A Few Thoughts on Worship: Part 3

What makes worship acceptable before God? Noel Due puts it this way, "it is not the offerer who receives approval because of the offerings, but the offerings because of the offerer." It doesn't matter what offering you bring to worship God (praise, money, service, etc...), if your life is not approved by Him, the offering is trash. This would be an incredibly depressing truth if Jesus was not in the picture.

Jesus was the only human to ever live a life completely pleasing to God. We all fall short and deserve to be judged and punished for it. But, in God's merciful plan, when Jesus died on the cross He switched spiritual places with everyone who would believe in Him. On the cross Jesus bore our sins in His body and covered us in His perfect life; His righteousness. Now, through the blood of Christ alone, we can stand before God blameless! What a Savior!

Christian, you can never do enough to earn God's acceptance. On your own God can't even look upon you because of your sin. Do you see the beauty, majesty, grace, value, and glory of Jesus Christ? Trust in the sacrifice He made for you on the cross and live a life of worship to God knowing that you are acceptable in His sight not because of you, but because of Jesus.

For the glory of God

Seth

"I Do Not Seek To Do My Own Will"

I hope to put part three of the worship series up on Tuesday, but I felt like this was worth the interruption.

Last night God showed me a huge flaw in the way I think and function on a day to day basis; needless to say it was a bit devastating in a good humbling sanctifying way. I am currently reading through John and last night I came to John 5:30 where Jesus says, "I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent me." As I read this, the Holy Spirit lovingly convicted me and I asked myself this question; how often could I say a similar thing about myself? How often could I say, "I do not seek my own will, but the will of Him who...made me, saved me, loves me, is for me, the list could go on and on. The truth is that the little decisions I make day to day are usually governed by what I feel like doing. As I thought about this more and more I began to see the horror in it. The bible says that my heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Most of the time when the Bible talks about the heart it is referring to what is felt, thought, and wanted. So when I am governed by what I feel, the result will be evil because my heart is evil. Now will this always look like evil? probably not, more than likely the evil will come from my motives and desires; but it will be evil none the less. Now Jesus who was perfect sought only to do the will of God alone, so what in the world am I doing? This drove me to my knees as I repented and asked for strength to stop being governed by what I feel and start being governed by the will of God. When I do this I can have complete assurance that I am doing what is right and glorifying to God.

As followers of Christ we are called to renounce ourselves and our wills and submit to God and His will. Christian, are you still being governed by what you want to do, or are you asking God in every situation big and small, "Lord, what would you have me do?"

In light of our sin and continued rebellion against God and His will, what can we say but hallelujah for the cross and the blood of Christ which made a way for us to be forgiven, freed, and strengthened to seek His will instead of ours.

For the glory of God

Seth

A Few Thoughts on Worship: Part 2

The thoughts I am going to share today are again from the book "Created for Worship" by Noel Due.

Today we will look at one of the reasons why God created us to worship Him. Before I continue I just want to say that God is way bigger and his reasons for doing what He does so much grander than I can try to begin to understand much less explain; these are just a few aspects of God and one of the reason why He created humans.

Because we are sinful humans, it is a temptation to look at God as egotistical. Why does He require the beings He made to worship Him? Isn't that selfish and arrogant? I struggled with this unvoiced question for a long time until by God's providence I got to hear John Piper preach about it. In the sermon, He said this; "If God in some mock humility did not require us to worship Him, it would be the most unloving thing He could do because worshipping Him is what brings us the most pleasure and the most joy." I was blown away! It made so much sense and was all over the Bible (Psalm 16:11 and Philippians 3:7-8 to name a couple). This truth blew me away, but Noel Due put a spin on it that I hadn't seen till until now. He points out that God did not create the human being out of a necessity to be worshipped, but he created us because out of the generosity of His heart He wanted to create a being that could experience the blissful joy that He experiences in communion with Himself. This is amazing! God created us to worship Him so that we could experience the joy that He experiences in communion or worship of Himself within the Trinity.

When we understand this truth it should do at least two things.

1. It should help us to see how disgusting our sin really is.

Our sin at it's root is exchanging the blissful worship of God with the base practice of worshipping self and things in creation. Can you see what we are saying to God as we do this? We are saying that worshipping Him isn't good enough. It is better to worship ourselves and the other things. This is the reason we deserve His wrath. We have caused Him infinite grief, so we deserve infinite punishment.

2. It should help us to see the glory of Christ.

When we see that when Jesus died and rose from the grave He not only granted us forgiveness of our horrid sins, but also a restored relationship with God, it should make us see the infinite value of Christ. Through Him we can worship the One we were made to worship and experience the incomparable joy that goes along with that worship.

For the glory of God

Seth

A Few Thoughts on Worship: Part 1

I am currently reading a book called "Made for Worship" by a guy named Noel Due. This book has been extremely helpful as God shapes my understanding of worship. A few truths brought about in this book have rocked my view of worship; hopefully they will do the same for you as I share a few this week.

My whole life I have been surrounded by the idea that I was made to give God glory and enjoy him forever. My parents had me memorize parts of the shorter catechism, so at an early age I knew that this was the chief end of man. What I didn't realize however, is that the function of the human being is worship. Just as a car is meant to drive, a picture frame is meant to hold pictures, and a chair is meant to be sat in, the human is meant to worship. In light of this truth we can see that because we were created to worship, we are worshipping at all times. The question is, what are you worshipping?

Now, when a lot of people think of worship, they automatically think of singing. Singing, or praise, is a type of worship, but worship is so much bigger than that. It encompasses your whole life, everything you do! So, what does it look like to worship God? It is a life lived in complete submission to His will and commands. It means obeying Him in everything, and enjoying Him in everything. It means valuing Him more than everything else.

This kind of worship has only been done perfectly by one human; the God-man Jesus Christ. He is your only hope to be forgiven and freed from your idolatry (worshipping anything else but God). He is also your only hope of experiencing the joy of true worship of God. Repent of your sin, turn to Jesus, and enter the joy of living in complete submission to God; living like you were made to live.

For the glory of God

Seth

Evidences of a Heart Invaded by the Holy Spirit

Why do so many people who profess Christ have no evidence of a heart invaded by the Holy Spirit? It is obvious that this is a problem. Here in Little Rock we have Christian Schools and Churches and a home schooled community filled with people who say they follow Christ but don't actually follow Christ.

I have been blessed to be studying in Titus recently and what I found in chapter 3 was convicting and beautiful at the same time. Paul tells Titus to remind the church in Crete to (among other things) be obedient, ready for every good deed, and to show consideration for all men. The reason he gives them for doing these things is breathtaking. He says this, "For we also were once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another." The next word in the passage is one of the most beautiful words in scripture because after the list of sins above (which we can all own up to) we deserve nothing but Hell (the just penalty for our sins). The next word is "but." Despite what we deserve, God's undeserved kindness and love appeared, and He saved us through Christ our rescuer! The passage goes on to say that we have been brought to life (regeneration) and are being being renewed through the Holy Spirit who has been poured on us.

When the eyes of an unbeliever are opened to see Jesus and the sacrifice He made for their sins on the cross, and they put their faith in Him, the Holy Spirit is poured on that person and their dead heart is raised to life with Christ. After this, the Holy Spirit starts renewing them. This means He starts convicting them of sins, He starts giving them a hatred for their sins and a love for righteousness, He gives them the strength to make war on their sins, and gives them a zeal for good works.

A heart invaded by the Holy Spirit is a heart that has been freed from it's slavery to sin, and is now a slave to Christ. A heart invaded by the Holy Spirit hates it's sin or has a deep desire to want to hate it's sin. Jesus does not forgive someone and leave them in their sins! Out of a deep love for them, he begins to help them rid their life of sin, a task none of us can do ourselves.

May we be a people who belong to Christ, filled with the Spirit, zealous for good deeds.

For the glory of God

Seth

The God Who Listens and Answers

Answered prayer can be one of the biggest faith builders can it not? Sometimes God answers prayers over long periods of time; sometimes he answers no; sometimes he answers way after you pray, and sometimes he answers immediately.

This weekend I was playing ultimate frisbee with some brothers and sisters in Christ from churches all over LR. After we were done, my friend Blake gave me the idea to invite people from the group to come and invite their friends to serve with us tonight at the Little Rock Juvenile Detention Center. The word went out, and I began to pray that God would bring people as He willed. Every other Sunday and one Friday night a month some people from The Bible Church have the opportunity to go and worship, hang out, and share Christ with the inmates at the d-center. This ministry is hard, awkward at times, and has some major schedule conflicts with other ministries at the church. Because of these things it is often understaffed. The more people that go, the more the gospel gets to go out in one on one conversation with the inmates. God gave me a huge desire to see this ministry extend to people outside just the local expression of the universal Church that I attend. Saturday night I was reading Hosea 1 and read this in verse 11, "And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall gather together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head..." God immediately brought to mind how Christ is the Head of the body, and how even though there are different likeminded churches across LR, and I am glad because each has unique ways God uses them all, we all have the same head and can serve together as the body. This just pushed me to pray harder for God to bring people from different churches together to join hands with us as we bring the gospel to needy kids in the d-center.

As today progressed, to be totally honest, I had given up, but God was working. A few hours before we were going to head down to the d-center, I got a text from a sister in Christ I had never met saying that she had been told about the ministry by a mutual friend and wanted to come and bring some friends! To say the least I was ecstatic! A while later I got a call from a friend who said that he couldn't come tonight but wanted to know next time we were going so he could come and bring some people.

Little did I know that tonight was the biggest group of inmates I think we have ever had. God knew that we needed some more people, and brought people who were so excited to be there and to serve. God did some amazing things tonight! I wish I could post all of the testimonies that were given of different ways God allowed the gospel to go out, and the different responses to the gospel; it was incredible. Another awesome thing was that there were three or four churches represented by the people who came. God completely answered my prayers and answered them in such a miraculous way that only He can take credit for what happened. I pray that this ministry will grow and that more and more people will come and love on and share the life transforming gospel with these precious kids.

May the revival I see happening in Little Rock continue to push people to their knees and continue to push people to be the loving hands of Christ all throughout this city.

For the glory of God

Seth

How Hard Do You Pray?

Aaron Wilson preached a sermon on Matthew 13:1-23 last night at Youth. I had heard messages on the parable of the Sower and the four soils before, but something struck me afresh as God spoke through Aaron. 1 Peter 5:8 tells us to be of sober spirit and to be alert because the devil prowls around like a lion seeking someone to devour. Jesus paints a similar picture in Matthew 13 when he talks about how the seed (the gospel) falls on or beside the hard path (a hard heart) and how the birds that are circling above (the devil and his company) swoop down and take the seed away. God used these things to awaken me once again to the reality of the war I am in every single day. Ephesians 6:10-20 gives us a very vivid picture of this warfare about which satan loves to help us forget. It talks about how our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against "the spiritual forces of wickedness." Paul closes this great encouragement to put on the whole armor of God (so that we may stand firm against the devil) with a plea towards prayer and petition. The believers in Ephesus (and we as believers) were commanded to pray at all times in the Spirit.

Looking at these things I have come to a convicting conclusion; my prayers are too few and too weak. Satan and his company are putting a lot of effort into this warfare and a lot of times I am not even aware that I am on the battlefield. Left to myself I will be crushed by the efforts of the evil one, but by the strength that the Holy Sprit offers, I may resist him. Also, my prayers are too few and too weak for those who I know will hear the gospel or have heard it. The devil is going to fight to take away that gospel seed before it penetrates the heart and I need to be in hard prayer that God would soften the hearts of those individuals and let the gospel take root.

How am I going to try to apply this?

1. Ask God to open my eyes that I may see the battle I am in.

2. Strive to pray at all times in the spirit out of a desperate need of God for protection and strength to fight.

3. When I know I or someone else will have have the opportunity to share the gospel, I will strive to pray hard for the hearts that the seed will be falling onto that they will be soft and receptive.

4. Realize that to make time for more (and much needed) prayer, I will probably need to give up time listening to music in my car, being on twitter, facebook, xbox, etc...

Considering how hard the devil is working against the gospel and against your spiritual growth, how hard are you praying?

For the glory of God

Seth