Are You A Multi-Dimensional Worshiper? Becoming A Festival pt. 3
Feb 15/16, 2003: Mark 12:28-34
Intro:
After attending church one Sunday morning, a little boy knelt at his bedside that night and prayed, "Dear God, we had a good time at church today--but I wish you had been there!"
Let me assure you, God is here. And He longs for us to know that. He longs for us to open ourselves to express our love for Him. A big part of our preparation for each of our worship services is time in prayer specifically asking that God would enable us to be free to worship Him and express ourselves to Him, and in turn to receive back from God whatever He might desire us to hear, feel, or experience of Himself. God is here, and I believe that He desires us to worship Him more deeply, more expressively, more holistically. With all of ourselves.
Context and a bit of review…
We have a vision for worship in our church – it is a vision of expression. The picture is of the church as a festival – meeting God, entering into His presence as we talked about last week in Hebrews 12, joining with angels and other Christians and even creation, and meeting God personally. And then we respond to Whom it is we have met. We respond to God. We learned last week that our response should be characterized by thankfulness, reverence, and awe. I want to say one further thing about that before looking today at Mark 12. I didn’t elaborate on what it might look like for us to worship with reverence and awe, for a couple of reasons including primarily the fact that the form of that response will be different for various groups of people that are part of our church. But there is one I would like to mention for all of us, and let me mention it as a request.
Could we agree together to make a greater effort to arrive on time? (put up picture). This is what our sanctuary looked like at 9:30 this morning, which is the time we start. This is what it looked like at 10:00 (put up picture). I know it isn’t a great characteristic of our culture, that punctuality isn’t highly valued. I know sometimes there are things that prevent us from being on time, and I don’t want to get rigid. But let me say it is difficult for us to worship when we come into a service part way through – when we rush in, things are already happening, and we scramble to catch our breath. It is also difficult (and frustrating, to be honest) to plan and to lead a service where the majority of people aren’t here until 20 minutes in – to call people to worship or have a moment of silent preparation as we did last week, or even to share announcements when there are only a handful of people to participate. I don’t want anyone to feel guilty or not welcome or anything like that. But could we agree to make a strong effort to be here, sitting down ready to worship, right at the beginning of the service? I think that alone would greatly enhance our worship individually and corporately. Could we agree to that?
Mark 12:28-34:
We are pursuing a vision of worship as a church. We are seeking together to bring to God an offering of worship which is pleasing to Him and which, as a result, will change us. It is the purpose for which we were created. I want to look at Mark 12:28-34 as we seek God through His Word to discover how to be a festival. (read)
It’s a familiar story. Jesus is in the midst of an in-depth debate with the religious leaders of the day; they’ve been trying to catch Jesus in something He says, trying to trip Him up, get Him to teach Himself into a corner where they can then pounce on Him and discredit Him. We come to this story, where another one of the teachers of the law (likely having a similar status and function to a lawyer today) approaches Jesus with another question: which law is the most important? I like questions like that; they tend to help put things in perspective, to remind us in the midst of complexity of what the most critical parts are. Let me make several observations about worship out of this question and response, starting at the end:
The Most Important Part of Worship is Love (vs. 35):
This teacher comes to a critical conclusion at the end of the conversation with Jesus: loving God and loving others is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.
I want us to catch what a radical statement this is from one of the “teachers of the law.” The purpose of that group of people was to guard and enforce all of the ritual commands – there were lots of them governing all aspects of life and conduct, and the ones they took most seriously were the worship commands – how to conduct the burnt offerings and sacrifices, which were at the heart of the outward expression of worship. We know from many of Jesus’ other conversations with the religious leaders that these external commands had superseded all other considerations – what was most important was that they looked right on the outside, that all the details were conducted exactly according to the “policy and procedures manual,” that people admired them for how “religious” they appeared to be. One of the major reasons Jesus conflicted with them was because of Jesus’ emphasis on the internal – on the state of the heart. This teacher seems to grasp this, and agrees with Jesus that the internal state of the person is more important than the outward form. “love is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” That is a very significant statement from this teacher, very radical.
What does this mean for us as we worship? I believe it calls us back to the very heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Worship is about loving God first and loving each other second. That is even more simple than the definition of worship I suggested last week! But I believe it is true – worshiping God means loving Him and loving others.
That leads naturally to the next question: How do you show someone you love them? Valentine’s day was a few days ago; did you do something to express your love for someone? Was it time spent? A special meal? A card which verbally expressed your feelings? A gift? Choosing to worshiping God is exactly the same – it is choosing to express our love for God. We do that in all kinds of ways – through time spent personally reading and praying and listening and time spent corporately like we are right now. Through a special meal – our communion celebration. Verbally expressing our love through song and prayer. Through giving gifts, both monetary in our offering and gifts of ourselves. Is that what it has been for you today? Have your songs and prayers and gifts been expressions of your love for God? If I continue with that analogy, let me ask you husbands – if you bring home flowers or cook a special meal or something else for your wife, and she asks you “why did you do that?”; is a good answer to that question, “because I have to. It’s my duty.” I suspect that is a poor response… which might land you in some hot water. You did that out of a desire to express your love. That is what worship is.
And as Jesus and the teacher agree, the critical part of that is the attitude of your heart. You might fool your spouse, but God knows. He looks deep within and knows what is behind our worship – whether it is motivated by habit or duty or guilt; or whether it is motivated by love for Him and a desire to express that love. When we bring an offering of worship that is not motivated by love, I believe it saddens the heart of God. I believe God weeps – for us, not for Himself – when we come to worship in a half-hearted way, when we play at worship, when we don’t put any effort or desire or intent to meet with God into it. When we come into His presence with a list of demands and an attitude that we are here just to get from God and not to give to God. It is the same way you and I would feel if someone we loved desperately only ever came and demanded something of us, if they only ever came to receive, to “be fed”. God desires to give, yes absolutely. But I believe He is only truly free to fill us with all the good things He desires when we give Him all of ourselves. If we give God 5% of ourselves and our worship, that is the most He can fill – if He even chooses to honor us for giving so little. If we give Him 10%, that is the most He can fill.
The opposite is also true, and certainly more important. When we bring an offering of worship that is motivated by and expressive of a depth of love in our hearts for God, He will come in amazing ways. He will move powerfully. He will pour His power and His love and His gifts and His forgiveness and His grace and the fullness of His presence. He will fill us with all that He desires for us. He will heal us, grow us, bear fruit through us, and use us in His Kingdom for His glory. Deut 4:29 promises “if … you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
Love with all (vs 30):
Jesus’ answer to the teacher’s question of which command is the most important is a command of how to live. And how we live, according to Romans 12:1, is to be how we worship. Jesus calls us to love God with ALL. His answer is a direct quote from Deut. 6:4-5, the central verse to the Jewish faith. The emphasis here is on the whole person loving God. “Love God with ALL of you.” That is the simple message, the plain truth. Love God with all that you are. Every bit. Jesus continues, listing four specific ways that wholeness is expressed, but let’s recognize first that the main point Jesus is making is that the most important commandment is that we love God completely. He elaborates by calling us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
A. Love with all your heart.
“Heart” means our inner being – the seat of our spiritual life. Do you love God with all your heart? Does God have your heart? Do you put all that is within you into loving God, are you invested in it, does it matter to you?
Last summer I took a week of holidays because I wanted to build a deck. Joanne (my wife) found a picture in a Home magazine of this beautiful deck, and I said “sure, I’ll build that for you…” I confess, it was a little bit out of my skill level… but I poured myself into that project. I was out first thing in the morning, and at Home Depot late at night getting the stuff I needed for the next day. I invested myself in that project, I did it with all my heart. And I’m pleased with the result – not because it is perfectly built or nicely square, it isn’t!! – I’m pleased because I poured my heart into it.
Do you pour your heart into worship? Do you express your love for God with all your heart?
B. Love with all your soul.
As Jesus used the word soul, it refers to life itself, often meaning feeling and emotion. Does God have your emotion? Do you feel in worship, do you let those feelings show? There are times still for me when I look at my son and this whole bundle of feelings well up inside me and my eyes fill up with tears and I hold him tight and I thank God for him and tell him I love him so much. That happens less frequently for me in worship, though even here there are times when I feel God’s presence as we sing or as we pray and my soul is filled with awe or joy or love for my Savior. Do you express your love for God with all your feelings?
C. Love with all your mind.
This one is a little more comfortable for me as a man who likes to ponder and reflect. The word Jesus used refers to our intellect, our understanding. Paul tells us that the renewing of our minds transforms us into God’s image (Rom. 12:2). Do you love God with all your mind as you worship Him? Do you see the lyrics of a song like “In Christ Alone,” and think deeply about the incredible truths that are there? Each verse is deep and powerful – here is vs 3:
There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in Glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost it’s grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ
Do you focus your mind on all that you sing, on all that you hear, seeking to understand it with all your might? That’s what it means to love God with all your mind.
D. Love with all your strength.
The word Jesus uses here for “strength” means “one’s power to act.” So it is physical, but it also involves our will.
I remember one of the last Sunday’s that Alan Vail was in church. He sat in his wheelchair, stooped over, head bowed, his body racked with Parkinson’s. Speech was difficult, he’d lost most of his ability to control the movement of his arms and legs. I sat across from him, and as we sang a song part of which said something about the greatness of God, I saw him place his hands on the arms of his chair. He lifted his feet out of the foot rests, and slowly pushed himself up out of the chair until he was standing. He couldn’t sing any longer, he couldn’t speak easily, but I watched him use every ounce of physical strength he had to stand to worship his Lord. That is what it means to love God with all your strength. Do you love and worship Him like that?
The multi-dimensional worshiper:
We all have strengths – some of us are cognitive, some are emotive, some express themselves physically. And I think most of us seek to worship God completely with those areas we are strong in. But Jesus calls us to worship God completely in ALL those areas. If we only worship with all our mind, we are one-dimensional worshipers and at most we love God with all of that part of us – the max. is 25%. Same thing if we only worship God with all our emotions. Jesus says our worship needs to be characterized by loving God with all of all of those parts of us. God calls us to be multi-dimensional worshipers.
I want to challenge you to pick one of those areas to work on as you worship. I think most of us need to learn to worship more completely with our emotions – to pour out our feelings before God in honesty and reality and worship Him with all of our hearts. But I’ll let you and the Holy Spirit choose… (Sat night do spiritual exercise here?)
A Final Thought (vs. 31):
Worship doesn’t stop with loving God. Worship is also about how we love one another. “The second is this: ‘love your neighbour’”. This part is so important that in Matthew Jesus said, “if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” (Matt 5:23-24). According to this verse reconciliation takes precedence over worship. That is an incredible verse after considering how important our worship is to God.
This is critical to us as a part of our worship experience together. Any lack of love amongst us will rob us of the ability to worship. If you come and see someone you are mad at or hurt by or for whatever other reason have a lack of love for them, you won’t be able to meet God in worship. Those feelings will prevent you from worshiping God, and prevent God from being able to speak to your heart. If you do come with the love of God for others, your heart will be so full of grace and forgiveness that you won’t be distracted by something that you don’t like about someone else.
Conclusion:
We are called to worship God with our whole selves: heart, soul, mind, and strength. We are called to love one another. The essence of worship is expressing our love for God in the context of right relationship with others. As the teacher in Mark 12 said, this is more important than any external act.
I want to invite you into the presence of God, and I want to challenge you to worship Him with your whole being, including especially those areas that you generally keep to yourself. Because as you give Him your all, He will be able to fill your all with Himself.
