REFORMING OUR WORSHIP: LEAVING CULTURE AND MOVING TO THE SCRIPTURES

"Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23But 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." John 4:21-23 ESV

Over the years I have heard many statements that reveal most Christians view of worship. For example: "The worship was so good today." "I love the worship at that church". "That was the best worship I have ever experienced!" "My wife and I want to find a church where there is good worship?" "I didn't get much out of the worship today." "I am not really that into worship, I like good teaching." "I go to church for the worship not the preaching." "I really look forward to the worship time on Sunday mornings."

I could go on and on in what I have heard over the past thirty two years I have been a pastor. Most Christians seem to confine worship to a place, or a day, or an event and worship to singing. What does the New Testament say about worship? To be more specific, what does Jesus say about worship?

In John 4:24 Jesus has a conversation with a Samaritan woman. The Samaritans viewed worship in terms of outward forms and geographical locations. Jesus says an astonishing thing when He addresses the woman: "The hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father...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." Here Jesus takes the word proskuneo - that dominant Old Testament word for worship - and transforms it into a concept that is mainly inward rather than outward, and mainly pervasive rather than localized. Instead of being in this mountain or in Jerusalem, it is "in spirit and in truth."

What Jesus is doing is giving us the true view of authentic worship. Not that it will be wrong for worship to be in a place like a church building or a mountain top or that it will be wrong for it to use outward forms; but rather he is making explicit and central that this is not what makes worship worship. What makes worship worship is what happens "in spirit and in truth" - with or without a place and with or without outward forms.

True Authentic Worship is worship "in spirit" and "in truth". What does this mean? I believe that "in spirit" means that true worship is enabled and empowered by the Holy Spirit and happens first as an inward, spiritual event, not mainly as an outward bodily event. And I believe that "in truth" means that this true worship is a response to true views of God and is shaped and guided by true views of God.

Jesus radically redefines worship as being significantly de-institutionalized, de-localized, de-ritualized. The whole thrust is being taken off of ceremony and seasons and places and forms; and is being shifted to what is happening in the heart - not just on Sunday, but every day and all the time in all of life.

This is what it means when we read things like, "Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31). And "whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father" (Colossians 3:17). This is the form of worship commanded in the New Testament: to act in a way that reflects the value of the glory of God. The inner essence of worship is the treasuring of God as infinitely valuable above everything. When we worship God will be duly praised, because he is duly prized. -So worship is not about place, form, event, or environment. Worship is about God and lived out and expressed from the heart in life.

Romans 12:1-2 portrays all of life as worship. "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good deeds and give glory to your father in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). All of life is the outshining of what you truly value and cherish and treasure. Therefore all of life is worship.

I think that there is no group in church history that better understood the teaching of Jesus on worship than the Puritans. Patrick Collinson summarizes Puritan theory and practice by saying, the life of the Puritan was in one sense a continuous act of worship, pursued under an unremitting and lively sense of God's providential purposes and constantly refreshed by religious activity, personal, domestic and public.

Inner spiritual reality is the key to true and authentic worship. We see it in Matthew 15:8-9 when Jesus says, "This people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me." Worship that does not come from the heart is vain, empty. It is not authentic worship. It is no worship. Matt Redmond says, “No one can speak of things they have not seen…worship starts with seeing, our hearts respond to your revelation.” Worship is our response to seeing and savoring the preciousness and greatness of God from our hearts. Therefore, the essence of our worship is prizing Christ, being satisfied in Christ, cherishing Christ, and treasuring Christ in our hearts.

So everything we do alone, during the week, and when we gather together as the people of God is meant to outwardly express the loving, cherishing, and treasuring of Christ that is in our hearts. The outer forms of worship on Sunday mornings when the people of God gather together are all of the acts that show how much we treasure God. And the forms of worship they take are in singing, in the offering, in the preaching and hearing God’s word, in serving and encouraging one another, and the partaking of the Lord's Supper.

Nothing makes God more supreme and more central than when a people are utterly persuaded that nothing - not money or prestige or leisure or family or job or health or sports or toys or friends - nothing is going to bring satisfaction to their aching hearts besides God. This conviction breeds a people who worship in spirit and truth. Authentic worship means that all during the week and with God's people on Sunday morning what we do is to go hard after God: we are going hard after satisfaction in God, and going hard after God as our prize, and going hard after God as our treasure, our soul-food, our heart-delight, our spirit's pleasure.

During the Reformation a slogan was cried out, "semper reformanda", meaning “always reformed, always reforming.” The Puritans held onto this and so do I. The the point of the slogan is that the church is always to be reforming its doctrine and practice according to the Scriptures.
To be reformed means to be “always reforming” by shaping what I know about God against what He has revealed about Himself. May we listen to Jesus and the apostles and "reform" our cultural views of worship and become true worshippers in "spirit" and "in truth" every day and together on Sunday.

Pastor Bill

THE GRAVITY OF SIN FROM A SINNERS PERSPECTIVE

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.8Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.12Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit."
Psalm 51:1-11ESV

People don't like to talk much about sin these days and sadly neither do church's or Christians. In the 60's the psychiatrist Karl Memminger wrote a book titled "Whatever Happened to Sin". We could ask the same question today? But the writers of scripture had a strong sense of the gravity of sin. Paul Tripp has inspired me in his book Whiter Than Snow. Parts of this blog are taken from his book.

The Bible doesn't pull any punches as it describes the scary reality of sin. You have the powerful words of Genesis 6:5: "The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time". Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time! Could there be a more forceful way of characterizing the pervasive influence of sin on everything we do?

Or you have Paul building his case for the sinfulness of everyone, which reaches this crescendo: "All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one" (Romans 3:12).

Along with this, the Bible very clearly unpacks the underlying spiritual dynamics of sin. Passages like Luke 6:43-45 and Mark 7:20-23 teach us that sin is first a matter of the heart before it is ever a matter of behavior. Romans 1:25 alerts us to the fact that sin, in its essence, is idolatrous. It is when God is replaced as the ruler of our hearts that we give ourselves to doing what pleases us rather than what pleases him.

Psalm 51 is also one of the definitional passages when it comes to sin. On the other side of lust, adultery, and murder, David is filled with the sense of the enormity of his sin. The weight of what he's carrying isn't just about how he used his God-given position to take a woman who wasn't his and use her for his pleasure. The weight on him wasn't just about how he plotted the death of Uriah, Bathsheba's husband. The weight had to do with his understanding of the extent of his problem with sin.

David employs three words for sin that really define the nature of what our struggle with it is all about. The first definitional word he uses is the word transgression. To transgress means to acknowledge the boundaries and to step willingly over them. I transgress when I knowingly do what I am not supposed to do. The speed limit is 65 mph and I drive 8o. I know I'm not supposed to drive that fast but because I am in a hurry and need to get somewhere I drive faster than the speed limit. Often our sin is just like this. We know that God has forbidden what
we're about to do, but for personal success, comfort, or pleasure we step over God's prohibition and do exactly what we want to do. When we transgress, we not only rebel against God's authority, but we convince ourselves that we're a better authority with a better system of law than the one God gave us. Propelled by the laws of personal wants, personal feelings, and personal need, we consciously step over God's boundaries and do what we want to do.

But not all of our sin is conscious, high-handed rebellion. So David uses a second word, iniquity. Iniquity is best described as moral uncleanness. This word points to the comprehensive nature of the effect of sin on us. We call it total depravity or radical corruption. Sin is a moral infection that stains everything we desire, think, speak, and do. We sin because we are such depraved sinners! Sadly, no infant since the fall of the world into sin has been born morally clean. We all entered this world dirty and there's nothing we can do to clean ourselves up. David acknowledges the fact that he came into the world with this profound moral problem (Psalm 51:5). He scans back across his life and can't recognize a point where sin wasn't with him. Iniquity is like inadvertently putting a pair of bright red socks into the wash with a load of whites. There will be nothing that escapes the red stain and remains completely white. In the same way, sin is pervasive. It really does alter everything we do in some way.

But there's a third word that David uses that gets at another aspect of sin's damage. It's the word sin. Sin is best defined as falling short of a standard. In our moments of best intention and best effort we still fall short. We're simply unable to reach the level of the stan­dards that God has set for us in His word. Sin has simply removed our ability to keep God's law. So, we fall short of his standard again and again and again. In your thoughts you fall short. In your desires you fall short. In your marriage or family you fall short. In your communication you fall short. At your job you fall short. With your friends you fall short. We simply are not able to meet God's requirements.

This "terrible trinity" of words for sin really does capture with power and clarity the nature of the war that rages inside each one of us. Sometimes I do not do exactly what God requires, but I don't care because I want what I want, and so I step over his wise boundaries. Sometimes I look back on what I've done, having thought that I'd done pretty well, only to see ways in which my words and behavior were once more stained with sin. And over and over again I'm con­fronted with my weakness and inability. I fall short of God's standard even in moments of good intention.

All this sin can do is what it did to David. Drive me to the place of grace, cleansing, removal of my guilt and shame, forgiveness, and mercy and pardon, empowerment to change, and deliverance. Even though it was hundreds of years away, the cross was what David was pleading for. The cross provides our covering. The cross provides our cleansing. The cross makes it possible for God to accept us fully without compromising his holi­ness. The cross allows us to be accepted, not based on what we've done but based on what Christ has done. The cross allows sinners to be declared righteous! Christ covers us, so that as God looks on us he sees the perfect righteousness of Christ that's been given to our account.

Jesus Christ has answered David's prayer and He will answer every sinners contrite and brokenhearted prayer. We don't have to face the horrible consequences of sin, iniquity, and transgression because we have been rescued by the greatest love of all, Calvary love.Planned by the Father, paid for by the Son, and sealed by the Holy Spirit.

In awe, reverence, and profound gratitude,
Pastor Bill (A rescued sinner)

LIVING BY FAITH NOT BY SIGHT, YET LONGING FOR THE END OF FAITH TO LIVE BY SIGHT

The apostle Paul tells us that we live here on this earth "by faith, and not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5: 7). In this life we are not able to see with our physical eyes this God we trust and believe in. The writer of Hebrews defines faith as being "the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen" (Hebrews 11:1).Our whole life on this earth is a life of living by faith and in faith. But faith is the way of seeing Jesus on this earth. Paul speaks of it being the "eyes of our understanding being enlightened" in Ephesians 1:18. We read that the Holy Spirit opens our blind eyes to be able to see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus in our hearts in 2 Corinthians 4:6. the hearers of 1 Peter were told by the apostle that though they had not seen Jesus with their physical eyes that they "Believed Him, loved Him, and their hearts were filled with inexpressible joy and glory." In short, they saw Him here through the eyes of faith, not sight. So there is a way of seeing Jesus here on earth that God has both blessed us with but in another sense Paul says "for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known"(1 Corinthians 13:12).

John Owen in his profound work The Glory of Christ, puts it this way. The view which we have of the glory of Christ by faith in this world is obscure, dark, inevident, and reflexive. He interprets the idea of a glass being more like a mirror. A mirror gives an image of something but it is imperfect in the sense that it is still an image or reflection, it is not actually the real thing. Owen writes., "The shadow or image of this glory of Christ is drawn in the gospel, and in it we behold it as the likeness of a man to us in a glass; and although it be obscure and i comparison of his own real, substantial glory, which is the object of vision in heaven, yet is it the only image and representation of himself which he has left, and given to us in this world...by this figurative expression of seeing in a glass declares the comparative imperfection of our present view of the glory of Christ.".

We see Jesus dimly but brightly through the gospels and the scripture. Here Jesus is set forth to our sight of faith crucified, exalted, glorified and graces us with the ability to understand and savor these truths about Jesus. Owen writes: "This is our faith, which, as it is in us, being weak and imperfect, we comprehend the representation that is made to us of the glory of Christ as men do the sense of a dark saying, a riddle, a parable; that is, imperfectly, and with difficulty.On the account of this we may say at present, how little a portion is it that we know of him! As Job speaks of God (Job 26: 14). How imperfect are our conceptions of him! How weak are our minds in their management! There is no part of his glory that we can fully comprehend. And what we do comprehend, as there is a comprehension in faith (Ephesians 3: 18), we cannot abide in the steady contemplation of ."For ever blessed be that sovereign grace, whence it is that He who 'commanded light to shine out of darkness has shined into our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of his own glory in the face of Jesus Christ', and in it of the glory of Christ himself; that he has so revealed him to us, that we may love him, admire him, and obey him: but constantly, steadily, and clearly to behold his glory in this life we are not able; 'for we walk by faith, and not by sight."

So this is the sight that we have in this world by the grace and means of faith in this world. in that vision Owen says "are represented to us desirable beauties and glories of Christ. How precious, how amiable is he, as represented in them! How are believers ravished with the views of them! Yet is this discovery of Him also but as through a lattice. We see him but by parts unsteadily and unevenly.Such, I say, is the sight of the glory of Christ which we have in this world by faith."

So we will never see the glory and the fullness of the glory of Jesus with our physical eyes in this life. That is reserved for the life to come. Jesus prayed for it in John 17:24, "'Father, I will that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which you have given me." Owen describes this vision in this way:

"Christ himself, in his own person, with all his glory, shall be continually with us, before us, proposed to us. We shall no longer have an image, a representation of him, such as is the delineation of his glory in the Gospel. We 'shall see him', says the apostle, 'face to face' (1 Cor. 13: 12); which he opposes to our seeing him darkly as in a glass, which is the utmost that faith can attain to. 'We shall see him as he is' (1 John 3: 2); not as now, in an imperfect description of him. As a man sees his neighbour when they stand and converse together face to face, so shall we see the Lord Christ in his glory; and not as Moses, who had only a transient sight of some parts of the glory of God, when he caused it to pass by him...this I know, that in the immediate beholding of the person of Christ, we shall see a glory in it a thousand times above what here we can conceive. The excellencies of infinite wisdom, love, and power in it, will be continually before us. And all the glories of the person of Christ which we have before weakly and faintly inquired into, will be in our sight for evermore.Hence the ground and cause of our blessedness is, that 'we shall ever be with the Lord' (1 Thessalonians 4: 17), as himself prays, 'that we may be with him where he is, to behold his glory."

I liken the two different ways of seeing Jesus by faith in this life and sight in heaven as being the difference between reading about and seeing pictures of Kauai and actually being there. Kauai is one of my favorite places on this earth. Before I had ever been to Kauai I had seen slide shows, photo montages, and heard eloquent descriptions of Kauai from my friends. I found joy and momentary pleasure in seeing and hearing about this tropical island. It would also cause my mind to wonder and dream of what Kauai would be like.. But the ultimate joy was to be there and seeing Kauai firsthand in all of its splendour and beauty.

Owen writes, ". For, whatever can be manifest of Christ on this side of heaven, it is granted to us for this end, that we may the more fervently desire to be present with him.".

For many like me, seeing pictures of Kauai is the very means that creates in many a longing and a vision to go to Kauai! So people save, plan, talk, dream, and look ahead to that day they will land in Lihue airport and get off of that plane and smell the plumeria flowers. There is a tremendous sense of joy and expectation in all of the thinking,planning, and preparing for such a trip but that joy is but a foreshadow of the greater joy of being there.

Remember Jesus prayer in John 17:24, "Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world."?

Owen writes: "Our Lord Jesus Christ alone perfectly understood in what the eternal blessedness of them that believe in him consists. And this is the sum of what he prays for with respect to that end, namely, that we may be where he is, to behold his glory. And is it not our duty to live in a continual desire of that which he prayed so earnestly that we might attain? If in ourselves we as yet apprehend but little of the glory, the excellency, the blessedness of it, yet ought we to repose that confidence in the wisdom and love of Christ, that it is our best, infinitely better than any thing we can enjoy here below.whatever can be manifest of Christ on this side of heaven, it is granted to us for this end, that we may the more fervently desire to be present with him.".

Living by faith yet longing for the day of sight,
Pastor Bill

RESOLVED!

Throughout scriptures we see the examples of men of God who resolved to live for God in a particular manner. I think of Paul who said in 1 Corinthians 2:2, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” The phrase “I resolved” means he made a conscious choice to do things a certain way. He didn’t fall into it by chance or by force of habit. For Paul the choice was clear: “Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

I think of Barnabbas who went to Antioch and we read, “When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad; and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast resolve” (Acts 11:23). The Greek word translated "resolved" means to plan or will or purpose to do something. So to resolve or purpose to remain true to the Lord means that we set our heart on remaining true to the Lord.

I think of Daniel who when tested to eat the kings food and drink the kings wine we read, "But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food, or with the wine that he drank…" (Daniel 1:8). That’s the mindset and posture that I am pleading with you, challenging you, and exhorting you to have as we enter into a year of many uncertainties. Be resolved to be resolved!

This is the crucial event of his life. Although it might not have appeared important at the time, what Daniel did shaped the next 60 years. Why do you think Daniel did what he did? Daniel's reluctance to eat the emperor's food was religious in origin, because the writer uses the word "defile" (1:8). This word strongly implies that he saw the issue as one of moral or spiritual pollution. It was not just that he was vegetarian or that he had trouble adjusting to a foreign diet. This was an issue of religious conscience for him. To eat of the king's food would have been, for Daniel, to compromise his personal holiness in some way.

Verse 8 says that he "resolved" That is, he made up his own mind. The Hebrew phrase suggests an inner wrestling with conscience that resulted in personal determination to make a stand of principle on the matter. He couldn't decide for anyone else, but he decided for himself what he would and would not do. And that changed everything. Daniels commitment preceded his achievement. Daniel made up his mind, and his three closest friends decided to join him.

What do we learn from Daniel about being resolved?
1. Being resolved is the result of choice not conditions or environment He made up his own mind. He didn’t ask anyone else what he or she thought. I am not, I will not period. He did it immediately. That was a great moment. “People don’t make commitments because the conditions are right; they make commitments to do right in spite of the conditions.”

2. Being resolved means our commitment must be settled before the moment arises Daniel didn’t get caught up in the emotion of the moment. He made the decision before the food was ever brought to him. there are two key principles that i have learned in this regard: First, The battle is won before the battle is begun. Second, The most important decision you ever make is the decision you make before you ever have to make a decision.

The key phrase here is "before." Some decisions can't be made on the spur of the moment. You have to decide in advance your commitments and that you will not compromise in the things that matter. For Daniel, that meant not eating the king's food at the king's table. It doesn't matter that we today don't fully understand his decision. What's important is that Daniel drew a line in the sand, planted his flag, and said, "This far, and no farther." Your line may be different from mine and mine from yours. But if you don't draw a line somewhere, sometime, you end up being just like the Babylonians all around you. Stand for something or you will fall for everything! Think ahead. Decide what you won't do. Then don't do it! Daniel decided what to do in advance and when it came time to do it, he did it! Get resolved! Get committed! Get settled! I look at people who are still trying to settle issues they should have settled years ago.

I read about a 400-year-old redwood that suddenly and without warning toppled to the forest floor. What caused the death of such a majestic giant? Was it fire? Lightning? A strong wind? A post-mortem examination revealed a startling cause. Tiny beetles had crawled under the bark and literally eaten the fibers away from the inside. Although it looked healthy on the outside, on the inside it was virtually hollow and one day finally collapsed. The same thing happens when we refuse to stand our ground for Christ. Every time we compromise something bad happens in our soul. Eventually the little decisions add up and we become hollow on the inside even though we may look great on the outside.

3. Our resolves will be tested by action Its one thing to talk about it, it’s another thing to do it. Nothing is easier than saying words; nothing is more difficult then living them day by day. Your commitments will be tested! Have seen more people cave in on this matter.

4. Being resolved begins with little things in our lives By standing his ground; he was risking everything over an issue that made sense to no one but him and his three friends. To the Babylonians it was just nutty, peripheral, and insignificant. But Daniel saw through the food to the bigger issues underneath and he knew that for him to eat that food at that table would be an act of disloyalty to God, and that was a line he would not cross period. "It's such a small area," you say. True and not true. Yes, it seemed small, but as we have seen, the outcome of Daniel's act of courage was huge. It changed his whole life. In the end it wasn't small at all. Jesus said in Luke 16:10 "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. “

Little commitments are the foundations for bigger ones.” No one ever makes big commitments without first making little ones. Before Daniel said no to the king’s idol, he said no to the king’s food. When Daniel saw God helping on the food issue, it gave him courage for the idol issue. It works the opposite as well. Compromise once; it’s easier to do it the next time. Take stand once, it’s easier as well. We need to take stands at the front end of our lives not in the middle and I guarantee, you won’t on the back end.

Daniel Resolved! Are you? Have you made decisions and commitments or are you regularly wavering living by expediency, convenient, compromise, playing it safe, keeping your options open, impulse, and listening to and negotiating with the devil? Are your resolves full of conditions, qualifications, and reservations in the "fine print" of our "commitment?" Are you preoccupied with "exceptions" and "extenuating circumstances?"

Like Daniel, in 2009, you will find yourself from time to time in a crisis of your resolves. How will you know it's a crisis? You'll know it when you get there, and often you won't see it coming in advance. So make up your mind right now that by God's grace, when those moments come, you will purpose in your heart not to defile yourself. There is no limit to what God can do through a man or woman who is fully committed to him.

Today you need new resolve! I will be committed to Christ, His cause, His people, and His purposes. Make up your mind now! Right now become a part of the band of the resolved like Paul, Barnabbas, Daniel, and Joshua who stood alone and said in Joshua 24:15, “choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

John Maxwell says, The greatest days of your life are the days you sense your commitment to its highest degree. Your greatest days are not your days of leisure. Your greatest days are not even the times when you have your closest friends around you. When something has seized you and has caused you to have a high level of commitment to it, those are your greatest days. They may be your days of struggle, they may be your days of suffering, and they may be your days of your greatest battles in life, but they will be your greatest days.”

Resolved in 2009,

Pastor Bill