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The Message in the Music: The Heart of Worship
10th Sunday after Pentecost, July 20, 2008 Let me ask you a question. Let’s say you call your friend on a week night, and ask them if they want to go out to dinner. They say to you, “I can’t tonight, I’m worshipping.” What does that mean to you? What pictures do you get in your mind of what your friend is doing? Maybe praying? Singing? Going out of their home to a church building? Maybe sitting silently and thinking on a section of scripture they just read? What if I told you all those things are parts of worship, but none of them are worship? So what is worship? The song we are looking at this week in our “Message in the Music” series is The Heart of Worship. We are also going to go in our Bibles to our New Testament reading from today, Philippians 3:7-11. I invite you to take out your Bibles and open up to Philippians with me. First, regarding the scripture reading this morning, we talked about the book of Philippians two weeks ago when we ended our “Freedom in Christ” series. As a quick recap, Philippians is the 11th book in the New Testament, so the order goes: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – the Gospels that tell us about the birth, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus; Acts – a book about the early church and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit; then come the Epistles, literally the ‘letters’ where the Holy Spirit explains how we are to live in light of Gospel. The order goes Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, and then Philippians. As a reminder, Philippi was a colony of Rome that was nowhere near Rome proper. The city of Philippi was about 600 miles or so away from Rome. It was the home of many retired Roman soldiers who were given tracts of land in Philippi for their ‘retirement package’ in turn for being a continued Roman military presence on the outskirts of the empire. The locals were proud of being part of the Roman empire. So proud, in fact, they were one of the first groups of people to stop speaking Greek and instead started using Latin – the official language of the Roman Empire – and to start dressing in the typical Roman clothing of the time. The people of Philippi worshiped themselves, their lifestyles and their ‘things.’ What was important to them were the things of this world. We’ve already heard the reading from today. I actually like the way the Message paraphrase of the Bible puts these same verses: The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash – along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant – dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by Him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ – God’s righteousness. I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience His resurrection power, be a partner in His suffering, and go all the way with Him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it. Matt Redman is the name of the gentleman who wrote the song we are looking at today, The Heart of Worship. Matt’s church had a problem – they weren’t worshiping for the right reasons. Once upon a time the people gathered for the purpose of connecting their hearts to the heart of God, to know Christ personally, experience His resurrection power, be a partner in His suffering, and go all the way with Him to death itself. But they misplaced that reason, and worship became all about the music program at the church. “Worship” met the choir sang, and the people sat back in the pews and watched and listened. They had a great music program for which they received a lot of accolades and attention, no doubt, but that was as deep as the collective worship of the church went – listening to others sing songs, and those others who were singing the songs were doing so out of selfish motives, not to worship. Redman’s pastor did a bold thing: he declared a moratorium on all music in the services. He had all the music equipment moved out of the church, and when people came, there was no music of any kind. The pastor asked the people, “When you come through the doors on a Sunday, what are you bringing as your offering to God?” The people in the church came face to face with a stark reality: they had been worshiping the way they were worshiping, not the Person they were supposed to worship. When the music fades, all is stripped away, and I simply come; longing just to bring something that's of worth, that will bless your heart; I'll bring You more than a song, for a song in itself is not what You have required. You search much deeper within through the ways things appear; You're looking into my heart. I'm coming back to the heart of worship, and it's all about You, it's all about You, Jesus. I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it, when it's all about You; it's all about You, Jesus. Let me ask you some very hard questions this morning. These are supposed to be questions that make you extremely uncomfortable – you are supposed to be squirming a little in your pews with these questions. What about you and me? What are we worshiping? What if we no longer had the choirs here anymore? No youth choir, no praise choir, no adult choir? Would you stop coming because now worship wasn’t ‘worship’ anymore; because some element of worship wasn’t there anymore? If so, you would have been worshiping the music rather than the One the music is supposed to be glorifying. What if the building was destroyed in a natural disaster and rebuilt in a different style other than being in the round? Would you go somewhere else because it doesn’t ‘feel’ right anymore; because it’s not ‘your church’ anymore? If so, then you would have been worshiping the brick and wood of this building, and not the Cornerstone of Jesus. What if rather than the organ and piano, the instruments were guitars and drums? Would you declare them to be too irreverent for church and go find another church with a traditional liturgy; something that you are used to and comfortable with? If so, you would have been worshiping the way of worship rather than the Who of worship. Can I be brutally honest with you? I know some of you don’t like it when I don’t wear my alb on Sunday mornings when it’s warm and humid. It makes some of you very uncomfortable, upset and angry, even. In that case, my friends, you are worshiping my clothing rather than the One who clothes the fields with flowers. So I ask you again, what are we worshiping? Don’t misunderstand me, or read into all this something that is not there. It’s okay to have preferences in worship – we all have preferences, myself included! Did you know that I have preferred styles and expressions of worship? But it is never ok to let those preferences dictate worship. It’s never ok to let the tradition of worship take precedent over the worship itself. Once that happens, we’re not worshiping Jesus anymore; we’re worshiping the way we worship Jesus. What do we want people in the surrounding communities to know about us here at LCC? The answer should have nothing to do with the choirs, the building, or the style of worship. These things, as fine and good as they are, are not the reasons we are here. What that person who just drove by in his car should know about LCC is we are sinners saved by grace; we are hopelessly, helplessly, in love with Jesus, and that is reflected in every aspect of our lives. Our claim to fame is the one thing that will last forever – we are God’s children, and we can help others to become that and grow in their knowledge of Jesus. The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, {we’re} tearing up and throwing out with the trash– along with everything else {we} used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things {we} once thought were so important are gone from {our} life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as {our} Master, firsthand, everything {we} once thought {we} had going for {us} is insignificant – dog dung. {We’ve} dumped it all in the trash so that {we} could embrace Christ and be embraced by Him. When was the last time you felt yourself embraced by Christ? When was the last time you felt your heart connect to the heart of God in a way that broke you, and healed you at the same time? In a way that brought you to knees crying in shame for sins, and in joy for sins forgiven? In a way that was both painful and soothing? In a way that was so scary, and so comforting? In a way you wanted to run away from, and in a way you’d stay there forever if you could? When was the last time you prayed to be broken so the Holy Spirit could put you back together again? When was the last time you felt yourself embraced by Christ? The King of endless worth, no one could express how much You deserve. Though I'm weak and poor, all I have is Yours, every single breath. I'll bring You more than a song, for a song in itself is not what You have required. You search much deeper within through the ways things appear; You're looking into my heart. I'm coming back to the heart of worship, and it's all about You, it's all about You, Jesus. I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it, when it's all about You; it's all about You, Jesus. What is the heart of worship? It’s a movement of the Holy Spirit among believers ushering them into the presence of God the Father Himself, through the sacrifice of Jesus. Please don’t miss that – without Jesus, there is no worship. It’s only through the death and resurrection of Jesus anyone can approach God’s throne. The heart of worship is the heart of God that loves each and every one of us, and desires to connect His heart with ours, corporately and individually. Corporately when we gather in God’s house and confess our sins to Him, sing His praises, read His Word and grow in our understanding of Him, and give our time, talents, and treasures to Him. Individually when we come before God in our quiet time, confess our sins to Him, lift our praises to Him, read His Word and grow in our understanding of Him, and commit our time, talents and treasures to Him. There is one more thing that is at the heart of worship that we simply cannot leave out – the Lord’s Supper. It’s also called the Communion Service. Let me ask you something, though – who’s doing the serving the in Communion Service? Who is servicing whom? God is the one doing the serving. Jesus comes to us, we don’t go to Him. Jesus comes and forgives our sins and puts us in a right relationship with God. This is what truly is at the heart of the heart of worship – Jesus coming to us so we can go to God. Do not come forward and take Communion, do not mock this meal, if you are taking it ‘because that’s just what we do around here.’ Do not mock this meal, do not take Communion, if you are not seeking forgiveness for sins; if you say to yourself, ‘I know what God says in His Word, but I don’t care, I’m going to continue in this sin anyway.’ Read 1 Corinthians 10 and 11 – you can hurt yourself, you can eat and drink this meal to your own condemnation. We want forgiveness, we want to connect to God’s heart, we want what Paul wants: I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ – God’s righteousness. I'm coming back to the heart of worship, and it's all about You, it's all about You, Jesus. I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it, when it's all about You; it's all about You, Jesus. I pray we remember that today, tomorrow and every day and every time we gather in this Holy House of God. Amen. |
