True Worshippers ... Aren't Late

I'm sure I'm going to get a backlash for writing this.  Let me just acknowledge that up front.  I'm going to call out something so central to Christianity in our culture that someone will have to berate me for it.  "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."  Or, "Who are you to judge?"  "Judge not, lest you be judged."  Yes, I will get those emails for today's blog.  I fully expect to get some that will remind me that it's better to get there late than not at all.  But I am not persuaded.  After all, it is my blog.

Jesus said, "You Samaritans worship what you do not know ... Yet a time is coming ... when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.'  (John 4:22-23)

Maybe I'm taking it a bit out of context here, but what kind of worshipers do you suppose Jesus had in mind here?  What does it mean to worship "in spirit and in truth?"  Does our heavenly Father really seek worshipers at all?  And if He does, what is it about worship that particularly pleases Him? 

Psalm 99 (1-9) sets the tone for me.  "The Lord reigns, let the nations tremble ... let the earth shake.  Great is the Lord ... He is holy.  The King is mighty ... Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His footstool; He is holy.  Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy."  And that tone is set in the beginning of the Bible and it continues to the end of the Bible.  Just about every single book of the Bible seems to give me clear direction on how I'm supposed to regard the Lord, my God. 

But it's not a tone that we seem to embrace in our regular weekly worship of the Lord.  It happens in my church.  It happens in many churches.  The music starts, the worship begins --- and people stroll in.  They saunter in, quite casually.  In many American churches they have their coffee in hand, or maybe a cold drink. 

Others around them are worshiping the Lord, but they interrupt their worship to greet their friends and give them a hug.  Or they interrupt the worship to get the seat that they want.  I'm truly not judging them.  But for me, there is something going on. 

I HAVE AN APPOINTMENT WITH THE KING!  How could I consider being late?  It's an ordained time, when people whom God has called to lead me are prepared and ready to take me to a fresh encounter with my Savior.  Honestly, it feels disrespectful not to be early. 

If I have concert tickets or tickets to a sports game or a play, I always get there early.  If we're going to a movie, we always make sure we're there in plenty of time to get our popcorn and get seated during the previews.  Is not the Lord as important as the latest movie or sports game? 

I said that the tone is set in the Bible.  Listen to how it ends.  Look at those worshipers Jesus said the Father is looking for.  "Day and night they never stop saying, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty.'  Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne ... the twenty-four elders fall down before Him ... They lay their crowns before the throne and say, 'You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor ...'"  (Revelation 4:8-11)

Are these the kind of worshipers that you sit beside in your church?  My wife and I, we make it a habit to get to the church on time.  We're usually seated before the music starts playing.  Our church even starts with a song before the worship - and displays a stop watch, counting down the time until the worship will begin.  Usually this is to empty seats.  We often remark how empty the church is.  But then it fills up.  Somehow, between the time that the worship begins and the time that the sermon begins, the 'big house' fills up. 

But was God really honored?  Did He feel the love, while the worship leaders sang to empty seats and the worshipers getting their coffee, dropping their kids a their Sunday school classes, and greeting their friends? 

I want to stop people and ask them, "Do you know who God is?"  I'm teaching a class at my church right now and we recently talked about people whose God is too small.  I suspect that may be the God that most of us are worshiping.  For if we realized His true magnitude, could we dare not be in our seats and ready to give Him praise at the appointed hour?

I love my church and I love its people.  I love my fellow Christians in other churches.  But seriously folks, we are getting this wrong.  Is it possible that we are not the worshipers that our Father wants, but rather that He's being relegated to the worship we want? 

If you're a pastor or worship leader, please consider this an exhortation to confront the bad behavior that you see in your people.  (And I know that you see it!)  Don't be afraid to offend them.  They will be truly offended if God discards them because they never really knew Him.  Don't be afraid to offend them, when they are offensive to Him. 

I'm not saying you have to stop the service and rebuke the late comers.  But maybe you could preach on the subject, and then announce that "from now on," the doors will be closed when worship begins and people can only be seated late during the transitions (from worship to teaching, etc.). 

I remember attending Kensington Community Church in Troy, Michigan many years ago.  That's exactly what they did.  There were television monitors in the lobby and late comers could watch the worship on the monitors, waiting for a chance to join them.  You were only late once, and you realized you were missing out on something important.

I also remember worshipping at Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago.  I was amazed to see people lining up at the locked doors to the worship center.  When the doors opened, it was like a contact sport to see who could claim the seats down front.  (It was very exciting to imagine people that interested in declaring God's greatness!)

But alas, I don't attend those churches.  I attend my church and your church, and the one around the corner.  I attend that church that wants to make everyone feel welcome and comfortable, like they matter.  But I worry that in the process, we make God feel the opposite.

Can we as true worshipers, knowing the one true God, ever afford to be late?

Lord Reign in Me

Did you ever have one of those days when you feel like you've been completely undone ... by Jesus?  I tend to think of following Christ as this orderly kind of movement.  I read my Bible every day and pray every day.  But there's something about getting older in Christ that just seems to make the circumstances that I'm in not quite so relevant to my spiritual state.  I had one of those days this past week, on Wednesday. 

I've just started reading through the New Testament, and was in Matthew 14 and beyond.  This is where Jesus learns that John the Baptist - who had baptized him - was beheaded.  In itself it's a grizzly story.  Herod had arrested John the Baptist and had him in prison.  But on Herod's birthday, his wife's daughter danced for him and it so pleased him that he offered to give her anything she wanted.  The little tart that she was, was coached by her mother and asked for John the Baptist's head on a platter!  Having no spine, Herod was unable to decline such a request - so he granted her that wish.

When Jesus found out, He was naturally very saddened by this awful news.  John's disciples went and got the headless body to bury it.  Then they went to tell Jesus what had happened.  Matthew 14:13 says that, "When Jesus heard what had happened, He withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place."  I can just imagine Jesus' sadness.  Most likely, He needed to grieve and pour out His broken heart to His Father in prayer.  But it was not to be. 

Matthew 14:13-14 continues, "Hearing of this (Jesus withdrawing by boat to be alone), the crowds followed Him on foot from the towns.  When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them and healed their sick."  Did you catch that?  Jesus is going by boat to a place of quiet solitude to grieve and pray.  He needed to be alone.  But when He got there, He was again confronted with a crowd of people who wanted Him to deal with all of their pain and misery instead.  And Jesus had compassion on them.

Now if you're familiar with this story, you know that the next thing that happened is that evening approached and there was no food for the crowd.  The disciples wanted to send the crowds away so they could buy food in the villages.  But Jesus said no.  Instead He took the five loaves of bread and two fish, blessed them and fed 5,000 men, plus the women and children that accompanied them ... with 12 baskets of leftovers!

But again, Jesus needed to be alone.  The death of John the Baptist still grieved Him.  So Matthew 14:22-23 says that, "Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of Him to the other side, while He dismissed the crowd.  After He dismissed them, Jesus went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray."  Now I can just imagine what that looked like.  As I said earlier, I've no doubt that Jesus probably wept with grief and poured His heart out to God in prayer.  But again Jesus would be interrupted.

As the night wore on, Jesus was alone, but the boat with the disciples was in considerable trouble.  They were far from land and the wind had blown up some pretty choppy waves.  So Jesus went to them ... out in the middle of the water!  This is the place where another miracle is recorded ... as Jesus walked on water.  And of course it's the story where Peter gets out of the boat and walks on water too.

So here's the part that shook me this past Wednesday.  I'm reading this account and I'm picturing Jesus.  I can just imagine how I would feel if I had just heard that one of my dearest friends had been beheaded like that.  I would be consumed with grief.  So I was picturing Jesus ... trying to get away from the demanding crowds just so He could deal with His own grief.  But no matter how hard Jesus tried to take care of Himself, the crowds demanded that He take care of them instead.  And then there were those disciples He had to care for as well. 

This is who Jesus is though.  It is His character and nature.  You see, sacrificing His life on the cross for us was not the first act of sacrifice that Jesus made.  Throughout His entire life, we see stories like this, where Jesus was laying aside His own human needs to care for pitiful people like you and me.  Even as I type this blog now, my eyes are getting watery, considering how such a great man, such a great God, could love such a man as me like this.  And truly He does. 

When I think about who I was before I gave my life to Christ, I realize how far I have come.  Frankly raising someone from the dead wouldn't seem any more miraculous to me than where Jesus has brought me.  He raised me from something that seemed worse than dead.  And it's because of Jesus that I truly have hope.  But I started this blog today telling you how I was undone this past Wednesday.  It wasn't while I was reading this.

Later Wednesday morning, I had a meeting to attend and as I was driving to that meeting, I was listening to some of my favorite Christian music in the car.  And there it was, one of my favorite songs.  Lord, Reign in Me (by Benton Brown).  If you don't know it, here are the words:

Lord Reign In Me
Over all the earth You reign on high
every mountain stream, every sunset sky
But my one request, Lord my only aim
Is that You reign in me again

(chorus)
Lord reign in me, reign in Your power
Over all my dreams, in my darkest hour
You are the Lord of all I am
So won't You reign in me again?

Over every though, over every word
may my life reflect the beauty of my Lord
You mean more to me than any earthly thing
So won't You reign in me again?

(chorus)

So picture me driving down the road in heavy traffic, singing this song at the top of my lungs.  And then it happened.  The mental imagery that I'd been through that morning with Jesus in Matthew 14, combined with my love for Him and my desire to honor and glorify Him with my life.  And the tears started to well up in my eyes.  Then they started to roll down my cheeks ... just as I arrived at my meeting place.  I had to pull the car over and just sit there, singing this song from the depths of my heart.  He had done it again.  Through Jesus, and because of Jesus, I was completely undone.

If you're reading this blog, my prayer is that you too can be completely undone by none other than Jesus Himself.  I have to tell you, there's no joy on earth that even comes close to that moment when I am in Him ... and He is in me ... and we both know it. 

Over all my dreams and in my darkest hour - Lord reign in me!

Worship's Basics

There's a song that's been popular among contemporary worship leaders for several years now.  It's called "Heart of Worship."  (http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/m/mattredman20504/theheartofworship929505.html)  It was written by a guy called Matt Redman.  (http://www.mattredman.com/)  You might not recognize that name, but if you like contemporary Christian praise and worship music, I bet you're a fan of his work. 

Anyway, in this song, "Heart of Worship", the lyrics make a profound statement regarding worship: "I'm sorry for the thing I've made it ..."  It's a popular song and I've seen it sung in many different churches many, many times.  But this statement has always seemed a bit odd to me.  I mean, what is 'the thing I've made it?'  Did we do something wrong with worship?  And if we did, how did that happen?  Would it have been purely out of ignorance?  Or are other sinful motives involved --- like maybe selfishness, laziness, or even pride?

Maybe I'm a bit of a fanatic, but like other things in my spiritual life, I've wanted to understand worship as much as anything else.  I mean, let's face it, worship can take on almost magical qualities at times --- as it seems to transform us and carry us away to a sort of Utopian existence.  As I've sought to understand this phenomenon, quite honestly, I've had some serious learning to do.  I love worship music, but I find that the more I grow spiritually, the easier it is to see that I have made it (worship) into something I'm sorry for. 

You see, I have often thought it was about me.  The worship wasn't so much in praise and adoration of God as it was ministry to myself.  Worship made me feel better. You may wonder what's wrong with that.  And there may indeed be nothing wrong with that.  But you and I were made to worship (lyrics from a Chris Tomlin http://www.christomlin.com/ song).  Seriously, that's why God made us!  You and I exist to please Him.  So any time I start to get selfish about worship and use it to strictly feed myself, I've started to make it something to be sorry for.

Now if we don't want to end up singing about how sorry we are for worship that we got wrong, it would seem that we need to learn how not to make those mistakes.  But it seems there are several aspects of worship that must be measured not in terms of what's wrong ... but rather in terms of what's right.  So like many things in the Christian life, it is better to focus on what's good and right instead of on what's bad and wrong.

So what needs to be right about worship?  What must God's people do to ensure that our worship is His worship?  Bear with me while we examine the facts and I'll share the conclusion(s) that the Lord has helped me draw.

Unacceptable worship.  The first time we see a problem with worship (aside from Old Testament worship of idols) is Jesus addressing the Pharisees in Matthew 15:3-18.    Jesus basically rebuked these religious leaders for what He considered to be worship that was "in vain."  In other words, He called them out for their phony religious rituals that were devoid of any real heart for God.  The point I can take here is that even worship that we may consider to be most excellent can indeed be quite unsatisfactory to God. 

What makes worship acceptable?  Jesus said that we are to approach Him as if we were children.  I gather from that that He's looking for a simple approach.  After all, children are simple-minded.  They don't tend to complicate matters to show off their intelligence of hone their skills.  One of my favorite authors, A.W. Tozer (http://www.awtozer.com/), said that, "God reveals Himself to the child-like, but hides Himself from the sophisticated."  So I gather that the more sophisticated the worship is ... the less likely it is going to be pleasing to God.  Said differently, I'm convinced that we must simplify our worship and stick to the basics.

I remember a few years ago I was leading a service in a mega-church here in the DFW metro area.  We have a string of disasters with the band and basically only one guitarist showed up.  No drummer.  No keyboard.  No piano.  No horns.  The situation was bleak.  How could I be expected to lead worship with only one musician?  Clearly I was frustrated and angry. 

So taking matters into my own hands I sat down with the sole guitarist and worked out a strategy.  We had the songs that he could play well, which would sound good with just one guitar.  And then it happened.  He broke a guitar string.  And he didn't have a replacement.  And we had no time to run out and get another one.  The service was about to start.

What happened next was a very humbling and defining moment for me as a worship leader.  I took the stage, announced to the audience that God was not providing musicians today ... and invited them to join me a capella (i.e., without instruments).  We worked our way through some worship songs and some contemplation prayer time as well.  After the service, several people came up to tell me that it was one of the best services we'd ever had.  Go figure.

Just how do we simplify our worship then? First of all, I think one of the key secrets is that pure worship emanates from people who know the character and nature of God.  Jesus said in John 17:23 that this intimate, personal knowledge of Him is experiential.  It's fundamental to the core of who we are.  You see, God is quite personal and intimate. Religion can never accomplish that.

Secondly, we prepare ourselves for important meetings.  Worship is a meeting with the Holy Spirit.  It is an appointment with God.  And like other appointments, these can be disappointing.  In fact, Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23 that many of us have appointments with Him (on judgment day) that will be very disappointing.  We may sail through life thinking viewing ourselves as Christ-followers.  But when we actually meet him face-to-face, it's going to be very disappointing. 

How is that so?  Look at the people Jesus was talking about (In Matthew 7:21-23).  They are believers.  they are religious.  They go to church.  They engage in regular worship.  They think they're going to spend eternity in heaven.  But their meeting will be disappointing ... because they didn't prepare themselves for all of the other meetings in life.  Are you prepared when you meet God in worship?

Third, authentic worship comes from authentic love.  Love for God and other sums it up.  1 Corinthians 13:1-13 tells us a lot about what love is and isn't.  You could take those words in those verses though and write a great deal more about what love is and isn't ... just based on the criteria here.  So it's very simple, really.  Do you know God?  Do you love God?  If you can get those two things right, there's a good chance you're going to get worship right.

Can someone worship God without knowing Him and/or loving Him?  No, I don't think so.  For you see, the very essence of worship is wrapped up in the knowing and loving.  Without knowing God and loving all that is God, no true worship is possible.  Oh, don't get me wrong here.  You can certainly sing songs in a spirited fashion.  But like 1 Corinthians 13 points out, you'd only be making noise.

Let's you and I get together, and let's come back to the heart of worship.  It is all about Him.  Can you and I now be all about Him as well?