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Message for May 10, 2015
John 17:6-19
U-I-O Our Relationship With God, Part 2
Rob Miller, Pastor
Amber (my wife) and I are planning a family trip next month to Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone is a geological hotbed with hundreds of geysers and hot springs. We want to see and experience for ourselves the geyser affectionately known as Old Faithful.
We’ve read about it. Heard about it. Dreamed about it. Seen videos on it. We’ve been talking about going. So we are going this summer.
Old Faithful is the most visited of all the geysers for one simple reason: It’s faithful. It’s not the tallest geyser or the most beautiful, but it is the most faithful. I’ve been told that you can count on Old Faithful to erupt every eighty minutes.
The National Park Service has built a boardwalk that encircles the old geyser with benches on one side. You can stand on the other side, but when the geyser erupts you’ll get wet in a big way. The historic hotels and quaint shops fan out from the geyser. No doubt about it, Old Faithful is the center of attention. I can’t wait to see and experience it myself.
I’ve been told that as the time nears for the spectacular eruption, more and more people gather around, setting on the benches or on the boardwalk. Latecomers stand in the back. Cameras and video are focused and ready.
As sputtering water starts bubbling up someone will inevitably yell -- "There she goes!" And moments later the sputtering bubbles turn into a fountain of hot water streaming upwards a hundred feet high. Everyone looks up. Jaws drop. Eyes wide-open. Awe and wonder filled the air.
The magic of the moment ends. The water stops, but in another eighty minutes it will all happen again. And more people will witness its majesty and wonder. I can hardly wait…
A friend of mind, we’ll call David, said that when he went to Yellowstone Park he realized that those who gathered around Old Faithful displayed a worship-like quality. They witnessed something powerful, something beyond themselves. When David was there…
One Dad said to his kids, "Did you see that? Amazing, wasn't it?"
A little boy replied to his sister, "I can't wait to tell Johnny when we get back home."
Another said, "Can we watch it again?"
David said, “With a sense of reverence people returned to their cars knowing they had witnessed something spectacular.”
Something similar happens in worship – or should happen in worship. Worship is where we witness the spectacular power of God in our midst – or ought to be. Worship is a witness to something beyond ourselves. We gather in awe, spellbound, mesmerized by the life-giving, life-flowing, power of God in worship. Then we are to go and tell others what we have experienced.
We are in week two of our U-I-O worship series. U-I-O stands for Up-In-Out and the three key relationships that every disciple of Jesus needs to nurture on a regular basis.
- Our relationship with God (up)
- Our relationship with other believers (in)
- Our relationship with the world (out)
This three-fold image takes the shape of a triangle (see handout).
Last week we focused on our relationship with God, Part 1 - Prayer. This week we focus on our relationship with God, Part 2 - Worship.
Consider this -- What Old Faithful does for tourists in Yellowstone, worship does for people in church.
Truth is, we were created to worship and we will worship anything. BUT the only thing worthy of our worship is God who created us, and blesses us, and provides for us. In other words, only God - who is faithful is worthy of our worship.
Nothing else will do… that’s because. God is good, All the time. And all the time, God is good.
In Psalm 40:3 David wrote, [The Lord] put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many people will see this and worship him. Then they will trust the Lord.
From David we learn two profound elements of worship: celebration and proclamation.
The first element of worship is - celebration it flows upward.
David experienced God’s grace and had to celebrate. God rescued him, refreshed him, and redeemed him. David was changed. He could not keep silent. He sang praises to God wherever he went. He was so excited. He could not contain his joy, his happiness, his relief. He had to shout and sing praises up to God.
Question: Ever go to an awesome show, or restaurant, or movie – the experience was so good you could not, not be influenced by it. You wanted to tell everyone and anyone about it. You found yourself singing praises about it.
That was David. He sang a new song. There was freshness and newness to his experience with God.
Experiencing God is always exciting and life-changing. Every time we experience God in our lives, it’s like the first time – AWESOME! Like experiencing Old Faithful, it never grows old. Every time there is amazement and awe. You want to see it and you want to experience it again and again and again.
David’s singing was part of his worship. He was expressing the song in his heart – a song of gratitude to God for what God had done, was doing, and will do. David knew that his blessings came from God above.
The second element of worship is - proclamation it flows outward
As David praised God others saw it. The security that David found in God, others found in God too and they joined David in worshipping God.
Worship isn’t just something we do here in this church building once a week. Worship is a constant attitude and activity in our lives – blessed to be a blessing to others. That’s why Jesus commanded his disciples to love and bear fruit -- by loving one another and others. Yes, we gather here in this place to worship. But our worship doesn’t end when we walk out the door. We worship God wherever we go by loving others.
When I was a teenager I learn a funny proverb from my dad: Remember, wherever you go, there you are. I loved sharing that with people.
Consider this proverb: Remember, wherever you go, God is there. I love sharing that with people too.
God doesn’t just dwell in temples made with human hands – like this church building. Yes, God is in this place, AND God dwells within us. As St. Paul says,
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
WOW: Wherever we go, God is there with us and within us…
I forget that sometimes. I get caught up in my day and I forget to remember that what I say and what I do matters… I forget that God is with me and within me. What we say and do matters… because God is with us and within us.
There are two products of worship - the lost are found and the saved are sent.
The first produce of worship is - the lost are found.
There are two kinds of people in the world -- the lost & the found. At times we are lost and other times we are found. We never know who is lost or who is found. God does. Sometimes the lost are really found and the found are really lost.
Our worship here at FLC is designed for both the lost and the found. We are intentional about what we do in worship. We want to attract people, drawing more people to Jesus and the life he offers.
William Booth the founder of the Salvation Army used to say: "If a church was on fire for God, people for miles would come to watch it burn." Oh… how true…
Here at FLC we strive to design our worship to reach the lost and the found -- to get you fired up for living the faith here in worship and out in the world.
God’s mission through worship is to draw all people to Christ and to the life he offers. That’s why we do what we do in worship. To help the lost get found and the found to not get lost.
If a stranger – a lost soul – walked into our worship for the first time he or she may not understand what we do in this place. He or she may not understand why we sing hymn, or the significance of Holy Communion, or why we need to confess our sins before receiving communion -- but he or she knows joy when they sees it. He or she knows when lives are shaped by grace and love. He or she knows when lives are changed for good and will want that life too.
Let’s go a little deeper… Parents, what are your children learning from you in worship? Do they see the same excitement as when you go to a ball game? Do they see you prepare for worship as you do for a vacation? Do they see you hungry to arrive, seeking the presence of our heavenly Father? Children, like non-believers, are watching you. Believe me. They are watching.
The second product of worship is - the saved are sent.
In the Bible when people encountered God through worship, it affected their lives for good and they wanted to share that new life with others. When Isaiah experienced God in worship he heard God saying,
“Whom should I send? Who will go for us?” And Isaiah said: “Here I am. Send me!” (Isa. 6:8).
I wonder if when we heard God saying, “Whom shall I send?” I wonder if perhaps some of us respond by saying, “Here I am send, somebody else.”
The truth is, we are all sent. We end worship being sent. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. Thanks be to God. We are sent to go and live our lives thankfully so that others will see our good works and give glory to God in heaven…
That brings us to the two challenges of worship - coming and going. We come here to experience God’s grace and love and then we go to share God’s grace and love with others.
The first challenge is to stay focused on God’s grace in this place. It’s so easy to get distracted. It’s easy to focus on other things that we may or may not like the hymns or the videos or who is here and who isn’t here, what is happening or isn’t happening.
We gather for worship to celebrate God’s grace and love at work in our lives – period. Everything we do in worship is to help us celebrate God’s grace and love. We are tempted to do otherwise.
Martin Luther said, Everywhere God builds a house of prayer, the Devil builds a chapel there. And upon closer examination, the latter has the larger congregation.
If we are focused on anything other than God’s grace and love in worship then we are in the wrong congregation.
So I invite you to lay aside your troubles, your anxieties, your fears, and your cares. Leave them here at the altar and take God’s grace and love with you from this place. The devil wants you to hold on to those things… God wants you to give them up and leave them here. Take God’s grace and love with you.
I was visiting with an older person in our congregation this past week, she said that she accepts the fact that God forgives her but the truth be told she finds it really, really hard to forgiven others. But when she does forgive, she feels like a new person.
That bring us to the second challenge of worship, we go to share God’s grace with others.
You might find it hard to accept God’s grace in this place and you might find it even harder to share that grace with others. You may even wonder, how could you possibly make a difference in the world. One person at a time. It reminds me of the starfish story. Maybe you’ve heard it…
There was an old man who would go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach every morning before he began his work. Early one morning, he was walking along the shore after a big storm had passed and found the beach littered with starfish as far as the eye could see, stretching in both directions.
Off in the distance, the old man noticed a small boy approaching. As the boy walked, he paused every so often. The man could see that the boy was occasionally bending down to pick up an object and throw it into the ocean. As the boy came closer the man called out, “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?”
The young boy paused, looked up, and replied, “Throwing starfish into the ocean. The tide has washed them up onto the beach and they can’t return to the sea by themselves. When the sun gets high, they will die, unless I throw them back into the water.”
The old man replied, “But there must be tens of thousands of starfish on this beach. I’m afraid you won’t really be able to make much of a difference.”
The boy bent down, picked up yet another starfish and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. Then he turned, smiled and said, “It made a difference to that one!” (adapted from The Star Thrower, by Loren Eiseley 1907 – 1977)
As brothers and sister in Christ go and do likewise. Amen.