Worship: The Eternal Perspective
Colossians 3:1-2
Intro
Paul Azinger was at the top of his profession, and that profession was a pretty desirable one: PGA golfer. But at the age of thirty three, he faced his greatest crisis. He was diagnosed with cancer. I know a lot of us here today can relate to how he must have been feeling. One day life is calm and fruitful and then the next it is simply terrifying.
Azinger had just won a PGA championship and held the championship trophies from ten PGA tournaments. Why now? Why this? Was his response to this new news in his life.
Azinger had a close friend named Larry Moody, who was leading a Bible study for golfers on the tour. Moody had made a statement that completely changed Azinger’s paradigm of life and death. He had said, “Zinger, we’re not in the land of the living and healing for the land of the dying. We’re in the land of the dying trying to get to the land of the living.”
Paul Azinger had never thought of it that way. Not even close, Moody’s statement caused him to rethink his entire approach to life as he submitted to chemotherapy, worked through his recovery, and eventually returned to the PGA tour. Soon he was playing golf again, just as he had before. But his perspective was no longer a temporal one.
Most of use live under the enduring illusion that this earth, so filled with pain, is the land of the living. We know it’s not much, but it’s home after all. On the other hand, we don’t know about that next world. It’s cloaked in mystery.
But we should know. We devote our lives to studying God’s Word, worshipping Him, and anticipating eternity in His presence. This life is only a brief prelude, a puny grain of sand compared to the vast, infinite seashore of eternity. It’s important how we live today, but why should we fear the final, glorious culmination of which this life only hints?
We need to have a eternal perspective on life, and it’s the very key to worshipping God in every moment of your daily life. And you may be asking yourself, well just how can I go about doing that. Well, I am glad to ask. This morning we are going to look at how we can make it happen.
READ TEXT
I. Set your Eyes on Eternity
a. Paul tells us to set our minds on eternal things, not earthly ones.
i. After all, he says, we have been raised with Christ.
ii. Our spirit dwells with Him in the heavenly places; why should we become comfortable in the gutter?
iii. In this passage Paul refers to Christ’s sitting at the right hand of the Father.
iv. That, he says, is what we are to set our minds upon.
v. Again, the idea is for us to kneel before the eternal throne, just as John did, when God allowed him to see Heaven in the book of Revelation.
b. All of this sounds high minded and pious, but how do we break it down to practical human terms?
i. We still have jobs to attend to, children to feed, spouses to please, and homes to maintain.
ii. We live in a real world with real problems.
c. That’s precisely why we must learn to worship as an everyday lifestyle.
i. Even if we took part in wonderful, powerful worship once a week from a church pew, it wouldn’t be enough.
ii. The spirit of God accompanies us everywhere we go, and we can worship Him in the very midst of daily life.
iii. The list I’m going to offer you here is a very practical one, but not an exhaustive one.
iv. There are ideas to jump start your praise life, and I recommend that you select a few and put them to immediate use
1. Praise God through Music
a. I mentioned just last week how much I depend on godly music of worship and praise.
b. Let me recommend that you find a cassette tape or CD that really seems to touch you and to take you into God’s presence – then stick with that one for at least a week.
c. There’s plenty of good praise music out there, but my suggestion is for you to choose one recording of songs and really spend some time with it, digging deeply into the words and praising God through them.
d. After awhile, you’ll know those words and you’ll be able to sing along even when you’re away from your stereo.
e. This is wonderful for commuting in traffic.
f. Wouldn’t you like to see what rush hour would be like I everyone were praising God as they drove?
2. Praise God through Scripture Memory
a. I can hear some of you groaning, just from the mention of scripture memory.
b. I can commend to you no task more worthy of your time than learning the great bible verses by memory – by heart.
c. For once those verses are imbedded in your heart, they’ve become a permanent part of you.
d. You’ve given the Holy Spirit a tool for encouragement in your life.
e. He’ll bring you to recall those verses just when you need them most.
f. But in this context or worship, I’m recommending that you memorize passages such as Psalm 100 so that, as you lie in the dark just before falling asleep or are getting ready for the day, you can use them to praise God wherever you may be.
Psalm 100
Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful singing. Know that the Lord Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him bless His name. For the Lord is good; His loving-kindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations.
g. I’ve read stories of prisoners of war in who struggled to recall and share with each other every Bible verse they could remember from childhood.
i. They had no Bibles, but no one could take their memories from them.
ii. The Word of God had become a part of them, and it sustained them through the suffering.
h. Feed your mind and soul with the everlasting Word.
3. Praise God in daily intervals
a. Most of us are familiar with the idea of a daily quiet time or morning devotions.
i. These times are essential for every Christian, but your goal is to praise and worship all through the day, not simply during a morning time segment.
ii. Set times when you know you’ll be able to stop and whisper your praises to God or to sing them in your mind or even full voice.
iii. For example, you might decide you’ll praise God each morning in the shower, during devotions, at the beginning of your morning coffee break, just before lunch, in rush hour traffic, and just before you climb into bed at night.
iv. Begin with three or more of these and make a firm covenant to stop and praise God at these appointed times.
b. Carry a pocket New Testament or even some not cards with favorite verses.
c. After a while, it won’t happen only at preset intervals.
d. You’ll be worshipping on the go constantly.
4. Praise God through visual reminders
a. We all need a few personal billboards in life.
b. Sometimes they take the form of refrigerator magnets or coffee mugs.
c. These bear little sayings and reminders about dieting or being the “World’s Greatest Dad.”
d. I challenge you to see how many worship reminders you can insert into your daily field of vision.
e. Don’t do this in a way that would be obnoxious to your coworkers at the office.
i. But keep a note card with your current memory verse or a favorite psalm taped to your computer terminal.
f. Put a reminder on the refrigerator (and remove the others that might distract you.)
i. The bathroom mirror is a good place.
ii. You car dashboard.
g. Every time you see one of these, you’ll be reminded to stop and offer exaltation and thanksgiving to God.
5. Praise God through a small Group
a. Talk to some like-minded friends who share you desire to be more devoted to worship.
b. Gather with them once a week, at a convenient time, to focus on praise and worship together.
c. Most of the time we emphasize Bible study in these groups, and that’s fine.
i. But perhaps your group can take a period of time to reorient yourselves a bit more in the direction of worship.
ii. If you work in a office, you might find a partner or small group of believers who will meet you fifteen minutes before work each day to praise God together.
Closing
I guarantee you that if you’ll try at least one or two of these initiatives, your life will be changed. Your anxiety will melt away. You’ll be worshiping gladly, and you’ll begin to be conformed to the image of Christ.
