433: Worship | +Quigg Lawrence

Introduction

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. And Lord, I am so excited to see how you worked in the first service and that your word was a challenge and an encouragement to your people. So Lord, we pray, give us ears to hear and to fully engage and work with you as your word is spoken in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.

Twenty years ago, I had an outdoor cable TV show. And it wasn't like on every channel, it was just regionally. It was like in Virginia, maybe parts of North Carolina, was on Cox cable. You may remember it's called Inside the Outside. Inside the Outside. Well, see none of you watched it. That was the problem. That's why it got canceled, I think. Actually, it was a low-budget production, but we did win a coveted Clio. Can I just chase a rabbit here and go, you know, I have friends in the business and they all want a Clio? I got one, I looked at it and go, this is the ugliest thing I've ever seen and I threw it away. But nevertheless, the show was awesome.

And one day, I got to interview a very famous man. A man who, when he was a high school teacher, wondered why the camo that hunters used looked so silly. He goes, that doesn't look at all like a tree. The deer is gonna see me from a mile away. So he got out a Dickie T-shirt and some markers and he started drawing and he invented the first hunting camo. And that teacher is now a former teacher and very wealthy.

So when I was called to interview him, I went to his house and I was coveting all the beautiful things in his house that he had harvested. But when I was in his house, I had a 104 fever. And you might go, why did you go? Because I wanted to interview him. That's why I went. He's a famous guy and I really wanted him on our show. And in the midst of it, we, like, we were hunting buddies. And so we knew each other, but it was still an honor to be there with him. And in the middle of it, and again, I had a 104 fever, so I'm maybe not thinking perfectly. But he said something like this. You know Quigg, the outdoors is my church. That's where I have my religion. And like I like the guy, we're filming. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but it made me so sad. It made me so sad.

At first, I wanna say, I didn't know if he's a Christian or not. If he's not a Christian, I don't judge him. But it made me sad of how much he's missing out. But rather than be a jerk, see, in the old days, my habit would have been just to go Old Testament on him. Right? Just go Old Testament on the guy and go, are you kidding me? That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard from a human being. And I would have debated him, and of course, I would have lost because it was fueled by a lot of competitiveness and maybe a little anger.

But what I wanted to say to the guy is like, hey, the outdoors is your church. Well, that's interesting. Because I've seen you in the woods. I didn't see you praying. I didn't see you singing to God. I didn't see you worshiping. I didn't see you taking Holy Communion. I didn't see you stopping a whole service to baptize one little kid. I didn't see you doing any of that.

Oh, and for those of you who play golf, maybe this is more your deal. You know, that's where I'm close to God is on the golf course. Well, okay. It's beautiful. I get it. It's, it is beautiful. But here's what I wanna say. When you're on the golf course, the only time most golfers say the Lord's name is twice. Oh Lord, help me to make this shot over the water. God help me make this putt. Or they might just say the Lord's name in vain. But bottom line is, I don't see a lot of worship going on. And so like, if that's your church, that's a lie. It's a deception. And it makes me sad, and it makes God even sadder because he wants his people part of the body of Christ. The body of Christ.

Now, what I started to say with a 104 fever to my friend was, because I was trying to be nice and not jerk. Right? You get that idea? Christians kinda building a bridge. And I said, you know what? I totally understand where you're coming from. I get it. And and as a hunter and a guy who fishes and a guy who spent a lot of time in the outdoors, I the Bible actually affirms much of what you say.

Romans one says, well, I'll read it. Romans one says this, for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. He's not hiding. He's made it manifest. He's made it plain. He's shown himself to us. Verse 20 of Romans one, for in his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, they've been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So all people are without excuse.

Verse 21 goes on. It says, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. They claimed to be wise, but they became fools and they exchanged. They made an exchange. They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images.

And so, while we can affirm, yes, if you're in the outdoors, you will see the fingerprints of God and it is awesome. I wish you guys had been able to be on Bent Mountain with me the two thousand hours I was there. In the snow where you hear the flakes hitting and there's no ambient light, and there are no dogs barking. There's no trees. I mean, they're trees. Obviously, they're trees. But there's no noise. The holiness of that moment of watching the sun go down, and normally it would be dark except for the snow, so there's light. It's amazing.

But what I would wanna say to anyone is, it's not enough to see the created order and to know that there's a big guy upstairs. It's not enough. It's incomplete. And the object of our worship should never be what God created, but the creator himself. That's the object of our worship, not the creation. It, as awesome as it is, it's not the creation, it's the one who made it. And that's what we were made for: to worship him.

How to Worship

Now, so maybe you, you would say, okay, great Quig. I understand that we're not just to see the creation and know there's a higher power, but the call and command of God is to give him the glory he deserves. But how do we do that? Right? The church is famous for not telling people how to do stuff. Right? They want you to be a good Christian. They want you to follow Jesus and be holy, but they don't really tell you how to do that. And that's that's almost cruel.

Well, thankfully, the scripture has some instruction on how we are to worship God. Number one, you know this from John four. When he's talking to the woman at the well, what does he say to her? Because she's caught in her sin, so she tries to make a theological argument with Christ to get him away from observing that she's an adulterer. What did he say?

For the hour is coming and now is here. When true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking. He's seeking such people to worship him.

And so Christians, how do we worship? There's the how part. In spirit and the truth. In spirit and the truth. Of course, I looked up what everybody thought it means, but I think most commentators would say, we worship in spirit. That means from our hearts, the inmost part of our being. In other words, we're not just gonna be like Pharisees going through a ritual, just doing some rote action with our hearts far away. When we worship God, we're all in. We're all in. God, here I am. I give it to you all. You are worthy of my praise. And from my spirit to your spirit, by the power of your Holy Spirit, I will offer a sacrifice that pleases you and lifts up your name.

So we worship in spirit. Not too many years ago, most of you have heard the story. Our church was growing and we're getting big and sophisticated and had all kinds of ministries and programs. In the middle of my sermon, I saw a lady in a short miniskirt and she was a little wee bitty thing, had a wooden spoon, about five foot wooden spoon, and she was marching around the church while I was preaching. Now friends, that's pretty hard. I don't know if you have to do your job while people look on, but that was a freaky thing to see while I'm preaching. And I'm thinking to myself, what in the heck is Miss Danita doing? But you know what? She's a charismatic Christian, and I and I believe the church of the Holy Spirit needed a charismatic Christian to kinda wake us up a little bit.

After the sermon, I go to Miss Anita and I say, Anita, what exactly were you doing with that wooden spoon? She said, pastor, I was stirring up the Holy Ghost. Now I could have been all Anglican and gone, that wasn't appropriate. That's out of order. But I said, know what I said? I said, Miss Donita, I am sure that we need that. We're a stiff group. We need someone like you who's free in the Spirit to help us relax a little bit and be free in the Spirit.

But we don't want to have a kind of a nut job convocation. I mean, I've seen things on Instagram, guys running around the church. I'm like, why are they running? I don't know why they're running. It looks fun, just doesn't look like worshiping in spirit and truth. So whatever we do in worship, it has to match scripture.

I had another lady leave our church, happens. She goes to another church, that's fine. And she said, you know, the praise and the worship was so awesome this Sunday that we went for over an hour just singing to the Lord. And then the pastor didn't preach because we just kept singing. And she thought that was a good thing and I thought that was a terrible thing. Because I think that if all you do is worship in spirit with no truth, you're gonna perish. People need meat. People need the word of God. But they also need to be able to bring their full self to the Lord in worship. And not just kind of have outward rote things that we do with our hearts far from the Lord.

So how do we worship in spirit and truth? Number two, how do we worship? Hebrews, what comes to mind? It says, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day approaching. And maybe you're right. Maybe you get tired in sermons and kinda go. Okay? So let's do that. Thank you. Hear it again. The hour is coming, Jesus said. In fact, it's now here where true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

That's what God's looking for. He's searching for people who will worship him with all their being in spirit, freedom, and in truth, i.e., according to God's word. So there you go. Next point is this. So we're gonna worship together. It says, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near.

So we worship in spirit and truth, but what's the second part for Christians? We worship how? Together. You see what? I don't know if my buddy is a Christian or not, and I need to find that out. But what I know is his plan was to just worship nature by himself. That is a recipe for disaster. If he is in fact a believer, he's a disobedient believer. And he's a believer because it's not like trying to get an A on the test. He's a believer that's cheating himself of a gift the Lord wants to give him.

And we see even in the early church, I'm like, come on, you guys. Some of y'all saw Jesus. You saw him with your own eyes. You saw the resurrected Jesus. Or if not you, at least your parents did. Like, are close to ground zero, and you're already skipping corporate worship? What in the world did y'all have to do back then? Go to chariot races? I mean, could you imagine, sixty AD, somebody who had seen the resurrected Christ go, hey, we're just not—I just don't feel like it today. I'm not gonna go to church.

What was so important in sixty AD that they would sacrifice their time worshiping as the Lord commands for something else? It's amazing. And I love the fact that when you read scripture, that it's honest. I love it that it says, hey, early church was doing this. People were neglecting to come to corporate worship. They were neglecting to stir one another up to love and good works.

You may say, well, Quig, nobody cares if I come. Well, I'd say, the Lord does. But you know what? If I came here this morning and you weren't here, it would be less than. It would be less than. Could you imagine going to a Hokie football game, and you go in the stands and no one's there? Would that game be much fun to you? Not so great. How much more important it is to be with the body of Christ. And so when you've made the effort, like this morning, it was cold y'all. When I woke up at the base of Bent Mountain, I think it was like 17 degrees. Wind chill, it's like minus 14 or 15. And my bed was like, don't leave. Seriously, it's warm. The alarm went off. I'm like, are you kidding me? It's dark. But here's the good news. I've already made the decision to be a regular worshiper. Not because I'm so disciplined, I'm not. But early in my Christian life, I'm like, that's what Christians do. Jesus, as was his habit, went to worship, corporate worship. And he, I'm sure, his synagogue was absolutely pathetic. It was a, it was an incorporated town place. It was Nazareth. It was nothing. The bad rabbis got sent there. And he's God. And what a bunch of hypocrites he has to worship with. But he went. Jesus, as was his custom. Paul, as was his custom. And so we need to understand, it's not just about sitting in the pew, but we're gonna stir one another up to love and good works. And we know that Satan would just love to whisper in our ears, don't go. Don't go, don't go.

You know, my son Fleet and his wife Rachel, maybe this is more on her part than his. Okay? She's got great parents. Trained her well. But they never wake up on Sunday morning and go, hey, honey, do you think we should go to church in Sunday school today? That decision's already been made. Right? Think of the freedom that they have. Like, on Saturday night, they go to bed early. They lay the kids' clothes out. They're actually excited. They may go start prepping a meal so they can come home and have a family Sunday lunch or maybe invite friends from church to a family Sunday lunch. But but the freeing thing for them is they don't have to wake up every Sunday morning go, am I going or not? Any more than they have to say, do I brush my teeth or not? Do I shower or not? It's they've driven a stake in the ground. The stake is already driven. Like, this is who we are. We're the Lord's people. He's deserving of our praise. The scripture says, bring a sacrifice of praise to him.

And so I discovered this at age 20. It's like, it's not because I have to or God's gonna get mad at me. I wanted to be there. I wanted to be with other believers. I wanted to hear God's word. I want to hear somebody open up God's word. I want to have Holy Communion. I wanted to sing together. Even if it was a joyful noise, I wanted to be there.

So scripture tells us to worship in spirit and truth, worship together. But then you gotta say, well, that's awesome. What actually do we do when we gather for worship? I mean, I don't think the wooden spoon is written in the scriptures. That's kind of a one-off. But what do Christians do when we meet together? What do you guys think?

Well, Psalm 95 says this:

Oh come, oh come, Let us, plural, let us see, I wanna whisper that to my buddy. Oh, come. Let us sing to the Lord. And I know you, you're like me. You're right. Hey, dude. I don't sing. Fact, in fourth grade, somebody told me, Quig, you got a terrible voice. And of course, I'm sure I had something smart I like to say back to them, but that was wounding. I was wounded. You know, and I've worked hard to learn how to sing. So, but the scripture says, oh, come let us sing to the Lord, like plural together. Let us sing to the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise. Some of you guys are frankly, you're not great singers. I mean, it's just the truth. There are one or two where I'm like, woah, Jesus help them. Help them find that note. That thing is flat or that thing's sharp. Lord, could you split the difference on them? But then I then I have to say, thank God somebody's gonna open their mouth and give God praise. God doesn't care how you sing. You think he's oppressed? He is. Here's the songs of the angels. You think he I mean, Adele were singing or Natalie Grant or whoever, he's like, hey, that's pretty good.

Your voice doesn't scare God. So he says, come, let us sing to the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise. Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving. So we're singing. We're making a joyful noise. So there's no out there for anybody with a bad voice. Come, let us into his presence with thanksgiving. We're to thank the Lord when we gather. Thank him. I'm always amazed we have Thanksgiving time and it's like a wax museum or a bunch of mimes. I'm like, there's nothing we could give thanks to the Lord about? Like, just think. Go one inch deep. Bring thanksgiving. Make a joyful noise, songs of praise.

Verse six says, oh, come let us worship and bow down. Hey God, I ain't really the bowing down type. That's great for Anglo-Catholics who love to genuflect and do that stuff. That's not really my deal. I'm low church evangelical Virginia, we don't do bowing down. And God says, well, that's funny because Jesus did. That's funny because I commanded my word. Not that I need you to bow down to me, but you need to bow down to me. To give me the praise I deserve.

And so, okay. So we come together, we're singing, we're praying, we're bowing down. But what's the problem? What's the problem? I read an article that said something like seventy-three percent of people in churches never open their mouth during the worship service. And part of that may be our fault for putting it in the key that's too hard to sing. But let me tell you something, I don't care what the key is. I used to joke with Eric. Eric, I sing all three parts. Depending where you are in the song, if you know, I start low, and then I go high, and then I go middle, and I feel good. So I don't know what part I'm in, but at least I'm singing, man. I'm bringing a joyful noise.

But somehow it's not popular, especially with men and teenage boys. One of the things I love is seeing my grandsons, but granddaughters too, but my grandsons wanting to sing to the Lord. Like they haven't gotten the message yet that it's not cool. And I hope they never get the message or if they get it, go, that's straight from the devil. And like, men, come on y'all. I remember going even in seminary, which people had a lot of different beliefs there. But one thing they all did is they came every morning to chapel and people sang. I mean, from their hearts, they were like Mennonites. I mean, everybody is singing. And I'll tell you what, when you walk into a church family where that's going on, it is super, super powerful. Have you ever been there in the church? Maybe a little church, a little country church, and everyone is singing with all their might. You experience the presence of the Lord.

Building Others Up

Alright. One more. So we worship. We worship in spirit and truth. We worship together. We worship by singing, praying, and bowing down. And we also worship by building up other people. So I get it. When you come in here, this isn't a talk fest. It's not a two-way. We're not fellowshipping in the same way we would at a life group or at another function. We're focused on the Lord. But there is a real sense where when we come together, we all bring something that blesses other people.

God gives gifts to his people to equip the body, to build them up. And so in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul says this. We're almost done. It says:

What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. I wouldn't have time to dive into all those things, but I want you to hear this. Each one, every believer, would bring something. Not just their body, not just go through religious performance, but actually would bring something to edify the body. Every person.

And so if you're out on the golf course or you're up in your deer stand, you may experience the Lord, but you're not building up the body of Christ. And eventually, if you choose to be a lone soldier, you will be a lone soldier.

Conclusion

Alright. So let's close. Are you a Christian? If you're not a Christian, I'm not talking to you right now. Are you a Christian? Have you experienced the mercy of God? Have you experienced the rescue? Well, then I'm gonna say this. Worshiping corporately is a command. It's not up for debate. God really doesn't want to know your opinion about it. It's set. It's set.

But I also want to reframe it. Because if it's just a rule, a lot of us would say, I don't like rules. But what if it's a gift? During COVID, you had a little taste of not being able to worship together. In other countries, some of the places we send missionaries, they're not able to worship together. But we don't have that problem. We're able.

What I'm trying to convince you today is to do like Jesus, to do like Paul, to do like my son Fleet, to do like my daughter Mary Winn, who dresses four kids by herself early on Sunday morning, feeds them, combs her hair. You know why they do that? Because they've driven a stake in the ground. They're not gonna wake up on Sunday morning and go, hey, are we going or not going? No. It's just like they've made the decision, and the decision's already settled.

I want that for you guys. I want that for you. I want the joy of that for you. I want the freedom of that for you. I want the faithfulness of that for you, and I want it for the greater body. Are you a Christian? The gift is to drive a stake in the ground. Don't ever wonder, are you going to church? Unless you're sick, you're going. In Jesus' name. Amen and amen.