Description
THAT THING WE DO
Everyone Worships
March 4, 2012
Ed Young
The ball crosses the end zone and the crowd goes wild. The band takes the stage and the audience rises to its feet. The three pointer ties the game and arms around the arena are raised in triumph. These are nothing more than our energetic and emotional response to something we love. It’s something we all do.
But in reality what, and more importantly who we respond to varies. And the truth is that the object of our reaction is the very thing that determines the outcome of our lives.
In this message, Ed Young unpacks the reality of our response. And we discover the fact that when we respond the one true God, everything in life takes on a new and more powerful meaning.
Transcript
Let’s go ahead and do a crazy clap. Did everyone get your message maps at all the environments? Remain standing. We have a message map for everybody. If you got your message map wave it, eave it, wave it. It’s very, very important. I see some people who aren’t waving your message map. Here, Dallas, Fort Worth, Miami, Plano. If you’re watching us by television log onto EdYoung.com and you’ll see the icon, “That Thing We Do” and you can follow along. All right, please be seated.
“That Thing We Do.” That’s what we’re talking about. I love outlines. I love fill-in-the-blanks because the blanks say, “Fill me in! Fill me in!” There’s something about an incomplete blank that just screams for us to write down. What did he say? What did he say? We’re gonna have a rule from this day, forward. One claps, everybody claps. So if I start clapping I want everybody to clap. That’s pretty good. Some are not clapping.
What is it about ladies? Ladies will clap! Guys, we’re just too cool to clap. We’re like… When I clap, everybody clap. There ya go.
Today we’re talking about that thing we do. I’m beginning a series called “That Thing We Do.” What is that thing we do? What is that thing we do? We do a lot of things but there are certain things we just do. We can’t help ourselves. We just do it. Ain’t nothin’ to it but to do it. That thing we… that’s right.
Monday I asked my son to go on Stubhub.com and buy some Mavericks tickets. I haven’t been to a Maverick’s game in five years! Is that pitiful? That’s some sort of a sin, I think. My nephew is in town. He’s a big sports guy so we went on this web site. I spent a lot of money to get some good seats to see the Mavericks play. It costs a lot of money if you’re gonna have good seats at an NBA game, have you noticed that? Any sporting event, especially professional sports, you’ve gotta take out a loan to go to a game! So I bought four seats, parking pass. We planned on when we were gonna leave and everything was just perfect. We dressed the part, left with enough time. Even though we got lost several times we made it there. All the traffic and everything, we made it there. We settled into our seats, we watched the Mavs play the New Jersey Nets. It was quite a game. Mark Cuban has done a really good job with the Mavs because there’s no dead time in the event. Time out… <drum sound effects>… the drum line. Time out, music going on. Time out, the players are encouraging the fans to clap. He’s done a great job of keeping you engaged and involved. And I was watching people around me. Some were dancing with liquid encouragement during the game. A lot of people were shouting. I saw one guy make a shot and I saw one guy turn to another and go, “That was cold-blooded!” People just naturally cheer and naturally shout. There’s nothing like a sporting event. The Mavericks have some passionate fans, yet that passion is fueled by smart marketing, by a lot of excitement. And that’s a good thing. It’s great to be passionate about stuff. It’s great to have passion about sports. We’re a passionate city. I know Miami, the Magic city, is a very passionate city about its sports city. There’s a great chance the Heat will win it all this year. Dwade, Lebron, man, those guys are doing it. It’s just the way it is. You can hiss, whatever, let’s just put the cards on the table. People in Miami are passionate about stuff.
We’re made, aren’t we, to give ourselves fully to things? Have you noticed that? We want to give ourselves fully to certain things. As I travel around and talk to people some people are fully into snowboarding. That’s their deal. They dress like a snowboarder, they read Snowboarding Weekly. Everything is snowboarding, snowboarding, snowboarding. And they’ll do anything just to snowboard. It’s their lifestyle. It’s their ultimate passion.
I talked to someone who’s in to running, marathon running. They run marathons. They dress like a marathoner. Everything’s marathon, marathon, marathon. Everything’s marathon, marathon, running, always eating, checking their pulse, marathon. Increasing their speed. “I’m gonna run Boston, New York. Maybe I will run the Honolulu Marathon.” Marathon, marathon, marathon. “I’ve run 13 marathons.” No, I’ve run five marathons.” Everything is a marathon. We’re passionate if we’re into marathons about being a marathon runner.
Others are passionate about CrossFit. Wow, CrossFit, CrossFit. How many squats, how many Burpees can you do? Pull-ups? Competing here, competing there. I want to be an athlete. And others are into other sports and you have to shave the hair off your arms and legs and you can have that look. That’s what you are passionate about.
Still others are passionate about shopping. Ladies? Passionate about it! Wow. “I’m passionate about a sale. I’m passionate about this mall. I’m passionate about going online.” Some gearheads are passionate about a new computer program or new app. “Wow, have you seen the new app? I’m just passionate about it.” We’re passionate about cars and clothes and things. We’re passionate people. That’s good. It’s a good thing, it’s a God thing. Passion.
Could it be, though, that some of us have misplaced our passion? Perhaps we have gotten so passionate about all these other things that maybe, just maybe, we’ve missed the main thing? I’m just sayin’. I just want to lob the question out. Passion. The Bible says we should be passionate about life, but in our search for passion have we allowed the passion we have for other things to Pac-Man our primary passion, our primary passion, our ultimate passion, which should be being passionate about God himself?
What am I talking about when I talk about passion? What do I mean when I say passion? I’m talking about worship. We don’t call it that. We don’t say “Oh, I worship triathlons. I worship CrossFit. I worship antiquing. I worship homes. I worship clothes.” We don’t call it that, but we say, “Oh yeah, I’m passionate about that. I’m into that.” That’s worship. A common definition of worship is to be passionate about a person, place, or thing. That’s just kind of a pedestrian definition of worship.
The Bible, though, says worship is something deeper. The Bible says yes, we’re made to worship. No one has taught me how to worship and no one taught you how to worship, I just know how to worship. I know how to, “Oh wow! Did you see that shot by Dirk? I’ll stay for the whole game!”
“Man, the Mavericks lost by 1, and there was Mark Cuban going, I can’t believe it, cussing at the refs. Flipping them off and all that.” You know, people are into it. “I stay for the whole game.” I’m passionate about that and so are you. No one taught me how to do it, I just know how to do it. I’m made that way. God made me that way. But worship, real worship, yes it’s passion but it’s basically our response to the identity and activity of God, expressed by what we say and what we do. <rewind sound effects> Oh that’s the Tweet of the day. You better write that down, don’t miss that! What is worship? Oh yeah, it’s being passionate about a person, place, or thing, but real worship is our response to God’s identity (who he is), right? His activity (what he does), expressed by what we say and what we do. That’s worship.
Could it be that we are wasting our worship? Could it be that we are perverting our passion? Could it be that things are Pac-Manning our worship in life? Because we’re gonna worship. At the Maverick’s game I would say, “Wow, great worship! Twenty thousand people who needed exercise watching 10 people battle it out who don’t need exercise.” It kinda sounds like the church, doesn’t it? Worship!
I remember years ago I went to see U2 and I went to the old Houston Astrodome. My brother got us some sweet tickets. And I’m looking at U2 watching the Edge and Bono and Larry Mullis, Jr., Adam Clayton do their thing. <singing> “In the name of love…” And I’m looking around. We’re in the fourth row, man. And people have their arms stretched out. “In the name, in the name of love…” Guys going crazy at U2, acting like maniacs at U2. And the next morning they go to Sunday School or church and they act like mannequins. How can they do that? How can we do that? We’ll go like a maniac at the Mavericks game and Sunday we’ll act like mannequins. Picking our nose. What’s up with that? Could it be that we’re wasting our worship? Could it be that it’s like, OK, yeah, yeah. Good worship, wrong object. We’re made to give ourselves fully to stuff. I want to open this series, this in-depth series about worship, with several statements about worship.
The first one is this, here’s the first blank. “Ed, pleeeeease! I want to fill in the blanks!” Worship is not manufactured. Worship is intrinsic. It’s what we do. Worship is not manufactured, it’s intrinsic. Everybody worships. No one taught me how to worship, no one taught you how to worship. We just worship. We’re hard-wired for worship.
We’re gonna base this series on Psalm 100. Why Psalm 100? I’ll tell ya. 100. Say a hundred with me. There are 168 hours in every week, right? 168. Hopefully we sleep 8 hours a night and then the rest we’re getting ready, hygiene, etc. it leaves us about 100 hours a week to worship. So as Christ-followers, many of you are Christ-followers and many of you aren’t. As a believer you don’t come to Fellowship Church to worship. You come worshiping. Everything we do should be worship. I’m responding to God’s activity and identify, expressed by what I say and what I do. Everything I do should be an act of worship. If I’m going to a Mavs game, an act or worship. If I’m antiquing, an act of worship. If I’m shopping, an act of worship. If I’m making love with my spouse (via the Sexperiment) I’m worshiping! Everything we do, say, touch, and feel as a Christ-follower should be an act of worship.
Well, Psalm 100 comes along and Psalm 100 says, “Shout joyfully to the Lord.” Now, for two decades I’ve heard this about Fellowship Church. Some people say, “Oh man, the music is just too loud. It’s just too loud.” Do you know what the word ‘shout’ means in the Hebrew? A piercing noise! I’ve never heard someone exit the Death Star and say, “It was just too loud.” I’ve never heard someone leave a U2 concert and go, “Man, it was just, Bono was screaming so loud.” Yet when it comes to church…
“Shout, the Bible says, “joyfully to all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness,” verse 2. In other words, if I’m worshiping it will transition into work. If I’m really expressing my love to God, it will translate into me serving. If you’re not serving, you’re swerving. We’ve gotta serve within the house. When we worship, we’re gonna serve. Worship and work are always tied together.
“Come before him with joyful singing.” Do you know after every great spiritual awakening, study church history, it’s accompanied by new songs? Isn’t it amazing that we have so many gifted people writing these new songs? We ought to be going crazy, giving standing ovations, when one claps everybody claps. You ain’t clapping in the back. Yeah, there, you! You oughta be going nuts!
Now, I’m all for tradition. But the tradition I came from.. <singing> “Bringing in the sheaves. (It’s the joy of the Lord.) Bringing in the sheaves. We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.” Boy, I want some of that. That sounds exciting. Uh-huh-huh-huh-huh. I would read the entire psalm, Psalm 100, but that’s next time. We’re gonna get into this stuff. It’s gonna be thick. I just want to say to you that worship is not manufactured, it’s intrinsic. Is something that we do. We can’t help ourselves. You’re a worshiper, everybody’s a worshipper. And I would say, wow, great passion! But so often our passion is perverted.
The second statement about worship: Worship is not complacent, it’s competitive. The enemy does not want us to worship. The whole thing is about worship. Think about what happened before the enemy fell. Back in the Heavenlies, Lucifer was the worship leader. He tried to usurp God, why? He wanted the worship himself! So what did he do? He was kicked out of Heaven. Lucifer took a third of the angels with him. They are now the demons. A third of Heaven got kicked out! A third of Heaven left! As I travel the world and talk to travels I say hey, people are gonna leave your church. They even left Heaven! God couldn’t keep a third of the angles and you think you’re gonna keep everybody in your church? What are you smokin’?
It’s over worship. We’re in a battle over worship. I think about Acts 17, you can read it there. I won’t read it all to you but Acts 17 you have the apostle Paul. He went to a place called Mars Hill. Mars Hill means a place of competition, a place of battle. The place was literally littered with idols. The stoics and epicureans they were saying this, they were saying that. And Paul looked and he found one idol amongst the hundreds that had this inscription: To an unknown god. And Paul used that as a springboard to talk about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
We live in Mars Hill, a place of competition. There is a war going on for your worship. Have you ever wondered why it’s so difficult to come to church? There’s a war going on for your worship and mine. God commands and demands us to come together, regularly (Hebrews 10:25), for corporate worship. God commands us and demands us to regularly worship him. God says in Scripture, “I am a jealous God.” Oh what, does God have some kind of self esteem issue? What’s the deal, man? God’s a jealous God? No, no, no. God knows if we chase after anything else, if we give anything else our primary passion, we’re gonna be gravely disappointed. There’s a war going on. A war over worship.
Think about the temptation of Jesus. After the spiritual high point, after the baptism, he was driven out into the wilderness. After fasting 40 days and 40 nights the enemy came to him and said, “Hey, turn these stones into bread.” Jesus came back at him with Scripture. He said, “Hey, throw yourself off the temple, cause you can come back from the grave.” Jesus threw Scripture at him. Then he took Jesus to a mountain range, maybe the Alps, I don’t know where. He said, “Jesus, you bow down and worship me, I will give you everything you see.” And look what Jesus said back to him. Matthew 4:10, “Then Jesus said to him, ‘Go. For it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”
God is your primary passion. God must be my primary passion! Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you. When my worship is right, my priorities are right, my relationships are right, my finances are right, my emotions are right. Everything is just right! I didn’t say perfect, it’s just right.
What’s your problem? “Oh I need counseling!” Maybe. What’s your problem? “I need more money.” Maybe. What’s your problem? “I need a career change.” Maybe. You know what your problem is? You know what my problem is? We got a worship problem. And the biggest competition in my life and your life, the biggest god that fights the Lord is ourselves. Self worship. It’s either God’s will (God, I’m gonna do what you want me to do) or my will. My will or God’s will.
The third statement about worship: Hopefully this is blowing the hinges off of the doors that some of you had about worship. This is just the beginning. Hopefully it is. Because this stuff is gonna go to some unusual places, some places of life change. The third statement: Worship is not compartmentalize, it’s transcendent. Psalm 100, remember that? We have 100 hours a week, roughly. Generally speaking, as a lawyer would say, we have 100 hours. Worship transcends everything that we’re about. What is our primary passion? What is our god?
Romans 12:1, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies (wow!) as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual act of worship.” Again, it’s the transcendence of worship. We like to compartmentalize our lives. Right? OK, this is worship. This is my spiritual life and over here is my corporate life and here is my recreational life and my relational life. We want to compartmentalize everything, have these cubbies. God just blasts that out. He takes a chainsaw <chainsaw sound effect>, takes out the cubbies. It’s transcendent.
Again, everybody worships. Everybody does! But are they pursuing the right person, the right thing, in their worship. We get so intense about games and deals and technology and clothes and cars and homes and all that, that we come to God and just give him leftovers.
Another statement, the fourth one. Let me blow my nose. I’ve been sick for two weeks, excuse me. If we were at the Mavs game it’d be like… bum-bum-bum-bum-bum! Let’s play some music while I blow my nose.
All right, thank you. Now I’ve been sick, man. I took a couple of days off after the C3 Conference, went to the Northwest, I was sick in a hotel for like four straight days with fever! And I had to speak in Vancouver and I was sick there. Came home, I’m feeling better, I’m like back! And then had this sinus thing, boom! Hit me. So if my nose is running please forgive me. Last night I was speaking and Lisa was like… I know it’s gross to talk about it but everybody has runny noses, OK? Sinusitis. Mucous membrane.
I like that music, don’t you? Let’s do it again! Everybody stand, let’s all stand, yeah! Now, some of you religious people are going, “I can’t believe they played that in church.” Let me ask you a question. Is there such a thing as Christian music? No. There’s no such thing as Christian music. What? No! There’s Christian lyrics, no such thing as Christian music. So we can either make it Christian or not. I like that, what song is that? That’s right, Party Rock. You know, we have to edit some of the words but that’s OK.
Hey, how many people like a BLT sandwich? We got a fresh BLT right here. I love BLTs! Let’s give a crazy round of applause for my boy, Dave Clark. Dave, come on up here. Dave Cla-a-aark!
Now the fourth statement, the fourth statement: Worship is not about me (me! Me! It’s about me! Me-me-me-me-me-me-me-ME!), it’s not about me, it’s about God. Dave, what’s up?
Dave: What’s up?
Ed: Have you been sick?
Dave: No, I’m good.
Ed: Man, I hope I don’t get you sick. Anyway, this is a BLT. Look at this, man, this thing is good. Who in here loves BLTs? OK, Dave, just take a bite.
Dave: All right.
Ed: Dave Clark:
Dave: I’ll try not to make a mess. It’s good. It’s tasty, good bacon. Mm-hmm.
Ed: Yeah, bacon’s good for ya.
Dave: In small quantities it’s good for you.
Ed: Yes it is. Dave’s great, his lovely wife Jen. You guys have three beautiful kids. Jen, stand up. They’re from the north. I love Yankees. And you guys gave us that Yankee Candle for Christmas. And you know what? We like that! We lit the candle yesterday!
Dave: That was good. We hope you got the joke.
Ed: I did! I love it! Thank you, Jen. I know you picked that out for Lisa and I. We love the Yankee Candle.
Dave: That’s right.
Ed: OK, Dave, you’re the best. Thank you, Dave Clark! The BLT!
Dave, can I have half of that please? So often, when we come to church we just order a BLT. “God, I’ll take a BLT. This is a ginormous restaurant, a BLT. B-Bless me, God. L-Love me, God. I love me some me and God, you love me some me, too. T-Take care of me, God.” Whoo! That’s a popular theology. Bless me. Love me. Take care of me. God is there for MEEEE! So, if I have enough faith I can make God do what I want God to do. I can look inside of myself. I can be the man, the woman, I just do what I want to do and ask God to BLT me.
God’s not a waiter. He’s not an errand boy. He’s not a UPS guy. He’s God. He’s sovereign. It’s not about me, it’s about God. So it’s not my will, and then God give me a BLT. No, no, no, no, no. It’s God’s will. When we synch up our lives and say, “God, I die to myself and I live for you.” Then God, in his economy, in his framework, will bless us the way he knows we should be blessed. He will show us his love. Obviously we know that by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. His leadership and guidance and reconciliation and all of that. And also God will take care of us. But, in God taking care of us so often bad stuff happens to good people. You’re gonna have times of suffering. You’re gonna have times of pain. You’re gonna have times of betrayal. You’re gonna have times of problems. What do we do? We worship God in the midst of it. We praise him in the midst of it. Even though we don’t feel like it, “God, you’re God and I’m not. I praise you, Lord. I love you, Lord. I’m gonna shout to you, Lord.” And then, maturity and breakthroughs and real stuff happens in our lives.
Jesus said it in Matthew 22. He said it so succinctly. He said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. Then the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself.” So you can talk it, but if you talk it you better walk it. If we love God, if we pursue him with the totality of who we are, what’s gonna happen? Well, we’re gonna love others sacrificially and selflessly. Wow, it’s about worship.
See, worship is all about change. It’s not just, “Oh, I got a quiver in my liver! Spring in my step! Tingle in my spine. Oh that must be it!” It’s part of it, but it must translate into life change. And it’s my prayer during this series over the next several weeks that many here will come to know Christ personally. Many of you will say, “You know what, God? I’ve tried to worship this. I’ve tried to worship that. I’m gonna worship you. I realize I’m hardwired for worship and you are worthy of my worship!”
Philippians 2 says something that is sobering. Philippians 2, verse 9, “For this reason also, God highly exalted him and bestowed on him, Jesus, the name which is above every name. At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in Heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.”
Think about that. That means everybody will worship Jesus. Everybody. I’ll say it again. Everybody will worship Jesus. Everybody. Well that verse is tough because when I was in the Northwest, sick, one night Lisa and I went out to dinner and we got into a conversation with this waitress, a young girl. She told us she had been living with her boyfriend for five years and she asked us what we did for a living. And I usually don’t answer that question right up front. I don’t want to scare people. And she said,
“What are you doing here?” and I said,
“We’re speaking.” And she said,
“Why?” and I said,
“Well, we’ve written a book.”
“What’s the book about?” and I said,
“Well, it’s called The Sexperiment.” And she said,
“What?” and I go,
“Yeah, it’s for married couples and it’s also for those who are single.” And she goes,
“Well, man, I’d love for you guys to tell me how to buy the book.” And I said,
“No, we’ll just send you a book. You don’t have to buy it.” So she gave us her information and all that and seemed sort of cordial. She was sweet and everything.
So we came back to Dallas and after a couple of days I got this e-mail. And she said, “Ed and Lisa, I looked up your church and I looked up the book and you can keep your book because I don’t believe in Christianity. I don’t believe in what you believe in. Thank you very much. Hope to see you again at the restaurant.” So I thought wow, that’s interesting. I appreciated her honesty. That’s pretty bold. We were gonna send her a free book, then she said. All right. So I did send her a book. I sent her a great book by Lee Strobel called “The Case for Faith.” If you’ve not read that it’s a great, great book to give a skeptic. Instead of trying to answer all the skeptic’s questions just give them a book. Most of the time (I will give you the 4-1-1 on skeptics), skeptics don’t have an intellectual problem with the Bible or with Jesus. Did you hear that? They don’t. They have a lifestyle problem.
You see, that girl did not want Jesus in on her cohabitation. That girl did not want Jesus up in her grill. And I understand that. Because living for Christ is radical, I understand that. But I think if she is open and honest enough to read Lee Strobel’s book I think it will definitely light her up.
But I thought, since we met with this girl and talked to her, after several minutes I thought, you know, it’s interesting how God placed our paths together in the Northwest for us to talk to her. And I thought, you know, if she were to die she would go to Hell. She has chosen that way. God does not hurl anybody to Hell, but she would worship the Lord. Because Philippians says that even those who are on their way to a Christ-less eternity will have a glimpse of Jesus. Every knee will bow. Every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. It will be too late but everybody will do it.
So we either bow the knee, we either give God his worship here or there. Now, or later. When it’s great, today, this moment, or, sadly, when it’s too late. And Lisa and I will continue to pray for this young waitress and she will bow the knee. But God led us together for that reason.
What about you? Do you have a vested interest in keeping God out of your grill? And you’re trying to throw all this intellectual stuff up at God. “Oh, I don’t believe the Bible. I don’t think Jesus really was who he said he was. I saw some special on the History Channel or whatever…”
Are you serious? How many hours have you dedicated to really seeking the questions, the intellectual arguments you have over the person of Christ? It’s time for many of you to bow the knee and say, “Jesus, I worship you. I seek you. I want to be passionate about you and you alone. By faith I want to make that decision.” Because worship is that thing we do.
{Ed leads in closing prayer.]