September 6, 2009 Pastor Tim Pusey

FIRST THINGS FIRST
Matthew 22:34-40

The word “worship” has taken on all kinds of new meanings and connotations in recent years. And while I understand that it’s generally been in the effort to make the worship experience more meaningful to people—which is a lofty goal—I fear it has too often moved the target of our worship away from the Lord and onto the pleasing of people. It hit me this week that we have turned the word “worship” from being a verb to being an adjective—from “we worship God” to things like “worship pastor,” “worship center” and even “worship wars.” Sometimes I wonder if the Lord isn’t shaking His head in amazement that we humans have taken yet one more thing and messed it up! Other times I’m convinced that God’s just downright brokenhearted over us missing the point altogether and maybe even angry that we still don’t “get it”!

This morning I want us to narrow in on just what “worship” is about. We’re going to do that in the context of this being the first in a series of five sermons built around our mission as a church. Our “mission” is why we exist. It’s what we are about—continually, always! It’s our reason for existence! It’s that which motivates us and keeps us on track!

Turn in your Bibles to Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 22. Here we have an interesting scene from the life and ministry of Jesus—part of the teaching that He did in His final days. Jesus was under attack from the Jewish religious leaders who clearly didn’t like him and clearly felt threatened by Jesus’ popularity among the people. While there were two schools of thought—Pharisees and Sadducees—who normally didn’t agree on much, the one thing they seemed to unite around was their efforts in trying to get rid of Jesus. Jesus had just won a round with some Sadducees, so the Pharisees got together to try to come at Him from yet another angle. That’s what prompted what Jesus said in these verses. Let’s begin reading at Matthew 22, verse 34—
[Read Matthew 22:34-40, NIV]
I like how the paraphrase of scripture called The Message says that these two commandments are the pegs on which everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hang. So, if we want to get at the heart of what the follower of Jesus Christ is to be about, this is it!

This is one of those times when I wish we had an audio recording from New Testament times so we could hear the tone of voice of the Pharisee who posed the question to Jesus that day. Because we don’t know what his tone of voice was, it’s hard to figure out if he was coming to Jesus out of respect or sarcasm. It would seem most likely that the Pharisee approached Jesus with a bit of arrogance and sarcasm, for they clearly did not see Jesus on par with them—and it bugged the daylights out of them that crowds of people were following Jesus around and hanging on every word He said!

In responding to this good Jew, Jesus referred back to that which was incredibly significant to the Jewish people—what is called the “Shema.” Jesus quoted part of the Jewish confession of faith that is recited by pious Jews every morning and evening—from a few key passages in the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament). Its message is clear: God is to be loved completely and totally because He—and He alone—is God and because He has made a covenant of love with His people. In this covenant, God gives Himself totally in love to His people; therefore He expects His people to give themselves totally in love to Him—“with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

And then Jesus brought the other critical component together with the first—“Love your neighbor as yourself.” He was saying again that love for others is a natural and logical outgrowth from our love of God. These two commandments belong together. They really can’t be separated.

My premise this morning is that we are called first and foremost to get the core of our lives right—centered on God. That’s where we must always begin—centering in on God in worship. That’s why we encourage our people to start each week off right—in worship—on the first day of the week!

By the way, I’m calling this series “Our Best Life Now.” Some of you will recognize that our title sounds a lot like a similar title by popular author and preacher named Joel Osteen. And while I don’t agree with everything he says and while I know I can’t physically smile as big a smile as the guy always seems to have on his face, I do like the idea that God’s ways are the pathway for us to experience life—here and now—at its best! But I also want to emphasize the “corporateness” of this journey—“Our Best Life Now”—that God has called us to journey together, that it’s by His design, and that we experience life at its best when we’re in relationship with one another, sharing in God’s mission in our world today!

The words of Jesus to us today are the words from which flows our church’s mission statement:
Passion for God
Compassion for People
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind”—that’s our “Passion for God.” And “Love your neighbor as yourself”—that our “Compassion for People.”

About a year ago, our church leaders set out to flesh out what it will mean for us to live out our Mission in these next few years. While we ended up setting our sights on some specific actions to which we’ve committed, along the way we came upon some primary concepts which helped us get handles on how we were going to live out our mission in the world today. The longer we looked at it, the more we gravitated toward a quadrant model that helps us visualize what we’re to be about—

We recognized that we are called to live out our Passion for God and our Compassion for People both among ourselves as a church family but also out in the world.
• Our Passion for God within the church family is Discipling—teaching, training and modeling growth in Christlikeness.
• Our Passion for God beyond the walls of this church is Evangelizing—embracing God’s desire for people of all ages to receive Christ as Savior.
• Our Compassion for People within the church family is Caring—fostering the biblical model of love and support for one another.
• Our Compassion for People beyond our church is Serving—letting our lights shine in our community and around the world by serving the needs of people.

But if that was the whole of what we did, it would be pretty shallow, for what’s missing is the motivation and heart for doing those things. At the center of our model is the matter of Worship. Worship occupies the center of our quadrant because it’s at the core, the heart, of all we do. We are called upon to “Love the Lord [our] God with all [our] heart and with all [our] soul and with all [our] mind.” When we get things right at the center, then it bursts outward in acts of love and compassion for others, in discipling, evangelizing, caring and serving.

Failing to get things right at the center is to miss the whole point of everything altogether. Even if we tried to carry out that which flows from the center, it would miss the heart of what’s at the center and would in no way be as effective. It would be like inviting a bunch of people to your home for a special meal and getting so sidetracked with the decorations that you forgot to fix the food! It would be like a football team practicing and preparing for the big game and then running aimlessly when they got out on the field. It would be like a couple getting all caught up in the big preparations for their wedding day and totally neglecting one another and their relationship in the process. We’ve got to get things right at the core of what we’re doing!

As Christians, we embrace the call to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind. That’s why we do the rest of what we do! We don’t do what we do in order to earn God’s favor or His blessings. We don’t do what we do just in order to be “good people.” We don’t do what we do in order to draw attention to ourselves. At its best, what we do flows out of our total worship of the Lord—our commitment to Him and our determination to honor Him in all that we do! It’s so important that we keep coming back to that!

Otherwise, it’s awful easy to get distracted and to head down the wrong path.
• If we think we’re discipling or evangelizing or caring or serving in order to get God’s blessing for ourselves, then we get angry at God when things don’t work out for us as we thought they were supposed to. What’s motivating us is the hope of getting something for ourselves—and God wants us to be motivated by a pure and total love for Him.
• If we’re doing what we’re doing in some vain attempt to impress others at how good we are—or even if we become somehow enamored with others thinking well of us—then we lose the power and the force of what we’re to be doing in partnership with God and we fail to be effective.

The story is told of a dog-food company whose sales were wavering long before the economy hit the doldrums. Their new line of dog-food had been marketed in the spotlight and they’d spent millions of dollars getting the word out on their new product. But the dog-food wasn’t selling. The management had long and tedious meetings trying to figure out why their dog-food wasn’t selling. Heads began to roll as the marketing and sales people were called to account for their apparent ineptness. The president and the executive board of the company were pulling their hair out, trying to figure out what was wrong. Finally a rather meek but brave young salesman spoke up and said what others had been afraid to say. He told them simply, “Dogs don’t like our dog-food.” You see, they had missed the point of what they were doing. They had gotten sidetracked into big business and forgotten that what was to stir their business was simply providing appealing and nutritional food to dogs!

As a church, we can build a beautiful building and run weekly programs and hire staff and even draw big crowds on Sunday—but if we miss the point of why we exist and do what we do out of any motivation other than a true love for God with all our hearts, souls and minds, then all of what we do can never accomplish what God wants for us to accomplish—and the true needs of people will go unmet.

Let me bring two other passages of scripture before us this morning. The first comes from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, chapter 10—
And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? (Deuteronomy 10:12-13)

And I believe this is what God would say to teenagers and children today who are trying to figure out this whole Christianity thing. And I believe it’s what He’d say to young adults who are trying to get handles on their whole personal faith as they are making their way in a world that seems so far from what we speak of as God’s intent in our world. I believe it’s what He’d say to those of you who are consumed with problems and challenges in your daily lives, often physically and emotionally depleted in putting one foot before the other day after day. I also believe it’s what He’d say to those who are experiencing great success in all their human endeavors right now, especially if all their accomplishments are still missing the point of why God created them to begin with. I believe it’s what He’d say to those of you who are trying your very best to live lives that please and honor God.
And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? (Deuteronomy 10:12-13)
It’s what is at the core of God’s plan for us and our mission in this world!

And the other passage that seems to relate to this is found in Romans 12:1-2—a passage that has meant much to me for many years.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2)
In these words, the Apostle Paul makes clear what worship is. It’s not merely going through the motions of a worship service—as important as that can be to us. The heart of worship is offering our total selves to God—loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. That’s the heart of worship! It’s about surrender to the Lord. Worship that’s done to please us misses the point! Worship is our effort to honor God.

And, as Jesus made clear in the words we first read from His teachings in Matthew 22, true love for God—true worship of God—springs forth in genuine love for others, expressed in genuine acts of love and care for one another, in serving the real needs of people (wherever they are), caring enough about people to bring them to the Savior who can address their deepest need for forgiveness, and loving them enough that we walk with them as they become established in their faith. Love for God and love for others go hand in hand. Jesus said it’s hard to separate them. But let us never forget that we’ve got to get first things first—we must first center our attention on loving God with our total selves!

So, having said all of that…what is worship? It’s the act of centering our lives on Him, making Him our foundation and embracing His template for how we are going to live our lives. Worship has nothing to do with pleasing people. I get so frustrated when we make the concept of worship consumer-oriented, as if worship is designed to please me. Some of the nastiest and most vicious battles in the church have revolved around our concept of worship—and surely God is grieved that we’re so missing the point! Who would have figured that we could take the vest best of things and make it into a tool of the Enemy?!

Worship styles have become the most divisive issue in the church—and people flit around from church to church trying to find a worship style that fits them. Could it be that worship has nothing to do with styles fitting people but that worship is far more about us learning to please God? Could it be that people need to quit flitting around trying to find the perfect church and rather determine to honor God wherever it is that He plants them?

I understand that we’re all different and we all have our favorite way of doing things. I understand that there are many different approaches to authentic worship, and that driven purely by our own personalities and life experiences that we may be drawn to different approaches to worship. But the American Church today seems to have let our differences get way out of hand! And while I desire that what we do when we gather together to worship on Sunday mornings be effective in drawing others into the experience of worship, I always want to make sure that ultimately what we do honors and pleases God—and if we let the tools of worship be instruments of division, then it seems to me that somehow we miss the point of worship altogether!

So…what am I saying? I’m saying that we need to get first things first—in our personal lives as well as in our life together. And I’m saying that what must be at the center of all we do—at the core, first and foremost in our lives—is our love for God. And it must be a “total love” for Him—with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind! Everything else we do as individuals and as a church must flow out from that which is at the center!

And regardless of what distractions come our way, we’ve got to keep first things first. The cares of life easily distract us from what is at the core of our lives—and we dare not give the cares of life that power over us! Our best way of dealing with the cares of life is to keep first things first—keep our love and devotion to God at the core of all we do!

We sometimes get so caught up in doing the right things—in caring for others, and serving them and even reaching out to them in hopes of drawing them to Jesus—that we neglect the core of our lives, our love for the God who cares for us all. I suppose this is where hard-working church-folk can get distracted—in trying so hard to do all the right things and the expected things that we somehow forget along the way why we’re doing what we’re doing in the first place. Then we get worn out and frazzled and lose heart in serving. Sometimes we get frustrated when others don’t agree with our way of carrying it out, or when we don’t get the recognition or affirmation we long for and think we deserve. May I encourage all of us to make sure we keep first things first—at the center of all we do?!

God wants us to throw our whole lives into our worship of Him—to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength! And, because of our consuming love for Him, He wants that love to spring outward then in loving others, but without ever forgetting what’s at the core!

So, when we come together for worship, as Scripture encourages us to do, I hope you’ll sing your heart out when we sing—even if you can’t carry a tune in a bucket! The Psalmist said, “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord!” Let’s throw ourselves totally into worshipping God and honoring Him. Make He help us to keep that central in all that we do! And then, as we’ll be exploring in upcoming weeks, let’s allow our love for the Lord to burst out in love and care for others—a Passion for God that truly stirs Compassion for People.