Dying to Live . . .

God's children seldom live in the power of the resurrection because they have gained very little insight into dying with Christ.  In Christ we have to die before we can live.  Paul said it like this, "If we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him." (Rom. 6:8)  We must be dead to sin in order to be alive for God in Christ Jesus. Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you unless a grain   of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.  Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also.  If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him."  These words give us the assurance of God as to who and what we are in Christ Jesus.  The truth of this work of the cross is not something we can master with our minds or call our own.  The power and work of the cross must be revealed to us by God's Holy Spirit.  In His power we experience the death of the cross as the power for our daily lives. 

Our life of worship must not be something we do, but the power of the death and resurrection of Christ made real in us as we trust in Him to do that work in our loves. All of Romans 6 is an extension of verse 2 stating that we who have died in sin cannot still live in it.  "If we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him . . . The death He died, He died to sin once and for all."  We must rest and depend on God's assurance: If we have died with Christ, we go on living only with God.  This is the secret to God giving us the power to live the resurrected, victorious life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  We need only thank Him, acknowledge His power in us and live and worship in that power.  mjm

Crucial to Worship . . . the Cross

Some have thought that the gospel is simply one of many possible themes to be used in worship or "touched on" as we gather for worship.  In fact, however, it is central and foundational to our worship.  All of our worship begins and is brought into full focus at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ.  One can not glorify Christ without the cross.  The cross is foundational to all that was accomplished by God through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.  It reveals His preexistent state in glory, His incarnation, His life of perfect obedience, His suffering, His resurrection, His ascension, His present intercession, His reign in glory, and His triumphant return.  All of it is tied to the cross.  P. T. Forsyth stated basically, "All that Christ was in heaven or on earth was put into what He did at the cross and you can not understand Christ or know Him till you understand His cross."  

It is the very work of the cross that guarantees our complete and immediate access to God in worship.  When we come before the Lord through Christ, "we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in Him" (Ephesians 3:12).  As our High Priest and the perfect sacrifice, Jesus is literally our "password" into the presence and glory of our Lord.  Approaching God in worship is impossible apart from Jesus Christ and the cross.  

A worship leader can create an environment for things to possibly happen, but Biblically speaking no worship leader, no choir, no worship team, band, or particular song can ever bring us close unto God. We can not sing, dance, shout, or preach our way into God's presence.  Only the Christ of the cross Himself can bring us into the very presence of God and He has done it Once upon a Cross in a single sacrifice for all time that will never be repeated - only gloriously recounted and trusted in. Our worship is never accepted on the basis of what we have done, but on the basis of what Christ has done.  It's all about Him! . . . which we must never forget.  David Pryor has written, "We never, therefore, move on from the cross of Christ, only into a more profound understanding of the cross." mjm

Once Upon a Cross

Our musical next week is the same title: "Once Upon a Cross".  The work of the cross, love's redeeming work was done - Once Upon a Cross never to be repeated, just retold and remembered regularly in a deeply meaningful way.  This story of Calvary is a testimony to the unending love of God.  It is easier for us on this side of the Resurrection to look at the difficulty of the sacrifice of Jesus, with our knowing the joy and certainty of the Resurrection.

In our worship we must never tire of telling "...the story of unseen things above; of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love".  When we worship we retell the story and we gather to remember. As we walk with Him in our private personal worship, as well as those special times we gather together weekly, the story becomes more and more precious - the joy much deeper - expectations much higher and the thankfulness overwhelming.  One of my dear friends texted me on Saturday saying - "I just realized Jesus sang before He went to the Cross!!!" (Matt. 26:30 and Psalm 116:13-14)  

Yes, He sang.  And when we "take up the cross" as we are commanded we also are commanded to sing unto the Lord the New Song!  And . . . we are promised that if we do - many will see and fear and put their trust in Him!  

Praise the Lord!  Hallelujah!  The sacrifice was made - the offering accepted - the debt fully paid - the war was over - the Victor crowned - and someday - the King will return.  Hallelujah!  The work of the cross was done once, but the story must be repeated until all know! mjm

Biblical Reasons for Congregational Worship

I want to review some reasons for Congregational Worship.

1.   To Glorify God - "You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand" (Psalm 16:11). "To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, forever and ever!" (Revelation 5:13).

2.   To enable people to come into the presence of the Lord - "Come before Him with joyful singing" (Psalm 100:2).  We should think of our worship services as a progression into the manifest presence of God every time we gather as the church.  Lives are always changed in God's presence.

3.   To enhance the ministry of God's Word - "While the musician was playing, the hand of the Lord came upon Elisha" (2 Kings 3:15).  Congregational worship gives opportunity for God to minister to our lives through His Word.

4.   To assist getting the Word of God into our minds and hearts - "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly . . . as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God" (Colossians 3:16).  Worship time is also a teaching time and there is no better way of memorizing and meditating on God's Word than through the singing of God's truth.

5.   To celebrate the finished work of Christ's Cross and remember our salvation history - "To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood . . . to Him be glory and power forever and ever!" (Revelation 1:5, 6).  In the Old Testament we review Israel's history of praise and every time we gather together we remember, review, and rehearse our own redemption story of grace.

6.   To exalt Christ and testify of Him - "But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself" (John 12:32).  And of course Psalm 40 - ". . . they will see and put their trust in Him".  When we exalt Him others see Him and are drawn to His mercy, grace, and love.

7.  To defeat the enemy - "As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab . . . and they were defeated" (2 Chronicles 20:22).  We see in Psalm 149: 6-9 that people who are praising God and who love the Word of truth will bind the enemy.  Hallelujah!

These are just a few of the Biblical reasons for Congregational Worship.  May we not forsake the assembling of ourselves as the gathered body...joining hearts and voices in worship of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!  mjm

Cease, Wait . . . with Ceaseless Prayer

Our pastor's message today got me to thinking about waiting, ceasing, and ceaseless prayer. When I was teaching Seminary in Zimbabwe years ago I said to one of my classes one day, "Your assignment for next time is to bring me every scripture in the Bible that basically says, 'Wait on the Lord'."  They did and we covered all the black boards.  It was mind blowing how many times our God says, "Wait".

Sometimes I think we don't think about the fact that in order to wait we have to cease.  Busyness does not begat waiting.  Before we can effectively wait . . . we must first cease all our activity for a time.  When we prepare our hearts for private and/or public worship gatherings, we need to cease and wait on the Lord in prayer for effective preparation of heart for worship.

And of course we know we are challenged in the Word to "pray without ceasing".  Ceaseless prayer means we keep ourselves in a perpetual state of spiritual readiness, to pray for any amount of time needed, in the continual now-and-then-ness of God leading us to pray.  In Rom 12:12 the King James translates it, "instant in prayer". To be instant in prayer is to be ready any time and any place or circumstance, at a moment's notice.  That doesn't take away from our set-aside times for praying, such as Psalm 5:3 mentions, "In the morning, O Lord, I will look up".  

Ceaseless praying is a continuous outpouring of our souls so that He can continually manifest Himself in us, and in and through our worship.  Worship itself is a continuing and continuously varied conversation with the very one who indwells us.  As we worship and pray we must remember that it is, above all, about who God is and what He wants.  In the very context of our adoration and praise the body of Christ should always be caught up in intercessory prayer - seeking His presence and power and the spread of the Gospel and salvation of souls. Also, as continuous prayer warriors and worshippers, we must continually pray for sanctification, growing in personal holiness, and for ministry and service of God's church.  May we learn to cease and wait with ceaseless praying.  mjm

Repentance - the Door to Intimacy

Many times we have discussed Isaiah 6 in reference to worship and how, when we get a glimpse of who God truly is . . . our response is confession or repentance.  I find that occasionally music is used in a corporate time of worship to give me a bigger than average glimpse of who He is.  

In those experiences God comes near and seemingly engulfs me with His holiness and His presence in a way that makes me want to bow down before Him.  Our hearts are open to Him, all our desires are known by Him, there are no secrets hidden from Him.  So in His perfect love we come before Him asking Him to cleanse all our thoughts, our desires, our neglect; laying ourselves open to Him. Worship isn't a place for us to hide from Him; it is a place to be found by Him. Worship is not to desensitize us to reality; rather it is a place for us to take an honest look at ourselves in the light of the Father.  When we draw near to God, we have nothing to fear except our own denial and resistance to His perfect holy love.  

Tozer says that worship involves "a humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe and astonished wonder."  It is a delight to worship God, but it is also a very humbling experience.  Anyone who has not been humbled in the presence of God will never truly be a worshipper of God.  As we look through Scripture we find that worship is always intertwined with humility.  

Jesus said it well, "All who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted"  (Lk. 18:14).  It is a lot easier for us to be impressed with our God when we are not so impressed with ourselves and our own contrived sense of righteousness.  Being in awe of God works hand in hand with being realistic about our "falling short."

We need to dare to draw near.  But when we do draw near in worship, the first and oft repeated step is repentance.  Intimacy with God has to do with our faithfulness of having no other gods. Without obedience and repentance we will never experience true intimacy with Him.  This intimacy will bring to us a deep, interactive, abiding life with God.  In the resulting love and acceptance by God - we will worship!  mjm

Outward Appeal and Outward Form

Have we become too enamored with outward appeal, distracting us from true worship?  Are we looking at this one or that one . . . a Christian athlete saying look at his skill and he is a Christian? Or do we look at some statesman or politician who believes the Bible - therefore the Bible must be true? Do we quote the Daniel Websters of the world or some scientist who believes the truths of Christianity and say, "Oh, Christianity must be true"?  If this is our emphasis, we are on the wrong track.  This is not New Testament Christianity.  In fact is it not a subtle appeal to the flesh?  This is not the way of Christ.  He took Christian apologetics out of the domain of logic and put it into the domain of life.  He basically said the proof of my Deity is not found in the general, or prime minister. It lies in the invisible, but powerful energy that visits the human soul when the gospel breaks through by the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit of the living God brings an evidence needing no logic.  

All of the institutionalized, top-heavy Christianity we have come to know was never known in the book of Acts or in the early days of the church.  Utter simplicity was at the root and heart of everything.  Faith was the instrument; the Holy Spirit was the power that led these early believers to a simple love and purity of life at the heart of their worship.  They had worship, love, and faith and their moral lives were pure and all of their life was very simple.  As time passed we see a movement outward from the center toward the surface.  Unfortunately it is easier for us to live on the surface than in the center.  The outward surface approach leads to form, ceremony, and tradition.  God is always urging us back to the center.  Man likes ceremony without love or meaning and God always insists on love and meaning, regardless of ceremony.  Men love form without worship and God seeks worship whether He has form or not.  When the real presence of Christ is felt and experienced all of the "extras" become unnecessary.  We don't need all the "trappings" that sometimes go with worship.  We are sent into the world to bless the world, but never are we told to compromise with it.  We must simply desire to go to the very center - our Lord Jesus - and worship Him; desire Him; bless Him; allowing Him to mold us to be more like Him.  Our Christianity and our worship should be centered and simple.  It's not about me and all I want to make it; it is about Him!  mjm

Popularity, Publicity, and Programs

The title probably caused you to think; what does any of that have to do with worship. Unfortunately, it has to do with too much of worship as we know it today. The church has been influenced too much by popularity, publicity, and programs to the weakening of authentic worship. A congregation can survive, thrive, and even appear to prosper by the exercise of human talent without any infusion by the Holy Spirit.  But that simply becomes religious activity.  One day our self-employed talents will burn up and only what was brought and worked by the Spirit will stand.

The church needs leadership and membership who have passed from religious star to self-effacing saint desiring no praise and seeking no place, happy only when glory is given to God and himself forgotten.  Trying to popularize the Christian faith and worship only damages that faith.  The cross of Christ will never become socially acceptable or popular.  That which is of Adam will always persecute that which is of Christ.  Far too many easily bow to popularity betraying Him not because they hate Him, but because they desire popularity and or money.  

Without us realizing it the world is using the Church in our day to achieve its own ends.  Publicity is worshipped almost like a god.  To be known, to get your picture in the papers, to have someone quote you, to imagine you are somebody -- that's publicity.  Is it any wonder our youth's secret dream is not to be a worshipper but to get into "pictures"?  Popularity and publicity work hand in hand to diminish our desire for the glory of God in worship.

Programs, yea, even our programs, methods, organizations and all of our nervous activity occupy our time and attention in the church but never can satisfy the longing heart to "know Him" and worship Him!  The shallowness of our worship and imitation of the world found in our promotional methods show that programs rather than the pursuit of God reign over us.  Our programs in the church have become so well tuned that we live under the dictatorship of the routine.  If not careful, we can program ourselves into deadness and apathy.  

Our pursuit of God in worship needs to simply be that.  Popularity, publicity, and programs have nothing to do or add to that.  We live in a day that we must constantly guard against that notion.  mjm

Adoration Worship

Truth is, worship is very immature or elementary until it takes on characteristics of adoration.  As long as a worshipper is engrossed with himself - with his own likes, needs, or a personal blessing - he is still a babe in the understanding of worship.  The worshipper begins to grow up when he moves from thanksgiving to admiration and adoration.  

We see many wonderful lessons regarding this in the worship and reverence of the heavenly seraphim as described in Isaiah's vision, chapter 6.  Because of the very presence of God they covered their faces.  A man who has passed the veil and looked even briefly on the holy face of Isaiah's God will have difficulty ever being irreverent.  There will naturally be a reverence in his spirit.  Personal encounters with God will bring on reverence.

The experiences of men who walked with God throughout the ages teach us that the Lord cannot radically bless a man until He has first conquered him.  The greatness of the blessing corresponds to the completeness of God's victory over him.  Pursuing God will gladly receive the work of bringing our total person into conformity with Him.  We must voluntarily exalt God to His proper place over us and willingly surrender our whole being to the place of worshipful submission.  After all, He is the creator; we are the creature.  

Our Creator God had a noble purpose in mind when He created us.  In His plan it was to be a perfect fellowship, based on adoring worship of the Creator and Sustainer of all things.  Our God desires to take us deeper into Himself.  He wants to lead us on in our love for Him who first loved us.  He greatly desires to cultivate within us the adoration and admiration of which He is worthy. Oh that we could become absolutely astonished at the inconceivable elevation and magnitude and splendor and glory of Almighty God!  When that happens, it will take us to the same place as Isaiah . . . straight into a posture of confession.  As we have said before,  "When we truly see God for who He is; we will most certainly see ourselves for who we are."  When we experience God...when we know His presence and glory...there will be a reverence . . . and adoration worship.  mjm