Joanne Weil describes the time her young son asked what was the highest number she had ever counted to. She didn't know, but she asked about his highest number. It was 5,372.
“Oh,” she said. “Why did you stop there?”
“Church was over,” he replied. (Mike and Amy Nappa, Bore No More! Group Publishing, p. 7; www.PreachingToday.com)
All too often, people are distracted in worship or just find it boring. So how can people have a more meaningful worship experience? How can YOU experience worship in such a way that it transforms you, not just tires you? How can you let your worship experience change you, not bore you. How can your heart find strength when you worship? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Hebrews 13, Hebrews 13, where the Bible shows you how your worship can be a transforming experience.
Hebrews 13:9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. (ESV)
Paul is writing to a Jewish audience, and the Jewish religion has a lot of rituals, some of which include the eating of certain foods. As you know, Jews cannot eat pork and shellfish. In fact, they must eat only kosher foods, but Paul says their food rituals do not benefit them.
You see, there is no benefit in religious ritual of any kind. Following the rituals of any religion do not make you stronger. Religious activity does not free you from sin or make you a better person. No!
Only the grace of God can do that. Only God’s supernatural power, given freely to those who depend on Him, can strengthen your heart. So trust Jesus with your life. Depend on God’s power to change you, because that is far superior than depending on any religious ritual.
Hebrews 13:10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. (ESV)
“The tent” is a reference to the Jewish tabernacle, the center of Jewish worship, for centuries. And that tent had an altar, but we who follow Christ have a better altar. We have a superior altar, from which nobody else can eat.
The book of Hebrews was written to Jewish followers of Jesus, but they were going through some very tough times, and they were not sure that following Jesus was worth it. They saw their Jewish neighbors going to that great bronze altar at the temple in Jerusalem. There, they slaughtered a bull, gave part of it to the priests, grilled the rest and shared it with their friends. Their Jewish neighbors were enjoying grilled steak and having a party while they were being persecuted for their faith in Christ. So Paul has to remind these persecuted believers that we have a superior altar.
We have a better altar where God’s grace strengthens the heart. Grilled steak from the altar in Jerusalem fills the belly, but God’s supernatural power from heaven fortifies the soul.
Listen to what the author of Hebrews says in another context about his own pain in 2 Corinthians 12: To keep me from becoming conceited… a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me… Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).
God’s grace strengthened his heart in his pain, and God’s grace will strengthen YOUR heart, as well. God’s grace will give you supernatural power to face anything life or Satan throws your way.
Kate Bowler is an associate professor of the history of Christianity in North America at Duke Divinity School. Kate has terminal cancer and has written a new memoir, Everything Happens For A Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved. In a recent interview on NPR's Fresh Air (February 2018), the interviewer asked Bowler how she managed to feel loved by God even after enduring major cancer surgery and its aftermath.
Bowler responded that she discovered a gift in her cancer. She realized how fragile life is for everyone, and that realization connected her with the pain of other people. Here are Bowler's own words:
You notice the tired mom in the grocery store who's… struggling to get the thing off the top shelf while her kid screams… You notice how very tired that person looks at the bus stop. And then, of course, [you notice] all the people in the cancer clinic… [It] felt like I was cracked open, and I could see everything really clearly for the first time. And [I didn’t] feel nearly as angry as I thought I would… Granted… I have been pretty angry at times, but… mostly… I felt God's presence… It was less like… important spiritual truths I know intellectually about God. There are four of them. I have a PowerPoint presentation. It was instead more like the way you'd feel a friend or… someone holding you. I… didn't feel quite as scared. I just felt loved [by God]. (Teri Gross; “A Stage-4 Cancer Patient Shares The Pain And Clarity Of Living 'Scan-To-Scan,'” NPR Fresh Air, 2-12-18; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s God’s grace in times of pain, and it’s available to all who depend on Christ. Such grace is far better than any religious ritual even if it does include grilled steak. We who follow Christ have a superior altar where God’s grace strengthens the heart.
More than that, we who depend on Christ have a superior altar where His blood sanctifies the people. Christ’s shed blood on the cross makes people holy. It sets them apart from sin unto God.
Hebrews 13:11-12 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. (ESV)
The high priest sacrificed animals on the Jewish altar, but Jesus sacrificed Himself on that better altar, the cross, and there is no comparison!
The Jewish altar was the place where the high priest, once a year, would slit the throat of a bull and a goat. Then he would catch the blood in a basin and take it into the holy place of the temple. Someone else would take the carcasses of those animals and burn them outside the city (Leviticus 16). But that altar could only cover unintentional sins for a year. It could only sweep the dirt under the carpet, as it were, and only if it wasn’t too bad.
On the other hand, the blood that Christ shed on the cross purifies believers from ALL sin, intentional as well as unintentional. It removes the dirt completely and makes believers clean and ready for heaven. Christ’s blood sanctifies people!
Dr. Samuel Weinstein is the chief of pediatric cardio-thoracic surgery for the Children's Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York. Several years ago, (May 2006), he traveled to El Salvador with Heart Care International in order to provide life-saving operations for less-fortunate children. However, it would take more than his expertise and advanced equipment to save the life of 8-year-old Francisco Calderon Anthony Fernandez.
Dr. Weinstein and his team began operating on Francisco's heart shortly before noon. Twelve hours later, the procedure took a deadly turn. “The surgery had been going well, everything was working great, but he was bleeding a lot and they didn't have a lot of the medicines we would use to stop the bleeding,” Weinstein said. “After a while, they said they couldn't give him blood because they were running out and he had a rare type.”' In fact, Francisco's blood type was B-negative, which—according to the American Red Cross—is present in only 2 percent of the population.
As it was, the only other person in the room with a blood type of B-negative was Dr. Weinstein. Knowing what he had to do, he stepped down from the operating table. As his colleagues continued their precision work, Dr. Weinstein set aside his scalpel, took off his gloves, and began washing his hands and forearm. Then, in the corner of an unfamiliar operating room, the prestigious doctor from one of the most advanced hospitals in the world sat down to give away his own blood.
When he had given his pint, Dr. Weinstein drank some bottled water and ate a Pop-Tart. Then—20 minutes after stepping away from the table—he rejoined his colleagues. After watching his own blood begin circulating into the boy's small veins, Dr. Weinstein completed the operation that saved Francisco's heart—and his life. (Jim Fitzgerald, “Doc Stops Surgery to Give Own Blood to Patient,” LiveScience.com, 5-26-06; www.Preaching Today.com)
The blood of that doctor saved the boy’s life. Even more so, the blood of Jesus Christ, our Great Physician, saves those who depend on Him. Now, that boy will eventually die of other causes, but those who depend on Christ will live forever in heaven.
More than that, those who depend on Christ begin to take on His character. You see Christ’s blood not only saves those who trust in Him; it sanctifies them, as well. I like the way Soren Kierkegaard put it: “God creates out of nothing. Wonderful, you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: He makes saints out of sinners.” (Leadership, Vol. 8, no. 4; www.PreachingToday.com)
No religion in the world can do that, only a relationship with Christ. So…
COME TO THAT BETTER ALTAR.
Come to the cross of Christ today, which will strengthen your heart and sanctify your soul. Don’t look to religious ritual to do that for you. Look to Christ! Reach out to Him and trust Him with your life.
If you’ve never done that, I invite you to do that right now. Come to Christ and admit your sin. Thank Him for shedding His blood to cleanse you from all sin, and ask Him to change you from the inside out. Ask Him to strengthen your heart for life’s journey until He takes you home to heaven. If you want to experience life-transformational worship, come to a better altar – the cross of Christ. But not only that…
COME WITH BETTER SACRIFICES.
Approach the place of worship with superior offerings. Come before the feet of Jesus with greater gifts. Since Christ died on the cross for our sins, we no longer need to bring bulls and goats or sheep and lambs to the altar. Instead, we bring far superior sacrifices to the place of worship.
Hebrews 13:13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. (ESV)
Since Jesus died outside the gates of Jerusalem, let’s join Him there in that place of shame. You see, it was a shameful thing to hang naked on a cross for all to see. In fact, the Roman government reserved crosses only for executing their worst criminals. Yet there, outside the city, Jesus hung on a cross, and those who come to Him share in His shame, but that’s what God calls us to do.
It’s the first sacrifice He calls believers to make in a worship that will transform them. He calls you and me to carry Christ’s shame, to bear His reproach. Jesus Himself said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34).
If you took up a cross in Jesus’ day, that meant you were going to be hung on it. Jesus asks His followers to risk their lives and their reputations like He did, to bear the same shame He did. Oh, people may not hang you on a cross today, but they will shame and ridicule you if you choose to follow Christ.
Just look at what ungodly people did to Judge Kavanaugh. They brought unfounded, shameful allegations against him just because he stood for the truth. And the world will do that to anyone who chooses to stand with Christ. Ungodly people will shame and ridicule any follower of Christ. However, we can endure that shame just like Jesus did. How? Well, look at verse 14
Hebrews 13:14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. (ESV)
We can endure temporary shame here on this earth for the lasting honor we’ll enjoy in heaven. So make the sacrifice. Stand with Christ and carry His shame; bear His reproach.
John Mark Hicks's son Joshua was born with Sanfilippo Syndrome A. It’s a genetic disorder that causes slow mental and physical degeneration. In his book, Yet Will I Trust Him, Hicks tells a story about his son's experience on a school bus:
From the first day Joshua saw a school bus, he wanted to ride one. He wanted to be like his older sister. She rode the bus, and so would he! Whenever a bus came into view, he would shout, “I wanna ride!” Finally, his day came. Every morning Hicks would take his son out to wait for the bus at a place near his office. When Joshua saw it coming, he would jump and scream for joy…
But one day, for some reason, Joshua did not want to get on. Hicks took him by the hand and gently led him up the steps of the bus, and he got on. But he was whining, hesitant, and reluctant. Hicks thought perhaps his was just having a bad day, but as the bus drove away Hicks learned why his son was hesitant. Hicks heard words that tore his heart. He said, “It was as if a knife had been stuck into my gut and twisted.”
Joshua’s schoolmates were ridiculing him. The older children were calling him names. They ridiculed his need for diapers and mocked his use of them the previous day. As the bus drove off, Hicks could hear the mockery, and he could see his son stumble down the aisle as he looked for a seat.
Hicks says, “Anger grew inside me. All morning I wanted to take some of those older kids aside and heap some abuse of my own on them. Let them see how it feels! Let them know what it's like to be hurt, ridiculed, and mocked. Maybe I should talk to the bus driver, or to the school principal, to the teachers, or to the parents! My helplessness increased my frustration.
“Finally,” Hicks says, “I took my anger and hurt to God. I went to my office and poured my heart before him. I held nothing back. I complained bitterly, and then I complained some more… Why was my son born with this condition? Why are others permitted to inflict pain upon the innocent? Why hadn't God answered our prayers for a healthy son? Why couldn't Joshua ever fulfill the dreams we had for him and honor the name which we gave him as a leader among God's people? Why hadn't the sovereign God of the universe blessed him with health?”
Then in the midst of his complaint, Hicks says, “It was as if God said to me, ‘I understand—they treated my Son that way, too.’” And in that moment God provided a comfort that Hicks cannot yet explain but one that he still experiences in his heart.
Hicks says, “Now, only now, do I have some sense of the pain that a father has when his son is ridiculed. Only now can I begin to appreciate the pain of my heavenly Father as he watched his Son be ridiculed” (John Mark Hicks, Yet Will I Trust Him, College Press Publishing Company, 1999, pp. 183-184; www.PreachingToday.com).
God knows your pain, the pain of ridicule and shame, but that shame is only temporary until the day God honors you forever in heaven. So go ahead and make the sacrifice. If you want to experience life-transformational worship, follow Christ and carry His shame.
Second, if you want to experience life-transformational worship, follow Christ and confess His name. Acknowledge His character and reputation as you thank Him in all circumstances.
Hebrews 13:15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. (ESV)
Do you see it? Let us CONTINUALLY offer up a sacrifice of praise not just when life is going well, but also when life is hard. No matter what, acknowledge Christ’s character, and recognize that He is good even when life isn’t. Now, that’s hard to do, isn’t it? That’s why the Bible calls it a “sacrifice of praise,” but such a sacrifice will transform your life when you worship God in this way.
Kevin Kling was born with a birth defect – his left arm was disabled and much shorter than his right. Then, in his early 40s, a motorcycle accident nearly killed him and paralyzed his healthy right arm. He spent six weeks in the hospital where he learned a life-changing lesson about what he calls “the three phases of prayer.”
In the first phase, we pray to get things from God. In the second phase, we pray to get out of things. In the third phase, we simply give thanks to God.
Kevin had been through many surgeries during his six-week stay in the hospital; and each day, he would ride the elevator to the ground floor and try and take a walk. “That was my job,” he says. “9/11 had happened the week before; and as our country was entering trauma, I was living one.”
One day, after his walk, his wife Mary and he went into the gift shop, and she asked if he wanted an apple… Now, Kevin hadn't tasted food in over a month… He lost a lot of weight, because food had no appeal, so he said no, but his wife persisted. “Come on; try it,” she said. So finally, Kevin said “alright” and took a bite. “For some reason,” Kevin says, “that was the day flavor returned, and that powerful sweetness rushed from that apple. Oh, it was incredible!”
And Kevin started to cry for the first time in years. The tears flowed and as the anesthesia and antibiotics flushed through his tears, it burned his eyes. But between the sweetness of that apple and the burning of his tears, Keven said, “it felt so good to be alive.” He blurted out, “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for this life,” and his prayers shifted to giving thanks. (Kevin Kling, “Prayer, Once a Last Resort, Now a Habit,” NPR, 1-10-07; www.PreachingToday.com)
When your prayers shift from “give me” and “get me out of here” to giving thanks even in the midst of your pain, you know your life has been changed. You see, that’s what true, life-transformational worship is all about. It’s about making those kinds of sacrifices for Jesus Christ.
So if you want to experience life-transformational worship, carry His shame; confess His good name even when life is hard; and finally care for others. Share what you have with those in need. Do good even to those who don’t deserve it.
Hebrews 13:16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. (ESV)
God is pleased with our sacrificial giving. When we sacrifice our time and resources to help people, God smiles from heaven as He accepts our sacrifice.
Long ago a king who organized a great race within his kingdom. All the young men of the kingdom participated, because the king promised a bag of gold for the winner. He put the finish line within the courtyard of his palace, and the runners took off. On their way back to the King’s palace, they were surprised to find a great pile of rocks and stones in the middle of the road. But they managed to scramble over it or run around it and eventually made it to the courtyard.
Eventually, all the runners crossed the finish line except one. However, the king still did not declare a winner. After a while, one lone runner came through the gate. He lifted a bleeding hand and said, “O King, I am sorry that I am so late. But you see, I found a pile of rocks and stones in the road, and I wounded myself in removing them. It took me a while, but Great King,” he said as he raised the other hand with a bag in it. “I found this bag of gold beneath the pile of rocks.”
The king declared, “My son, you have won the race, for he runs best who makes the way safer for those who follow.” (Bruce Thielemann, “Christus Imperator,” Preaching Today, Tape 55; www.PreachingToday.com)
You may not be the fastest or the best, but our Great King Jesus rewards those who care for others. Jesus Himself said He will reward those who give “even a cup of cold water” (Matthew 10:42). So share what you have even if it is just a cup of water. Give generously what you can, and God will be pleased.
If you want to experience life-transformational worship, come to a better altar – the cross of Jesus Christ – with better sacrifices: carry His shame; confess His name; and care for others. Leave the religious ritual behind and enjoy a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ.
