Spirit and Truth: 2015

What Is Worship?
It is simply, our response to and retelling of the totality of His grace, i.e. the gospel. We are going to look at two words here that are each trying to say the same thing; trying to straddle the fence of two sides that make up our response/retelling of His grace. The two words as defined in the 1828 Webster’s dictionary.

worship
4. Chiefly and eminently, the act of paying divine honors to the Supreme Being; or the reverence and homage paid to him in religious exercises, consisting in adoration, confession, prayer, thanksgiving and the like.
Ie.
*The worship of God is an eminent part of religion.
*Prayer is a chief part of religious worship.

The other is....

Praise:
1. Commendation bestowed on a person for his personal virtues or worthy actions, on meritorious actions themselves, or on any thing valuable; approbation expressed in words or song.

There is a lot going on in these words. They are both trying to express two separate ideas each: honor given out of honor/respect/fear or even of innate characteristics, and thanksgiving for the giving of something, the outward action of that being (forgiveness of a debt owed, or gift over and above the standard).

The Lord takes this one idea expressing these two ideas very seriously. So seriously in fact that it is commanded in Deuteronomy 6:5, and Luke 10:27 and prohibits the worship of other gods in the 10 commandments. The very first example of someone being filled with the Holy Spirit, was the gifting of Himself to the artists that were commissioned to make the designs for the implements used in Gods tabernacle in Exodus 31. They designed and fashioned all the things used to worship God and to evoke worship of Him. These two concepts of honor and thanks have also been present in the church from its inception.

Acts 9:31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord [which leads to honoring] and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit [which leads to thanksgiving], it [the church] continued to increase.

There is much spoken of in church writing and speaking today of worship being a whole life, everyday, every hour, every minute, characteristic of our lives (not just in song on Sunday morning). You can see from Webster’s definitions from nearly 200 years ago and from our example from the early church thousands of years ago that, that is true. Living a life of and about the praise and worship of the Lord is a foundational part of our Christian walk. Like prayer, and the word, worship is a necessary part of the braid the Holy Spirit affects us and sanctifies us through. If you notice and think of it, worship, prayer, and the word are completely dependent on each other. They each play a part of both each other's thread and are necessary for their effectiveness. Prayer and His word are part of worship, worship and prayer are a part of His word, and the truth of His word, and worship are a part of prayer.

The time of worship music at church is a telltale for us. A microscope, so to speak, to how our attitude is about worshiping Him daily, because it is a time dedicated to it. It can be a struggle at times though. We often swing between times of emotional impact from worship songs. That means seasons of doubt and emotional flatline occur in between, but think of it, out of our 3 parts (worship, prayer, and God’s word) we are seeking to be moved by, is the one thing out of that trilogy that is solely us pouring out to God. We seek to, in a sense, convince ourselves of our dedication. The problem is that the foundation of worship, much like prayer(which is a conversation) is the immovable bedrock of what God has said, done, and is. We try and stir up edification and emotional dedications from the act of pouring out itself and then we give up in protest or hopelessness when that doesn't work, or worse keep trying to grind on, in that. The term, squeezing water from a rock comes to mind. That is backward. You do not look to a car for its fuel. A car is just a hunk of organized metal...that is, until fuel is injected into that lifeless, hopeless heap!

“The soul is like an uninhabited world that comes to life only when God lays His head against us.”
-Thomas Aquinas

Your real and true moving, emotional high’s in worship of Him come from His injecting Himself, His words, His deeds, into us. All “moving emotional” swings and swells in your heart are nothing outside of the context of God’s truth and how it is/has been bathing your heart ahead of time during the week. We seek to have an edified heart outside of His word/truth. It can not happen.

God’s Word And Truth Provide The Edification:
roman's 15 says "...through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."
Acts 20:32 "And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”
Psalms 119:28 My soul weeps because of grief; Strengthen me according to Your word.
1 Peter 2:2 like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,
And from the inspiration of His word:
Ephesians 3:16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,

The Holy Spirit (also known as the Spirit of Truth) and the word He breathed, are the source of all edification, encouragement, true thanksgiving, and terror in and of God. All real swells of emotion and moving for God are seated in those things that the Spirit causes, in accordance with His truth. The emotion really plays third fiddle as it were. But it necessarily follows and flows down through that path. His truth and the thing He has gifted us with (faith) are never dependent on emotion but true emotion toward God is completely dependent on His truth, and the gift of faith.

Tim Keller: “Faith is not primarily a function of how you feel. Faith is living out, trusting, and believing what truth is despite what you feel.”

C.S. Lewis: “If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.”

God’s Word And Unmuddled Truth Are The Only True Foundation Of Life Altering Worship:
We know from scripture that edification and change comes from His truth and His word (i.e. the Holy Spirit). We also know that, by the ways it should affect us. Bob Kauflin has laid out these pretty well. (I really encourage you to read his book “Worship Matters” specifically the chapter entitled “and to live for God’s glory”)

Worshiping God should make us humble: if we see even a glimpse of the glory and splendor of God, it will produce a genuine humility in our hearts
Worshiping God should make us secure: the foundation of our security in God is not in our preparation and plans, nor what others can provide for our protection.
Worshiping God should make us grateful: there is a reason God commands us to “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!” (Psalm 100:4)
Worshiping God should make us holy: the more we love to worship him, the more we will hate sin in all its manifestations.
Worshiping God should make us loving: when we gather for corporate worship, what should capture our attention, stir our affections, and elicit our adoration is God Himself, revealed in Jesus Christ.
Worshiping God should make us mission-minded: mission-minded people are those who love sharing the good news of God’s salvation with others through their words and their lives.

Now, I like metaphors. To be truthful, most of the poetry of my youth was pure metaphor. I had a friend and band mate once tell me that, out of the context of knowing me, none of what I wrote would make any sense. Every line was a metaphor and if you could work every one of them back to their likeness than you would know what the song was about. I am well versed in them and my favorite of lyricists are all masters at it. The metaphor is a useful tool in songwriting, but if the root isn’t clear and bigger than the metaphor itself, the poetry falls flat. It is not the english major that is truly moved in their soul by Emerson or Thoreau but the one laying under the tree or trekking up the waves of the open ocean. It is not the theorist that feels the pulse of loss in Death Cab For Cutie's "title and registration" but the person who has experienced weeks of weeping over a loss of a relationship. The same works with worship. Without the full weight of what He's done for us and what He is, worship will be flat. In song, the truth must loom larger than the metaphor to be a good worship song as well as a regular song. The fad through much of popular/"successful" Christian worship, the song is sold as the metaphor. They attempt to move you through metaphor, and not truth; they make the metaphor supreme, and with little or no concern with an emphasis of the truth. That is a play for emotion for the sake of emotion. When you have radio stations and churches filled with that, the truth that those metaphors are based on, becomes this hazy, vague thing that looks nothing like the gospel or grace or truth itself. It becomes a "whatever the listener wants, it can be moulded into" motto. An amorphous blob that can be shaped into whatever you want. Sure, is it ok to have single songs that are heavy metaphors in a worship set? Yes! It ok to enjoy songs that express longing, desire, or emotion in a worship set? Yes! As long as they are a part of a whole story the set is telling, because the truth of God's word is and must be primary. It is His truth that sets our hearts a flame correctly, to His glory. This sounds like a tight box of acceptability but it is not. Virtually anything is permissible if it is grounded in, and proclaiming His word and truth with the eyes to glorify Him only.

God’s Truth Proclaimed Must Be Clear, More Than Not Or, It Will Gratify Man Rather Than Glorify God:
The main function of worship is to change people by mirroring both the static nature of a perfectly just and loving God, and the freshness of a God that is making us into new creations by His grace and mercies that are new day by day.

2 Corinthians 3:18

And we all, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed in to the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

That replaying, mirroring, restating what He is and does (in the heavenly, eternal or even our context) glorifies Him. I know I do songs often with a lot of words, but, for me, I feel (mostly but not always) that the more truth, the more of a complete picture of the totality of Christ's work in juxtaposition to me or of a facet of God's character….the more awed, encouraged and changed we will be. It is good sometimes to sit on a particular truth or idea. Like the song "Whom Have I" taken from Psalm 73:25-26 which says:

Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

After sitting on that and acknowledging that a while, I want to scream it from the hills, all the way to a whisper into the farthest and darkest corner of my heart. Simple is not bad and complex is not bad either. The complex ideas and descriptions of many things are pontificated on and dwelled on much in the bible. Paul often goes on and on per a specific idea.

Philippians 2:5-11

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Now please hear me out….don’t get mad at me….try and come with me on this. I love you all but I want to honestly dig into the usefulness of an example of a popular song that is used in a lot of churches. Put our Philippians passage next to that song Oceans. One is steak and one is air, pure and simple. The extent of truth in that song is literally two lines. Look it up. It’s not there. That song is more about a vague “mystery” of God, and trying to goad us to declare (at best) a trust in Him, but really it is a song about the person singing it. Where in scripture does it say or even suggest that we look to ourselves for hope!? I will, I will….no I won’t, not in my own power I won’t. The qualifier (in Your power) that would make the statement of “I will” mean anything in that song...does...not…exist. Beside that they are using a pre-resurrection sort of analogy with Peter. The “I will’s” come off more the way he expressed it where Jesus rebuked him in Luke 22:31-34. There is no real discernible foundation of truth in that song. Could you worship the Lord correctly through that, given all the correct biblical context? Sure. It would take effort but you absolutely could do it, and lots of people, I'm sure, do. Is it best or even an appropriate song for 99% of worship services in any church? Absolutely not. Complex or wordy isn't a guarantee of quality. It needs actual content and truth from scripture, same as simple songs.

David wrote Psalm 119, the longest Psalm, and longest chapter in the whole bible, all on one subject: a love for God’s word. That is a 176 verse song! I sing long songs but that is incredibly long. I can’t even imagine singing that, but not only did Israel sing that, but so did many churches through the centuries. Because of his “regulative principle,” the only songs John Calvin allowed sung in his church was all 150 Psalms translated into a time and meter into french. That means they, at least at one point, his church sang that Psalm in its entirety! That blows my mind, but I know that would not be an exercise in futility to vocalize it. Our worship examples are in scripture. As short as the hymn from 1 John 3:1 “Behold, what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the sons of God,” or the doxologies and as long as Psalm 119. No formula of structure counts but this: God's truth expressed in music, life, prayer, and speech, the most accurate way possible, full of faith and thankful gratitude.

Whatever Music Style Moves Your Heart To Glorify God, Do It:
There are many movements that have, over the years, sought to say "only this particular music style pleases the Lord." You had 16th century churchmen say monophonic metrical (rhymed or set to a meter) psalms only glorified God. 18th century chorale or choir music, 19th century organ music, and 20th/21 century hymnody, or folk (depending on the denomination or lack thereof). They all came to a point that said "this is the only way it works." They are all wrong in their exclusive stance. This attitude is born out of our own sin of self exaltation, and pride. Look at it this way, God never expressly ordained choirs, or organs or even guitars as a way to worship Him in the bible, but He did outline how Israel was to. What was the one main way He ordain for Israel to worship Him? The sacrificial system. But what was He after? Dead burnt animals? No, those were a symbol of His son coming to pay for our sins (also a point worthy of worship). He was after their hearts in worship. I know you know this verse.

Psalm 51:15-17

Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.

Listen people, He ordained those things, the psalmist is saying FORGET IT! The Lord doesn't want that if He doesn't have your heart! Why? Israel's heart for the Lord was gone...but where do we see from earlier, a heart for God comes from? The truth of what He said, is and has done, and the people's faith and knowledge in/of that. They did not see Him, they did not know Him. They neglected His words about Himself. So it's not really about the style is it? It's about a heart tethered to the truth of a wholly just and loving God. That is what matters, not what style we do it in, but what drives it and what it is filled up with. But style is oh so important to us. Wanna see an old guy pull a knife? Set up a drum set in his Baptist church. But really, is there a style that's off limits? No. Are there styles that are harder than others to relate to? Sure. It would be hard for 99% of people to get down and worship with a hardcore screaming band, or a math rock band, or an experimental 60's beat style improv jazz band.That’s honestly why you don’t see those things. But none of these things are off limits style wise. That's why fresh moves of Spirit filled worship push the boundaries of what is comfortable. I would even theorize, that is so that we would find new ways to worship Him that resonate with us, or to force us out of the autopilot of the simply familiar. Just enough to unsettle you if you are stuck or encourage you if you aren't. But they are always bathed in His truth, His word. It's not even just pushing into even more and more complicated, sophisticated ways. 16th century people were unnerved by monophonic music, and in the 60's many formal denominations were unnerved by the use of single acoustic guitars and/or acappella songs. Whatever moves in your heart, because of your faith in His truth and action, worship the Lord in it! The music on Sundays is a symbol of an expression and engaging of our heart, but it needs to proclaim His truth in it. His truth changes us, but the music is a freedom to express it; slightly regulated for the church, but not regulated at all for personal use. It is what Christ Himself commended...

John 4:23-24

A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.

Though much debated for centuries, what Jesus meant by "spirit", I firmly believe is in reference to the cooperation of the worshipers heart as well as the senses (like the old testament sensory involvement in worship). We are to worship Him engaged in our heart and faith, AND in His truth. Both are components of true worship. Worship is wrong without a heart of faith (emotionally connected) and only truth, and it is wrong the converse. So, from simple to complex and back again, it is the heart that comes from the faith in the works and character of God Himself that matters.

Spurgeon said "God does not regard our voices, he hears our hearts and if our hearts do not sing we have not sung at all"

Now That We’ve Seen What And How It Is To Be Done, How Do We Participate?
Now that we've seen how He changes us, how do we then respond in the stream of His mercy and grace? You don’t have to worship God standing with your eyes closed and hands lifted, every word memorized. You can do it sitting down, eyes open, staring at the words. If all of what we’ve talked about already is in place, than simply allowing the words to speak God’s truth into our hearts, and letting it water our souls by the faith it brings, then letting it flow out back to Him and onto others the best you can, THAT is worship. Where a worship service fails, it is due to human failing, and sin, but whether a perfect service or a sub-par, we as worshipers must be searching for His truth and resting in it, in every song and every minute of our lives. God’s truth ministers to us, and if it’s there we need to get out of it’s way. Avoid letting songs upset you, by style, metaphor, specific annoying words, etc. (all of which I’ve allowed to inhibit my worship of Him). Hunt and search for His truth like one dying of thirst in the desert would search for water. We are truly living in a land of death, but the Lord is our Light and Life.

For a great example of what I am talking about. Thank you Bob Kauflin!

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Jesus Hastening To Suffer

Jesus Hastening To Suffer

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Before The Throne Of God (what is worship in the church)