Living on Mission through True Worship

What is worship? What does it look like?  How can our public worship help others embrace the beauty of Jesus Christ? Jani teaches on our third priority—the work of Christ in the world—and how our worship services can help us live on mission.

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Episode Transcript

Jani Ortlund (00:02):
Welcome to He restores my soul with Janney
Ortlund, where you can findencouragement for your busy life
through God's renewing mercy.
Hello, everyone. I'm so glad youjoined us on our discipleship
series today. I'm praying foryou, as you grow, to love the

(00:22):
Lord more and love each othermore. I'm asking him to make
this a meaningful experience foryou this year...one that you can
possibly pass on to others inthe years ahead.
Today, we want to start off withaccountability. I want to go
over your assignment from lastweek. And then I'm going to ask

(00:45):
you leaders to turn off thepodcast and go through it with
your group on your own.
Please go through your quiettimes. Choose someone to share
your meditation verses and yourBible memory. Ask each member
which passage she has chosen andhave someone say what they've
learned so far by memory. Also,ask if anyone has chosen a

(01:11):
biography to read yet. Make surethat there are no doubles on
that. And then find out how itwent for them exchanging their
prayer calendars and praying foreach other this week. Go ahead
and pause the podcast, and catchup on your assignment from last
week.

(01:34):
Now, take out a pen and yourpaper, and I'm going to give you
your assignment for this comingweek. Make sure that you have
chosen a biography to read. Andthen have your six quiet times.
Go over your meditation verse,your memorization (keep working
on it), exchange your prayercalendars, and pray for each

(01:58):
other, and bring back a calendarto exchange for next week.
You're beginning to get therepetition in this part of our
discipleship year together ofwhat we expect week to week.
But before we leave thisassignment part, I want to talk

(02:18):
to you a little bit aboutchoosing a Christian biography
to read, and why I asked you todo that. There are three
life-giving habits I hope you'relearning to embrace and treasure
as you work through thisdiscipleship series. The first
one is to be in the Word dailyreading, meditating on it, and

(02:42):
memorizing it. The second one isprayer: prayer for yourself and
others. In your prayer notebookyou're exchanging names, or
weekly calendars; however youdecide to pray for each other.
So, I'm hoping you're developinga habit of being in the word

(03:03):
daily, of praying for yourself,and for others. And then a third
life-giving habit I'm asking theLord to develop within each one
of you, is to embrace theintellectual and spiritual
challenges of reading a goodbook. Always have one ready. I

(03:26):
hope that you will read theWord, that you will be a prayer
warrior, and that you will be areader all your life.
Books and reading—that gift ofcommunicating ideas through
words—this is God's idea. Do youfeel you don't have enough time

(03:46):
for it? Well, then treatyourself for motivation.
Sometimes I have to do this.
Maybe you want to watch a movielater. Well, reward yourself
that way after you've read for ahalf hour. Maybe you want time
on your computer or your phonejust to play some games. Well,
again, read first and thenreward yourself. Let your kids

(04:07):
see you read. Have your childrenever come in and found you
enjoying a good book? Read outloud to them. Let new books for
your children be a treat. ForChristmas or for their

(04:28):
birthdays, we used to give eachof our children one special
book. Build a home library. Keepa list of books you have read
and other recommended reading,and then a list of books you
want to read.
At this point in the year, I'veassigned each member to choose a

(04:52):
biography to read and report onto the whole group. Reading a
Christian biography will kindlea fire in your soul to live for
Christ with more wholehearteddevotion and earnest passion. I
love reading Christianbiographies. Colleen Chao, in
her True Woman blog postentitled, "Let Heroes of the

(05:17):
Faith Teach You Today," saysthis, “A diet consisting largely
of blogs and books written bymodern day men and women who
have only lived a mere three,four, or five decades in
affluent America. Well, that's adiet for spiritual

(05:39):
malnutrition.”I agree, we will be women who
are spiritually malnourished ifwe only read modern day blogs
and books. So that's why Iassign reading Christian

(05:59):
biographies.
Now, if you need help choosing abiography, make sure to check
out our recommended reading listat the end of this podcast. Just
go to the website, and you'llfind that.
This is your assignment for yourbiography. And your leader,

(06:23):
hopefully, will have copied offa copy of this for each of you
to take home as you read. I wantyou to take 20 minutes. Don't
take longer than 20 minutes.
Prepare a report that will lastaround 20 minutes. Give us a
brief overview of their life.
Tell us how they lived out thethree priorities. How did you

(06:46):
see them living for Christ andthe body of Christ and the work
of Christ in the world? What wastheir mission? Who did they do
it with? And who did they do itfor? What surprised you in this
person's life? What challengedyou? And then tell us, would you

(07:06):
recommend this book to us? Wouldyou make it part of your own
personal library? Why or whynot?
Now leaders, try to assign wheneach group member will give her
report over the next four weeksor so. You're going to want to
do this carefully, so that youwill be able to finish all the

(07:28):
biographies before we finish ourdiscipleship group. Leaders, you
may need to be first on thislist. And then remember, along
with this biography assignment,you've got your quiet times,
your meditating, your memorizingscripture, and your praying for
one another.

(07:48):
Now, leaders, make sure yourgroup understands this
assignment. And then pause thepodcast and share prayer
requests and exchange yourprayer calendars. After that,
after sharing your prayerrequests and exchanging your
calendars, take a short break.

(08:10):
For the second half of your timetogether, I want to teach on

priority three (08:15):
the work of Christ in the world. We're going
to begin thinking through thatpriority today, missional
living, and I'm going to teachon it in two parts, one this
week, and one in our nextpodcast. Today I want to talk
about public outreach throughcorporate worship. And then next

(08:38):
week, I want to talk aboutpersonal outreach through
witnessing.
Let's review the threepriorities. Do you remember

them? The first one is (08:48):
Christ.

The second one is (08:48):
The Body of
The Work of Christ in the World.
Or another way to state theseis: Jesus, Community, Mission.
Today we're going to talk about"The Work of Christ in the

(09:09):
World" (or missional living),and, again, it's going to be in
two parts. I'm going to do thefirst part today: Public
Outreach Through Worship.
Public worship is a part ofpriority one, of course. Putting
God first, nurturing our innerlives, and living from the
inside out through coming toworship together once a week.

(09:34):
But did you know that our publicworship can also be part of our
mission here on Earth, part ofour ministry to the world? I
believe it is one of the chiefways we display God to the
world.
You might wonder, "Now, how isthat Jani? How does that work?"

(09:56):
Well, think back in the OldTestament. When God called the
children of Israel together toworship Him, it was to show the
world His glory and majesty andholiness, and their own
sinfulness. As you are readingthrough the Old Testament, you
will see the numerous andspecific ways God commanded His

(10:16):
people to worship, and thebeauty of the tabernacle in
Moses' time, and then theglories of the temple in
Solomon's time. There was awhole tribe of Israelites set
apart to serve as priests inthis worship, and there were
very precise instructions givento them regarding the varied

(10:39):
sacrifices and ways they were toworship Him.
That's the Old Testament. Andthen Jesus came. John 1:14 says,
"And the Word became flesh, anddwelt among us. And we have seen
His glory, the glory of the Sonfrom the Father, full of grace

(11:03):
and truth." Jesus was the finaland better sacrifice, and He
opened new paths of worship forHis people. Now we show the
Lord's glory through ourcorporate worship in a closer,
more intimate, more personalwelcome into the Holy of Holies.
Because as Hebrews teaches us inHebrews 10,

(11:27):
"By one sacrifice, He has madeperfect forever, those who have
been made holy."And instructions are sprinkled
liberally throughout the NewTestament describing what kind
of worship is pleasing to Godunder the new covenant. Think of
it, one day each week, the wholeworld joins in praising, and

(11:51):
worshiping, and honoring the,“God of peace, who brought again
from the dead, our Lord Jesus,that great shepherd of the
sheep, to whom be glory,forever, and ever” (Hebrews
13:20-21).

(12:11):
One day, every week, the wholeworld meets together in groups
to praise and magnify herCreator. They come together to
jointly express their adorationof the King of Kings and Lord of
Lords, the maker and sustainerof all life, and the lover of
their souls, who has written Hislaw on their hearts, and so

(12:36):
committed Himself to them, thatthey have nothing to fear in
life or death.

Think of it (12:42):
start where the sun rises in the east, in Japan and
China, and other parts of Asia,Indonesia, Australia, the Middle
East, India, and then on toAfrica, and Europe, then South

(13:03):
America, and finally, believersalong the East Coast of North
America begin to raise theirhearts and voices to praise the
Alpha and Omega. And throughoutthe day, as the Earth rotates
throughout God's universe, themomentum gathers, as more and

(13:25):
more children lift their praisesup to Him whose judgments are
unsearchable and paths beyondtracing out. People gather in
Central America and across thecenter of Canada and the USA,
then Mexico and the West Coastjoins in, and finally the
Pacific Islands.

(13:47):
One day of the week, the wholeworld joins in exalting her
Creator, and the Bible says,this is a good thing! Psalm

89 (13:58):
15 says, "Blessed are those” (that means congratulations;
happy are those) “who know thefestal shout, who walk, oh Lord,
in the light of your face." OrPsalm 34:3 says, "Magnify the
Lord with me, and let us exaltHis name together."

(14:24):
The Bible tells us that thishappy worship will lead to
evangelism. First Corinthians14:25-26 says, "The secrets of
his heart” (the unbeliever) “aredisclosed. And so falling on his
face, he will worship God anddeclare that God is really among

(14:46):
you."But there's an obstacle to our
worship, isn't there? So oftenwe see so little of this
gladsome abandonment tocorporate worship. Why is this?
Well, I believe it's because weall tend toward isolation.

(15:09):
Isolation is safe. It feelsbetter to us sometimes. Because
it's hard to worship together.
Worship, corporate worship, isdemanding. It's messy. We want
to be separate, alone, private,contained, safe…isolated. Now
private worship is good, butit's limited. We all need

(15:36):
corporate worship. You do. Weneed to link arms together to
stand shoulder to shoulder andbe caught up together toward
heaven.
God gives us glimpses, a tasteof what heavenly worship is

(15:57):
like. Those in heaven know allabout Christ and worshiping Him.
They worship Him best. Nehemiah9:6, says this, "The multitudes
of heaven worship you."Revelation 19:5-7 say, "And from

(16:20):
the throne came a voice saying,"Praise our God, all you
servants, you who fear Him,small and great!" Then I heard
what seemed to be the voice ofmany waters, and like the sound
of mighty peals of thundercrying out, "Hallelujah! For the

(16:41):
Lord, our God, the Almightyreigns. Let us rejoice and exalt
and give Him the glory, for themarriage supper of the Lamb has
come, and the bride has madeherself ready."
You see we're the bride, and wewant to worship Him, the groom.

(17:02):
Our Lord Jesus wants us to. Wecan savor a little foretaste of
heaven, of this kind of heavenlyworship when we worship
together. I believe each Sundayis a little bit like a dress
rehearsal for our worship 'roundthe throne. We need that

(17:26):
togetherness. Let's not resistit.
What is worship? Well, let's allturn to John 4:23-24. Turn there
right now. Follow along as Iread. "But the hour is coming,

(17:58):
and is now here, when the trueworshipers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth. Forthe Father is seeking such
people to worship Him. God isspirit and those who worship Him
must worship in spirit andtruth.

(18:18):
God is seeking worshipers—do yousee that?—true worshippers.
Worship is the highest and mostnoble act you can ever do. Why
did Jesus come? To makeworshipers out of rebels? Those
who were once self-centered cannow shift their attention from

(18:39):
themselves to God.
What is worship? What does itlook like? Well, my Ray says
this, “Worship is any properresponse to God. Many responses
are appropriate in worship. Itdepends on what God is doing to
us, what God is doing with us,awe before His Majesty, fear

(19:05):
before His judgement, joy beforeHis saving intervention,
conviction before His exposureof our sins, dedication to His
purposes, obedience to HisWord.”
Yes, I agree with Ray. Worshipis any proper response to what
God is doing to us, with us, forus. Think of Job, in Job

1 (19:32):
20-21. "Then Job arose, and tore his robe and shaved his
head and fell on the ground andworshiped. And he said, 'Naked I
came from my mother's womb andnaked shall I return. The Lord

(19:53):
gave and the Lord has takenaway. Blessed be the name of the
Lord.'"You see worship is properly
responding to God. Joy andfullness in worship come from
joy and fullness in God. If myworship is boring, or stale, or
dry or sour, that is pointing toa boring, or stale, or dry, or

(20:18):
sour, relationship with my King.

Now we see here in John (20:25):
23-24, that the first ingredient of
worship is internal worship inspirit. Worship springs from
your spirit. It is your spirit'sadmission to the Lordship of
Christ, it involves bowing atyour conversion and continuing

(20:45):
to bow all the way to theEternal Throne of God. We have
to learn this wonderful task ofworship. We have to learn to
press into the very heart of Godand meet him there. This
requires a humble heart. We needto leave all else aside,
bringing our own right attitudetoward God. You are a daughter

(21:10):
of a king; come to spend timewith Him. Don't worry about what
others may think. Give yourselfto this glorious call to
worship.

Isaiah 29 (21:20):
13 warns us when it says this, "People draw near
with their mouth and honor mewith their lips, while their
hearts are far from me. Andtheir fear of me is a
commandment taught by men."Internal worship, through your
spirit, brings your heart to Godin humility.

(21:48):
Also, because the Greek textdoesn't use capital letters,
this could mean the Holy Spirit;the Holy Spirit must help us.
We're so downward oriented.
We're so self absorbed.

Ephesians (22:04):
18 puts it this way, "We have access in one Spirit to
the Father."Now, let me just give a little
aside here. I believe we live ina day of poverty in worship. I
see this in three ways. Peopletell me, “Well, Jani, I don't

(22:24):
attend worship regularly becauseI don't get anything out of it.”
Oh, my, I must say, "You don'tget anything out of it? The
whole service is worship—notjust the music. It's called a
worship service. The EternalWord of God, the great music of

(22:44):
the church. Nothing out ofprayers offered to Almighty God
through the blood of His onlySon, Jesus Christ?" If that's
true, I believe the fault lieswith us. Let's be aware of a
demanding spirit when we come toworship.
Or, I see our poverty in worshipwhen people tell me, “But Jani

(23:09):
I'm so tired. It's my day off.”Let me say I believe that Sunday
should be the focal point of ourweek. If our job keeps us from
regular worship, we should thinkabout changing jobs. Exodus 20:8
says, “Remember the Sabbath dayto keep it holy.”

Exodus 34 (23:33):
21 says, “Even during the plowing time, and in
harvest, you shall rest.” Goddidn't want His people to take
time off their Sabbath restbecause they were in the middle
of harvest.
A third attitude we bring showsour poverty. We come to be

(23:54):
entertained. People tell me,“Well, it doesn't meet my needs
or desires, my personal likesand dislikes.” Oh my goodness.
Let's be careful. The Magi inMatthew 2 were the very first
Gentiles ever to know Christ.
They came seeking Him. They knewvery little, but they came at a

(24:14):
great distance. They said theirpurpose was to come to worship
him (Matthew 2:2). They didn'tcome to study an unusual
situation. They came to worshipChrist. And when they finally
found him, the Bible says theyfell down. Do you sense their
humility? They fell down andworshipped him and presented to

(24:39):
Him their treasures. We mustseek Him, too. Our attitude
should be one of pressing ontoward Christ, of seeking, of
drawing near, of longing forhim.
Watchman Nee says this, “Theycannot be passive in the Body;

(25:00):
they dare not merely stand bylooking on. For none are so
harmful as onlookers.” Oh my,let's not be onlookers. Let's be
women who worship the Lord inspirit, in our own spirit, and

(25:21):
through the help of the HolySpirit.
Now, let's go on to the secondingredient in worship. Not only
is it emotional in our spirit(it is spiritual), but it is
rational. Do you see thosewords? In truth. Those who
worship Him must worship Him intruth. We need to come to Him

(25:43):
with our minds as well as ourhearts. We need to engage our
minds in the scripture readings,the liturgy and creeds, the
music, the prayers, the teachingor sermons. Let's be women who
come to each service mentallyalert to seek God. Let's prepare

(26:03):
ourselves. Let's be ready toengage our minds in an
ever-deepening knowledge of whoGod is, and how he wants us to
respond to Him. Let's learn tolove Him with all our minds, as
well as all our hearts andsouls. Let's be alert,

(26:23):
attentive, expectant, ever-readyto explore new depths of His
wonder and majesty and holiness.
Now, let me offer just a fewaids to worship. Also, just
three that have helped me.

(26:46):
One is preparation. I need tocome ready to respond. To
worship means to do reverence,to kiss the hand of, to bow to,
to acknowledge the presence ofsomebody great. Let me
illustrate it this way. When welived in Scotland, our minister

(27:08):
very kindly got Ray at metickets to the royal tea at
Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh. Ohmy goodness. Well, I wanted to
prepare for it. I asked Iainwhat I should wear and how I
should act. Princess Margaretwas going to be there. What
should I do if she came over? Iwanted to prepare.

(27:33):
Well, we need to prepareourselves to admire our King
Jesus, and to stand in awe inHis presence. Hebrews 12:28
says, “Let us offer to Godacceptable worship with
reverence and awe.”How to prepare well? You've
heard me talk on this before butit bears repeating.

(27:53):
a.) How about Saturday night?
Prepare yourself on Saturdaynight. Do you allow your
children's sleepovers? Do youget clothes out and think about
your food for the morning? Isyour Bible ready? Your offering?
b.) What about on Sundaymornings? Do you have a special

(28:13):
breakfast? Or do you have yourclothing out? Are you walking to
church or driving? Think aboutit. How can you help get your
kids ready without a lot ofquarrels, fighting, yelling,
scolding, discipline. Oh mygoodness, try to make Sunday
mornings the happiest morning ofthe week.

(28:34):
c.) And then at church,remember, this is an appointment
with the Lord God Almighty.
Don't be late. Don't rush in.
Give yourself time to get thereto quiet your heart. Be ready to
give God everything. Prepare.
That will aid you in your publicworship.

(29:00):
Now, another aid, at least forme, is prayer. Connect with God.
There will always bedisappointments in church,
especially with the upfrontleadership. Ask me how I know.

(29:13):
) Oh, it may be boring, or repetitive, or not your style.
What should you do? Pray foryour leaders in love and
humility. Remember that this isworship between you and God.
Stretch your mind. Adore him.
Then pray for your pastor, themusicians, the worship leaders,

(29:36):
the ushers, the greeters, thefellow worshipers around you,
behind you, in front of you, atyour side. Pray, pray as you
connect with God.
And then finally, it helps me toworship God when I'm ready to

give. 2 Corinthians (29:58):
6-15 talks about how God loves a “cheerful”
giver. You're giving, it says,overflows in many thanks to God.
You give your money to God'swork and people worship God with
their thanks for it. Oh, I'dlove that.

Exodus 34 (30:18):
20 cautions us this way, “None shall appear before
me empty-handed.”Well, I don't know what that
means for you. For me, it meansI like to divide our monthly
tithe into weekly gifts andbring it each week. I don't know
how you give, maybe you giveonce a month online, and as you

(30:40):
come to worship each week duringthe giving time, you know you've
already given. That's great,you're not appearing before him
empty handed. God isn't some bigogre, you know, checking out how
much we're bringing each Sunday,but it helps me worship when I
have something to give. It's notas if God needs our money. He's
the source of it all. Psalm

50:9-12 put it this way (31:05):
“The world is mine and all that is in
it.” But you see, givingconnects us with God. It reminds
us of our dependence. It givesus a chance to say, “Thank you!”
and thank you is part of ourworship.

(31:29):
Our worship is one of the waysthe world sees who our God is.
Our worship can be missional,helping us to fulfill the third
priority of showing Christ tothe world. I love a story Ray
tells of how one Californiapastor understood that our

(31:50):
worship can and should bemissional. This took place back
in the late 1960s, early 1970sin Southern California.
Pastor Chuck Smith was serving alittle church in Costa Mesa,
California in the late 1960s. Itwasn't far from the beach. God

(32:15):
began to stir people's hearts inthat area. Crowds of young
people started coming to church.
But there is a problem. The oildeposits off the coast of
Southern California bubble uplittle globs of oil that land on
the beach, about the size of aquarter (at least they did back

(32:35):
then; I don't know if they stilldo now, but back then they did).
If you step on one, it sticks tothe bottom of your foot, and
then you mess up the carpet whenyou walk into your house. Well,
these young people began cominginto church right off the beach.
They didn't wear shoes. So thenew carpets and the new pews in

(33:01):
the church were getting stainedwith the oil from the beach.
One Sunday morning, Chuckarrived at church to find a sign
posted out on the sidewalk,"Shirts and shoes please." He
took the sign down. After theservice he met with the other

(33:24):
church leaders. They agreed thatthey would remove the carpet and
the pews before they wouldhinder one kid from coming to
Christ. And their wise decisioncleared the way for God to visit
Calvary Chapel with power. And1,000s of people were added to

(33:45):
the Lord's new community. Rayand I were there when they were
holding services five nights aweek. There was standing room
only because the people couldn'tget enough. The Lord was there.
The breakthrough came when theystarted caring more about what

(34:06):
God cares about and nothingelse. That was wise. They saw
that their worship services weremissional.
Well, I hope you'll enjoyworshiping with other believers
this Sunday. If you are not in agood church yet, find one and

(34:27):
enter in. By so doing, you'll beliving out our third priority
and living on mission.
Now, leaders, take the remainingtime of your meeting together to
pray for each other and thensing or say Numbers 6:24-26 over

(34:51):
each other. And I do pray thatthe Lord will restore your souls
as you meet together. God blessyou.

Heidi Howerton (35:05):
Thank you for joining us today. This podcast
is generously funded throughRenewal Ministries. If you would
like to discover more aboutJanney and raise ministry or
make a donation, visit theirwebsite at renewal
ministries.com If you have aquestion for Jay me or would
like to learn more about thispodcast, please visit our
website at He restores mysoul.org