I want to say it's been a privilege
having the Briscoes here this last weekend.
And if you didn't get a tape or
you haven't heard them before, you get a
great opportunity.
Jill was going to speak this morning, but
you see she's saving her energy.
And, well, she's given us, we've got second
best, but I will tell you, Stuart actually,
he was my dad's Bible college teacher, so
he's in his hundreds now.
No, he's not.
He's not.
I know my dad looks older than he
does, but without further ado, it's a great
privilege to introduce to you Stuart Briscoe.
Thank you, Mike, very much.
Well, it is true that
I did have the privilege of working with
Mike's parents years ago, and having seen Mike's
performance this morning, I'm just sorry I didn't
get the chance to work with him.
OK, well, it's been wonderful being with you
this weekend.
A number of you have asked, when I
say a number, I think it was two
of you.
Well, actually, it was a couple.
The husband didn't say anything.
But a number of you have asked about
our webpages.
For those of you who are computer literate,
we do have a couple of webpages.
One is called tellingthetruth.org.
You can get our live radio on that
if you're interested, and you can get it
on it if you're not interested as well.
And all kinds of other audio material and
CDs and that sort of thing.
And then we have another webpage called briscoministries
.com, and on that we have all kinds
of information about books.
You can get sermon outlines, you can get
sermons in written form, and all that kind
of stuff.
So that's for the benefit of the two
people who asked.
Now, I'm just delighted to have the chance
to talk to you this morning, not least
because no one has mentioned finishing time.
But I do have a plane to catch,
so don't worry too much about that.
There's been a great emphasis in the first
part of our service this morning on worship,
and I'm very happy about that, because I
feel that I'd like to talk to you
on the subject of worship today.
And if you have a Bible with you,
which incidentally is an excellent book on the
subject, particularly if you read it, I would
invite you to turn to John's Gospel and
Chapter 4.
John's Gospel, Chapter 4.
Now, this particular chapter gives us the account
of a meeting that Jesus had in a
place called Sychar.
Actually, the modern name for this place is
Nablus, and those of you who follow events
in Israel, and what we now call the
Occupied West Bank, will be familiar with the
town of Nablus.
It's the center of all kinds of tension
at this time.
And it was in this place that Jesus,
traveling through the region of Samaria, met a
woman, got into conversation with her.
We won't go into details about the unusual
aspects of this, because I want to focus
on some aspects of the conversation.
And commencing to read a few verses from
verse 19, this is the information that we
receive concerning this conversation.
Sir, the woman said, I can see that
you are a prophet.
Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you
Jews claim that the place where we must
worship is in Jerusalem.
Jesus declared, Believe me, woman, the hour is
coming when you will worship the Father neither
on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You Samaritans worship what you don't know.
We worship what we do know.
For salvation is from the Jews.
Yet a time is coming, and has now
come, when true worshippers will worship the Father
in spirit and in truth.
For they are the kind of worshippers the
Father seeks.
God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship
him in spirit and in truth.
Now, there is something really quite startling about
the statement of the Lord Jesus there.
You see, he says that God is in
the business of seeking people.
Now, in recent years, particularly through the very
powerful influence of Willow Creek Church in Chicago,
there has been a very healthy emphasis on
the church being very conscious of people who
might be seeking God.
And as a result of that, a considerable
debate has developed in the church as to
whether our worship services should be seeker sensitive
or seeker driven.
Now, frankly, I think that all our services
should be seeker sensitive.
We should be very much aware that there
are people who could quite conceivably come into
our worship experiences and they really haven't a
clue what's going on.
And we shouldn't put any barriers in the
way so that they might catch on to
what is going on.
The Apostle Paul talked about that.
You remember, right into the Quintin Church, he
said, now look, if you're all speaking in
tongues, nobody's interpreting, and somebody who isn't a
believer comes in, they might think you're nuts.
In other words, he said, be sensitive to
the seekers there.
Now, should a service then be seeker sensitive?
I believe the answer is yes.
Should a worship service be seeker driven?
I believe the answer is no.
Because how can somebody who doesn't know the
Lord lead you in worship?
So, I think we need to do a
little careful thinking in this particular area.
But there's something much more important than the
fact that human beings sometimes get around to
seeking God.
And do you know what's more important than
that?
That God is in the business of seeking
human beings.
Now, we live in a day and age
when tolerance is the one surviving virtue and
intolerance is the only vice that's left.
I mean, just as long as you're tolerant,
you're a good guy.
If you assure any degree of intolerance, you
are a bigot.
That's the way things are going right now.
And accordingly, it is normative in our culture
to say, well, we've got to be tolerant
of what everybody believes because if they believe
it sincerely, it's all basically the same.
And all religions lead to the same place
in the end.
Now, this is delightfully tolerant and it's rather
nice and wrong as well.
Because all religions are not the same.
There is one thing about Christianity that sets
us apart from all the others.
And it is this.
The major religions of the world are all
about human beings looking for something or someone.
In very broad terms.
The major religions of the world are all
about human beings looking for something or someone.
Christianity is all about God looking for people.
It is all about God becoming incarnate.
And so, it is simply muddled thinking.
It is misplaced tolerance to say that all
religions are basically the same.
Quite frankly, they are not.
And there is something utterly unique about the
idea of a seeking God.
Well, the question is, what's he seeking?
What is he looking for?
And Jesus tells us.
He is seeking for people who will worship
him in spirit and in truth.
That's what God is busy doing in the
world today.
The question I want to ask you is
this.
If God is looking for worshippers who worship
him in spirit and truth, has he found
one in you?
If that's what God is busy doing, has
he found one in you?
Well, I'm not really sure about that.
Because I'm not quite sure what you're talking
about.
Well, I hope you will be by the
time I'm through.
In some considerable time.
Now, C.S. Lewis in Cambridge.
Brilliant man.
If you're not familiar with his writings, get
familiar.
Sell your shirt and buy some of C
.S. Lewis' books.
And then read them.
They are very, very helpful if you read
them.
Now, one of the things that C.S.
Lewis did in his spiritual pilgrimage.
And he started out as an atheist and
finished up as an apologist.
And that is a spiritual journey.
One stage in his journey, he was getting
over his atheism.
And he was becoming a theist.
That is, he believed in God.
It moved into being a deist and then
a theist.
A deist is somebody who believes in God
who is basically not involved.
A theist is somebody who believes in God
who is involved.
And then you go on from there.
He was somewhere between deism and theism.
And he said one of the stumbling blocks
for him was this idea that God was
looking for worshippers.
And he said it sounded as if God
had a fragile ego.
That God was sitting up there in heaven
and saying, Oh, I do wish somebody would
worship me.
Come on folks, worship me.
Tell me how wonderful I am.
I really am wonderful, you don't seem to
appreciate me.
Come on, worship me.
Now, if you'll pardon the expression, C.S.
Lewis said, not me, he said, God sounded
like a vain woman who can only survive
on endless compliments.
Well, it does sound a bit like that,
doesn't it?
When you hear that God is looking for
people who will worship him.
If people will spend all their time on
a Sunday morning just telling him how wonderful
he is.
It's a bit odd, this picture of God,
isn't it?
Well, is that the right way to look
at it?
And the answer, of course, is no.
Well, what is the right way to look
at this business that God is looking for
worshippers?
God is looking for worshippers not for his
benefit.
God is looking for worshippers for our benefit.
And there's a very simple reason for that.
A human being, now listen very carefully, a
human being will never arrive at the full
potential of their humanity without worship.
A human being will never arrive at the
full potential of their humanity without worship.
Now, that's a very bold and very dogmatic
statement and it requires some substantiation.
Now, human beings are part of creation.
So are rocks.
So are vegetables.
So are animals.
But we think we're rather superior.
In fact, if somebody has a terrible accident
and they are no longer able to function,
we actually say sometimes they are in a
vegetative state.
They're in a vegetative state.
In other words, a human being regards himself
or herself as being superior to a vegetable.
Animals are certainly superior to vegetables.
But if we really want to insult somebody,
we will call them some kind of an
animal.
They eat like a pig.
They have got the morals of an alley
cat.
This sort of thing, you see.
We really regard ourselves as being very superior.
And yet the reality of it is this,
that there's a very close affinity between humanity
and the animal kingdom and the vegetable kingdom
and the mineral kingdom.
In actual fact, your body is made up
of minerals that you can find lying around
on the ground.
In actual fact, you can stuff vegetables in
the hole under your nose and incredibly, they
will turn into electric currents, they will turn
into muscle, they will turn into all kinds
of things that make you, you.
In actual fact, there are marked similarities between
you and animals because in actual fact, before
they operate on you, thank God, they operate
on animals.
And sometimes they operate on animals and take
a little piece out of the animal and
stick it in you to keep you working.
So, we are inextricably bound up in the
rest of creation.
We are part mineral, we are part vegetable,
we are part animal.
You say, oh, I am human.
Well, what's so great about you then?
I'll tell you what's great about you.
You have the ability to relate to God.
The minerals don't.
The vegetables don't.
The animals don't.
You do.
That is the uniqueness of your humanity.
Now, it follows, if the uniqueness of your
humanity is that you have the capacity to
relate to God and you are not relating
to God in worship, guess what?
You are missing out on the uniqueness of
your humanity.
In other words, you are living at less
than your human potential.
And God doesn't want that.
And so, He wants you to worship Him
for your benefit, not His.
Well, how does this work?
It works this way.
God is in the business of self-revelation.
God is in the business of letting us
know what He is like.
There are two approaches to God.
One is speculation.
The other is revelation.
Speculation starts from down here with you and
tries to figure out God.
Tries to unscrew the inscrutable.
Speculation tries to figure out and ponder the
imponderable.
To know the unknowable.
And people are in the business of speculation
all the time.
That's why there is so much confusion.
Because not only do they speculate wildly, people
then speculate on their speculations.
And they then have to re-speculate because
people have speculated on their speculations.
That is why there is not only confusion,
but the confusion keeps changing all the time.
And it's like building on sinking sand.
The alternative to speculation is revelation.
That is God taking initiative and saying, Oh,
please sit down and be quiet.
And if you'll just try and be quiet
for a little while and look in the
right place, you won't need to guess who
I am.
I'll tell you.
I'll show you.
I will reveal myself to you.
And that's what God is in the business
of doing.
He is in the business of self-revelation.
Now the wonderful thing about it is this.
God is not only in the business of
self-revelation, but He has built into human
beings receptors.
This room of ours at this moment, you'll
be surprised to know, is full of radio
signals.
They are competing with television signals.
And being beaten out by cell phone signals.
But, there was a notice outside which said,
Please switch off your cell phones.
So, that does not mean the cell phone
messages aren't here.
It means you're not receiving them.
The receptor is switched off.
But that which is transmitting is going on
all the time.
God is transmitting self-revelation information all the
time.
Human beings have a built-in receptor.
It's called the human spirit.
And we are able to engage with the
things of the spirit.
That's what makes you a human being.
Rocks can't do this.
Cabbages can't do this.
Monkeys can't do this.
You can.
That's what makes you uniquely human.
You have the capacity to receive what God
is transmitting concerning himself.
But more than that, you can not only
receive the signals, you can actually assimilate the
symbols, that which you are receiving, and you
can begin to not only assimilate, you can
begin to appreciate what you're receiving.
Now, I don't understand how my computer can
pick up digital signals, and these digital signals
can sometimes be a written message, sometimes they
can be a photograph, sometimes they can be
music.
I don't understand it.
But my computer does, and it has the
ability to assimilate these signals and to make
application of these symbols.
And incredibly, God, in the business of self
-revelation, has built into you a receptor, so
that you can receive what he's saying about
himself, you can assimilate it and begin to
appreciate it, and you can actually get to
know God.
And that's what makes you fully human.
But then there's something more than that.
Having assimilated and appreciated that which God is
revealing of himself, he has then given you
the remarkable capacity of actually stating, of actually
articulating what you are appreciating and assimilating.
Are you getting these words?
Assimilate, appreciate, articulate.
Now, what's happening?
God is revealing himself to you.
You are receiving the message.
You are appreciating it.
You are assimilating it.
And now you do what a person all
excited about new discoveries will do.
You begin to articulate what you've assimilated, because
you're appreciating God's self-revelation.
And there's one word for that.
It's called worship.
Now, worship, the modern English word worship, comes
from the Old English.
Now, I'm very interested in Old English because
I am an Old Englishman.
The Old English word is worth-ship.
Worth-ship.
And it simply means to attribute worth to.
To attribute worth to.
Get the picture?
God's in the business of self-revelation.
You have the capacity to receive what he
is communicating.
You can assimilate it.
You can appreciate it.
You can articulate that appreciation.
And as you do that, you attribute worth
to God.
It's called worship.
Now, the extent to which you do that
will show the extent to which you are
being uniquely human.
Because the other parts of creation with which
you are inextricably bound up cannot do it.
And that's why God is looking for worshipers.
Well, how does God reveal himself?
You know, this self-revelation thing.
How does he do it?
In a number of ways.
Let me just identify two for you.
He reveals himself in something called general revelation.
General revelation.
Now, one of the songs that we sang
earlier this morning was from Psalm 8, where
it talks about when I consider your heavens,
you remember?
The works of your fingers, etc, etc.
It does something to me.
And I begin to realize how desperately puny
human beings are, and yet incredibly you're interested
in them, and you have actually put them
in a position of dominion in your creation.
You remember this beautiful Psalm 8?
Now, what's happening here?
God, as David looks into the heavens, he
is revealing something of himself in general revelation.
Another Psalm says this, the heavens declare the
glory of God.
Alright?
Romans chapter 1 says this, that in the
created world, the invisible attributes of the Creator
are clearly seen.
Are clearly seen.
So, we are surrounded by general revelation.
And as we are surrounded in this created
world of ours, which incidentally is fallen, so
we don't get a totally accurate picture, but
it's not so totally fallen that we don't
have residual evidence of who the Creator is.
As we move around in this created world,
we can see evidence of who the Creator
is.
And we walk around with our eyes wide
open.
And as we walk around with our eyes
wide open, we look at creation and we
see Creator.
And as we see Creator, we begin to
appreciate more and more of who the Creator
is.
And we begin to articulate our appreciation.
G.K. Chesterton, one of my favorite authors,
on one occasion said, this world will never
starve through lack of wonders, only through lack
of wonder.
You got that?
This world will never starve through lack of
wonders, only through lack of wonder.
You know why?
Because this world of ours is in the
fullest sense of the word, wonderful.
And the wonder with which our world is
full is the wonder of God's self-revelation.
But the problem is this.
This world will never starve through lack of
wonders, but it may starve through lack of
wonder.
Human beings' unwillingness or inability to wonder at
the wonders.
Human beings' inability to worship at what they
are seeing on every hand.
I love the poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush
aflame with God.
He who sees takes off his shoes and
worships.
The rest sit round plucking blackberries and daub
their natural faces, unaware.
Do you move around in God's creation?
Do you understand it is a revelation of
Creator?
Do you see it as full of wonder?
And do you live a life of glad
wonder?
It's called worship.
And it should be your daily employ.
It should be your hourly activity.
Little Dutch boy, one day was standing by
the tulip fields in the Netherlands.
They are a magnificent sight.
I flew over the Netherlands not long ago.
It was in the dead of winter.
It was grey and dismal and very, very
unpleasant.
But as I flew over, I noticed that
there were brilliant strips of colour.
I suppose it was early spring, not winter,
but it looked like winter over there.
And I realised what these brilliant strips of
colour were.
They were the tulip fields, which stretch for
hundreds of acres, just millions of brilliant yellow
and red tulips.
Little Dutch boy was standing by them one
day.
Not the little boy who stuck his finger
in the dike.
This was his younger brother.
And as this little boy stood by the
tulip fields, he was heard to exclaim, Well
done, God.
That's worship.
Well done, God.
But too many people, you see, they just
sit around plucking blackberries and daub their natural
faces unaware.
And they live at a level less than
they were created to live.
Now then, that's general revelation.
So much more we could say about that.
But then there's special revelation.
You can get a picture of God from
creation, but it would not be a full
picture of God, obviously.
But we get a fuller picture of God
in special revelation, and special revelation is found
in a remarkable book called the Bible.
And in this book, if, as they say
in the Anglican prayer book, we read, mark,
learn, and inwardly digest it, we will see
remarkable revelation of the character, the being, the
purposes, the promises, the commands, and the expectations
of God.
So, a worshipper is not only somebody who
revels in the wonders, but a worshipper is
somebody who is an assiduous student of the
book.
For that worshipper knows that if God is
in the self-revelation business and they have
the capacity to receive what he is transmitting,
they better get switched on to the transmitter
and make sure they're getting the message.
You get the message?
You got a well-worn Bible?
Is it more important to you than your
daily bread?
Is it more than your necessary food?
We say, give us our daily bread, and
we also say, man cannot live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceeds from
the mouth of God.
But here's an amazing thing, that whilst we
would not think of living without our daily
bread, unless we're on the Atkins diet, and
look what that did for him, we would
not think of living without our daily bread,
but I am amazed at how many Bible
-believing Christians get along very nicely without their
daily word.
How do they do that?
So what do we do?
We recognize that we have the capacity to
receive what he's transmitting in general and special
revelation.
So we become very, very careful lovers of
the word, in order that we might know
him and respond appropriately to him.
Now, is this important?
Yes.
Because you see, Jesus said to this lady
that God is looking for worshippers who will
worship him in spirit and in truth.
Those are two very, very significant defining aspects
of worship.
True worship, genuine worship, real worship, when you
see true in John's Gospel, it means genuine
or real, as opposed to phony and fake.
True worship, genuine worship, real worship, has two
characteristics.
It is in spirit and it's in truth.
Now, why did he say that?
Well, you see, the lady has brought up
the issue of the way the Samaritans worship
and the way the Jews worship, and there
was a difference.
The Jews were very meticulous in dotting their
I's and crossing their T's.
And Jesus said, quite rightly, that the Samaritans
had got all screwed up in their worship,
but the Jews hadn't, basically.
They still had fundamental truth.
But the problem was this.
Whilst they had fundamental truth, it was correct,
they were dotting all their I's and crossing
all their T's, the life had gone out
of it.
Somebody said one time when I was a
banker that the church was like a banker's
dinner, cold and correct, decorous and dead.
Many people's worship is like that, cold and
correct, decorous and dead.
It lacks spirit.
It lacks life.
It lacks reality.
It can mouth the words.
It can go through the motions.
It can communicate things that are absolutely true,
but there is a disconnect.
There is not spiritual reality there.
God is not looking for worshippers who mouth
the words, who go through the motions, who
say all the right things.
He is looking for people for whom that
which he has revealed of himself has become
spirit and life and inner dynamism that drives
genuine appreciation of who he is.
That's why you see, because the Jews were
doing it cold and correct, decorous and dead,
they needed to worship in spirit.
But what about the Samaritans?
Well, the problem with the Samaritans was this.
They came from the northern kingdom of Israel.
Their people had been overcome by the Assyrians.
They'd been carted off to Assyria.
The Assyrians had then settled Assyrians in Israel.
And some Assyrian boys had noticed some rather
pretty Israeli girls, and they'd married, and they
had produced something that was kind of between
an Assyrian and an Israeli, which over the
years they had decided, well, we'll keep a
little bit of Israel religion, and we'll keep
a little bit of Assyrian religion.
And they hadn't made the mistake of the
Jews, which was nominalism, that is, going through
the motions, worshipping name in name only.
The problem with the Samaritans was not nominalism.
It was syncretism.
Syncretism is the incorporating of mutually contradictory things.
And what they needed was truth.
What they needed was truth.
The Jews needed spirit.
The Samaritans needed truth.
Other dangers in our contemporary church in America
today, yes.
Do you know what they are?
Nominalism and syncretism.
Nominalism goes through the motions in name only
and lacks the dynamism of the Spirit of
God, the reality, the genuineness of the Spirit
of God.
Syncretism is that which comes from a life
that mixes truth and error, righteousness and unrighteousness,
claims to holiness that are mixed with outright
disobedience.
That's not what God is looking for.
He is looking for worshippers who worship in
spirit and in truth.
So here's the question.
Did he find one in you?
Now, there are a number of words that
are translated.
By the way, I won't keep you much
longer.
I could go on for a long time
on this.
But you've just about had enough.
I know, I can see your eyes glazing
over.
Some of you are looking at your watches.
I don't mind you looking at your watch.
I don't even mind if you listen to
see if it's still going.
It's just when you take out your day
timer to see if it's still the same
day that I get a little nervous.
There are a number of Greek words.
And I'm not going to lay Greek on
you.
But I would, you know, I knew it
if I didn't say it.
But there are a number of Greek words
that are translated worship.
And the most common one is pros kuneo.
It's a lovely word.
Pros kuneo.
Now that comes from two words.
Pros means towards.
Kuneo means to kiss.
To kiss.
So the basic word for worship, the most
common word for worship in the New Testament
means literally to kiss towards.
I'm so glad I came this morning.
That has blessed my soul.
What's the point of pros kuneo, of kiss
towards?
Well, in those days they had kings.
And sometimes the servant of the king, the
subject of the king would be required to
come before the throne, kneel down before the
throne, lean towards the king and kiss his
feet.
A picture of submission.
Sometimes the master would require his servant to
come before him in the morning, kneel down,
lean towards him and kiss his hand.
Pros kuneo.
Kiss towards.
That is the fundamental meaning of worship.
Now we are in danger in the contemporary
church of saying more and more about worship
and meaning less and less by it.
I am hearing more talk about worship now
than I've heard in the almost 60 years
that I've been actively involved in ministry in
the church.
I'm hearing more and more about worship.
But usually when people talk about worship now,
listen carefully, they mean praise.
They usually mean praise.
And usually when they're talking about praise, they
usually mean musical praise.
And if they regard it as worshipful worship,
they usually mean musical praise with the kind
of music I like.
Now I hope I'm not being unkind there.
I'm just trying to show you, this is
my observation.
Now praise clearly is a significant dimension of
worship.
But worship must never be limited to praise.
Praise is a significant dimension of worship.
Worship must never be limited to praise.
It must never be limited to musical praise.
And we need to be very, very careful
that we aren't deciding if we're worshiping or
not by whether we are in music we
like.
Proscuneo has everything to do with the will.
It's about submission.
Now you can spend a lot of time
praising and go out and be disobedient.
You can spend a lot of time articulating
all kinds of wonderful things about Jesus and
go out and do what he's told you
not to do.
So what's the issue here?
The issue here is that we may be
confusing what worship is.
Worship is about proscuneo.
It is all about submission of heart and
mind and will.
The true worshiper, the genuine worshiper, is the
one who says, Lord, I am so enthralled
with who you are.
I am so excited about what you've done.
I am so invigorated by what you're planning
to do.
I am so exhilarated by the fact that
you've called me to be part of it
that I just want you to know that
I am your man, that I am your
woman, and that I will be what you
want me to be, and I will do
what you want me to do, and I
will go where you want me to go.
In fact, I can feel a whole lot
of worship coming on.
It's called worship.
And that's what God is looking for.
People who will worship him in spirit and
in truth.
Now, the other words I mentioned, very, very
quickly.
I've got just a few minutes left.
I'm going to take them all.
Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2.
I beseech you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies
of God, that you present your body as
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which
is your what?
Well, I heard some people say reasonable service,
and I heard some other people say spiritual
worship.
And I wish you'd make your mind to.
Which is it?
Well, in actual fact, it's both.
Because in the Greek, the word, one of
the words there, can mean either service or
worship.
It can mean either.
It is used interchangeably.
They are synonymous.
Now, here's an interesting thing.
You can go into some parts of the
world, and they don't have two words, one
for worship, one for service.
They just have one.
German, for instance.
The verb, dienen.
Dienen means to worship or to serve.
In fact, if you go to a service
in Germany on a Sunday morning, it is
called Gottesdienst.
And it is God's worship of God's service.
They don't need two words because they understand
something.
You cannot say you're worshipping if you're only
praising and not serving.
You can't say you're worshipping if you're praising
and not serving.
Because to worship is to serve, and to
serve is to worship.
That's why I can never understand why I
go to churches so often, and it's full
of, quote, worshippers, that the pastor has to
get up and say, we desperately need somebody
to work with you.
We really need people who are going to
do something about some of the social concerns.
Oh, and there's such a need on the
mission field, and we're praying that God might
send somebody there.
And it's amazing.
There's no shortage of, quote, worshippers.
There's just a terrible lack of servants.
What does that say?
They don't know what worship is.
Now, there's another word for worship.
I won't give you the Greek words here
because it's, well, you don't need them.
This one, this one is the word for
priestly activities.
And the priests were involved in sacrifice.
So if you're going to worship, what do
you do?
Well, you articulate your appreciation of God.
That's praise.
You bow down and submit before the Lord.
You make yourself available to Him.
You engage in activities called service.
And because there's a priestly dimension to worship,
guess what?
You engage in a sacrificial lifestyle.
It's called worship.
I mean, it makes sense, doesn't it?
Do you know what God's looking for?
He's looking for people who understand God.
And they understand one very simple thing.
God's God and I'm not.
And there's a terrible danger of confusing that.
That I'm God and He's there to serve
me.
No, no.
He's God and you're there to worship Him.
Oh, there's one more.
And then I'll stop.
Won't finish.
I'll stop.
Duleo.
It comes from the word dulos, which means
servant or slave.
And do you know, Paul was writing to
the slaves and he said, listen, he said,
whatever you do, do it heartily as unto
the Lord.
For you serve the Lord Christ.
Duleo.
And when he said you serve the Lord
Christ, he was letting us into a wonderful,
wonderful insight.
Do you know what it is?
That the way you go about your daily
work is intended to be an act of
worship.
The way you go about your daily work
is intended to be an act of worship.
Now, there's a franchise.
I hope I'm not standing on anybody's toes
here, but you'll get over it if I
am.
There's a franchise of restaurants in America called
Fridays.
Do you have them out here?
Anybody own a franchise here?
Well, actually the full title of Fridays is
what?
TGI Fridays, which means Thank God It's Friday.
What does that tell you?
I hate my job.
I live for the weekend.
Right?
I hate my job.
I live for the weekend.
Thank God it's Friday.
I want you to know something.
A person who has that attitude about their
job, and I don't care what their job
is, does not understand worship.
I'm going to say that again.
Anybody who has a Thank God It's Friday
attitude does not understand worship.
Because, you see, the worshipper goes to work
on a Monday morning and says, what an
incredible privilege I have today to go and
put in my hours, expending my energy, and
utilizing my skills.
That's what you do when you go to
work, isn't it?
You put in your time, you expend your
energy, and you utilize your skills.
And the worshipper says, and the wonderful thing
about it is this, all this time I've
got is a gift.
I didn't manufacture a moment of it.
And all this energy I've got is the
most amazing thing.
I stuffed food in my mouth and energy
came.
It's a miracle.
And I have some skills, and I've honed
them and developed them, but they were a
gift.
So when I go to work, do you
know what I do?
I utilize my skills.
I expend my energy.
I put in my time.
And my time, and my energy, and my
skills are all gifts.
And the way I fill my time, and
the way I exert my energy, and the
way I exercise my skills glorifies God.
So I don't say, thank God it's Friday.
What I say is, thank God it's Monday.
And now I can go and worship.
And in the very way that I conduct
myself in the workplace, I bring glory to
God.
I tried to explain this to some of
the men in our home church one day,
and they said, yeah, well, we often say,
thank God it's Monday, Stuart, because that means
Sunday's finally over.
Truly is amazing.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.