Sermon Series

I have a strange love of obscure dates. For example, last Saturday, June 14^th, was not only my parent’s anniversary, but it was also the day three years ago that Lisa and I left for

England

. I always remember May 19^th as the anniversary of the Oilers’ fist Stanley Cup. And every year on October 25^th, I remember that it’s the birthday of a long, long forgotten girlfriend from high school!

This past week, was the 15^th anniversary of me getting my driver’s license. I smiled nostalgically as I saw a car from the same driving school pass by our house the other day. I harkened back to those days of enthusiastic longing to be “independent” as a driver (an enthusiasm untempered by the fact I’d have to borrow my parent’s car!). I recall the rush of starting the car—the only thing I was allowed to do on my own. And the dream of driving my friends wherever we wanted to go—as long as we were back by eleven and didn’t go near the highway!

I made a lot of mistakes as a young, learner’s permit driver. I could never parallel park—something Lisa will testify I’ve yet to master. I nearly took out a light pole right in front of our house the first time my dad let me take control of the wheel. (The next time you see my dad, take a look at the wrinkles around his mouth—they come from him doing this a thousand times during our learn-to-drive years.) You know, despite the many errors and near-tragic mistakes I made as a learner’s permit driver, nothing tempered my enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm alone, however, wouldn’t make me a good driver. Giving me a license on the basis of my enthusiasm would have made me a danger to myself and those around me on the road.

The first 4 weeks of driving school was in-class. I’d go for three hours on a Saturday and learn all the rules of the road by watching boring films and listening to a terribly dry and frustrated instructor warn us of the perils of the road. At the end of the in-class portion of driver training, I was no better prepared to drive than I had been before. Oh sure, I had all the head knowledge I could handle and I’d aced the test.

But if you had put me behind the wheel by virtue of my written test score, I would have still been a danger to everyone else on the road. The head knowledge was essential, but on it’s own it didn’t make me a driver.

I became a driver when I spent several hours in the car with an instructor named Terry, driving quiet neighborhood streets. I loved it. I got to express my enthusiasm for driving and employ the head knowledge I’d gathered from class. In fact, one complimented the other. I appreciated the head knowledge more because I could now respond appropriately to road sings while I was out driving! The way I saw the road and interacted with the other drivers had changed because I now had some instruction behind me, some tested experience. The theory wasn’t theory anymore. I was a driver!

I didn’t know then, but my journey to becoming a driver is a great parallel to the journey to becoming a worshipper!

Big Idea: Authentic corporate worship changes us into whole-life worshippers.

Authentic corporate worship (Sunday) changes the way we see the world and interact with it because it takes our knowledge of God (theology and doctrine), marries it with a passion for him, and equips us to live Monday through Saturday. If corporate worship doesn’t change us, it isn’t authentic worship.

Remember last week how Jesus taught that God seeks people to worship in spirit and truth? Remember how we learned that that means to engage our heart and head as to become authentic worshippers? Well today I want to focus a little more on that by looking at an example of Jesus demonstrating worship in spirit and truth, and how authentic worship changes and shapes the way one can interact and respond in the world.

At a very young age, the Bible tells us, Jesus worshipped God in the synagogues and temple, and learned the scriptures. His knowledge of God’s word and character was vast. He studied it, prayed about it, and spent time in community sharing it with his brothers and sisters.

When he got older, around about 30 or so, Jesus began his official ministry on earth. He was baptized, filled with the Holy Spirit, and then he was led out to the desert to fast for forty days, and then be tempted by Satan.

By the time Jesus encountered Satan, he was hungry, lonely, and physically weak. Let’s look at the story found in Matthew chapter 4, starting at verse 1… (Read text)

This is a battle story. This scene is reminiscent of the scene from our text last week, where we see Jesus, the Lion of Judah, going head to head with evil for the sake of God’s glory. In our text today, it’s Satan himself Jesus battles. Now I want to make something very clear: a life of worship is a life at war with evil. It says in Ephesians that our battle is not with flesh and blood, but rather with the devil that hunts and steals and devours souls. Ephesians says, people of God, dress yourself in the character and truth of God so that you can battle and win. What is worship? Worship is the process of dressing in God, putting on His armor.

First, Jesus was obedient to the Father. Look at verse 1: “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert…” Now, you might think Jesus had to go, that he was forced. I don’t think that’s consistent with his character. He had free will being fully human. He could have refused—remember the night before he was crucified how he asked God to save him from what was coming, but instead chose obedience to God and went to the cross. Here Jesus followed God’s leading into the desert to be tempted.

Second, remember that Jesus was hungry, lonely and weak. Can anyone identify with that? He was a prime target for temptation. How did Satan tempt him? He tempted him through food, power and riches.

Satan appealed to his human desire for self-preservation and consumption. How does Satan work today? By convincing people that you’re the center of the universe and the only thing that matters is you!

I’m always amazed at how Jesus offers models how to live today. When I read the story of his temptation, I see similar struggles that I face: the temptation to consume, satisfy my self-centeredness, and exercise power and control.

But look at how he responds. Each time Jesus is tempted by Satan, he responds with God’s word: “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”; “Do not put the LORD your God to the test…” and “Worship the LORD your God, and serve him only. “ Do you see how quickly he drew upon his knowledge of God? How fast he replied to Satan’s temptation?

I want to suggest something to you that is not real clear in the text, so don’t put it in your notes, it’s “Dyerology”, but I think that the text is a little dry here. I think that Jesus’ words probably came out with passion and fire, the sort of response you’d expect from a lion in battle.

“Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” “Do not put the Lord your God to the test!” “Worship the Lord and serve him only…now to Hell with you, Satan!”

I think that the passion and adoration Jesus had for his Father in that moment merged with the knowledge he’d gleaned through study and reflection and good teaching about his Father. And it saw him through a terrible ordeal. Jesus modeled worship in spirit and truth. He declared God’s character and truth. His passion for and knowledge of God wove together and he worshipped the father.

The last verse in our text, verse 11, reveals the result of authentic worship: “Then the devil left him, and the angels came and attended him.” The drama in the desert concludes with God’s strengthening, his provision, and his comfort. Jesus enjoyed communion with God. God was pleased with him.

Jesus overcame Satan’s temptation because he knew who God was truly. He was nurtured and rooted in God; his Bible knowledge was vast and well honed. (Now some might say, “Well of course, he was the Son of God. What about me who is merely human and not God incarnate?” To that I say remember why Jesus came to earth: to seek and save the lost, to model God’s way. Jesus came so that we might know how to live, so it is possible to respond as Jesus responded because what Jesus did throughout his ministry serves as a model for us.)

As I said before, Jesus learned God’s ways, his character and splendor in corporate worship—in the synagogues. Where do we learn God’s ways and celebrate his splendor? We learn it in corporate worship. Therefore, if corporate worship is to shape us into life-long worshippers, what we sing, say, see and hear in this place is very important.

When a soccer fan leaves the stadium and returns to the routine of his/her life, there is nothing for them to draw upon from that experience that will guide their living. However, when we return to our routines after a corporate worship time on Sunday, or Day of Prayer, we can draw upon our knowledge of God to see us through our circumstances. What we sing, pray and hear on Sunday at corporate worship must shape the way we live on Monday or it is not authentic worship—worry, gossip, revenge, loving neighbor, etc. That’s why I suggest that if worship doesn’t change us, it is not authentic worship.

Everything we say and do here in this place on a Sunday morning must speak about some facet of God—his teaching, his beauty, his character.

As much as I think it would be cool, we shouldn’t put up soccer posters in the sanctuary, or learn soccer team fight songs and chants here on a Sunday morning. Because we’re not here to sing about soccer, or learn the names of soccer teams. We’re here to learn and sing and pray truths about the living God we serve, the God who calls us to worship him in spirit and truth, to be changed through worship. So that’s why it is so important that what we sing, pray, hear, feel and see in this place say true things about God.

One of the great responsibilities of the worship team is to choose music that is theologically sound and is God focused, in other words, music that says true things about God and points us to him. The sanctuary decoration team has a great responsibility to decorate this place with things that symbolize truth about God and point us Godward.

Consumerism is the prevailing idolatry in our society. Consumerism is fed by the idea that if you don’t have this or that, then you’re being cheated out of something that is rightfully yours, and will make your life better. That is why the advertising industry is one of the most lucrative in the world. They make a fortune telling you and me that we need the latest and greatest. And we buy, don’t we? I do!

The church gets caught up in this idea as well. When numbers drop, or giving declines, the church traditionally goes searching for the latest and greatest ideas for church growth. The church becomes consumer minded. What will attract the most people? What do people want in worship? Let’s go get it!

The only thing God ever asked of us was to worship him, and the ultimate purpose of Jesus was to make worshippers. I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again, that Jesus never cared how many people he could call his disciples—numbers weren’t the issue. Jesus’ focus was on how many people worshipped in spirit and truth, were wholly devoted followers, whose whole lives were in view of God’s mercy.

Philip Yancey wrote that the church is too often a mirror reflecting the prevailing ideas of society, rather than being a window revealing a different way.[i] The church, brothers and sisters, is to be a window revealing a different way. But it can only reveal a different way if the church lives a different way. How do we learn to live different? We learn by worshipping in spirit and truth!

Marva Dawn urges, “The fundamental need is for our churches to be colonies of the kingdom of God , an alternative society—not possessed by possessions, not consumed by consumerism, but alive to the gospel and generous in sharing it by being church.”[ii]

In other words, as church, we’re called to be worshippers. To be changed by the truth and character of God, so that our day-to-day living is a reflection of Him in the world. When the church worships in spirit and in truth, evil cannot stand against it. Truth drives out deceit, wholeness replaces brokenness, community interests rise above self-interest and compassion outshines apathy and fear.

Author, Anne Lamott[iii], tells the story of Ken, an HIV/AIDS sufferer who began attending her church congregation. (Read the story)

I don’t know anything but authentic worship of the risen and supreme Jesus that could bring about change like that. Let’s pray.

[i]Philip Yancey, What’s so Amazing About Grace? (Michigan: Zondervan: 1997).

[ii]Marva Dawn, A Royal Waste of Time (Michigan: Eerdmans, 1999), p. 102.

[iii]Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies