The Grace of Worship

The following is condensed text version of a talk I gave at SSAG on Palm Sunday. You can check out the complete video version at www.ssag.org.

For the past month, Pastor Jack has been looking at Jesus’ Journey to Jerusalem focusing on the thing HE did during holy week from Jesus’ perspective. We have looked at such events as the dinner a Simon’s house, the cleansing of the temple, and the last supper. Today we will try to look at Palm Sunday from the perspective of Jesus. This story is found in Luke 19:28-40 and it clearly hinges on the praise and worship the people express toward Jesus. When we consider this from Jesus’ point of view, we see 3 things about worship. 1. The Priority of Worship; 2. the Defense of Worship, and 3, the Grace of Worship.

I. PRIORITY OF WORSHIP

It seems obvious from verse 40 that Jesus places a lot of value on people worshipping HIM. HE states that if the people don’t do it, the rocks will. Someone or something is going to worship HIM. As a matter of fact, that is what we were created to do. The very reason that we exist and breath and get up in the morning is to praise and worship Jesus.

Our very nature as humans points to the fact that we were created to worship God. There has never been a civilization in history that developed as atheists. Every civilization on the planet has developed with a belief in a god and an attempt to understand this god and worship him, her, or it. Atheism is a philosophy we have needed universities to develop for us and has only been around for the past couple hundred years.  The heart of man cries out to worship God.

Another place where we can see that the purpose of our lives is to worship God is found in the book of Psalms. Twice David is found praying for his very life (Psalm 30:8-9 & 88:10-12), both times he makes the argument that he can’t praise God if he is dead. The best argument David can come up with for why God should save him is that he needs to be alive to praise HIM. What that reveals is that the purpose for life is to praise God and declare HIS wonders.

We have all heard “if you love someone, set them free. If they love you , they will return.” That is what God has done with us. He has set us free to choose HIM or reject HIM. True love can only come from free choice. Our choice to love and worship God is so important to HIM that HE set us free. Inherent in that freedom to choose HIM is the freedom to reject HIM. Many have rejected HIM and chosen evil. Therefore, our love and worship is so important to God that HE has allowed evil to exist in the world so that we would have the option to choose to love and worship HIM.

II. DEFENSE OF WORSHIP

The second thing we see in this story is that worship is so important to Jesus that HE will defend worshippers. The religious leaders tell HIM to quiet the people. Instead, Jesus defends them. This tells me I should be very careful when I am tempted to criticize people for how they worship God. If we feel like people are distracting us, we should quit looking at them and worship God ourselves. If Jesus is defending worshippers, I do not want to find myself opposing HIM! After all, HE is the only one who can judge someone’s motives. I have no right to put myself in HIS place and judge people.

III. GRACE OF WORSHIP

The third thing we can learn about Jesus’ view of worship is that HE is full of grace when it comes to worship. He defended these people and accepted their worship knowing that many of them would be the ones demanding HIS crucifixion less than a week later. As a matter of fact, Jesus gives us “the benefit of the doubt.” Actually, HE gives us more than the benefit of the doubt. HE has no doubt that we will not live up to our words but HE accepts of praise anyway.

The funny thing is that we often avoid worship because we feel unworthy. We don’t want to pray because we are afraid we will not live up to our grand promises. But Jesus KNOWS we will fail and embraces us anyway. HE accepts us at face value. HE gives us credit for being willing to try again.

The enemy wants us to quit trying and to walk away from God. After all he tells us, we can’t walk it out. But Palm Sunday tells us that Jesus loves us and embraces us even when HE knows we will fail. That is grace!

When UNgodliness is next to godliness…

You know the old saying, “cleanliness is next to godliness”? The scary thing about that saying is that most Americans believe it is actually scripture. In reality, it is just one of those psuedo-scriptural sayings that moms have used for years to try to get young boys to take a bath. It has never worked. The only thing that gets young boys, and most men for that matter, to stay clean is young girls… But none of this has anything to do with what I want to talk about today.

What I do want to talk about is something that IS next to godliness: that is UNgodliness. “Wait a minute,” you might say, “we are supposed to be like God! How can UNgodliness be next to godliness?” Stay with me for a minute and let me explain what I mean.

I am getting this idea from the beginning of God’s interaction with man in Genesis chapters 2 & 3. In 2:16-17 the Bible says, “But the LORD God gave him this warning: “You may freely eat any fruit in the garden except fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat of its fruit, you will surely die.” Then in 3:5, the serpent puts his twist on things by saying, “God knows that your eyes will be opened when you eat of it. You will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and evil.” These verses have always bothered me because I have always thought that being like God was a good thing. Aren’t we supposed to be developing His character in our lives? I also thought that knowing the difference between good and evil was a good thing. This bothered me enough that I have pretty much ignored it for years. I am really good at ignoring things I don’t want to spend the mental energy on, like doing the dishes.

Recently though, I started reading through Genesis again and asking what is does this mean? Why is it bad to be like God? Why is it bad to know good and evil? I started spend some of my precious mental energy reserves on these questions. To understand I needed to answer two questions: what does it mean to know good and evil? and what does it mean to be like God?

I have always understood knowing good and evil to mean having the knowledge that stealing cookies was bad and leaving the toilet seat down was good. But that can’t be what it means here. After all God had already given Adam the list: eating from this tree, BAD, everything else, GOOD. I may not be able to remember what I am supposed to get at the grocery store, but even I can remember that. So knowing good and evil has to mean more than just being able to read or remember a list of dos and don’ts.

Next, I had to realize that we are created to be like God just not, like, God. I hope that clears it all up for you. What I mean is that we are supposed to be like Him in our emotions, passions, and character but not like Him as in trying to do His job. We are not created to be our own god and to decide what is good and evil. Do you see it now? Being like God is bad when it means that we decide for ourselves what is good and evil. Our job is to trust God, not do His job for Him.

So this is how I understand the passage; We die when we decide we know better than God what is good and evil. We live when we trust that what He has told us is true and live accordingly. Seems kind of simple, doesn’t it? But I have the gift of making the simple complex (for example, the preceding explanation of this simple topic). I have to argue with God about what is good and what is evil. I also have to argue with obsess over the couple of things He says are bad instead of focusing on the entire world of good things He has given me. Adam was free to do everything in the world except one thing, so he did that! I am just like that. God has set me free to live and enjoy the world but I seem to always be arguing about the one of two things He warns will kill me. “But God, You don’t understand. That is so old fashioned. Things are different today…” It is simple, BE God, BAD, be like God, GOOD.

Angry at the Wrong People

A couple nights ago I was working at the hotel and I met a lady from Florida. She was out in the courtyard smoking a cigarette and had had a little too much to drink. She began asking me about Savannah and we were having a nice conversation until I mentioned that I was a pastor when I wasn’t securing hotels in the middle of the night. She began apologizing and put out her cigarette. Our conversation came to a screeching halt. The more I thought about it, the more it grieved my spirit that mentioning being a Jesus follower made her so uncomfortable. Why is it like this? Why are so many people who do not follow Jesus so uncomfortable with those of us who do (and we around them)?

I think the answer is found in Matthew 23. In this chapter we see the only time that Jesus got angry and “judgmental” with people. And who are the people He yelled at? The religious leaders of His day! The only people Jesus got upset with were people who claimed to follow God but didn’t show love for other people. Specifically, they did not show love for “sinners.” Jesus loved “sinners” and yelled at religious hypocrites. The church (myself included) seems to coddle hypocrites and yell at “sinners.” Why do we act the opposite of our Lord? Do we think we know better than He does? We need to turn this thing around. Love the “sinners” and those outside our fellowship and confront the judgmental amongst ourselves.

Prostitutes and sinners were comfortable hanging out with Jesus. They loved being around Him. Why do they hate being around us? Why am I so uncomfortable around people who smoke, drink, and curse? Could it simply be that I don’t want to be like Jesus badly enough to be uncomfortable? Are we so insecure in our beliefs that we fear being around “sinners” will ruin us?

I am again struck by how far we, who call ourselves followers of Jesus, have strayed from following Jesus. I know that is a very generalized, blanket statement but before you close this window, realize I am including myself in this group and admitting that many times I do the same thing. I am not pointing a finger at all of you from my perch of self righteousness. I am asking what is wrong with me and many of “us”?

I am challenging myself to spend more time with those who are not already following Jesus. I am not there yet. I admit I am uncomfortable. I think it is a good sign though that I am now more uncomfortable when someone feels uncomfortable around me. At least I am recognizing the problem. That’s the first step to recovery, right?

DO Good

How have we come to the point where the world identifies Christians by what they are against? The number one thing non-church goers think of when they think of us is that we are anti-gay. As I read 3 John I was once again reminded that YOU called us to be FOR something, not against stuff.

Verse 11 says “…do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God…” YOU didn’t tell us to protest, picket, scream at, judge, or kill evil. YOU just said, don’t imitate it. Our job is simply to imitate good: to do good. YOU taught us to DO to others would we would have them do to us (Mt. 7:12). We are supposed to be proactive in living and doing good.

The evil in this world will not change because we attack it and complain about it. If we would just go out and live YOUR love, then the world will change. Evil will not be defeated by being attacked. It will be defeated because the virtue of good will outshine it. You can’t change darkness by attacking it, you just turn on the light and it goes away. LORD, help me to live FOR YOU not against everything else!

Go After Jesus

Hey, for anyone who is interested, there is a new video of a talk I did recently on this blog page. Click on the video window in the right sidebar and check it out. It is about how one person can accomplish so much more than they ever thought possible if they will just worry about pursuing Jesus.

Remember Where You Came From

I love how Paul never forgot where he came from. He says, YOU “came into the world to save sinner, of whom I am the foremost…” (1 Tim 1:15). By this time in his life he had already traveled the world establishing churches. He had already written most of the New Testament. He had already been beaten and imprisoned many times. Yet he says, I am the foremost of sinners. No chest beating. No faith proclamation that he is a saint and not a sinner. Not even an “I used to be…” Just plain and simple. YOU came for sinners and I am the biggest sinner…

I know Paul is not saying that he is living in sin. He is remembering where he came from. It is so easy to forget. After twenty years of following YOU I sometimes forget my past. When I do that, I tend to get puffed up with pride and think of myself as better than others. I tend to become real religious and judgemental in those moments (and they can be really long moments). Lord, deliver me from these things! Paul never did them because he remembered where he came from. I want to remember also.

By remembering where he came from Paul also kept his eyes on YOUR priority for the world. To lead the lost into a relationship with YOU. He goes on to say that he “received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display HIS perfect patience as an example for those who were to believe in HIM for eternal life.” (v. 16). In other words, if God can put up with me, HE can put up with anyone! There is hope for the worst of sinners!

Lord, help me remember where I came from. Help me remember that I am nothing special. I know I am special to YOU but it is not because of my holiness or my accomplishments. Let me be a living example of YOUR mercy that inspires hope and hunger in other people.

The Measuring Rod

Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load (Gal 6:4-5 NIV)

This verse really jumped out at me this morning. So many times I spend my time comparing and measuring myself against others. I spend so much time trying to see if I am better than someone else at this or that instead of just judging if I am doing the best I can. What good is it to be better than someone else at something but not the best at it that I can be? We do this in physical training. When I ran I always timed myself and compared to my fastest time. When I lifted weights, I recorded everything to compare to my “max” or personal best in that lift. What good was it to lift more than a child if I wasn’t challenging myself to grow stronger? That is what it is like when I judge myself by comparing myself to others. That is a sure path to either pride and judgmentalism or jealousy and depression.

One way I need to apply this verse is in regards to those I think I am better than in certain areas. Many times I find myself judging people harshly because I do not struggle with what they struggle with. And then I give myself grace in the areas in which I do struggle. For example, I feel holy because I don’t smoke but excuse jealousy and laziness in myself. Paul says I should test my own actions. I know the filth and selfishness that dwells in me. I need to judge my holiness but how much of that I am turning over to You not by how long ago I got over what so and so is doing. Doing this simple thing will keep me humble.

The other way I need to apply this verse is in regards to those I think have it better than I do. Just yesterday I found myself struggling with jealousy over a young couple in ministry who are being blessed. I was jealous that I who have been in ministry for 20 years am struggling to pay bills while they who have been at it for just a few years have lots of cool toys (this refers to some of the ugliness mentioned above). You are telling me to judge or test myself against myself. You have taken care of me every step of the way and I need to focus on that not on comparing myself to others.

Lord, please help me today to only measure myself against myself and against You. This will drive me to Your grace and strength. I can’t do this without Your power.