Fruitful Living (2 of 5): “Passionate Worship (3/16/14)

Let me start with something funny. A Sunday school teacher asked her children a question as they made their way to the sanctuary, “Why is it necessary to be quiet in church?” One bright little girl replied, “Because people are sleeping.” Welcome to the worship.

During the season of Lent, we have five topics preached on five Sundays each topic. First Sunday was Radical Hospitality Pastor Larry preached last Sunday. Today I preach Passionate Worship. Next week will be Intentional Faith Development. And Risk-Taking Mission and Service, and Extravagant Generosity.

Today we are talking about Passion Worship. What is worship? Worship is defined as the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity. In other words, worship is our response, both personal and corporate, to God for who God is, and what God has done. Worship is a time to connect people to God and to one another. So we gather seeking to encounter God in Christ.

God uses worship to transform our lives, heal wounded souls, renew hope, shape decisions, provoke change, inspire compassion, and bind people to one another. We don’t attend worship to squeeze God into our lives; we seek to meld our lives into God’s. It is a time to less about ourselves and more about faith, less about our personal agendas and more about God’s will.

I have heard that people walk into church expecting to be entertained, because that happens everywhere else they go. They go to the movies, entertained. They go to a sports game, entertained. They plug in their video game system, entertained. They watch TV, entertained. They walk into church, they want to be entertained. My loving sisters and brothers, Worship is not about being entertained. Worship is about God. Worship is about expressing our love for God.

I have heard many people say this statement about a church’s worship. They said, “I just don’t feel fed.” Then I heard another preacher explain something that was vitally important for us to remember. He said that ministers/preachers/worship leaders are merely the chefs. We work hard to prepare the feast. We use our talents and gifts to create something that should be delicious to God. And he said, “we don’t feed people, people feed themselves.” I hope and pray that you all feed yourselves enough today.

God created us for his own purpose. It was God’s purpose and reason that God liberated the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt. Exodus 8:1 says, “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.” Worship defines God’s people. We all are designed for worshiping and praising God like King David.

In today’s scripture, 2 Samuel 6:14, David danced before the Lord with all his might. Verse 15, David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of trumpet. David was no stranger to worship. He didn’t dance only when people agreed with him. He didn’t hold back because he was worried what people would think. David danced before the Lord with all his might. But Michal despised him and she thought he was crazy. David didn’t care. He loved God and he wasn’t worried about how he looked or how he sounded. Again, worship is not about us or how we look to other, worship is about expressing our love for God and all that he has done for us.So in worship, we practice the highest command Jesus has taught us: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

Through worship, God pardons our sins, restores our relationships, and changes our lives. Worship is most likely setting for people to experience the renewed relationship with God that is called grace. May you all be filled with God’s grace today.

Let me conclude my sermon with a true story. There was a huge earthquake in the county of Armenia in 1988. For the earthquake, 55 thousand people died. It was a terrible disaster. A 9 story apartment building was collapsed. As the building was collapsed, a mother and a daughter were survived because of a little gap under the iron and concrete. And they were waiting for rescue for many days. They just could breath in the little space which was dark and wet. The four years old daughter gets thirsty and hungry. She started crying for water and food. She said, “Mommy, I am thirsty, Mommy I am thirsty.” But there was no way to help her daughter. Finally she found something in the dark, a broken piece of glass. She immediately started cutting her wrist. And then she moved closer to her daughter and fed the loving daughter her blood from her wrist. Whenever the loving daughter said, “Mommy, I am thirsty,” she cut her wrist again to feed her loving daughter her blood for two weeks.Fortunately, they were rescued. This is the power of love.

My sisters and brothers, We all are saved by the blood of Christ. This is reason why we worship our God with all our hearts, minds, souls and strength. Such worship is passionate worship and spiritual worship that the Apostle Paul is talking about in Romans chapter 12. To present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

Let us pray Almighty God, We thank you for your amazing love and grace through Jesus Christ. We thank you for his blood to wash our sins and our iniquities. O gracious and loving God, we have a clear reason to worship you. We have a right reason to sing for you. We have a perfect reason to live our lives for you. We lift up your holy name in our entire lives. We present our bodies as a holy and living sacrifice acceptable to you. O God, you deserve our passionate worship and spiritual worship. We love you and praise you. In the most precious name of Jesus Christ, our Love and Savior we pray. Amen.