ANCHOR - Extravagant Worship :: Part 1

[Applause] [Applause] [Music] we're talking about our three anchors if you're just joining us this would be the system upgrade for passion' City Church so this is what we do every few years to just make sure we refresh and make sure as a house we remember what our DNA is all about it's kind of like if you have a sweater or a coat and there's a string on it you ever get to that moment where you put your finger on it and then you have that momentary decision like is this gonna be a good idea or a bad idea anybody ever been there I did it with a coat recently and I thought I'm just gonna snap this string and what I ended up doing was pulling the cuff of the sleeve all the way up to here anybody ever done that before and so this is what the series is all about if you open the scripture there are certain threads in the scripture that if you pull that thread it doesn't really unravel the whole scripture rather it unfolds the whole scripture if you get a hold of that thread and you pull on that thread you don't end up in a verse of scripture you don't end up in two verses of Scripture you don't end up in the key text you end up unraveling all of the Old Testament and all of the New Testament all the story of God because that idea is so central to the story of God and that's what anchor is all about if you pull the thread of the glory of God your entire scripture will unfold before you and the entire story of God will unfold before you and the meaning of life will unfold before you if you pull the thread of the radical grace of God the entire scripture will unfold before you not oh well let's go to the Roman Road and there's eight verses on grace or let's go to Ephesians and they're four verses on grace no if you pull the thread of radical grace everything in scripture will open up before you the story of God will open up before you and the meaning of life will open up before you and thirdly if you pull that thread of worship the same thing will happen and you can see that in this beginning text in Isaiah six and it's one of the places in scripture that you can just take a snapshot and in one snapshot you can understand the entire system upgrade that we're going through together as a house it says in the year the King Uzziah died this is Isaiah speaking I saw the Lord seated on a throne high and exalted what anchor is that the glory of God I had a momentary glimpse into heaven and when I did I saw God and he wasn't five six a hundred and seventy pounds he was high and exalted he was seated on a throne in the Train of his robe filled up the temple and if he continued to look along verse two above Hamma were serifs each with six wings with two they covered their faces two they covered their feet with two they were flying it and they were calling out to one another holy holy holy is the Lord Almighty the whole earth is full of his can you say it with me glory so when you peek into heaven guess what you find glory and then it says the sound of their voices made the doorpost and the thresholds shake and the temple was filled with smoke so there we see as we peek into the presence of God we see the glory of God when we peek in to that space where God exists exalted on a throne it is not casual it is not ordinary it is not average it is not mediocre it is not vanilla it is not plain it is not quiet it is instead glorious and amazing and stunning and powerful and awe inspiring and incredibly convicting he says and I cried woe to me I am ruined that's what the presence of God does to a human being we don't go wow this is incredible we go oh because the glory of God is more stunning more amazing than we've ever imagined it's his brilliance his perfection his beauty his holiness no one can conceive of this so when Isaiah who's the prophet of God whose preaching to the people who need the Word of God he's not the one in need of the Word of God he's the one called by God to proclaim the Word of God to the people of God so he's got a head start on everybody else and he still says woe is me and then he goes on to say you can read in the verse why because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the king and then all of a sudden the story changes in a stunning way then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand which he had taken with tongs from the altar and with it he touched my mouth and said see this has touched your lips and your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for radical grace glory always necessitates grace to be able to see God we have to have the grace of God to be able to be in the presence of God we have to be touched by the grace of God and he says here I am stunned and amazed and at the same time feeling this sense that I've got no chance in the presence of this great and glorious God but then God acts it's not as if Isaiah sent a messenger up to the altar to get a coal and bring it back no the Seraph came from God to Isaiah with the burning coal to touch his lips and the message was the message of Jesus Christ the Son of God this has touched your lips your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for now go preach to the people prepare the way the king is coming a savior is coming Messiah is on the way celebrate Christmas and watch him die Jesus Christ is the burning ember from the coal of heaven who comes to earth to touch our lives and change our lives in the message over our house today is this in Christ your guilt is gone so if you're still on a guilt trip you missed radical grace if guilt is still nipping at your Achilles or has a stranglehold on your life you miss radical grace his guilt is gone bye-bye you have the capacity that power the ability in Christ because of Christ as a result of Christ to say to guilt good by guilt you got to go find somebody else who doesn't understand that when you pull the thread of radical grace the whole scripture unfolds before you and you see the story of God from beginning to end moving from heaven to earth to do what we did not deserve and to say to us in Christ your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for forgiven and free see mercy is getting is not getting what we deserve and that's what Isaiah experienced what Isaiah knew he experienced in the presence of God was the wrath of God that gap between holiness and unholiness and mercy is when we don't get what we deserve and in Christ none of us have gotten what we deserve amen I mean if you ever needed a reason to come to church happy just think about mercy as you're driving on the way to gather with the people of God just think about mercy when you're riding a shuttle down the hill thinking wow I should have got here sooner and gotten a lot and I love the shuttle and my host is amazing but men going to this church as a pain just think about mercy when you come through the door think about mercy when we begin to enter in and the first song of worship think about mercy wow I didn't get what I deserve what I deserved because of my sinful choices was death and separation from God and I didn't get that thank God I didn't get that and thank God His mercies are new every single day it's not like a one-time thing it's a daily covering of the kindness of God over our lives but grace is even more mercy is not getting what I deserve grace is getting what I don't deserve grace is getting a place at the table grace is getting a place setting with your name on it in heaven grace is getting an identity in Christ and a place in the kingdom and a place in the story and guilt that is gone in radical grace always explodes an extravagant worship and we see in this text all three things worship is happening in the presence of God glory is the message of the angels and then grace is the work of God and so Isaiah's immediate response of worship is to give his entire life to the purposes of God on this earth he says at the very end he says and then verse 8 I heard the voice of the Lord saying whom shall I send and who will go for us now if you're sorry God's having a little bit of an identity crisis there this is a very Trinitarian idea who will go for us the community of God Father Son and Holy Spirit are now asking purposely in the hearing of Isaiah who's just experienced radical grace after seeing the glory of God and then they asked the question well we've got a mission we've got a plan we've got work to do we want the whole world to come to see the grace of God I wonder who we would send I wonder who would go for us I wonder who would carry this amazing story and message that we have to carry to the world and Isaiah is overhearing their conversation and he just shoots his hand up in the air and says send me here if you're sending somebody send me he doesn't know where they're sending them when they're sending them how long they're sending them how costly it's gonna be where they send them he doesn't know who's going who's not going hope the finances are gonna be what the blueprints gonna be he just says I've seen enough and experienced enough to say immediately as my response to that here am i whatever you're asking whatever you're planning whatever you're plotting whatever your strategy if I can get in on that here am I send me he didn't say well I can't go but I certainly will contribute to that when we get the opportunity 10% you're gonna get that for sure I mean I've seen six winged angels flying around for crying out loud crying out loud it's a little joke for it it'll come to you later just put a few of those in there every week you know just to see who's out there Cumberland you with us still this is the thread of this house there is a glorious God and life is all about him he loves you and therefore he has moved heaven and earth to reconnect with you through the grace that is in Jesus Christ and when that grace touches your lips explodes into your heart then there is a natural wonderful joyful response and it is called worship and it comes in many forms it comes in a song it comes in the shout it comes on our knees it comes and our giving it comes in our yes it comes in our obedience it comes in our desire to be a part of the plan it comes in many different forms worship does but it's always a response so you never start with worship you always start with God we never begin with worship you always begin with God and we can't go on and worship until the grace of God touches our lips because what kind of song are we gonna bring to God from unclean lips we can't do that unless he touches our lips cleanses our lips changes our heart gives us brand-new breath and then we can say oh oh I've got new lips and a new heart and new breath and where did I get those from a God whose glorious but also full of radical grace therefore with my new lips a my new heart a my new breath I'm going to give praise to the God of heaven who has come down for me in the equation work so simply like that that it almost doesn't require preaching a pastor friend of mine said your church is so full of the Spirit of worship and I want our church to be more like that what do you do to make the church more worshipful and I said well interestingly it's not about the worship as much as it is about preaching about a great and glorious God and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ every time you gather and if you do that worship is going to be the result of that in the hearts and the lives of people my life was so changed when I went to Texas to go to grad school after growing up in Atlanta and you know how much I loved growing up here I grew up under the best pastor you could grow up under in my lifetime and loved everything about it loved God found God and had a heart for God and the church that I grew up in but we were of a certain tradition at our church and and I loved it and so that please understand this is a complete affirmation of the house I came from we sang hymns like there was nothing else to do but seeing hymns where I came from I don't know if you came from that place or not some people sing hymn like you know they made me do this and then we sang him like we're gonna do this again today and I mean sometimes we would sing one and I would get there even it's like a 14 year old as a little bit odd and even back then and we would get there and I'd be like oh we're singing this today stayed upon Jehovah can I get a witness in here anybody anybody and I'd be like oh man alive and I'd be I'd like get free worship going on just knowing it's coming and I was the kid that yeah I would be right on your row we'd get to the and now we're all coming in we always do like you know the first second and fourth stanza this was always just to keep people on their toes you know and then next week when we're doing the third the fourth and the fifth stanza one week we're gonna have revival we're seeing all the stanzas it's just crazy gonna get crazy in here next week we're seeing in all five verses next week and then if they end up this Sunday evening service we would often sing a chorus and it was just as if Heaven had come down he he we'd be like oh I feel the presence of the Lord this is amazing He is risen from and and when it really got nuts and it did occasionally I mean like crazy nuts we would join hands no no no across the aisles whoo look out and and you know if you were a good strategist back then and there was a girl you had your eye on I you know you spend many services sitting right there saying please Holy Spirit move tonight we I need you I need you tonight I need you to come through for me tonight I need he is Lord and I needed across the aisles and then it what happened and you just kind of this in in the spirit you know you'd be like oh well you know and then occasionally we would just enter into that secret place and we would interlock our fingers you're like oh it's getting weird and we would hold our hands high fingers interlocked and if if we really were feeling it we would get that one finger going to heaven because there was a bumper sticker that looked like that when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s in this one way and man it was just like oh wow now if you ever felt so inclined to like let go which I tried once I just felt it you know I thank you and thank you but I just feel like I just need this right here though they'd come get you pretty quick you know maybe I don't know something happened we lost you there for a minute but we got you back we got you back and are you with me it's everybody with me anybody not with some of these new to Churchill like this is really odd it's not that odd honestly but there came a time I went away to grad school and I started I found a church in town and started going and I remember being there on a Sunday night by myself early in grad school out in Texas and the pastor of that church had retired and they had an interim pastor and guy shows up I recognized him I know his name he's a well-known author and he says I'm going to be preaching for the next few weeks and I'm gonna preach 16 weeks on worship and I was like wow well good for you that that's that's amazing I mean we should just applaud him like starting out because I'd never heard a sermon on worship was I how's it going to preach sixteen weeks on worship that should take about five minutes we worship at the worship service starts at 11:00 ends at twelve have the goes over to twelve ten people start losing their minds this is worship we're gonna sing a few hymns we're gonna take up an offering somebody's going to make some announcement somebody's going to preach a message we're gonna have a response or an invitation and a benediction and we're gonna go home and that's worship and he began to unfold this thread of worship and the scripture just unfolded before me and I found myself in that gathering sitting off to the side I can picture where I was right now and I remember the first night I was there and we came to the end of the time and and I'm not pushing any style of worship or anything here that's you've never seen that here it's you're never gonna see that that's not what this is about today but I remember sitting there by myself grad student loved God hey didn't remember not loving God hard for God and I remember the first day we came to the end of the thing and I just said I don't know why no one's ever taught me to lift my hands in worship nobody ever said hey you should raise your hands if you really want to worship God with spirit and truth I just remember standing there going Lord I love you we were singing that song I can remember it now you're like man you're way back in the day yeah way back in the day and I just thought I can stay in here I can lift my hands I'm not worried about somebody grabbing one of them back I got a few feet on each side of me nobody knows me here this is not a show nobody's going oh look at louie giglio over there he's such a devoted worshipper no one knew who I was I didn't come from that place it wasn't about anybody it was about an audience of one it was about a heart that had been touched he's about a natural response he was about saying God I love you and I watched over in my lifetime that in all the places this is just for me not necessarily for everyone else in all the places where I love something my hands were involved I found myself yesterday running up and down the sidelines of a football field running in a very large pea I hope my back's a little bit out of whack right now yelling high-fiving people clapping fists in the air why because this is human it's a part of life but all of a sudden in those days something clicked for me I signed up for a class in my grad program called the theology of worship with dr. Bruce Lee flad we called him worship Thor at our school and this man was the smartest man about worship that I have ever met still to this day and he was the most passionate man about God and he would lecture on worship and there would be tears in his eyes and I couldn't get enough of it and all of this confluence of events were God's Way of making sure that I didn't spend my life on earth without understanding this central idea I exist to worship God no listen not that's one of the things I do I exist I live I breathe to worship God and now the anchor start connecting God doesn't exist to worship me I exist to worship God God doesn't exist for me I exist by and for God oh he loves me always got to put parentheses and he loves me he created me in His image I am the apple of his eye he knows me by name he pursued me relentlessly when I didn't give a rip and he never gave up on me until he captured me with grace and awakened me to his glory my life matters I am a somebody I am valuable to God I am not a statistic I'm not a number I'm not incidental or accidental and the kingdom and purposes of God but I exist for God and what that did for me is it flip-flopped a lot of my thinking like well I don't know I'll think about that I'm not really musically inclined I mean I didn't say that but someone would I'm not that's not my personality type I I'm more of a reserved person my wife really is a great worshiper you get credit for that because we she might have enough for like both of us isn't that awesome that can I get one Amen from a man on that no can I seriously get one man to say I've actually thought that that maybe she loves God and worships God enough for like the whole family thank you to amens but listen it's not that your wife exists to worship God you my friend are living on the planet for this reason to worship the Living God and he hardwired you to be good at it in Romans 1 everything is a trainwreck and in the middle of it there's such a great glimpse into the argument of the the male heart of worship and this is what it says and they exchanged the glory of God for an idol that they made with their hands and they worshipped and served the creature and not the Creator who is blessed forever when the trainwreck of humanity happened worship didn't cease to happen worship just got derailed at to something less valuable than God Almighty but worship happened the whole time why because human beings are hard-wired to worship so you don't need a class on worship we you don't need a well we'll teach me how to worship you already know how to worship well teach me what it means to adorn oh you know how to adorn teach me what it means to celebrate no you know how to celebrate teach me what it looks like to be enthusiastically excited about the outcome you already know how to be enthusiastically excited about the outcome for some of you it's football and oh man this weekend great example Georgia Georgia Tech right here in Atlanta you got gold you got black you got red you got white you got people going nuts you got every nobody went to that come on if you went to that game and like a green plaid shirt and some khakis and a bright blue puffy vest and you are not from this country okay I just got here from Norway where do we gonna do oh we're gonna go see an American football game okay great hello hi nice to see you wonderful why is everybody in black and red and white and gold because that's where we are people seem excited yes they are people seem enthusiastic yes they are everyone seems like they're into it that's because everybody's into it they all know the cheers yes they do they all sing the songs yes they do they're yelling like they have something at stake here why are they yelling at the people with the striped clothes on why are they yelling at the man on the bench why are they yelling at each other why are they cheering why are they pointing why are they why why why because we are hard-wired that way I even saw an accountant pump his fist [Laughter] [Applause] he say well he had a few Louie and that's what it takes sometimes for an accountant no we're hardwired this way and when there's an awakening of glory and grace our hardwiring already gives us the roadmap for what it looks like to worship God so Jesus told a story it's a super well-known story found in the Gospel of Luke 17 he's on his way to Jerusalem he's coming down from Galilee the area where he lived and did the vast majority of his miracles and ministry and now he's heading to Jerusalem for the final chapter he's coming along an area called Samaria just a short footnote version a cultural and racial landmine between the Jewish people and the Samaritan people but Jesus chooses that route he doesn't avoid that route he chooses that route and as he's coming it says in the text in verse 11 verse 12 as he was going into a village ten men who had leprosy met him and they stood at a distance calling out in a loud voice Jesus master have pity on us now if you've been in church you you already know the story about leprosy it's an undiagnosed and misunderstood disease at the time of Jesus it caused your extremities to to rot away because of the nerve damage that it would do to your body so you wouldn't realize that you are destroying your fingertips or your toes and it was a ghastly looking disease people without an ear or missing part of a nose they're missing three or four finger and so the lepers of the day the Jewish people thinking it's a curse from God it's a disease that can't be treated and it's something that is contagious we make the lepers wear a bell around their neck and as they approached a city they would have to cry out leper unclean leper unclean just in the event that someone would accidentally bump into them and be contaminated by their condition and so this lifestyle you can imagine is a setup for disaster the mentality the heartache the perspective you would have the self-image that you would have but these 10 men see Jesus coming they've heard the stories they huddle together really fast that's him no I know that's him no that's the guy right there they band together mmm they yell with a loud voice an interesting phrase Jesus master in other words God Almighty Lord Almighty supreme teacher of all teachers would you master Jesus would you have pity on us or have mercy on us in other words don't give us what we deserve we already know what we deserve we're outcasts we can't be a part of life we can't be a part of civilization we can't be a part of worship we're not accepted in the temple we don't have any shot with God the priests would go out of their way to avoid us so here we are in need of mercy and then Jesus does something interesting when he saw them he said go show yourselves to the priests now that's a terrible idea but he offers and they take him up on that because it's the only hope that they've got to have ten lepers make an appointment to go see the priest is a terrible plan of action but Jesus puts it out there and they say okay we'll go and so off they go and look at this phrase as they went they were cleansed hello wouldn't you love to a bit in that little walk walking along oh oh oh I got fingers your ear your ear my ear I have toes you you we are I mean can you imagine it wasn't like Wow okay that's cool they were going crazy these men they're on their way with your appointment now with the priest and they're feeling good about their chances because we can get an appointment we can actually take these bells off you they won't even know hello we would like to see the priest because we need a certificate to be able to worship in the temple courts well what's your problem well some people said we were lepers but obviously you can tell that we're not Oh obviously you're not lepers so yes here's your certificate you may now worship in the temple court and on they go the plan is working flawless until one of them has a double whoa do you know what a double whoa is he goes I got hands high five I mean like all five this is amazing and then he has a double whoa what's the double whoa oh wow he really is who they say he is excuse me guys I'm out whoa you can't go out we're going to get a certificate to worship I'm going to find the guy who had the power to heal my letter see I don't need a slip to get into the temple courts I think I had a glimpse of God Almighty in a human body back there and I'm gonna go back and find him and the story unfolds like this one of them when he saw he was healed came back now watch the words here praising God how can you see it say with me in a loud voice why because when you are healed of leprosy by Jesus you do not quietly reverently peacefully come back and go I'm telling you that was amazing 4:16 he threw himself at Jesus feet and he thanked him and he was a Samaritan he's culturally and racially breaking every barrier in stereotype by coming back and throwing his feet at a Jewish teachers feet but all this is out the window because a miracle has happened and when miracles happen cultural racial stereotype types go out the window and he comes back and now he's before the Son of God and he's praising in me saying praise you not just thank you praise you thank you and praise you thank you and praise you thank you and praise you not look at me look at me this is amazing look at me he's like no look at him and then Jesus boy right on the spot he says oh it's amazing didn't even say you know glad to have you back he just said we're not ten cleansed don't you love Jesus I mean don't you love that some of you I have that sense of humor he goes oh he looks like one of his guys he goes I thought there were ten maybe I might have been mistaken I thought they were ten of them I mean I'm God and I count pretty good but maybe not he says to the guy where are the other nine was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner then he said to him rise and go your faith has made you well see the difference I think it was simply this this man woke up to this idea that there is a difference between what God can do for me and being amazed at the God who has the power to do it and that's where worship lives right in there see when worship is connected to simply what God can do for me that I'm like man that guy was amazing we were he we're doing exactly what he said they technically were fine he said go show yourselves to the priest and we're going to show ourselves to the priest and you're going back why are you going back he didn't say come back he said go show yourselves to the priest why because it was a test Jesus always put a test on the table and the test was I want to see which one's awakened to not just what I can do but to who I am I think there's something powerful today for us in that phrase this story ends with a man coming to the feet of Jesus and faking him and praising him loudly oh you can find many many stories where women praise God many stories where women come back in grace and praise God many stories where men and women are praising God many swords were the angels and the elders are praising God but I just think it's beautiful in this story that a man came back because personally I think it takes more for a man to come back than it does for a woman to come back women typically lead the charge in praying and worshiping in the house of God typically but I believe the house please hold on with me women is made great by the men who come praying and come praising and worshipping God and when the men lay aside pride lay aside masculinity lay aside I'm a man's man I'm a Georgia Bulldog deep down inside I'm a you know you'd do a message on hunting Louie and I'll probably will give you a fist bump but you hadn't talked much about hunting lately listen when grace hits the equation all the stereotypes are blown out of the water and I just wonder maybe today we're gonna we're gonna sing together at the end of this talk maybe today you could just break through that man mindset says all I'll fist pump Jordan speith I will lose my mind on Dale Junior's last Cup race if my deal goes through I'm closing my office door and I am doing a happy dance anybody come in these doors in this lake there's one of the crazies down there look at him and you know when we all come together there is a sense of us so you always have that I always want to have that in my mind there's a sense of people in our house today don't know anything about what we're doing don't know anything about God but come on surely men we can rise up in grace and at least give it one of these I am saved by the grace of Almighty God I have a glimpse of a glorious God who I had no chance with until he had mercy on me and I will be the one who returns and I will give thanks with a loud voice and I will praise my god you

Channel: Passion City Church

Views: 21,663

Rating: 4.909091 out of 5

Keywords: Worship Matters, W2O2R2S2H2I2P

Id: 39-Mq_Clpq4

Length: 42min 19sec (2539 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 29 2017