Detours in Worship and Service

Luke 5:4-8

Luke 5:4–8 NKJV

4 When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” 6 And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. 7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”

Introduction

- Whether in church on Sunday or in our everyday lives, every time we acknowledge how great God is and/or how good He’s been to us, that is an act of worship. It is an act of honoring Him for who He is and/or what He’s done.

Key Question: “Why don’t I think more often about God’s greatness and goodness?”

- We can go days at a time without having any thought of how good God has been to us. We look past the blessings and supply that He’s given. “Who God is” and “what God’s done for us” simply drops from our radar screen. Then Sunday comes around again and we once again acknowledge that God is alive and brings good things into our lives.

- What are the things that are getting in the way of our seeing God’s greatness and goodness in our everyday life?

- Worship is not intended to be a Sunday morning activity, but instead our life should be have the refrain of how much God has done for us once again.

Isaiah 6:3 says that “the whole earth is full of His glory,” yet many of us rarely think about God outside the walls of the church.

Isaiah 6:3 NKJV

3 And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!”

What are the “detours” that are getting us off track?

Key Biblical Idea: Being at Jesus’ feet.

Luke 5:8 NKJV

8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”

- Obviously being at Jesus’ feet is a place of worship and servitude. What can we learn by those at Jesus’ feet about the detours that get us off-track?

Six Detours in Worship and Service

1. We get consumed by our pride.

Luke 7:38–39 NKJV

38 and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”

John 13:5 NKJV

5 After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.

- I want to focus on Simon’s response to this woman’s worship. His focus is not on God’s greatness because he gets sidetracked by his religious pride.

- In our lives, it may be religious pride or just a life that is self-centered, but in either case, we have put ourselves on the throne of our lives. We are interested in what will increase our reputation. We love to hear people talk about us and our accomplishments. How can we tout God’s greatness when we’re so consumed with our own greatness?

2. We get boxed in by people’s expectations of us.

Luke 8:35 NKJV

35 Then they went out to see what had happened, and came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.

- After you’ve been around people for a while, they have certain expectations of the way you’re going to act and what you’re going to say. If you deviate much at all from that, comments like “What’s wrong with you?” and “Why are you acting weird?” are sure to come.

- As we think of being people who regularly acknowledge and enjoy the greatness and goodness of God in our daily lives, that’s bound to come out in our conversation. In fact, perhaps such thoughts have come to our mind before. As we expressed them, though, we got those quizzical looks in response.

- “Aren’t we fortunate that all the kids are healthy and doing well in school?” brings a response of “Yeah, I guess so. Where did that come from?”

- “God has really taken care of all of our financial needs, hasn’t He?” brings a response of “Where did that come from?”

- When you begin to talk in ways you haven’t before, you’ll get those looks and comments. When it comes to seeing God’s greatness and goodness in daily life, our tentative explorations of that territory have left us believing that it’s not worth pursuing people’s uneasy glances.

Often we attempt to “conform” to religious standards due to expectations from church, our parents, family, friends, etc… instead of from a place of a changed heart and a change in our relationship and opinion of sin.

3. We are concentrating on the pain of someone we love.

Luke 8:41 NKJV

41 And behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue. And he fell down at Jesus’ feet and begged Him to come to his house,

- When a family member is hurting (emotionally, physically, or financially), it’s easy to become consumed by that pain. We find ourselves thinking about them and their situation all the time, often worrying about it.

- When we’re worrying, it’s incredibly hard to see God working. It’s not that He isn’t. It’s not that it’s not possible to see His mercy in the situation. It’s just that we’re so focused on how bad the situation is that we can’t see how good God is being to us even in the midst of our tough situation.

- In moments of desperation like that, we need to lean on God’s strong arm. Too often, though, we’re not even thinking about God at all, except briefly during “band-aid” “fix-it” prayers.

4. We are distracted

Luke 10:39 NKJV

39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word.

- Sometimes we don’t think about God’s greatness and goodness because we have stuffed our lives full to the gills and, as we run through our lives at a breakneck pace, we never come up for air.

- Some live this way because it confirms to them their importance (i.e. busy = important). It’s tough to be thinking about God’s greatness when you’re running hard to maintain the illusion of your importance.

The Enemy is also set on a goal for most Christians a goal of distractions. He will work overtime to get us so distracted that we loose our “want too” in service and worship of God. We will sit for hours at movies and ball games yet wont sit in a Church because the pews aren’t comfortable. We will go to crowded sporting events and festivals but use too big of a crowd at Church as an excuse. When it gets down too it we simply have a heart problem..... we desire OUR DESIRES AND WANTS more than GODS.

5. We are focused on our possessions and worldliness.

John 12:3 NKJV

3 Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.

- Kids love toys, but we as grown-up Americans sure spend a lot of time ourselves thinking about and playing with our toys. A new computer, a new boat, new clothes, the latest Cell Phone, or whatever else we’ve just bought.

- God is the source of all the material blessings in our lives, but the dearth of tithing gives clear indication that the majority of Christians don’t believe that to be true.

- We turn our attention from today’s “latest thing” to tomorrow’s “latest thing.” We’re too busy bowing at the altar of technological advancement and materialistic hedonism to have time to think of God. We bow down and worship the God’s of this world and entertainment and sports are refuse to bow down before the True and Living God who gave all for you!

6. We are embarrassed by our sin.

Matthew 28:9 NKJV

9 And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!” So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him.

Luke 5:8 NKJV

8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”

- We all sin and experience the separation from God that that brings. Sometimes, when we sin, we do “damage control” by trying to hide from God and think as little about Him as possible. That inevitably leads to other problems in our lives, but we’re trying to make the best of a bad situation. We OFTEN HIDE FROM GOD BECAUSE WE ARE IN SINFUL REBELLION AND RUNNING AWAY FROM HIS CALLING UPON OUR LIVES, WE SIMPLY WANT NOTING TO DO WITH WHAT HE HAS CALLED US TO DO..... AND HE WILL GIVE US SOME SPACE FOR A TIME.... THEN HE WILL GENTLY DRAW US BACK… UNLESS WE CONTINUE TO REFUSE AND RUN THEN HE WILL STRONGLY CALL US BACK.... AND IF WE CONTINUE TO RUN WOE UNTO US! FOR THE HAND OF THE LORD WILL BE AGAINST US! HE TELLS US NOT TO SPARE THE ROD LEST WE SPOIL THE CHILD… WHY DO WE THINK HE WILL NOT CORRECT AND DISCIPLINE HIS CHILDREN, AND THIS MAY BE DONE BY HIM ALLOWING THE ENEMY TO HAVE A FIELD DAY IN OUR LIVES, MINDS EMOTIONS , FINANCES, HEALTH ETC....!

- Yes, you may have sinned, but Jesus stands ready to forgive and to welcome you back into full fellowship with Him. Don’t dwell in your sins. Bow at Jesus’ feet, release your sins to Him, and once again experience the joy of worshiping your Savior.

Conclusion:

The first step: Recognize that you’ve taken a detour, whichever one it may have been.

Second Step is repentance

Third is to move forward in obedience seeking to walk in His ways and His will.

- When we begin to honor God’s greatness and goodness as a matter of everyday life, there is not only the result of God getting the glory that He deserves, but as a side bonus we find our lives more filled with joy.

- Which detour have you been taking?