The Pain of Refusal

Luke 13:34 - O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills
the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How
often would I have gathered your children together as
a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you
would not!
Hebrews 3:7-8, 12-13 - Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
"Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts
as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the
wilderness"; Take care, brothers, lest there be in any
of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall
away from the living God. But exhort one another every
day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you
may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

If we have lived any length of life at all, every one
of us have experienced the pain of being refused. From
children who are told "no" to that toy they want for
Christmas, to being refused a romantic interest or
being turned down for a job we really wanted or needed,
we recognize that it can bring pain. All of us can
relate to the pain of rejection. Similarly, we can hear
the pathos in the voice of our Lord Jesus in Luke 13.
He expresses unconditional love to His city, His people,
Jerusalem. His desire is to shepherd them, to protect
them and nurture them, like a hen does for her chicks.
He then announces the tragic words, "and you would
not"!

This is nothing new for the people of Israel. We find
an account of the rebellion in the wilderness with
Moses in Hebrews 3. Remember, God had used Moses to
supernaturally take His people out of bondage to
Pharaoh in Egypt (a picture of the world and lostness
in sin). Providing all their needs for the journey
(not their wants; they complained about not getting
those), God led them on a difficult journey (through
multiple rebellions such as worshiping the golden calf
at Mt. Sinai, revolts against Moses, etc) to give them
"a land flowing with milk and honey". The Promised
Land is NOT a picture of heaven or eternal life. They
already had that when they crossed the Red Sea. It is
a picture of the VICTORIOUS CHRISTIAN LIFE,
the abundant life in Christ.

The account in Hebrews 3 clearly refers to Christians.
"Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your
hearts as in the rebellion." Can a believer today
harden his or her heart to the voice of the Lord?
Yes and most of us do this every day. Why do we refuse
the quiet promptings of the Holy Spirit to live the
inside-out life? The sad underlying sense of our
sin may not be that we "commit" something horrible, but
that we refuse to respond to "the high calling of God
in Christ Jesus". He has so much better for me across
the river from the wilderness. Perhaps I refuse Him
because of fear of the unknown. Perhaps I refuse to
fully embrace the "kingdom life" because deep-
seated sins of pride, arrogance, prejudice, or envy.
The truth is we allow our own selfishness to trick us
into refusing the meek, lowly, noble, generous,
loving, life-giving, powerfully-expanding, redemptive
Christ-like life that we know God has for us.

Our refusals to hear and follow the voice of God
have painful ramifications toward our relationship
to God, to others, and to ourselves. The pain in
relationship to God is that we ultimately hurt the
heart of the One who gave His life to purchase our
salvation. This should grieve us the most, because it
will always cause some kind of breach in relationship
with Him. Secondly, when we refuse the still, small
voice of the Holy Spirit, it so often means that
we fail to have a spiritual impact on the lives of
those around us, whether that is our immediate
family, friends and loved ones, acquaintances, or
those people groups around the world that have
never once heard the name of our Lord Jesus. When
we fail to live as Christ-obedient people in the
world, we fail to reflect the true image of the
Lord. Those around us then do know see who Jesus
really is. Finally, our refusals bring pain to
ourselves because we miss out on living the
abundant life God has re-created us to live. The
longer we "harden our hearts" to the voice of God,
the less likely it will be that we will obey
His voice and enter into the victorious Christian
life God has secured for us. The writer of
Hebrews indicates that an increasingly
"unbelieving heart" will lead us to "fall away"
from the living God. The more time we
"waste" in refusing the Lord, the less will be our
reward here on earth and in heaven.

The good news is that forgiveness through the
blood of Christ is available to every believer
TODAY. The Holy Spirit says "respond right now
in agreeing with God about your sin". I John 1:9
says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness". Allow the Word of God
to wash over your thoughts every day (Eph. 5:26).
Practice hearing and responding to the voice of God
in your life moment-by-moment (I Thess. 5:16-24).
Be accountable to a small group or individual man
or woman in your response and obedience to God
(Heb. 3:13). May the Holy Spirit of God take away
His pain and our pain in our refusals to the inner
promptings He give us and lead us into an ever-
growing life of being used by Him to impact the
entire world with the redemptive power of Jesus
Christ!

It's About the LORD

Psalm 34:1-3 reads, "I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise
shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the
LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with
me, and let us exalt his name together!" (ESV)

I love reading & studying the Psalms. It is the songbook or hymnal
of scripture. Most of the psalms teach us about praise & worship.
As we use the psalms as our model, we will draw closer & closer
to understanding what worship is all about.

Now as we look at these verses from Psalm 34, notice that in three
verses, there are five references to the Lord (no less than five of
six phrases refer to Him). Three times the word is LORD, referring
to God Almighty, Holy in His character and action. He is the God
who alone is worthy of all our praise, adoration and worship.

Why do you sing in the choir or play in the orchestra? What is
the focus of music in the Bible? The focus of all music is ALWAYS
Almighty God, the Father, Son & Holy Spirit. Worship that is not
trinitarian in nature is NOT Christian worship. This is the problem
today, in that many times a "worship service" becomes man-focused
more than God-focused. When we MAGNIFY the LORD (i.e. praise
Him in such a way that His character & nature can be seen more
clearly), the focus is taken off man and us (or the music). The
ultimate concern should NOT be what people think of our songs;
how much they are blessed or not blessed by it. A big way that we
evaluate worship is to ask and answer the question, "Was God
pleased with my praise/thanksgiving & worship today?"

A New, Fresh Work

Psalm 96:1-6 reads, "Sing a new song to the LORD, sing to the LORD,
all the earth. Sing to the LORD, praise His name; proclaim His
salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations,
His wonderful works among all peoples. For the LORD is great and
is highly praised. He is feared above all gods. For all the gods
of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens. Splendor
and majesty are before Him, strength and beauty are in His
sanctuary." (HCSB)

Why would God through His Holy Spirit inspiration in the scriptures
command us to “Sing a new song to the LORD”? Is this about the
style of music? Is it about the form of the music or poetry? I don’t’
believe so at all. You’ve heard the old song “Give me that old-time
religion”. I know that was intended in the writing of those words.
The message of the Gospel and the truth of God NEVER CHANGE. But
the song can give the sentiment of the “good old days” rather than
the scriptural admonition that we are to live as wells of living
water springing up in us every day. This is new and flowing water
that doesn’t have the chance to be still and stagnant. We are also
encouraged that the Lord’s mercies are NEW EVERY MORNING. God,
by His Holy Spirit in us, desires to do a new and fresh work in us
and through us on a regular basis.

People will talk today about loving only the old hymns because
they know them so well. They know all the words and had the songs
in their hearts for years. All that is correct and God uses the
truth of scripture through those songs to remind us of Him.
However, there was a time in everyone's life when those hymns
were new, even if it was in their childhood. An old song can
become a new song when it is birthed anew and afresh in the
person's heart. An old song can be new to a congregation when they
have never sung or heard it before. I was amazed in recent years
to find a church had sung great hymns for years yet did not know
one of my all-time favorite hymns by Charles Wesley,
"And Can It Be". That powerful old hymn text & tune, penned
250 years ago, became a new song to that local assembly of
believers!

The significance of the command to "Sing a new song" is the
expression of a new and fresh work of the Holy Spirit in the
life of the songwriter and the singer. If God is not doing a
fresh work in us today, we can be sure that we are stagnant
in our heartfelt praise and thanksgiving before Him. What new
and fresh word do you have from the Lord? How is God speaking
to you today? We never will reach the greatest depths of truth
in the Word of God this side of heaven. We will NEVER come to
the end of discovering all there is to know about our amazing
triune God. There is ALWAYS new truth for us to find in the Word,
so there will always be new thoughts for us to express through song.

"Sing to the LORD, all the earth". Has this command been obeyed?
Not hardly. It cannot be obeyed until all peoples and tribes and
tongues in the earth know the LORD and worship Him. Every song
about our Lord God is new to those who have never even heard His
name. Estimates say that over 3.5 billion people on earth today
have never even heard the name of Jesus Christ and nearly 6 billion
have never accepted Christ as Lord and Savior. Can we even
comprehend these figures? There are over 600 million people
without Christ in North and South America alone. According to the
International Mission Board, there are 11,700 people groups in
the world, with 6,776 that are "unreached" (under 2% saved).
How can we ever penetrate this amount of lostness and darkness?
We cannot do so by giving up and sticking our heads in the sand
like ostriches. We must return to multiply disciples and churches
according to Jesus' command as the church in the book of Acts
(I recommend reading "The Master Plan of Evangelism" and "The
Master Plan of Discipleship" by Robert Coleman. God used them
to change my life and the lens through which I see ministry.).
As Psalm 86 says, we must begin and continue to "proclaim
His salvation day to day and declare His glory among the nations"!

God is doing a fresh work around the globe as His Gospel is shared,
disciples are made, and churches are multiplied. Churches are being
planted at alarming rates in Africa & other parts of the world.
God is doing a new work in America in leading pastors to pray for
revival in their churches to birth a Great Commission Resurgence.
Let's be faithful to sing a new song about God's work among us and
in all the earth.

Blessed is the Nation

Psalm 33:12 reads
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance”(NASB).
It seems that in our post-Christian(some say pre-Christian),
pluralistic society, that we will certainly cease to be
blessed by God as a nation. The United States now has
the third highest number of non-Christians of all the
nations of the world (behind India & China). Considering
our continent of North America, there are an estimated
258 million people who are without Jesus Christ (lost and headed
for eternity separated from God)! But this verse causes me to
ask, “What is the inheritance for God’s people?”
Psalm 2:8 reads, “Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations
as Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your
possession.” We may still have hope to receive the inheritance
God intends(and continue to be a blessed nation), if we keep
our eyes on the result of the Great Commission, reaching
every people group ("ta ethne") on earth. This is a continued and
sharpened focus of Dr. Jerry Rankin and our International Mission
Board. It was overwhelming to SEE the display of all the world's
people groups at the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando
(June 2010). If we have the heart of God at all, we cannot help
but be moved to tears and action in finding a way to reach every
last one of those language and cultural groups in the world.

I believe North America (and Southern Baptists) will be blessed
by God as we continue to (or perhaps actually start to) make
disciples of all the nations. Making disciples must be more than
just preaching the Gospel and seeing people make a decision and
praying a prayer. We cannot make disciples until we know what
a disciple really is. We need a good working definition of the kind
of disciple (pupil or student) into which Jesus turned His twelve
chosen men. Check out this: "A disciple is a lifelong, radical
learner and radical follower of Jesus Christ." Until we begin
the process(through repentance leading to right action) of becoming
a radical learner & follower ourselves, we could not possibly lead
anyone else to become such a person. This is not about transferring
information or mentoring or holding someone else accountable only
(though it is all of those things). It is completely about life
transference. (I encourage you to read Dr. David Platt's new book
"Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream", then
take the one-year challenge at the end of the book!)

We cannot allow a decrease in sending career & short-term
missionaries to the ends of the earth. We desperately need a
Great Commission Resurgence that will follow a true revival
in the Church. We cannot fail to make disciples of the nations
as they come to us (and as we go to them). The glory of God
in the nations (and in the U.S.A.) depends on our faithfulness!

Being Skillful

When we consider the model of scripture for worship ministry, we must look at the whole scripture for the profile. The leaning today for many is to look primarily at the New Testament. That is not a bad approach, after all we are supposed to be "New Testament Churches". However, because to a greater degree in the Western world, we function as local church bodies with a "house of worship" in which to gather for corporate worship, it is completely valid to consider Old Testament tabernacle & Temple structure for worship. While doing this, we should remember that WE believers are the temple of the Holy Spirit, not the building.

With this in mind, we look back to the Temple in the days of King Solomon. As the Temple was first built and prepared, musicians were set apart as part of the tribe of Levi (priests). I Chronicles 23-25 records this. In Ch. 25, we learn of the families of musicians. Verses 6 - 7 read, "They were all under the direction of their father in the music in the house of the LORD with cymbals, harps, and lyres for the service of the house of God. Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman (the fathers) were under the order of the king. The number of them along with their brothers, who were trained in singing to the LORD, all who were skillful, was 288.(ESV)” Our goal does not have to be literally 288 choir members (that wouldn’t be bad). I don't care what the setting may be, it is a powerful experience to hear a choir of 288 people. But can you imagine a choir of 288 SKILLFUL singers, all singing to worship and glorify the LORD God Almighty! God set up worship in the temple in such a way that a great number of people would gather and use their skill to bring ultimate praise and glory to Him.

Another aspect of this passage sheds light on our preparation for worship. Did you notice that all the musicians were from the tribe of priests, the Levites? That fact alone has some serious considerations for us as lead worshipers. Do we consider our own preparation for worship as seriously as the priests of the Old Testament? Are we clean before the Lord when we enter corporately to offer up our sacrifice of praise? Are we cleansed by the washing of water through the Word? Are we fully prepared through prayer to stand before God, as our Audience of One, to worship Him? Or are we just bringing a song to be seen by others? Are we worshiping Jesus or are we just worshiping worship or music? May we examine ourselves as priests before offering our sacrifice in worship.

In case our instrumentalists think they might be off the hook, let's consider a related scripture. The book of Psalms is the greatest book ever written on worship. We should be challenged to study and know it well as lead worshipers. Psalm 33:1-3 reads, "Sing for joy in the LORD, O you righteous ones; Praise is becoming to the upright. Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre; Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of joy." (NASB) So we see that everyone who plays an instrument is also challenged to play skillfully (and with joy). This is the model for playing an instrument in worship as well. What does skillful playing mean? What does skillful singing mean? It means that we do our very best, in the Lord's strength and power of the Holy Spirit, to know our instrument (guitar, piano, drums, trumpet, flute, voice, etc). It means that we know musically what is happening in the specific pieces we are presenting before the Lord, so we can give our best to Him. It means that we have our minds sharpened and alert to play and sing every note accurately and with the right spirit. We should be constantly seeking to develop and hone our craft, in whatever instrument. Our goal should be to improve and grow as a singer or instrumentalist every year.

God would have our goal be that every singer and player be skillful to bring Him glory (not for ourselves to be recognized; not to brag on our skill). May we each be challenged to develop our skill musically & spiritually, with humility, to lead in worship as a powerful tool in His hands.

Questions in Evaluating Worship

Because each one of us are human and have great tendency to move in and out of responding in the Spirit then the flesh, we must be diligent in keep the right focus. Please always remember whom you serve in ministry. There are human and practical ways in which it might said that we serve one another, or we serve the leaders God has given us, or we serve those in the congregation, or we serve the community. However, if that is our main focus, we become distracted by any comment that might be considered critical or negative. We also become distracted to trust our flesh through positive comments we receive. Ultimately, as lead worshipers in a Worship Ministry, we worship to an Audience of One. God Almighty is the One on whom we should focus. We often ask questions like, "Did we sound good today? Did the congregation respond to the music we presented? Was the pastor blessed by what we shared today?" All these questions are good and valid, but only when they are kept in perspective. The ultimate question we should ask first is, "Was God pleased with my/our worship today?" I know that question may have an ambiguous answer for us. God doesn't speak audibly to any of us with an answer (At least He doesn't to me; if He does to you, let me know about it! :) ). However, we can evaluate an answer by asking/answering some important questions in our spirits (and in the quietness of our time with God):

1. Was the music presented focused on the truth of scripture?
2. Did it reveal truth about God (as Trinity - Father, Son, Holy Spirit)?
3. Did God teach me something new & fresh about Him today?
4. Did worship cause me to repent of sin in my life, as God revealed that sin to me?
5. Did worship cause me to respond in surrender of some area of my life to God?
6. Did worship give me a desire for a deeper love relationship with God?
7. Did worship prompt me to thanksgiving or praise for what God has done in my life this past week?
8. Did worship give me a burden to reach someone with good news of salvation in Christ?
9. Did we truly lift up Jesus?
10. Did I take credit for anything myself?
11. Was I distracted during worship today?
12. Did I do anything that might have been a distraction to others?
13. Did I give God my best today in worship?
14. Did worship prompt me to pray?
15. Did we enable the body of Christ to worship today?
16. Did I bless the heart of God in my worship today?
17. Was I fully prepared spiritually, emotionally, physically, musically as a lead worshiper today?

Answering these questions will give spiritual evaluation to worship, rather than focusing on the opinions of man as those opinions are expressed to us. Take these to heart as you prepare for worship this week and evaluate your worship each week.

Focus On the Cross

There are many things we can focus our thoughts upon in worship. We can think about attributes of God (love, holiness, grace, mercy, long-suffering, sovereignty, omnipotence, etc.). We can focus on the works of God (creation, protection, defeating tyrants of the world, etc.). We can even focus on the good things men do (service, ministry, love & care, friendship, worship, etc.). I believe the supreme or ultimate focus of our worship should be to focus on the cross, which is the center of the message of the gospel, coupled with the resurrection!

I Corinthians 1:17-18 gives this focus, “For Christ did not send me (the Apostle Paul) to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.:”

The work of the cross is payment for our sins before a Holy God. No other faith system in the world has this ethic, because they don’t understand the holiness of God. The Old Testament sacrificial system clearly pictures the price that had to be paid for the sins of man. Once a year, the high priest would find a perfect lamb without spot or blemish. He would tie up the lamb and take it to the altar for sacrifice. Slitting its throat, he killed that lamb, sprinkling its blood on the altar in the temple area called the "holy of holies", where he entered in to sacrifice atonement for his own sins and the sins of the entire nation. The holy of holies was a very serious place (behind a huge veil in the temple) where no one could go, except the high priest. They took this so seriously that a tradition began where they fixed a rope with a bell on it which they tied to the leg of the high priest. In case God struck the high priest dead in the holy of holies, they wanted to be able to pull his body out without entering behind the veil and being struck dead themselves.

Jesus Christ was/is the spotless Lamb of God, sacrificed for our sins before a Holy and Righteous God. Our Lord Jesus Christ was the only acceptable sacrifice before God. Any and every other sacrifice of man was unholy (sin born in him/her), so they are unacceptable before a Holy God. God the Father so perfectly orchestrated the sacrifice of His Son that His trial and crucifixion took place during the Feast of the Passover in Jerusalem, the Holy City to the Jews. The Feast of the Passover celebrated God's deliverance of His people from Egypt when Moses led them to sacrifice a spotless Lamb and apply the blood to the doorposts of their homes. When the death angel came through Egypt that night to take the lives of every first-born son (the final plague upon Egypt to force Pharaoh to let God's people go), he would pass over the homes where the blood had been applied to the doorposts.

As we consider the cross, it is so easy to focus on the method of crucifixion, the unlawful trials of Jesus Christ held by Jewish leaders, the betrayal of Judas and the denial of Simon Peter - all human reasoning; and think that Jesus' death was the result of being treated unfairly. We must remember His words in John 10, "For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so I may take it again. No one has taken it away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again." No man took Jesus' life from Him. He laid it down by an act of His will. The agony He experienced in the Garden was not the physical pain of crucifixion, but taking on the sin of the world (One who was completely holy) and being separated from His Father. Literally, the Father could not look on His Son on the cross because He became the embodiment of sin FOR US!

THIS IS THE POWER OF THE CROSS. The cross, a symbol of Roman torture for unspeakable crimes, became a picture of beauty because of the redemption all of us may receive through the price for sin Jesus Christ paid for us (us, being all men). If it were not for the cross, we would have no access to God. We would still be going through an earthly high priest. Allow the truth of a powerful cross sink into your heart in your personal times of worship. Enable others to make the cross their focus in corporate worship!