K4: All of Life is Worship

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Y@Heart

11:00a at Candi's

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Potluck - bring sides or dessert

New members classes

June 12 after church 12:15

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Chiefs game

Wed, July 13th

Starting Monday (not today) - place order for seats

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Men’s breakfast

June 11th at 8:00am in Fellowship hall

Dan speaking to start us off

Women’s Bible Studies

Two of them beginning his week

Both on Thursday at the church

Jamie Sharpe at 10:00am

Candi Hallam at 2:00pm

Introduction

Show cashew

Who knew this could be worth $2 million?

In 2009, Leonardo Johnson was sentenced to 15 months in jail

Why? Attempting to sell crack cocaine to a police officer

8 years later, he was awarded $2 million… why?

Johnson was desperate for money, so that “crack” he sold

Was actually a cashew - turns out ground up cashews look like crack

When Johnson took the stand, he admitted to the jury it was only a cashew

But when the drug lab chemist took the stand, Johnson’s lawyer asked her what he sold

She said, “crack cocaine”

The lawyer was dumbfounded, and asked again

She insisted it was crack cocaine - and Johnson ended up with 15 months

This chemist was Annie Dookhan

She was Hinton State Lab’s rockstar chemist

Completing 5x as many tests as other chemists

Problem was, she was cheating

She was “dry-labbing” or faking tests

Identifying substances by eye or even adding cocaine to samples

In the end, up to 35,000 drug cases were affected by Dookhan’s falsifications

21,000 low-level charges had to be dropped

Of the 15,570 cases pending, Suffolk County only kept 117 of them

She recieved a 3-5 year sentence plus 2 years probation

Judge Carol S. Ball: "Innocent persons were incarcerated, guilty persons have been released to further endanger the public, millions and millions of public dollars are being expended to deal with the chaos Ms. Dookhan created, and the integrity of the criminal justice system has been shaken to the core."

The way we do things matters

Not just to us, but to those around us

YouVersion - K4: All of Life is Worship

We’re in Colossians 3:15-4:1

As usual, I want to start with our formula

Formula: (TW+K4)xD3

TW is time with

K4 is Kavanah

Scripture

Prayer

Love

Worship

D3 is multiplication

D1 is alone, D2 together, D3 encouraging to go with others

Today we’re on our last Kavanah - All of life is worship

AKA C323 living

Colossians 3:23 (ESV)

23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

Worship definition: Biblical worship is acknowledging that God is the King and results in living lives in light of that truth.

Means everything is an opportunity for worship

Since Paul spells this out in Col. 3:23, let’s examine the passage around it

Colossians 3:15 (ESV)

15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

The word for “rule” means “arbitrate”

Think of arbitration, like in a legal sense

You bring in a 3rd party to negotiate and judge

Here, we begin to see what worship looks like

As we wrestle with what to do...

I want this, but need this

I want what’s best for them, but I feel guilty

My job requires this, but my spouse needs this

Wrestling with where to go, what is our mediator? The peace of Christ

What peace does Christ afford us?

For one thing, He is in control - so we don’t need to worry so much

For another, He has handled our need for eternal life - so we know the serious stuff is good

For another, He calls us to live peaceably among men (as so much as it is possible)

We choose what brings peace, so long as truth is kept

He calls His church to peace, so we cooperatively strive for peace together

If we are to worship, we begin by trusting Christ and doing what He says

That is the greatest key to worship!

Keeping Jesus where he belongs in our life - at the top

But I want us to realize, that doesn’t mean He’s isolated

We live lives like this: Show pie 1

We think being a better Christ follower looks like this: Show pie 2

That’s not correct - that just takes our isolated Jesus time and makes it bigger

But what about everything else?

Jesus doesn’t say, “If you love Me you will sign up for more church stuff and leave your kids.”

"If you love Me, you will ignore your boss and read the Bible at your desk.”

The pie of a better Christ follower looks like this: Show pie 3

Instead of saying, “I love Jesus, so I’m going to miss your game to attend prayer service.

It’s, “I love Jesus, so I’m going to sit and pray with you and your teammates before the game.”

Jesus isn’t separate from the other things in your life

Jesus enriches every part of your life because He’s involved in every part

Where does that happen? Paul gives us a few examples:

Colossians 3:16–17 (ESV)

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

In common language, if I say, “I’m going to worship practice.” What do you hear?

It’s Thursday night, we have rehearsal...

That implies that for us, worship is music

AND that it really only happens Sunday morning!

I’m going to go practice worship

This doesn’t count, just gets me ready for when I REALLY worship!

That’s ridiculous…

Worshipping God is more than just the 20 minutes before I talk and 5 minutes after

Euginia Herlihy: “Praise and worship shouldn't be a few hour church service entertainment. It should be our heartbeat and should never depart our lips.”

BUT I do want us to recognize something

1. Music is an opportunity to worship

Not the only opportunity, but AN opportunity - just like so many others

How do you develop this part of worship?

Worship Director Bob Kauflin explains worship begins outside of Sunday morning

Ask yourself these questions:

What do I enjoy the most?

What do I spend most of my time doing?

Where does my mind drift to when I don’t have anything to do?

What am I passionate about?

What do I spend my money on?

What makes me angry when I don’t get it?

What do I feel depressed without?

What do I fear losing the most?

Worship Director Bob Kauflin: “Our answers to those questions will lead us straight to the God or gods we love and worship. That’s why why as worship leaders our primary concern can’t be song preparation, creative arrangements, or the latest cool gear. Our primary concern has to be the state of our hearts.”

If you’re “not feeling worship this morning” that isn’t a reflection of the singers, the guitarists, the worship leader and definitely not the drummer!

Truly, if you’re not feeling worship, the focus isn’t where it should be

When you sing, you are proclaiming what you believe about God

Declaring His goodness, admiring His creativity, appreciating His mercy

If you’re not “feeling that,” you’re missing out!

I get it, distractions happen - you’re tired, you don’t like the song, you argued before you came

Fortunately, there are other opportunities for worship beyond Sunday morning music

Let’s look at the next example Paul gives:

Colossians 3:18–19 (ESV)

18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.

Paul begins by talking about marriage

Marriage is one of the best opportunities for worship on earth

Nothing else tests how much you’ve given to God, like trusting one person to see all of it

Know what Paul says about marriage?

1 Corinthians 7:32–34 (ESV)

32 I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. 33 But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, 34 and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband.

Paul notes that being married can be a distraction

Single people are more “free” to serve God

Paul doesn’t condemn marriage in this passage, understand that

1 Corinthians 7:35–36 (ESV)

35 I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.

36 If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed, if his passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do as he wishes: let them marry—it is no sin.

But marriage can be distracting - anyone find more free time after getting married?

How about less things to work on? No?

Those things can often be opportunities to worship

Paul’s concern though, is that humans tend to not do that!

We get distracted with sex, arguments, busyness, kids...

Paul’s problem is it can be tempting to stop worshipping, and focus on worldly stuff

Anyone see the Depp-Heard trial?

Whoa momma! There’s some work to do there!

I don’t care who’s side you’re on - there were some ungodly distractions...

Now you know I watch TMZ instead of writing sermons...

But if you do the work to keep God in focus, it is a great opportunity for worship

Since we know everything is worship, here’s what I notice about that:

2. Roles you choose are opportunities to worship

Think about the things we choose to be everyday

A husband or wife - I don’t know of anyone forced into marriage here...

The career you chose

To be a commuter on 74

Being a Starbucks patron, whatever...

Each of those things are something you can use to worship

But if you choose it, you’re more likely to be in a good mood I’d think

What if you didn’t choose it though?

Colossians 3:20 (ESV)

20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

Anyone in here choose their parents? No...

Sometimes we end up in places that we didn’t choose

Most of us have been under a President they didn’t vote for

Some of us are now, others were just a few years ago

Anyone have to go to school when they didn’t want to?

Gone to a wedding or party they didn’t want to?

Have a job you really want to call in sick for every single day?

Those are also opportunities to worship

3. Roles you do not choose are opportunities to worship

Here’s the truth:

Are there bad parents out there who shouldn’t be obeyed? Yes...

Are there kids out there who would be much better off if they listened to their parents? Yes...

Now, which one is more common? I guarantee it’s the second one

When I was a kid, I thought I knew it all

I thought my parents were out of their minds!

As I got older, I realized how dumb I actually was

Of course, I’ve apologized for that too

Things we don’t choose often give us excuses to:

Have bad attitudes, to try less, to abuse more, to be selfish...

That’s an arena for our spirit to battle our flesh

James 1:2–4 (ESV)

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

When you’re somewhere you don’t want to be, give it to the Lord

Use it as a chance to build your faith, and to worship God

Colossians 3:21 (ESV)

21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

Interesting that Paul would choose this one

Often dads see faults in their children, and they blame the kids

Wake up you lazy bum!

Man, you chose that haircut?

Why are you wearing those shorts? You look like a hoochie!

Don’t get me wrong, a dad has the right to correct his children’s bad behavior

But it’s not right to do it by poking at them

Ask yourself dad, do you provoke your kids?

It’s an important question

But again, this doesn’t have to stop with dads

Here’s what I see here

4. Mentoring roles are opportunities to worship

Are you training someone at work?

A teacher in our schools?

Maybe a coach, a caretaker or a mom?

These are opportunities to worship God

To mentor not like everyone else

Driven by performance or emotion

Using hazing, bullying or tough love that isn’t actually love

Instead we should be driven to mentor like Jesus did

Investing in more than tasks, caring about the person, and pointing them to God

Colossians 3:22–25 (ESV)

22 Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. 25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.

We’ve all had lazy days at work

And for some of us, it’s a lifestyle

5. Subordinate roles are opportunities to worship

Do you realize God actually cares about that?

He wants you to work not for your boss, the promotion, or because you’re a company man

But because you are literally there to work for God first

Illustration: I used to work with a guy

He was a Christian, constantly going around preaching

Jesus loves you, do what’s right, go to church

He hit wall after wall after wall - why?

No one respected his work ethic

One night they tried to call him and couldn’t find him

The PA, the radio, ready to start shutting down machines to look for his body

But they found him - he built a bed in a dark corner and was asleep on OT

Don’t get me wrong, night shift is hard

I can’t say I was always awake at 3am

But things like that made people not want to listen to him

Because your character speaks louder than your words

Davik Guzik: “The Christian who is a dishonest, lazy or unreliable worker has something far worse to deal with than a reprimand from his earthly supervisor. His heavenly supervisor may prepare a reprimand as well.”

When you’re at work, you worship God because everything you do is for Him

Colossians 4:1 (ESV)

1 Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

This is the other side of things

Are you the boss at work?

I know many bosses, proud of firing people

Criticizing their lazy workers

You do what I say or you’re out of here!

Just drunk with power...

Illustration: I read a story on Bored Panda recently

A man worked for a company using old software

His supervisor trained him, and they became experts together

Other technicians left, they were put over 3 companies in their region

They had to toil to work on the archaic system

Eventually the supervisor retired - leaving the one guy

Now, one guy did the job of 9 guys

He went 9 months with no help - couldn’t hire

He asked for a raise, to make what the supervisor had made

You know, 3x work load, 1/3rd salary doesn’t make sense

He was making 29k, his boss made 93k

They bumped him to 29,800k

Said they couldn’t afford it (they had 8 fewer employees now - $4 billion profit)

He gave his 2 weeks, they wrote him up for being disgruntled

12 hours after turning in his phone and laptop, his dm and email blow up

His boss was in Costa Rica and they lost a network switch

That meant they were losing $218,000 - per minute!

They BEGGING him to come help them

By the time they fixed the problem, the company lost $40 million in a single night!

How long do you think saving the $60k raise he asked for will take to make up that $40 mil?

Try 667 years!

What’s the lesson?

6. Leadership roles are opportunities to worship

Appreciating the people who work for you is important

Are you a Godly boss?

If not, do you think your subordinates like you? Probably not...

Maybe you’re okay with that (I’m their boss not their friend)

I get that - I’m not even saying you have to be their friend

But you do have to represent God in the way you do things

Ephesians 6:9 (ESV)

9 Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.

Being a jerk of a boss might make more money, but it isn’t a way to worship God

Now, we can take everything we’ve learned today and wrap it into one final point

It comes from this passage

Colossians 3:23 (ESV)

23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

7. Everything you do is an opportunity to worship

This is called C323 Living - based on Colossians 3:23

Conclusion

This gives us a challenge:

C323 living is to apply our relationship with God into every nook and cranny of life

How can you wash dishes as to the Lord?

How can you do your homework as to the Lord?

How can you visit your grandma as to the Lord?

Follow Jesus’ example

Want to know what that is?

Open the book, open your hands to others, open your mouth in prayer

Live your life everyday as an act of worship to our God

And do it with others

Prayer