“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.