a top priority for these people. At the end of every year, 15 employees would be extremely grateful for the hard work they put in, and the ones who did not win were anxious to show up everyday next year for their shot at a new car.
Now, many of you are thinking the same thing right now. You are thinking that it would make it a lot easier for you to make it to work everyday if your workplace would give away cars for perfect attendance. This morning, I am not going to promise you a new car, but I am going to let you in on a secret for a better work environment from the Bible. Obey your leaders. That’s it. The Bible says that obedience and submission to those in leadership over you will cut down the stress and burden of your job and help lead to joy.
What does it mean to be obedient and submissive to your work leaders? There are two parts. First of all, you do everything they expect of you without grumbling or complaining. Time and again in the New Testament, we are told to submit ourselves to our authorities. Romans 13, Ephesians 6, and 1 Peter 2 are just a couple of examples of where we are commanded to do what those above us tell us to do. This includes our bosses, governing bodies, and the like. Why do we obey them? We obey them because we are commanded to. We obey them because obedience is a sign to them that we respect and love them. We obey them as a form of worship to God and the leadership He has put in place. Secondly, you do everything they tell you to the best of your abilities. Colossians 3:23 tells us, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” When we submit to our leaders at work and do our best, it will not only bring about a better working environment; it will bring about a reward from God and serve as a type of worship. Remember, when tough times come up at work and you feel like complaining or giving up, remember that you are working for the Lord and not for men. Your attitudes, actions, and words at work are all to be worship to God. Does everything you do at work fall into the category of worship?
Folk, there is so much worshipping to be done! We have such a good God that we don’t have enough hours in the day to praise Him for all the things he has done, but we must start by moving our praise outside of the church walls. Worship service is more than just an hour on Sundays. We are to develop a lifestyle of continuous praise that lasts all day, every day. How do we do this? We take the first step of getting into God’s Word and praying everyday. Then, we take these praise actions. We confess the Name of Jesus by including God in our daily conversations. We do good deeds by following the example of Jesus’ ministry. We share with others what God has so richly blessed us with, and we submit to our authorities especially at work. We can have a life of continuous worship if we apply these praise actions to our lives. I hope you will. Let us pray.
