PrayerTipping Points: “Our Greatest Enemy and Our Greatest Friend” (8)

James 4:6

comments:
1. church picnic baptisms

2. building –
à 9/30 is our target date for 1st service
à $80,000 of $250,000 in hand!
à sign-up for helping:
- 9/8 landscaping work day
- 9/9 afternoon – 6-8 people; shampooing carpets
- 9/17-22 work week & day for cleaning
- 9/23 afternoon – 6-8 people; chair crew

3. call for your patience & understanding

4. fall schedule – stay in 1 service, 9/16 beginning of fall schedule (9am worship 10:30am classes), why? a) unity health strengthening of the Body b) until growth forces us to return to 2 services -

5. small groups – interested in leading, forming a group, let me know

6. First Friday – sign up today! Want to bathe this time in the life of our church in prayer!

7. thanks to Kyle & Mike for preaching – heard great things about Kyle’s sermon & the communion service he led, same for Mike’s message on ‘whole life worship’

tipping points
1. this summer I’ve been talking about tipping points in our relationship with God – actions, behaviors, attitudes that if we get them God-right, they will tip us in the direction of his presence, power & kingdom. Last week & today – the challenge of pride & the necessity of humility. 3 good books to read:
à Humility – C Peter Wagner
à Humility: The Journey Toward Holiness – Andrew Murray
à Humility: True Greatness – C. J. Mahaney

2. I read an article on preaching this week written by John Ortberg. He wrote that the goal of all preaching is to build Christ in people. Good job description for me.

3. 1 way that I can build Christ in you is to teach you about humility. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). Pride is our greatest enemy and humility is our greatest friend.

His humiliation & exaltation – Philippians 2:5-11
1. the greatest example of humility that we have in the Bible is Jesus himself. His incarnation. God becoming man. The Word became flesh. Paul lays this out for us in Philippians 2:5-11.

2. Paul is teaching the Philippians about relationships in the community of faith – how we are to treat each other. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves (2:3).

3. and then he makes this point – your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus (2:5) and describes the greatest leap of humility the world has ever known.

4. God humbled himself to become a human being. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood (The Message).

5. its’s like – Jepeto carving himself into Pinocchio. The painter painting himself into her water colors. The poet converting himself into his poem. The composer writing herself into the greatest piece of music ever created.

6. the Word became flesh…

7. Paul fans out Jesus’ steps of humiliation.

Jesus Humility
1. 1st Jesus is God (6). This is the starting point of humility. God himself.

2. 2nd God was willing to be something else (6). He didn’t hold on to his God-self. He was willing to leave the immediate presence of the Trinity – Father Son Spirit – to become human. He didn’t hold on to his rights & position.

3. 3rd God made himself nothing (7). When you are God & you become a human being, a new squalling infant nursing at your mother’s breast, you have made yourself nothing.

4. God gave up some of his attributes to enter our world as Jesus – no longer all-knowing, or omnipresent, or without needs. In the gospels Jesus refers to things his Father knows that he doesn’t. He can’t be everywhere at once. He gets tired, hungry & thirsty.

5. 4th God became a man (7-8). A human being. Joseph his father & Mary his mother were common people. He was born in the little obscure town of Bethlehem, the Yamhill of his day. His birthing room was a stable & his crib was a manager. Even though he originated the Law he was born under the Law.

6. 5th Jesus became a servant (7). He served the world & people he created. People like us. He washed his disciple’s feet. He fed them. Called them. Healed them. Taught them. Warned them.

7. 6th Jesus became obedient (8). God incarnated as Christ became obedient to himself. God sent himself in the person of his Son for a missional purpose – to seek & to save the lost. Jesus the God-man was obedient. He submitted to his Father’s authority.

8. 7th Jesus died on a cross (8). The Romans reserved the cross for the worst of their criminals. To make matters worse – Jesus was betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter, deserted by the rest of his followers. He was unjustly tried by the Jews & the Romans. He was flogged, spit up, mocked & utterly despised. The God of the universe! Humility in action.

9. Paul writes to the Philippians and to the church which meets at the corner of 9th & Juniper in Canby – your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.

10. humility means giving up our rights & position to serve others & consider them better than ourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others (Phil 2:4).

11. this is so hard…and here’s why – It’s all about me video clip!

12. Jesus himself said, for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted (Matthew 23:12). He taught this & demonstrated it by his own life. His humiliation was followed by his exaltation.

Jesus’ Exaltation
1. notice how the rest of the passage starts, therefore God exalted! We do the humbling, God does the exalting! As with Jesus, so with us.

2. 1st God exalted him (9). This takes in the resurrection & the ascension. God raised Jesus from the dead. And God took Jesus back to heaven. Jesus lives now in his resurrected body in heaven.

3. the highest place is the seat at the right hand of the Father – Acts 5:32; 7:55-56.

4. and from here Jesus prays for us – Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25.

5. the incarnation – the Word became flesh – continues on in heaven. Jesus mediates between us & God. His perfected humanity, representative of ours to come, sits next to God & prays for us.

6. 2nd Jesus is given a name above every name (9). God exalts him from death on a Roman cross to the highest place in the universe & the name above all names. In heaven and on earth and under the earth.

7. every knee will bow to Jesus. Every tongue will confess that he is Lord. Every knee & every tongue. Both those that are his followers & those who have chosen not to follow him. Ultimately, everyone, no exceptions will fall on their faces before his Lordship!
8. Jesus humbled himself – became a human being, a servant, submitted to death for the sins of the world. And God exalted him above all there is. We do the humbling – God does the exalting.

9. last week we saw how Satan in Isaiah 14:12-15 exalted himself & was humbled. Notice the five 1st person pronouns:
à I will ascend to heaven
à I will raise my thrown
à I will sit enthroned
à I will ascend
à I will make myself like the Most High

10. pride is summed up in one word – “I.” Humility is summed up in one word – “servant.” Satan is all about himself – Jesus is all about pleasing his Father & serving others.

11. we do the humbling; God does the exalting. If we do the exalting, God will do the humbling.

12. this truth is woven into the very DNA of our universe, especially in the kingdom of God. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Good to Great
1. a few years ago Jim Collins wrote a business bestseller entitled Good to Great. Collins examined companies that went from being good to great. He studied companies that for 15 straight years experienced stock returns at or below the general stock market rate of return – and after a transition point – experienced 15 straight years of returns of at least 3xs the market rate.

2. one thing that distinguished these companies is that they all had a Level 5 leader. He defined a Level 5 leader as someone who was humble. They directed their ego away from themselves to the larger goal of leading their company to greatness. Level 5 leaders are a paradoxical mix of intense professional will & extreme personal humility.

3. David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, defined himself as a HP man 1st & a CEO 2nd. He was a man of the people. He shunned all manner of publicity. Packard didn’t have a corner office with a spectacular view of the campus to hold up in. He worked from a simple office on the same floor as his workers.

4. Packard is the exact opposite of the Michael Scott of The Office that I briefly mentioned last week.

5. rather than ending with a list of steps to humility I want to say this – we know in our heart of hearts when we are being humble. We need to follow our hearts as we seek to follow Jesus in his humility. It’s not about us; it’s about Jesus & others.

PrayerTipping Over Worship (CAC 8/12/07)

Better Late than never! The Sunday before Last we had one of our elders, Mike Higgs, pitch hit for vacation Pastor T. Here is that sermon.

Read Romans 12:1-2 - Pray

“Homily”

My message this morning is entitled “Tipping Over Worship,” and I think it’s relevant to tell you what that title means, and, how I came up with it.

We are living in a seson of improbabilities - Allistair Petrie cow illust.

My background as “worship leader”

So, when Tim asked me to speak and said that the theme for the summer was Tipping Points, worship was what immediately came to mind as I prayed about what to share. But, my definition of worship might not be what you expect. Worship is one of those spiritually loaded words that, if we’re not carefully, can become a religiously loaded word. What do I mean by a religiously loaded word? There are a number of words that we in the church use today that we may really not know the definition of, and those who did not group up in the church (like me), or are relatively new Christians, may be confused by.

Gospel Justification
Salvation Evangelism/evangelical
Righteousness Hypostatic Union
Sanctification

So how does one define worship? Wikipedia offers the following definition:
Worship usually refers to specific acts of HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion"religious praise, honor, or HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devotion"devotion, typically directed to a HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernatural"supernatural being such as God, a HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God"god or HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goddess"goddess. It is the informal term in English for what HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociology_of_religion"sociologists of religion call HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_%28religion%29"cultus, the body of practices and traditions that correspond to HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theology"theology.
Religious worship may be performed individually, in informally organized groups, or as part of an organized service with a designated leader (as in a HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church"church, HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synagogue"synagogue, HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple"temple, or HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosque"mosque). In its older sense in the HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language"English language of worthiness or respect (Anglo-Saxon worthscripe), worship may sometimes refer to actions directed at members of higher social classes (such as HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord"lords or HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarch"monarchs) or to particularly esteemed persons.

That’s Wikipedia’s take on worship. Let’s look at how worship is defined and used in Scripture.

The word and its derivatives is found a few hundred times in Scripture. The English word “worship” actually represents four or five different Hebrew words in the OT and a similar number of Greek words in the NT. Each has a different nuance
(example: English word “love”)

To summarize, three distinct nuances:

1. To physically bow down or prostrate ones self before someone or something in a demonstration of honor and respect.
Ex. 4:29-31 -Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, and Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

2. To be devout or God-fearing.
Acts 18:7 - Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God.

3. To serve and/or minister before someone or something.
Acts 13:2 - While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

Definition: “worship is an active response to God whereby we declare His worth”

Four different people over the past month caused me to re-think and significantly adjust this definition: Davey, Louie, Larry, Terri

Davey (David Crowder) –
“I think we’ve elevated music to a place where it can’t bear the weight of what we’ve asked it to. It has wound up being the sum total of what we experience and think of worship as. It will fold under the weight. It’s a brilliant, beautiful thing to use music, and I think it’s maybe even why music exists. Yet it can really do damage if that’s the sum of what our understanding of worship is.”

Worship certainly includes music, but it’s so much more than that

Louie –
Worship is our response to what we value most. That’s why worship is that thing we all do. It’s what we’re all about on any given day. Because worship is about saying, ‘This person, this thing, this experience, this whatever, is what matters most to me; it’s the thing I put first in my life.’
That “thing” might be a relationship. A dream. Friends. Status. Stuff. A name. Some kind of pleasure. Whatever name you put on it, this thing or person is what you’ve concluded in your heart is worth most to you. And whatever is worth most to you is – you guessed it – what you worship.
Worship tells us what we value most. As a result, worship determines our actions, becoming the driving force for all we do.
Some of us attend the church on the corner, professing to worship the Living God above all. Others who rarely step inside the church doors would say worship isn’t a part of their lives because they aren’t ‘religious.’ But everybody has an altar. And every altar has a throne.
So how do you know where and what you worship?
It’s easy. You simply follow the trail of your time, your affection, your energy, your money, and your loyalty. At the end of that trail you’ll find a throne; and whatever, or whomever, is on that throne is what’s of highest value to you. On that throne is what you worship.
Sure, not many of us walk around saying, ‘I worship my stuff. I worship my Xbox. I worship my job. I worship this pleasure. I worship her. I worship my body. I worship me!’
But the trail never lies. We may say we value this thing or that thing more than any other, but the volume of our actions speaks louder than our words.
In the end, our worship is more about what we do than what we say.

Larry - pastor of church we were visiting

Terri – Ex. 20:4-6; 23:25-26


So here is my revised definition of worship:
“Worship is a active response of reverence to God whereby we declare His worth through our words and actions; by what we say AND what we do; by what we communicate both verbally AND by how we live our lives.”

Romans 12, the passage we are looking at this morning, strongly supports this definition of worship. Look at the passage with me:

Therefore
In light of all the amazing truths covered in the first 11 chapters

I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy
Which is one of the major themes of those first 11 chapters
*Define mercy (coach)

to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship.
*all in

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,
Romans 1:18-25

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 8 - “spirit” used 22 times
2 Cor. 3:17-18 Spirit

As Louie said, We all worship.

The questions are:

1. What, or who, do we worship?
2. If we claim to worship God, are we going to dabble at it, or are we all in?

Last part of definition from Wikipedia:

Worship as a Christian is also defined as how you live your life, since worship is honor to a supernatural being and the Bible talks about always honoring God. If you live your life honoring God then you are worshiping.

I’d like to suggest a new definition of “worship service”

pray

Series: Tipping Points: “Humility” (7)

Isaiah 66:2

comments:
1. church picnic baptisms – this is for all followers of Christ who haven’t been baptized – children, youth, adults
2. building –
à moved date of 1st service back 1 week 9/30
à made 1st draw on loan of $392,903 on 8/7
à $250,000 code upgrade money from insurance
à good chance will move into new building w/out all furnishings, contents
3. cac appeals for money – we’ve tried not to focus too much on giving, but we’ve had to talk about it much more than usual – thanks for your giving - $681,000 in 18 months in addition to regular giving
4. cac appeals for help – more than usual, time where we’ve needed extra help & will need in the next 4-6 weeks
5. change, transition, uncertainty – be patient, hold tongues, understanding, be unified, walk together, serve together as new future emerges
6. fall schedule – stay in 1 service, 9/16 beginning of fall schedule (9am worship 10:30am classes), why? a) unity health strengthening of the Body b) until growth forces us to return to 2 services
7. thanks to Kyle & Mike for preaching – heard great things about Kyle’s sermon & the communion service he led, same for Mike’s message on ‘whole life worship’
8. pray

tipping points
1. this summer I’ve been talking about tipping points in our relationship with God. Actions, behaviors, attitudes that if we get them God-right, they will tip us in the direction of his presence, power & kingdom.
à 7/1 – challenge of sin & necessity of God’s forgiveness
à 7/8 – noise & silence
à 7/15 – busyness & Sabbath
à 7/22 – fear & trust
à today – the challenge of pride & the necessity of humility.

2. I’ve been saying for months now that it is time to become a new people for a new building. How?

3. one way revolves around these tipping points. Will our sin lead us to seek God’s forgiveness? Will we move from noise to silence, busyness to sabbath, fear to trust, pride to humility?

4. God’s forgiveness, silence, Sabbath, trust & humility will prepare the soil of our souls for spiritual growth. Sin, noise, busyness, fear & pride will accomplish the opposite.

5. today – the challenge of pride & the necessity of humility

pride
1. I begin with 2 quotes from John Stott on pride:
Pride is more then the first of the seven deadly sins; it is itself the essence of all sin.

At every stage of our Christian development and in every sphere of our Christian discipleship, pride is the greatest enemy and humility our greatest friend.

2. pride has a long history. Pride was the very first sin. Isaiah 14:12-15 records the downfall of a king. Many biblical scholars believe that this references the rebellion & downfall of Satan – you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven, I will raise my throne above the stars to God, I will sit enthroned on the mount of the assembly…I will make myself like the Most High.

3. Satan & the other angels who followed him were cast out of heaven, out of God’s presence. We learn here that the essence of pride is aspiring to the status & position of God. Refusing to acknowledge dependence upon him. Pride infringes upon God’s supremacy.

4. the scope of the Bible’s teaching indicates that there’s no sin more offensive to God than our pride.
Proverbs 8:13: To fear the Lord is to hate evil – I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech – God hates pride!

Proverbs 6:16-17: there are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him – haughty eyes – God detests (hates) pride eyes!

Proverbs 16:5: the Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this – they will not go unpunished – God detests proud hearts!

5. now we know why Jonathan Edwards (1703-58; the greatest theologian in American history) called pride the worst viper that is in the heart. He ranked pride as the most difficult sin to root out of our lives and the most hidden, secret and deceitful of all lusts.

6. pride creates the sovereign self. The self that stands apart from God. Full of self.

7. my kids have roped me into watching The Office. A parody about modern American office life. The show delves into the lives of workers at Dunder Mufflin paper supply company in Scranton, PA. Regional Manager Michael Scott (steve carell) is a single, middle-aged man who is the tour guide for The Office. He is the personification of pride, arrogance, the sovereign self. He’s revolting. He’s a creep. He cares about no one but himself.

8. there’s a little bit of Michael Scott in all of us.

5 signposts of pride
1. Peter Wagner gives us 5 signposts of pride in his book Humility:
1) longing for praise & human accolades – a hunger for complements, pats on the back, your name in print or in the bright lights can rapidly lead to pride.

Another form of this is name-dropping. How many
important people you know? Who are your friends?

2) keeping score – we develop a system or scorecard to calculate how many self-defined, prestige-loaded points we accumulate. End result? Aren’t I something! We work hard at building our image to impress both ourselves & others.

Every year we receive a Christmas letter from a couple we went to college with. It’s basically a 2 page scorecard listing all the family accomplishments since their last scorecard. We know what they’ve “done” during the year. But who are they?

3) cultivating a creator complex – this happens when we compare to ourselves who others are & what they do. To the degree that they think or do things differently, we view them as inferior. Often we try to change them into our image. Because we are always right!
à why do they drive a ???
à couldn’t they have chosen a better college?
à don’t they know that’s not the way to paint a house?
à I would never shop for clothes where they do
à why do they keep going back to that terrible golf course? Don’t they have some class?

4) rejoicing in other’s failures & resenting others’ successes – the failures of others can make us look better while their successes can make us look worse. When’s the last time you were secretly happy at someone’s stumbling & failure? Or happy for their promotion or grand opening or large bonus or new house or honor roll child?

Every year in our Ash Wednesday service we pray together a prayer of confession that includes our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves.

5) compulsively defending yourself against criticism – key word, compulsively. This is a hard one. No likes their name or reputation to be run through the mud. The temptation is to fight back. We prove ourselves right in order to make our accusers wrong.

I’m always struck by this whenever I undergo a
criticism & want to defend myself – Jesus never defended himself to his accusers. He let his life, words, actions, track record speak for itself. We need to be more like Jesus!
What are some ways we can combat pride?
1. reminding ourselves that God is God & we’re not –
à he’s the Creator – we’re his creation
à he’s all wise – we’re prone to foolishness
à he’s sovereign, all-powerful – we have limitations
à he’s morally pure – we have character flaws
à he’s the only One who can save us from our sin & God’s judgment – on our best days we’re not good enough to earn our salvation
à he’s the giver of all good things – all that we have ultimately comes from him, from the air we breathe, the water we drink, to the gifts & abilities to make money

2. doing secret acts of kindness for others – in a manner that we won’t be recognized. This is good for all of us. Especially leaders, those who are in the public eye. There are many of you who are like this. Keep it up!

3. practicing downward mentoring – there’s a new book out called Off-Road Disciplines. It’s about spiritual & leadership formation. One of the disciplines – finding someone younger than yourself & asking them to teach you things that they know but you don’t. Some of the best leaders I’ve ever known in the church have made it a point to have people younger than themselves that they’re learning from. Proud people balk at this.

4. last but not least, practicing whole-hearted confession & repentance. As Jonathan Edward wrote over 200 years ago, pride is the hardest sin to root out of our lives. It’s stubbornly holds on to our hearts, egos, wills. We can only successfully fight it with God’s grace.

Next week – humility.