Several years back, when "Family Feud" was a popular game show, the producers of the show randomly surveyed some one hundred adults. They asked them, "What is the most boring thing to you?" Eventually, after compiling the results, the question made its way onto the show where host Richard Dawson phrased the question to that day's contestants.
Typically on the show, family members would always encourage each other's answers by saying, "Good answer, good answer." But on this day, the right answer was not very good at all. In response to the question, "What is the most boring thing to you?" the number one answer given by those surveyed was church. To most of the people surveyed, church was that most boring thing that they could think of.
What is the primary purpose of the Church?
Recently, George Barna put together a fairly extensive study of American attitudes toward the Church at large. In his book The Index of Leading Cultural Indicators, he points out that most Americans believe that the primary purpose of the Church is to set up a "time, place and opportunity for worship."
If you put George Barna and "Family Feud" together, you might believe that the primary purpose of the Church is to facilitate, or set up a worship service. But according to "Family Feud", what the Church does is boring. In other words, the Church is boring people as it fulfills its primary purpose of worship.
Generally, when someone says worship is boring, it is safe to assume one of two things. First, that individual probably doesn't know what real worship is. Worship encompasses so much more than what takes place on Sunday morning. Second, that individual has probably never experienced genuine worship. Genuine worship is anything but boring.
The second mark of a healthy church is exaltation.
To reinforce these points, I want to talk today about the second mark of a healthy church. As we saw last week, healthy churches are comprised of individuals who offer God their best. Excellence both honors God and inspires people. Excellence is the first mark of a healthy church. This week, I want to build on this point and suggest that healthy churches are comprised of individuals who genuinely worship by exalting God with their whole lives. In your bulletin, I have labeled this idea "Exalting God" or "Exaltation."
Now, I've noticed that there is a lot of confusion about the true nature of worship or exaltation. For most people, worship is defined by the Sunday morning hour. Worship is synonymous with the term worship service. Worship is a musical preference, a liturgy, a one-time-a-week activity. Worship is singing music, listening to a sermon, partaking of communion, giving away hard-earned cash, and dressing up nicely for church.
In American culture, in most every church fellowship, there is a great dissonance, a compartmentalization, between worship and daily life. The general consensus concerning worship is that during the week, I live my life and on the weekend, if I go to church, I worship. Worship is not my life, and my life is not worship. Worship is not a lifestyle to be lived. It's an activity to periodically tend to.
I believe that this narrow, unbiblical understanding of worship lies at the heart of our culture's boredom with the Church. Therefore, this morning I want to suggest that worship must become so much more!
What is genuine worship? What is exaltation?
As we turn to the pages of scripture, we immediately discover that God's view of worship is quite a bit different from our view of worship. For example, let's suppose that we jotted down six questions and then ran over to White Oaks Mall to survey the first one hundred people we came across. We could ask these six questions and get an opinion about each one.
- Who is worship about?
- What is worship?
- When do we worship?
- Where do we worship?
- Why do we worship?
- How do we worship?
Who is worship about?
Your average Joe tends to think of himself during a typical worship service. He asks, "Do I like this song? Is this my style of music? Is this my favorite translation? Is this seat comfortable? Do I like the worship leader? Do I like the preacher? Is this service running too long? Should I put money in the plate this week?
Our consumer-driven culture is always conditioning us to focus on one thing-me. The Microsoft slogan is, "Where do YOU want to go today?" The newest version of Microsoft Windows is code-named ME, for millennium edition. But don't be fooled. The Sprite ads tell us, "Obey your thirst." Every company, every commercial, every newspaper ad, and every solicitation forces us to look inward at our own needs, at our own wants, and at our own desires.
Friends, if worship is boring, it may just be that we are bored from looking inward at ourselves. In Revelation, it is Jesus Christ who sits on the throne in the center of the universe. Everything is evolving around Jesus Christ. Day and night, the people and creatures of heaven never stop saying in Revelation 4:8 (NIV), "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." In heaven, everyone is knelt before the throne saying in Revelation 4:11 (NIV), "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."
No one is bored in heaven because everyone is totally focused on Jesus Christ and not focused on themselves. That is why Paul says in Colossians 3:1-2 (NIV), "Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God." Do you crave inspirational worship? Put Christ in the center of your worship!
What is worship? When do we worship? Where do we worship?
We already know how people would answer these questions. Worship is that Sunday morning church thing the Christians down the street do. Worship consists of singing, praying, taking communion, giving offering, preaching, reading scripture and meditating. Worship takes place on Sunday morning and sometimes on Sunday night. In large churches, worship can even happen on Saturday night. Worship happens in church buildings. And wouldn't you believe it? Worship can even take place in abandoned car dealerships!
(Note to reader- Lakeside met in the former Oldsmobile dealership for several months before moving into its current location on Toronto Road.)
To be honest, what we do every Sunday morning in this place can be called worship. But worship is so much more than a service or liturgy. Isn't it?
Concerning the what of worship, I plead with you to memorize Romans 12:1-2 (NIV). In that passage Paul says, "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."
What is worship? It's the total sacrifice of our entire lives to God's service. Worship is our total commitment to live for God's pleasure and holiness. Worship is our total commitment to no longer conform to our me-centered culture, but to instead to be transformed as we focus our hearts and minds on the one who created us and who sits on the throne in heaven.
Concerning the when of worship, we need look no further than Acts 2:42-47 (NIV). In that passage, Luke describes the early church in action. "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."
Concerning the where of worship, you can look at Jesus' response to the Samaritan woman in John 4:19-20 when she asked Jesus where she should worship. In John 4:21-24 (NIV) Jesus tells her, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now 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."
Friends, worship that is confined to one day, in one place, and that involves only those elements traditionally included in worship services, falls short of biblical worship. Worship is a lifestyle. Worship takes place twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Worship takes place everywhere we go.
Why worship?
There are as many answers to this question as there are people. Some worship out of a sense of duty, believing that this is what good people do. Some worship out of respect to their parents. They reason, "This is the way I was brought up." Some worship out of guilt and fear because they are afraid, "God will punish me if I don't." Some worship because of family saying, "I'm doing this for my kids. All of my family and friends go to church. I don't want my spouse on my case." Many worship for enjoyment saying, "I love the music, I like the preaching, and I like the church's programs." Many worship because they have good parents. "My parents make me go to church."
Everyone here has their own reason for worshiping. But I hope your reason for worshiping is the best reason. In Romans 12:1 (NIV), the passage we just looked at, Paul says, "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." The very best reason to worship is because of what Jesus Christ did for you and for me. He died on the cross for our sins, to make peace between us and God. He poured out his blood on the cross so that we could spend eternity with God. He obeyed God in perfect obedience so that he could become the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Jesus would become a sacrifice that would satisfy God's justness.
Paul says, "In view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship." Romans 12:1 (NIV)
How do we worship?
For many, worship is a kind of spectator event, much like a concert, movie, or ball game. For many, worship is passive and uninvolved. We take in, but we don't give. We sit, we absorb, we critique, we nod, and then we go home.
But as we have already mentioned, the way we worship is found in conforming ourselves to Jesus Christ. Every day we offer ourselves to God as living sacrifices. Every day we die to self and commit ourselves to live for his glory. Worship involves doing everything to the glory of God.
Final Thoughts on Worship
If I might say one last word about worship before closing. Worship is not the means to some end. Worship is an end, in and of itself! Worship is the reason we were created!
In Ephesians 1, Paul is describing everything God has done for us in Christ. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. God has chosen for us to holy and blameless in Christ. God has adopted us as his own sons and daughters in Christ. God has redeemed us and he has saved us by the blood of his son, Jesus Christ. God has freely and unselfishly given us his grace and has forgiven us. God has lavished us with all wisdom and understanding. He has made known the mystery of his kingdom. God has united everything in heaven and on earth through his son, Jesus Christ. God has been carrying out his purposes for creation.
And why? Why has God done so much for us? In Ephesians 1:12 (NIV), Paul says, "in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be (exist) for the praise of his glory." This is a statement of purpose. This is a statement about our existence. We exist to praise, glorify, exalt, lift up, and magnify the name of Jesus Christ. Exaltation is the purpose for which we were created. Worship is not the means to God's end. Worship is the end for which God created us. Worship is our purpose.
Having said this, the application is obvious. A healthy church is a church that is passionately focused on the exaltation of Jesus Christ, seven days a week, at home and at work, at church and at school, in good times and in bad, rain or shine. Worship is not a service or an isolated activity to attend. Worship is a lifestyle.
Worship is a lifestyle that God calls all of us to, every moment of every day. It is a lifestyle that flows forth out of a heart that is grateful for God's mercy. It is a lifestyle that is commonplace in a healthy church.
As we continue in our service this morning, we invite you to see the bigger picture of worship.