WorshipCentral

We've been looking at what happens when God's people gather to worship. Here's the 3rd part of the trilogy based on Isaiah 6:1-8. You can catch up on the 2 previous parts in my earlier blogs.

Richard Foster writes,
‘Just as worship begins in holy expectancy, it ends in holy obedience. If worship does not propel us into greater obedience, it has not been worship. To stand before the Holy One of eternity is to change.’

As we gather to worship our hearts and minds are filled with the love of Christ. An encounter with the heart of God changes us. It’s often in worship that God breaks our hearts with the things that breaks His. We suddenly become aware of the poor and hurting all around us. We become sensitive to the needs of others. We become desperate to see the transformation of society. God empowers and equips us to make a difference. Worship first, service second.

You see ‘worship without mission is self-indulgent. But mission without worship is self-defeating.’

So often the danger can become that as the church we get caught up in just looking inwardly. How do I feel? What’s happening to me? How am I being blessed? We can try and make it a quick fix, a commodity. Our worship is self-indulgent.

But true worship will bring us to a place where we say, like Isaiah, ‘Here I am send me.’ God there’s a world that’s in desperate need of your love and forgiveness. Whatever it takes - Lord send me.

The key though, is that it comes from a heart of worship. It’s not a sense of guilt and duty - it’s an overflow of our worship. What we do in here, must affect those outside.

I love the sign one church has over the exit door that everyone leaves from. In bold letters the sign reads,
‘YOU ARE NOW ENTERING A TIME OF WORSHIP.’

Genuine worship will impact the way we live. As we are changed into the image of Christ, we live differently. We are transformed to transform.

There’s a passage in the Scriptures that terrifies me.
Amos 5

To the Israelite nation who had trampled the poor forcing them to give their grain, who had built for themselves vast mansions at the expense of the poor treating them unjustly, the Lord says,

“I hate, I despise your religious feats; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”     (21-24)

God’s heart is clear – the songs we sing and the offerings we bring, are totally meaningless unless that are offered out of a lifestyle of worship. A Lifestyle that includes an active participation in caring for the poor.

The danger can be that all too often we read these passages, we study them, and we listen to countless sermons on them and are challenged in the moment and vow to live differently, all be it sincerely, but the truth is that nothing changes.

It’s like I read these passages, like Amos 5, and in effect I rip them out of my bible.

Or Matt 19:21-22, when a rich young man who approaches Jesus asking, ‘what good thing must I do to get eternal life?’ To which Jesus replies, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.’

“No, Jesus can’t actually mean that, there must be some sensible theological explanation”

Or Jas 1:27 – ‘Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.’

“He can’t mean that I actually have to do that”

Issues of poverty, justice and money are all over the bible.

It’s the 2nd most prominent theme in OT – idolatry being the 1st.
1 of every 16 verses in NT is on this subject
In 1st 3 Synoptic gospels it is 1 in every 10 verses
In book of Luke it’s 1 in every 7 verses.

If you start ripping out all these passages, pretty soon you are left with a bible full of holes. As Mark Twaine says, “It’s not the parts of the Bible I don’t understand that scare me, but the parts I do understand.”

Worship is the total alignment of our heart, soul, mind and strength with the will of God. And if God’s will is that we care for the poor, then surely as we worship we will find we are led to the poor, and if we love Jesus we will gladly follow.

God is with the poor and He is with us, if we are with them. It’s not a burden, it’s an adventure!

Worship is our highest calling. There is nothing in this life that we can do of more importance. It is our duty and joy to worship God. If we want to live lives that affect the world around us, we must start by worshipping and looking to Jesus.

It’s as He meets with us one to one that we are changed, healed and restored. It’s from these encounters that we are then envisioned to live differently and to see the world changed. As the song goes, ‘Lord send revival, start with me.

That’s why worship is such a key value. When we worship we are often left overwhelmed by God’s glory. We open ourselves to God’s change. We become obedient to God’s call.

I believe if we want to see the re-evangelisation of the world and the transformation of society then we must learn what it means to worship God.