PASSIONATE ABOUT WORSHIP

Micah 6:6-8
Mark 12:28-34


So, what’s in your wallet?

If you’re like me, there a number of those reward cards.  I’ve got Alco, Staples, Ace Hardware, Pizza Ranch and half a dozen cards for coffee shops within a 35-mile radius.

I know that these are supposed to build customer bases and customer loyalty, but I also understand it appeals to self-gratification. 

For the audience God was speaking to in Micah, going to worship was about getting their spiritual rewards cards swiped.  They went to temple, prayed the prayers, offered the required burnt sacrifices, threw some coins in the offering box and left expected God to bless them and ignore their behavior once they left the temple.

I don’t like to admit this, but I’ve down the same thing.  I’ve shown up for church on Sunday mainly to enjoy the company of my friends there and have God to make me feel good.  Sure, I did the churchy things – I prayed the prayers, threw a buck or two into the offering plate and put in my time on a committee or two.  When I left worship, I wasn’t that much different than I was before I came.  Still selfish, still petty, still full of self-righteousness.  I got my spiritual rewards card swiped, and that’s all I needed.

Until … until the minister preached about the true meaning of worship.  Worship isn’t about me!  It’s about God.  It’s not about what we do to get our spiritual awards cards swiped, it’s what God is doing among us, in us and through us.

Worship is about engaging in a loving relationship with God that has a positive impact on the lives of the people about us and on the conditions of this world.

That’s what God was telling the people of Israel through the prophet Micah:

“I’m not interested in just swiping your spiritual rewards card.  I’m interested in our relationship.  Come to worship, just as you are, and let us love one another with all that we are and have.  The passion of love will warm your hearts, revitalize, renew and refresh you and transform you into the people I have called you to be so that when you leave this place, you can share my love with others just as I have loved you.”

Vital, alive churches are passionate about worship.  They have experienced worship as an engagement with the passion and glory of God and God’s love and want others to experience it, too.  They also understand that people relate to God through many ways:
        
  • Pictures and images
  • Different styles of music
  • Spoken prayers and liturgy
  • Silence
  • Formal, very traditional worship
  • Informal, more blended worship

Vital, alive churches are intentional in the way that they plan worship and serve in worship.  They value excellence – not perfection.  Excellence is giving our very best to God and loving others as Christ loves them so that worship is welcoming, relevant and meaningful to the worshippers.  Their goal is provide worship where people have the opportunity to engage in a loving relationship with God through Christ.

They understand that in order to bring the Gospel to new people, it means introducing new things to the traditional worship setting, and it may involve going to new places outside the walls of the church.  It required plugging into the imagination of God and thinking outside the box.  

They also know it requires a certain level of spiritual maturity to be willing to accept types of music and liturgy that may not be meaningful for them for the sake of others and for the love of God. 

As God leads us through the discomfort zone of transition to becoming the vital, alive church God has called us to be, we carry God’s promise to us that God is with us and has hope, a future and protection.  

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