#2 Worship God by Using Your Gifts

In Romans 12:4-6 we read,

4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.

God didn’t give you gifts just to keep them to yourself!  He gave them to you so that you could use them to worship Him and bring glory to His name. 

Matthew 5:16 says,

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

We don’t strive to do good works to draw attention to ourselves, but we strive to do good works so others may give glory to our Father in heaven.

Last summer, I had a wonderful opportunity to go on a mission trip to East Asia.  It was a blessing to be a part of the class teaching about American culture and trying to build relationships with those students.  But, a personal thing that I like to do when I visit other countries is to try to find an authentic musical instrument from that culture.  So, one night on the trip we finished our evening plans a little early and a couple of us went to go search for musical instruments.  We talked with a few of the students in our class and they told us where the authentic instruments were.  So, we hopped on the subway and rode for over an hour to get to this place.  We made it and there was shop after shop of instruments and artwork.  It was great!  Except for one problem….we were too late and every shop was closed.  We didn’t think we’d have time to come back another night, so we just walked around and looked in the windows.  We were about ready to give up and started heading back to the Subway station, when we heard this beautiful-sounding flute.  We went toward the music and sure enough, she was standing outside a music store that was still open. 

We called her the flute angel.  She spoke a little English, so we tried to explain we were from the United States and I wanted to look at authentic instruments from their culture.  She immediately said, “Let me introduce you to the master.”  The master was the owner of the store and he actually hand-made most of the instruments they were selling.  He played several of them for us, we spent probably half an hour with them and just had a really good time.

If you go back to Matthew 5:16, we read again..

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

The flute angel was simply using the gifts that she had to let her light shine in a very dark place with no open music stores.  And when we saw her, she didn’t want glory for herself, she wanted to introduce us to the master.

In much more powerful ways than introducing our friends to a musician, I believe when we let our light shine, we will have opportunities to introduce our friends to the real Master, our Lord and Savior.

#1 Worship Requires a Renewal of Your Mind

There are passages all throughout the Bible on worshiping God.  You could read from Genesis to Revelation and hear story after story of God’s people worship Him.  So, in this study, we are only going to scratch the surface.  The main passage that I want to look at is Romans 12.

Romans 12:1 says, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

To better understand the context of this verse, we need to look back a little bit.  The first 11 chapters of Romans contain some great theological studies of our God.  Even just backing up a few verses gives us a great introduction into Chapter 12.  Look at Chapter 11, verse 33.  It says,

33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”

35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”

36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

One great definition of worship is that, “Worship is our response to God’s revelation.”  That’s exactly what we see here.  In Chapter 11 we read about the depth of His power and wisdom and then we read our instructions for how to respond…

Romans 12:1-2….

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

We learn very quickly from this passage that our bodies are a living sacrifice to God, so everything that we do should be offered as worship to God.  But the other part that stuck out to me was that it starts with the renewal of our minds.  We won’t know how to act or how we can worship God until our hearts and our minds are first focused on the Lord.

WORSHIP REQUIRES A RENEWAL OF YOUR MIND

In the Old Testament, God was very concerned with how they worshipped.  In the New Testament and today, we now have direct access to God through Jesus Christ.  In John 4, when Jesus is talking to the woman at the well, He states how we should worship in spirit and truth.  Unlike in the Old Testament, the location and rituals of worship are no longer important.  We should be able to worship God wherever we go.  And it’s the renewing of our minds that should guide our actions.

Isaac Watts, who wrote hundreds of hymns, also wrote these words,

 “The Lord…has no regard for outward forms of worship, if there be no inward adoration.”

John Piper put it this way, “The key to praising Christ is prizing Him.  God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”

I also want to point out here that the renewing of the mind has to start with salvation.  We can’t worship what we don’t know and if we don’t have a personal relationship with God, it has to start there.  But after we come to know the Lord, we must continue to grow.  We don’t want to settle at the level of transformation that we have right now. 

Pastor Kevin has said numerous times over the last couple months that we have been saved, are being saved, and will be saved.  It’s the same idea here…we are being saved and want to grow more and more like Christ.  To do this, we have to regularly be in God’s Word…Joshua 1:8 encourages us to “meditate on God’s Word day and night, so that we will be careful to do what is written in it.”

This is the point that was the most convicting for me during this study.  I was hoping for 2 or 3 points of this is how you worship all week long.  But this study really reinforced to me the importance of regular times in God’s Word.  We need to focus on that inward renewing of our minds, THEN we will know what God’s good and perfect will is in every situation.  That regular renewing of our minds will guide our hearts and actions to worship God all week long.

Worship God All Week Long

It's been a long time since I've been able to post on here.  There have been MANY transitions going on at Edgewood and it's been a little challenging to keep up with the blog.  However, today I had the opportunity and privilege to speak to our congregation.  Our senior pastor is out of town and asked if I’d share while he was gone.  There is a topic that has been on my mind for the last couple months and preparing for this message gave me a push for deeper study.  Since I enjoyed this study so much, I wanted to share it on here as well.

The topic was how we should worship God all week long.  I spend a strong majority of my week preparing various details to help lead worship for our Sunday services.  And while Sundays ARE important times for us to gather together to worship, what are we doing Monday through Saturday?  I want to be a worshiper all week long, not just on Sundays and I hope that’s the desire of your heart as well.

Recently, I was at home playing with the kids and watching my 4-year-old Madelyn play with her Lego dollhouse.  I was just watching her move her Lego people from one room of the house to the next when I heard her humming.  She was humming the tune to the song, Here I Am to Worship.  This was such a beautiful picture to me.  We should be able to say “Here I Am to Worship” when we’re playing with our toys, spending time with our family, mowing the grass, going to school or going to work.

I’d like to take the points from this message and share them this week through different posts.  I pray this study can encourage you to worship God all week long.

Edgewood Music Academy

After several months of preparation, we are ready to launch a brand new ministry...the Edgewood Music Academy.  Megan and I have both taught private music lessons for several years.  We have found this to be a great way to use the gifts God has given us to connect with and encourage others.

To be able to teach lessons through the church is a huge blessing.  Megan and I will teach voice, piano, guitar and drums and we are joining with Cathy who will teach clarinet and Sarah who will teach violin and piano.  We pray that the Academy can serve our church and our community through these lessons.

Over time, I believe this will greatly enhance our worship ministry.  When students of all ages are encouraged to develop their gifts, we hope they will want to use those gifts through the church as well.

We also pray that this will be a great opportunity to connect with people who don't currently attend Edgewood.  Our teachers are committed to offering top-quality teaching regardless of whether the students are from Edgewood or not.  We believe any students could benefit from these lessons and so we hope to meet new people outside the church as well.

Please help us spread the word about the new Academy.  We are hoping to see 30 students for this fall semester.  More information and instructions on how to sign up are all on the Edgewood website...www.ebc-edmonds.org/musicacademy.

Theo's First Emergency Room Visit

This last weekend was quite eventful.  To be honest, it was a little more eventful than we prefer.

Thursday night, we noticed Theo was having a difficult time breathing.  First thing Friday morning, we took him to our doctor's office.  They took an oxygen level test and thought their testing device was messed up because his level was so low.  They tried another device and got the same results.  Very shortly after that, the doctor entered and said, "the ambulance is on the way to take you to Children's Hospital."  A few minutes later, several EMT guys came into our room and got us onto the ambulance.

This was an overwhelming moment when all of a sudden nothing else in the world mattered...nothing except for making sure Theo was okay. 

We got to the Emergency Department at Children's and he had to do two hours of albuteral treatments (the first hour didn't make enough impact, so they did another).  But, easy-going Theo just sat on the bed and watched some movies with daddy.  He even got a little bored of the movies and started practicing his "beatbox."  I have no idea where he could have gotten this from, but he likes to make this little drumbeat with his mouth.  This was a proud daddy moment, so I had to grab the camera =).

The treatment was starting to show positive signs of effectiveness for his breathing, but he still had a long way to go.  So, they admitted him to the hospital for the evening to continue treatment/monitoring. 

Theo started improving while he was awake and that gave us a chance to even talk on facetime with his big sister...he loved that!  However, when he tried to take a nap, his oxygen levels went down again. He had to sleep with oxygen tubes to get through the night.

As we talked more with the nurses and doctors, we came to the realization that Theo has asthma.  Asthma combined with some type of cold virus is what really hit him hard this weekend.  We are grateful to now have a better understanding of this condition so that we can be more equipped to handle it if/when it happens again.

Megan and I discussed how blessed we are (in America, and especially in Seattle) to be this close to great medical care.  Many kids around the world don't have access to any medical care and they suffer with simple to severe issues with no relief. 

We are very blessed.

On Saturday, they kept trying to ween him off the medicines little by little.  By late afternoon, the doctors decided it would be fine for him to head home.  We were excited for his progress and the chance for all of us to get home.  Before we put him down to sleep in his own bed, I just sat there and held him for awhile.  Tears came to my eyes (as they had several times through this experience), but this time they were tears of joy.

I was so blessed to know that he was okay.

On Monday, we had a follow-up appointment to see how he was progressing.  The doctor said Theo looked fantastic!  That was such a relief to hear!  We decided to get some ice cream to celebrate =).

We praise God for His protection of little Theo...I believe God has great things in store for this strong little boy.

Love you Buddy!

Joseph and God's Faithfulness

As we continue through the Old Testament, I'm amazed once again by the story of Joseph.

Here's how we got to Joseph.....
Abraham's son was Isaac
Isaac's son was Jacob
Jacob's son was Joseph

God is already fulfilling His promise to Abraham through his descendants!

Many of you are familiar with the story, but it's quite a different perspective if you picture yourself in Joseph's shoes.

Joseph was one of many brothers and his brothers despised him (Genesis 37:5).  They eventually faked Joseph's death and sold him into slavery.  This makes no sense that Joseph would have to go through this...but...

You never know what God is going to do next.

39:2 shares that "the Lord was with Joseph."  As Joseph served as a slave, he became very successful.  Because the Lord was with him and he worked so hard, he was eventually placed as an overseer of the house. 

Things look great now and now Joseph can really make a difference!

Until...the master's wife lied about Joseph and he was sent to jail (39:20).  Joseph did nothing wrong and again, this makes no sense that Joseph would have to go throug this...but...

You never know what God is going to do next.

Joseph continued to seek God's face even now that he was imprisoned.  As God continued to bless Joseph, about 2 years later his name was mentioned before the Pharoah (41:1).  Imagine waiting in prison for 2 years wondering if God gave up on you!  Joseph never lost his faith.

I believe that sometimes God has to put us through uncomfortable circumstances to get us exactly where He wants us.  That's precisely what happened to Joseph.

Pharoah (the RULER of the land!) called for Joseph (from prison!) to come assist in interpreting his dream.  Joseph did, and Pharaoh then placed him as second in command in Pharaoh's house.  Joseph continues what he has always done, trusting in God and following His plan.  God uses him to bless hundreds and hundreds of people as well as his own family who deserted him years ago.

There were so many opportunities for Joseph to give up in this story and he never did.  He continued to trust in God and God proved faithful!  If you are going through a time that just doesn't make sense, I challenge you to keep your trust in God and don't give up!  Because.....

You never know what God is going to do next.

Abraham and God's Plan

As we read through the Bible this year, I plan to share a few stories that really stand out to me.  The first one is in Genesis and it's the story of Abraham.

In Gen 12:1-3, we see that God has chosen to further His glory around the world through Abraham and his descendants.  God said that Abraham's descendants would be as numerous as the dust of the earth (13:16) and the stars in the heavens (15:5).

Sounds exciting!  Except for one minor problem...Abraham didn't even have one child...and he was 100 years old (17:17).

But God works His plan regardless of our understanding of it.

Abraham and Sarah had a baby boy and they named him Isaac (21:3).  Now, through this miracle of birth, it seemed like God could fulfill His promise and make Abraham's descendants numerous through Isaac.

Now the plan makes sense!  Until Genesis 22.  Here it says that God tested Abraham and He asked him to offer Issac as a sacrifice to God.  This would make absolutely no sense to Abraham who believed Issac was the plan for the many descendants.

But, Abraham followed God's request and prepared Isaac as a sacrifice.  When God saw that Abraham was going to follow through, God stopped him and said "for now I know that you fear God" (22:12).

God works His plan regardless of our understanding of it.

I love this story.  So many times in life things happen that we just can't explain.  But, we need to continue seeking God's will and God's direction for our lives.  He is working His plan through us whether we fully understand it or not.