August 25, 2013
Stetson Memorial United Methodist Church
“Cruising Sacred
Waters with Jesus”
Sermon 6 of Summer
Series
John 4:19-24 the Message
Bible
Luke 4:5-8 the Message
Bible
Matthew 22:34-37 New
Living Translation
Worship. . . It Does A
Body Good
A reading from the Gospel of Matthew 22:34-37. I
will be reading from the New Living Translation this morning. . .
Matthew 22:34-37 New
Living Translation (NLT)
The Most Important Commandment
34 But when the
Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met
together to question him again. 35 One of them, an expert in religious law,
tried to trap him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the most important
commandment in the law of Moses?”
37 Jesus replied, “‘You
must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your
mind.’
Let us pray. . . (Pray for illumination, a willing heart, and
God’s will be done)
I love Sunday mornings. I love to be here in
church where my Spirit can join together with other peoples’ Spirits and
worship God and join with one voice. There is nowhere else I would want to be.
It is such a good feeling for me. I can feel the Spirit of God within me almost
leaping for joy! I don’t know about you but there is nowhere else on earth that
I would want to be. It is a place where the divine in us reaches and touches
the divine in others. When they meet. . . they worship God together in one
voice.
Today we are starting our cruise. We are leaving
port to start our cruising “Sacred Waters with Jesus.” The first stop we will
be making is in the port of Worship. Now
I know that we touched on the word worship when we were looking at the resume
of our Captain but today we are going to look at it a little differently. This
is one of the ports where our Risen Lord Jesus Christ is found. He is the
captain of our boat. . . of our journey of faith with him. . . and this is a
very important port of His. It what makes us who we are. . . God worshipers. .
. we are thankful for all He has done. . . we are thankful for all He is doing.
. . and we are thankful for all that is yet to be. Let’s hear a little more
about this port we have docked at and why it is so important.
Now I have heard people use the word “worship”
in many different ways. I hear people say of their partner that “they worship
the ground they walk on”. . . I have heard of people worshiping things like
their car or their homes. I have even heard of people worshiping “idols” such
as celebrities and money and all sorts of different things and places. I think if I came from another country I
would be very confused. We, as a country, have so many different meanings for
one word that it can get confusing at time. The word “bad” now means “good”. .
. the word sick means something cool. . . the word wicked is good now too. . . That’s messed up! . . . So, what is
worship anyway and why do we worship? (By
the way. . . in looking up the definition, I found that worship is also a noun.
. . but we’ll stick with the verb today.)
The Bing
on-line Dictionary states:
wor·ship [ wúrship ] is to
1.
treat somebody or
something as deity: to treat somebody or something as divine and show respect
by engaging in acts of prayer and devotion
2.
take part in religious
service: to take part in a religious service
3.
love somebody deeply: to
love, admire, or respect somebody or something greatly and perhaps excessively
or unquestioningly.
As I said, there are even definitions of worship
a noun but for now let’s look at the action verb part. . .
Now. . . how do we really worship God? Well. . .
Jesus came to not only free us from sin but to teach humankind how to act
towards others. . . how to worship God. . . how to live a life pleasing to God.
The scripture from Matthew I just read, gives us the foundation of worship. . .
it shows us where worship begins. God is not impressed by the many words we may
recite about or to Him. God isn’t impressed by long prayers and skilled words
we may use. When we worship God. . . it is not just in words but it is also in
action. We give honor to God in our actions towards each other. . . towards the
gift of the earth that he has given to us. . . towards the grace we have
received through Jesus Christ. When we worship God. . . He is the utmost thing
on our minds. . . we want to please and honor Him in all we say. . . all we do.
. . with all we are. Worship begins within the heart of those who believe.
From the John scripture this morning. . . we
heard what Jesus tell the Samaritan woman what true worship is. It comes from
the heart. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from. All that
matters is the condition of the heart. God doesn’t want us to come before Him
with some kind of phony or fakeness about us. God wants us to be our true
selves. . . flaws and all. . . When we
worship from the heart. . . we do it not out of obligation but out of
thankfulness and joy for the life we are given through Jesus. . . it is out of
the wonder of grace that has shown towards us.
Now you may be saying to yourself (I’m just
assuming this), “It is so hard to live the way God wants us to live in the
world that we live in. It really is hard. I don’t want to make waves with those
around me. Can I have God and the world. . . you know, “Have my cake and eat it
too”?” Can I have both? Well. . . I did say that Jesus came to show us the way
so let’s see how Jesus answered the when faced with temptation himself. The
conversation is found in Luke 4:5-8. I
will be reading the scripture from the Message Bible. . .
(Read Scripture)
Satan tried to coerce Jesus into worshipping
him. He promised to give Jesus the whole world (as if he really could do that)
if He would only just worship him. Jesus knew the answer. . . the right answer.
. . to that “gift” Satan was offering Him. “No thanks. . . I’m all set.” Jesus
shows us that God wants us to worship and serve only Him. Not our homes, our
jobs, our friends. . . even our pastors. . . only Him. The world in which we live offers us many “idols” to worship perhaps we
need to reassess. . . re-examine. . . re-evaluate what we choose to worship. . .
You see. . . worship is the human response to
God’s goodness and mercy. It is something that we can be thankful for with each
and every breath we take. It is our response to the overture. . . the music. .
. the symphony. . . the dance. . . of love God has given us that that comes
from the heart of God for you and for me. We can use all the right words, all the
right phrases, the right music but still miss the mark. Singing, praying and
praising may lead us to worship but true worship comes from the heart. . . its
our spirit ignited by the divine fire of God.
We have talked about “living our worship out
loud,” as we live out our worship in our daily lives we do so not only because
of who God is but also what God has done for us and well as what God has done
in the lives of others. Have you ever heard someone’s story of their faith and
just praised God for His goodness? Not because of what God has done in your
life but for what was done for someone else. . . for humanity. This type of
worship and it does a body. . . and soul. . . good! Not just our own body but
the body of God.
Worship is also not contained in only one form.
There are many forms of worship but they all produce the same product. . . being
thankfully in awe as we worship our Creator God. There are many roads to one
place but the destination is the same. When we exclude others from our worship
because they worship differently there is a riff in the fabric of our worship.
We somehow have missed the mark.
I have read some of Brother Lawrence’s writings
and they are wonderful and make me stop and think of my own faith journey. He was
a monk who practiced living in the presence of God and wrote about his
experience in doing so. He wrote:”I cannot imagine how religious persons can
live satisfied without the practice of the Presence of God.” He cannot imagine
living a life that doesn’t live in the presence of God worshiping and thanking
him with every action. . . with every breath.
We as Christians need to enter our worship time,
on Sundays as well as living out worship every day of our lives, expecting to
meet God. God is there, waiting for us to only expect him to show up. We as
Christians have a choice. Maybe we need to live our lives not only expectantly
waiting for the presence of God who by
the way ALWAYS shows up, but also waiting expectantly, with excitement and
awe. Maybe. . . just maybe. . . if we live our lives in the presence of God our
lives and our worship would be transformed into something that not only honors
God but honors each other. Perhaps we need to reassess our worship to see where
the heart of it lies. Is the heart of our worship in the world or is it
reaching for the heart of God? Is the heart our worship in the gifts of the
world or is it in the ultimate gift that was given humanity through the life,
death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ? Where is your heart? Where is it? Maybe there are things that need to
be put back into perspective. . . into God’s perspective. Only you can
change how you worship. You have to want to change it. Maybe. . . just maybe. . . as we refocus our worship, there will be a
shift in the way others worship by our example. Maybe. . . just maybe. . . we,
as humanity, can get back to the true heart of worship. . . back to what our
Risen Lord, Jesus Christ modeled for us; but it is a choice. . . maybe. . . just
maybe. . .
Amen!
August
27, 2013
Worship
Theme: “Worship”
Luke
4:5-8 (The Message)
(extract of Luke 4:1-13)
Matthew
22:34-37 (New Living Translation)
(extract of 22:34-40)
John
4:19-24 (The Message)
(extract of John 4:1-42)
children’s
message
how
to make good decisions
by
Pastor Ruth Foss
and
sermon “Worship. . . It Does A Body
Good”
by
Pastor Ruth Foss
sermon blog
meditation blog
Sermon 5 of Summer Series
“Cruising Sacred Waters with Jesus”
Stetson Memorial United Methodist Church
Patten, ME
August 25, 2013
&
Worship
Theme: “Do We Make Room for God . . .?”
Ephesians
2:11-22 (CEB)
“The
reconciliation of God’s people” (CEB)
“One
in Christ” (NIV)
2
Samuel 7:1-7 (NLT)
Mark
6:30-44, 53-56 (CEB)
“Jesus
feeds five thousand people” (CEB)
“Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand” (NIV)
children’s
message
by
Pastor Ruth Foss
and
sermon “Make Room for Yahweh”
by
Pastor Ruth Foss
Sermon 5 of Summer Series
“Cruising Sacred Waters with Jesus”
Stetson Memorial United Methodist Church
Patten, ME
August 18, 2013
&
Prayer
Vigil at the Park
after
worship service
7/28/2013
&
Theme:
“Do We Worship Only on Sunday?”
Worship
song – “I Sing Praises”
Ephesians
1:3-14 (Gods Word Translation)
Ephesians
1:3-14 (The Message)
Acts
2:38-47 (New Revised Standard Version)
children’s
message
sharing
our joy
by
Pastor Ruth Foss
and
sermon “Live Your Worship Out Loud!”
“Shout
It From the Mountaintops”
by
Pastor Ruth Foss
Sermon 4 of Summer Series
“Cruising Sacred Waters with Jesus”
Stetson Memorial United Methodist Church
Patten, ME
July 28, 2013
&
Theme:
“Can we see the big picture”
“Big
Picture Followers”
1
Corinthians 13:9-12 (GOD’S WORD translation)
Mark
6:1-6 (The Message)
“Just
a Carpenter”
Mark
6:1-6 (NRSV)
“Jesus
Rejected in Nazareth”
children’s
message
sometimes
our vision is foggy
by
Pastor Ruth Foss
and
sermon “Seeing More Clearly. . . ”
by
Pastor Ruth Foss
Sermon 3 of Summer Series
“Cruising Sacred Waters with Jesus”
Stetson Memorial United Methodist Church
Patten, ME
July 21, 2013
&
Luke
7:36-47 (The Message)
Mark
5:21-34 (GOD’S WORD Translation)
Matthew
13:44-46
children’s
message
We
are precious to God
by
Pastor Ruth Foss
and
sermon “How much does Jesus really matter?”
by
Pastor Ruth Foss
Sermon 2 of Summer Series
“Cruising Sacred Waters with Jesus”
Stetson Memorial United Methodist Church
Patten, ME
July 14, 2013
&
Mark
4:35-41 (The Message)
Luke
4:16-21 (Common English Bible)
Matthew
14:22-33
children’s
message
We
are not alone
by
Pastor Ruth Foss
and
sermon “Who Is this Captain”
by
Pastor Ruth Foss
Sermon 1 of Summer Series
“Cruising Sacred Waters with Jesus”
Stetson Memorial United Methodist Church
Patten, ME
July 7, 2013
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reserved. Contact me at Ray Foss for usage.
See all 34,810+ of my poems at www.raymondafoss.blogspot.com Poetry Where You Live.
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