Sermon Archive

Student worship with Soul

Key words: community, encounter, translate.

MJ, student for the ministry, worship leader at Knox, Trinity, song writer,

WHAT IS WORSHIP?

Definitions:

We choose to worship... We choose to worship with our heads and our hearts.

"The glory of God is a person fully alive" Irenaeus

Worship in Scripture

Old Testament

New Testament

There are some key elements that I want you to remember: community, encounter and translate.

Worship happens in community.

Sometimes we call it corporate worship, and it is not that you cannot worship alone, because you can. But God calls us to be the body of Christ, and that means doing things together. God does things with us together that he does not do when we are alone.

Worship is a verb, it is something we do. You are not supposed to be a passive observer or have things done on your behalf. One of the principles of the Reformation is participation by the people, that is you and me. If we make or let other people do all the worshipping, then we are all worse off.

One of the problems in our culture and country is that we let people like me organise the worship all the time. Helen has been great in expanding our repertoire of things that we do. In an average service, there is usually something that is designed to help everyone to connect with God, some of us connect with the music, some with the scripture, some with the prayers or times of silence, some with the drawing here, and some with the social time before and after. Some of us connect best with God by serving, helping to make it all happen.

One of our problems is that we don’t always do the hard work of asking, what does this community need to do to connect with God this week. Most of you have been socialised into the church, you’ve been brought up with all sorts of odd things that we do and don’t even think to question them. Like, who has been in a church where they stand up at the beginning and bring in a Bible. Anyone know why that might happen? Or been in a church where they put little white clothes on the pews for communion? Why is it that we always have two brackets of songs? Who decided that?

Here’s another question, do you feel comfortable involving your non Christian friends to church or SS? I don’t, because church is weird. When you go to another church you soon discover that churches have a particular culture, just like families have particular cultures.

One of the great things about Student Soul is that you’ve been experimenting with worship, trying different stuff, figuring out what works and what doesn’t. Awesome. But I think we need to think bigger about worship and community, much, much bigger! The community aspect of worship is not just building a Christian community here, It is also about reaching out to the communities in which we live.

Question: in a worship service, who is the audience?

No one. We dance in worship, God initiates, the Holy Spirit leads, we worship through Jesus, we all participate. The worship leader is just that, so things are organised and not chaotic, but God is not a passive audience, He is also an active participant.

"The glory of God is a person fully alive" Irenaeus

There is more to worship than an hour on Sunday; worship is not just something that Christians do. People are designed to worship, and if we don’t worship God we will worship something else. It’s the first commandment, Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and soul and mind, with every part of your being. That is too important to limit to just a couple of hours on Sunday, I believe we are called to offer our whole lives as a sacrifice. I believe that because that is what the Bible says.

The practices of worship, that is a human thing, God gives us this amazing freedom to worship him in all sorts of ways. Another principle of the reformation is reformed and always reforming, we are supposed to take a good hard look at what we are doing and see if it is working. Don’t let me tell you what to do but I reckon that is a good idea.

What God wants is our hearts, our heartfelt participation in worship. I believe that can only happen when we find out who we are, discover our passion, our calling in life if you will.

I want us to watch this clip from Patch Adams,

Video: Patch Adams - Patch addressing the medical board about his future as a doctor

Amazing eh. God gives each of us a passion. The trouble with Christians is that we come and listen to preachers and worship leaders every week, people who have a passion for church, for worship that is based around music, and we are blessed by their passion. I am one of those people, I am passionate about worship music.

But there is more to worship than that. I don’t understand it but I know there are people who don’t share my passion. But for them to be fully alive, fully working in the area that God has called them to, that is as much as act of worship as anything I do. And it might not have anything to do with what we might recognise as church.

“This week we are talking about worship in terms of what is the passion that God has laid on your heart and what are some other ways to worship that don’t involve aspiring to pose like Darlene.

OK, here’s the thing, Jesus did not come and announce the arrival of the church but the arrival of the kingdom, the kingdom of God. We are called to be disciples of Jesus. You, following your passion, if you commit that to God, if in your heart your desire is to glorify God, that is worship.

I don’t mean that you should never come to church, it is important that we gather together. But it does mean that church is not the totality of our Christian lives. If your passion is church and God’s people, great. But we should also scatter, as the people of God, being salt and light in the world, and worshipping God by being where we are. If your passion is something outside the church, that is great.

The point of worship is to encounter God.

Let me ask you something. When was the last time you felt fully alive?

Now, for me, it is in worship, surrounded by God’s people, seeing God move in people’s lives, I find that exciting, energising, transforming.

Worship can be and should be enjoyable. Sometimes it won’t be, and we just have to be mature and take that on board.

What stops you from encountering God?

1. You do.

Worship is a sacrifice. It is easy to come to worship when life is good, but it takes character and commitment to come when things are not going well. However, when we make a choice to worship, God honours that choice.

Understand this; there is no way you earn the right to worship, to encounter God. We come to worship because God invites us, through His son, Jesus Christ. That is an awesome privilege.

We don’t worship because God needs us to, God is not like Tinkerbell, where he needs us to believe so he can do stuff. God is not a cosmic egotist who needs people to constantly tell him how great he is.

Firstly, we worship because we should give credit where credit is due. God is awesome.

Secondly, we worship because we need to, it is part of being human, we worship because we were designed to worship.

2. Attitudes

Despair and anger are both worship killers. Most services will have a prayer of forgiveness, a time where you can confess that you have stuffed up and clear your accounts with God. Sometimes people don’t want to come to church because they want to get themselves sorted out; that is kind of missing the point. The whole idea of church is to come and get God to sort out your stuff so you can be in relationship with him the way he intended.

Sometimes people let themselves be governed by how they feel – I feel bored, I can’t be bothered, I don’t like the way they worship here. Sometimes they believe lies, which keep them away from God.

Here are some truths that I want you to write down, and remind yourself of daily.

1. God calls us to worship.

2. Gd is worthy of our worship

Look, community worship can be like a system reset, when we’ve lost our passion, when we need inspiration, when we need encouragement. We get some spiritual truth in our lives which deals to the lies that we so often fall foul off. Sometimes, when a computer is locking up on you, the operating system is corrupt, it will never be right until you reset the system with the right operating program.

3. Distractions

Cell phones? Turn them off and turn on to God.

Girls/guys? Look for God in them,

Bored? Look out for what God is doing.

4. Other ??

The gospel has to be translated.

Your church has a history, a tradition and a culture, which you are a part of, like it or not. All of these things can be thought about, analysed, critiqued. As we allow more and more of God in our lives, we become a living translation of the gospel.

Don’t let me tell you what to think but I reckon that worship is a key aspect of that. When we understand ourselves and our world in light of the gospel, we start to orientate our lives around what honours God and what God is calling us to do, working out our salvation if you like.

One of the problems with being part of Student Soul is that you begin to see that things don’t have to be this way but your options for changing your church are limited. However, you can have an effect, more than you probably realise.

I know you’re probably more focussed on exams than the summer right now, but let me plant some seeds for your summer holidays or jobs. Go to church, but take your brain with you. Community worship is a cultural exercise, and we should engage our heads with the process.

Find ways of translating the gospel into a language that the people around you understand. Use words if you have to. For many of us, simply listening carefully to someone’s story may be the most powerful thing, just noticing them.

God is at work in our culture, but most of us miss it. Think about it. Any movie you care to name, there are themes of salvation and redemption, of sin, of love, in there. They might not use those words but people are interested in spiritual matters.

Image

We live in a image driven culture, but most of our ministers have been trained in a word based culture. You are a part of the church community and your whole life can be an offering in worship.

Creativity

Hands on, drama, music, poetry

Music

Music is a language. There is no one type of music that is more spiritual than others, and music has caused controversy and arguments in the church for about as long as there has been a church.

Look for where God is at work in the world around you. Learn to recognise God in all the ways He turns up, in still small voices, in the hands and feet of Christians, in sunrises and sunsets, in the unexpected insight of a friend, a glimpse in a movie.

As we worship, we learn more about ourselves and who God is. Identity is challenged as we come into worship…

Part of worship is reminding ourselves about who God is and what Jesus has done for us.

Often we spend the early part of the service doing this, in praise songs or the prayers of adoration. We declare who God is.

If you don’t understand why something is happening, then ask.

Work on being present when you go to a service, pay attention to what is going on and ask yourself, what are you up to here God. Look for what God is doing, because even in the most boring, formal service, God will be there, and moving. If you are thinking about something else, then you are missing out. Pay attention, keep focussed, get involved if you possibly can, ask to go on a roster with something you feel you could manage, like a reading, then work your way up to prayers.

Personal

A challenge for all of us is making our choices. Who do we serve? The first commandment calls us to serve God, in all that we do and are. That doesn’t mean that you let the church make all your choices for you. But, how does what you do honour God, proclaim that He is Lord and King of the Universe, that Jesus loves you and died for you, and is living inside you.

Anything less than being a totally whole, integrated human being

Worship invites us to slow down, to be, rather than just do all the time.

Learning about worship is a journey, a journey which has started for each one of you long before I’ve met you and will continue long after tonight is but a distant memory.

Worship is a lifestyle.

Come, stand, sing with me…