Why worship?

When you hear the word “worship,” what immediately comes to mind?

There might be a number of things, but if you’re the average, modern Jesus person, the first thing that probably popped into your head was the music part of church. Nowadays, the terms “worship leader” and “song leader” are basically synonymous. Not that that’s terrible or anything, but conflating “worship” and “music” probably does a disservice to both.

When you worship something, you’re ascribing it worth; you’re saying, “This thing is worth something.” Or in a religious context, you’re saying, “This thing is worth more than anything else.”

So, worship is not music. In fact, it’s not necessarily any particular thing we do on Sunday. But rather, worship is any time we put something first in our lives. And, hopefully, when we come together on Sundays, we’re worshiping God, and that’s good. That’s us recognizing who God is and acknowledging his identity through our actions. And one of those actions is singing songs of praise.

But this means that whenever we put something else first, we’re worshiping that thing instead of God. And there’s a word for that. Idolatry. And idolatry is not cool. In fact, it’s such a big deal that TWO of the Ten Commandments address it.

However, worshiping idols - idolatry - doesn’t necessarily mean erecting a stone altar and sacrificing a goat. It’s any time you put something ahead of God. You worship football, or food, or money, or musicians, whenever you elevate them above God. 

It’s even possible to elevate good, religious, Jesus-y things to the level of worship, but that’s still idolatry. If we’re not careful, we’ll end up worshiping music or preachers or doctrine or even the Bible. But none of those things are worthy. Only God deserves our worship.

Join us Sunday as we try to navigate our worship life and learn to live4worship and die2idols.

Blessings!

Pastor Ed

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Series Title: DYING2LIVE

Message Title: live4worship | die2idols

Main Passages: John 4, Acts 17:24-25, Amos 5:21-24

Some questions for reflection or group study (or please comment on them, below):

• When do you find it easiest to connect with God? (e.g., church, in nature, first thing in the morning, on long drives, etc.)
• What really moves you to worship - to feel inspired by or connected to God?
• Do you think worship is more about connection or awe? Why?
• With what parts of “worship” do you encounter the most personal struggle? (e.g., singing, giving, serving, prayer, etc.)

A Matter of Life and Death

“What are you giving up for Lent?”

Have you heard that yet this month? I haven’t because I come from a religious tradition that doesn’t really talk much about Lent. So it’s interesting to me that people make such a big deal out of it.

The word "Lent" comes from the Old English, “lencten," which means “spring," so it’s all about the season of new life that follows the dead of winter. But the church co-opted the Lenten celebration of new life in order to build anticipation for Easter - partly because this is actually the time of year when Jesus was living out his last days, but it is conveniently (or intentionally, perhaps?) symbolic of many other things as well. 

So, on one hand, the Lenten part of the church calendar seems like a no-brainer, but on the other hand, maybe not. If the 40 days of Lent are all about growth and new life and abundance, why do we celebrate it by giving things up? Did you ever wonder why that is?

I hope so, because that’s what we’ll be talking about every Sunday for the next five weeks running up to Easter. The ideas behind Lent are at the center of nearly every important concept in the Bible and Jesus spent over three years walking and talking and teaching about those ideas. This was clearly important to Jesus, and, as his followers, it should be equally important to us.

So, join us this Sunday (2/21/16) as we begin digging deeper into the relationship between Lent and Easter, between abundance and sacrifice, between life and death.

See you then!

Pastor Ed

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Message title: LIVE4JESUS

Main Scripture passages: Matthew 10:39, Luke 5:33-39

Questions/thoughts for group discussion or personal reflection:

• What is your favorite season, and why?
• If you give stuff up for Lent, why? If you don’t, why not?
• This series is called DYING2LIVE. What does that make you think of? Does it seem primarily positive or negative? What do you think the series is going to be about?

You never know

You can never know. Be immediately suspicious of anyone who tells you otherwise. You can be pretty sure. You can be confident. You can be sure enough to move. But, you can never be absolutely certain. About anything. Ever. You can never know.

So when you need to make a decision, you need something besides certainty. You need something that will make up the difference between what is and what might be. You need to have something that you can trust.

Merriam-Webster defines "trust" as - belief that someone or something is reliable, good, honest, effective, etc.

So you're always putting faith in someone or something else, feeling assured that one or more of these qualities - reliability, goodness, honesty, effectiveness, etc. - are present.

Placing trust in a thing requires physical evidence - I've sat in that particular chair or one just like it; so I can trust that chair, and I will put all my weight on it, being confident that it will hold me and not break and not cause me injury.

However, I'm sure we've all sat in a chair that broke, or know someone else who has.

Placing trust in a person requires relational evidence - I have taken that person's advice or followed that person into a difficult situation, and they stood behind their words, they did what they said they'd do, and the results were, more or less, what they insisted they'd be; so I will follow them again, trusting that the same will be true this time, as well.

However, I'm sure we have all placed our trust in people who've been trustworthy, and they've let us down.

Trust is hard and risky and dangerous. It just is. But, without trust, we can't do anything; we'd never get out of bed. Without trust, we can't interact with anyone; we'd never say anything. To anyone.

Trust is the engine for everything that's worth doing, and it's the bedrock of faith. When Jesus says, "I will never leave you or forsake you," or, "I will give you rest," or, "I'm preparing a place for you," or, "I will be with you," you can never know for sure that it's true; but you can be confident, you can be sure enough to move, you can trust.

Certainty is a vapor, blown away by a gentle breeze, but hope, trust, love - these are eternal.

Join us Sunday as we wrap up our series on trust with the story of Jesus calling the apostles to follow him. We meet every Sunday afternoon, 3:30 p.m., at the St. Peter Life Center, 111 W. Olive St., Arlington Heights. Come early for coffee, snacks and conversation. Follow the sign.

See you soon!

Pastor Ed

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Message title: “What’s Next?” (disciples)
Main Scripture passages: Luke 5:1-11, Matthew 4:21-22

Questions/thoughts for group discussion or personal reflection:

• When have you trusted and been betrayed?
• When have you trusted and been blessed?
• How does trust differ from something like Pascal’s Wager (google it)?
• What are some of the downsides of trusting? Not trusting?

What's the hold up?

Have you ever had one of those nightmares where you were being chased by a monster or a murderer or something, and you couldn’t run? As hard as you tried, you could only move really, really slow - like your feet were stuck in molasses, and your joints were too tight to move quickly. 

Or how about that dream where you were trying to defend yourself in a fistfight, but your punches were all completely powerless, doing no damage whatsoever when they connected?

Or how about the one where you have to get to the door and get out, but the door is at the end of the hallway, and the faster you run, the further the door gets, as it seems to stretch ahead infinitely?

In all those cases, there is this obvious goal that might even be life-or-death, but it was foiled by this inexplicable, debilitating resistance that prevented your action and drained you of momentum.

I think these nightmares spring from a real fear of powerlessness. In our day-to-day lives, we feel powerless to affect our environment, and in our dream life, this fear manifests as real, inexplicable, physical resistance. But while running in molasses or not being able to connect a punch or not being able to reach the end of a hallway are not real problems, sometimes our feelings of powerlessness are.

But, sometimes they are not. Sometimes we only feel powerless, and all we need is for someone we trust to tell us that we can do it. Sometimes, all we need is a word of encouragement and a little push. And sometimes we need to just hunker down and do what we know is right, regardless of the naysayers. 

Join us this week as we talk about young David and how he responded to people who said, “It can’t be done.” Meet us at 3:30 p.m., 111 W. Olive St., Arlington Heights.

See you then!

Pastor Ed

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Message title: “Why Not Me?” (David)

Main Scripture passages: 1 Samuel 17:1-51, 1 John 4:4

Questions/thoughts for group discussion or personal reflection:

• When have you stood against something you knew was wrong?
• What’s your worst recurring nightmare?
• When does something go from being courageous to crazy?