WORSHIP - GROW - LOVE - SERVE
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
If like me you ever find yourselves on your smart phone with nothing constructive to do, here’s something that might you pass the time. Google “weirdest New Year’s resolutions”. …Not right now, though.
I did, Wednesday night. Let’s just say it was enlightening.
Some of these, as you might expect, are just plain weird:
I resolve to stop kids from flossing in public.
Watch every episode of Power Rangers.
Stop kids from eating dirt.
Get lost without the help of Siri.
Then there were the New Years’ resolutions that I literally cannot say to you and I wouldn’t dare put them on the screen.
There were some that were funny:
Become a vegan and inevitably give up in six months.
Stop procrastinating, but not today.
Rule the world.
Notice that the first two about becoming a vegan and procrastinating actually have failure built into the resolution itself.
Then there were some that were good, like check your facts before you post something on social media.
In all seriousness, though, New Years Day is a day on which, for whatever reason, we find ourselves motivated to make some changes in our lives, often harder changes than we would otherwise be motivated to make. And we call them resolutions because we want to make a new start, we want to begin a new chapter, with good habits that will last through the year.
And Christians, of all people, ought to make New Years’ resolutions. Because we believe that God is a God of grace who forgives us of all of our the failures and sins of 2022 and gives us strength to make a new beginning for 2023.
If you haven’t already made your New Years resolution — and if you have made one — may I suggest one? Actually, may I suggest four words, four habits,? The words are on the screens behind me. Worship — grow — love — serve.
You may have noticed these four words before. They’re on our website, they’re on our brochures, they’re on the screens. These are four words — four callings -- four habits — that grow out of the Bible — four words, four habits for the Christian life.
Notice with me the first habit: the habit of worship.
#1: We are called to WORSHIP
#1: We are called to WORSHIP
We are called to worship God. The God of the universe, the Creator, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Triune God calls us, invites us to worship Him.
And we find this call to worship God throughout Scripture. We read it in places like Deuteronomy:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
We hear it in the psalms:
Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
We hear it from Jesus:
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
And worship is not merely commanded of us here on earth; worship is and will be the pattern of our new lives in heaven. And so we move to the book of Revelation and as we sit here we overhear the worship happening there. The 24 elders in heaven fall down before Jesus repeatedly and worship Him:
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”
[SLIDE: WHY ARE WE TO WORSHIP GOD?]
Why are we to worship God?
Worship is what we were created for
We will inevitably worship something or someone
Why are we to worship God? Two reasons:
Worship is our first and original purpose; it is the reason for which God made us. When God created Adam and Eve, he placed them in middle of a world in which even the animals and in some way even the trees and rocks and mountains gave glory to God “The heavens declare the glory of God”, King David announces in the 19th psalm, “the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1 ESV). Adam and Eve were created and were placed in an environment where worship was already taking place. We have been born into an environment where worship was already taking place. We are to join the rest of creation by joining in with our own worship. Worship is our first and original purpose.
The second reason God commands us to worship Him is simply this: we will worship something or someone. “Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34 ESV). You could no more stop worshiping than you could stop the earth in its orbit around the sun. Something or someone will be the recipient of our affections, our loyalty, our allegiance, our obedience. And whatever or whoever receives those things from us, that person or that thing is our idol.
But no idol will ever satisfy us. We are made in the image of our Creator, and only the worship of our Creator brings us satisfaction.
[SLIDE: JONATHAN EDWARDS ON WORSHIP]
300 Quotations for Preachers from the Puritans People Will Either Worship God or an Idol
If man does not give his highest respect to the God that made him, there will be something else that has the possession of it. Men will either worship the true God, or some idol. It is impossible it should be otherwise; something will have the heart of man. And that which a man gives his heart to may be called his god.
God made us to worship. When we live lives of worship, we’re living out our original purpose.
Now there are a couple of misunderstandings when it comes to worship.
[SLIDE: TWO MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT WORSHIP]
Two misconceptions about worship:
Worship is not boring but a delight!
Worship is not just Sunday morning; it is your whole life
Do you know what the most common misconception about worship is? It is that worship is boring. Sometimes, we can look around Sunday mornings and see the boredom written on other people’s faces, and other people can look around at us and see it on ours. Of course God is not fooled by our boredom. I believe He is grieved by our boredom.
But here’s the thing about worship: it’s only boring if we misunderstand it. Worship is never pictured as anything other than a joyful, grateful, awe-inspired, whole-person response to who God is and what He has done for us in Christ.
What’s the second misunderstandingg? It’s that worship is something we do on Sunday mornings for 15 minutes before the sermon. But here’s the other thing about worship: Worship is the sermon and the singing and the giving; worship is the meal we cook and serve our family at lunch; worship is the time we give to our kids and grandkids before bed; worship is the job we get up and give 40 hours or more too each week. I challenge you, church, to begin asking God to show you how all of life — even the seemingly unimportant things — is worship. Everything is important if God is glorified and remembered as we do that thing.
Now, spoiler alert: living a life of worship like this is hard — it’s worth it, but it is hard to begin living that way if all this time we’ve been saying, “Ok, I’m going to church, gonna get my hour of worship in, check that box, and then get back to work.” Worship is a Monday through Saturday thing, not just a Sunday morning thing.
And to remember that, we need something to propel us into Monday and sustain us through Saturday. What would that something be? [PAUSE] ....Ponder that.
Habit number two: grow. We are called to grow.
#2: We are called to GROW
#2: We are called to GROW
We are called to worship God. We’re also called to grow.
The same God who invites us to worship Him also calls us and invites us to grow in Him.
And just like the call to worship, we find the call to grow all throughout Scripture.
The apostle Peter issues this call:
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Peter is joined by the apostle Paul:
Philippians 3:13–14 (ESV)
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
[SLIDE: ARE WE GROWING?]
Are we growing?
Growing in our knowledge of God
Growing in our love for God
Growing in our obedience to God
How can you know if you’re growing? True believers will grow in these three ways: we will grow in our knowledge of God, we will grow in our love for God, we will grow in our obedience to God.
[SLIDE: TRUE CHRISTIANS ARE GROWING CHRISTIANS]
TRUE CHRISTIANS ARE GROWING CHRISTIANS
And church, make no mistake: true Christians are growing Christians. True Christians are growing Christians. There will be periods where it’s hard to see the growth, times when we feel like we’re not growing. But the overall direction of my life and yours will be toward greater maturity.
I had a Sunday school teacher — I’ll never forget her. She was classic 1980: big hair, lots of makeup, always dressed to the nines, big frame glasses, long skirts with a blouse that went all the way up to her neck with this super expensive looking broach. Huge earrings, big rings, all that.
I also had a good friend that I grew up with there. He was in my Sunday School class and he had been held back one year. I casually mentioned that I was ten years old, a whole decade! He mentioned that he was 11. But we were in the same grade. And this lady, bless her heart, she said with the perfect blend of compassion and condescension, “Oh, my, some of us were lazy in school!”
In reality, my friend was anything but lazy. It was a decision his parents made; it wasn’t because he failed the fifth grade.
In fairness though, we do expect our kids to grow and progress.
Our kids, when they are first learning to walk, we will praise them for their first attempt at crawling. We congratulate and praise our kids when they graduate from kindergarten. The congratulation and praise would stop if our kids and grandkids didn’t progress beyond crawling and kindergarten. We are called to grow in our knowledge of God, our love for God, and our obedience to God.
How do we grow? Through reading, studying, and knowing the word of God.
Living a life of continual growth is worth it, but it’s hard. It takes work. We need something to propel us into Monday and sustain us through Saturday. What would that something be? [PAUSE] ....Keep pondering that.
The habit of worship. The habit of growth. Next, the habit of love.
#3: We are called to LOVE
#3: We are called to LOVE
We are called to worship God. We’re called to grow. But we’re also called to love.
Love begins with God’s love for us.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
And in response to God’s love, we love Him.
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
If we love God, we will love others. 1 John 4:11
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
And if we love others like Christ loved us, we will extend love even to those who hate us.
Matthew 5:43–45 (ESV)
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you...”
Jesus commands us, love your neighbor.
Ask yourself: Do I have Christian love? Do I have Calvary love? Do I have Jesus love?
Are you angry? Resentful? Bitter? Are you quick to judge? Do you expect everyone else around you to do things exactly as you would do them and if they don’t you consider them in the wrong and you condemn them?
Or are you gracious and forgiving? Are you compassionate? Do you give the benefit of the doubt?
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
And notice, church, that it is a command. It is not “consider loving one another”. It is an imperative: “you shall love one another”. Jesus isn’t giving us one option among many; he is giving us a commandment. Jesus said as much: “a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another” (John 13:34 ESV).
Living a life of unconditional love is worth it, but it’s hard. It takes work. We need something to propel us into Monday and sustain us through Saturday. What would that something be? [PAUSE] ....Ponder that.
The habit of worship. The habit of growth. The habit of love. Notice with me, lastly, the habit of serve.
#4: We are called to SERVE
#4: We are called to SERVE
We are called to worship God. We’re called to grow and to love. Lastly, we’re called to serve.
The God who invites us to worship Him, to grow in our knowledge of Him, to grow in our obedience to Him — the same God has served us, and expects us to develop the habit of serving others.
Jesus has served us: Mark 10:45
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
We are called to serve others.
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
[SLIDE: JOHN OWEN]
God has work to do in this world, and to desert it because of its difficulties and entanglements is to cast off his authority. [300 Quotations for Preachers from the Puritans (Not to Help God Is to Oppose Him)]
If you’re just coming here on Sunday morning and absorbing and receiving and you’re taking what God shows you here and pouring yourself out into other people’s lives with your church family, you are missing a tremendous source of joy. And you’ll also very quickly burn out. You’ll get tired of being full and never purging.
Living a life of service is worth it, but it’s hard. It takes work. We need something to propel us into Monday and sustain us through Saturday. What would that something be? [PAUSE] ....Ponder that.
The habit of worship. The habit of growth. The habit of love. And the habit of serve.
Call for response
Call for response
God has wired us to make changes in our lives if we make a new start and commit to it. But that requires us to be committed, doesn’t it?
71% of people who made New Years’ Resolutions are still going strong after two weeks. But at the one month mark, that number drops to about 64%. And after six months, you’re looking at 46% who are still pushing through with their resolutions.
And that’s the real problem with resolutions, isn’t it? Knowing what we need to do is rarely the problem; the problem is consistently doing the thing we need to do, over time, faithfully, steadfastly.
But here’s the thing that’s really encouraging. I learned this this week. 46% of people are still consistent in their resolutions after 6 months. That’s not bad. Especially when you realize this: people who made similar commitments, but did not make actual resolutions — only four percent of those folks are still going strong with their resolutions after six months.
But, to make those commitments, we need something to propel us into Monday and sustain us through Saturday. What would that something be?
May I suggest — no, may I declare to you — that the something you need to propel you toward spiritual maturity is your church.
I know, I know. That’s not an innovative solution. It’s not flashy or out of the ordinary. But that’s precisely why it’s the solution. The world wants to sell us new and innovative things, promising us that this new product or this new book or this new technique or philosophy will finally be what we need to help us overcome ourselves.
But they are fads and trends, and they will pass in and out of fashion.
The church has been God’s plan A for saving people and growing them for over 2000 years.
Our long range planning team spent a lot of time in prayer and study and discussion. We all believe that God gave us those four words back at the end of 2021 to help us chart our course for the future.
We believe these four words sum up what discipleship really looks like.
These four words are not a substitute for the Bible. These four words are not us trying to replace the Bible. In fact, these four words grow out of the Bible.
The Bible teaches us that we are called to worship and that we find our highest good and deepest in worshiping God.
The Bible teaches us that as we worship, on our own day to day and here together on Sunday mornings, God grows us through the study and preaching of His word.
As we grow in our knowledge of God, the Holy Spirit teaches us love one another sacrificially, as God has loved us.
And out of that love that God gives us for one another, the Holy Spirit kindles in our heart a desire to serve those around us. Both by good works and by gospel proclamation, evangelism.
Four words, four habits, four callings. Worship >> grow >> love >> serve. It’s what God calls us to do. It’s what God calls our church to do. It’s hard, but worth it.
So I leave you with two questions:
What will you do in your own life, personally, to make 2023 a year of learning what it means to worship, grow, love and serve?
How will you be involved in church life to make 2023 a year of learning what it means to worship, grow, love and serve.