Authentic Worship (part three)
7/22/01
Intro.
Week three in a three part mini-series on worship. There has been a lot of heart-felt feedback. For many, a paradigm shift is beginning to take place. In particular, you have been challenged, it seems, with regard to the importance of what goes on outside of corporate worship experiences.
MBTI observation that given new information or challenged with some knowledge, only about 8% of society have the ability to turn it into changed life-style. That means that 92% of us (even with the Holy Spirit residing within us) will see it, want to change, and not be successful in turning the information into a transformed life. Change is hard. It is very challenging to move from concept to choices.
To compound the problem, a guy like me, with gifts in the area of communication, I will think that I just need to say it more clearly, or make you laugh and cry and get out the Greek and Hebrew and it doesn’t work.
We hear God speaking to us from His Word and we are unsuccessful in doing what His Word says.
Today, I want to be painfully practical. I want to lay out some potential steps of action. My aim is to provide some tracks to run on and you will choose a level of commitment that will work best for you.
Words for worship… (all have something in common -all imply response on the part of the worshiper)
-Different languages
English “worship” (old Anglican)– worthship – “to attribute worth”
German “Gottesdienst” –worship – “God’s service to us and our service to God.”
French “le culte” - “a lifelong engagement…a relationship of giving and receiving.”
Italian “il culto”
The three primary biblical terms that Scripture uses for worship (all imply response on the part of the worshiper)(Sally Morgenthaler, “Worship Evangelism”, 1999, p. 47).
·Shachah - (to bow down, to do homage);
·Proskuneo - (to kiss toward)
·Latreuo - (to serve, minister)
others, lesser used Greek words
· thusia and phosphoria – (sacrifice, offering)
· homologein - (to confess sin or profess belief in God.)
“Christian worship is the spirit and truth interaction between “God and God’s people. It is an exchange.” (Morgenthaler, p. 47)
All relationships revolve around response.
Ill. Parent responds to a baby’s cry - trust is established
-You respond to a friend in need and a caring relationship is established
-Husband and wife respond to each other and a loving relationship deepens.
Psalm 95 and 96 contain these responses: sing, shout, come before His presence, give thanks, bow , kneel, pray, proclaim, declare, praise, ascribe glory, and bring an offering, worship.
In response to what God has done and is doing for us, we are to bring to God many types of “spiritual sacrifices” when we worship:
·praise (Heb. 13: 15),
·sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,” (Heb. 13: 15)
·thanksgiving (Ps. 107:22),
·joy (Ps. 27:5-6)
However, the most important sacrifice we can give to God is
·ourselves (Rom. 12: 1,2). It is so important that Paul labels it “our spiritual worship.” (Morgenthaler, p. 52)
Not the private domain of the spiritually mature. It is for the spiritually hungry and thrirsty
“The message of worship is not some hidden truth reserved only for the seasoned saints of the deeper life. It’s a street-level message that will challenge the imagination of even the most hardened among humanity: “God is looking for worshipers, and you could be one of them.” Worship is not some kind of acquired skill that can only be learned after years of religious training. It is actually the most natural response of god’s creation to His manifest presence.” (Gerrit Gustafson, in Worship Evangelism p.85)
If you are hungry and thirsty to be a worshiper, we have some good news for you today.
Brochure:
Seven Minutes with God by Robert Foster
One Hour with God by Dick Eastman
A Day with God by Lorne Sanny
I. Seven Minutes with God by Robert Foster
Initial response:
“Seven minutes?! I can come up with seven minutes.”
Get up, get ready, sit down.
-same place is helpful
-same time is helpful
-plan laid out ahead of time
Objections:
·“I don’t know what to do.”
·“I don’t know how to make it work.” Trying our best to get it to work…
You have to hit pay dirt or you are going to let it slip. It has to become meaningful.
Marty Nystrom:
“I do a lot of traveling and witnessing on airplanes. And I’ve heard over and over again, “Well, I’ve been to church before, and, yea, it was good, but it’s not really my thing.” (They probably went to a dead church!) And I’ve had people say, “Well, I’ve read the bible and it’s a good book, but I study the Koran, too, and there’s some wisdom there….” But, I’ve never had anybody look me in the eye and say, “You know, I’ve experienced the presence of God, and quite honestly, I don’t want it.” No one has ever said that to me! Because, people who experience the real presence of God are changed for the ordinary… They want more of Him.”
Ill. I want to avoid too much structure, too methodical. “Six easy steps to intimacy with your spouse.” It is not that easy. Everybody is different. Intimacy should not be reduced to 6 easy steps or 7 minutes. But, some structure is needed. For most of us, it takes discipline to turn desire into delight.
It is best if a person is doing these things and are unaware that they are living along these lines. The danger of methodically pursuing God is that we’ll tend to worship the methods.
I get nervous when someone parades their devotional practice too quickly. Don’t confuse calisthenics for the real game.
You may be developed beyond here. Great! You won’t mind us taking a moment to bring others along in what you know to be critical to a spiritual life.
If this is not better than what you have going, stick with what you are doing.
If this bullet fits your gun, shoot it.
Seven minutes for thirty days. There is a trick in this. Here is what we know. If you can experience more of His presence successfully, you will start to experience transformation in your day. To the degree that you are successful, you are going to want more; 15, 20… You will freely go for more. It is a new world.
What is at stake here is the development of your relationship with God. The most important relationship in your life. Everything else feeds from that, or starves for lack of nurture.
You have been around enough, to know what is coming at the end of the morning. I am going to give you an opportunity to commit to pursuing personal worship in this way. Start thinking about it.
Will this be worth it? Will I want to stick with it? With God?
Ill. The puddle- Tim Keller
It is like a six year old little boy who has never been away from his mud puddle. It is the only water he has ever seen. You talk to him about taking him for a week at the ocean, at the beach. He wants to know, “what is an ocean?”
You tell him, “It is a lot of water.”
You mean a very big mud pudle.
Yeah. But it is not muddy, and it is so big you can’t see the ends of it.
I don’t know, can I have as much fun there as I can here.
The child’s imagination is such that you can’t explain it to him.
“You have to come and see.”
He can’t imagine the ocean.
If I battle to worship God in the beauty of holiness, that will cut into stuff I do at work, the TV I watch, what I do with money, time, sinful habits: is this going to be worth it?
Millions of people have given their lives for Christ, singing “Thy steadfast love is better than life.”
Is it possible that what they experienced is better than what you are now experiencing.
II. One Hour with God by Dick Eastman
Objections
I can’t remember the last time I had an uninterrupted hour. I wouldn’t know what to do with it if I had it.
That is a problem
If you are that busy, you are an achiever and you tend to think in terms of efficiency and priority and values. I would just challenge you; “how valuable is growing deeper in your relationship with God?”
Reformation worship built upon the assumption that the worshipers were spending one hour per day in the personal study of the Scriptures.
The invention of the printing press coincided with the Reformation of the church. People had the Bible once again in their hands.
That impacted America. In the Puritan influenced beginnings of America, it was said that theology was every man’s hobby. That is how the foundation of America so reflected the Scriptures.
This is within range of all of us believers. If you are considering the claims of Christianity, you have some questions to get answered first. But, the rest of us, an hour is within the range of what we can expect of each other.
Brochure:
123456
7 Praying the Scripture example
Colossians 3:1-4
3:1 If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
A Day with God by Lorne Sanny
Why?
Problem, perspective, career decision, relationship hurting, something…
Local ministries making retreat settings available.
Ill. Hotel in Ottawa
Cabin – haven for sabbath days of renewal
Best retreats:
Start the night before…
®Data dump
“I will get back to it”
“Thoughts disentangle themselves as they pass through the lips and fingertips.” –Dawson Trotman
®Praise music
®Time in Word
®Rest
®journal
®walk, swim, break from the grinding routine
Leisure – from license – to give yourself permission
Invitation:
Warren Wierse “Everything we want to see happen in our churches is really a by-product of worship.” (Real worship, p. 17)
7 minutes
One hour
One day