Simple Sermon Series
Simple
Pt. 1 – Disciples?
by Steve Ely
- Introduction
Some things are complex and complicated. Rubix Cubes. Algebra. Or maybe better said . . . math. Why do people in horror movies go into barns and cellars. Why do people in action movies never take the gun of the person they disarm when there are more bad guys to face. Women.
However, faith was never supposed to be complex or confusing. Man has this propensity to make things harder than they should be. When Jesus arrives on the scene man had severely complicated matters. In fact, they had taken the 10 Commandments as easily understood as they were and they had “clarified” them until now there were 613 laws. They had developed the Mishnah which was an oral tradition of commentary on the Mosaic Law that introduced additional, man-made rules that “built a fence” around the Mosaic Law so people wouldn’t even come close to breaking God’s commandments. This had 63 subsections. For instance, on the idea of keeping the Sabbath they had 39 categories of forbidden labor which are prohibited by this commandment and under these categories dozens of other kinds of labor that were forbidden. Complex. Confusing. Jesus walks into this crushing environment and systematically tries to simply everything. Once when asked to make commentary on the already commentaried to death Commandments, He simply says there are two great commandments. Love God and love your neighbor. Jesus made it simple. We should too.
That is what we are going to try to do over the course of the next few weeks. Let’s go back to basics. Let’s make sure we focus on what matters. We could take time and try to be profound and deep. However, too often we are simply educated beyond our level of obedience and certainly beyond our level of experience.
One of the simplest truths we learn is one of the ones that we forget and when we do the ramifications on our actions/behavior and thought life is dramatic and often devastating.
Mark 1:16-20 (NIV)
As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
In Mark 2, the scene is repeated and He calls Levi – tax collector.
By the time we arrive in Mark 3, Jesus has chosen 12 disciples to be with Him.
We don’t even understand that Jesus is turning the system of the day on its head. The first way He did this was who He chose as His disciples.
Each village/town had a synagogue. The Temple had been destroyed so since they couldn’t get to the temple, they brought the temple to them. The synagogue was more than just a place of worship. It was their place of education. So, all the 5-10 years old boys and girls go to House of the Book to learn Torah. Then all 11-12 years old boys go to a great interpretation – learn how to apply Word. Then at 13 years old – Bar mitzvah a rite of passage. Then the “A” students looked for a rabbi. All the other boys entered their father’s business. The fact that all the men that Jesus called/picked/chose were involved in their father’s business tells us they flunked out. They didn’t excel. They weren’t good students. They showed no promise in religious things. The second important thing is that in the system of the day the disciple selected the rabbi. The 13-year-old would attach himself to a teacher who he wanted to become like. Not just learn what he taught but to become like him in character. However, Jesus, the rabbi, chooses His disciples. The Chosen One chooses these men to follow Him.
The good and simple news is that Jesus continues to choose! He still seeks people others would cast off and cast aside. He still selects the unselectable. In fact,
1 Corinthians 1:26-29 tells us this . . .
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence.
Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.”
Then again in . . .
Ephesian 1:3-6
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
Why are those portions of Scripture important when we consider whether we are disciples?
- We need to remember who did the choosing.
Despite our shortcomings and unworthiness, Jesus added us to His team. Overlooked and outcasts in society. Less thans and unwanted He still gathers us. Why is this an important thing to know? It should fill our hearts with joy! He first loved us. We were handpicked. Selected. We weren’t worthy. But it should also fill our hearts with humility! If we did the picking it would lead to pride! We didn’t choose Him He chose us! While we were still sinners.
We also need to remember this because there will be days when we are facing difficult situations that we won’t feel chosen. However, we need to remember that our chosenness has nothing to do with feeling . . . Feelings are great liars. Feelings are important in many areas but completely unreliable in matters of faith. Paul Scherer said, “The Bible wastes very little time on the way we feel.” We live in an “age of sensation.” We think that if we don’t feel something there can be no authenticity in doing it. But the wisdom of God says something different: that we can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting.”
Just because we don’t feel chosen has no bearing on the fact that we are chosen! Remember we are chosen!
- Chosen leads to choices!
Being chosen forces us to make choices. You can be chosen and refuse to really follow. Being chosen leads to choices. There are many choices that we must make once we have been chosen but I want to just keep it simple and focus on 1 thing that if done will take care of the rest.
The #1 choice we must make is to obey
This is the single most important choice and the one all others hinge on. We must make a conscious decision to obey.
The disciples had to make that choice. Remember when Jesus found them on the seashore frustrated because they had fished all night but caught nothing? Jesus gives them odd instructions . . . wrong time of day – cast your nets again. Fishermen being instructed on fishing by a carpenter! They start to make excuses but then obey and a great harvest comes.
Disciples make decisions in spite of feelings, their own wisdom or even experience and they obey.
In the Old Testament, the whole story is an account of God trying to get His people to obey. David knew that with God obedience is better than sacrifice and nothing changed in that regard in the New Testament.
Jesus drives home the importance of obedience in the life of a disciples by saying . . .
John 14:15 – If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you.
John 15:10 – If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love. (So if you we don’t keep commandments we don’t remain in His love?)
Simply put disciples obey. We don’t look for loopholes or for how much we can get away with and still stay in right relationship. Close following requires complete obedience.
One man rightfully said, “We have disconnected obedience from faith, producing a default gospel that is eating the life out of our churches.”
Our fallback position must become “Even so lord we will do as you say”. Our level of discipleship will be determined by the depth of our obedience.
When you have choices and you will let’s keep it simple . . . simply obey. Every other choice you have must be weighed out through this choice. If it comes down to my way, the world’s way, what’s right, what’s wrong, preference, tradition, influence, trend, socially acceptable I will stop and weigh it out in light of my choice to obey Jesus!
We call Jesus Lord because that term is more socially acceptable. His disciples often called Him “Master!” We don’t like that term. However, let that sink in! Master. Maybe we need to let Jesus become Master in our lives! We need to ask ourselves, “are we really disciples?”
Simple
Pt. 2 – Study
by Steve Ely
- Introduction
Some things are complex and complicated. Politics. The sport called Cricket. Defining the word “the”. The human brain. Cats.
However, faith was never supposed to be complex or confusing. Man has this propensity to make things harder than they should be. When Jesus arrives on the scene man had severely complicated matters. So, last week I challenged you to really ask yourself if you are truly a disciple. Remember we said disciples are disciples because they choose to obey. This leads me to a conclusion. If we are going to be disciples, then not only must we follow the example of Jesus but of the first disciples. If they were disciples because they obeyed, what did they do? Let me pose this question another way. In recent years a local church has defined “disciple” in what may be one of the best and most succinct ways. They say a disciple is a “fully devoted follower of Christ.” I think they are right. But my question is what then is a disciple devoted to? Fortunately for us we are told.
Acts 2:42-47 (NIV)
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
We are clearly told exactly what the disciples were devoted to. The very first one is that they were devoted to the apostles’ teaching. Man, I wish we had record of those lessons don’t you? I so wished we had a document where their teachings were written so that we could devote ourselves to those teachings! I say that tongue in cheek because we do. What those early disciples were hearing we can read. It is what we call Scripture.
So simply stated the disciples were devoted to study of Scripture. In fact, Paul comes along and instructs those of us who want to obey to devote ourselves to this same practice.
2 Timothy 2:15 (AMP)
Study and do your best to present yourself to God approved, a workman who has no reason to be ashamed, accurately handling and skillfully teaching the word of truth.
So, the early disciples and then Paul giving instruction to his disciple Timothy reveal that disciples should study.
Disciples study.
Most of us after school have an aversion to the concept of study. So, we have substituted listening for learning. Notice it didn’t say listen to the Word to grow in ability to handle the Word. I am not discounting the necessity and benefit of hearing the Word. However, too many of us only want to learn from someone else’s work. The result is we simply don’t study like we should. We tend to become lazy. We expect to be spoon fed.
One of the issues is that the earliest trick the enemy used against us is the one he will continue to use. He approaches Eve and says “Is that what God said?” That challenge leads Eve into failure and sin simply because she didn’t know what God said. So often just because we don’t study, we don’t know. And our lack of study results in the fulfillment of the truth in Hosea 4 which states, “My people perish or are destroyed due to lack of knowledge.”
In the Yosemite and Yellowstone Park’ s there are signs that say, “Do not feed the bears”. Most people think the signs are to protect people. The signs are to protect the Bears. If they depend upon the tourists for food, then in the fall, they starve to death. Every year the Rangers must remove the dead carcasses of bears who were so dependent upon the Tourists for food that they forgot how to find food for themselves. If we don’t feed on the Word ourselves, we wind up like the Bears, dependent upon pastors, teachers, podcasts, or TV preachers for “food” and we spiritually starve to death.
A recent survey revealed that most Americans don’t know first-hand the overall story of the Bible—because they rarely pick it up,” One of the researchers said, “Even among worship attendees less than half read the Bible daily. The only time most Americans hear from the Bible is when someone else is reading it.” He went on to say “Americans treat reading the Bible a little bit like exercise. They know it’s important and helpful, but they don’t do it. Americans are fond of the Bible but don’t read it.”
Disciples study! Why?
There are all kinds of reasons I can give you light, direction, protection, healing, provision, promises, etc. But let’s keep it simple today. We must study for two reasons . . .
Study shows us Him.
John talking about Jesus states that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. So, Jesus was the literal embodiment of the Word of God. So, when we study the written Word, we get revelation about Jesus. We said last week that a disciples would follow a rabbi not just to be with him or just to learn his teaching but also to learn his character. It is as we read the Word that we learn the character of the One we are trying to follow. If we don’t study the Word, then we can’t really know The Word.
Remember, I told you feelings are liars and the truth is our experience can lie to us as well. Too many of us rely on liars to give us a revelation of Jesus. We meet the true Him in the Word. It is His Word that gives us a reliable and clear picture of who He is. If we don’t know His Word someone can tell us untruths about Him that sound right but aren’t true. Too often we allow others to paint the picture of Him rather than seeing the picture that He drew of Himself. We must study so we, as sheep, will know the voice of the Shepherd. Scripture says His sheep will know His voice, but you can’t know His voice if you don’t study His talk! Through His Word He speaks for Himself rather than through the filter of someone else’s voice/thoughts/feelings.
Too many of us claim to Jesus while at the same time we’re not devoted to His Word.
The daily saturation in the Word produced disciples. The disciples were the disciples because they were daily disciples and disciplined by the Word.
Study shows us . . . us.
Not only do we study to get a clear picture of Him. We study because as we read the Word . . . The Word reads us.
Hebrews 4:12 NIV
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
God means what He says. What He says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey.
As we study, we get a clear picture of what is in us and what needs to change. Until we study, we can’t be obedient to change because we don’t know if there is change needed. Ever met anyone who had no self-awareness? They were rude, angry, calloused, bitter, sarcastic and didn’t even know it? If we read the Word the Word reads us and points out things that need to be addressed in our lives in order for us to change, clean up and become more like the One we are reading about.
How many times have you been reading when illumination takes place and the Scripture suddenly addresses you?
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. (2 Tim. 3:16)
We must be trained in righteousness because without His Word we get trained in religion and rules!
If we want to be disciples, we must study! We must become devoted to study. We can’t be satisfied with simply listening. We must dig into His Word so we will know Him and so we will know us!
How much are you studying? Not concerned how long. New Christian start somewhere like John. Seasoned Christian start anywhere.
Simple
Pt. 3 – Pray
by Steve Ely
- Introduction
Some things are complex and complicated. Tax Code. The scoring in boxing. Relationships. The fascination with pumpkin spice!
However, faith was never supposed to be complex or confusing. Man has this propensity to make things harder than they should be. When Jesus arrives on the scene man had severely complicated matters. So, we have been trying to get back to the simple things Jesus called us to do. I have been asking you to wrestle with whether you are really a disciple. We said disciples are disciples because they choose to obey. A local church has properly defined “disciple” in what may be one of the best and most succinct ways. They say a disciple is a “fully devoted follower of Christ.” I think they are right. But my question is what then is a disciple fully devoted to? What are the simple things these first followers did? Fortunately for us we are told.
Acts 2:42-47 (NIV)
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had a need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
I talked last week about study. I am not going to discuss the fact that they devoted themselves to fellowship because I have talked to you probably 50 times over the last 10 years about our need for one another. Although I do believe it is worth noting that fellowship is mentioned 3 different times in this passage. So, we see another thing the disciples were devoted to.
The record indicates that . . .
Disciples pray.
I am probably just like you when I hear someone start a teaching or a sermon on prayer because I think we all feel inadequate in this area. I usually leave one of those teachings feeling like my prayer life will never meet the “standard” and therefore another attempt is made, out of guilt, to become the defined prayer warrior! I don’t want that to happen out of today’s message. If we make things complex, then we tend to gravitate to eloquent prayers. However, Scripture declares in James 5:16 that it is the effectual fervent prayer not the eloquent prayer that availeth much! So then, how do we make sure our prayer is effective? In order to do that I want us to look at the two types of prayer that I believe that Jesus and the disciples modeled for us.
Disciples pray consistently.
Luke 5:16 (NIV) – But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
One of the reasons that the disciples devoted themselves to consistent prayer is that their rabbi modeled a consistent prayer life. Parents – Selah.
This is why Paul would come along and say in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 – Pray without ceasing. The Greek word for “without ceasing” doesn’t mean nonstop — but actually means constantly recurring. Paul would come back again in Colossians 4:2 and give us a command – Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
Simply put to be a disciple we must have a consistent – ongoing – personal conversation with Jesus. Communication will determine your connectedness! We used to judge whether someone was praying by whether they attended prayer meetings. However, the private ongoing dialogue with Christ in every situation, circumstance, and moment and life is the real indication of discipleship.
How consistent in your prayer life? Do you catch yourself talking to our Rabbi on an ongoing manner? How many hours of each day do we neglect the opportunity to speak to Him? Are you constantly checking in? Are your prayers proof of desire towards Him?
We talk about the fact that sheep know the Shepard’s voice, but I want to flip the script. Does the Shepard recognize your voice? Is He familiar with it? There are people in my life that never have to identify themselves when they call. I don’t need caller ID because through frequency and consistency I have become familiar with their voice. Disciples carry on an ongoing conversation with Jesus.
Disciples prayed persistently.
Consistent and persistent sound and are somewhat similar. However, persistent prayer is something that disciples must also develop.
Persistence is an acquired skill. You learn to endure. You learn to hang on. Your strain and struggle develops strength. Why is persistence necessary? Persistence in prayer says that I believe who you are even when who you are hasn’t brought the results I desire to see.
One man said that God works through persevering prayer to 1. To purify our desires. Sometimes we may want the right thing for the wrong reasons. 2. To prepare us for His answer. A premature answer might cause us to glory more in the gift than in the Giver. 3. To develop our life and character. One of God’s greatest priorities in prayer is the work He desires to do in us. 4. To bless us with a more intimate relationship with God.
Jesus talks about persistence in prayer on two occasions. In Luke 11, after Jesus responds to the request by His disciples to teach them to pray He gives them Lord’s Prayer and then says . . . “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
Then again in Luke 18 by telling a parable. Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ 4 “For some time he refused. But finally, he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
Jesus makes it clear that disciples simply must develop a never give up attitude in prayer. Even when what we see in the natural doesn’t indicate change, we continue to persist in prayer. Too many of us give up in prayer and by so doing we also say we are giving up on God!
Spurgeon once said, “If you will give him no rest, he will give you all the rest you need.”
Alexander Whyte said, “If you find your life of prayer to be always so short, and so easy, and so spiritual, as to be without cost and strain and sweat to you, you may depend upon it, you have not yet begun to pray.”
Our microwave lifestyle has robbed too many of us of the ability to slow cook in prayer. Persist. Hold on. Ask and keep asking!
What do you need to ask for and about again? Who do you need to bring before the Father again? Learn to endure in prayer. Become tough in prayer. Have you allowed what your eyes see to cause you to give up?
The disciples would have been taught how to pray in synagogue (school) and yet they ask Jesus how to pray. Why? Was it that the consistency and persistency of His prayer resulted in the power they saw and therefore they wanted to know how He prayed? Has anyone asked you to teach them to pray? The prayer life I am most attracted to is the one that is consistent and persistent. It is that type of prayer that others will mimic!
I want to challenge you to simply become more consistent . . . Moment by moment, set daily times if needed and persistent in your prayers! Disciples pray!
Simple
Pt. 4 – Worship
by Steve Ely
- Introduction
Some things are complex and complicated. People’s choice in music (Bob Dylan). The cloud (all this stuff up there somewhere and somehow, we can access at will). Commitment to soap operas and reality shows. Oklahoma weather.
However, faith was never supposed to be complex or confusing. Man has this propensity to make things harder than they should be. When Jesus arrives on the scene man had severely complicated matters. So, we have been trying to get back to the simple things Jesus called us to do. I have been asking you to wrestle with whether you are really a disciple. We said disciples are disciples because they choose to obey. A local church has properly defined “disciple” in what may be one of the best and most succinct ways. They say a disciple is a “fully devoted follower of Christ.” I think they are right. But my question is what then is a disciple fully devoted to? What are the simple things these first followers did? Fortunately for us we are told.
Acts 2:42-47 (NIV)
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had a need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
I talked about disciples being devoted to study. We mentioned fellowship, and last week prayer. These men and women gave their lives to these things. The final thing I want to see in the simple approach the disciples had was that devoted . . .
Disciples worship.
You will remember that last week I said that we when we hear someone talk about prayer we tend to check out because we have heard about it so much. It that is true regarding prayer it is true a thousand times more in regards to worship. We are in a moment of history that may be the most saturated with worship resources than any other era. And yet it is my contention that we have a few issues in spite of the availability of worship.
- We have turned worship into a spectator sport. We watch other people worship and we say we have worshipped. Never open our mouth or sing a song but because we listened to them sing, we treat worship like we treat football/basketball teams . . . they played but we won.
- We are apt to get caught up in worship of worship. So that it becomes about style and preference rather than the object of the worship.
So, if we want to become fully devoted disciples, we must learn some things about how disciples worship!
Disciples are holistic in worship!
I thought about how to say this and I could have just as easily said, “the disciples worship as a lifestyle.” But we are too familiar with worship as a lifestyle statement without actually embracing it. So, I chose the word holistic which means ” characterized by comprehension of the parts of something as intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole.”
Worship was a part of their everyday experience and life. It wasn’t reserved just for Sundays. Nor was it confined to involving music. Notice in our text there is no mention of their praise being connected to music. It simply says they praised God.
You know I have no issue with music. That isn’t the point. The point is their worship wasn’t defined or determined by accompaniment. There are times when you have no band. No worship team. No sound track. Paul and Silas worshipped in the dungeon and there weren’t recessed Bose speakers in the ceiling cranking out Bethel Worship or Tye Tribbett. Yet the silence didn’t drown out their worship.
There are basically two types of worship that the disciples involved themselves in as worship became holistic in nature. Paul addresses these two types of worship in
In Colossians 3:16-17 . . .
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Paul addressed corporate worship . . .
Paul knew that as worship becomes a part of our daily experience that we lose the need to be coerced/prodded to worship. Worship becomes second nature or natural and it also becomes essential to our growth. In fact, Paul says that corporate worship is necessary because we teach and encourage each other as we worship. We need to worship together! There are instructions on how and when to worship. There is strength and courage that comes when we worship together!
However, Paul also addresses personal daily worship . .
Our view and understanding of worship must expand until we simply see our entire, our whole life as worship.
“Cause every task of your day to be a sacred ministry to the Lord. However mundane your duties, for you they are a sacrament.” — Richard Foster
Foster is simply reiterating or restating what Paul taught! Your daily life is the real platform of worship. In fact, I believe it is as we learn to worship in the daily routines of life that we are prepared and positioned to come together and not only minister to the Father but to one another.
Church members worship on Sunday. Disciples live a worship lifestyle that bleeds over to Sunday!
How much worship do you do outside of Sunday morning? I didn’t say singing. I said worship. As disciples we must devote ourselves to giving affection and attention to the One we are following.
Disciples are persistent in worship.
If you were here last week, then you may say wait you repeated what you said about prayer. I know. On purpose. Because the record indicates that the disciples learned to worship in spite of rather than when it was comfortable or convenient. Just as too many of us give up in prayer too many have allowed the convenience of worship to whittle away at our ability to persevere worship. By being unable/unwilling to worship in the tough times of life we elevate what we are facing (at least in our minds/spirits) into a higher place of power and attention worthiness than God! What was true about their prayer life was equally accurate in regards to their worship life.
We like the lesson that God is sovereign and turns setbacks to triumphs. However, we must also learn the lesson that if He doesn’t turn things around His praise worthiness is unaffected and undiminished. Our devotion to worship is based on who we worship not what we face! If God can only be worshipped when things are going perfectly, then you have a God who is no longer sovereign and in control! Or you have a God you are trying to manipulate and hold hostage! I will only worship you when you do what I want!
Stop just a minute and think about what the disciples were facing while they develop this commitment to worship . . .
While they worship, they were being persecuted, tortured, imprisoned, rejected, stoned scattered and excommunicated. What they faced deepened their worship. They had learned the worship toughness of Job. Job was blessed. Rich. Prosperous. Fine family. Full bank account. Then he lost it all. Kids killed. Livelihood lost. Sickness rather than strength. His response . . . “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” God is to be praised when He gives me everything my heart desires. But as a disciple I will be persistent in worship even when He takes away. His praise worthiness isn’t affected by Him giving or taking.
We must learn to make what the writer of Hebrews calls “a sacrifice of praise!” That is more than just when it isn’t convenient, or when they didn’t sing my song. I will make a sacrifice and worship anyway! That is petty. A sacrifice is a sacrifice when it costs us something! A sacrifice of praise means worship when it makes no sense, when I would rather be bitter, when I would rather blame, when I don’t have time, when I don’t have the strength, when I am sick, when I am broken, when I am down, when it didn’t turn out like I wanted. But I am a disciple and disciples worship!
How devoted to worship are you? How devoted are you to personal moments of praise? How devoted are you to spending time at His feet? How devoted to corporate worship are you? Does any excuse keep you away. Is it a priority or an option?
I want to mention this. We haven’t paid any attention to the last verse. As a direct response to the disciples being devoted to study, fellowship, prayer and worship God added to the church daily. May I point out the obvious just so we don’t miss what is right under our nose? Growth was granted when the disciples were simply devoted to what was important. Perhaps if disciples are distracted by the trivial, mundane, complicated, even good things but not these things, then growth is not only missing but unlikely! It is these things that set them apart and caused others to want to be a part.
