Luke 1:26-56
"The heart of worship"
Faith is the heart of worship. We cannot begin to worship unless we believe God;
we can never worship with freedom and joyful abandonment unless we trust God. True
worship springs from:
1. A God-centered view of ourselves (position; vs. 28)
2. A God-centered view of circumstances (purpose; vs. 38)
3. A God-centered view of the future (promises; vs. 45)
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Let's talk about falling in love. I know this seems off topic, but trust me, it
really is not. There's a reason why we use the word "falling" when we talk about
being in love. At least there was in my experience. Falling in love is sort of
like jumping out of an airplane without knowing for sure if your parachute will open. It
is a thrilling experience, but requires a suspension -- no a complete abandonment
-- of rational judgement. Someone who is thinking rationally -- calculating the
risk/benefit factor would simply not make the plunge.
When I fell in love with Carol, I almost completely any sense of practicality. For
example, there was one time when I went to visit her. I was in Chicago when Carol
and I were courting. She was in Victoria British Columbia, on Vancouver Island.
It was a wonderful visit. I came back with my head in the clouds -- only to discover my
car had been impounded. You see, for some strange reason, the city of Chicago doesn't
suspend parking regulations for people who are in love. So I had to pay far more
than the car was worth to get it back from the pound.
Then there was the famous perfume incident. I wanted to buy Carol a gift. Thought
perfume would be a good idea, and I knew a scent she liked. So I walked into Marshall
Fields up to the perfume counter and boldly asked for it. So, would you like the
$40 bottle or the $80 bottle? Gulp. My food money for the month. But I bought it
because -- well because I was in love. And to me perfume was perfume. Only later
did I learn that there was something called eau de cologne that I might actually
have been able to afford.
Why did I do such crazy things? Because I was in love! And when you are in love
there is only one thing that matters to you -- and that is the object of your love.
Parking regulations? Those are for ordinary people. Money? -- what does money
matter -- except as a means of showing your love.
A person in love doesn't calculate costs or risks -- love is characterized by joyous
abandonment. Lovers care nothing for appearances -- they pour themselves into the
other person without being afraid of how it looks, because for the person in love
there is only one thing that is of real importance. Love is an irrational giving of yourself.
That's why love looks so utterly foolish.
You know, love and worship have alot in common. When we worship we abandon ourselves
to the love of God the way lovers abandon themselves to each other. If we worship
with our whole hearts we will have our minds and our hearts focussed on nothing but
God. Worship cannot be calculating any more than love can. Worship is the irrational
giving ourselves over to the love and praise and devotion to God.
I'd like to suggest a few ways that being in love helps us to understand God-centered
worship.
1. When you are in love you see yourself through your lover's eyes
Lovers will often spend rather long -- irrationally long -- periods of time gazing
into each other's eyes. Imagine this experiment: Go up to a pair of lovers
who are gazing in each others eyes, and you pull one of them aside and say -- you
know, you are really not very attractive. You have rather bulging eyes and a large nose, and
your overweight and badly dressed. Do you imagine that person will care about what
you think? Might be irritated -- but do you think you will shake his self-image
for long? I doubt it. He sees adoration in her eyes and that is all that matters.
You and your opinion are really completely irrelevant because the only thing that
matters to a lover is what the object of their love thinks of them. And if the
one you love adores you with your large nose and bulging eyes, then what could be better.
When you are in love you see yourself reflected in the eyes of the one you love
.
In the same way worshippers of God learn to see themselves through God's eyes.
If our thoughts and our desires are focussed on God alone, then what could be more
important than what God thinks of us? We all bring with us all sorts of baggage
that has given us a distorted picture of ourselves -- we bring pride, shame, guilt -- when
we worship it needs to be left at the door -- No
it needs to be THROWN out the door because the only thing that matters is God.
Now let's look at how this worked in Mary's experience. Notice the first thing the
angel said to Mary, in verse 28: "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord
is with you."
Highly favored! What would it mean for Mary to be highly favored? Was she to become
a fairy-tale princess, rich and famous, mother of a king, living happily ever after?
For Mary being highly favored meant first of all shame and ridicule -- how the
gossipping tongues of Nazareth must have buzzed. Being highly favored was going to
mean pain and discomfort -- it meant giving birth to her first child far from family
in a dirty, stinking stable. Being highly favored meant fleeing for her life to
Egypt. Being highly favored meant watching her son cruelly tortured and executed.
This was what it would mean to be highly favored! I don't know how much of this
Mary could anticipate, but even if she knew none of what was to come, she had reason
enough to scoff at the angel's words. But faith, for Mary, meant taking God at
his word about her own identity. She was called on to believe God's word that she was highly
favored when she had no evidence at all. Like a lover who sees herself in the mirror
of her lover's eyes -- so Mary had to look at herself through God's eyes, not her own.
In the same way, God has said things about us that we MUST believe if we are to be
his true worshippers.
1 John 3:1-2 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should
be called the Children of God. And that is what we are! . . . . We know that
when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
1 Peter 2:9 You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a people belonging to God
that you might declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his
wonderful light.
Some of you -- many of you -- have come to worship this morning loaded down with baggage
about yourselves. You are acting out a script that is not written by God and in
that script you are filled with failure, guilt and shame. And those feelings about
yourself are making it impossible to really worship God.
It's like going on a date and spending the whole time apologizing for who you are
-- you wouldn't have much fun -- neither would your date. Look into the eyes of
your loving savior -- you won't find condemnation there. Look at yourself through
God's eyes, not your own.
2. When you're in love circumstances around fade in significance
Let's go back to our pair of lovers, gazing in each others eyes. Not only does
someone in love see himself differently -- He also sees circumstances differently.
Or maybe it would be more accurate to say, he doesn't see circumstances at all.
People in love are often blissfully unaware of what's going on around them -- completely
oblivious. In that moment of gazing into the eyes of the one you love, what else
could possibly matter?
Oh, if we could be like lovers when we come to worship God -- with eyes only for him.
David was like this. There's a wonderful story about David in 2 Samuel 6:14. David
had recently become king, and he was bringing the Ark of the covenant -- which represented
the very presence of God -- into Jerusalem.
And what did he do as the ark was being brought in. Was he very staid and dignified,
concerned about his appearance and dress, concerned about protocol. No! He stripped
off his royal robes -- and he danced, naked -- or at least half naked -- with all
his might.
2 Sam 6:14 -- He danced before the Lord with all his might.
He worshipped with exuberance. He leaped he danced, he shouted. Michal, his wife
saw him doing this, and she was embarrassed -- she despised him in her heart. And
when he came home she let him have it. Look at what she said and at David's response:
vs. 20: "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the
sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!"
vs. 21: And David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me rather tan
your father or anyone form his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord's people
Israel -- I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified
than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes."
Now I'm not exactly suggesting that we dance naked before the Lord -- but I am suggesting
that our worship will be more exuberant, more joyful, more free if our eyes are fixed
on God alone.
We sometimes sing these words: "Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful
face" And what will happen? "The things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the
light of his Glory and grace."
If only we would do this. If only we would come to worship seeking Jesus face alone
-- putting aside everythng else that entangles our minds. If only we could put
aside all of our self-consciousness and all of our preoccupation with things of the
world -- these are all idols -- they are idols that turn us away from the one we came to
seek. If we could be like lovers, with eyes only for his face -- Then what glorious
worship we would have! What exuberant praise we could sing. Then our worship
would be like David's worship. Unrestrained, exuberant, joyful. Then our worship would
be like Mary's.
You see the joy and exuberance of Mary's worship was preceded by her wholehearted
acceptance of the circumstances that God had put her in. Notice in Luke 1 verse
38 how she responds to the Angel's message: "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered,
"May it be to me as you have said."
"May it be to me as you have said!" By this simple statement Mary put all of the
pain and difficulty and shame she would face into the hands of God and trusted Him
with it. By these simple words she released control over her life and circumstances
to God. And so, when she came to meet her cousin Elizabeth she was not in tears, she
was not distraught, she did not come asking, "how am I going to cope?" Why has God
allowed this to happen? No, she was filled with praise to God -- free to praise
God, oblivious of the difficulty of her circumstances.
Almost all of you have come to worship preoccupied about some circumstance of your
life. Something that your mind moves back to at every opportunity. Your thinking
about your kids, or your job, or what's for lunch -- anything and everything except
the one you came here to meet. What's wrong with that? Well, if you were on a date
with the person you had fallen in love with, wouldn't you be all there? You would
leave behind everything else in your life in order to focus on that person.
Here, in worship, you are meeting God -- this is your trysting place. Leave your
circumstances and preoccupations at the door and say, like Mary, "May it be to me
as you have said," giving over control of your life and your circumstances to him.
Then you will have eyes only for God and you will be able to worship with your whole heart.
3. People in love make promises -- and they believe them!
One final thing about people in love -- they seem to be always making promises to
one another. But what is surprising -- they believe them! Probably don't have
to look very far in this building to find initials carved somewhere -- and often
along with those initials will be other letters. TLF. True Love Forever. To adults it seems
ridiculous that junior high students would be promising to love each other forever.
But it is not ridiculous at all, it is part of being in love to make promises and
to believe those promises. Not to believe the one you love when they promise to
love you forever is a betrayal of love itself -- we want to be able to trust those
that we love. People in love trust each other. They believe each other's promises.
If we are so ready to believe the promises of those who so easily break their promises,
how much more should worshippers of God believe the promises of God.
You know what happens to love when we stop trusting -- when we fear betrayal -- it
dissolves into fear and then into hate. We do not give our love freely to those
we do not trust. The same thing happens to worship. If we do not trust God,
our worship dissolves into fear of God and resentment of God. You cannot worship a God you
do not trust anymore than someone can give their love fully and freely to someone
they think will betray them. Trust in the promises of God -- a conviction that
God is good and that he will keep his promises -- is a pre-requisite for worship.
Mary took God at his word. She believed his promises. Notice what Elizabeth says
to Mary in verse 45, "Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said
to her will be accomplished."
Blessed -- that means happy -- Happy is she who has believed the promises of God.
Do you want to be happy in worship? You cannot do it if you hang on to anxieties
about your future. If you want joy in worship you will need to throw your future
into the lap of God and focus your attention on the God who keeps his promises.
Most of us come to worship loaded with anxieties -- anxieties about relationships,
anxieties about health. But God tells us, "cast all of your anxieties on him,
for he cares for you."
Conclusion -- What is the heart of worship?
So, What is the heart of worship?
The heart of worship is Faith -- Oh, not the sort of intellectual acceptance that
we often confuse with faith, but the sort of Faith the Mary demonstrated -- A complete
abandonment of herself to God, a complete trust in God. Hers was a lover's faith
-- She believed what God said about her, she trusted him with circumstances and she believed
His promises.
And it was out of her heart of worship that this glorious hymn of praise burst forth:
My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been
mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call
me blessed, for the Mighty one has done great things for me -- Holy is his name.
She didn't need an organ, or a cathedral, or stained glass. She didn't need hymn
books or a great worship leader. She had a heart of worship -- a heart centered
on God -- a lover's heart.
You see worship is more than a worship service. The outward forms of a worship
service just the outward expressions of a worshipping heart. And without the heart
of worship, the forms are empty and lifeless. Worship is a joyful release of all
of our energies and affections to God.
And so, when we come to worship -- whether here or some other place -- let us not
come thinking that our worship is dependent upon the circumstances around us. It
is not. Worship springs from the heart given over to God. If you want to worship
with freedom and joyful abandonment, give your heart fully over to God.
This place of worship, this is our trysting place -- the place where we gaze into
the eyes of our lover -- the eyes of our God -- where we learn to see ourselves through
his eyes, where we allow the circumstances around us to fade, where we look to
the future with hope.