Just Like Jesus pt 3
The heart of Jesus is compassionate, forgiving, listening and led by an invisible hand. Today we will see two more components of His heart, may those components be ours also.
His heart is a Worship hungry heart.
How did we prepare to come here today? What were the things we did to prepare ourselves for worship this morning? Did we come here with an “ok” attitude? You know what I mean, one of those “let me put in my time” attitudes. Wayne Bradfield has said on numerous occasions “When it comes to worship, God is the spectator we are the participants.” Worship requires us to have an attitude and it requires us to prepare.
What is our attitude this morning?
Are we glad to be here?
Are we glad to see others here?
Have we hugged someone new this morning?
Did we come in with a song in our heart and a smile on our face?
Did we confide in someone about what troubles us?
What course did we set to get here in the proper attitude for worship?
There was a story about airline passengers and pew sitters. There is a lot in common between the two. Some want a “nice” flight, uneventful, get me there on time attitude. Some want more. There was a little boy on this one flight and he made the request “Can I see the Pilot?” When news of this request reached the cockpit, the Pilot stepped out and asked who wanted to see him? The little boy raised his hands excitedly. The Pilot invited him up to the cockpit to look inside. There was also a group of ladies with beach bags, sundresses and wide brimmed hats, giggling excitedly as the made there way to their seat, there was also the business who wore a frown the whole trip as he stared at the screen of his laptop. Yet others contentedly took their seat, smiled a little, relaxed a little, and when the flight was over they got up from their seat and exited the plane saying “It was a nice flight.” Yet how do you think that little would describe it? Few of us come with that wide eyed enthusiasm of that little boy, and then few of us leave with that same wide-eyed wonder of having stood in the presence of the pilot himself. We need that “worship-hungry heart” that says I came to see Jesus.
How can we prepare for worship?
1. Pray before coming
2. Come hungry
3. Listen to worshipful music on our way here
4. Come expecting God to speak to our hearts
5. Come expecting to see Jesus
MT 17:1 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. 4 Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters--one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." 5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!" 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them. "Get up," he said. "Don’t be afraid." 8 When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
Worship changes the face of the worshipper. If the face is sad, when comes to worship it changes to glad. The face of the worshipper reflects that which is worshipped. Here Jesus came to worship and his face was changed. I am reminded of the short story about the little boy coming home from school during a storm. His mother was watching from the window as he made his way down the street. Every time the lightning flashed he looked up and smiled. When his mother asked why he did that he exclaimed; “God was taking my picture so I wanted to smile for Him.” God wants to change our expression. How does God change our expression? It is through worship. He wants wipe away wrinkles of worry, relax clenched jaws, smooth ruffled foreheads, wipe away shadows of shame and give us a new face.
Worship is the act of magnifying God, enlarging our view of Him.
Do we have big problems? Big worries, big questions? Therefore we need a big view of God.
We sing “Holy Holy Holy” if we sing what we mean and mean what we sing, how can we not expand our view of God?
How can we not be relieved and smile when we sing “It is Well with my Soul”? My sin o the bliss of the glorious thought, my sin not in part but the whole, is nailed to the Cross and I bear it no more Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord o my soul.
Our face reflects our worship. When Jesus was in the presence of the Father that day, his face was changed. Moses, that time on the mount came down and his face reflected the presence of God, Stephen, his face glowed like that of an angel. Better yet, the countenance of the “Sons of Thunder” changed so that one, John, could write us about the Love of God.
Now I am not proclaiming we all paint smiles on our faces. The job of changing our faces is God’s. But we allow Him to when we willingly enter into worship prepared to be changed, renewed, and made whole.
This has evangelistic opportunities written all over it.
When the world sees us this way they will want it to. Look at what Paul told the Corinthians. 24 But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, 25 and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, "God is really among you!" (1 Cor. 14:24-25)
If we equate prophesying here with worship the picture is clearer. If unbelievers come in and see the heart of worship here, they will be convinced. What is the world learning from our worship? Seekers may not understand right away, but they will know the joy when they see it, and they will want it. But the same is true when the seeker sees boredom in our face, others are worshipping and you are scowling, others are in His presence while some of us are still in our own little world.
In light of this we need to see another aspect. To have a worship hungry heart we need to prepare and we need to stay FOCUSED. We need to have a Focused heart.
Don Kennedy, my mentor, and friend from Lake Country Christian Church told me his secret for staying focused while others are praying. He attempts to pray what they are praying in his mind while they are praying aloud. Now I have a hard time doing that since my hearing is not what it should be. Some times when people pray I cannot hear them. That Ok because they are not praying to me, but to God. So when I can hear, I try to do the same. When I can’t I remember the requests made, I try to visualize myself before God’s throne, and I seek his face.
Golf is a game of focus. Max Lucado tells of one outing. He and some fellow preachers were playing. On this one particular hole, as he teed up, he commented on how tough that hole seemed, narrow fairway, long green, trees everywhere. He hit a beautiful shot, high over the trees to the left. The other three all hit low shots to the right. They groaned, he walked. He found his ball in the weeds, again he hit a great shot, the only thing that kept his ball from riding to the green was a steep hill. He was a bit miffed there was no one to see his great shots, his partners were all going the other direction. It wasn’t until he reached the green that he realized he was going the wrong way.
A focused heart is a heart on target. One of the lesson I got about preaching was “If you aim at nothing you’ll hit it everytime.” Charles Shultz one time drew his cartoon of Peanuts, it was Charlie Brown shooting a bow and arrow. He was standing in his backyard shooting at the fence. Linus commented that there was no target. Charlie Brown I know, I wait until I see where the arrow goes and then draw the target around it.
Jesus had a heart that was focused and on target. “In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." (John 18:37). One of the challenges ahead of us is to come up with a memorable purpose statement for our congregation. Why? So that we never loose focus of why we are here, and never get off track of what we are supposed to do. Jesus remained focused because he had a mission and a purpose to fulfill. His mission was not finished until that day on Calvary’s cross when he said “IT is Finished” If we look at the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus in John 17 we see that Jesus remained focused to the task.
Jesus warned us that the devil has come to steal and to kill. He also came to distract. When Jesus and Satan met in the desert, Satan tried everything he could to change the focus. He distracted with bread, he distracted with power, and he distracted with riches. But Jesus remained focused.
How do we focus our hearts?
1. Ask God how we fit into his plan. (Romans 8:28) And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
2. How do we fit in the overall scheme to win the world?
3. What do we long for? Do we want to see more people come to Christ? What are we doing about it?
4. Realize we each have a particular gift God has blessed us with, we want to use that for His Glory.
To remain focused we should remember P.L.A.N
Am I fitting into God’s Plan
What are my Longings?
What are my Abilities?
Am I serving God Now?
