4-6-08 Worship

For those of you that have been asking about the missing part to this week's podcast, here's the video. For some reason we didn't get the audio recording from the beginning of the service, but we got the video that has the same audio feed. So, here it is. More than likely, we will soon just be putting the messages on the podcast & any music will be put on this blog. Stay tuned.

I look forward to soon being able to post an entry with some substance. I feel like I've been going a mile a minute, but I think thing's are now slowing down a bit. Hopefully, I'll also be able to catch up on my songwriting. Also, I want to thank all of you for praying for my wife Lisa. She came through her surgeries with flying colors & is now resting. She's sore, but doing really well. Thanks for loving on us this past week. We are incredibly blessed with AMAZING friends. 

Blessings!

PULSE #9 - Beyond

Welcome fellow bloggers. In many ways I think our last Pulse lesson could have been the final week. Why? In one word...Heaven! As much as we screw up worship here on earth with our own preferences, orders, liturgies, yada yada yada; worship in heaven is going to be...well...PERFECT!

I'm reminded of the intro to the original Star Trek. Not being a trekkie, I can't say that I remember the exact words. I do however remember that the general idea was that they were on a mission to continually be seeking what's out there. So, what is out there? The book of Revelation gives us a clear picture of what true worship is like in Heaven. What do you think it will be like? Will everyone look the same in our "new bodies"? Will we sound the same? Will we care? All I know is that in heaven, worship will be perfect, always, forever & exactly how God likes it.

So, in heaven, how does God like it? First things first, the focus of our attention will be on Him only! Let's look at Revelation 5:6:

"I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as though it had been slain."

The focus was on the lamb, not a worship leader. As the song states, "it's not about me", in heaven, it truly is not about me. I'm not saying that we shouldn't sing those songs while here on earth. On the contrary. We should always strive to be heavenly in our worship. However, our flawed bodies often get in the way down here. In heaven, once again...perfect.

Another thing we know about heavenly worship is that it's both loud & long. Let's check out verses 11-12:

"I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders...saying with a loud voice: 'Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!' "

WOW, 'nuf said!

Also, our expressions of worship will not be half-hearted or weak. They will in fact be extreme in many ways! Get this, the twenty four elders will "fall down" before him. Not only that, but they will "cast down" their crowns at His feet. Isn't that the stuff that we say that wacko church across down does. The word is clear! The heavenly worship of our risen Savior will be EXTREME. Nothing will be held back. ALL FOCUS WILL BE ON HIM...& HIM ALONE! About those crowns that we will be casting down. How many of us spend our entire existence, here on earth, trying to acquire as many crowns as possible. Look, striving for personal excellence is not a bad thing, but when are we going to get it in our heads that it's all just temporary. One day, we will die! What then? Life does go on, & all that we've acquired will one day mean nothing...(silence).

So, that's it. Are you going to worship in the temporary, or will your eternally minded worship always be striving to touch a little bit of heaven? C'mon...don't hold back.

GO FOR IT!!!!

PULSE #5 - Temple

On the road again! C'mon everyone, sing it with me...I just can't wait to get on the road again! The fam & I are fast on the road back to Clarksvegas even as I type. Of course, by the time you get this post, we'll be home. Oh well. We're going to take one more stop by Robbers cave & do a little hiking. All in all, it has been a great mini-vacation. I'll be blogging a bit later about our experience at church yesterday. We were going to go to Gateway church in Fort Worth, but decided at the last minute to go with Lisa's parents to their h church, Grace Temple Baptist. To sum it up shortly, God is up to something AMAZING within that body. Like I said, I'll blog about it later.

For now, on to this week's (last week's) PULSE.

“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
-1 Corinthians 3:16

Well...do you? If you're a believer in Christ, do you truly believe that your body is the temple in which God's spirit dwells? Are you living in such a way that He would want to enter in? Are you hospitable? WOW, these are some meaty questions, but if you really call yourself HIS, then the Word is clear.

Let me put it another way. If someone were to ask you where you go to church, what would you say? As a follower of Christ, I would be completely right in saying...you know, according to God's word, I am the temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, I'm really at church all the time. As Lamar put it in the text, I'm a “Winnebago of Worship”. I LOVE THAT!

Several of you have heard the woman at the well story. I challenge you to read it again. Read the whole thing at John 4: 1-42. Let it soak in & then read it again. What is God trying to teach us in this text? Is worship a place? Or, is it an attitude? Man, am I full of questions today! I just think this is something that's worth wrestling with for a while. I mean, if we miss this, then our whole view of worship is going to be skewed. As true worshipers WE HAVE TO GET THIS!

Alright, it's time to rustle some feathers. Read this very closely...”THERE ARE NO WORSHIP WARS AMONG TRUE WORSHIPPERS!” That's right, if you're heart & motives are in the right place, then it won't matter what place or method you are using to worship. I'm very thankful to be serving in a body that has gotten past all this junk! Sure, we worship in different ways, but ultimately, we see God's hand in all of it.

So, let's get back to the root of it all. If we truly are the temple of the Holy Spirit, then we can & should be worshiping Him at all times. Yup, at work, play, even Wal-Mart. The scriptures are full of teachings on “Full-time” worship. Just to name a few:

“Pray without ceasing”
-1 Thessalonians 5:17

“And my tongue shall speak of Your righteousness and of Your praise all the day long”
-Psalm 35:28

“I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth”
-Psalm 34:1

“Let us constantly and at all times offer up to God a sacrifice of praise...”
-Hebrews 13:15

I'll leave you with a statement that I have found to ring true in my life & in time, I pray it will in yours as well. “If you make your private worship a regular habit, you won't feel awkward about worshipping in public.”

Does your temple need a little spring cleaning?

PULSE #2 - DRIVE

Worship determines our actions, becoming the driving force for all we do.
-Louie Giglio

True or False? Worship is the #1 responsibility of every believer everywhere. Let's go even one step further. Worshipping the Lord is your first and foremost priority. Feel free to pause a moment & reflect. WOW! How intense is that. You mean to tell me that EVERYTHING I do should be worship. Yes Margaret, that's exactly what I'm saying. Let's just hope that our worship is pointed in the right direction.

Do you know why this is sooooo hard? One word...Selfishness. We're selfish. How can we be expected to take our eyes off of us long enough to focus on anything else, much less the creator of the universe & oh yeah, me. Remember, we were created to worship!

Psalm 148: 1-13

1 Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord from the heavens!
Praise him from the skies!
2 Praise him, all his angels!
Praise him, all the armies of heaven!
3 Praise him, sun and moon!
Praise him, all you twinkling stars!
4 Praise him, skies above!
Praise him, vapors high above the clouds!
5 Let every created thing give praise to the Lord,
for he issued his command, and they came into being.
6 He set them in place forever and ever.
His decree will never be revoked.

7 Praise the Lord from the earth,
you creatures of the ocean depths,
8 fire and hail, snow and clouds,
wind and weather that obey him,
9 mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars,
10 wild animals and all livestock,
small scurrying animals and birds,
11 kings of the earth and all people,
rulers and judges of the earth,
12 young men and young women,
old men and children.

13 Let them all praise the name of the Lord.
For his name is very great;
his glory towers over the earth and heaven!

Can you see it? Do you get it? All things were created to worship Him, at all times. Here's another question for you. Out of all of God's creation, who has the superior brain...yet, seems to create more problems than anything else? Was that ever a loaded question. Of course the answer is US! You see, we have a little thing that the average Oak tree doesn't have. It's called FREE WILL. My sincere apologies to all you tree huggers out there. We will talk ourselves out of worshipping our Creator. All the while, the rest of creation is singing His praises. Some days, wouldn't you rather just be a piece of bark? I guess that's another topic all together.

Okay, here's the point. Worship isn't about you. It's about Him. We worship as a gift to our Heavenly Father who deserves all we can give Him. Let everything you do be for Him; waking up, going to work/class, brushing your teeth. As a good friend once put it, "tying my shoelaces causes me to worship", because I know that He created the molecules that make up that shoelace. GOOD STUFF!

So, we've established the why & when of worship...because He is all deserving, at all times. What is the one thing for you that is the death of true worship? Wrestle with that for a while. For me, it is wrapped up in one, two syllable word...ROUTINE. As many of you know, as a musician, I'm a bit of an anomaly. I'm organized. Often times, you could set your clock by when I'll be at a certain place doing a certain thing. It's pathetic really. but nevertheless it's the joy that is me. My routine can become so, well, routine, that I don't take the time to give credit where credit is due. Because I'm a visual person, it helps me to put things in my path that will cause me to go vertical to God. Find out what your stumbling block is. Then, do something about it.

Worship, ultimately, should be THE priority in our lives.

What drives you to a deeper encounter with God?

Discover that & discover Him!

Until next time...

PULSE...Your Rhythm. God's Heart.

Last week I started teaching a new series on worship called "Pulse...Your Rhythm. God's Heart.". Imagine that, a worship leader teaching on worship. And no, I don't mean singing! That's just the point of this teaching. Worship is so much more than just the uttering of words (that may or may not ring true) out of one's mouth.


As many of you know, I have really been struggling lately with what it is that God has for me at this moment in time. More specifically, my role in the Creative Arts here at FBC. Although I don't yet have my finger on it just yet, I am beginning to feel as though this could be the biggest year of things to happen off stage. Take this teaching on worship for example. We have fixated, and yes, even gained a new "tradition", on worship being what happens on the platform Sunday morning. Now don't get me wrong, I love, even thrive on corporate worship. But that could be sooooo much better when we begin to get it off stage. That is why I am teaching this class! I really believe that God has big things coming, "behind the scenes" if you will. Not to sound prideful (because we all know that without God, this whole thing goes to pot), but God has blessed us & for the most part the on-stage stuff is being done well...need I say...excellently.

So, it's the off-stage (heart) issues that I believe will see the biggest growth this year. For those of you that won't have the chance to come to the class, I am going to be posting some of the key points here on the blog. To give credit where credit is due, I should say that this teaching originated from Lamar Boschman, the founder and president of the International Worship Institute. I am merely the facilitator (with a few opinions). We are two weeks into it now, so I had better stop rambling & get to it.


WEEK 1 - WIRED



We are all wired to worship. We were created to worship. The question is, what are you worshipping?

"Worship is a universal urge, hard wired by God into the very fiber of our being-an inbuilt need to connect with god" -Rick Warren

As stated earlier, God created you to be a worshipper. You don't need to be trained in worship. It comes naturally. Now, back to the question, what are you worshipping? Come on, let's be honest, the Razorbacks! Being from Texas, I'm not a fan. But around here, that's an easy one. People worship the Hogs. If that's not an idol, I don't know what is. I know, I know, I'm meddling. My apologies. What else? There's the obvious...movie stars, singers, athletes. What about the not so obvious...our kids, ourselves, worship. Yes, I said worship. You can get so wrapped up in the "expressions" of worship & miss the boat completely on the object of our worship.

Psalm 135:15-18 (New International Version)

15 The idols of the nations are silver and gold,
made by the hands of men.

16 They have mouths, but cannot speak,
eyes, but they cannot see;

17 they have ears, but cannot hear,
nor is there breath in their mouths.

18 Those who make them will be like them,
and so will all who trust in them.

So what should be the object of our worship? That's a great segue into this week's teaching. Shall we...

WEEK 2 - AIM

"Aim at heaven and you will get the earth thrown in: aim at earth and you will get neither.
- C.S. Lewis

God didn't create you to worship simply for the sake of worship itself. Worship has a purpose. None of the expressions of worship are for your own enjoyment (although, done with the right heart, they bring personal joy), you do it for the Lord. This week really opened up my eyes to the mystery of God. I love the fact that He is mysterious. However, God's word unlocks many of those mysteries for us, if we have eyes to see. We must get to the point that we "aim" our worship for the bulls eye & are not simply content with just hitting the target. Let me explain. In God's word, He has been gracious to offer to us many of His attributes. Once again, this allows us to get more specific & not deal in generalities. Let's list a few:

Self-existent - Exodus 3:14

Eternal - Psalm 90:2

Infinite - Romans 11:33

Unchanging - Malachi 3:6a

All-knowing - Isaiah 40:13-14

Wise - 1 Timothy 1:17

And the list goes on. In fact, I'm not sure that all of His attributes will be fully revealed until we are worshipping Him face to face. Oh, I CAN'T WAIT!!

I hope this helps you to tighten your focus when worshipping. I want to leave you with a quote from a great theologian J.I. Packer:

"What were we made for? To know God. What aim should we have in life? To know God."

BLESSINGS!