Audio from my message "Spiritual Worship in Suburbia," Part 3 in our series God vs. Suburbia is now available for download.
The message covers Colossians 1:15-20 and might be the most Jesus-saturated message I've ever done.
(I call my friend Rob Harrison a nerd in there somewhere (not by name), but I also call myself a jerk, so it's a wash, eh Rob? :-)
4 comments:
Downloaded your sermon. Excellent.
Worship- Jesus began his ministry of reconciliation 2000 years ago and hasn't stopped it yet. We are "called-in" together to worship, but God doesn't need anything from us, Christ finished that... He wants to serve us, just like always. The flow isn't 'up to God', its down to us. When the greeter shakes our hand, it's God; in the fellowship before the service starts, it's God; when we sing praise and worship, we open our hearts to how great and holy He is, and how sinful we are, but by the grace he gives us through Jesus' sacrifice we are present in the true tabernacle, with God. We repent and he gives us forgiveness; He gives grace when we share at His table; we hear Him in the reading of scripture, we surrender things we can't do on our own and He carries us, giving us His strength; and He touches us by the insanity of preaching the cross of Christ. He gives and gives, serves and serves.
In short, in church He (comes down) and serves us, when we walk out those doors, we serve Him, and our life is an act of worship. Our services don't (or shouldn't) point upwards for the experience of worship, as we can control that like a golden calf, and is all about us, but rather, He flows downward into and through us and out into the world, and people are "added to our numbers daily."
(Not that great worship teams aren't great if they are helping Jesus with His ministry). If we let Him serve us, as Peter finally did at the Last Supper, then it's all about Him, what He did through the cross and empty tomb, and what he is doing for us now.
Well, I am a nerd, and also a geek, and both by complete self-profession, so how am I going to complain? :)
I'll have to make a priority of listening to that--I've preached on that passage three times now, it's one of my very favorites.
Well, I referred to you as "some nerd," which is a lot worse than just saying "my friend Rob is a nerd." :-)
It was an offhand remark related to the Nicene Creed post/comment at Thinklings.
Seriously, Rob, if it hurts you, I am sorry. And in any event I am sorry for speaking so flippantly. I love you, friend.
In all seriousness, I'm not hurt. I do see your point about the flippancy and dismissiveness of the comment, though, since unfortunately I've tossed off a line like that a time or two--or three, or four--in a sermon myself; I always feel guilty about it, and I pray I'll grow out of that particular habit with time. But hey, in the event, I'm honestly not bothered--I know your heart, and I love you too.
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