Five Practices: Passionate Worship

Luke 10:27

“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.”

• Intro
  • We are in our fourth week of the Five Practices series.
    • This series is based on a book by the bishop of the Missouri Conference of the UMC.
    • The Five Practices are things that have been observed in thriving, fruitful congregations.  If we want to be a thriving and fruitful congregation, then these are practices that we have to take seriously and we have to implement, or else we risk becoming irrelevant to the surrounding community.
    • If we are irrelevant to the surrounding community, then we have failed in:
      • Our call to reach others with the good news of Jesus Christ
      • Our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
  • So far, we’ve looked at:
    • Radical Hospitality
      • Saying “Yes!” to God’s invitation in our personal lives.
      • Extends to our congregational life in that we have a responsibility as a congregation to create a loving, welcoming, inviting environment where people can come and be loved into the kingdom of God.
        • Remember, we are not inviting people to our building.
        • We are inviting them to God’s kingdom.
      • We have to be looking for ways to invite, welcome and love people into the kingdom of God, and it starts with a decision about the type of environment we create.
        • Are we creating an environment where people are welcomed into the faith?
        • Are we creating an environment where people have to conform to the way that we do things?
    • Intentional Faith Development
      • Having a plan, a purpose in how we approach our faith development.
      • People who are intentional about their faith development look for opportunities to grow; they don’t just wait for it to happen.
      • Intentional Faith Development has to happen in community.  In the Christian faith, there is no reason why a person should go at it alone.
        • Jesus called his disciples into community.
        • The early church spread the word and made disciples in the midst of community.
        • Churches today need to embrace the importance of community in faith development.
        • We grow closer to Christ and to fellow disciples as a part of the community of faith.
    • Risk-Taking Mission and Service
      • The ways we demonstrate our faith.
      • Risk-Taking suggests something that is going to move us out of our comfort zone.  Something that will stretch us.  Something that we will do solely because we are followers of Jesus Christ.
      • Writing a check and putting something in a donation box are good things, but they are not risk-taking.  We need to be willing to stretch ourselves to make a difference in the world.
      • We will not change the world, but for somebody, we can change their world, and that’s why we do it.
  • Today, we are going to look at Passionate Worship.
• Foundations
  • Worship
    • What is worship?
      • It is a way that we respond to God’s great love for us.  Not only do we respond to God’s love by loving others, but we respond through acts of worship.
      • Worship involves voluntarily setting aside time to focus on God’s will rather than our own agenda.  It is a time when we receive God’s word, rather than simply give our point of view on it.
      • One of the ways we worship is in the context of the community of faith.  What we are doing right here, this morning, is worship.
      • In New Testament times, the Jewish people would gather together in the synagogue for worship.
        • The word synagogue actually means ‘to bring together.’
          • We gather together in worship.
          • We worship alongside those who are worshipping.
          • The Greek word for church, ekklesia, means ‘called out of the world.’
            • On the one hand, we are people who are to be actively engaged in the world.  We are to engage the world in risk-taking mission and service.
            • On the other hand, we are called out of the world, and into something more.  We are called to be more than what society tells us; we are called to be the children of God.
      • Worship is a time when we are called out of the world, a time when we are gathered together to reconfigure our interior lives, and realign them with the kingdom of God.
      • Worship is a time to think less about ourselves, and more about faith.  In worship, we are not to focus on our personal agendas, but on the will of God.
      • It is in worship that our identity as the community of faith is formed; where we receive life.  It is a place of common learning and listening.
    • Why does it matter?
      • Worship is the way we orient ourselves toward God.
        • It connects us with God and others for whom a life dedicated to God is a priority.
        • It is our way of seeking God.
        • Worship matters because it gives us focus.
      • Worship fosters our relationship to the spiritual aspects of life.
        • It is a time when we push aside our temporal concerns, the concerns that may plague us now, but in the view of eternity, they are significantly less important.
        • It is a time for us to explore matters that are eternal; the things that really matter in the long view.
        • It opens us up to hear from God in ways that cannot happen in the regular course of our lives.
        • Worship matters because it gives us a broader view of life.
      • Worship is our way of putting ourselves in the best possible position to engage the Holy Spirit.
        • It gives us time to intentionally focus on God.
        • It represents a scheduled time in our lives, an appointment with the Almighty, time to connect with God.
        • Worship matters because we need to hear from God.
      • Worship brings us back to who we really are.
        • It is a time when we can center ourselves.  We can recover from the week that was, and prepare ourselves for the week that is to come.
        • It is a means of grace, a safe place, provided by God, that give us an opportunity to recognize our brokenness, confess our sins, receive pardon, and recalibrate for a world that is hostile to our faith in God.
        • Worship matters because our identity is found in God, and in nothing else.
    • So, what is Passionate Worship?
  • Passionate Worship
    • What is passion?
      • Passion means full of life, involving our whole selves.
      • Passion points to doing something with such a fullness of feeling that our love of God pushes us through all the hesitations and doubts and setbacks that might otherwise cause us to stop expressing ourselves.
      • Passion is what drives us in this life.
        • I watched a movie recently.  In this movie, the premise is that Earth was used up, and it was necessary for humanity to go out into the galaxy and create new earths for people to live.
        • There was one planet that was being formed where the ruling government tried to put something in the air to make people more passive, so those people would submit to the governments rule.
        • The problem was that this stuff they put in the air worked too well.  People gave up on life altogether.  They didn’t eat; they didn’t play; they didn’t work; they didn’t do anything.  They simply laid down and died.
        • That’s what life without passion is like.  When we don’t care about anything, when we live passionless lives, we start going through the motions, and eventually nothing really matters.
    • What is Passionate Worship?
      • Passion Worship means that there is something that matters in this life.  There is something worth caring about.  There is a reason to be.
      • Passionate Worship expresses our love of God and our desire to put God at the center of our lives.
      • Passionate Worship means putting our entire selves out the in open, not so that other people can think that we are more spiritual, but because our love of God supercedes all other things in our lives.
    • Why is Passionate Worship important?
      • Passionate Worship is important because worship matters.
      • Passionate Worship is important because worship should not just be a part of your weekly routine, but it should be the way that you connect with God.
      • Passionate Worship feeds a dynamic, vibrant, fruitful relationship with God.  It comes from the heart, not from the routine.
      • Without passion, worship becomes dry, routine, boring and predictable.  It has all the form of love and devotion, but it lacks true spirit.
    • Where does Passionate Worship start?
      • You may think that I’m strictly talking about what’s going on right now, about the Sunday morning worship.  That’s not the case.
      • Passionate Worship, like all of the other practices, begins in our personal lives, and then extends into our congregational life.
• Passionate Worship in our Personal Lives
  • Passionate Worship is more than just a Sunday morning thing.
    • Sunday worship is important, and we’ll come back to it in a minute, but Passionate Worship is not just a once-a-week kind of thing.
  • Passionate Worship begins in our daily routines.
    • Our daily prayers and devotions.  The time that we set aside to hear from God.
    • Developing a meaningful relationship with someone involves spending time with that person.
      • This is particularly true when it comes to our relationship with God.
      • Social networking and online sites such as Twitter and Facebook are good ways to keep in touch with people, but to actually develop a relationship involves some personal time.
      • However, God is not on Twitter.  You can’t “friend” God on Facebook.  It doesn’t work that way.
  • Passionate Worship extends to how we schedule our week.
    • If you want to spend time with God, you have to make the time in your schedule.
    • People who practice Passionate Worship carve time out of their days to spend it with God.
    • Notice those words – make and carve – it is something that we have to do.  It doesn’t just happen.  It is a decision that we have to make.
    • Nobody just appears at Sunday worship.  They make time in their schedule to get up, get dressed and get to church.  I don’t think anybody has ever accidentally walked into church for worship.
    • To attend worship with frequency and consistency means reprioritizing our time and making an effort.  Passionate worship in our personal lives begins with intentionality.
  • Passionate Worship in the context of the congregation also begins with intentionality.
• Passionate Worship in our Congregational Lives
  • Passionate Worship in our congregational lives begins with a sense of expectation.
    • When you woke up this morning and got ready to come to worship, were you expecting to encounter the living God?
    • Have you been thinking about God for the last 45 minutes (or so), or have you been thinking about the things that you have to get done this afternoon?
    • When we come to worship in a sense of expectancy, we discover that God wants to have a relationship with us, and that He seeks opportunities for us to shut out the outside world and just spend time with Him.
  • Passionate Worship in our congregational lives means that we are involved in the worship service.
    • Going to worship should not be like going to a movie.
    • When we are in worship, we are entering into the presence of God.  We should not approach it thinking that we should be entertained.
    • I sincerely hope you enjoy the worship services that we have every week, but you are not a spectator.  You are an active participant in a relationship with the Almighty God.
      • Everything from the greeting time to the responsive reading to the hymns to the children’s time to the offering to the prayer time to the sermon to the benediction is not designed to entertain you, but to help you connect to God.
      • If we are engaged in Passionate Worship, we have to realize that we don’t just sit back and watch the show, but we have to participate in what is going on.
  • When congregations fall into a pattern of passionless worship, then it loses touch with the purpose of worship.
    • The purpose of worship is to encounter the living God.
    • If worship is just a bland part of your routine, I want to challenge you to prepare yourselves for worship.  I want to challenge you to expect God to be here.
    • It doesn’t matter if there are 15 or 1500 people in worship because worship is about your encounter with God.  Passionate Worship happens because it begins in our hearts.
    • When a congregation loses sight of that, people come and go without receiving God.  They do not encounter Christ.  They are not involved.  They are disconnected.
    • I can do everything in my power to put together a meaningful worship, but if your heart is not prepared, if you are not expecting God to show up, then none of that matters.

• Conclusion: Passionate worship is all about connecting with the living God.  It starts, as do all of the practices, in our personal lives.  It continues into our congregational life, and the two feed off of one another.  Passionate Worship in our personal devotions and prayers leads to Passionate Worship in the community of faith, and Passionate Worship in the community of faith is a glimpse of the kingdom of God.