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Good morning! I am Tim Roberts, the pastor here at Sunrise
Church and I am so happy that you are here this morning. I know you could be
warm in bed this morning, milking every last bit out of this winter storm we
had, but you didn't and I believe that is making God happy too.
We are continuing today with a series of messages and study
based on some of the disciplines that many people have found useful to help
them in their faith journey that we are calling holy habits. This morning we
are looking at a particular discipline that gets right to God's heart -
worship.
Hold on folks; please give me just a second. I have had just
one of those weeks.
It started a little over a week ago when I turned on the TV
and saw this:
If that wasn't bad enough, just a few days later, this came
across Facebook:
I was so tore up about that, I couldn't even watch my beloved
Blue Devils play Wednesday night, though I know it couldn't have been much of a
game.
DIALOGUE WITH SOUND
BOOTH
SB: Tim, we have some highlights from that game for you since
you didn't get to see it
Tim: Hey, that's great! Thanks for doing this. I really need
a pick-me-up right about now.
NOOOO!!!! What is
going on in the world? Did the Mayans just get it wrong about a month? How can
these people let me down like this? Don't they know how much I love them, how
much I respect them, how much I worship them?
Okay, I really don't worship Lance, Beyonce, or even Duke
(although I am a fan). But this wasn't too much of an exaggeration for some
people.
You've seen it. You have seen people who are very caught up
in idolizing someone of something else. Take a look and see if you can tell me
who these folk worship?
When we worship we take on the characteristics and
attributes of what we worship. We begin to identify with what we worship.
But what is the problem with focusing our worship on people,
teams, characters, politics,...? They are not infallible - at some point, they
will fail you.
But simply by you being here today, you are acknowledging
that some people believe there is something, someone that is worthy of our
worship - God.
Who in here knows who Rick Warren is? Rick is the pastor of
Saddleback Church in Lake Forrest, California. Even if you did not recognize
his name, you may have heard of his best selling book that came out about ten
years ago, The Purpose Driven Life. Something that you may not know is that that book actually
followed up another book that was written for church leaders called, The Purpose Driven Church.
I bought this book not too long after it came out in 1995
and it opened my eyes to a fundamental truth about worship. Worship is our
primary function; it is why we exist. Here is how Rick explains it from Mark
12:28-31
Mark 12.28-31
28 One of the teachers of the law came and
heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked
him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" 29 "The most
important one,"
answered Jesus, "is
this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with
all your strength.' 31 The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
While this is one commandment, which part comes first? Love
God.
How do we love God? Through worship.
But how do we worship?
The word worship means this:
worship - verb, to regard with great or extravagant respect, honor,
or devotion
Back in 1976, Dr. S.M. Lockridge, a preacher from San Diego,
was preaching in Detroit when he got to a point that he wanted to make sure
everybody understood who he worshipped. Here is what he said:
You know friends, if there weren't any other reason worship
God, any one of those would be enough. But I want to offer up another reason.
Do you remember when I stated that we identify with what we
worship? How would you feel to know that God identifies with you?!
Take a look at this statement from Paul's Letter to the
Ephesians:
30b Remember,
he is the one who has identified you
as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.
Think about that for just a moment. God finds value in you!
The whole New Testament is a witness to that. In the incarnation of Jesus
Christ, God takes on flesh, becomes fully human to get to know us better. In
Jesus, God experiences the very real emotions of fear, sorrow, grief, anger,
joy, laughter, anguish, pain, suffering, and death. God did not have to do any
of these things, but did because he found value in us and wanted to identify
with us so that we could know him better.
Mark 12.28-31
29 "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear,
O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31 The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There
is no commandment greater than these."
Now if you remember a few moments ago, we talked about what
is known as the Greatest Commandment. The first part is to love God. We do that
through worship. But another way that we love God is through the second part of
the Greatest Commandment - love our neighbors as ourselves.
How can we love them? We help them. We help them not just
with their physical needs, but we help them also with their spiritual needs. In
other words, we help them to worship too.
It's not just within us, but within every person a deep and
longing need to express devotion to something greater than ourselves. So, we
help our neighbors to fulfill this innate need to worship God. Friends, this
pleases God tremendously.
I don't know if you have noticed it or not, but in the last
few months, we have started experiencing a problem here. God has been bringing
more and more people to worship him here at Sunrise, to the point that we are
getting a bit crowded some Sundays.
We are responding to this blessing. Beginning on March 3rd,
we will begin another opportunity to worship God here at Sunrise Church. While
we are still working out some of the details, we have been fervently praying
about this and are excited to what God is doing here and will be doing through
us to help others worship.
What I am asking you today, is to take some time this week
to pray with your church leaders. We are not asking God to bless what we do,
but to let us be a part of what he is blessing. Sunrise is responding to that
with an additional worship service. On a personal level, pray and ask God,
"How can I be a part of this blessing? How can I be a blessing to others
through this new service?" Friends,
we are blessed to be a blessing. Let's make a habit to bless through our
worship.
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