Discovering the Way VII and VIII

This is North Way tape number 546. These messages on Discovering the Way were delivered by Pastor Jay Passavant of North Way Christian Community on September 24th, 1986. Scott asked me as we began tonight, what's the subject, and I told him, he asked me if I was ready. That's what he said. Are you ready for tonight? And the two subjects that we're going to cover tonight are worship and commitment. And I have to say, those are two of about three things that I could stand up and talk about for an hour without any notes. Because of all the things that God's done in my life in the last ten years especially, those two things have become life to me. And so tonight, the greatest difficulty I'm going to have is just to narrow down the key things that I feel God is speaking to us as a church in this subject. Although, keeping in mind, please, that this material is beginning level material. This isn't designed to be, you know, the newest revelation since Charles Tromley wrote the book on how to praise the Lord or whatever the case may be. It's designed to bring you to a point where we as a church can move together in the things of the Lord. That's what we're trying to do, to move together in the things of God. Now, what we're going to cover tonight, beloved, probably won't be in many manuals of basic Christian doctrine. The matter of worship really isn't in there. When you go pick up on your good old average Christian bookstore shelf a book on the basic foundational beliefs of the local church, worship will tend to be absent from that material. In fact, A.W. Tozer, you've all heard of, a great evangelical pastor and author and leader of earlier in this century, called it the missing jewel of the evangelical crown. Worship, the missing jewel. It's that which was missing in the crown of the believer. Now, I'm happy to say to you, beloved, by the grace of God, that crown is going to be placed, that jewel rather, right back in our crown. I want to be a people that knows how to worship the Lord our God. Now, one of the things that I hear most frequently from visitors at North Way, when we ask for some comments and feedback about what they felt about the worship, about the gathering together, their visit with us, they said, well, it was different. How many of you said it was different your first time here? And at that point, you didn't know if it was different good or different bad, but it was just different. Another one I hear a lot is, it was new to me. Someone else will say, well, it sure was lively. But I liked it. Some will say, well, that's not my style. But do you know the ones that seem to have the greatest problem with making an adjustment to worship life here at North Way? It isn't really the people who have no background in the things of God. It's rarely the people who are unchurched. It's normally the people who come from very traditional, safe church backgrounds. They're the ones that have the greatest time believing that all this could really be of God. Because for most of their lives, they were told, and they experienced something that was far less expressive, and they began to believe that, well, that must be right, and this must be way off the wall. And they began to associate some of the things they heard here with the good old Pentecostal camp meeting hour. And that kind of a thing. And so, we find the greatest resistance is in the lives of the people who have enough church to be dangerous. Do you know what that means, have enough church to be dangerous? You know enough that you're not really open. But you don't know anything near. That's what the Word of God has to say in the subject. I've come to the point of the conviction, and we hold this conviction as a leadership in the church, that the number one central activity of our gathering times together is to be the worship of God. That's the number one thing we're to do. Scott mentioned on Sunday, why do we seem to give so much attention to the Word? Because, listen, in most evangelical circles, the Word takes preeminence over the worship. But I see them really being inseparable, and they really should build one upon another. You see, the more Word, the more worship. The more worship, the more Word should come forth. That's what God wants for us. And so, I believe, as I'm going to point out in a little bit, that worship should be not only our prime activity, but normally it will be our first activity. It will be the very first thing that we're going to do, and I'll give you some reasons for that in a bit. You see, in my own experience, I've learned that if I want to enjoy the presence of God, I have to minister to the person of God. Let me say that again. If I'm going to enjoy the presence of God, I've got to minister to the person of God. And let me get out of the realm of corporate life for a minute and ask about your personal life. One of the things that I found to be probably most voided in my personal walk as an early believer, in those early years, I should say, was my own personal worship life. How many of you had a personal worship life before you came into the fullness of God? I mean, in our traditional backgrounds, folks, we weren't really taught how to worship the Lord, were we? We might have been taught about how to have a quiet time, and worship fit right in with that phrase. See, worship was defined in terms of reverence and silence. How many of you remember the times that you thought it was just, it wasn't going to end? I mean, it was an hour of service, and you looked at your watch 116 times. And who wanted to do that at home on their own? I mean, you had to put up with that at church, right? So there didn't seem to be any reason at all to repeat that disaster. Who would want to, you know, and beyond that, who had hymn books at home? Who would pull out the old hymn books and, well, gee, let's see, let's turn to 317 and sing. You know, we didn't learn how to worship on our own. Next to prayer, I mean, the two things that we thought we were supposed to do, we never did, because no one told us how to do it. And I've shared with you time and time again, if you stay around this place long enough, you'll learn to do two things. You'll learn worship, and you'll learn to pray. And by the grace of God, a lot of other things. But I know those two things we're going to do, because those are the things that relate us to God. And then He speaks to us through His Word. I don't know about you, but I felt it was just kind of interesting that we called what we did on Sunday morning a worship service. How much of a normal one-hour worship service was really worship? Give me a percent. How much of it, your normal church, what'd you say, George? Yeah, I was going to say probably 20%. Let's be generous. 20%, you had some hymns and maybe a prayer. Most of it, though, was, you know, pouring back toward you through the sermon, and then there was announcements of all kinds, and things going on. But see, we called it worship service as though that whole thing was set apart to God, when in fact, very little of it was that way. Now, all of this, beloved, was true, even though the Lord Jesus said in John's Gospel in Chapter 4, these incredible words, The hour is coming, and now is, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him. The only place I know in the New Testament that says that God is seeking is in this matter of worship. He's seeking. You want to know one thing that just impels me to get up and get out before the Lord in the morning? Because I know God is seeking. At 5 o'clock in the morning, God is seeking for worshipers. Right now, at 10 minutes to 8, He's seeking for worshipers. And that just draws me to God. I want to be brought... I don't want to do something that nobody cares about. I want to do something that God is looking for. And He's looking for worshipers. He's looking for worshipers. Now, Roman 1 in your outline, if you want to look there, says that worship is a matter of the heart. Turn to Matthew Chapter 15 and look at these scriptures with me, would you? Matthew 15. There Jesus says, beginning in verse 7, speaking to some of His best friends in the Gospels, the Pharisees, who, by the way, were the traditionalists and the religionists. Now, belive... Belive it. That's between beloved and... Yeah. And believer. I don't know. Okay. I had tacos for dinner and I'm just doing something. All right. Now, belive it. Here's what we're going to say. Verse 7. Jesus says, and these are the only times that He uses these harsh words. You hypocrites. Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you. These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain. Their teachings are but rules taught by men. You see, beloved, tradition is very easily and very often in conflict with truth. Let me say that again. Tradition is very easily and very frequently in conflict with truth. There's nothing inherently wrong with tradition. In fact, we're taught that tradition should be passed down. But it's very easily and very frequently in conflict with truth. It gets salted with man's own interpretations and pretty soon becomes other than what God had commanded. And this matter of worship, we're all vulnerable to it. Worship is a response to the revelation of who God is. That's a definition. Worship is a revelation, a response, rather, to the revelation of who God is. And the greater the revelation, the more wholehearted the response. Now, this is a very simple thing I'm saying, but if you get it, it will change the way you come to worship. The greater the revelation of God, the more wholehearted your response. If you have difficulty responding in worship, then, beloved, pray for more revelation. Don't pray for the music ministry to get better. Although you can do that, that's not going to answer your problem. Don't pray just for the things externally that distract you, well, it's too warm in here, or too cold, it's too loud, it's too soft. Pray for more revelation of God. Think back to the scriptures. Go back to Moses. What happened when he saw that burning bush? And the father said, take off your shoes for the ground on which you're standing is holy ground. And that revelation of God caused Moses to yield his entire life as an act of worship. Think then later on about Isaiah in the sixth chapter of his prophecy when he had a revelation of God and he says, Woe is me, for I'm a man of unclean lips. I'm undone, he said. He had a revelation of God and he fell down and worshipped. Think of Paul on the road to Damascus. There he was, a great religionist, the man who knew all the scriptures, the man of great learning. But he had a revelation of who Jesus was and it forever changed his knowledge. And he worshipped with all of his heart. And think of John the apostle, listen to this, who laid his head on the bosom of Jesus. No one was more intimate with Jesus than the apostle John. And yet in the book of Revelation, chapter one, you can read it later, when Jesus appeared to him in his revelation of glory, John, the Bible says, fell at his feet though dead by the magnitude of the glory of God. Worship is the response of a revelation to a revelation of Almighty God. You see, if worship is difficult, don't fight with all the externals, don't fight with, well, I'm not an emotional person, this. Say what Thomas said, unless I see him and touch him. I can't believe. And Jesus brought revelation and what did Thomas say when Jesus brought that revelation? My Lord. I guarantee it was no problem for Thomas to worship. Now, if worship is primarily a hard issue, beloved, how do we develop a heart for God? How do we develop a heart of worship? Roman numeral two. Well, to me, what we do is we look at the paragon of worship in all the scripture and that, of course, is King David. Bible says in Acts 13.22 that he was a man after God's own heart. You ever wonder how that could possibly be? How could a man who did the things that David did be someone that God would later on say, here's a man after my own heart. I find encouragement in that and I'll tell you why in a few minutes. But you see, how did David worship the Lord? If he was a man who had a heart for God, how did he worship the Lord? Well, the Psalms are his guidebook of worship. The book of Psalms are your instruction manual of how the man who had a heart after God that God said, this is exemplary. That's the way he worshipped the Lord. Strange, isn't it, that most of our experience left out the book of Psalms as a training manual for worship. I mean, we would read little parts of it. But beloved, I don't just read it for its content, I read it for its example. I read it for what it tells me to do. The Bible says that David was fixed on God and as he was in Psalm 108, he meditated on the law of God and then therefore he worshipped. And how many Psalms say that David worshipped the Lord with all of his might. How many times does the Bible say, I will sing unto the Lord a new song, for he has done wonderful things for me. What shall I give to the Lord for all of his great benefits? That's Psalm 116. David taught us about the vow of praise. How he vowed in Psalm 68 to praise the Lord every day. Whether or not he felt like it. Let me know that's good instruction. Because you're going to have days when you don't feel like God's even in the picture. And that's alright. If you know that the way to come out of that is to just go right back and praise the Lord. Because God will bring you through it. You see beloved, the thing that David exemplifies to me is a heart after God and it's expression of worship. You see the truth of how to praise the Lord is right here in the Psalms. Now if we ever do something here corporately when we worship that's not in the book, then I want you to come and say, well that's not in there. If you ever see someone dancing up here and you say, well wait a minute, where does it say that in the Bible? Well we can show you scripture after scripture where dancing is encouraged as an expression of worship before God. Where does it say to clap your hands O you people and shout unto God with a voice of triumph? Well it says in Psalm 47. It says all through Psalm 30 and verse 16 Sing unto the Lord all ye lands. You see, we just do the things that God tells us to do as an expression of praise and worship in His word. Now the other thing of a heart of worship is also the issue of sinless not sinlessness rather but a walk of integrity. A walk of integrity. Look at 1 Kings would you? 1 Kings chapter 9 Here's one little tiny verse that gives us real insight into a heart that loved God and walked in worship. 1 Kings 9 This is Solomon praying to the Lord and the Lord appears to him and responds to his prayer and he says in verse 4 1 Kings 9 As for you if you walk before me in integrity of heart and uprightness as David your father did and do all I command you and observe my decrees and laws I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever as I promised David your father when I said you shall never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel. You see what God wants isn't it's not out of our reach beloved it's not something we can't do. Why did God receive David in his failure? Because he understood his weakness and he realized that it wasn't his sinlessness that pleased God it wasn't his piety that pleased God it was the fact that he knew his God and he was dependent upon him for the very breath of life and I believe that the reason why God even in the face of the terrible sin of adultery and murder that he committed would still go on to say that here's a man after my heart is because he saw that David wanted God with everything that was in him. That's what made David a great worshipper. Now I want to say to you the one thing that I think God just gets awful tired of is the attitude now I'm talking here to believers and I'm talking to people in the church but the attitude that gets into some of us that we just kind of go after God at two-thirds speed. Do you want to know why God was able to embrace David and restore him and you can read about that in Psalm 32? Because he saw in David not just a worshipping heart that loved to be with God but a warrior's heart that obeyed God and followed him into conquest and when he sees a man or a woman who's saying God I'm going after you and I'm all out then God just has a way of making room even for our faults and weaknesses now I'm not condoning any sin I don't believe for a moment in fact David paid a great penalty but the point is that because he was an obedient warrior he was also a great worshipper and I don't know of any other times that I've worshipped the Lord more wholeheartedly than when I've seen God move on my behalf in conquest. You need something you see worship worship is a release and revelation of who God is but it's also born of the experience of seeing the hand of God at work Exodus 15 we sang the song tonight as the worship team led us the praise team the Lord is a warrior the Lord God mighty in battle the Lord is a warrior the Lord of hosts and that's lifted right out of Exodus 15 about verse 6 what was that in response to? Well it was the Exodus the march right through the Red Sea and you see if you're not moving in obedience to God you won't have that experience of seeing God's hand of deliverance and of power from which impetus to worship is drawn and that's why David was a man after God's own heart you've got to go after the things God wants us to do I remember beloved what a laying down of my own securities and fears and relationships it was for Carol and I in 1973 we had been part of a group of folks when I was in seminary who worked at a local congregational church a very lovely church a wonderfully strong church in missions and we'd been there for about a year and a half and all of our friends went to this church people that drew me out to seminary they worked on the staff of this church but you see there was a hunger in our hearts to do what God wanted and to have more of God than we were receiving at that particular time and so we we were struggling between the issue of do we stay with our friends and our security and the things that you know all the things we're comfortable with and you know it was a good ministry or do we go out after God and get the deep longings of our soul satisfied and I want you to know if you ever face that decision you go after God you go after God and He'll take care of all the rest and it was that step of faith that we took in 1973 that it stretched some of our relationships and I guess you could say it broke some of them but God met us and that's when we began to walk in the spirit filled dimension that forever really released us in the life of ministry that the Lord has. Now personal worship Roman numeral 3 says what specific encouragements can I have in personal worship? Let me give you just this little confirmation here. Turn to Colossians chapter 1 there the word says this Colossians 1 verse 16 For by Him all things were created things in heaven and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities all things were created by Him and say it for Him. Who were you created for? For Jesus Christ that's talking about God's you were created by Him and for Him and it will free you immensely to see the wisdom of worship if you understand that the principal reason why you get up out of that bed Bill is to worship God. The principal reason that you awaken to go out and work for that boss you have Addie is worship it's worshipping the Lord it's worshipping God our lives are lives of worship we were created for Him and the Lord really did something in me when I realized this you might want to jot this down my number one ministry in all my life was my ministry to God not for God not to you dear Carl or Scott or Jan or anyone as much as I love all of you you're not my first ministry God is my first ministry do you know that I robbed God of the joy for which I was created to bring Him if I don't worship Him if I don't spend time loving my God if I don't give Him the first fruits of my day don't you think God is worthy of the best you have to offer we want to give Him our very best and that's what coming before the Lord in worship is all about unpolluted by all the cares of the world undistracted by all the things that are legitimate needs in our lives but just hungry to pour out to God and beloved the great miracle is this when we realize how worthy God is and we begin to get caught up in God and we begin to love God and express that love and demonstrate that love guess what happens God begins to pour out He fulfills His part of the relationship God never fails to fulfill His part and He begins to pour out His love to you and I can't tell you how many times when I had a lot of needs I never got to talk about my needs I just got to talk to God and love Him and He began to take care of those things you see that's the cycle and if you could just picture I didn't have time to make an overhead but if you could just picture a cycle with you over here and God up here and you're loving Him and worshiping Him and praising and adoring Him with all your heart and the other side of that out of His presence comes provision and blessing and direction and guidance and wisdom what do I do in those times well beloved there's so much I could say of practical nature but I'm just going to give you a couple of things number one the reason why we sing so many of these choruses Patty that you never heard before is because they're right out of the Bible you don't know how many of those things are right out of the Bible we mark most of them but most of them are just God's word and I've memorized more scripture through song than I ever did through my old navigator or whatever those things were that I had right I mean I can just if I'm ever in jail for the cause of Christ I'm going to have lots to sing and they're going to get tired of that I'm sure if I'm in jail for anything else come help me so we sing those songs because they're the word of God but if you don't know what to say when you get before you you say well I don't know how to tell God I love him what do I say well beloved we're teaching you how to do this one thing you can do very practically is just take the book of Psalms ever find what a wealth the book of Psalms is in worshipping the Lord and you can just almost randomly flip there and you can just find you know great is the Lord and most worthy of praise and the city of our God is holy mountain does that sound familiar We just sang that tonight. It is beautiful in its loftiness, the joy of the whole earth. You begin to worship God with His Word. You speak His Word back to Him. Another thing I do is I love to praise the names of God. His name is His character. We've taught you about those eight compound names of God in the Lord's Prayer. And every day I seek to just worship those names and other names that the Bible reveals. Because He is His name. And you know, I told you this before, but I'll say it again. I'll be praising Him, Jehovah Sidcanu, my Righteousness, Jehovah Makedesh, my Sanctification and Holiness, Jehovah Shalom, my Peace, Jehovah Shammah, my Glory, and I'll get to Jehovah Rothay, my Healer. Do you know what happened to me today in prayer meeting? We were praying and we sat for quite a long time this morning and didn't move around a whole lot. And I was, you know, like Keith sitting right there with my hands, you know, just kind of bent over a little bit. And I just had a real urge to get up and we were going to, the room was cleared out, the other chairs were gone. We were going to march in the room a little bit. And I sat up real straight. And just, how come that happens to those of you who are over 40? Why does your back always do that, John? I sat up real quickly and just didn't go real right there, you know, and what a lousy place for the enemy to come in, right, you know, in the middle of prayer meeting time. So today, when I was at the cabin, I was saying, Lord, I pray you, Jehovah Rothay, you're my Healer. And I was just worshiping God for His character. And, you know, I just, the strength of God just starts coming into your life. Beloved, let me say this now, this can sound very abrasive to people who don't understand my spirit, but it works, it works. And I worship Jehovah Jireh, my Provider. And I worship Him, Jehovah Nissi, my Banner, my Victory. And I worship Him, Jehovah Rohi, my Shepherd. Anyhow, I go on and on. The names, and then I praise the name of Jesus. I love that name. He is all those other names, and so I praise His name. Well, anyhow, that's how you grow in worship. And if you want more of this teaching on how to praise the Lord, we have some books we can recommend. There's so much out there now. There's great material. Jan can give you some things, or Susie, and there's lots to go on. Finally, let me say this about corporate worship. Have you ever heard someone say, I just worship God in my own way? And somehow they say that, you know, like, and it's the right way, you know. It's the holy way. It's hardly ever, but I do do it on occasion. Just tuck this away to respond to that person the next time. If God didn't care about how He was worshiped, if He didn't care about whether you did this or whether you did that as long as you just showed up, why did He spend all that time telling Moses exactly what that tabernacle was to be like? Why did He detail every color and every thread, practically, of the creation? Why did He tell them what they were to wear, right down to the minutest detail, and what they were to do with all this? Imagine if a priest just bopped up one day and said, hey, I just feel like worshiping God this way, and he cuts the thing and throws it. Well, God would have slain him right on the spot. Forgive me, it's ridiculous, but it just, you see, and then David comes along and his tabernacle, the place where he worshiped, and you read about this in 2 Chronicles 5 and 6 and 7 and so on. The Bible tells us what he did and how he worshiped the Lord. And Acts 15, verses 13 through 17 say that in the new covenant, the Old Testament tabernacle of David is being restored. And the Psalms, as I said, are the book, that's the praise manual of the tabernacle of David. And if you want to learn how to worship the Lord corporately, it's right in the book of Psalms. It tells us all those things. God's restoring that in our day. My conviction is this, as we as a church learn to worship God, beloved, the days are ahead, and I pray they're speeded, that they're expedited, when because of the worship of God emanating from out here, there won't need to be sermons and directions because God will be speaking, and the word of the Lord will come forth, and there will be a mighty wave of God's spirit. But it will come as each one of you determine, I'm going to worship God in my home. I'm going to love God in the mornings. So that when you come here, you're coming here charged with the presence of God, not just, well, now let's see what they can do, you know. Not that you do that, but it's easy to fall into the mentality that someone else will do my worshiping because we grew up on that. The choir did the worshiping, but God wants it to be where every one of us is pouring out, and he pours in revelation and response. And the more he reveals, the more we respond, and the more we respond, beloved, this is just a little something I'll throw in for free. Heaven will never cease to be revelation because there will never cease to be worship. And so, you see, we'll never ever fully understand God because he will constantly be revealing more of himself, and we'll be worshiping. We love you, Father God. We praise and adore your mighty name, oh God. We worship you and love you, oh God. Glory to his holy name. Glory to his holy name. We magnify your name. Hallelujah to your name, oh God. Lord, you are more precious than silver. Lord, you are more costly than gold. Lord, you are more beautiful than diamonds, and nothing I desire compares with you. Hallelujah to your name. Hallelujah to your name, Jesus. Oh God, we worship you. We worship you, Lord. We worship you, Jesus. We worship you, God, on high. We exalt you, Lord. We exalt you, God, on high. For you are holy, Lord, and worthy to be praised. We magnify you, Jesus. For your name is exalted, Lord, and we lift you up on high. And holy is your name, oh God. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Jesus is the Lamb of God. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah to your name. Praise the name of Jesus. Praise the name of Jesus. You're my rock. You're my rock. You're my fortress. You're my deliverer in you will I trust. Praise your name, Lord Jesus. Glory to God. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Glory to God. You may be seated. I'd love to go on worshiping, but I'm under constraint here. Does anyone have a brief question? Something you just really wanted to ask about in this matter of worship? I don't either. The question was... Yes, yes, I understand. The question was, our sister said that when years ago, when she first came into personal worship, she found herself joyful and exuberant. And the longer she goes on, she's finding herself getting more and more quiet. And she doesn't know why. And I really don't either. So I think that all of our worship lives should be a balance of those things. There is a time for exuberance. The Bible says that joy of the Lord is our strength. If we don't have any joy, we're going to get knocked off. I'll tell you right now. But there is time for quietness. It was a lovely day to be quiet with God today with the rains and this. I hear mainly some groans there, I thought too. But it was. Quietness is important. I wouldn't in any way forsake that. But I'd love to see it in a balance. And maybe there's just some need to receive some revelation from the Lord. That's what it sounds like to me. We'll pray with you about that, okay? I don't really have an answer because it's such a personal thing. Well, the reason we minister to God is because he's worthy. The reason we minister to God is because we love him. The reason we minister to God is totally giving of ourselves back to him for whatever reason. I'd say the primary benefit, if you will, would be that we do come to know him. It's not for his blessings. It's for him and him alone. That's what Paul meant when he said, you know, I want to know him and the power of his resurrection. That's why he lived. Okay, quickly. Yes, two more. It's a response. And maybe that's what the Lord is doing. He just wants you to know more and more of his love in that is what she was suggesting. And then out of that, for that to grow on perhaps. Dennis, one more. Yes, amen. The principle goes all through our lives, but certainly is true in worship. Once again, there's a whole lot more that could be said. And many of these things would be whole messages in themselves. But that's the introductory level. That's why we worship here. And by the way, I want to say very pointedly that we know that we don't know everything. And we're open to the Lord adjusting us in a lot of ways. And one thing I want you to pray, though, since most of you here tonight are people who have committed your life here to North Way, pray for those new people. Pray for the ones who come to visit with us. And they can't even get past the point that it's so different for them. Do we have those booklets in here? Susan, do you bring them? We give out little booklets that say why we worship now the way we do. And so everyone that comes in gets one of those little booklets. And it explains the scriptural reason. I'm in the process. In fact, I've already got the material ready to write a little booklet specifically for us that we'll give to visitors. But that's something I know that is a struggle for some people. And we just believe that God's told us that we're the honor. Yeah, there you go. There's one of these. This is what they look like. And if you want one of these, they're $7. And you can get one out front. All right, let's go on to discovering the way, lesson eight. And I'm just going to have to even reduce this a little bit more time. This is the end of side one. Please turn the tape over now. I love this quote from Larry Tomczak, lesson eight that begins, the church is a company of imperfect peo