Monthly Archives: June 2010
The Church Series Pt. 14 (WARNING) Rated FG-7
True Worship
Romans 12:1 (NIV)
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship.
The values and norms of society become so deeply ingrained in our minds that we find it difficult to decipher between God’s will and our will. Romans 12:2 (NIV) Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Throughout the Gospels, Jesus presents the kingdom as a new order breaking in upon, and overturning, old ways, old values, and old assumptions. It if does anything, the kingdom of God shatters the assumptions that govern our lives. Everything including our expectations, assumptions and demands are reversed in the kingdom of God. Those whom we declare good are not seen that way from God’s perspective and vice versa.
Tension, paradox, irony, surprise, and mystery all infect the teachings of Jesus. Everything is flipped upside down. The first will be last, to lose our life is to save it, adults must become like little children, sinners receive forgiveness and blessings while the religious miss the great feast, the poor in spirit are blessed while the religious leaders are cursed. Nothing is what it seems in the kingdom.
I have to admit, I have been very naive and trusting throughout my spiritual journey. I grew up in the A.M.E. Church, all of my childhood sitting in the back of the building and when I grew up, I move to the balcony. When the Spirit of God really began to press upon me, I came down and told my pastor what was going on inside of me. He told me God, as calling me to be a Reverend to preach the Gospel. This is when I should have ran from the church. When I preached my first sermon, they tried to pay me fifty dollars ($50.00), I would not take it. My pastor pulled me to the side and scolded me. He told me, “not to ever preach without getting paid or ever turn down any money offered to me for preaching”. He said; “I would be cheapening the ministry it I didn’t receive money for preaching the Gospel”.
Well, pastor the Gospel is free or at least it should be free. Cheapening the Gospel is when you allow someone to pay you for preaching and the purse is less than what was paid on the cross for you to be able to preach. Pulpit Pimps have lowered the standard for preaching the Gospel, instead of giving it their life; they sell out for a price. What does this have to do with true worship? You may be asking, let me tell you.
Instead of countering culture and embodying a new alternative reality, we often reinforce cultural ideals and assumptions. Worship often reflects this cultural conformity. Why do we always need happy, shiny songs when so much of life isn’t that way? Why don’t worship leaders realize they are teaching theology when they choose the songs they do? Why is it that worship is supposed to make us feel better but rarely does? Why doesn’t worship confront us more often with the holiness, grandeur, and majesty of God? Why does so much of it seem so shallow and hollow and trite and simply about me? Why? I will tell you!
In the same way the Pulpit Pimps has lowered the standards of preaching. The Prostitute of the Pulpit Pimps has lowered the standard of worship. Just like the preacher who won’t preach without being paid or looks at his gift as a ticket to fame. Other than the building and the pastor the worship leader and the musicians are raping the Body of Christ. By the time I was leaving the Institutionalized Church we were pouring out eighteen hundred and fifty dollars ($1,850.00) per week, seven thousand four hundred dollars ($7,400.00) per month ninety-six thousand two hundred dollars ($96,200.00) per year, for an hour or two of praise and worship and this was modest in comparison.
We have reduced worship to an hour or two event in front of our service. We measure our worship experience by how well our prostitute performs. Worship should be a lifestyle once you leave the service. Paul said, “this is your spiritual act of worship” referring to us “offering your bodies as living sacrifices”. Additionally, it has become our physical act of worship, offering entrainment as a sacrifice to God.
Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. Paul had already told the Roman believers, Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness” (Romans 6:13). Our bodies are all we have to offer we live in our bodies. The body enfolds our emotions, our mind, our thoughts, our desires, and our plans. Thus, the body represents the total person; it is the instrument by which all our service is given to God. In order to live for God, we must offer him all that we are, represented by our body. The word offer has also been translated give, yield, or present. If our body is at God’s disposal, he will have our free time, our pleasures, and all our behavior.
When sacrificing an animal according to God’s law, a priest would kill the animal, cut it in pieces, and place it on the altar. Sacrifice was important, but even in the Old Testament God made it clear that obedience from the heart was much more important (see 1 Samuel 15:22; Psalm 40:6; Amos 5:21-24). God wants us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices daily laying aside our own desires to follow him, putting all our energy and resources at his disposal, and trusting him to guide us (see Hebrews 13:15-16; 1 Peter 2:5). Our new life is a thanks-offering to God. Offering our body as a living sacrifice is holy and pleasing to God. To be a holy sacrifice is to be completely set apart for God and dedicated to worship him. Those who are dedicated to God are pleasing to God because they can participate in his service. If we are not set apart from our old life, we will not be useful to God.
True worship separates us from the world, we don’t enter into true worship, we become true worship, true worship leads us to love the body and not rape it. We are so busy paying to be entertained we turned our noses up at the penniless calling of the Holy Spirit. Worship is our response to God’s initiative. It is responding with our whole lives to everything God is and everything he has done.
Through The Bible In A Year (Evening Day 25)
Matthew 15
The Faith of the Canaanite Woman
21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.”
23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”
24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
28 Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
Jesus Feeds the Four Thousand
29 Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. 30 Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. 31 The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.
32 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.”
33 His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?”
34 “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked.
“Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.”
35 He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. 36 Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. 37 They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 38 The number of those who ate was four thousand, besides women and children. 39 After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan.
Matthew 15
The Demand for a Sign
1 The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.
2 He replied,a “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ 3 and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. 4 A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus then left them and went away.
Psalm 17
5 My steps have held to your paths;
my feet have not slipped.
6 I call on you, O God, for you will answer me;
give ear to me and hear my prayer.
7 Show the wonder of your great love,
you who save by your right hand
those who take refuge in you from their foes.
8 Keep me as the apple of your eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings
9 from the wicked who assail me,
from my mortal enemies who surround me.
10 They close up their callous hearts,
and their mouths speak with arrogance.
11 They have tracked me down, they now surround me,
with eyes alert, to throw me to the ground.
Settle For the Best
When you feel like settling for less than the best, think about what God wants for you.
There will come a day when you realize that God wants more for you than you could possibly want for yourself. Maybe you’ve come to that day already, but if not, here’s what will happen. As you focus on God daily by reading His Word and talking with Him through prayer, you are going to gain a greater appreciation for Who God is and what His will is for you each day. You will recall what God has done in every detail of your life as you eagerly learn how God wants to build your character and use you to impact the lives of others.
At that point you will realize that God doesn’t just want you to “get by” each day. He wants you to live your life fully here on Earth while you anticipate the amazing life waiting for you in heaven.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
Jeremiah 29:11
www.kennypittman.org
Truth it is what it is!
Christianity will not be conformed to the world by accepting or desiring materialism, money and commercialism as a good thing or a part of life. Christianity will not be transformed or proved wrong, although people may appear to make it sound good by arguing against it by using false statements as new teaching. Twist the Word—watch it flex back! ~KP
