Consumed Pt 2

Got a week behind. Here's pt 2 with pt 3 coming later in the week.
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Consumed Pt 2
Worship Lifestyle

Leave It at the Door

There’s a song we sing sometimes here at Journey Fellowship called Madly. It’s a song about how much we love Jesus and how we are offering our lives to Him. It has a curious line in it that says “Let what we do in here fill the streets out there, let us dance for you, we will dance for you.” When we sing that song I often wonder, “Does anyone know what that means.” What does it mean? I want us to take a few minutes from Matthew our worship pastor about why he uses this song in our worship gatherings and what he thinks this song is calling us to.

Why would someone write a song about this subject? I think because we have a problem understanding what God is calling us to when He calls us to worship. What causes us to leave worship at the door? What are we really saying about God when we limit Him to one place? What has to happen for us to become people who do in the streets what we do here?

Worship Life or Worship Lite?

The real problem starts with how many of us have been trained. Our mindset is wrong. My daughter is four and we are learning about training and mindsets right now. I can teach her how to do something and to her it’s right no matter what, because she has no previous experience to compare it to. For example, Annalise can tell you how to pack her lunch for school. She knows the order, the ingredients, and the proper utensils. Try to make it in a different way or order, even if it comes out the same, and you’re in big trouble because she has a mindset but no experience to compare it to. Worship for many of us is for Sundays. We grew up hearing we’re going to church to worship God today. We’re going to a worship service or gathering. We were told we are going to God’s house. All of those phrases are not bad, but they are incomplete based on scripture. According to the NT God does not live in a house anymore- He lives in us. Space is no longer sacred- we are! Further, we do not worship God just on Sundays or just at certain times. We have left behind the dull rituals of “religion” and been taken captive by a vibrant faith in a living unbounded God who desires to be a part of every aspect of our lives. Don’t believe me? That’s ok, look in Romans 12:1-2.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Now let’s look at the first verse to get a grip on worship life vs. worship lite.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy
First, worship life has a view of God’s mercy. Worship lite usually focuses on God’s requirements. Remember, worship lite has to do with a specific day, time, or activity. Do you remember growing up and hearing people telling you or other kids- don’t do that or God will be mad. Or, we don’t run in God’s house. Or, my personal favorite, you better act right at church or God’s going to get you. Now that’s a threat. Worship lite ends at the doors of the church house. It limits God’s power to an area. Worship life has to celebrate God’s mercy because it means God is with us and in us all the time- even when we are failing Him. Worship life reminds us that we are constantly dependant on God’s grace, revealed in Jesus.

to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship
Second, worship life views our whole lives as part of worship. Worship lite involves only our mouths and our endurance. Worship lite focuses on singing when we are told to, shutting up when we are told to, and not leaving early. Worship life involves every part of us. Our jobs become sacred spaces where spiritual things happen- where we are learning from God and where God is using us to build His kingdom. Our families become places where grace and mercy come to life. We become more spiritual people because we no longer view our spiritual lives as locked up in a building and pulled out for use once a week.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
So this is where worship life gets complicated. Worship lite has few demands beyond Sunday. There is nothing else to do unless you are a part of one of those weird churches that has small groups that meet during the week or encourage you to read the bible for 5 minutes a day on your own. Worship life is much more.

Worship life, remember, is about your whole body and life. It’s about what you do all the time. So worship life calls you to a life of difference. Now this is not a life of LAW- it’s a life of obedience. Obedience to the leadership of the Holy Spirit in your life as it is informed by scripture, wise teaching, and God’s truth. Some people are very uncomfortable with this idea. They want conformity, but God did not design the church to produce people that all look and think alike. That’s why we have a variety of gifts and talents that come from God and balance the church. Think for a second about a church filled with prophets and teachers- they would never get anything done and they would be too busy condemning one another, the world, etc to have any mercy on those who Jesus misses the most. N the flip side, a church with no prophets and filled with merciful people becomes a place where there is no right and wrong and everyone is accepted with no push to be more like Jesus.

So what does this renewal look like? What patterns are we breaking? Let’s look at Ephesians 5 for a minute. The first part of this section talks about what we touched on last week, being obsessed with things instead of God. Remember, the old way was making idols out of stuff. We were consumed with getting and keeping. After Paul finishes that description in vs.7 by calling is to avoid close association or binding relationships with people who are controlled by idols, he begins to explain to us how to live in a worshipful way.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14 for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:
“Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So what are the instructions that we are given in this passage?
Live to please God- we don’t just live haphazardly and make it up as we go along. We have a goal, an objective and that is to please God. Paul further reiterates this in 1 Cor 9:24-27 when he tells the Corinthians to run their lives pursuing the prize of following God.
Do not participate in evil, and protect others by not allowing evil to do it’s work unknown – As Christ followers we are not simply called to criticize those things God calls evil, but to actively work to defeat evil and to see God triumph- that is Kingdom expansion!
Live wisely- apply the knowledge God gives you to life- form the best plans and use the best means for their execution
Use every relationship, position of authority, and moment to make God known – this is the very definition of worship life- our lives are an extension of God into the world- we are His representatives everywhere not just at a certain place on a certain day at a certain time- when we are firing an employee, when we are disciplining a student, when we are calling a creditor, when we are dealing with our insurance company, when we are disagreeing with our spouse

Results of Worship Life

In both Ephesians 5 and Romans 12 a phrase is used that reveals for us a huge benefit of worship life.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Vs 2- Romans

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. vs 17- Ephesians

Knowledge of God’s will. Why do we so often find it hard to know what God wants for our lives? We only encounter Him, hear Him, seek Him once a week. We do not listen for God’s voice in the voices of our kids, our coworkers, our books and music, our conversations, our times of scriptural meditation. We think God only speaks at church. We have lived with worship lite for so long we have no clue that there is Life out there and we’re missing it. God wants our lives to be echoes of our gatherings here. For our lives to dance before Him in worship as we go about our lives. Your life is meant to be a life of worship. God is calling you to turn off the “lite” and embrace the Life. And as your life becomes a life of worship you will begin to see and sense God’s will, God’s purpose, God’s promise for your life.