Trading Spaces II, Worship 24/7

I'll tell you, it's just amazing to me how unexpected things can happen. Sometimes even things that you may feel are a nuisance or aggravation can come along and at some point really affect your life. How many of you get telemarketer calls? Yeah, most of us. I came across this not too long ago. I had to share this at this point because it just so impacted me. You know, the strangest things can happen sometimes when you're from sources you don't expect. And maybe that's going to be true for you today if this works up a surface. But just this last May, down in the Andes Mountains, a hiker by the name of Leonard Diaz was climbing, serious mountain climbing, and the second day of his climb, he lost sight of his friends and became separated. Although not initially worried, the novice climber soon began to run out of rations and suffer from the bitter cold. Although he had his cell phone in his backpack, his prepaid minutes had already expired. With no way to signal for help, Diaz realized he was not going to make it. As he lay in the frigid snow preparing to die, his cell phone rang. It was a phone solicitor in Bogota wanting to know if Diaz was interested in purchasing more minutes. We called to remind him that his cell phone was out of minutes, said Maria Del Bostos of Bell South. He said it was the work of an angel because he was lost in the Andes, I'd say. Described where he was, asked him to dispatch a rescue team, and then they called him back every ten minutes to keep him awake so as to maintain his hope of survival. What ordinarily might have been perceived as a nuisance call saved his life. You know, God might be calling some of your hearts today, and sometimes it's just a nuisance, and you'd rather just say, you know what, Lord, I'm really not interested in that. But really what He's waiting to do is to save your life. When it comes to this subject of worship, I have a hunch today that a few of you came and said, ah, I was hoping for something practical. I was hoping for something that could help me in the marketplace, or help me with my family, or help me with a problem I'm facing. And I'm here to tell you this morning that the reason why I believe God wants us to really look at this and get a hold of it in these last weeks of the summer before we move into the more intense fall schedule for everybody is because God knows that the very source of life that we want to lay hold of is probably where we're not looking. And this whole matter of worship is right at the core of all this. Nothing affects our daily life more than how we see God. J.B. Phillips wrote some years ago, about 60 years ago, in a little book called Your God is Too Small. I love that title. I've remembered it all these years because it's not talking about the fact that God can't do something. It's our image of God, our understanding of God. We don't see Him for who He really is. And you see, what worship does is to give us a more accurate picture of what God is. As we were singing through those choruses and we were lifting up the various characteristics and the sacrifices and the love of God, does that not just sort of expand your understanding of who God is? And what I want us to understand is a direct link between how we see God, our vision of Him, and how we live our lives. That's the key issue before we get going. Because otherwise, you may be prone to thinking, well, this is just about what we do in church. And that's the most important thing we've got to sort of dismantle today, that worship isn't about what we do here at 9 o'clock in the morning on Sunday. Worship is about how we live our lives. In fact, the only power great enough to transform us isn't the internal you. And I said this last week. I mean, I read a couple of self-help books in my break just to see what is so fascinating about these things to people. And they all have to do with what people can conjure up on the inside to bring about change. When all along, the only real power, the only real abiding, lasting, certain source of strength for transformation comes from outside of us. And that's the power of God. Romans 8, 11 says it most powerfully, the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, that's the power we're talking about, now lives inside of us. Folks, listen. If you're here today and you're struggling with depression or anger or confusion, or maybe you're just sort of overwhelmed by circumstance, maybe you're stressed out or frustrated, I'm here to tell you that worship is the way that we get connected with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. At the risk of maybe repeating a story that some of you have been here a while know, I was a Christian for about five years. In other words, I knew I accepted Christ. This was back right through college years and early into seminary. I knew that I knew the Lord, I mean, just like many of you. But I was living a life that was sort of underpowered. You know, I had a high octane engine with low octane fuel. And it wasn't, I mean, I really just wasn't all that, it just wasn't going where it needed to go. Until someone showed me this exact point that we're going to be talking about today. He showed me the connection of worship in the Christian life. And when I discovered the power of praise and worship, that opened me to understanding who God was, that opened me to understanding how the Holy Spirit worked in my life, and it changed how I live my Christian life. I want to underscore today, this isn't just sort of some theological exercise. I wouldn't do that to you. This is about how you live your life. Now, in order just to kind of demonstrate sort of the broad spectrum of understanding about worship, I need a volunteer. Oh, boy, everyone's... I don't mind. I need a guy volunteer. Let's narrow it down so, ladies, you can relax. I need a good guy volunteer. I see wives pulling husbands. Mike, yeah, no, Mike, you're a good volunteer. Yeah, this is actually, this suits you. Let's give Mike a hand. He's going to come up here and give me a hand. I like this. Yeah, this... What did you just ask for? A clicker. That's what I said. Here he goes. See, he wanted the remote. Sit down, Mike. Oh, yes. I'm volunteering for you all the time. He said, I'm volunteering for you all the time. I'm here to mention to you today, and really make a point that perhaps you would disagree with, but of all the things in your home, Mike, the most dangerous thing isn't your firearm, your knife, or your power tool. It's that easy. You have something like this at home? I do. You have something like this at home? Okay, and we've got a little beverage here for you. We do have the remote. Thank you. See how it works. Let me give it a shot. Is it working? Ah! Hey, yeah. Yeah, we're cooking. Now, are you feeling... Does the lights come up a little bit? Oh, do they? Yeah, there, hey. Back you go. A little bit of light music. Can we bring... How about the lights? Can we bring the lights down just a little bit? A little bit more. Now, he was really playing this out, wasn't he? Now, what are the odds of Mike dialing into this message for the next 20 minutes? Kind of slim and none, huh? You know, the reason I brought this little prop up here was because in many respects it represents kind of what the American lifestyle is about, doesn't it? I mean, in many respects, this is how... This is what we strive to kind of get to, to be able to just sort of have our space, shut out the world, do what we want to do, relax, just get free from all the stuff and just chill out. And Mike plays... I mean, he's the man here, isn't he? You know what? Get back to your seat. I need... Yeah. I knew that was... Yeah, that's too good to last. Thank you, Mike. Let's give him a hand. I appreciate it. Now, what this also represents is in the minds of some people what worship is about. And that is this. For some people, that's about how interested they are in what God has to say about their lives. They're just like, you know, I need my space, God, lead me along. I'm not really all that concerned about what you're feeling about me because things are going pretty well in my life. And, you know, let's just... Let me just... You know, when I need you, I'll call you. And so let's just let life sort of happen and let me find that place of rest and rejuvenation because I've worked hard and I deserve it. But there's also... Actually, in this particular service, I would think a lot of you who maybe don't follow that... You're not casual about God. You're actually... You're here purposely about God. But listen. Your idea of worship is somewhat akin to this in that here's what you do. You understand this concept of grace because we teach it and preach it and it's infused into everything we do. And grace, you understand, you see, is God's gift to us of unmerited favor or power to live the Christian life. And here's what happens. Some of us approach worship with the more casual, relaxed style which says, you know, this is how I come to it, God, and I know you accept me. And if you want me... Listen. If you want me to change, if you want me to get closer to you, you'll start moving in me somehow and it'll work because, you see, it's up to you to initiate it. And the hyper-Calvinists among us, those of us who understand that theology, I mean, that's how we see life. We see life that if God wants it to happen, God will initiate it and motivate it. Now, hear what I'm saying because I know this is more true than some of you might like to admit. So you don't come to a service or to a gathering or even to your daily journey with God really expecting that you have to do much of anything. You're going to be acted upon not taking an action. And listen, we might thin out the crowd here for the next several weeks, but it's going to be my mission over the next several weeks to help you understand how grace and your will fit together. Oh yes, God's power, God's grace, God is reaching toward you. But unless you move out, unless you get up out of that chair and say, God, I want to engage you, you will not change. You will stay stuck in patterns, many of which have become very comfortable. That's why last week's message about the uncomfortable Savior was titled that way. Because this isn't what God is about in our lives. He's not creating for us an easy chair recliner lifestyle, friends. He wants us to engage Him in all of His glory and majesty. He wants to hone us for His purposes. We were created to love Him and to serve Him. Now, there are some for whom it's not a matter of just sort of being relaxed and sort of waiting. For others of you, it's more for you about tradition. It's more for you about the more formal. I wanted to get a kneeler here. I just couldn't find one in this place. But you understand me, it's like an altar where for you it's always been liturgy and tradition and form. And actually this whole place kind of freaks you out because it's way... I mean, you can't imagine why you don't have a robe on. It just bugs you. And the whole thing is like, no, God is... He's mysterious and He's often... He's worthy of more serious approach than what you do around here. And so for you, entering into a worship that's engaging and conversational and day-to-day... That's very hard because you see it just sort of laid in with these certain forms and liturgies and traditions and things you need to do in order to be received by God. Now, understandably, these are both a little on the extreme side, but here's what I want you to do before we go on. If you're with someone that you know, someone that you can confide in, someone that you trust, or someone you just want to take a chance with, tell them which of these two you most naturally lean toward. Are you the more formal, like, yes, I think it needs to be... God is like holy and we need to approach... Or do you lean more toward this? Is this the way you're kind of inclined to be? Yeah, well, you know, hey, I'm accepted in God. All right, go ahead and just tell somebody or at least in your own mind, figure it out. Take about 30 seconds. Which one do you lean toward? This one or this one? Okay, it's important that you know where you are. That's the starting point. All right. Now, how many of you are seated next to someone who just lied to you? Well, you would only know that if you really know him, but anyhow. So, in our modern-day experience, on your outline, there is a broad spectrum of attitudes toward worship. Fill in the blanks if you've got a pen. There's the casual, relaxed, and unstructured posture represented by the recliner or the formal, stiff, and prescribed traditional posture represented by the more formal altar. And you see, friends, what we established last week, and I want to underscore again, is that worship, true worship, is a matter of the heart, not the external form. It's a matter of the heart, not what goes on in specific, prescribed form. Now, we established last week that in the Old Testament, the specifics were very important. That the issues were around things like letter A, posture, how you came in and presented yourself to God, where you went, which was place. And third, what you presented to God, presentation, what offering you brought. In the Old Testament, these were prescribed in explicitly, almost painful detail, if you're trying to read through. One commentator said it this way, for the ancients, religion equaled sacrifice. That's all it was about, was how much, listen, how much blood could be spilled, because somehow, there had to be a way to atone for sin, and it had to do with the shedding of blood. I mean, it was, if you read it carefully, there's blood everywhere in the altar. I mean, they had buckets and all kinds of ways to move the blood out, and so on. It was very graphic. In fact, I think the animal rights people would have a real problem with that if it was happening today. Now, in the New Testament, in our current age, I talked about last week, we're no longer given prescribed forms. We're not told, listen, if you missed this last week, it's real important, we're not told in the New Testament where to go to worship a certain way. That's opened the door, of course, for, especially here in America, all kinds of different preferences for worship. Some people say, well, that's fine for you, but this is how I choose to do it, and so on. Reestablish, and I want to just reaffirm this. In the New Testament, letter B, in the current age, worship is recognizing and responding appropriately to the greatness of God. It begins with how you see God, and then it moves towards your response to His greatness. You see, just a few moments ago as we were worshiping, some of you just saw, for a little bit, something more of God than you normally see. You sensed Him. You even, maybe in the words, had an image that came to mind about His holiness, or purity, His power, majesty, and that caused you to respond in your heart. I like this little paraphrase definition. It's astonished reverence. In other words, you look at God and you say, wow, that is amazing. God, you are amazing. Do you ever have those experiences where you just can't describe how you're feeling? It's just, I'm astonished. Maybe it's when you hold your little two-year-old who maybe fell asleep in your arms after wearing you out all day, and you realize that in that little crazy body, there's a beautiful spirit that's being formed, and you say, Lord, I just thank You for that. Maybe it's when you see someone that you love going through a difficult time, and you see strength coming through them, and you realize that God hasn't abandoned them, and you say, Lord, thank You that You're present. Maybe it's in the natural beauty of a sunrise or sunset, or whatever it is, a cloud forming. You see God do things, and you say, wow, only God could do that. Only God could do that. See, worship in this age is no longer about what we do. It's not about worship. It's about the worshiper. It's not about a posture. It's about your entire self. It's not about a place, because worship can happen everywhere. It's not about presentation. It's about the fact that you become the offering. And this is a radical shift, and it has incredible implications if you get it. If you don't get it, you'll walk out the door and just kind of go back to life outside of what God prescribed, or designed, rather, for worship. I try to come up with an analogy, and maybe, you know, I can't help it, but it comes back to cars for me, usually. How many of you remember, back when, some of you, this is a real stretch in your memory, but before you were driving in a car, let's say, you know, when you were 10 or 12 or whatever, cars didn't mean much of anything. A car was simply a place you went to go in order to get somewhere that usually, you know, your parents wanted to take you. And you showed up, and all you really cared about the car, you know, was that you had a seat, and that your brother or sister wasn't in your space. You know, it's my space. And maybe the radio was working and had something on there you wanted to listen to. And a car was a car, and a van was a van, whatever. What happened when you started turning 14, and guys, and 15, and what did you start thinking about? You couldn't wait to do what? You couldn't wait to drive that car. You couldn't wait to get the license, because you see, driving the car now meant what? Freedom. It meant you could go where you wanted to go as responsibly as you wanted to drive. Driving now was important, and what you drove all of a sudden had a little more importance, because you didn't really want to be seen in a family minivan, you wanted to be seen in something cool. And driving had all these potentials. And I started thinking, isn't that a lot like worship? Some of us, basically, are showing up in the worship van, just, you know, okay, wherever it's going today, I guess I'll get in and go. And we'll drive along, and when I get there, I'll get out, and go on and do my... And you see, it's not that way. God wants you to get behind the wheel and discover worship as it was meant to be, and the freedom that you were meant to experience as you engaged God moment by moment, and let God take you places in Him where you haven't been before. That's the design of worship. That's why it's a lifestyle. Turn your outline over. It's a lifestyle of joyful surrender, not just a moment in a service, or in a small group, when you gather together. Worship's not what we do at 9 and 11 and Saturday night. It's not about the temple, the house of God. You know, language catches us sometimes. How many of you have called this like the house of God? All right, I'm going to back up since no one responded. How many of you grew up in a place where church was called the house of God? There we go. Well, is that an accurate New Testament picture? No. The New Testament says, where's the temple of God? It's here in our hearts. It's in my heart personally and our hearts collectively. So, you know, it isn't about God being in this place, even though we sang that song, David said correctly, it's really not just this place. It has to do with us. And you see, worship has to do with the lifestyle of our surrendering to Him. And I want us to look at this together. Out of the J.B. Phillips translation, you know, I mentioned his name earlier. When I was just beginning to discover this relationship with God, someone handed me a J.B. Phillips New Testament translation. And I had, back then, there weren't, the NIV wasn't here, there weren't many really modern, no living Bible. And the Phillips was one of the few readable translations. And I have, I've saved those copies there. They have, you know, tape on the side and rubber bands to keep it together. And they're all marked up because I treasure them. I read them just through and through and through. And this passage in Romans 12, chapter 12, 1 and 2, is a classic expression of what it's about. Would you read it with me out loud, please? Let's read it together. With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give Him your bodies as a living sacrifice, consecrated to Him and acceptable by Him. Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God remold your minds from within so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all His demands, and moves toward the goal of true maturity. With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, Paul writes. What mercies is he talking about? Well, you see, for the first 11 full chapters in Romans, the deepest theological truth of all history was revealed. Romans chapter 1, I'm not going to go through it all, but Paul jumps in and says, man is in horrible condition. He's depraved. And he's inclined to sin and rebel against God. And Paul spells it all out and how man is helplessly lost and will be consumed by his own sin. And then he goes on in chapter 2 to describe how deeply held this is and man is so helpless without God. In chapter 3, he begins to reveal this amazing gift of salvation that God would give to us, the possibility that we could be reborn, that we could be justified, just as if we never sinned by the mercies of God. And on and on he goes. And he talks about holiness and sanctification and being set apart to God. In Romans chapter 8, he talks about all these amazing promises of God, that we can call God Abba, Father, that we can have the same spirit in us that Jesus had in Him and all these things and the promise that one day we'll share His glory. In 9, 10, and 11, he talks about the redemption of Israel and the sovereignty of God and the affairs of men. All these, you see, are mercies of God. He says, with those mercies in view, present yourselves. And he says, look at this, he says, I beg you. He doesn't just say it's a good idea. He says, I beg you. He's pleading with people to come to grips with this. As an act of, circle this, intelligent worship. Would you? I want to pause right here. You see, one of the problems that folks have when they see an expressive worship service, one of the problems that some people may have had if you were a guest today and you saw some folks earlier, maybe they were lifting their hands or maybe they just really seemed to be engaged and you say, well, they're really emotional. Please hear what I'm about to say. True worship is intelligent. Fundamentally, it appeals to the reason of the mind. The emotion follows along. Paul is saying, this is what makes sense in view of the mercies of God. And so what we're calling you to as a church family is to understand that this isn't just an emotional reaction. And I'm going to step on a toe or two here. But when people say, well, that's, I'm just not that type of person. From now on, equate that type of person with a non-intelligent person. I said I was going to step on a toe. I'm sorry. Because you see, this worship that Paul's taught, this fully engaged worship, he said, that's intelligent. The NIV says it's your spiritual act of worship. That's what God wants us to see. He says then, to give him your bodies as a living sacrifice. Keep in mind, to the listeners in Paul's day, this was unthinkable. What did they think happened to the sacrifices that were presented to God? They were killed and left where? On the altar. When a sacrifice was brought, it was left on the altar dead and they left. And Paul's saying, now you come and you present yourself to God as a living sacrifice. And it had to conjure up all these images that they didn't understand. Paul's saying now, it's no longer that it's something you come and leave, it's something that you come and be. It's not in one place, it's every place that you go. It's not one time, it's all the time. You're to be a living sacrifice. And by the way, it's body. The word for body is soma. Ever heard of the term psychosomatic? You know, mind induced effects in the body. That's where that word comes from. The word soma. And he's saying, our bodies become instruments of worship. This is cool. Because what it means is this. When you engage physically in certain things that are pleasing to God, your body becomes your tool for worshiping. So that when you come to serve somebody and you do it as unto the Lord, that's an act of worship to God. When you use your mouth to lift someone up and encourage them and support them, you're worshiping God with this mouth as opposed to perhaps creating an obstacle for someone by using your mouth negatively or slanderously or critically. When you take care of your body and you work out and you exercise and you eat right, you're presenting your temple to God. You're saying, Lord, I want to be a good steward and you're worshiping. Folks, question for you. What other instrument do we have besides this body to show worship? We don't have any, do we? This is it. So Paul says, present that body as a living sacrifice. Those folks that served our Backyard Bible Club last week and gave so many hours, they were giving their bodies. Some of you are still paying the price in your body for serving those kids for that week. Those of you who loved your neighbors and maybe you brought them to the 9-11 memorial, you were serving God and worshiping because you were giving of yourself to them. Those of you who didn't listened to those thoughts and said, I can't go to my small group, I'm just too tired. But you gathered yourself together. You went to your small group and you participated. You're giving your body. You see, you're participating as an act of worship, consecrated to Him. Paul says, and by the way, the word consecrate just means to be devoted and acceptable by Him. I like the NIV better. It says, this is the way to be holy and pleasing to God. Now, it's difficult to grasp this, but nothing is more worshipful than a person who's living a God-honoring, Christ-exalting lifestyle. Responding to their vision of the greatness of God in their daily choices. Not just what they do when they come together. Worship is following the prompting of the Spirit. Worship is, when I hear God and I do what I hear, I think God's telling me to do and I just obey. And we're going to talk a whole lot about that in the month of September and how that changes your anticipation of your day-to-day life. A number of you have been through some difficult times in the last months economically. And some of you in positions of influence and you're under a lot of scrutiny right now. Some of you in executive positions. One of the ways that worship affects you is the peace of God just remains on you. Because the integrity of your heart, as it says in Proverbs, protects you in the midst of those kinds of difficulties. That's one of the benefits of being a worshiper. And finally, how do we sustain this? Let me just close with this. By renewing our minds. Worship is sustained by a renewed mind. Here's the challenge. The world is constantly trying to squeeze us into its mold, as Phillips translated that. What does it mean? What does it mean to be squeezed into a mold? It means to be pulled and pushed and shoved into conformity. Folks, listen. I have to tell you. If you're a young person today and you think peer pressure is bad just when you're a teenager, I'm here to tell you it doesn't stop when you get to be 25, does it? Or 35 or 55. There's always this sort of pressure to be and have and look and present yourself in a certain way. It's always there. The world's trying to squeeze you into its mold, its values, to say that being distant is cool. That illicit sex in any form is always a thrill. That unethical business is just a way of life to get ahead. That workaholism is a virtue. That having more and bigger and better is the only way to really prove that you made something of your life. The world's telling you that having soccer leagues on Sunday morning is just fine. And whatever it might be for you. Temptations and fantasies and all the rest. Your only real weapon is to continually renew your mind in the things of God. And letter A, it's a process. This goes on every single day. Every day your mind has to be engaged in the process. If it's not, you're going to lose ground. Isaac Watts You may not know that name. He was a great hymn writer born in the 17th century. He composed Joy to the World, Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed, When I Surveyed the Wonderous Cross. I'm not sure if he's related to Dave Watts, but we can check. I would bet there's something in the genes there. But here's the interesting thing. This great hymn writer, whose hymns, by the way, have profound meaning as you sing the words. You know what he was? He was a professor and he taught logic and reason in the university. And he wrote a book called Logic, The Right Use of Reason in the Inquiry After Truth. And I won't read the whole quote, but it goes on to say how he understood that the mind is the gateway to everything that happens in your life. You don't renew the mind, you're going to lose the battle. If you don't put your mind where it needs to be, you'll never be able to live a life of worship. The way we think about things, ideas and images. Let me say it again. Ideas and images are very powerful. They pervade everything we do. And it's very hard for us to change our ideas and images, what's going in our mind. Because we get into patterns. How many of you have a commute in the morning? You commute some place to go to work? Just a question for you. When you get in the car to head to work to do your commute, is there a particular radio station you usually listen to? Yeah, I thought so. And, you know, it's a pattern and I would expect even if I sat here today or stood here today and told you, why don't you try changing that pattern for a week? You would find it very difficult to break out of that pattern because you see it's gotten ingrained. Our patterns, our habits begin to be controlling of us rather than vice versa. And I want to encourage you today just to think about ways that you monitor the gateway of your mind. What's going into your mind? If all that's going into your mind is secular images and secular information, this opinion and that opinion, if you have to listen to somebody kind of firing up your political views or whatever it is, morning, noon, and night, friends, I'm going to tell you your mind will not serve you in the process of worship. And so you need to monitor what you're reading, what you're putting into your mind, taking the old images and replacing them with new ones. And I want to suggest as I did last week, nothing is more powerful than God's Word to shape how we understand the greatness of God. Here's a suggestion for you. If you're one of those commuters, get the Bible on CD. Stop in our Lifelines Resource Center and get the Bible on CD or tape and start listening to Scripture in the morning. You say, oh man, I wouldn't get the latest news. Help me understand what you're going to miss that you won't get any other time of the day that you really need to get it. The fact of the matter is most of us, we fall prey to that. And we push God out. We don't listen. We don't read. We don't bring images and ideas into our head that will build our understanding of who God is. In fact, Paul calls us to have the mind of Christ. Look at that next verse. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Listen, if it couldn't happen, He wouldn't have exhorted us to be. We can have the thoughts of Christ. And then your mind becomes a powerful tool, finally, of transformation. Dallas Willard writes this. What I receive in response to my efforts is therefore also a gift, a grace. Spiritual transformation of my thought life is achieved by the ministry of the Spirit in the midst of my necessary, well-directed efforts. There it is again. You see, your efforts and God's grace fitting together to bring about transformation. What goes into your mind will change the way you think about God and how you see God and respond to His greatness. That's the essence of worship. That's what God wants to do in all of us in these days is to bring His greatness before us. The image of His sacrifice and of His love that we might live a life that's pleasing to Him and have the power to change and be transformed. Lord, as we commit ourselves to You, I pray now that we would be prepared to let our minds serve the transformation of our hearts. That we would be able to, O God, come to the place where our worship is informed. That we come to the place, Lo