The Discipline Of Worship Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. The worship of God has one firm prerequisite.

We need to come with clean hearts. Then we can have genuine fellowship with God. Today, join us for lessons from the Bible on how to prepare our hearts for real worship. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, today you'll take us into Hebrews chapter nine for more on the discipline of worship.

What will your takeaway for us be? Well Dave, I think the greatest takeaway is simply this, that when we honor God in worship, that changes our perspective of everything. In other words, worship is most important. And of course it's important to God, but we benefit as well. And if we worship well, we will live well. You know, I've prepared a DVD entitled Finding Purpose in Grief and Loneliness.

There's no doubt that there are many Christians who are going through dark times. You've lost a loved one. You've lost a child. Who knows why you are grieving? All that I know is grief is worldwide. This DVD distinguishes between good grief and bad grief. It talks about a man who is still grieving today, and I think it'll give you hope.

Finding Purpose in Grief and Loneliness. It's available as a DVD or a CD. Here's what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com.

RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And even grief and loneliness is made bearable through worship. Now we get to participation. We've stopped at the altar.

We've gone to the laver. Now what happens? Now we begin to participate. Turn to Hebrews chapter 13 just a little further in the text. We were in chapter 9 all too briefly, I might say, but now in chapter 13 it says this in verse 15. What do we do now that we're in the holy place? What do we do now that the worship has actually begun after we're prepared? 13 verse 15, through Jesus therefore let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess his name.

Continually a sacrifice of praise. Now what we do then is we do this primarily through song. Primarily through song in other ways, but certainly the scripture is another way as seen in today's bulletin, but primarily through song. The Bible says we have songs and hymns and spiritual songs.

And you'll notice in our bulletin today, I do give you permission to look at it this time while I'm preaching, normally not, but this time it's legal. Notice hymn 87, may Jesus Christ be praised. Then we sang, praise the Lord, ye heavens adore him. The chorus was worthy of worship. And then think of the songs of worship that our special soloists brought to us today. Everything was God directed. Everything was praise Jesus, everything. Why?

Why? Because the Bible says we bring to him the sacrifice of praise, the fruit of our lips and primarily, not exclusively, but primarily all of the music should be God directed. All over the country people ask me, you know, is Moody Church, in fact I was in California this past week for a couple of days ministering there, and people ask me now is the worship at Moody Church contemporary or is it traditional? And I guess what they mean is, you know, do you sing the hymns or you do the contemporary thing? Well, I have to say this and this is my opinion and it's a humble opinion.

Now my staff knows that all of my opinions are humble. I believe here at the Moody Church we have achieved under God's grace one of the most beautiful balances of worship music that anyone could ever expect or hope for. On the one hand, we say yes, the hymns of the faith are important. Some people say throw out the hymns. Listen, some of the hymns have some of the best theology, some of the most God directed thoughts that one could possibly imagine, and we want to hang on to that. And for people who don't like it, I'll say this to you, that as you begin to sing those songs they become a part of you and it would be wrong to simply say we have nothing to do with that tradition.

It's too traditional. But think of all the wonderful choruses and the modern music that is written. In fact, when I was at this college and seminary speaking, they sang a chorus, I believe it was on Wednesday evening, that was so beautiful and I don't think we've ever sung it before and I asked them to send it to me because we have to sing it here at the Moody Church. Sometimes we have an orchestra, sometimes we have drums, sometimes we have special music. We've got someone who plays the guitar and we do it differently. You say, well, when your worship committee meets together, you know, is it always just, well, you know, we begin with a prayer and then we do this and then we begin like that, you know.

I want to tell you why we're doing that. That isn't just because there's some tradition we inherited. All worship should have certain elements. In fact, let me comment on that in a moment before I go to, or rather after I've said something about the second part of worship. You'll notice what it says here in Hebrews chapter 13, the fruit of the lips that confess his name and do not forget to do good and to share with others for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. I need to tell you today that giving is worship. Did you notice that in the Old Testament, we read it today, we read it today in the scripture reading, it says come into his courts, bring a gift. In Hebrews chapter 9 verse 9, it says that they offered both gifts and sacrifices. Do you notice that when it's time for us to receive the offering, I always say we continue our worship and you probably think is just a segue that he uses to try to connect the two together.

It's not. In the Old Testament times, it was unthinkable that somebody would come into God's presence and not bring a gift for God. And I suspect, and I think our records might indicate that there are hundreds of people who attend Moody Church week by week who never bring a gift for God. You know, when my wife and I are invited out somewhere for dinner, she always wants to bring a gift.

You know, even if it's a box of chocolates, you bring something. And here we're coming to God and we're giving him this praise, but that for some people may not be too costly, for some it shall be as we shall see in a moment, but we don't understand that it is not just a segue. Worship is saying we have now praised God. Now we bring a gift to God. We bring something for the almighty. Don't ever in your mind think that you're giving money to Moody Church.

Because then if we do something you don't like, you'll be able to say, well, look what they did with that money. Give it to God. Bring it to God with a heart of joy. Of course, we need financial assistance, but it says in Philippians the Apostle Paul says, he says, you sent me money and even if I didn't need it, he said, it did you some good because it was an aroma and a sacrifice with which God was well pleased. Isn't that what life is all about, is knowing what pleases God and doing it?

So what you do is, whether it's little or much, whether you can afford a little or much is not the biggest issue. The biggest issue is you bring a gift to God. And then the Bible goes on to say that we should obey the leaders in verse 17. You say, well, how do we do that as a church? We don't have leaders maybe who are up here all the time. Well, I need to explain it to you this way, that within God's providence, it's his undeserved providence, I am the primary speaker and preacher for the leadership at Moody Church. That doesn't mean that others don't do it.

Thank God they do and they do an awesome job, but it's just that I happen to be the primary one. So if you want to obey the leaders and submit to their authority, you're listening to the message. You're saying, what is the exhortation? What is the message that is being given today? What vision is being painted in my relationship with God? You know that this is a series of messages on the disciplines of the soul. So you ask yourself, how do I apply the message on meditation, the message on prayer, the message on worship, and then next week the message on the silence?

How do I apply this? Because what we're here to do is to be taught and in the presence of God, you expect to be rebuked and challenged and convicted and encouraged and forgiven and given insights. You're expecting all that to happen. Well, you say, well, does that mean when you get together then? Why the sequence that you have in the bulletin? Just a tradition?

No. You look at the bulletin and what do we have? First of all, we begin with an invocation. We're saying, God, we know you exist everywhere at all times in all places, but now that your people are being together, would you give us what the older theologians called the manifest presence of God?

We want God to dwell here with these people and we want people who are coming in, new people and visitors to say as they leave, you know, surely God dwells in that place with those people. So that's why we have an invocation. Then notice that we sing hymns of praise. We read the scriptures. We receive the offering.

We have a message. And all of worship should encompass these elements. The only question we as a worship committee have, what is the best sequence?

And if we ever think that the sequence should change and from time to time we do change the sequence, it's only because we think it might make a better flow. But this is worship. This is us in the presence of God with this kind of variety and intention. And what an opportunity it gives us.

Just imagine what it is like to be in the presence of God after you've been to the altar and the laver and you come here saying God is here and I'm going to be here to praise God. You know, the issue is not whether we are so traditional or contemporary. I mentioned a moment ago that I think we've achieved a marvelous balance.

I guess for now your job is secure, Jerry. But the real issue is a matter of heart. The real issue is whether or not God is pleased. And that is determined actually probably almost always before we get here rather than when we get here.

Two concluding lessons. First, worship is always costly. Some of you probably read this and you said, well, why the sacrifice of praise? It doesn't cost much to praise God. My goodness, we sang songs of praise today and talk is cheap. Some people know what the sacrifice of praise is because they praised God in the midst of tragedy, in the midst of heartache, in the midst of difficulty, in the midst of a bad marriage, in the midst of a death of a child. That is a sacrifice of praise with which God is well pleased.

It's always costly. You remember Abraham? What an awesome story. He's asked to sacrifice Isaac and immediately in the morning after the Lord tells him that he leaves and he goes and then when he gets to the mountain he says to the young men who are with him, you stay here with this animal. They had a donkey that brought some of the wood and I and the lad, my son, we're going to go yonder, catch it now and worship. Cost Abraham anything? He was willing to put his son to death believing that God would raise him from the dead.

I mean you talk about cost. You remember David? David was given a threshing floor. This guy said I want to be kind to you, I want to give it to you.

The average person would have said, hey, that's really great. That's really a God thing. David said, you know, when it comes to building a worship center, I will not offer to God something that doesn't cost me anything. I'm going to pay you because I don't want cheap worship.

When Job's 10 sons were put to death and they died because of fire and because of wind and the whole bed and 10 fresh graves on the hilltop, the Bible says Job fell on his knees and worshiped. Did it cost him something? You better believe it cost him something. And it costs us something because we come to worship and we yield and we give ourselves to God and we say, I have no more plans of my own. From now on, my plans are your plans. And we become honest in our confession of sin and dealing with that which defiles the conscience. And now we come into God's presence and now we are going to be enjoying the sacrifice of praise and the sacrifice of giving because we give sacrificially. We give until it costs us something.

We're not freeloaders. And now we begin to understand why all worship costs, if it's cheap, probably doesn't mean that much to God. Second lesson, you really can't worship within the church if you don't worship outside the church. You know, if your life is not a life of worship on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday, it's very difficult for you to suddenly come in here and say, oh, now it's worship time.

To put this clearly, I think it's very difficult for us to pour water on the blessed Holy Spirit all week and then expect to strike up a fire on Sunday. You see, because worship in a sense is a culmination of who we are. We love God. We serve God. We are in the word. We're praying. We're yielding. We're being cleansed. And now we come together and whenever possible, we come together on time. If I don't stop soon, I'm going to start meddling. We come together on time.

Why? Because God is here and the people of God are here and we expect God to show up in conviction and enjoy and in worship and in rebuke and in a hope everything together. Worship. Bishop Pike, you remember the liberal whose son committed suicide? He believed that his son wanted to talk to him after the boy died because the clock on the wall would stop at a certain place at the time that the boy committed suicide. This is after the suicide.

The clock would stop at that time. And so he went to a witch and she didn't know that he was actually talking to a demon who was inspiring the witch and thought that he was talking to his son. And he published a book, which I read years ago on that. And one of the questions he asked his son was, do you hear much about Jesus on the other side?

The boy said, no, no, dad. We don't hear too much about Jesus here on the other side. Could I humbly suggest that if you die and go to a place where you're not hearing a lot about Jesus, could I suggest that you're in deep trouble? And at the end of the day, worship and all of the praise that is being offered to God is really preparation for heaven because in heaven there will be endless praise from beginning to end. We'll be singing glory to the lamb and the songs that we have been singing here on earth are going to be enlivened and maybe given some new words and maybe even some new tunes and all of us are going to be able to sing like the soloists that we heard this morning and maybe even better. And all of the praise is going to be God directed and on earth we're training for heaven and that's why we worship. Some of you perhaps have never really worshiped because you've never trusted Christ as savior.

That's the beginning point. I encourage you to receive him as yours, as your sin bearer because he died on the cross for sinners and through connecting with God, he will birth in you a desire to worship the king and to worship the almighty and become a worshiper for the rest of your life, both in the church and outside the church where it all begins. Would you join me as we pray? Our Father, we ask today that in grace you will enable us to come into this place Sunday by Sunday.

Having stopped at the altar, having spent time at the laver so that our focus and heart can be entirely God directed. Oh Father, come to the Moody Church we pray. We know that you are here but by your blessed spirit manifest your presence. May this be a place of love, a place of understanding, a place of communication, a place Father where new souls are born into your kingdom and we pray today that the desire that you have given to the woman at the well, the Father seeks such to worship him. We pray that you might find hundreds of people at Moody Church responding to that call. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. My friend today, this is Pastor Lutzer.

I hope that you respond to that call. You know, when we think about heaven we have to have a good theology, a Christian theology of death. And until of course that day when we are in heaven there's a lot of grief, a lot of sorrow and that's why I've prepared a DVD entitled Finding Purpose in Grief and Loneliness. Perhaps you say today, Pastor Lutzer, I don't need that DVD or CD but I know someone who does. I believe that you do and the reason is because it is ubiquitous.

Grief and loneliness are everywhere. For a gift of any amount this can be yours. Here's what you do. You go to RTWOffer.com.

Of course RTW is all one word. RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now I'm going to be giving you that contact info again but I want to thank you in advance for standing with us because together we are making a difference and we're so glad that we can give you resources that will help you make it all the way to the finish line.

Here's what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

That's 1-888-218-9337. It's time again for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. There are some issues in the Bible that it's hard to get your head around and a listener we're calling RD in Florida is finding his head beginning to hurt.

Perhaps Pastor Lutzer, you can help. RD writes, I have a question about predestination. Since God is all powerful in every way, he knows from all eternity if you will personally be saved. How does that play against our having a free will to either accept or reject God? If God knows I am made from all eternity to burn in hell, where is my free will? Where does this leave me as one human being to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and feel secure in my entry into heaven when, at least for me, free will is so open to question? Well, RD, first of all, thank you so much for asking one of the most difficult questions that I could ever be asked because the issue of free will versus predestination has had a long history in the Christian church and there have been many debates about it.

But let me say this. First of all, all Christians believe in predestination. There's no question about that because it's taught in the Bible.

It's taught not only does the word occur many times, but also the idea occurs. So everybody believes in predestination. The question is, how do we understand it? The bottom line is that on the one hand, it is very clear that we are not robots.

We could not have human responsibility if we were simply robots, simply puppets on a string. But on the other hand, it is also clear that God does elect some people to eternal life and he does bypass others. And when a person is saved, the person cannot give thanks to himself, any thanks to himself because it is a gift of God. God works in some lives in ways differently than he does in others.

And I think that what we need to do is to simply live with both and humbly confess that we can't understand exactly how they fit together. Now, in your case, and in the case of those who are listening, nobody has to say, well, I'd like to be saved, but I can't be because I'm not elected or predestined to eternal life. If you have the desire to be saved, you can be. Like I tell people, if you want to find out whether or not you're a member of the elect, simply come to Jesus.

He will receive you and that will prove to you indeed that you belong as a child of God. So that's my quick answer to your difficult question, but keep thinking, keep working, and keep studying. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. There are times when we must shut out the noises we grow so accustomed to. Turn off the TV, the radio, and yes, even your smartphone. You'll find that what remains is the still small voice of God. Beginning next time on Running to Win, a surprising final discipline, the discipline of silence, living life from the center, and why listening is often more important than talking. Thanks for listening. For Dr. Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.