“With More Than Just Your Voice”

Scripture: Isaiah 66:1-2; John 4:21-26; Romans 12:1-2

For Christians, worship is the heart of faith, and as such, it demands a far greater responsibility for us than simply coming to church on Sunday morning. Worship is more than singing hymns and reciting prayers. True worship will always involve more than our stoic presence within these four walls.
Worship is proclaiming Jesus Christ in our lives. Worship is glorifying the Majestic name of Almighty God to all who have the “ears” to hear. Worship involves a passionate heart and a joyful spirit.

Worship occurs every time we bring a new disciple into the grace and mercy of Christ. Worship happens every time we celebrate the dedication of a new soul into fellowship with Almighty God. Worship exists within the heart that suddenly learns a new truth from the teachings of Jesus. Worship is the commitment of a life to faithfully follow and serve the Lord wherever, whenever, and however that may be lived. (Matthew 28:16-20)

Today is the second in our series on “Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations”. Bishop Schnase writes in his book “Vibrant, fruitful, growing churches offer Passionate Worship that connects people to God and to one another.” And later he tells us that “People are searching for worship that is authentic, alive, creative, and comprehensible, where they experience the life-changing presence of God in the presence of others.”

True worship should be exciting, meaningful, filled with purpose and hope, and it especially is to be a life changing experience.

Read Isaiah 66:1-2

The prophet is speaking about the power of worshipful change. When we understand why we worship our One and glorious God, we can no longer be who we once were. A life in faith that was once a stroll, an easy and unassuming effort, one that we took for granted, must take on a whole new appearance if it is to be honest.
Where our ideas and plans had always taken the lead, now the Lord and his way takes precedence. Where personal confidence and certainty had been our mantra, we now sing praises to our Almighty God for his faithfulness and glory. Where life’s satisfaction had always been based in our own successes and accomplishments, now we are both humbled and joyful over all that our Lord Jesus gains through our submission to his call.

Life changes for the better when we come to the Lord passionately. And why shouldn’t it? Our worship and praise is not only for the Lord and King of our lives, it is for the Power and Majesty that rules over all of creation! And the truth of the matter is that this new relationship is not one of His Power versus our subservience, but rather one that is based in friendship and fellowship and trust. The Savior and Lord of our lives is now, if you will, our “BFF”!

I have to confess, though, that I’ve never been very good with social media abbreviations. I used to think that “lol” meant “lots of luck”, until my granddaughter put the acronym into context for me, that it really means “laughing out loud”. Same with “bff”, except I couldn’t even imagine what it might stand for!
But the significance of “best friend forever” still eludes me. If someone is the best friend we have ever had, and will be for the rest of our life, why would we ever want or need a procedure to “unfriend” them? Apparently the world’s concept of “Best” falls far short of meaning “greatest” or “unsurpassed”, and “forever” obviously can’t be any longer than a week or two.
When I was in the Navy, we almost never used the term Friend – our relationship with the other men in our outfit was “buddy”. A buddy wasn’t someone you just liked to go on liberty with – he was someone you would stand beside and fight for against all comers, and he was one who you would give your all for his life.

Our relationship with the Lord is more than even the truest form of “BFF” - it is the finest and most powerful form of being a “BUDDY”! Christ has already given his All for our eternal life.

So how much are we willing to give back for the life we have in our Lord and “Buddy” Jesus?

Read John 4:21-26

In this familiar passage, Jesus is at Jacob’s well, having a conversation with a woman of Samaria. She has been ostracized by the people in her village because she has been unable to keep a husband - 5 in all - and that the man she is currently with isn’t even married to her. And not only do the men in her life keep leaving her, and not only do her neighbors treat her like she has the plague, but the opinion that the Jews had for the Samaritans was that they were not only sinners, but that they had no worth or value in this life, and that to even associate with them was a cause for their own sin.

In this passage, Jesus and this unnamed and “unloved” woman are discussing the very topic that we are considering today – where and how we worship. The Lord tells her that she and her people don’t really understand what their worship is about, and that the time has come when worship is no longer be confined to a particular place, nor in any special way, nor with any specific words. Now, the only means of worshipping the true God is to know who he is and why he is worthy of our praise, to celebrate him in heavenly ways and not in ways dictated by the world, and to stay true to his way and purpose.

This is where our passion begins. Jesus is telling the woman, as well as us, that we must let go of the limiting style of worship that the world thinks is adequate and sufficient! The quality of our worship must reflect the majesty of the One we worship. If we don’t show him our love and gratitude for all that he has done for and through us, if we aren’t opening ourselves up to an emotional and heartfelt passion for him, how can we ever claim that our worship is authentic and meaningful?

Read Romans 12:1-2

Paul is telling us that putting our entire being into worship is the only way. And he reiterates what the prophet Isaiah said, that worship is no longer just a physical presence, or verbal offering – that it must be, primarily, spiritual in nature. In other words, don’t limit yourself to what you think others may expect of you when you offer praise to the God of the Universe.

And when he writes “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”, Paul wants our worship to make a difference in our lives. Don’t hold back, don’t stop short, don’t let the 7 last words of the church - “We’ve never done it that way before” - keep us buried in the past. Worship should lead us to becoming new creatures in Christ! It should bring us to a new sense of the relationship we have with the Lord!

Some quotations from Bishop Schnase’s book:

1. “We don’t attend worship to squeeze God into our lives; we seek to meld our lives into God’s.”
2. “Worship bends hearts toward God as it stretches hands outward toward others.”
3. “Through worship, God pardons sins, restores relationships, and changes lives.”
4. “God expects lives to change in worship”
5. “Passionate Worship means an extraordinary eagerness to offer the best in worship, honoring God with excellence and with an unusual clarity about the purpose of connecting people to God.”
6. “An hour of Passionate Worship changes all the other hours of the week.”

(Schnase, Robert, Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, Abingdon Press, TN, 2007, pgs. 11-13)

If our worship doesn’t lead to some change in the way we think, in the way we act, in the way we serve, in the way we live - then something is missing.

And if nothing is changing in our lives, then something must be missing in our faith expression, and it might be time to ask if our worship needs more faith.

“More Than Just a Welcome”

Scripture: Isaiah 55: 1-7; Matthew 18:1-6

Several years ago I read a book called “Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations”, by Bishop Robert Schnase. The Bishop took five of the church’s routine activities, and showed that the routine is not enough – that we are called to be exceptional. Personally, the Bishop’s thoughts are what we should already be doing, but I expect that very few churches do them all well. Today, we begin a new series of messages that will consider whether we are routine in our faith, or exceptional.

Those basic practices are hospitality, worship, faith development, mission and service, and generosity, and I think we do each of these to some degree, but Bishop Schnase challenges us to “kick our efforts up a notch”. According to him, our hospitality should be “Radical”, our worship “Passionate”, efforts in faith development must be “Intentional”, mission and service should involve “Risk-taking”, and our generosity become “Extravagant”.

Over the next 5 weeks, we will be considering each of these practices, and how we might become an even more effective church as we carry out our call in ministry to the world. Today we consider our part in extending “Radical Hospitality” to our friends and neighbors.

Read Isaiah 55:1-4

Our God is radical in all that he does. The prophet is telling us that the Lord provides for all who will come to him. Are you thirsting for relief from the burdens of this life? Have you discovered that the nourishment of earth is unable to sustain your life, to heal your broken ways, to help you to grow in true wisdom and health? Have you become dependent on the riches of earth to care for all your needs, and neglecting of the riches of God?

The prophet offers us four thoughts on ways that will bring us to a better life, and the first is “come”. If we wish to receive God’s goodness, we have to come to him. The problem is that “coming” to the Lord can never be a half-hearted effort! In the spirit of “hospitality”, half-hearted and comfortable is routine, while passionate and determined is what radical requires. The only way our Almighty God gives is in an over-the-top kind of way, and so must we.

The second thought is “accept”. We read that when we “come” to the Lord’s way, he gives without cost to us. So, instead of having to buy his goodness, instead of having to earn his salvation, instead of having to deserve his love, we simply have to receive it. For many people, this may be the hardest thing they will ever have to do. They want to see it as an obligation to, somehow, repay the favor. But when divine goodness has been offered, and when it has been received by the hungry and thirsty heart, the joy that we experience obliterates any sense of obligation, and replaces it with an overwhelming desire to share it with others.

The third thought for us is “listen”. When we “feast” on divine goodness, the hunger for more begins to fill us. And when we open ourselves to the word of God, “some” can never be enough. We want to learn more, to seek more, to discover more about what the Lord wants to us to know and receive from him. And listening will be the only way we will ever understand.

The fourth is “see”. When we Come, when we Accept, when we Listen, it is then that we begin to grow in faith, and in trust, and in celebration for all that is filling our lives. And we will “see” and experience all the ways that Godly grace can make a difference in us.

Read Isaiah 55:5-7

And now it seems that Isaiah has a fifth thought for us – that when we have been fed with the righteous grace of God, others should be unable to miss the change that is occurring in our lives. And in that, they, too, will be encouraged to begin their own, personal journey of faith.

And this is when “radical hospitality” must come into play. The one thing that the Lord’s call demands of us is that we choose to follow him. Receiving him, being nourished by him, seeing what he has done to make our lives better – this is all about what God has, and is, doing for us. But what about our response for all that he has given. Are we grateful? Are we prepared to receive even more? Are we going to share the Good News of this new relationship with others? Will we let them know what the Lord truly means to us?

And when we let faith grow and work within us, these 3 verses begin to work in marvelous ways. When we open ourselves to receive the power and authority of the Holy Spirit, when we let the Spirit lead and guide our steps, when we let God’s way and purpose become our own, others will come to see the Lord’s truth.

And it won’t be just for the people who we know or are even comfortable with! Think about the lives that Jesus touched – they were anything but the ones who would normally be expected. He touched the lives of sinners; he touched the lives of outcasts; he touched the lives of the infirm, the sick, the demented, the lost, and the dead; he touched the lives of lowly and elite alike. Jesus welcomed all who would “come” to him, and when we become his witnesses, many others will experience his glory, and will also come to him seeking.

Read Matthew 18:1-6

It seems, though, that the arrogant, the conceited, the self-proclaimed righteous – even though they would be welcome – would seldom surrender their ways and receive the better life in Christ. The point is that the only way we can come to the Lord is with a humble and wide-eyed expectant heart – like a child has.

And we, as the Body of Christ, must welcome like a little child. When we were in Mexico back in August on the mission trip, you should have seen the team interact with the children. It was hard to tell who the kids really were! Every child, every team member, were welcoming to the extreme, and attendance at the Vacation Bible School grew every day – from the expected size of 35-40, to a final day of about 90 children, plus many of their moms and dads!
We were strangers to the people of that area, but somehow, they saw God’s grace and love in us, and they reacted in an overwhelming way. The mission had invited a few from the primary village, but invitations continued to spread throughout the area during those 4 days of VBS.

“... whoever humbles himself like a child” is the key. We can’t expect others to mimic our ways, we can’t try to remold them into our image, we can’t demand that they worship and serve and even sing like we always have. And we can’t wait until they walk through our front door before they begin to feel welcomed.

Bishop Schnase wrote this in his book “Christian hospitality refers to the active desire to invite, welcome, receive, and care for those who are strangers so that they find a spiritual home and discover for themselves the unending richness of life in Christ.” And the term “strangers” isn’t only referring to people we don’t know! It also applies to those who we may know, but who are strangers to Christ and his Church.

Have you ever told an unchurched friend about your church – not just with words, but with passion and joy and conviction? Have you ever invited that friend to come and see for themselves? What have you done to remove every obstacle and concern from their “I don’t think so.”? Have you renewed your invitation every once in a while, still showing love and joy and conviction to them?
Or did you give up after the first reluctant try?

Remember the last visitors who came to the church? How many of us reached out to them when they arrived, and again at the end of worship? How many spoke encouraging words to them, to make them feel welcome, to let them know how appreciated their presence was, to learn a little about them, to make them forget that they, and we, were strangers a very short time before, and to invite them to come again?

Scripture is full of this kind of radical hospitality! Besides Jesus, who was radically welcoming to all he met, the Lord’s commands to Israel extend to the Old Testament as well. A few examples:

Deuteronomy 10:19 – “Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
Job 29:16 – “I was a father to the needy, and I championed the cause of the stranger.”
Matthew 25:35 – “… I was a stranger and you invited me in …”

I would challenge everyone today to see just how Radical, how open, how deliberate we can become in our invitation, our welcoming, our love of those who would venture into our fellowship, our passion for the call of Christ on our lives, to see just how far we are willing to go to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to a world that is thirsty and hungry and seeking and desperately in need of the new life that only Jesus can bring.

Jesus is counting on every one of us to be "greatest" for him!

“Who Do You Say I Am?”

Scripture: Exodus 3:13-15; Matthew 2:1-12

What defines our lives and our identity? Is it our name? Our parents? Our DNA? Our heritage? Or is it in who we were created to be? The worldly way always seems so much easier to understand, so much easier to determine, but is it really who we are?

The truth is that we are who God has planned and created us to be, and not who we want to be, or who we think we should be, or who we are by the world’s standards. There’s an old saying, that if we don’t know who we are, then the world will tell us who we must be.

Identity is important in our lives, so that we can know who we are, and where we are going. And if you don’t believe that, just ask a person who has amnesia! You will never feel more lost and alone than when you have lost your identity.
But it is also important for others to know who we are as a basis for our relationship with them. Our individual identities set the standard for how we interact with other people.

And identity is important in our relationship with our Almighty God. If we don’t know who he is, if we don’t know what he stands for, if we try to make the Lord out to be something and someone who is totally different than who he is, what kind of relationship is going to develop between us? Certainly not one in truth!
And this has been a problem for humanity since the beginning of time!

Read Exodus 3:13-15

Moses has experienced the Burning Bush, and now he is in the process of discovering who this Presence is, and what is being expected of him. Moses is a fugitive from Egypt – he murdered a man, and he has lived in exile for the past 40 years. And now he is being told to go back to Egypt to lead the enslaved people of Israel into a new life.

Moses had grown up in the royal family, and had little contact with his own people. So it’s understandable that he is a bit reluctant to return to convince them to trust him, and follow him to some unknown place. And even worse, he isn’t even comfortable with who the One is who is telling him to do these things.

Moses didn’t have a relationship with either the One who was sending him, or the ones he was being sent to! It’s no wonder that he is a bit hesitant to go, that he is afraid of the testing that the people will certainly put him through. They, too, would need to be sure of this new relationship if they are to trust this person who had never been one of them in the past.

So Moses begins an attempt to understand who this God is, so that when he is tested by Israel, he will be able to give at least a credible explanation of why he is there and who has sent him.
The first identity that the Lord gives to his reluctant servant is “I AM who I am.” Now I don’t know about you, but at first glance, this seems to be a pretty lame answer – to say that your identity exists just because you exist! But think about it – God has no ancestors, no DNA, no beginning or end – there is nothing about him that any human could relate to. God’s identity, simply put, IS!

But the Lord doesn’t end there. He also reveals that he has been their God since the origins of their people. The Hebrews identity is in the relationship they had with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – these were the earliest people they could relate to, and they all knew who they were in that relationship. And now they were to know the God who their ancestors worshipped and trusted, and that he would be there for them, too.

And the third identification that God gives is that he is eternal, and his name is one that they must remember. We don’t need to remember a person’s name if the importance that they play in our life is gone, but we do if we are to be blessed by that name.

And this is who we must know our God as – that he IS since the beginning of time, and is also our beginning. He has been the God of creation for all time, and will never exclude anyone who will come to him. And our God is eternal – worthy of praise and worship throughout time.

Read Matthew 2:1-4

We now move ahead by over 1,000 years, and the Reminder of just who this eternal God is has just arrived. Moses had been charged to reintroduce the great God Jehovah to his people. The first ones to know about this precious birth were descendants of those Hebrew slaves, but the ones who have now come in our text for today were, in all probability, alien from that family. But they had heard of the day when God would reenter his creation, and they had been watching for a sign that this day had finally come.

Today is celebrated as Epiphany – the day of God’s revealing, a day of understanding. It is the day when we acknowledge, not only God’s coming into this place, but the reality of his existence. It’s the day when we come to the truth that the Lord has opened for our life.

On Christmas, we celebrate the Lord’s “revealing” to shepherds. These were part of the family of Israel, even though they were, for all practical purposes, outcasts. It wasn’t because of anything that they had done, but simply because of their job – it was a dirty job, a smelly job, a bloody job, and they were considered to be “contaminated” by the world – they were “unclean” - and would never be allowed to enter the temple for worship.
Today, we celebrate the Lord’s revealing to gentiles. Even though these would have been learned men, wealthy men, respected men, they were not Jews, and as such, they were unworthy to receive insight into Jehovah’s presence. And yet, God knew otherwise.

All who will “come to worship him” are welcome. Being unworthy by the world’s standards has never been God’s plan. In Matthew 15:16-20 we read that it isn’t what goes into our mouth, or what clings to our clothing, or who our ancestors were that makes us unworthy, it is the evil that lives within our hearts that marks us as sinful. And even then, we can still come to the Lord, acknowledging our unworthiness, to ask for his healing in the divine relationship that we have damaged. When the shepherds came, when the magi came, they came in celebration for the vision of God that had been granted to them. In spite of what men may think, God had a totally different plan.

And as we read further, we discover that the jealousy and fear of earth had created a major obstacle for the world’s rulers.

Read Matthew 2:5-8

It is in the hearts and lives of the least of earth that the fullness of God’s presence will rest. The least will know the Lord, and the mighty will fight against his truth. And in the day of Christ’s revealing – both this first one, as well as in the one to come – those who love the Lord and his ways will be exposed to constant opposition and conflict from those who love the world and choose to live in those ways.

In this passage, even the foreigners know the words of the prophets, in this instance Micah 5:1-5a, who had proclaimed the Lord’s coming centuries before, while the king of Israel had no recollection of the prophecy. But even though Herod was ignorant of this illumination, he could still plan the elimination of this perceived threat to his throne by lies and subterfuge. He, and others in the centuries to come, thought that God’s plan could be thwarted through the schemes of earth. The truth is that Satan can’t, and the world can’t – their only hope is to surrender to the power and truth of the Lord.

Read Matthew 2:9-12

And not only couldn’t Herod know where the Christ Child was, the magi, the foreigners, the unworthy would be led by God’s own hand to the very place they had been searching for. They came in worship, not in apprehension, they came in hope, not in doubt, they came seeking the presence of Almighty God, and they wouldn’t be disappointed.

They rejoiced at this glorious discovery, and they presented the King of Glory with gifts that they had been carrying for many months. The gold that they gave was a gift that was fitting for a king; the frankincense was an aromatic resin that was used as incense in the temple; the myrrh was also an aromatic oil that was used in the washing of bodies, along with frankincense, before they were placed in a tomb for burial.

A royal gift, a religious gift, and a gift for his death. They had seen the Truth of God for themselves, they had presented him with gifts that would reflect the glory and reality of this Child of God, and now, by the Lord’s will, they would not have to reveal the location of this Gift to the king who had nothing but hatred and loathing as his planned gift to God.

The love, the hope, the presence of Almighty God has been revealed to the people of earth, and as with any true gift, the only string that is attached is that it has to be accepted. No expectations, no demands, no caveats – only the hope that it will be received.

The shepherds came to see with hope; the magi traveled many miles to experience their joy – the question for us today is whether we come the Lord’s presence with the expectation of seeing him through our worldly eyes, or with a heart filled with hope?
Who will we let the Christ be for each of us?