(Main ideas in this message from Ed Young of Fellowship Church)
Today I am concluding this series of talks on worship. I thought about calling today’s message--www.godon-line.com. The www stands for the wonderful world of worship. Because this series has been about connecting with the Lord. God has given us all the opportunity to have a relationship with him through Christ and once we make that decision, once that cosmic transaction takes place, everything in our lives should be about worship.
So today as we wrap up this whole process, I want us to think about how to behave in worship. Now you might thought I was going to talk about how you’re suppose to behave when you come to church here. I Have a video clip that explains all that.
[Show Highway Video Clip—“Custom Church”]
I could tell you how to worship when you come to the service here—whether you should sing loud or soft—raise your hands or not—say Amen,shout halleujah or stay quiet. But I can’t tell you how to do that. You’d probably do the opposite of what I’d tell you anyway. My first thought in working on these series was to discuss specific behaviors in worship services here.
But as this thing has developed, I’ve been prompted to talk about how to live everyday life. If you’ve been here for this discussion on worship I’ve suggested that worship is the way we live everyday—that we do here on Sunday morning is only practice—it is only the warm-up to way life is to be lived in relationship with God and other people in the everyday world.
You’re thinking perhaps, “You mean everything that I do should be an act of worship, everything I think? You are telling me that worship should transcend every facet of my life?”
Yes. That is what the scripture tells us. If you make the choice to be a believer in Jesus Christ, to mirror the majesty of your relationship with Him in everything you do and say and touch, it will transform and revolutionize your life. In a real way, our lives are kind of like this replica cubbyhole unit which I have had made for you to see.
How many of you remember back in kindergarten and elementary school, when you had those little cubbyholes? It is where you had your stuff. It was your compartment. Well, I have designed some cubbyholes.
Most of us, without even realizing it, compartmentalize or cubbyhole our lives. We look at our existence like this setup. We say our activities are here, our finances are here, our career is in this section, and our relationships are over there. We love cubbyholes. And God is confined and defined in this little cubbyhole. I go to church and bow the knee and worship Him and when I jump in my automobile and leave, I leave God at church in this little compartment, in His cubbyhole.
Biblical worship, says that while God is active, real and alive at church He also should transcend every part of our lives. Worship is focus on God, i.e., becoming intensely passionate about the person of Jesus Christ. It is responding to God, i.e., mirroring the majesty of the maker in everything. So if we just do the cubbyhole thing, we are missing out on the transformation and the power of worship.
You see worship is constructive. Worship is also destructive.
This, my friends, is a chainsaw. Worship is not always pleasant. And if you make the call to truly mirror the majesty of your maker, everything you do and say is going to be constructive but also destructive.
Let’s just for a second have this chainsaw represent worship. Here is what worship does when we are serious about it. (Takes chainsaw and saws through all the dividing walls in the cubbyhole unit.) Worship goes and it flows and it takes out all of the compartments. It transcends everything we do and everything we say.
So I have got my activities, my financial world, my career, my relationships all free from their cubbyholes. Maybe as you look at this demonstration you are saying, whoa, that really pinpoints my life. That is really what I am about.
I have done the clearing in my relationships and career, but in the finances and activity area, I still have some walls up. I need to go ahead and take them out. I need to truly unwrap the gift of worship and clear all of the clutter away.
Did I just describe your life? Or, are you trying to cubbyhole God? You will never be what you are wired up to be until you understand that you are wired for worship and allow worship to transcend every aspect of your life.
This morning I want to show you several things that worship will do and thus, what behavior comprises a worshipful lifestyle. Yes, it is destructive but it is also constructive and once we make the decision to chainsaw our lives, let me tell you what will happen.
Here is what takes place in my life and your life—this is how you will behave.
A. Worship deepens our discernment. It deepens our discernment. Talk to people who have allowed worship to do the chainsaw thing and they are people who have a deep level of discernment. When I refer to the behavior of discernment, I am talking about several activities.
1. First, I am talking about the activity of hygiene. Here is what the scripture says about our hygiene. Let me set it up. Isaiah, an Old Testament prophet, had an intense conversation with God. Let’s pick up on this running conversation because Isaiah has just seen the Lord. Isaiah 6:5 “Wow to me! I cried. I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the king, the Lord Almighty.”
Did you notice the recurring term unclean? Unclean. We have horrible spiritual hygiene in the brilliant blaze of God’s glory, don’t we? We are all dirty. And Isaiah, check this out; he was unclean and aware of his condition. He knew he had horrible hygiene. But something scary, bone chilling can take place in a Christ follower’s life when they are unclean and unaware, when their spiritual hygiene is horrible but they don’t really realize it.
There was a guy who had horrible hygiene and he liked to play basketball with his friends. Wouldn’t you love to play ball with someone like that? I thought so.
His team mates nicknamed him Bugger. Bugger smelled so bad that if you guarded him you would smell like Bugger for a couple of days. One day after a scrimmage, his teammates figured out the problem. They were all emerging from the shower. Bugger had opted not to take a shower. And he had some Speed Stick deodorant, you know, the kind you crank the handle and the deodorant stick goes up. His deodorant was about four inches below the plastic. Bugger was just rubbing plastic under his arms. He was unclean and unaware.
And here is what trips you up: You think you have to do something to mess up your fellowship with God. When I do something against God, I do mess up my fellowship but, stay with me now, I can also mess up my fellowship with God, have a hygiene problem, when my thinking lacks clarity. God wants to dwell in your thoughts but how can He dwell in polluted thoughts, toxic thoughts, critical thoughts, lustful thoughts, greed-driven thoughts? How?
Proverbs 28:13 says, “He who conceals his sins….” And that is kind of laughable. God has read our mail. We can’t conceal our sins. “…Does not prosper. But whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” We have to constantly deal with this hygiene situation. It is a constant.
If you do any research on Old Testament worship patterns, you will discover that the last thing the high priest had to walk past before he went into the holy place was something called the brazen altar. This area was a place where the priest would cleanse himself. Cleansing always comes before worship. It was true in the Old Testament. It is true in the New Testament. It is a continual thing, as we deal with our horrible hygiene within the brilliant blaze of God’s glory.
Now Psalm 103:1 presupposes cleansing. For those who perceive themselves to be followers of Jesus, who want to ratchet up their worship—hear this. “Praise the Lord, oh my soul, all my inmost being, praise his holy name.” Well, I can’t praise the Lord, oh my soul and all my inmost being unless I have been cleansed. It is a hygiene thing. Are you dealing regularly with your spiritual hygiene?
2. Discernment, also, is a priority thing. It affects our behavior in the way we set our priorities. You show me someone who has a great priority situation going on and I will show you someone who is a person of worship. People are always saying, “Well, I am just so busy. I am going here. I am going there. I am going yonder.” It is so laughable when you ask people these days how they are doing and their response is that they are busy. In other words, that means they are important.
People who are worshippers understand how to simplify their lives. They understand where church life fits in. They understand the relational aspect of priorities—to the extent that God is top priority then to that extent spouse and family are a top priority. Those ones who live a worshipful lifestyle understand that career comes in about fourth place.
They have a grasp on the fact that God has included us in His economic plan and they give generously to the local church. They save at least 10% of what they are making. “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it” Malachi 3:10
In activities, they do things that mirror the majesty of their maker. Priorities. Discernment is a hygiene thing. It is also a priority thing. That’s behavior that reflects a worshipful lifestyle
3. It is also a perception thing. The behavior of discernment is reflected in perceptive behavior.
It amazes me. You talk to people who have a deep perception. They are people who worship. They have a deep perception of spiritual truth. During daily devotional time, words leap off the pages of scripture. When people come to church they perceive how God is working and moving.
Someone shared this with me recently: “In the past I just wanted to sleep in, to skip church.” Then he smiled and said, “I’ve never wanted to sleep in since coming to Bethany. I don’t want to miss something.”
It’s like it says in this passage: They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Acts 2:42
4. Also, those who really ratchet up their worship will experience an increase of spiritual warfare. In other words, when we really get serious about worship, it’s like the evil one will take steps to get after us.
According to the Bible, there was an someone named Lucifer who used to lead worship in heaven. We read about him in the book of Revelation: This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the Devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels Rev. 12:9 (NLT).
One day, though, he made the decision to blow God out of the way and have every bit of worship come to himself. Due to his rebellion, God tossed Lucifer out of heaven along with a third of the angelic beings who became a part of a demonic realm.
Have you ever talked to someone who has just been fired from his job? They are kind of angry, upset. And if they are around anything that reminds them of their former employer or area of employment, they just go off.
So when I begin to chainsaw areas in my life, to consistently clean them out, whoa, the spiritual warfare intensifies. The behavior of worship is a deepening of discernment—which often results in the behavior of spiritual struggle. Folks, Jesus never promised you a rose garden if you become his follower: “I’ve come to start a fire on this earth—how I wish it were blazing right now! I’ve come to change everything, turn everything rightside up—how I long for it to be finished! Do you think I came to smooth things over and make everything nice? Not so. I’ve come to disrupt and confront!” Luke 12:49-51 (TMNT)
I said last week worship can be dangerous. Are you willing to engage in spiritual warfare?
B. Now to that extent that our worship develops the behavior of discernment then to that extent our worship will assist us in having a new take on our trials. Trials will happen, big trials, medium size trials and small trials. And this flies right in the face of people of faith. This is a tough one. This is where it really gets interesting. This is the test of true biblical leadership.
Hebrews 13:15. “Through Jesus, therefore let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess his name.” Continually. Wow. That flies in my face. I have no problem worshipping God and mirroring the majesty of my maker when my life is a steady stream of superlatives, when it is a bull market, when I have just received a bonus, when the family is healthy, wealthy and wise. No problem. Twenty-four seven. I love You, Lord.
Hold that thought. Let’s jump to the Old Testament. Psalm 34:1. Again we have this worship thing being a constant. David said, “I will extol the Lord at all times, his praise will always be on my lips.” How in the world do we do this? Am I telling you just to feel worship, to feel thankful no matter what comes down the pike? Is that the deal, to have a phony, fake “Praise The Lord? Alleluia, I am facing another trial.”
No, not that phony mumbo jumbo junk. The Bible tells us that we are to choose, to make a decision of obedience, to give thanks in everything, small trials, medium trials, and major league trials. We are to worship God, to mirror the majesty of our Maker in everything.
We are not talking about feelings. The Bible never tells us to feel feelings of thanksgiving when we are facing trials. It never tells us to feel worshipful when we are facing adverse circumstances or situations.
Feelings are freaky. They are affected by a poor round at the golf course. They are affected by an argument with a loved one. They are affected by PMS. Feelings go up. Feelings go down. Feelings go up. Feelings go down.
But the Bible tells me, Don, to make a choice and say, “God I don’t understand it but I thank you for it. I want to mirror You.”
Christ follower, if you haven’t noticed, you are in an aquarium and people in the world around you have their faces pressed up against the glass. They want it see how you are doing life deeply with God. There you are like a fish and these people are just sitting back saying, “Now she is OK. Look at who she is dating. Look at the money she is making.
But you wait until the wrecking ball crashes the aquarium, then we will see if she really loves the Lord.” People are doing that in your life and in mine. They are around your neighborhood and mine, your health club and mine. They are there just watching.
We have an opportunity to have a new take on trials. Acts 16. Paul and Silas hit this Roman province. They were teaching the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. They were teaching the whole worship thing, the chainsaw thing. There was a girl on the outskirts of the crowd and she followed them day in and day out. She was a fortuneteller. The scripture says she was oppressed by a demon. But this girl kept pointing out Paul and Silas.
She kept saying that they served God, the Lord. She kept saying that over and over and over. Finally the Apostle Paul had had enough. He turned to her and cast out the demon. Well, a problem occurred. This girl was making a lot of coin for some men in the city. They didn’t like losing all of the jack. So they brought Paul and Silas to the magistrate and the magistrate had Paul and Silas flogged.
Let me tell you what it meant to be flogged. You were spread-eagled and a leather whip with stones or iron tied into the thongs was lashed across your body ripping skin and tendons. They were each struck 39 times. Then Paul and Silas were thrown into a dungeon. The leaders of the community looked at the pitiful Philippian jailer and said, “Doc, if these people escape you are history. We are going to rub you out.” The Philippian jailer really watched them.
The text records that about midnight Paul and Silas began to worship. Were they feeling like it? I doubt it. They prayed and then they began to sing songs. And oh, how I would love to hear the songs they were singing. The worship was so intense, an earthquake hit. Their chains fell off and when the Philippian jailer saw this he wanted to kill himself.
Paul said, “Don’t do it.” Then the jailer hit his knees and said, “What must I do to be saved?”Acts 16:30
What was happening here? This Philippian jailer and ultimately his entire household was tattooed by the love of God. The love of God was tattooed all over them because they saw the attitude and the obedience of Christ followers during the midst of a trial.
Here’s the outcome of that event: They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family.(Acts 16:31-34
I am not even insinuating that when you handle a trial after the wrecking ball has hit your life, that people are going to rush up to you and hit their knees and say what must I do to be saved? That could happen.
But I will tell you what will happen. You can and will be used as an instrument of the Lord to tattoo God’s love on them. You can prepare their hearts for someone else who may deposit the seed of truth into their lives and they can become Christ followers.
Could unbelievers look at believers going through trials, even being tyrannized by them and because of their obedience and attitude and worship they ultimately take a step of faith and come into the family of God?
I want you to make a T if you would. Use the index finger from each hand. Take the T and put it very, very close to your eyes. Now when you get it close, all you see is the T, right? And that is the way the majority of us handle trials. Whoa, I can only see this trial in my relationship, in my career, in my finances, in my activities. You just see the trial. Now move the T about two feet out. The T becomes smaller and you have a different perspective. I can see you and you can see me.
Think about going to the eye doctor. He puts that big machine in front of you. It has different lenses on it. “What looks better? One or two? Three or four? A or B?” It is almost sensory overload. I think A or was it three? When you face a trial, look at it through the lens of the Lord because He will give you true perspective and true meaning and true power.
But there is one more thing that we have got to talk about. You’re thinking, Don this stuff you’ve been talking about have kind of been downers. You’ve talked about chainsaw stuff, discernment stuff. You’ve talked about trials. Tough stuff. Didn’t you have your caffeine this morning?
Well now let’s talk about something else that worship will do that’s more positive. I had my coffee and I think my caffeine is kicking in now.
C. Worship will heighten our hospitality. And also it will heighten God’s hospitality. It will heighten my hospitality and God’s hospitality. Isn’t that something?
One of my favorite shows growing up was the Beverly Hillbillies. I loved the Beverly Hillbillies. I still love to watch the reruns. After this Mayberry series in July I’ll have to start planning the Beverly Hillbillies moments.
Granny, Jethro Bodean, Ellie Mae, Jedd. At the end of the show the credits would roll and they would stand outside their palatial mansion and begin to wave. Little Granny would hold up her hand waving. I want us to sing as a church the last part of this song. You know I am feeling kind of low today; not that good, but this song I think will put a spring in all of our steps. Let’s go ahead and put the words on the screen and Dale will lead us as we sing this song.
One and a two and a three.
“Well now it’s time to say goodbye to Jedd and all his kin and they would like to thank you folks for kindly dropping in.
You are all invited back again to this locality to have a heaping helping of their hospitality.
Hillbilly, that is. Sit a spell. Take your shoes off. You’ll come back now. Ya hear.”
Give yourself a round of applause. That was incredible. The best choir I have heard in a long time. Have a heaping helpin’ of possum stew. Take your shoes off. Sit a spell. Just think about that against the backdrop of one of the most potent verses in scripture.
I am going to be reading out of the King James Version. Psalm 22:3. “But thou art holy, oh thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” In other words, worship is where God lives. It is His address. Circle the word inhabitest. So I guess if I want God to sit a spell, to have a heaping helpin, to take His shoes off, I had better be involved in worship.
Let me do a Q and A with you. Question. Why do things happen when we worship? Why do things happen in your life and mine in private worship and why do things happen in corporate worship? Why do feelings get prioritized? Why do relationships with barriers get reconciled? Why do people sometimes get healed? Why do things happen in worship?
Here is the Answer. While God is everywhere, call that the omnipresence of God, He is not everywhere equally manifested. God is manifested to a greater degree when those of us who love him worship him. When God feels at home, He acts at home.
Over the last twelve months, I have traveled some and stayed in some interesting places. Some places were comfortable for me—others were not as comfortable—like our hotel room in Quebec which was at the entry door and people came in loud and obnoxious at midnight while I was trying to sleep.
But I will tell you where you can find me the most comfortable. I will tell you where you will see me taking my shoes off and acting most at home. My table manners probably aren’t as good either. In my house, where I live. That is my address. I am home and I act at home.
You see, ladies and gentlemen, when we adopt a lifestyle of worship which results in: the behavior of discernment, the behavior of a new take on trials, and the behavior of a heightened hospitality then, and only then, will we understand what it means how to behave in all of life. These verses from the Bible sums it all up—if you haven’t gotten anything else these lessons on worship get this. Notice the phrases I have highlighted on your outline:
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering [worship]. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:1-3 (TMNT)
Get it?---GOT IT!
