A friend sent me a note that I originally sent out to the church more than 7 years ago. It reminded me of some things that deal directly with worship, trust and discipleship. It centers around an old dog – Chewy
Lately I have been learning some neat lessons from our dog Chewy, who many of you have met. Yesterday Chewy turned 18 years old. I guess in dog years that makes him the oldest one I know. And though he shows his age - getting up much more slowly, without complaint he negotiates stairs with some challenges, even falling down more often, but he keeps getting up. I pray that I will live life in a similar way. No matter how hard life gets, no matter how many times I fall down, I pray that I will get back up. Chewy can't see well, we have to turn lots of lights on for him to see, and I feel that way too, God has to illuminate my way or else I get lost. One day Chewy was in the front yard after a hard rain, standing in the "pond" that often appears there at times like that. It was dark. He was standing in water, probably thinking, "I don't remember a pond being here" But he did the right thing. He stood still and waited until I came to get him. He heard me clap and call but couldn't tell exactly what direction I was coming from, so he was waiting, and I walked out into the middle of the pond, took him by the collar and led him back home. He didn't pull away from my hand leading him like he did when he was younger. He knew he could trust my hand to lead him. And how I want to trust God's hand, to know that even though it seems like I am lost, stuck in a pond, He will lead me Home. Sometimes the things that bother me about Chewy will no longer be a problem. Occasionally we don't pay attention to his way of telling us he needs to go outside, and he ends up going on the floor, right in front of us. We can hardly yell at him, he used every trick he knew to get our attention, but we weren't paying attention. Cleaning up the hair or dog dish will someday be a thing of the past. As I often say, there is a last time for everything. So for now, Chewy is teaching me to love and respect him while we still have him. To be patient with him when he isn't as able to take care of himself or listen to our directions. I believe God has been patiently living like that towards me all my life. One day, this world will be just a memory, and I will stand in His presence, able to see and hear and know Him so clearly, but until that day, I want to be patient in life, consistent, willing to persevere, willing to love and share and follow him when He takes me by the hand.
Less than a month from the time I wrote that, we had to put Chewy to sleep. It was a sad and blessed day. Sad to say goodbye to a longtime friend, blessed for the many years we had him with us. It seems to me that one reason God made dogs was to show us what it is to experience worship. Think about it.
1. Whether we leave the house for a day’s work, or a short errand, they delight in our return.
2. They sit at our feet attentive to every more we make. Not just when we’re eating
3. They show delight naturally, robustly and daily.
What if we learned to treat God half as nice as our dogs treat us? If our delight in His presence was so visible, if our attentiveness to Him was so constant?
Today we are talking about the gift of the Magi that represented worship.
Matt. 2:7-11 The Magi Visit the Messiah
7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.
10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
A couple of weeks ago, Shelley talked about the visit of the Magi, the Wise Men. She reminded us that they didn’t come empty handed. They brought gifts. When we come to God, wouldn’t it be great if we came bearing gifts? Not some old thing we were going to discard anyway, but something that represented our best, most noble possession. For the Magi, it meant three things that were compact, for traveling, costly fit for a king. Gold was mentioned first. Every culture has placed high value on gold. People exchange their lives (time that they work) for gold. It represented the very things they value in life.
The second gift mentioned was Frankincense. Frankincense is a white resin or gum. It is made from the sap of a tree gathered by making incisions in the bark and allowing the sap to flow out. It is highly fragrant when burned and was therefore used in worship, where it was burned as a pleasant offering to God.
Incense was a call to prayer. A call to worship a Holy – Amazing God!
It was a specialized formula, recipe so that it could be distinguished from all other smells. God himself gave the recipe for making incense.
Ex. 30:34-38 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Take fragrant spices—gum resin, onycha and galbanum—and pure frankincense, all in equal amounts, 35 and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer. It is to be salted and pure and sacred.36 Grind some of it to powder and place it in front of the Ark of the Covenant law in the tent of meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you. 37 Do not make any incense with this formula for yourselves; consider it holy to the Lord. 38 Whoever makes incense like it to enjoy its fragrance must be cut off from their people.”
It was a private matter between God and man. It wasn’t to be duplicated for other purposes. It was to engage the senses. It created a unique smell. The scent of worship. It wasn’t to cover up bad smells, it was to invite people to remember that God is present. For me, it might relate to the smell of fresh cut grass in the evening dew, or the leaves burning in the fall. These smells take me back.
It doesn’t appear that the Magi tried to reformulate that recipe, but the frankincense was a reminder of worship. It was a symbol of holiness and righteousness. The gift of frankincense to the Christ child was symbolic of His divinity. God with us, Immanuel. One day, He would demonstrate His willingness to become a sacrifice, giving Himself up, similar to a burnt offering. At the time Jesus was born, frankincense and myrrh may have been worth more than their weight than the Gold.
Today we don’t burn Frankincense at worship. Maybe we should. But there are other ways to saturate the senses with the presence of God.
Let our praise fill the room with worship
Worship is intentional
The Magi first looked up (heavens – saw star – unusual)
The Magi made preparations for a long journey
Look for God in every day, every encounter, gifts and wonders abound
Worship is Relational, personal
On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him
When they found the object of their worship, they bowed down.
Imagine the joy of finding the child! They weren’t crazy. The journey was worth it.
Worship is inviting, inspiring fulfilling
When they saw the star, they were overjoyed
How can you teach, coach your kids to worship?
1. Worship is Intentional. Teach them that the Most important person is not you! This is true in every conversation, every encounter. The idea that we need to teach our kids self esteem has NOT WORKED! We have created a world filled with unhappy, self centered and never satisfied people. Listen up, especially if you have kids or plan to. Teach them to see the value of the imprint of God in every person they meet. Teach them to intentionally seek out God everywhere. Only then will they find true fullness of life. Then they can know meaning.
2. Worship is Relational, Personal. Tell them about your personal journey to God. Give them experiences that will make them long to worship.
If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Saying yes to God it's like saying I do to your wife. You're not thinking of all the other people who you could be saying I do to, you're gazing into her face you're thinking about her more than yourself. And marriages usually break up when people stop looking into the face of a loved one with Wonder and awe and a feeling that is just short of worship. The more I know about God through Jesus Christ the more I view him with Wonder and awe and worship. But the more I take my eyes off of him and look at the cares of the world around me that's when I get messed up.
3. Teach them that worship is inviting, inspiring and fulfilling. It is an adventure, like the Magi. Take them to amazing places and mundane places, go spot God! Never lose a holy curiosity.
All the while, avoid the dangers of putting God in a box. Of thinking that you know and understand Him! When you put God in your puny box, one day all the sides of that box will come Crashing Down. All the rules that you expected God to follow seem small and ineffective. If God is worthy of worship He must be so much better than anything we can imagine - exponentially better! We do ourselves a disservice with our belief statements and doctrines trying to define all the God is.
But even if you manage to take God out of your puny box, often we place him in a different box and with smugness we look back at the old box and say how childish that box was. We judge the people who still have a God they worship in that box. But our box is still a box.
The only time you'll find God in a box is when he puts Himself in the Box to be where we are. And that is exactly what God did on Christmas, in a manger.
Next Step – How will worship invade your home?
The course has been set in our culture. The days are coming when it will be more and more difficult to remain steadfast and true to Jesus then to follow the ways of our culture. Everything from music videos and media and television and video games everything is casting a lure into the face of your innocent child trying to draw them away to a false god. If you do not prepare your child Too Faced difficult times as a Christ follower they will simply not take Christ seriously. I do not know of a single consequence worse than that. Churches in other Western Nations have seen the result of parents who did not pass their faith effectively on down to their children. This is not just about keeping a church door open. In fact it has nothing to do with keeping Church doors open. It has everything to do with putting the flame of Jesus Christ into the hearts of those who we love so dearly. It has everything to do with sharing this treasure that we found buried in a field with everyone we know. We have got to prepare our parents to raise children in an age where to be Godless or agnostic is the norm. 1 lifetime away from a time where most of America worship God we could very well see worshipping God as something rare.
Going Deeper
1. Take time to reflect on when you first worshipped God. Tell that to a friend or family member. How did it come about?
2. Now consider how far you have come (or not) what is your next step?
3. How can you help others, particularly children – experience awe and worship at Christmastime?
