Worship

Why are we even here? I mean why of all the things you could be doing on a Sunday night did you choose to come here, to a gathering of people, the Church. Furthermore, why do we do the things we do and call it worship? What’s the point?
For most people the reason is simple, they’ve always came to church because it’s “the right thing to do” and they participate in the monotanity of worship without asking any questions, because “it’s always been that way”. But at Soul Café, we could never be content with gathering without a purpose, and just having mindless participation.
We are here to CELEBRATE GOD. Here’s the thing, we all worship something, even if we don’t realize it. We all pledge our alligence or swear by some form of worship to give their life meaning, even if its swearing that there is nothing worthy of worship. That’s still a choice, a decision to form life by. But when we gather together in worship we say that there IS someone worthy of Worship, worthy to align our lives by, and that someone is God.
We worship to proclaim that the person we value the most in our lives is God, and that no one else will ever compare to him. In fact, we value our relationship with him so much that we desire to follow him, to be like him, to commune with him. That’s a pretty powerful statement that we make by attending a worship service.
But here’s the thing. A worship service isn’t the definition of worship, its not the be all, end all. In fact, it’s only a tiny piece of it. We worship God when we put him first in our lives. We should worship God every day, but sadly most people can’t even put him first when they come to a gathering like this. I guess it all comes down to where your heart is at. Do you come here because you feel you should, in order to save face, but loathe every minute of it, because that’s not putting God first. Or do you come here as a gesture, feeling that you want to celebrate in God’s glory with others. Yes, there are going to be times that you don’t want to be at worship, but is your heart at least searching for God?
See it’s only when we put God first that we can really transform. That’s why so many people get absolutely nothing out of a once a week service. We need to be seeking him daily. In John it is written “The time will come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, and that time is here already. You see, the Father too is actively seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24) We need to choose to put him first ALWAYS, but some people can’t even put him first for an hour. I’m not going to stand here and lie to you by saying that it’s going to be easy to put God first. I have friends who have intimately loved God for years who are just now realizing the struggle that comes with displacing ourselves and our wants for what God wants for us. But they also know that putting God first, that following him, is what’s best for us, and anything less would be settling.
Let’s get back to this idea of celebrating. I think this or rather a lack of celebration is what Jesus meant when he said “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord,” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who do the will of my father in Heaven. On that day many will say to me “Lord we cast out deamons in your name and do many deeds of power.” Then I will declare to them, “I never knew you. Go away from me.” (Matthew 7:21-22) We should have joy in God, and quite frankly those who can truly see the hand of God in their lives WANT to celebrate him. Because those who truly intimately have sought God and know him, can’t help but celebrate in him for he is so good! For years and years I never got this. But suddenly one day when I was zoning out at a conference I was attending, it all came together. God DELIGHTS in me. He DELIGHTS in you! And I DELIGHT in Him. Woah. Hold up. God actually LIKES me. He LIKES you. I don’t think I can even convey the joy that I find in the truth of that realization. It makes me giddy each time I think about it. And that makes my worship such a joyful expression, I can celebrate God when I’m alone and he is just speaking to me and pouring his love over me. I can celebrate God when I am having a terrible day and I’m lamenting to him. I can be overwhelemed with God when I walk with a friend through nature or down a city street. And I can celebrate God here with all of you. And what is so amazing about group worship, like this, to me is that we can share our journies with one another. We can celebrate God in the midst of grieving hearts and burdensome loads and regrets along with the amazing moments. We exist as a body to just reach out to one another. Another realization I’ve had recently, is yes, crap happens, but in order for it to turn out for good we need to share it with one another, because what’s went on in my life has probably went on in someone elses life here and they need a word of encouragement, that I can give them because I’ve been there. Do you see, God created public worship because we NEED each other. We are not meant to be alone, and that Goes the whole way back to God creating Adam and Eve to be helpmates for one another.
Maybe you agree with me up to this point, but you are still caught up in the weekly way that worship is done. Maybe you’re thinking ‘ What’s up with that?’ Litergy is ten dollar word that we throw around that means, the way the church does things during a service. I grew up in a very formal church. We do all sorts of things from singing the “Gloria chorus” as a praise to God to lighting candles to signify the presence of the holy spirit, to singing rich hymns, and reading a psalm together. We do a lot of stuff in unison to say that we are a body, many but one.
Here at Soul Café our liturgy is a little different. We spice things up with different ways to pray or read the scripture each week. We encourage movement and expressing your worship through all of your senses. But that doesn’t make our way any better or worse then the formal church. No matter what type of celebration you gather to engage in there will be three common elements: the reading of scripture, prayer, and the offering.
We gather to read the scripture corporately because the Bible was not meant to be read alone. Travel with me in your minds back to the days when Christ was alive. There was one, one scripture for the entire town, so everyone had to gather together to hear the word. Fast forward a bit to when the rest of the Bible is being composed. There still wasn’t a printing press so their assumption would have been that the word would be read and studied together. The Bible is meant to be avtiley discussed amongst people, even today. This doesn’t negate the benefit of personal study, but you need both to get the whole picture.
We prayer together so we can lift up the body together. We pray because honestly that is the most powerful, amazing tool that we have as Christians. We get to communicate with the Holy Most High King. Wow. And I don’t know about your personal prayer life, but sometimes mine isn’t that strong. But then I get to gather with others and see the faith that they have in prayer, the zeal, and I desire to communicate with God more passionately. And I also am assured that when I am so distressed that I can’t pray that someone is lifting me up before God. We pray corporately because we all have different concerns. We prayer together because there is strength in numbers. God wants us to pray big prayers. We seriously have such weak prayers today, praying for what we already know we are going to get or praying as a last ditch effort. But prayers can move mountains, and I find that my faith in God and in prayer is so much stronger and is renewed when we gather for this time of worship.
And we take an offering. Yes, I know, I know, the money factor. Isn’t the church just being greedy by bringing this up? No. God desires an offering. And not just of money. God wants us to give at least ten percent to him. Ten percent of what? Ten percent of the harvest. Yes, for most of us this means money because we work to earn a living. I have an amazing friend who really opened up my eyes to tithing. I sometimes struggled to give my ten percent to God because I was worried that I wasn’t going to have enough. But he showed me such faith by saying that he matches whatever the government takes out of his paycheck as his tithe. If the government takes out that much for taxes, surely God deserves at least that much. The ten percent that we give back to God should be the first ten percent, the best. That means before we even have time to worry about how to meet the needs, that check is written. And God will provide.
So yes, there is the money factor, but what if we took offering a step further. What if we intentionally gave God ten percent of our time in a day? That means at least 2.4 hours to do nothing but spend time with God, focus on him, find joy in him. What if we gave ten percent of our food away to the hungry? A portion of our gifts we gave back to the church to further God’s kingdom? We are called to offer all of ourselves and our resources, not just our money.
In conclusion I want you to think about an illustration that most people use for worship. I hear people say all the time that they “come to worship to be filled just so they can get through the week.” Hear me out, worship is not a gas station. You do not come here primarly for you. If you worship God, you will be filled because he rejoices in the praise of his people. He wants to fill you. He wants you to depend on him. And he wants you to be in his presence. But this is all secondary to the fact that we are to worship God for who he is. The Psalmist writes “Say to God ‘ Your works are amazing! Because your power is great, your enemies fall before you. All the earth worships you and sings praises to you! They sing praises to his name.” (Psalm 66:3-4) Is that why we are here? To lay our entire selves before God and just tell him how awesome he is? To encourage one another with the good works that God is doing in our lives? Because anything less then that is just empty self-centered noise to God’s ears.