Right Worship

While at Family Camp this week I have enjoyed the worship and preaching.  This year our district had The Difference from Southern Wesleyan University come to lead our worship in music segment of the nightly service.  It is great!  I’m blown away with the amount of talent that God has given to the SWU; it is like that every year.  Let me tell you, those young guys and gals, I guess I can say that since I am 40 now, really give it up to Jesus.  Hey, isn’t that awesome!  I say yes!

I have sensed that not everyone is excited about allowing a different style of music to be played during our Holiness    camp setting.  It is possible that some think it is the world being mixed in with the church.  I confess, as a person who was young in the Lord, I entertained those types of thoughts some time ago too.  I think God brought me out of that by showing me that He is not limited in the ways that He chooses to connect with people.  Besides, what is right worship?  Jesus said that it is in spirit and truth.  In the OT God desired obedience over sacrifice and noted that His people worshiped Him with  their lips but their hearts were far from Him. 

One thing that I come back to time after time is the thought that people who are lost (those who are not trusting in Christ as their Savior) are not having heated debates about what style of music should be played during church service.  American Christianity is something else sometimes.  We continuously find ways to focus on everything but what matters.  Jesus forgive us!  Listen, I can worship traditionally, or worship with older tradition like chants, or contemporary.  You get the picture. 

Without going into a long story about an experience I had with Christ I will tell you that the outcome of it was that I sent an email to my pastor and his wife and asked them if they wanted to come over to my house to worship with me.  It was in the middle of the day and everyone else was at work or I would have called them too.  Now this was a lot like a child calling another up and asking the child to come over and play games for the day.  I didn’t have any special music in mind, I only knew that the Presence of Christ was with me and that I wanted my friends to worship Him with me. 

Wouldn’t we Christians do better to focus on bringing the lost to the Presence of Christ so that they could make a decision to accept Him or reject Him?  I think so.  But, most of us believe that before we can invite someone to church that the music has to be a certain way or that the pastor has to be a certain way.  We Christians are wasting precious time that some who are lost do not have debating over whether or not modern music is better than traditional music and vice versa. 

It is funny how many are in a continuous search for the right ministry or church to be part of.  Can we ever be honest admit that it is ultimately about us instead of Christ?  It tires me.  The path that leads to the Presence of Christ is to truly seek Him and only Him through humbleness and Holiness.  Good, or bad, music has less to do with it than we would like to admit.  It is a tool that the Spirit uses to help put me into the right attitude.  Seeking Him is about thirsting for Him and when you find Him you bring others to the drinking hole where you found refreshing. 

So what is right worship?  Is it seeking Christ with the heart?  Or is about finding the right pastor, the right type of music, and making sure things are done the way they have always been done?  Then if everything meets our standards then we will give approval and consider that to be our worship for the day.  Let me tell you that giving our approval is missing the bulls-eye by a mile.  Meaningless.  It is about us coming in to His house so that we can receive His mercy.  Then we adore Him because of who He is.   

So I say let’s not burn up our energies on this issue.  Instead, let’s use our energies to seek Him and bring the lost to Him.  This is right worship to me.

Is God Allowed in Your Camp by Jim Dunn

Scripture: 1 Samuel 4:2-22

Israel had heard God’s Word because of Samuel.  The problem was that Israel still depended on themselves even though they were getting ready for battle with the Philistines.  Israel decided to go get the Ark of God and bring it into the camp (God did not told them to do that) so that they could defeat the Philistines.  The Philistines were scared because the ground shook with the cheers from the Israelites in their camp.  Yet, they defeated Israel and captured the Ark. 

Israel began to question: Where was God when all our men were killed?  Now our nation is defeated.

Israel depended on God the same way we do a rabbit’s foot.  He was only brought into the camp for good luck.  He was only needed for that battle.  They paid attention to Him to that point. 

• God cannot be manipulated!  We think that if we do the right things that God will be on our side. 
• Don’t manipulate God.  People most of the time say that they want to experience Him.  In worship we try to manipulate an experience with a particular style.  A style that is generally controlled by us.
• Don’t ignore God.  We must realize that we are not self-made.  Although we try to get through life on our own.  We trust in things instead of God. 

We only want to bring God out the box that we have Him in when we need Him.  We must try to know Him and not limit His worship to a particular style or way of doing it. 

My thought

Beware of only seeking God when you want Him to be on your side for your own gain.  It is better to focus on His gains and dwell in His Presence than to pull Him out like a rabbit’s foot.

What do you want by Kerry Willis

Here are some hi-lights from a sermon by Rev. Willis on Wednesday night.  He used many different Scriptures but here are most of them.  1 Samuel 13:14, Psalm 37:4, Matthew 5:6, Psalm 139:23-24, Psalm 84:1-12

Matthew 5:6; desire God and He will give Himself to you; this should not be a verse used by us to seek worldly gain. 

Psalm 139:23-24; our thoughts matter to God.  This should be something to think about.

Jesus does not want 1st place in your life.  Instead, He wants to be your life!  The Rich Young Ruler’s story is baffling because of how it ends.  Consider, all those who were in this ruler’s life were only around him because of what he had in wealth.  They wanted to be his friend because of what he could do for them.  Yet, Jesus told him to sell everything and follow Him and you (the ruler) will still have Him (Christ) near.

We should be convicted when we let intercessary prayer be about the people getting what they want instead of it being about God getting what He wants.  This is because we want to please people instead of God. 

Rev. Willis’ advice is not choose silver over gold.  Christ is the Gold.  Here are some things that are silver: Prosperity, Possessions, and Pleasure.  These are at least 3 pieces of silver that we want more than Gold (Christ). 

Application

We need to get over doing something great for God too because we should be content with His Presence.  Be delivered and desire to know God.  After David’s sin with Bathsheba he wrote Psalm 51 and begged God to take away His Spirit. 

Definition of evil according to the Bible in Sermon on the Mount is those who do not know Christ.  Many Christians busy themselves with things, and even God’s work, but never take the time to know Christ.  This will be bad when we stand before Christ. 

In John 1:37-38; these two disciples sought the Presence of Christ.  After John the Baptist noted who Jesus was they promptly followed Jesus.  Paraphrase: Jesus said what do you want, they answered to know where you are staying. 

A thought I had

The problem with Christians is that we want to run the discussion about following Christ into the ground.  We want to talk theology and theory, but we do not want to get down to the real business of dying to ourselves.  Stop being busy looking and trying to do something great and be satisfied with His Presence.

How do you like your word by Jim Dunn

Dr. Dunn preached a sermon Tuesday night about how we like our Word from God.  He shared some great insight with us from 1 Samuel 3:1-4:1.  “In those days, word from the Lord was rare.”  Here are some highlights from his talk.

• God’s Word was rare since it was not spoken by the people, priests, and in the Temple.  This much like today, believe it or not, God’s Word does not get spoken in the homes, by ministers, or even in the church. 
• God’s Word is rare today because it is confusing.  There are too many voices that God’s Word competes with.  God’s Word has, and still does, compete with God’s Word. God’s Word also competes with people, like friends, relatives, and etc.
• God’s Word was rare because it is frightening.  In Samuel’s day, people were doing what they thought was right.  They had begun to live contrary to God’s Word.  Eli did not correct and rebuke his own children with God’s Word.  So what was frightening was that a young boy like Samuel had to give a tough message to Eli.  The message to Eli was that you and your family are going to die because of their willful disobedience to God’s Word.  It was unlikely that that was an easy message to give. 

Application

Will you stand up for God’s Word in culture or let it be rare?  We are called to speak God’s Word and live under the influence of His Word.  God’s Word is supposed to be well done instead of rare.  Just think, Samuel spoke God’s Word as a boy and the Lord’s Word spread throughout the land.  Pastor’s are called to give tough messages much like Samuel was.  We are all called to live God’s Word in our culture. 

A thought I had

It is amazing with this understanding that Hannah still sought Yahweh even though nobody was pointing her in the right direction with God’s Word.