The Giver

Last time we talked about giving God all that we are, today we concentrate on what God gives us.

Some Sabbath services just don't seem to be inspiring. We don't seem to get anything out of them, especially a feeling of God's presence.

Now, last Sabbath was inspiring! The climax of Project G on Friday night was wonderful and the programme on Sabbath morning, outside in the sun with great singing and preaching, was not just memorable, but definitely inspiring. Thanks to all the youth.

However, when we go from such a high experience back to the usual... it can seem a little flat. Chris Thomlinson in this Friday's men's devotional quotes from his book, "Crave":

We don't always feel God's presence, and we aren't always consumed with intense feelings of joy. But even in those times, we can remember that we will find the greatest kind of joy in God and that we do what's best for ourselves when we orient our lives around Jesus, knowing that even if we experience some measure of sorrow in this life, the life to come will bring the fullness of joy in his presence.

"Orient our lives around Jesus"... I really love the concept that we can be constantly looking to Jesus, navigating our life by Him and making Him the goal of our daily walk.

One of our present-day problems is that we chase sensations and feelings. Our entertainment has to be intense, our feelings modulated by caffeine (or stronger), our food has to be "sensational" in presentation and taste. After all this, no wonder Sabbath sermons can seem mundane.

The solution, as Chris Thomlinson suggests, is to crave not sensation, but God Himself. David says the same thing,

"Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of the your heart." Ps 37:4

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Chris says, in Thursday's devotional,

Our cravings for more of God and the joy we find in him are both gifts, but we should always value the Giver far more than the gift.

Long term inspiration, even through uninspiring times, comes from constantly valuing and delighting in our great God.

True Liturgy

Luther, in his "Preface to the Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans" says,

In chapter 12, St. Paul teaches the true liturgy and makes all Christians priests, so that they may offer, not money or cattle, as priests do in the Law, but their own bodies, by putting their desires to death.

As you know, Inspiring Worship Service is made up of three parts; Praise, Teaching and what the people bring (or as NCD calls it, Liturgy).

When we think of liturgy we usually think of order of service and prayers and responses but Luther (and NCD) don't think that way. That is why Luther's statement stood out. He makes it clear that we must bring something to offer in the worship service each week. Usually it is our money, voices (in Praise), and our minds as we engage in the Teaching. However, Luther says that a better offering is our own body and subdued desires.

We studied the verses, Luther referred to, in our lesson last week, Romans 12:1,2:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, which is your reasonable (rational) service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of you mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

That was the NKJV, the New Living Translation makes it even clearer:

And so, dear brother and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice - the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him (your spiritual worship). Don't copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

For eleven chapters, Paul has shown us what God has done for us, His mercy, love and abundant grace. Now Paul asks something of us; not works of the law, he's already said they are stumbling stones (9:30) and surprisingly, not even stronger faith as that is God's gift (4:20, 12:3) but Paul says we need to offer true, spiritual reasonable Worship. Or, in other words, Inspired Worship.

Paul defines such worship as complete surrender of body and mind to God. A return of the whole person and our desires to the Creator. Then God can completely renovate our thinking so we reflect His will not the behaviour and customs of the world.

Luther suggests that the liturgy of an Inspiring Worship Service is something far bigger and much more than just meeting God for an hour each Sabbath, it means giving God all that we are and co-operating with Him as He transforms us from the inside out.

Read the whole of Luther's Preface to Romans

Contentment, Joy and Confidence

"You must arrange to live with deep contentment, joy, and confidence in your everyday experience of life with God."

This is how Dallas Willard describes our first duty, in an interview that John Ortberg reports on in his excellent short article, "What I Learned on My Sabbatical".

Some things I learned from the article are:

1. Learning spiritual lessons happen best when we are "unplugged" for Sabbath (or sabbaticals). This is another reason Sabbath is important.
   
2. Simplicity is valuable - "I'd like to live in his time zone." What time-zone does God live in?
   
3. Fellowship with others is valuable, but only if we slow down long enough to listen.
   
4. "There is a large difference between having deep contentment in my everyday experience with God versus being in a good mood."

But there are two more points that relate especially to Inspiring Worship Service:

The first is "My main job is to live with deep contentment, joy, and confidence in my everyday experience of life with God. Everything else is job number two." If I live confident that God will do what's best, I will find joy and God's presence in even the most simple of worship experiences.

What surprised me most and made me realise that this was about Inspiring Worship was the in the last paragraph: "I do not want to have to receive from my congregation what I can only get from God." How often do I go to church expecting the sermon or the music to inspire me when it only God who can inspire. Simply put, to be inspired on Sabbath means doing my main job for the previous week.

God is Active

An Inspiring Worship Service is one where we know we have met with God. One of the ways we can prepare for this is by looking at God at work in our lives during the week. In their book "Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God", Henry T. Blackaby & Claude V. King say:

Experiencing God means assuming that God is always active in and around your life.

Jesus included a method of knowing God's will that is not often found in books on guidance. John.5:17, 19-20 show us that He accepted that God the Father was always active, and that because the Father loved him he showed him what he was doing. Then Jesus joined in. This may sound quite simplistic, but one of the fundamental ways that Jesus knew what to do was by discerning God's activity, and then joining in with it. For us this means that one of the most fundamental ways to experience God is to watch and see where He is working and then join in.

What can you see God doing in the lives of people around you, your family, work mates, neighbours? God loves them much more than we do and He is working for their salvation.

Will God show us what we should do each day? John 5: 17, 19,20 says:

But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working." ... Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel."

Does this apply to us? In Desire of Ages

... the Son of God was surrendered to the Father's will, and dependent upon His power. So utterly was Christ emptied of self that He made no plans for Himself. He accepted God's plans for Him, and day by day the Father unfolded His plans. So should we depend upon God, that our lives may be the simple outworking of His will. p208

...Whatever our position, we are dependent upon God, who holds all destinies in His hands. He has appointed us our work, and has endowed us with faculties and means for that work. So long as we surrender the will to God, and trust in His strength and wisdom, we shall be guided in safe paths, to fulfill our appointed part in His great plan. But the one who depends upon his own wisdom and power is separating himself from God. Instead of working in unison with Christ, he is fulfilling the purpose of the enemy of God and man. p209

Start looking for God's activity...and prepare for Inspiring Worship.

No Differences

Continuing on in 6 Testimonies' chapter, "The Observance of the Sabbath", in the section "Preparation for the Sabbath"

There is another work that should receive attention on the preparation day (Friday). On this day all differences between brethren, whether in the family or in the church, should be put away. Let all bitterness and wrath and malice be expelled from the soul. In a humble spirit, "confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed." James 5:16. 6Testimonies p 356

This is a rephrasing of what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount "Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:23,24)

In Jesus' saying, the implication is that God doesn't reconcile with us if we don't reconcile with our "brother" first. In Mrs White's the implication is that we aren't healed unless we get rid of our bitterness, anger and spite by humble confession and prayer.

If God is unable to bring reconciliation and healing into a worship service, will we see Him at all? If we are so busy thinking evil of our "brethren" are we going to be able to really worship? How much of the "coldness" and formalism of some church services is really just a result of differences in the congregation?

Undoubtedly one of the most Inspiring Worship Services ever was recorded in Acts 2. The Holy Spirit not only came visibly and audibly but thousands of passersby were convicted, repented and were baptised! At least one reason this happened was that they were "all with one accord" or "together".

Imagine what would happen if everyone who attends Toronto church spent Friday making sure that we had nothing against anyone "in the family or in the church" so we could all seek God in unity on Sabbath morning. Maybe Jesus' prayer to His Father that "the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:" (John 17:22), would come true. Maybe there would be a new Pentecost and Toronto would be "made perfect in one" with the inevitable outcome that all Toronto would know that Jesus is the Son of God and that God loves His church as He loves His Son (John 17:23).

Now that would be inspiring!