Sermon #14 @ St. Paris UMC (9.27.09)

Pastor Dave Kepple

Text: Isaiah 6:1-8 and Psalm 98

Title: “Cultivating Fruitfulness – Part 2: Passionate Worship”

Date: Sept. 27, 2009


Internet Link for primary scripture texts used in this sermon:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%206:1-8&version=NIV

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2098&version=KJV


When it comes to Passionate Worship, the good news is we’re not starting from scratch.
As a matter of fact, that’s true for all of the “Five Practices of Fruit-Bearing Congregations” that we are looking at during this sermon series.
We are already doing all these things in some form or fashion at Saint Paris United Methodist Church. Indeed, you have been doing them for decades. So why bother with this sermon series, and all these daily readings in the “Cultivating Fruitfulness” books? What’s the point? Why not just continue with “church as usual?”
Well, the thing is, there’s this Jesus fellow. He is the One who persistently calls his disciples (that’s you and me) to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Him. And Jesus wants us to bear LOTS of fruit. In John 15, the Lord said:
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. … No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will be bear much fruit … This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
Worship and – in particular – passionate worship is one of the ways we “remain” in Christ.
What are some of the times when you have felt especially close to God during worship?

Passionate Worship can come to us in the Sacraments, those special ways in which Jesus showed us – using the things of this world, things like bread and wine, things like water -- that He will be with us always, until the end of the age. What is it they say about the sacraments, of which we have two in the United Methodist Church – Holy Communion and Baptism? They are outward signs of an inward grace.
Have you ever experienced Passionate Worship as we share together in the Lord’s Supper?
Do you know that as we partake of the elements, we are receiving the very life of Christ – the One who looked down from the cross and said, “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they are doing.” When we smell the gift of bread and the sweet fragrance of the grape juice, does it occur to us that through faith we are assured of a heavenly banquet yet to come?
And what about those wonderful days of baptism – be they for a young child, or a person well along in years – each being claimed as God’s very own, as amazing grace is poured into their lives.
Passionate Worship can occur in times of great joy and excitement, such as a wedding, or at a Christmas Eve Candlelight Service, or in times when the music is especially joyful and uplifting, or when the children come forward to hear about God’s love – some of them, perhaps, for the very first time.
Passionate Worship also can occur in times of overwhelming grief and sorrow, such as at a funeral service, where perhaps the message of resurrection is followed by the singing of “I Can Only Imagine.” How does the chorus go?

Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel?
Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still?
Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall?
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine . . .

Passionate Worship can occur when our hearts are broken, or when we’re ready to trust in Him absolutely – and on occasion those two things occur at the same time.

I know a church where we used to have a healing service once or twice a year. People were invited to come forward if they wished to be anointed with oil and receive prayers for healing and the laying on of hands. On one occasion, a man came forward who had been carrying a heavy load of grief over the death of his father. It had darkened every area of his life for more than a year.
Something happened to him that day. Not only did God free him of the despair that engulfed him, but he became energized with a restored faith and wholeness that has allowed him to become a leader in mission and service in the name of Jesus.
Passionate Worship . . . there isn’t anything God can’t do when we come together in Christ.
He can restore us and cleanse us and give us a brand new beginning, no matter what we may be going through. He can give new meaning and purpose to our lives when we experience his presence in a deep and powerful way.
Isn’t that what happened to Isaiah in the dramatic story of our first lesson today? Suddenly, mysteriously, Isaiah receives a stunning gift, when he is granted a vision of being in the very presence of God in the Temple in Jerusalem – within the Holy of Holies.
In some ways, it is a terrifying vision because Isaiah, like all of us, knows deep-down of his weakness and his failings. He is a sinner, like all of us – “a man of unclean lips” – and he knows that he will surely die, for he is not worthy to see the King of all Creation, the Lord Almighty.
But God has another plan for Isaiah – a plan for life, not for death. And to Isaiah’s surprise and amazement, one of these strange winged creatures – one of the seraphim – flies over to Isaiah with a live coal which he had taken from the holy altar, and he touches it to Isaiah’s lips.
And like a refining fire, the touch of the burning coal removes Isaiah’s burden of guilt, and cleanses him from the sin that would otherwise separate him from God. In some ways, this whole scene foreshadows what God will later do for all of us when he sends Jesus into the world to bring the hope of salvation to everyone.
Having been touched by God in this extraordinary fashion, Isaiah then hears the Lord calling him into service as a prophet. Surrounded by God’s glory in the Holy Temple, Isaiah’s response is joyously unrestrained and enthusiastic:
“Here am I. Send me!”

John Wesley felt that same response May 24, 1738. As you may know, John Wesley was the founder of the Methodist movement which brought about a tremendous revival of faith in England, later spreading to America in the 18th century.
But Wesley was a deeply discouraged man in the spring of 1738. Though committed to serving God, he had failed in some of his missionary efforts, and his own personal connection with God had grown dim. All that changed on an evening in May of 1738, when Wesley attended a worship service on Aldersgate Street in London which moved him deeply. He later gave this account in his journal:
“About a quarter before nine, while the leader was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” (1)

Sometimes tears come with passionate worship. Sometimes they are tears of joy and thanksgiving. I’ve heard people express their thanksgiving in the middle of a church service with a testimony about how God has touched their life in the past week.
Sometimes they are tears of sorrow, as when a young person whose marriage is falling apart comes to the altar rail to pray, searching for light in the midst of darkness, searching for hope to carry on in a world that seems filled with pain.
As singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen once put it in a song called Suzanne, perhaps its true: “Only drowning men” can see Jesus.
Passionate Worship . . . the possibilities are endless, both in the things we are already doing, and the things we could be doing. Wherever we will give Him an opening, God is more than ready to come and be with us in our worship. He’s always knocking on the door of our hearts, both as individuals, and as a congregation.
Pride doesn’t want to let Him come in.
Pride says, ‘I’m doing just fine by myself, thanks anyway, God.’
A friend from my newspaper days once put it this way: “Religion has its own hassles, but if you don’t go to church somewhere, your life fills up with everything else, and the next thing you know you’ve stopped trying to think about God. Then push comes to shove, and you’re out there all lonely and spiritually empty, and you’re ashamed and too proud to turn to God because you waited until you were in trouble.”
Humility leads to Passionate Worship.
Humility says, Jesus, I love you and I need you. Apart from you, I can do nothing. Left to my own devices, I will always be a man – or a woman – of unclean lips. Only You can set me free.

What has the power to move you and touch your soul as you worship on Sunday, or on other occasions?
You know worship doesn’t just happen on Sunday mornings, and it doesn’t happen exclusively in church buildings.
For instance, tonight we’re concluding our church picnic down at the park with a thing called “vespers” – which is a fancy word for a time of prayer and praise at the end of a day. It is another chance for us to draw close to and experience the presence and power of the Living God. God will be there. He’s had it on his appointment calendar for weeks.

In closing, I’d like to mention a story about another Englishman, this one from our own time, a fellow by the name of Matt Redman. In a working class town in the outskirts of London, back about 15 years ago, Matt was a musician who was leading a cutting edge contemporary worship service at an evangelistic outreach ministry. They had all the bells and whistles – a full band, top-notch sound equipment, and a stream of songs that seemed tailor-made to help people “get down to business with God.” But something was missing.
Here’s how Redman’s pastor, Mike Pilavachi, later put it:
“We had forgotten that we are ALL the performers of worship and that God is the audience . . . We were challenged to ask ourselves individually, “When I come through the door of the church, what am I bringing as my contribution to worship?’ The truth came to us: worship is not a spectator sport, it is not a product molded by the taste of consumers. It is not about what we can get out of it. It is all about God.” (2)
The church made some drastic changes. For a time, they even got rid of the band and fired Redman!
“After a while,” Pilavachi writes, “we began to have some very sweet times of worship. We all began to bring our prayers, our readings, our prophecies, our thanksgiving, our praises and our songs. Someone would start a song a cappella and we would all join in. Then someone else would take it on to another song. The excitement came back. We were not having Church; we were once again meeting with God. . . . We worshiped from the heart.” (3)
Having regained their focus, they brought the band back, and Matt Redman began to sing the song he had written out of the whole experience. You might have heard of it, because it has since become very well known. It’s called “The Heart of Worship,” and these are the words of the chorus:

I’m coming back to the heart of worship,
And it’s all about You,
All about You, Jesus.
I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it,
When it’s all about You.
All about You, Jesus.

In the end, Passionate Worship is always all about Jesus.

You just never know when Passionate Worship might happen.
As Margaret Becker once said: “He needs no candles, no special music. He needs only a heart that is ready for Him.”
Are your hearts ready for him?

May His name be ever praised. Amen.

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1. Ignatius, verbum Dei, “May 24, 1738 – What Happened at Aldersgate?” May 25, 2006.
2. Paul Martin, “When the Music Fades: The Eternal Truth Behind “The Heart of Worship,” www.higherpraise.com
3. Ibid.