Welcome to what is, in my opinion, the most awkward Sunday in the entire church calendar. Everybody knows what to do on Christmas Sunday and it is easy to come up with ideas for the first Sunday of a new year, but what do you do with this in-between Sunday, this awkward time between Christmas and New Year’s? Smart ministers take the Sunday off, and sneaky ones get their father-in-law to fill in for them. I am grateful Jon planned out this series for the entire month and asked me to speak on today’s topic.
While the church complains about what our culture has done to make Christmas a politically correct, socially acceptable, non-religious holiday, as one author put it—“like a birthday party where everyone is told not to mention the honored guest’s name”—many churches have done something equally lethal—they have made Christmas a once-a-year event to be celebrated—just as we get decorations out of storage for a short season, dust off the Christmas music and revisit Christmas traditions for a month or so (in case of Hallmark Christmas movies 3-4 months), then pack them away until next year. We are to pack up the message of this season, not to put it away in a box but in a backpack to take it with us on our journey into the future. We are to let the message of Christmas give us meaning for the rest of our lives.
Do you recall the Anticipation Richter Scale Jon shared in the first message in this series? [Show graphic of the Anticipation Scale] We are at this point after the event, after the anticipation where there is often a low, a letdown followed by post-holiday blues, a feeling of depression. Let me say it this way, it is obvious that God never intended for Christmas to be merely a past event that is celebrated for a short season once every year. Rather it is to be an ever-present life-transforming encounter with an always-present God Who is with us and a life-changing experience of Jesus Christ that is intended to shape the way we live now and in the future. That is what I call the title of this message—Joy Full Worship! I have appreciated this series and appreciate this opportunity to wrap it up with a ribbon and a bow and talk about worship.
Preparing for this message prompted me to think about all the expressions of worship that we find in the Christmas story.
• Events surrounding the Christmas story began with a priest named Zechariah worshipping in the temple when he receives news from an angel that his wife Elizabeth will bear a son in answer to their prayer. He will be a forerunner to the Messiah—Luke 1:8-13 Here is the joy-filled message the angel Gabriel delivered in Luke 1:14: There will be joy and delight for you, and many will rejoice at his birth.
• Joseph’s humble obedient submissive response when he is told to take Mary as his wife after finding out she is with child—Matt 1:20-21, 24-25
• Mary’s humble obedient submissive response when she is told she will be the mother of the Son of God—Luke 1:26-38
Here is her joy-filled song in Luke 1:46–48: 46 And Mary said: My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 because he has looked with favor on the humble condition of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed,
• An angel proclaiming the good news of salvation to shepherds—Luke 2:10
• A multitude of the heavenly host praising God—Luke 2:13
• The shepherds’ immediate, obedient response to go see what the angels announced to them and seeing this baby with a sense of reverent awe—Luke 2:15-18
• Mary treasuring up in her heart and meditating on what shepherds told them—Luke 2:19.
• Shepherds glorifying and praising God for all the things they had seen and heard—Luke 2:20
• Some time later in a house wise men came and saw the child with Mary his mother, and falling to their knees, they worshiped him and presented him with gifts—Matt 2:11
Perhaps the most amazing expression of worship surrounding the birth of Christ is also the most often overlooked. It took place when Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth who was also expecting a baby. Her son would grow up to become John the Baptist. Here is what Luke tells us about the joy-filled encounter in Luke 1:39-45—39 In those days Mary set out and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judah 40 where she entered Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped inside her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 Then she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and your child will be blessed! 43 How could this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For you see, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped for joy inside me. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill what he has spoken to her!”
Did you catch it—worship in the womb, an unborn baby leaping for joy. That is what this narrative is to prompt—joy-full worship evidenced in sacrifice and prayer, submission and obedience, proclamation and praise, reverent awe and private meditation, glorifying God and gift giving, maybe even leaping for joy!
A couple of weeks ago Jon observed that God is the “most joyous being in the universe” because He is abundantly generous and giving. To think of God as infinitely joyous is not only an astonishing way to think about Him but also how we are to respond to Him in worship!
If He is worthy of worship because He is joyous, we should be joyous in our worship of Him.
But the dilemma is how do we keep joy in our personal and corporate worship when sometimes we feel joy-empty rather than joy-full? For me the answer lies in constantly holding in healthy tension several “both/and” rather than “either/or” realities. Through the years I have accumulated a number of these realities as they pertain to worship. For example, we worship with both the head (rational) and the heart (emotional). Worship is both commemoration (past) and celebration (present and future). In the words of Jesus, we worship in both “spirit and truth.” In the words of the Old Testament worship is both “bowing down” and “serving.” Worship is both attitude and actions—doing the right things and for the right reasons. Worship is both structured and spontaneous. Worship is both vertical and horizontal. Worship is both for the glorifying of God and the building up of the Body. Worship is both believer-focused and seeker-sensitive. Worship is both Biblically rooted and culturally relevant. Today I want to develop a couple of these tensions I personally experience in worship.
We approach God in worship with both intimacy and awe. We saw this throughout our recent series of messages from Isaiah. The all-powerful, Creator God came near in Jesus Christ. He is both great and good. I call that the “twin towers of my toddler theology.” I learned it in a mealtime prayer “God is great. God is good. So, we thank Him for this food. Amen.” Today I pray “God is great. God is good. So, I trust Him as I should. Amen.”
Listen to these words of warning from Max Lucado in his book God Came Near: He writes: “One warning. Something happens to a person who has witnessed His Majesty. He becomes addicted. One glimpse of the King and you are consumed by a desire to see more of him and say more about him. Pew-warming is no longer an option. Junk religion will no longer suffice. Sensation-seeking is needless. Once you have seen his face you will forever long to see it again.” Max Lucado says this with such eloquence.
I am much more crass. I say it like this: With a God like that Who is like no other, there is no way we should wake up after Christmas, yawn and go back to sleep as if nothing has happened and there is nothing for which to thank God. The only appropriate response to what God has done in sending His Son Jesus Christ to be our Savior is to worship.
Christian worship is defined not by external ritual but by an internal spiritual reality that flows outward with abounding joy, making it the highest expression of gratitude in a world filled with ingratitude.
John Stott, a serious-minded Anglican Rector, offers a profound perspective on joyful worship as he argues that if God is king, worship cannot help but be joyful. He boldly declares “Away with funeral faces and doleful dirges! Joy, gladness, and singing are to be the accompaniment of worship.”
Here is the point of application of Hebrews in Hebrews 12:28–29 (NIV84)—28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.”
I have a handle on how to make my personal worship more joy-filled but I don’t have a clue how to do that corporately for the whole Body when we gather on the Lord’s Day. That is why I am grateful for our Worship Minister, Mitch Pliska. I am going to invite him to speak to the corporate nature of worship and share his heart with you about what he does. (Mitch enters)
Mitch and I have been meeting together weekly since he began serving here a few months ago. We are engaging in mutual mentoring, learning from each other. At his suggestion we have been reading a book by Bob Kauflin that I would recommend to you. It is entitled Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God.
Mitch will share how he first learned of Bob Kauflin in Louisville and Sovereign Grace Ministries (songs used here at Lakeside).
I came across Bob Kauflin and Sovereign Grace Ministries when I was in high school learning to play guitar and developing my voice. He helped me develop a proper perspective on worship.
Bob Kauflin has been leading worship for over 40 years, and his book Worship Matters is full of practical things from organizing a team and planning a service to bringing God’s glory to the forefront of our services and how to cultivate a personal relationship with God outside of Sunday services.
Mitch will share Kauflin’s description of a faithful worship leader and how that is his aspiration.
“A faithful worship leader magnifies the greatness of God in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit by skillfully combining God’s Word with music, thereby motivating the gathered church to proclaim the gospel, to cherish God’s presence, and to live for God’s glory.” (Bob Kauflin, Worship Matters)
Kauflin’s music ministry and book helped me see that worship is about who we are before God and His glory and our response to that truth, not mainly about an emotional experience or a spiritual feeling.
Kauflin reminds us in his book of some great passages about God’s heart for us to desire Truth. God not only wants us to love Him, but He wants us to KNOW Him. In John 8:32 Jesus tells us that the truth will set us free. In 1 Timothy 2:4 God wants everyone to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Ultimately I am challenged by Kauflin to realize that I cannot appropriately magnify God’s greatness if I don’t know how great He is. What better way to know God’s greatness than to sing about it and remind our hearts about it as we worship corporately? This is what will motivate us to Love God, share His Gospel, and Live for Him.
Mitch will share his heart for God and being a lead worshipper at Lakeside. Did you catch the tension in Kauflin’s definition—“combining God’s Word and music”? Focus on tension of Word and music quotes:
My youth pastor saw an opportunity in me to use my gifts to serve the church. He encouraged me to lead in youth group, which started me on a journey…
My desire has been to point the church to the truth of Jesus through scripture and music. Ultimately, I am challenged by Kauflin to realize that I cannot appropriately magnify God’s greatness if I don’t know how great He is. What better way to know God’s greatness than to sing about it and remind our hearts about it as we worship corporately? This is what will motivate us to Love God, share His Gospel, and Live for Him.
That is my mission and commitment to Lakeside, to create an atmosphere where people see God through His word and worship Him in response.
“Probably no one exemplified God-pleasing worship more than David, the sweet psalmist of Israel. He was a skilled musician and a man of profound emotion. But when it came to worshiping God, it was his words, not his music, that God chose to preserve for us in Scripture.”
“Given the biblical history, God’s commands, and the immeasurable benefits we receive from Word-centered worship, it’s worth asking why worship today is so often focused on sensory experiences, inward feelings, and subjective encounters.”
“We don’t need music to hear God’s Word. We don’t need music to worship God. But the Bible connects music and worship often enough to persuade us that music might be an important aspect of our relationship with God.”
This tension of the Word and music is addressed by Paul in Colossians 3:16— Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
Express appreciation for Mitch and Lindsay and their ministry among us.
As much as I value corporate worship, there is another tension. We worship both on the Lord’s Day and seven days a week. Just as Christmas was not intended to be a once-a-year event, worship was never intended to be a once-a-week event; something we do in a sacred place on a sacred day at a sacred time doing sacred things. My favorite definition of worship is this—Worship is what I do after I say “I believe.” It is an all-encompassing joyful, adoring response to the revelation of God and our redemption through Jesus Christ. It is remembering, savoring, abiding in the presence of Jesus every day.
Through the years I have consulted with many churches as they seek to make worship more inspiring (one of the eight qualities of a healthy church described by Christian Schwarz). Inevitably leaders want to find ways to tweak their worship services with a different style of worship or more contemporary music and they miss the point. There is a direct correlation between inspiring worship and another of the eight qualities—passionate spirituality. Rather than tweaking a worship service perhaps what is needed is to transform the worshippers. It is no surprise that the Reformers assumed that worshippers who gathered on the Lord’s Day had spent at least an hour a day in personal worship—prayer, Bible reading, singing. You might ask what else was there to do in the Middle Ages but that is the point. We have so much to distract us from personal worship, family worship, and corporate worship with the church, so we have to prioritize what really matters. To use the words of Bob Kauflin, “Worship Matters.” Can you imagine what a difference it would make if when we gathered here for our services, our hearts would be so full of God’s love for us and His world that they overflow with praise and adoration.
That is the point of application that Paul makes in Romans 12:1–2—1 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
Let me encourage you to make that commitment as we stand on the cusp of a new year ready to make a fresh start. Let’s individually commit ourselves to live a life of joyful worship and corporately do our part as worshippers to make our weekly gatherings joy-filled.
One of my favorite Christmas songs is described as the shepherds’ song. It is an old German Christmas carol, brief and simple but expressive, entitled “How Great Our Joy.”
Here’s the closing verse and chorus:
This gift of God we’ll cherish well That ever joy our hearts shall fill. How great our joy! Great our joy!
Joy, joy, joy! Joy, joy, joy!
Praise we the Lord in heaven on high! Praise we the Lord in heaven on high!