Sunday MattersSample

Corporate worship is designed to turn your fear into trust, your complaints into praise, and your independence into willing submission.

I wish I could say that I always perfectly trust and rest in the Lord. I wish I could say that everything I do is rooted in faith and not in fear. I wish I could say that everything I do and say is shaped by a willing submission to God’s will. I wish I could say all of these things, but I can’t. In my sane moments, I am able to see that there is still spiritual struggle within me, that the desire for my own way collides with my commitment to live God’s way. Sometimes I am confused about what God is doing, when fear wrestles with faith. I know theologically that God is in control, almighty in power, always near, and perfect in wisdom, love, and grace, but I don’t always live like I actually believe these things are true.

Sometimes I have a bit of the spirit of Jonah in me. You remember that God called Jonah to go and preach to the city of Nineveh, but Jonah ran as far as he could in the other direction. The boat he took to make his escape was caught in a storm (sent by God), and the sailors on the boat tried to figure out why. They found Jonah asleep in the bottom of the boat, and asked him who he was. Jonah replied, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land” (Jonah 1:9). Jonah said that he feared the Lord, but his actions in the face of God’s call didn’t look like the actions of a man whose heart was shaped by a deep reverential fear of the Lord at all. All of us are like Jonah at times; what we say we believe doesn’t seem to shape the way we live.

Three things still live inside of us that tend to get in the way of a life of faith, that is, a life that is shaped by what the Bible has to say about who God is, what his will for us is, and what He has provided for us in the grace of his Son. Fear, complaint, and independence are all obstacles to a willing, joyful, faithful, and restful life of faith. The regular gathering of the church for worship and instruction has been designed by God to be one of his most valuable weapons in our fight against these.

Fear. Because we live in a fallen world that does not function as God intended and because evil was unleashed on the world in that horrible moment in the garden of Eden, we have legitimate reasons to fear. The sufferings of life in this fallen world will enter your door. Bad things will happen. So fear is not always wrong. In fact, there is a kind of fear that is the only thing that has the power to disarm all other fear. This kind of fear is not a paralyzing, anxiety-producing dread, but rather a reverential awe and willing submission that gives your heart a remarkable peace and calm. The fear I’m talking about is fear of God. When you have this kind of fear, you are so blown away by the glorious glory of God, his almighty power, his infinite wisdom, his boundless love, and his inextinguishable grace that all other fears are unable to capture and control the thoughts and desires of your heart. A biblical knowledge of God, his character, his will, and his plan can break your bondage to all other forms of fear. We therefore need the gathering of the community of faith for worship and instruction because it is so easy to become God-forgetful.

I wish I could say that I look at everything through the lens of the presence and glory of God, but I don’t. I still have moments when I fall into God amnesia, when I don’t have my God-glasses on. And when I do this, life in this fallen world looks impossibly fearful. Very often my fear is really God-forgetfulness. I need—again and again, by spoken word and worship—to have the eyes of my heart filled with the glory of my glorious Savior, Lord, friend, and King. I need this so that what I crave, what I think, what I decide, what I say, and what I do are shaped by the fear of rest and not the fear of dread. I love the gathering of the church for corporate worship because I need again and again to be awakened out of my God-forgetfulness, and I’m sure you need this too.

Complaint. Sin is self-centered. It is about what I want, when I want it, who I want to deliver it, and how I want it to de delivered. Sin places in me a desire to rule the world so that it does my bidding, and it causes my heart to be a personal pleasure center rather than a worship center. Therefore, complaint becomes more natural than thankfulness. Sin makes me reduce the field of my focus and concern down to my wants, my needs, and my feelings. Grace gives us eyes to see and hearts to love a greater glory than our own. It is God’s grace alone that has the power to break our worship of ourselves and gives us hearts that worship and serve the one who made and sustains us. But as long as sin, with its self-orientation, still lives in us, our hearts will be pulled between gratitude and complaint.

I wonder how many of us would have to admit that it is much easier on any given day to find more reason to complain than to praise. Would those who live with us or near us say that we are grateful? How often do we wonder where God is and what he is doing? How often are our hearts focused on what we don’t have rather than on the lavish gifts of grace that have been poured down on us from our Father in heaven? Are we quicker to grumble than to give thanks?

I need to be reminded again and again of who I am and what I have been given, not because I have earned or deserve these gifts, but because of the loving and lavish generosity of the King of kings and Lord of lords, who by grace is my Father. Perhaps you’ve experienced your heart come to life in a worship service or in the middle of a sermon. I know I have. Maybe you have left a corporate worship service with an entirely different set of emotions than you came into the room with. I know I have. Maybe in the middle of a great hymn or worship song, you’ve been convicted that you tend to complain more at God than offer the gratitude of your heart to him. I know I have. Corporate worship is designed to give us eyes to see the myriad blessings that are ours as children of God, so that our lives would be shaped by worship and not complaint.

Independence. The greatest lie ever told was spoken by the serpent in the garden, when he proposed to Eve and Adam that it was possible for them to live independently. The worst decision ever made was when Adam and Eve decided to step away from dependence on and submission to God, thinking that they could somehow, some way be like him. Sin is fiercely independent. It is about self-rule. Sin hates authority. The life of sin is built on the delusion of independence. It buys into the fantasy that we are smart enough, powerful enough, and righteous enough to live on our own. As long as sin still lives in us, independence will war with submission to God in our hearts. That’s why we don’t really like being told what to do and why we chafe against little laws (think traffic or parking) in our lives. Parents, this is why your children debate you when told what they can eat, when they have to go to bed, or what they can watch on Netflix. They aren’t just resisting the issue at hand; they are fighting authority. Sin reduces all of us to little self-sovereigns, loving rule more than loving being ruled.

So we all need to be reminded of the humbling truth that we are not wise enough, strong enough, or righteous enough to live on our own. We need the narrative of creation-fall-redemption, which is the overarching theme of Scripture, to confront us with the disaster of human independence and the danger it places us in if we give it room in our hearts. We need to be reminded that we find in God and God alone what we will never find in ourselves. He is the wisdom we need. He is the power we need. He is the righteousness we need. Life, in its eternal fullness, is only ever found in a willing submission of your heart and life to him. Grace doesn’t lead us from dependence to independence, but rather from independence to a deeper and deeper dependence on God.

This week in the gathering of God’s people, be glad that the artifacts of fear, complaint, and independence that still live in your heart will be exposed, and you will be lovingly welcomed once again to the best life ever, one that is lived in a practical, street-level, heartfelt dependence upon and submission to God.

Reflections:

In which of the obstacles to a joyful life of faith (fear, complaint, or independence) do your actions and thoughts not reflect what you say you believe? What could prompt you to remember to be trusting, thankful, and submissive to God?