The Wonder of Worship

Introduction

As we get ready for Fall and as school activities and church ministries get back into full swing, it’s an exciting time in the life of our church. We’ve looked at some of the things that are happening tonight - new church year, Kidz Choir starts tomorrow, our association annual meeting is tomorrow, the Missouri Baptist Convention meeting is next month. There’s lots going on! As we look around our church, we see lots going on as well. We continue to see spiritual and numerical growth taking place. We continue to see baptisms and disciples growing in their walk with the Lord. We see new faces and we see faces that we haven’t seen in a while coming more often and it’s exciting to watch God at work! We know that all that takes place at FBC Salem is because of God’s power and for God’s glory. Tonight, I believe it’s entirely appropriate for us to take some time to study from God’s Word about what God wants all of His children to do as we walk this Christian life.

If you have your Bible, go ahead and turn to Colossians chapter 3 as we’re going to camp out in this chapter tonight and see that Christians have a reshapes our perspective, redefines our purpose, and rewrites our past for one goal and reason: So that we worship and glorify Him as He deserves! This is what we are here to do individually and collectively as a congregation, to worship our Lord and give Him thanks for Who He is and all that He has done - and as we’ve talked about tonight, we have many reasons to give Him thanks tonight! Let’s read this passage, Colossians 3:1-17

Colossians 3:1–17 CSB

1 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5 Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, God’s wrath is coming upon the disobedient, 7 and you once walked in these things when you were living in them. 8 But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator. 11 In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all. 12 Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. 14 Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Jesus Christ Reshapes our Perspective (1-4)

The book of Colossians is all about the supremacy of Jesus Christ and how Jesus saves His people so that they will serve Him and live a changed life with Him at the center of everything. Colossians 1-2 are all about the centrality of Jesus Christ and the importance of finding salvation and confidence in Christ alone. Colossians 2:20-23 emphasizes this point as Paul shares that if you are saved, if you have died with Christ, then you cannot live according to this world. Here in Colossians 3 we see Paul flesh out this point even more and he opens up with the word therefore or so depending on your translation. The point of Colossians 3 is summarized in verses 1-2, “If you are raised with Christ, seek the things above… set your minds on things above.” Who is this statement in regards to? Christians! Jesus Christ reshapes the perspective of Christians because we are commanded to seek NOT the things around us but the things above! So, what does it mean to “seek” the things above? The literal word means to delight in those things more so than it does to just think about them. So, First Baptist family, would you say individually that you delight in the things of God more than the things of this world? Do we, as a church, delight more in the things of God than the things of this world? We’re at church, so obviously we’ll all say yes… but let’s flesh that out a bit.

I’ve had multiple pastors reach out and ask the following question, “What is in the water in Salem?” They want to know what is going on to foster spiritual and numerical growth in our church right now. What program are you using? What book have you read? What strategy are you employing? We do have ministries, I love to read books, and we definitely use Biblical strategies… but what I tell people is simply this: Preach the Word. Keep the Word central. Live out the Word. Encourage others to grow in the Word. One of the best books I’ve read in recent days was “Word Centered Church” by Jonathan Leeman - the Word must be center! God’s Word promises to never return void - yet in so many churches there is this desire to prioritize growth that people think that they have to stoop to ungodly methods to bring people in. What must we prioritize first as a congregation? The things of God - the things that God is serious about. Is God serious about our worship? You’d better believe He is. Is God serious about the way His people live? You’d better believe He is, we’ll see that in the second part of this passage. We seek first the things above and as we do this, our perspective changes. What matters more than large crowds is growing faithfulness to God’s Word. What matters more than lots of power is lots of open Bibles. What matters more than being praised on social media is praising our Lord and Savior as we lift our voices up as a congregation.

Does God care about people? You’d better believe it. So, if God cares about people and numbers represent people, should we care? You’d better believe it. We have 12,000+ people in our county who don’t attend church and of the 3,000 that do, not all of them are saved. If we’re going to make a Dent in Dent County for God’s glory, we have to care about numbers… but numbers are NOT our only indicator of success. They can’t be. Numbers tell a story but not the whole story. As we read God’s Word and are changed by God’s Word, we live a changed life throughout the week. CS Lewis shared, “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought the most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven.” He goes on to share that the reason that many Christians are ineffective in this world is because they only think about this world… Church, we need God to change our perspective and to help us seek His will, and in doing so, to see things His way! We want to see lives changes for all eternity, not because it makes us look good or because FBC will be bigger and better than ever… what matters more than bigness is faithfulness, each and every time! And as we remain faithful to God’s Word, God promises to work, and as we stand unapologetically on His Word, I believe we’ll continue to see lives be changed. We all have a role to play in that process and we all need Jesus to help us seek the things above and not settle for earthly things which fade away and fail to provide.

Verses 3-4 continue on this same thought progression, we set our minds on the things above and not on earthly things… why? Because that’s where our home is. We’ve touched on that the last few Sunday mornings in Hebrews 11 as God’s people look forward in this life, not backward. The reason we do this is because Jesus has redefined our purpose. Our purpose is not to be happy, healthy, and wealthy - that’s what our world prioritizes, but that’s not what we see in Scripture. Our purpose as a follower of Jesus Christ is to be holy. Our world is struggling to find its purpose and identity today because we keep looking inside ourselves to find the answer.... but that’s the wrong place to look.

We have to understand our purpose as individuals and as a church - this church doesn’t exist to please and suit ourselves… this church isn’t about you or me… this church is all about God and His glory! We exist to glorify Him and as we do that, we remember that He has a unique purpose for each of us until He returns. This newfound purpose isn’t always easy to live out…

Around 400 AD there was a pastor named John Chrysostom, one of the greatest preachers of God’s Word the church has ever known. He was the archbishop of Constantinople, the greatest city in the world at that time. The leader of Constantinople at the time was Empress Eudoxia and she was frustrated by Chrysostom and his independence and not obeying her authority. She threatened him and said that she would banish him from the empire. This is how the conversation reportedly went down

John, “You cannot banish me… for this world is my Father’s house.”

Empress, “But I will kill you.”

John, “No you can’t… for my life is hid with Christ in God.”

Empress, “I will take away your treasures.”

John, “No you can’t… for my treasure is in heaven and my heart is there.”

Empress, “But I will drive you away from your friends and you will have no one left.”

John, “No you can’t… for I have a Friend in heaven from whom you cannot separate me. I defy you, there is nothing that you can do to harm me.”

This sounds similar to Paul in Philippians as he says

Philippians 1:21 CSB

21 For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Our redefined purpose in this life after salvation is to glorify God.

Jesus Christ Rewrites our Past (5-11)

In order to be saved from something, it follows that you used to be in danger. We know this to be true according to God’s Word - there was a time in which we lived according to our earthly nature and were walking down the wide road that leads to death and destruction… We see Paul tell these people in verse 5 and 8 a long list of things that we used to do. Immorality, impurity, lust, evil, greed, idolatry, anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech… what a list here! This is our past - and sadly, this is the situation that many people find themselves in today as well, even in church pews! The point is that this is how we all used to live, but if you’re in Christ, if you’re loved, chosen and set apart (verse 12), then God has something better in store for you today… but you have to have Jesus save you and change you from your past. There are 2 imperative commands in this section “put to death” and “put away.” That might sound impossible, but we remember that this is made possible because of what Jesus has already done for us.

The incredible part of being a Christian is that you do not have to do these things by yourself - certainly you must respond and choose this day who you will serve, but there is a power inside of you that is transforming your very life this second if you are in Christ - the Holy Spirit! One of the issues that we can run into, though, is in focusing more on one of these lists and less on the other. For example, if someone was sexually immoral and unfaithful to their spouse many Christians correctly say that person sinned and they did something wrong. Paul notes that we are to put those types of desires to death! However, far fewer people feel the same way when it comes to abusive speech, gossiping or having a bad temper. Paul gives an imperative command for his audience and for Christians in the future to put these fleshly passions to death and get rid of all of these other actions. Is Paul saying that adultery and gossip are on the same level with one another? That’s not his point. His point is that these actions come from a place that is not Godly. Therefore, because we are a new creation, we are not supposed to indulge our fleshly desires but rather live, act, think and speak differently. Because the source of these actions is not godly, if we continue to live in them and demonstrate them with no repentance, if we continue to gossip and slander others for example, and we don’t feel convicted and we don’t repent and apologize to the person we have wronged, there’s a serious problem and Colossians 3:6 says that God’s wrath is coming upon that person.

We all used to walk in darkness as children under wrath, but within the body of Christ that is composed of born again believers, Paul is sharing that Jesus Christ has freed us from those ungodly things. We are image bearers of our Creator! We are a new person. Sin no longer controls us - now sin is a temptation working hard to regain control but it has no power over us. We are slaves of Christ. We have a new master. He has given us a new self. While our past might try to hold us down, we can point our past and our foes to the empty cross and rest assured that our Savior has won our victory and saved us. We’re a new creation and we can’t afford to continue living according to our sinful self.

Jesus Christ Receives our Praise (12-17)

So, if we are a new person that seeks first the things above, what must we do? That has to change our lives but how exactly does it do that? We read in Scripture that there are things expected of us as Christians, commands in fact for all Christians… but why do we do those things? Why fulfill the imperatives (commands) of Scripture? Because our status has changed. We obey our God and do His will because He has loved us, saved us, and changed us. We are NOT loved, saved, and changed BECAUSE of our perfect obedience. Our obedience is a response to God’s action and love. Colossians 3:12 hammers this point home… Who we are determines what we must do. We are chosen, changed, and loved by God… therefore, we must live a changed life. Some of these changes are overnight, but many of these changes are gradual and require discipline and work… Kind of like whenever you undergo a serious surgery and have to go through physical rehab/therapy afterward.

Whenever I was 16, I tore my patella in my right knee and it required surgery and the doctor had to install 3 screws into my knee to hold everything together. Whenever I left the hospital later that day, I felt normal and even pretty good! But I knew that my knee wasn’t normal. My knee would swell up every time I walked for months. I couldn’t run for months - so no track and field. In fact, 10 years later, every time I run, I still am reminded that I have a “good” knee and a “bad” knee because they don’t feel the same. My knee is not the same that it was… This is how it is in our lives spiritually as well. Whenever we repent of our sins and trust in Jesus Christ, we still do some of the same activities and jobs as we did before Jesus, but we feel different because we have been changed. We have undergone a major surgery - we were dead and now we’re alive. It’s not always easy to live a changed life, sometimes it hurts, but God empowers us to walk in this life in a way that glorifies Him.

Look at the list in verses 12-14 - are these things easy? We put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, we bear with one another, we forgive one another, we love one another… Why on earth would we do these things? Why show kindness to someone who is mean? Why be patient with someone who is not patient? Why would we not only tolerate but love someone who is difficult to love? Because that’s what Jesus Christ did with you and me! Instead of living a life that is focused on self, which God’s wrath will be poured out upon according to Colossians 3:6, our identity is in Christ and we live for Christ. We put on the attributes that Christ put on - those of a humble servant. We grow in these things over time as we submit to God and love on others as God commands us to do. This is the picture Paul gives to these Christians within the church and this is true for us as well within the body of Christ. We demonstrate that we have sought the things above by living a life that reflects Jesus Christ to others. We demonstrate that He rules our hearts by being united with our brothers and sisters in Christ who are also living under His Lordship! Not everyone grows at the same rate and we have to be patient with one another

Our whole world is obsessed with peace and unity… we see it on the news, we read about it in books, we see it idolized in movies and it comes up in conversation as well. Think about the places that we usually have peace or unity. Take the Salem High School Football team, for an example. There should be unity on that team because… they’re all on the same team. Sure, there are people from different families and different elementary schools on that team, but they’re all on the same team with the same goal. They’re all live in Salem. They all work together. Now think of the Gospel and how the Gospel brings unity. Jews and Gentiles. Circumcised and uncircumcised. Slaves and masters. Men and women. Rich and poor. There is no earthly reason for these people to be united… the Roman world tried to separate them as best as they could! But the early church flourished as a place of unity and love and thanksgiving and we wonder how that could possibly be and the only answer is the Gospel of Jesus Christ united them together. They were equal at the foot of the cross and they were united in praise directed toward Jesus Christ! It’s not different today. What unites a person from Ozark, a person from St. Louis, a person from Salem, and a person from another state? Possibly the unifying factor could be that their mascot in high school was a Tiger because it seems like half of the schools in Missouri are the Tigers! But, really, what unites us in this body? Christ alone.

What do we do with that unity? We worship Christ. We share the name of Jesus through what we sing and what we teach. Colossians 3:16 is a wonderful verse, not just because I love music as many of you do as well, but more than music, I love Jesus and Jesus deserves and desires our praise! So often, though, we can get in a performance mindset with our praise - just like with numbers we’ll say that it was a good Sunday if we had a certain number or a bad Sunday if we didn’t - we’ll say that it was a good Sunday if we sang well or a bad Sunday if we didn’t… that’s not the barometer of success in Colossians 3:16. It doesn’t say that we admonish each other with wonderful specials and solos with the spotlight on the singer… it says something far deeper - admonish and teach in such a way that sings to God with gratitude in your heart… giving thanks to God the Father. It doesn’t say that we only sing the songs that we like to sing. It says that we sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. We sing the psalms, the hymnbook of God’s people. We sing hymns, both ancient and modern. We sing spiritual songs, as the same Holy Spirit who inspired people to compose songs 1500 years ago does the same today because He doesn’t change! Worship is the heartbeat of heaven and the least that we can do is sing with thankfulness as we reflect on what God has done in our lives.

What we must ask ourselves is this: Do I sing with thanksgiving or do I only sing and give Jesus praise when it’s my type of song or my turn to sing. For some they would say no - I’ll only sing whenever my needs are met. As a college student at SBU my best friend led our student worship team and I occasionally heard someone say that they “Just didn’t get much out of worship” that night between the songs, the sermon, and the fellowship. That always stuck with me - but eventually I developed a better answer than just saying nothing. This person might say that they didn’t like worship, the songs weren’t your favorite, the sermon went too long, the AC was too cold, you know what? We weren’t worshiping you. We were too busy worshipping Jesus. Friends, it’s always been and will always be about Jesus. Not you and me. Not First Baptist. Not Southern Baptists. Not our man made traditions… We gather to worship Jesus… Just Jesus.

It’s a privilege and honor and blessing to get to gather with one another to worship Jesus at FBC Salem and I’m thankful we get to do that corporately on a weekly basis. As we get ready for this next season of the year at our church, let’s do so with our eyes on Jesus. Let’s do so giving thanks to God for the gift of our salvation. Let’s do so excited to worship in this body. And let’s remember that worship is so much more than songs. Worship is so much more than a single service. Worship is so much more than just Sunday. Worship is the whole of Christian life. And Jesus deserves our worship individually and Jesus deserves the worship and praise of this church. Let’s do everything for His glory and let Him continue to bring in the growth as we simply trust in Him and obey His Word.