Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Worship is more than words. It's action, movement and posture. It's a life fully surrendered to God and led by the Holy Spirit. Jesus said in John 4:23 24, True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. But how do we live that out every day?
Welcome to Roots of Faith where we walk together from spiritual infancy to maturity in Christ. Listen as Pastor Gimme shares what it means to live a spirit filled life, a life of true worship, inward joy and steadfast gratitude and surrendered obedience.
Are you merely honoring God with your lips or is your heart fully engaged in worship? Join us as we explore how the Holy Spirit transforms every part of our walk with Christ. Let's be again.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: In Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 18.
Beginning there, verse 18 says, do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.
Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.
Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Now understanding that what we've done and gone through is we've gone through the first three chapters, which are the doctrinal section. Those are the section, that's the section that sits there and says, okay, we have God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, three in one.
And they are active in uniting the church because the church is not like Israel where you had a temple that you had to go to, but the very presence of God is in us.
That's what it means when it says that the Holy Spirit indwells a believer. That's in the life of a believer.
Now I want to make a very clear statement here. What we've gone through in chapters four and now as we're going through chapter five are the practical applications about the Holy Spirit dealing with the church and Christ dealing with the church and how we are to respond knowing him.
And last week we were talking about the fact that it even says that you are to mold together your understanding, to put together the puzzle, to know the will of God.
And what we come on to today is what Paul was writing concerning worship.
Now, I want to tell you that worship is defined by a kiss that's great for Valentine's Day coming up.
What kind of kiss?
Well, what I want to share with you is that the word worship, that's translated worship, actually paints a picture.
And it's more than just the words.
It paints a picture of action, of movement, even of A posture to kiss the Lord in worship is not just about what we say, but how we live.
Now, you say that's very strange words, preacher. Why are you saying that?
Because the word that's translated worship, is made up of two words.
And the one is before in the face of.
And the second word in Greek is actually kiss.
The emphasis is to kiss before.
Strange.
But let me just share with you something.
When Jesus spoke to the woman at the well in John's gospel, in the fourth chapter, verses 23 and 24, it says, but the hour is coming. He said to the woman, but the hour is coming. And now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
For the Father is seeking such to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.
Do you hear that?
Now? Matthew chapter 15 and verse 8. Jesus is confronting the Pharisees, and he said about the Pharisees and rebuking them.
These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
Worship without the Holy Spirit is nothing.
It's totally vacant.
Did you ever come across the verse in Psalms chapter 2, the very end of Psalms chapter 2, and it says, kiss the sun.
I don't know how many times I've stumbled over that verse.
What does it mean to kiss?
Well, to kiss means in the ancient areas, and you see it even today in some of the European countries when they go to greet a person, especially if it's between dignitaries, you'll see it on the tv. And Marcion, president of France, will come and greet somebody else, another man, another equivalent from another nation. And it's a kiss on this cheek, a kiss on that cheek.
It is a gesture or the communication that you are equivalent, you are greeting them. They have equal authority.
But in the ancient near east, there were many times that there were different levels of kissing as an accepted practice.
And when it was a servant coming to his master, it would be that he would fall prostrate on the ground and kiss the feet of the king or the Master.
Worship is defined by kiss.
Now, I chose that as an idea to tie together what Paul has written here in these verses from 18 to 21.
And I'm going to call it the kiss life.
And what it means is keeping in step.
Spiritually, kiss does nothing to do with the rock band, but what it has to do very much is the reality of your relationship with a living God.
And keep that one verse in Psalms chapter two in mind.
Kiss the Son, lest he become angry and his anger flares. Or his wrath flares in a moment.
That's what it says.
But it says, blessed is he who takes refuge in the Lord.
The one who comes and falls prostrate at his feet to kiss the feet that are nail scarred for you and me.
Now I'm going to use those ideas to make one point throughout this entire message, and that is that a spiritual Christian man or woman is someone who lives in worship filled with the Holy Spirit.
You say, how on earth do you do that?
Well, actually I love it because Paul is so good when he writes.
Paul simply says in this portion that when you come to the 18th verse, he puts together two ideas.
He says, don't be drunk with wine.
Which leads, King James says, dissipation.
It means actually to become a prodigal is the root idea of it. And he says not to become so filled and controlled by something. What do people do when they have troubles?
In Sunday school we're talking about. In troubles, you turn to the Lord.
How many times have you heard somebody say, I'm going to go drown my sorrows in the bottle?
Or at least that's the attitude.
And what they're looking for is happiness that is elusive because if they drown far enough in that bottle, they have a terrible headache in the morning.
We call it a hangover.
But I want you to understand that if we do not live a spirit filled life, the logical opposition to that is that first word. Do not be drunk with wine, wherein is excess. It's not just referring to the wine or to alcoholic consumption, but what it's referring to is you're substituting Satan's counterfeit for joy.
That's exactly what it is.
If I'm going to go drown my sorrows, I'm looking for a counterfeit for what the Lord wants to do in me and for the Christian who is spirit filled, who has the spirit indwelling them. You're actually, I hate to say it this way, but I can't think of a better way. You're spitting in God's face because you're accepting a counterfeit.
I am to live as one in the spirit. And Paul hangs these four things that you find in these verses.
In verse 19 he says, Speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. That's number one.
Number two, he says, sing in your heart.
Actually it says, sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.
Number three, we come to verse 20. It says, always giving thanks to God for everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the most jarring comes at verse 21, because the fourth thing that he hangs on this, he says what?
Submit.
Submit to one another out of reverence. I'm going to be very brave next week because I am going to preach on the next verses.
But I want you to understand what submit means.
When we had a wedding facility and we would sit down with the bride and groom and I was going to perform the ceremony, one of the most frequent things I was asked to do is would you please take out the part of the vows that say, submit, wives, submit to your husbands.
Ladies, I want to give you a chance, especially for Valentine's Day. Remind your husband that the next statement in that says, as your husband submits to the Lord, that's submission. But it's the submission that comes out of a spirit filled life.
So let's take a look at each one of those four things. The first thing in KISS is kindred encouragement because it says speaking to one another.
And when you're speaking to one another, that's in the fellowship. And you're to speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
So the question comes, what are you doing to encourage one another?
What are you doing to encourage individuals within the body of Christ with those you fellowship with?
And when you start thinking about this, you start looking back through what Paul wrote to many of the different churches. When he wrote to the church at Corinth in First Corinthians 10:24, it says, no one should seek their own good but the good of the others. In other words, my focus within the body of Christ is I'm to be seeking the good of everybody else that's sitting here. Turn around. Look at the people around you. Look at everybody else.
Your purpose as a believer is to seek the good of the others more than your own good.
But you know what?
Most of the times as Christians, we forget about that. I want to come to church or I want the church to do this. I want the church to do that for me.
No, that's not the focus.
Yes, I can come to the church. I can have fellowship. And those that are around me will surround me and encourage me.
I have a brother at work. I have a brother and sister in the Lord at home that I can go to.
Monday night, when I was so discouraged about the car because the car had had left, Cindy and I just sitting.
We were going to turn in the middle of a road, it's called Academy Road in Ephrata.
And I had the blinker on and everything else. And I was sitting there and the car Was blinking and said, it's going to turn. And I put my foot on the gas and it went, nope, not going.
Then it flashed, Stabilitrak needs to be serviced.
I got out and put my shoulder to the car, turned it in the opposite direction with no power steering and pushed it over to the curb.
I was looking for a large garbage can. At that point we had our neighbor come and pick Cindy up. Cindy went back home, got the truck, truck that's much older, 2001 came over and she sat with me until AAA decided that they could finally get around to me. And they towed it off to the garage.
And we had been on our way to get groceries.
Now I do not have a club cob truck. Mine is a good old two door truck.
Cindy and I and the contents of our groceries would not fit together.
And so I was very nice. I took my wife home, said, I will go.
Actually I probably wasn't too nice when I said it. I'll go get the groceries.
And then I did a very unnice thing to my wife. As I was driving towards Giant, it struck me. I'm going to call Ron and Lynn. They're people in our small group.
I called them up and I said, hey guys, can I just stop by so we can pray together?
I need prayer.
And they said, sure, come on.
And I got over there, we sat down, I told them what was going on and they said, we'll pray. And I remember Ron just reaching out his hand and praying.
Then he said, you know, his wife said, lynn said, you know, Ron needs prayer. And it was because of his prosthetics. His leg was hurting and it was cutting into his, his leg. And so we prayed about that.
Of course I told my wife I was doing that when I got home.
So it was a long grocery trip.
But you see, that is the very idea of encouragement.
In 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 11 it says, Therefore encourage one another, build one another up, just as you are doing now. They were facing persecution at that point and he said to them, in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse 3, we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.
Wouldn't it be nice to have a church like that?
I think we do. We have a praying church.
In Hebrews, chapter three, verses 12 to 14, it says, Take care brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away. From the living God, but exhort one another every day, as long as it's called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ. If indeed we hold our original confidence firm in faith, we're to be watching out for each other.
I questioned in my mind, why on earth does it say, speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs?
That would look rather goofy.
I'm going to come up to you and say, how are you today?
No, that's not what it means.
Now realize that our minds are so wonderfully made that when you couple music and meter and rhyme, it becomes a lot easier to remember to bring it to mind.
And as I was sitting there writing that, immediately it brought a song to my mind.
How about that?
It's a song that's entitled you can have a song in your heart in the night.
Ira Stampfl was one of the two writers of that. That song, and it goes something like this. You have. You can have a melody down in your heart when it's aching, almost breaking.
Even though the sorrow makes the teardrop start.
You can have a melody down in your heart. Doesn't say you have to sing, but it says you can have a melody in your heart.
Says, do not let your worries drive your song away. Though tomorrow brings its sorrow. Just remember after nighttime comes the day.
Do not let your worries drive your song away.
And the chorus says, you can have a song in your heart in the night.
After every trial, after every mile. Anyone can sing when the sun shining bright, but you need a song in your heart at night.
And you know what?
How many times does the Lord just bring a song to your mind?
I like what Cindy does. If she doesn't recognize a song, she'll go over and say, alexa, play me and we can listen to the song.
When I was thinking about that, I tapped on YouTube and I said, give me. You can have a song in your heart at night.
And it brought up Gaither, of course, and it was Maila Friever that was the singer and sang that song, just as I remember it.
But you know, the next verse says in verse 19, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.
Well, not only is it kindred encouragement, but it's also inward joy.
A spirit filled Christian has an inward joy in their life.
Psalm 30, verse 5 says, For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night, but Joy comes in the morning.
That's the confidence of a spirit filled believer.
Even when your heart is aching, almost breaking, you can have a song in the night.
Nehemiah, chapter 8 and verse 10 it says, and do not be grieved for the joy of the Lord your strength.
Isaiah 35, verse 10 says, and the ransom of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing. Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads, and they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
So that begs the question, what are you looking for? And where are you looking for your joy?
I said it earlier, but I want to explain it a little bit more. Don't confuse happiness with joy.
Happiness is external and it depends on circumstances.
But joy is internal and it comes from God, our relationship and our purpose as a Christian.
Let me ask you, when you think of the fruits of the Spirit In Galatians, chapter 5, verse 22 and 23, it says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy.
It is a fruit of the spirit indwelling the believer.
It's not external, it's internal.
So in order to know joy, I need to have the Holy Spirit actively bearing fruit in my life. Catch that?
In order to know joy, I need the Holy Spirit to be actively bearing fruit in my life.
Which means that the Holy Spirit has access to my life when I yield to God's word.
I can't do it. Apart from God's word, I. I'm sorry, I have not heard voice.
I hear the word of God.
When I start hearing little voices, I will put my tinfoil hat on and go and stand out in the tree grove or something.
But what this is talking about in the life of a Christian, we're to hear the word of God.
So if I'm not in God's word, how can I listen?
And if I don't listen, how can I obey?
How can I know what is and discern the will of God? That's exactly what was last week.
Put together the pieces of the puzzle so that you know what is the will of God.
But you look at the next verse.
It says in verse 20, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It's not just kindred encouragement, it's not just internal joy, but it's a steadfast gratitude.
Always giving thanks to God the Father in all things.
In other words, you're to have an attitude of gratitude that's hard to do when the car leaves you sitting.
But I remember our conversation.
We've got aaa.
We made it around the corner, nobody hit us.
And we had a great neighbor who came and picked Cindy up.
We had another vehicle.
It's hard sometimes, but being in the practice of thanks at all times.
The original puts it this way. It says giving thanks at every time or at all times.
Did you give thanks when you got rear ended?
Did you give thanks when you got hit?
It's hard sometimes, but you see the spirit filled life of a believer, even though there are trials and testings, comes back to the place of where we give thanks to a living God who is prepared to deal and meet our needs.
When I think of an attitude of gratitude, the first thing comes back to my mind was my mother.
Because I remember her saying so many times because I was a kid that didn't listen that well, she would come back and say, did you say thanks?
Now as an adult, I still can't escape my mother's words.
Did you say thanks?
I tell you, the first thing I did on Tuesday are actually, yeah, it was on Tuesday when we got the new car and I was putting the insurance on it and everything.
First thing I did was text three of my friends saying the Lord supplied.
So it's not a grocery list of things that I'm thankful for, but rather it's the ingrained mindset to see and be thankful for all that the Lord Jesus has provided and to give thanks unto God the Father for Jesus Christ in His name.
Because I'm going back to that Old Testament phrase, because he's put his name on us.
I am a Christian, a Christ one.
So in the kiss principle, it's not only kindred encouragement, internal joy and steadfast gratitude, but the second S is surrendered obedience, obey.
Submitting to one another in the fear of Christ.
That's a rather strange way of saying it, but we're to submit.
And the strength of submission is that submission is not expressing defeat, but rather it's a choice to walk step with God's order. Because that's actually what the word surrender means. It means to put in order.
It was used militarily to say someone would fall in behind the leader because that's where their confidence was.
It's a sign of maturity, love and trust in God's design when you surrender yourself to Him.
Submission doesn't mean weakness.
It means trusting the one who leads.
And it's a pathway to true joy.
Just as Christ submitted to God, the Father submitted to the cross of Christ.
It was not weakness.
No, dear Christian, it's victory.
He died in My place and in your place.
And he's exalted above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is. And the word there is Lord. The same word is translated, master. He is the one who's leading, who has the plan.
And then you come to that verse I said at the beginning that always challenged Me.
In Psalms 2, verses 11 and 12.
It says in verse 11 says, Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
And verse 12 makes much more sense now because it's that surrendered obedience.
It is that falling prostrate before Christ, kissing the feet of the Master.
I stuck an extra piece of paper in your bulletin.
And so as we close, I want you not to just hear the word.
Heard that this morning in Sunday school, but let's live it.
And you've got five challenges I put there.
I'm going to challenge you to take one of them and commit to it this week.
Maybe you're going to encourage one person with scripture or song. You're speaking life into that person.
Sharing a psalm, a hymn. Maybe it's sending a text or a voice message.
Maybe you're going to pray for someone instead of just saying, I'll pray for you. Stop. This has been a challenge to me recently.
When you say, when somebody says to you, will you pray for me? I'll pray for you. Stop right there. I don't care whether you're on the phone, whether you're standing there in person. My brother Tom, Satchel work.
Tom and I will often just stop.
We'll put our arms on each other and we'll pray right there in the shop.
Pray with one another.
Replace complaining with a Thanksgiving for one week.
You do not have to include the turkey, but if you do, make sure the cranberry sauce is there.
Maybe it's worship God even in difficulty. Choose praise over pity.
Sing a song of praise when you feel discouraged.
Or maybe it's commit to spirit filled life by yielding to God's word daily for one week.
If you look down at the bottom of that little page, it says the final challenge.
Take one step of faith this week, one that you commit to.
Write it down. Pray about it. Take action at the end of the week, on Friday or Saturday.
Reflect on how did this deepen your walk with Christ, enabled you to kiss life and keep in step spiritually?
Live a life that sings in worship. That's all included in worship.
And if you're wavering on whether you're going to do that or not, let me just ask you this where will the Lord find you this week?
Worshiping in the Spirit and in truth, like he told the woman at the well?
Or will he have the same rebuke as he had for the Pharisees?
That you honor me with your lips, but your heart is far from me.
[00:43:57] Speaker A: Thank you for tuning into this episode of Roots of Faith, a ministry of Lawn Evangelical Congregational Church in Lawn, Pennsylvania. We hope today's message has uplifted you and deepened your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, whether you're new in the faith or have walked with him for years, God's Word is always fresh and powerful to transform form. If you were blessed by this episode, please share it with friends. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an update. We would love for you to join us on Sunday at 10:30am at 5566 Elizabethtown Road, Route 241 in Lawn, Pennsylvania. As always, stay rooted in the Word, stand firm in faith and keep growing in Christ.
