worship

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The Act of WAIT (Acts 1)

I’m preaching a sermon series through the book of Acts for the Sunday evening worship gathering at the church I attend.  The plan is to take a chapter-by-chapter look at what act God would be calling us to take as we learn to apply His Word to our life.  Tonight’s sermon took a look at Acts 1 and asked, “What do I do when God calls me to wait?”.

Waiting can be an important part of life if we embrace the usefulness that God has in it for us.  It was this time of waiting in Acts 1 that God uses to change the disciples from the scared, run away from trouble, group of men at the arrest and trial of Jesus to the bold, confident preachers of Acts 2!  So, what can we learn from them about what to do when God says, “Wait”?

  • Worship:  Central to our being able to learn from having to wait is our ability to worship God and connect to Him as our God.  Worship is simply using our time to acknowledge and express to God his worth.  While we often associate worship with singing and music, it ought to be much bigger and broader than just that.  As they gathered to wait, the disciples of Jesus expressed their worship through constant prayer.  Sometimes God calls us to wait because we need to strengthen our connection with Him and learn to truly worship Him before He can do the work through us that He desires.
  • Accept:  Having to wait also gives us the time necessary to accept what was, or what has happened, in the past and be able to look forward to changes God may require.  The disciples needed time to accept that Jesus really had resurrected from the dead then ascended into heaven.  I wonder how long they would have stayed staring into the sky if God had not sent the two messengers to tell them Jesus had ascended into heaven and would return in the future.  It was through the accepting of the return of Jesus to heaven that they would be open to God immersing them in His Spirit.  Often God calls us to wait because there are things we need to deal with and accept before He can do the work in us that He desires.
  • Inspect:  Waiting also gives us an opportunity to inspect God’s Word and see how our actions stack up against it.  As the disciples inspected scripture during their time of waiting, it helped them to understand why Judas had acted the way he  did and also pointed out their need to select someone to take his place as an apostle.  Inspecting is a powerful tool to refine and improve the way we do life if we use God’s Word as our inspection standard.  Many times God calls us to wait because there are areas of our life that we need to inspect with the magnifying glass of God’s Word before He can fully mold us into His image.
  • Train:  Many times we are not ready for what is next and God has us wait so we can complete the necessary training.  As the book of Acts opens, the disciples have been given their assignment, the same assignment that you and I have been given — “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”  (Matthew 28:19-20 NIV)  The command was given yet they were still told to wait — they still needed training, in their case immersion in the Holy Spirit, before God could accomplish His intended work through them.  God often calls us to wait because there is training that He needs to do in us before He can accomplish His intended work in and through us.

If you’re like me, you don’t like to wait.  I pray that when you consider what God did in the lives of the disciples as He called them to wait, you would embrace the act of waiting when God wants to use it to accomplish amazing things in your life!

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The Art Of Re-GIFTing — Part 3: Faith

“I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming.  When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”  John 4:25

This is part three of a four-part series of posts based on a sermon I preached at the Deer Run Church of Christ.  I began with part one, Grace, and then last wrote about part two, Inventory. 

As we continue with the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, part 3 takes an interesting turn.  It is here, in “foreign” territory, that the seeds of faith have taken root and are expressed. 

There are many who look at John 4:19 as the beginning of a distraction — a change of subject by the Samaritan woman designed to avoid further conversation about her personal life.  I’m not convinced that is really what is happening.  I believe that the revelation of Jesus’ knowledge of her personal life ignites a sprouting of the seeds of faith that were within her.  She quickly recognizes that this is no ordinary man.  This “prophet” can see into her life, perhaps he also has a real answer to satisfy her deep longing for a relationship with the living God.  This is exactly what Jesus has already told her to ask Him for — living water so that she might never thirst again.

And so she asks the taboo question with all of the current worship arguments, who is right?  What!  Did she really ask that!  I thought that was a modern question!  But no, look, there it is — “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”  It doesn’t even sound like a question.  Yet the question is there.  Does it sound familiar?  What we claim as genuine worship is different from what you do — who is right? 

The answer that Jesus gives isn’t completely satisfying to her.  He doesn’t seem to pick either side.  He indicates that a new way of doing things is on its way — as a matter of fact, it has already arrived.  Place is no longer even a part of the argument, it is all about the heart of the worshipper.  Real worship isn’t focused on place, style, form, or anything else.  Real worship is worship that is focused on the Father.  Real worship identifies with God being spirit and truth by being worship that is done in spirit and in truth.

But wait.  That doesn’t sound right.  I’ve been around for a long time and no one is talking like that.  We can’t all be wrong, can we?  It’s all so confusing.  Who do I believe?  And then it comes.  This great profession of faith in the one who can give a definitive answer.  “I know that Messiah is coming.  When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”  Wow!  My translation of this dialogue?  Sir, you aren’t making any sense.  But that is okay.  God has promised to send the Christ and he will explain everything perfectly when he shows up.  What faith!  This Samaritan woman was convinced that God would keep his promise of a coming Messiah.  Not only would He keep His promise, but the Messiah would come with an explanation not only for the Jews, but for her as a Samaritan as well.

I wish I had been there just to watch.  Can you imagine her reaction when the response of Jesus to her expression of faith is, “I who speak to you am he.”!  Wow!  Wow!  Wow!  Could it be?  That sure would make the previous parts of our conversation make a lot more sense.  I can just imagine the shadows of doubt and disbelief being driven away by the rays of joy and hope that were beginning to flood her life.  Her faith was transforming her very existence as she stood toe to toe with the very one whom she believed could reveal God’s will to her.

How about you and I?  How often do we find ourselves caught up in some meaningless arguments about worship, or anything else?  Do we have the faith that God has promised to reveal Himself to us in a way that is meaningful and relevant?  Is God’s answer to our dilemmas good enough for us? 

I pray that our faith would be a growing and maturing faith that understands our need to worship God in spirit and in truth.  May you and I grow in our trust of God to provide the answers that we need — even when the answer is not the way we expect it to be.

Coming next — Part 4:  Tell!