July 8, 2001

The weekly sermon email list continues to grow. As of today, 990 people are subscribed to the list. Last week a number of folks who attended the conference in Michigan signed up, including several who live in Indonesia. We're only scratching the surface of the amazing power of the Internet to reach out to the entire world with the message of Christ. I dream of the day when we can reach millions of people through our Internet ministry at Calvary. We've made a good start by building an Internet broadcast studio in the last few months.

Since I did not preach at Calvary this morning, I'm sending along a sermon from April 1993. That was the month we took a step of faith and started a contemporary worship service. In the years to come, that decision bore good fruit in many ways. In order to help the congregation understand what worship is all about, I preached this sermon on the first Sunday we offered both traditional and contemporary worship. Several years later we went to a three-service format--1 traditional and 2 contemporary. We're currently thinking about adding a fourth service (possibly on Saturday evening) early in 2002.

That's the news from my corner of the world. I hope you have a wonderful week.

Ray Pritchard

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Calvary Memorial Church

Oak Park, Illinois

April 18, 1993

Up With Worship!

John 4:23-24

Worship is the central act of the Christian church when it comes together on Sunday morning. Starting this month we have made a major change in the way we worship because we now offer two different worship styles--traditional and contemporary. I believe this is a hugely important step that will help us reach more people for the Lord. And it will demonstrate to the world that at Calvary we are able to live together in harmony even while we offer different worship services for different people in our congregation. Because of the importance of this step in the life our church, I want us to focus this morning on an issue that is far more fundamental than traditional or contemporary worship. We need to understand what worship is, what it means, and the role that it ought to play in the life of the believer.

I begin with the words of President Calvin Coolidge, "It is only when men begin to worship that they begin to grow." I confess to you that I know less about this subject than I would like to know. I am not by any means an expert on the biblical teaching of worship, nor am I a complete expert on all the different styles of worship. As I have looked back over my life these last ten years, it seems the Lord has been taking me on a journey in the area of worship, deepening my understanding of the different ways God's people worship around the world.

The most important thing that has happened in my life in the last year happened to me when I went to Belize last October. I spent a few days at the YWAM base there on the banks of the Belmopan River, on the edge of the jungle. Gathered there were about 25 or 30 missionaries and students who had come to study the Bible. It was a week that really changed my life. All my life I had heard about the fact that worship was to be the foundation of life, but I had never been around people who really acted or lived that way. I discovered that when you are around people who know how to worship, it will change your life. When you get around people who truly know how to make worship the central act of their Christian experience, you will be changed. That is not a statement about form. It is not a statement about outward practice. That is a statement about the heart attitude toward God. I worshiped the Lord and prayed more that week than any time in my whole life. I think since then I have prayed more, worshipped more, and thought about the Lord more because of my four days down in Belize.

Do you know what our problem is? We are so busy that we don't have time for that which is really important in life. This is an active generation and we are an activist group of Christians. We want to run, run, run and go, go, go and do, do, do. If we are going to worship, we are going to squeeze worship in as number 17 on a list of about 45 things we have to do week after week.

Someone has said, "Our problem is we worship our work, we work at our play, and we play at our worship." That is what is wrong with so many of us. We worship something, but not the right thing. In all of life, nothing is as important as learning how to worship. When we learn how to really worship, whole new views of life open up before our eyes. Until we do learn how to worship, our lives will be filled with religious activity. We will come to church on Sunday morning, we will give money, we will be very active, but we will miss the one thing for which we were created. The Westminster Shorter Catechism begins this way: "What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and to enjoy him forever." The purpose for which you were created was first to glorify God in everything, which means that the whole purpose of your life is to honor God with your life. That brings you face to face with worship.

Let's see if we can get a beginning definition of what worship is. When you go to the Bible, one of the problems with defining worship is not that there is so little said about it, it is that the Bible says so much about it that it is hard to boil it down and get your hands around it. One of the most basic words for worship means "to bow down." It means to physically bow down before the Lord. In the New Testament there is a Greek version of that same word with an additional idea appended to it. It has the idea of bowing down and kissing the ground. That tells us that worship is the response of the believer to the greatness, majesty and magnificence of God. Worship means to declare God's worth. It is to give God the honor that is due him. It is to render to God the glory that is due him. If you want to say it in a very modern way, it is to pay God the ultimate compliment of referring to him in terms of the honor and majesty that is due his name.

Several years ago Robert Webber wrote a fine book entitled Worship Is a Verb. He points out that true worship ought be the central act of life. Since it is to be the central thing we do, worship therefore is not simply coming to church. It is something you actively do with your body. For instance, in the Bible worship involves such things as singing, clapping, shouting, laughing, kneeling, saying "amen," speaking, sitting in silence, chanting, praying, lifting up the hands, lying prostrate on the floor, beating the chest, crying, blessing God and others, joining hands, singing in the choir, listening to the choir, playing cymbals, horns, bells, pipes, trumpets, and even dancing. What does that tell us? It tells us that worship is to involve the whole person in every area of life. Please get it out of your mind that worship is something you do at 10:45 on Sunday mornings. What happens at that time is the corporate gathering together of the body of Christ, but worshiping God is to be what you do with all your life, seven days a week.

Here is the definition of Warren Wiersbe: "Worship is the believer's adoring response of all that he is, mind, emotions, will and body, to all that God is and says and does." I find that to be a profound statement. You will notice that Dr. Wiersbe doesn't mention the pipe organ, hymns, choruses, praise bands, choirs, or worship teams in his definition. We get hung up on those outward manifestations but the Bible tells us that worship involves the response of all that you are to all that God has revealed himself to be. That will be manifested in many different ways in your life. Certainly Sunday morning is going to be important, but if the only time you worship is on Sunday morning, you have really missed what the Bible has to say about worship. Worship is something you do because it is first of all something you are. It is your response to who God is.

Take your Bible and open it to John 4. I want us to take a look very briefly at what Jesus said about worship. This is the familiar story of Jesus the Jew meeting the Samaritan woman at the well. Behind this story is the debate between the Samaritans and the Jews. The Jews didn't like the Samaritans and the Samaritans didn't like the Jews. There was a geographic issue, an ethnic issue and a racial issue. The Samaritan woman in this story is a timeless figure. She is the perfect figure of the hungry, thirsty, confused, sin-laden seeker who hopes to find an answer for the problems of life. One day as she goes to draw water, she meets the giver of living water. Jesus has a long discussion with her.

We are going to drop in on the middle of Jesus' discussion with the woman at the well. Let's pick up the story in verse 19, "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." What she is doing here is what lost people often do. She is trying to get Jesus into a theological argument, to get him off the subject. Jesus is not going to be pulled off the subject. Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem."

Those were revolutionary words. Jesus is saying that worship in the Christian community is not a geographic issue. You can worship him anytime, anyplace, anywhere. Anytime you are ready to respond to God, you can worship him. That also means it is not tied into a certain building, a certain time of day, a certain order, a certain way to dress or act. It is not tied into all those outward things. What is the really important thing then, if it is not the outward trappings? Drop down and begin reading in verses 23 and 24l, "Yet a time is coming and now has come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

We can summarize the truth in these verses with three simple statements.

1. God is looking for worshipers.

That is what he says. "These are the kind of worshipers the father seeks." We are not used to thinking about God seeking anything, but this passage tells us that God in heaven is looking for people on the earth who will worship him. We, brothers and sisters, were made to worship. That means if we don't worship God, we will find something else to worship. That explains the unhappiness of so many people in the world. Augustine said, "Oh Lord, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee." The French philosopher Pascal said there is a God-shaped vacuum inside every human heart. If you don't fill that God-shaped vacuum with God, you will fill it with something else. God seeks worshipers. We were made to worship God. Therefore, only the worship of God can fully satisfy us.

2. Our worship must be in spirit.

Isn't it interesting he repeats "In spirit and in truth" twice? God is a spirit. That is the whole emphasis of this passage. Our worship, then, must correspond to God's nature. That means that true worship begins in the heart. It begins in sincerity, in contrast to hypocritical, outward ritualism. Genuine worship is spiritual. You don't worship just because you come to church, because worship is more than just coming to a service. To worship in spirit means to give your heart's full attention to God. If you come to worship and are distracted about everything else, you might be going through the outward ritual, but you are not worshiping in spirit.

3. Our worship must be in truth.

The true idea of God and Christ is essential. John Calvin pointed out that this principle is the death of merely good intentions. This is also the death of sympathy for non-Christian religions because they are not worshiping the true God. Even though they may be worshiping in spirit, they are not worshiping in truth. Our worship must balance a wholehearted sincerity with a reality based on the truth of God's Word. It must be sincerity and reality, heart and mind, emotions and knowledge. Our danger is to stress one or the other, either to get the truth and skip the spirit, or get the spirit and skip the truth. Both are dangerous. To have the heart without the truth leads you to emotionalism, sentimentalism, and ultimately into heresy. To have the truth without the heart leads you to legalism, formalism and ritualism. Some people say to go to church without preparing. Others say to go to any church you like. Both are wrong. God searches the heart. That's where worship begins. God searches for truth, what worship must be based upon. When you worship God from your heart, in your spirit, based on the truth that is revealed in Jesus Christ, you then are pleasing to God.

What, then, has to happen if worship is going to become priority number one for us, as individuals, families and a congregation? I want to suggest that if worship is going to become our first priority, it is going to mean a change in four different areas of life.

First, there will be a change of schedule.

That touches WHEN we come. Suddenly, if worship is going to be important, then coming to worship is going to become very important. You got up this morning, shined your shoes, put on your makeup, did your hair, got your dress on, ironed your shirt, tied your tie, grabbed your kids and threw them in the car, and barely made it to the service. How much time did you spend preparing your heart for the service? You think you had to get your face ready? Forget your face. How about your heart? You think you had to iron your pants? Forget your pants. How about your heart? You think maybe it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter? Worshiping the King of Kings doesn't matter? Do you think God is impressed by what you wear on the outside?

How do you think God feels when he paid the price of the blood of his son and his people come in late and unprepared to worship him? It is going to mean a change in the way you plan your week. The act of coming together with God's people to worship is going to become the most important thing in life. Heart preparation is going to be done.

Second, there will be a change in attitude.

Your attitude changes HOW you come to worship. You will come eagerly, joyfully, expectantly. All too often, let's be honest, our hearts are not in it, our minds are not in it. We sing the great hymns. We sing "There is a Redeemer" (I wonder how the Bulls are going to do today?); "Jesus Christ our Lord" (It sure is getting hot in here); "When I get to Heaven I will sing His praise" (I wonder if I should put my money in the stock market?) That is the way we are. We come distracted; we come busy, hurried and worried. Maybe we come angry. Have you ever noticed how many times, husbands, you will get angry at your beloved wife on Sunday morning? Wives, have you ever noticed how easy it is to get frustrated with your husband on Sunday morning? That is the Devil. He knows you are going to worship. He doesn't bother you if you're going to work. You have great days during the week. He is going to try to destroy your spirit before you come to worship.

Third, there will be a change of purpose.

That is WHY you come. There is a tendency today to be very hypercritical about worship. We tend to evaluate everything. We come with a critical mentality. We come shopping for a church, looking for this or that.

I remember when I was a first-year seminary student. I had just gotten married a few days before starting seminary. For the whole first year in Dallas, we didn't settle in a church. We went church hopping week after week after week. Because I was in a seminary, studying the word of God all week, I didn't feel any need to go to church on Sunday. I felt I was in church all week long. Bad thought, but that was the way I felt. So I would go from church to church, taking Marlene with me. Marlene was working to help put me through school. I had this terrible practice that whenever we went to a church, I would be hypercritical of the preacher and his sermon. I would be critical of the out of tune choir, the organ, the piano, the way they decorated the sanctuary, how ugly the bulletin was. It got so bad that the service would end, we would get in the car, and before we had left the church parking lot, I had started cutting up and dissecting the church service. Finally, after about four or five months of that, my sweet bride sat me down and counseled with me about the matter. She is very powerful when she counsels with people. When she counseled with me I felt led of the Spirit to stop that for the sake of greater things in my life.

It's easy to go home from church and say, "How did Pastor Ray do today?" "What did you think of Chris over there on the piano?" "Who were these people up here singing anyway?" How easy it is to get into that mentality and kind of look around at things and get a hypercritical spirit. You see, the question is not what did you get out of this service? The question is what did you put into it? If you leave a church service saying you didn't get anything out of it, it's probably because you didn't put anything into it. When you come to give, you will receive. When you come just to get, with a consumer mentality, two things will happen. You will go away frustrated. You will develop a critical spirit. A critical spirit and worshiping God cannot coexist in the same heart.

Fourth, there will be a change of focus.

By that I mean that Jesus Christ is going to become first for us. If Jesus is to be the Lord, then worship must have priority. What was the first and great commandment? "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength, then your neighbor as yourself." It is not church work first and then worship. It is worshiping God and loving him first, and out of that flows everything else.

My favorite definition of worship is by William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury many years ago. "To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination with the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God." Worship is to be the central point of the Christian life, and when we make it first, everything else falls into place.

I think it was a spring about like this almost ten years ago now. Down in Texas the sun was coming out, the grass was beginning to grow, and it was time to find the lawn mower. I found it and it wouldn't start. I pulled and pulled, again and again, and finally I broke the rope. Then, like the mechanical genius that I am, I took off the spark plug. Like I would know what to do with it. I looked at it. It looked like a spark plug to me, so I put it back in. I put my fingers in the gas and found dirty gas from the past fall. I unhooked a few other things that I didn't know what they were. I hooked them back up. I lifted it up. The blades were in place so I knew that wasn't the problem. I took it to a shop to get it fixed. A few days later it was ready. They ended having to replace something in the engine. I asked what the matter was. They said there was no oil in the motor. I said, "Oil?" It never occurred to me to put oil in a lawn mower. When the oil had run out, the motor wouldn't run anymore.

Worship is the oil of the spiritual life. When you start to run low on worship, your life starts to break down. If you feel a little broken down, it may be because you are busy, but maybe you have run low on worship. When you lift the worship of God back to its proper place, your life will start working again.

God is calling us to worship him with heart and soul and mind and strength. Let us make worship the top priority of our gathering together. When that happens, worship will be more than something we do on Sunday morning. It will become a way of life. May God help us to become a church filled with people who worship in spirit and in truth.

Our Heavenly Father, there is so much we need to learn about this. We are all just students on a pilgrimage together. Teach us what it means to worship you in spirit and in truth. Lord, teach us what it means to worship as a way of life. Teach us what it means to love you completely, to give you the adoring response that is due your name. Make us, O Lord, worshipful people, and so transform us and equip us for service to others. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Amen.