Person - Place - Passion . . . in Worship

In John 4:19-26 we find Jesus in the midst of a discussion with the Samaritan woman and He uses the occasion to give some of His first teaching on worship.  First of all He points out to her that the reason many flail around in the dark about worship is because they have not seen the clear light of the day, which is Jesus, Himself, God's way of salvation.
Then He points out that worship is about a person, not a place.  Many spend their lives looking for the right church, but it's all about Him; the right worship style, but it's all about Him; the right music, but it's all about Him; the right preacher or preaching style, but it's all about Him.  It is not about the "places" of worship that people tend to talk about, it is about Him! Worship is about engaging or connecting with the living God!  It is about a person, not a place.
Then, there is the passion of worship. The Message states vv. 23-24 thus; "It's who you are and the way you live that count before God.  Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth."  Then in v. 24, He continues, "Those who worship Him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves," (passsion), "in adoration."  Here, again, as in some other passages "spirit" is in lower case, because in this place it is not talking about the Holy Spirit, but our spirit.  We are to worship Him with everything we are, all that we are.  That's passion. One other note:  This is one of the only places in scripture where God is "seeking" something from us.  He desires our worship.  He seeks for us to engage and connect with Him in worship.  I would say there is passion both directions.  "Worship Him in spirit and truth!"
mjm

Questions/Comments: michaelj@fbcrockwalltx.org

The Priority of Worship

Last blog ended with:  God is the first priority of the church, therefore, worship should be the priority of the church.  There was a book called The Tyranny of the Urgent that pointed out how we allow the urgent to overcome the important in our lives.  If our life perspective is horizontal, our obsession with that which is human -  achievement, logic, opinion, and results - takes up all of our time and focus.  However, if our perspective is vertical, the things of God become our focus.
Gordon Dahl said, "Most middle-class Americans tend to worship their work, to work at their play, and to play at their worship.  As a result their meanings and values are distorted.  Their relationships disintegrate faster than they can keep them in repair, and their lifestyles resemble a cast of characters in search of a plot."  Even when the church gathers for worship every week this is obvious in so many folks, that their focus seems to be horizontal rather than vertical.
In his new book Chuck Swindoll says, "When we substitute the urgent for the important in the church of Jesus Christ, we emphasize work, activity, involvement, doing, producing, impressing, and accomplishing.  But it leaves us feeling flat and empty.  It smacks of the secularized world in which we work.  Who knows how many people have been turned away from Christianity, longing for the true, living God but encountering at the church a secularized substitute?"  It's bad enough that because of the lack in our worship life, people don't encounter God in our witness.  But, even sadder that some come into the church and because of the church's focus fail to encounter the living, loving God because the people of God are not focused on His manifest presence in worship.
Swindoll says, "The important rather than the urgent things highlight the things of God - God's Word, God's will, God's plan, God's people, God's way, God's reason for living, God's glory, and God's honor.  And the goal of all of these? God's worship.  The underlying objective of a church committed to the important things - rather than the urgent - is the cultivation of a body of worshipers whose sole focus is on the Lord our God."
Lord, teach us how to make worship priority in our lives and in our church, with a passion for your presence among us!  mjm

Worship - the Passage into His Power and Presence

Over and over in both Old and New Testaments, we see the principles laid out in John 15:5.  "I am the vine, you are the branches.  Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing."  Abiding, remaining, focusing on; it is to worship Him and that is the entrance way into His power and presence.  The only power to accomplish anything as individual believers or the church is by His power.  And, God puts worship as the entrance way into His power.  Why does God show us that principle over and over?  Because God's main concern is His glory.  If in His kingdom we could accomplish anything in our own power, with our own cleverness, God would not receive the glory for His work.  But, because we are totally dependent on Him to bear any fruit, God is sure to get the glory.

Col. 3:1-2 tells us to "set our minds on things above, not on earthly things."  The key to true worship is the people of God becoming engaged with God with their entire hearts, souls, minds, and strength.  Dr. Bruce Leafblad has said, "God is the first priority of the church.  Not people.  Not ministry.  Not growth.  Not success.  God and God alone occupies the place of ultimate and absolute priority in the church."  God and God alone is the power source of the church.  Let us worship Him and enter in to His power and presence.

mjm

Comments/Questions:  michaelj@fbcrockwalltx.org

Enjoying God's Presence!

Yes, we should enjoy His presence.  In 1648 the Westminster covenant asks, "What is the chief end of man?"  The answer given, "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever."  After acknowledging the presence of God, surrendering to His presence, and celebrating His presence, the next thing for us to do is to live in the enjoyment of His presence.  The act of enjoying is the worship lifestyle.  The point of recognizing His presence is not just for the sake of recognizing, but for the relationship we have with Him, engaging His presence. If we profess salvation, but never spend time with God, the profession has no meaning.  We should spend time with the Lord, meshing our lives with Him, with more and more focus and passion toward Him.
When we are continually getting to know God, desiring more of Him in our lives, we will proclaim the glory of God's presence throughout every part of our lives.  When we recognize God's great worth, we are compelled to share that which we have experienced.  As we have said before, missions is not for mission's sake.  The reason for missions is worship.  We participate in mission with God as a result of enjoying Him. It is all about sharing the joy, rivers of living water flowing out to others because we have been with Him, enjoying Him in worship and joining Him in mission.

Questions/Comments: michaelj@fbcrockwalltx.org

"High and Lifted Up"

Isaiah 6 is a very instructive passage in our private and corporate worship.  Isaiah sees the Lord high and lifted up, and when He sees God in all of his fullness, he sees himself..."Woe is me, for I am undone."  We can not truly come into the manifest presence of God and not see ourselves as sinners in need of grace.
But in the following verses it says your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.  Praise God we don't have to live in that place of guilt.  When we look God in the face in all of his Holiness, we see ourselves corrupt and in total depravity and yet, through His provision in Christ Jesus, our guilt is gone, our sins wiped out.  Holy, yet merciful God is He!
Once we have seen Him, come to acknowledge our sin, been forgiven, then He challenges us to move forward by asking, "Whom shall I send?  Who will go?"  Because He is God and because of His grace our answer should be, "Here am I, send me."  And then He says, "Go and tell this people."
When we experience the manifest presence of God and walk in His mercy and grace, we will want to be on mission with Him in helping others to see that He is worthy of our worship.  Then, the passion of our hearts will be helping others in His power and strength to desire to worship Him! mjm

Questions/Comments:  michaelj@fbcrockwalltx.org

The Manifest Presence of God

There is a difference between the omnipresence of God and the manifest presence of God.  Rom. 12:1 says, "I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship."  The Message says, "So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around-life - and place it before God as an offering.   Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him.  Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.  Instead, fix your attention on God.  You'll be changed from the inside out."  He is manifest only when we are aware of His presence, as we surrender to the Spirit of God so He can show us the work of the Father and Son.  When we cooperate with Him in loving obedience, God will manifest Himself  to us.  

Worship is not just an event, it is a lifestyle.  In John 15:5 we find these words, "I am the vine, you are the branches, apart from me you can do nothing." In the complete awareness of His presence, as we become obedient to Him, living out our worship, His presence becomes manifest.  His power becomes very evident around us.  Reality is, we must go beyond the event and see evidence of kingdom fruit.  Where God's presence is manifest, we will see His power bearing spiritual fruit for His glory. Our public worship is an outcome of our personal/private worship and our obedience to Him in allowing Him to bear fruit in and through our lives. mjm

Questions/Comments: michaelj@fbcrockwalltx.org

The Bottom Line of Worship

The bottom line of worship is to become captivated by the presence of God.  Or, the point of worship is to practice the presence of God.  As seen in Luke 7:37-38, this woman's story is a reminder that true worship begins with recognizing God's presence.  We see, all through scripture, that people encounter God and then they respond to the encounter with worship.
Bottom line, worship is not about what "style" of worship, what kind of music, who is leading worship, or how it is being led.  It is about the people of God gathering in awe of Him, captivated by His glorious presence, and keeping the focus on Him.  We need to be careful that we are not people who are very critical of a worship service.  This could be a sign of a spiritual problem.  If we fall into this trap we are failing to acknowledge and keep the focus on God's presence.  And, in some worship environments it is harder to stay focused on Him.
There should be no such thing as wonderful preachers, wonderful singers, wonderful instrumentalists, wonderful songs or great performances in the presence of God.  And there are no horrible preachers, horrible musicians, or horrible performances, if all the focus is on Him!
When God's presence is the focus, all those other things are not all that important.  In the Ozark Hills of Arkansas this week, we've seen some very gifted people and talked about their giftedness.  At these gatherings we tend to focus on the giftedness.  At these gatherings we tend to focus on the gifted.  But, when the Body of Christ gathers, we focus on the Giver.
God's presence makes all things lowly and humbled and all things blessed by Him.  mjm

Questions/Comments:  michaelj@fbcrockwalltx.org

Not Forsaking our First Love

There is no power for the doing of evangelism, ministry, and missions apart from the power of God on our lives through true worship.  We are living in a time when the church has forsaken her first love.  Tozer said, "God is infinitely more concerned that He has worshippers than that He has workers." God is lifting up those within the Body who will turn their hearts completely toward Him, whose passion is for His name and His glory.  Their following of God is not about what they can do or where they are going, but is mainly about Him - knowing, loving, and pursuing Him.  They are Following Me to Me.  They are convinced that in following Christ to Himself, God will fulfill his promise to make them fishers of men.
When someone is really walking with God, they will become passionate for that which God is passionate.  It is God's concern and passion that His name be glorified in all the earth, seeing all come to repentance, and His people a light to the world.  True worshippers are equally devoted to the work of God, as they are to worship.  However, works without worship is just a bunch of hot air that does not glorify God.  Believers who get caught up in work without worship burn out or become dependent on self rather than on the Savior.  Not only will they burn out, Scripture clearly says their works will burn up.  Unless we return to our first love and become the true worshippers God desires, the sight of churches closing their doors will become common.  If we are unable to understand that our first call is to be true worshippers, we will never experience Him doing His great work in us and through us as we are fully yielded to Him for His glory! mjm


Comments/Questions - michaelj@fbcrockwalltx.org

Our Purpose - Worship or Witness? - Yes

Rick Warren uses five words to summarize the Biblical purposes of the Church: "1) Magnify,  2) Mission, 3) Membership, 4) Maturity,  5) Ministry."  I agree that all of these are purposes of the church.  However, I believe worship, which he calls, "Magnify", is not a purpose, but is the purpose from which all of the other purposes flow.  If we are true worshippers, all the other purposes - ministry, evangelism, fellowship, and discipleship will be natural outflows of our worship, empowered by Him.  I believe that to be in complete agreement with both The Great Commandment and the Great Commission!  "Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it."  The One who calls us to the life of righteousness is the very One who by our consent, will live that life through us.  The One who calls us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, is the One who by our consent, goes and preaches to every creature through us.  The divine genius of our Lord is that our witness and ministry would be a natural outcome of our worship.

There is no better statement on mission and worship than this one by John Piper:

"Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church.  Worship is.  Missions exists because worship doesn't.  Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man.  When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, mission will be no more.  It is a temporary necessity.  But worship abides forever.

"Worship, therefore is both the fuel and the goal in mission.  It's the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into the white-hot enjoyment of God's glory.  The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God."  mjm

Questions/Comments: michaelj@fbcrockwalltx.org