Let us continue on our journey through our Worship Ministries Vision Statement and allow it to remind us what it is that we are trying to accomplish through this ministry of worship that we share. We will do that by unpacking the last section of the vision statement for our Music and Worship Ministries. This is what you are committing to by becoming a member of this team. Here is the statement:
Our Worship Ministries exist to nurture worship as a lifestyle
characterized by sincere responses to God’s self-revelations.
Last week we looked at next phrase “characterized by sincere responses”. I shared that to respond means to make a reply or answer. All worship is but a response to God. The response is qualified with the adjective sincere which means to be genuine or authentic. Pastor David challenged us on Sunday with regard to “Getting Real With God” so this territory has been well-covered.
This week we will look at the last few words of the statement and probably the most important. They describe what we are responding to when we worship either gathered or dispersed. It all begins and ends with the Alpha and Omega as we reply “to God’s self-revelations”.
Revelation is simply the unveiling of something hidden, so that it may be seen and known for what it is. That is a very broad definition. Let us consider what we mean by “revelation” in the context of our Worship Ministries.
Henry Blackaby in his Bible Study Experiencing God cited as one of what he called realities that “God speaks by the Holy Spirit through prayer, the Bible, circumstances and the Church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.” This statement has shaped the way I see the Lord and His work since early in my walk with Him. Blackaby is only one source that confirms this activity.
When the Bible speaks of revelation, the thought intended is of God the Creator
actively disclosing to men his power and glory, his nature and character, his
will, ways and plans…God’s disclosures are always made in the context of a
demand for trust in, and obedience to, what is revealed—a response, that is,
which is wholly determined and controlled by the contents of the revelation
itself. In other words, God’s revelation comes to man, not as information
without obligation, but as a mandatory rule of faith and conduct. Man’s
life must be governed, not by private whims and fancies, nor by guesses as to
divine things unrevealed, but by reverent belief of as much as God has told him,
leading to conscientious compliance with as many imperatives as the revelation
proves to contain. (Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong to the LORD our
God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we
may follow all the words of this law.) [From “Revelation” as found in the
New Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, InterVarsity Press]
I could not have said it better myself. Partly because I had to read that a couple of times to let it sink in. You might need to as well.
There is another aspect that is difficult to understand as well. There are really two parts of this understanding. First, that God ordered biblical history to reveal Himself. Second, that He inspired writers to record that history. Again, revelation is defined.
The biblical view is that God reveals Himself by both deeds and words; first by
ordering redemptive history, then by inspiring a written explanatory record of
that history to make later generations ‘wise unto salvation’ (cf. 2 Tim.
3:15ff.; 1 Cor. 10:11; Rom. 15:4), and finally by enlightening men in every age
to discern the significance and acknowledge the authority of the revelation thus
given and recorded (cf. Mt. 16:17, 2 Cor. 4:6). [See above]
So we see God acting in our age to enlighten us to the significance and authority of the Scripture. That is God’s self-revelation. It contains “everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” 2 Peter 1:3
So that brings us back to living a life that is one substantial, sincere response to Himself, His purposes and His ways. Ephesians 1:17 was one of the key verses that God used to reveal the vision of our Worship Ministries to me. That verse in the NIV says, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.” As God answers that prayer by Paul, which I pray for all of you, we get to know him better by seeing, understanding and experiencing His truth.
I really like the way the Eugene Peterson has put this passage (Ephesians 1:16-19 in his translation, The Message. It really describes our response as a way of life beautifully. But I especially like the way it starts, with Paul giving thanks, as I do fro you when I pray.
I couldn't stop thanking God for you--every time I prayed, I'd think of
you and give thanks. But I do more than thank. I ask--ask the God of our Master,
Jesus Christ, the God of glory--to make you intelligent and discerning in
knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly
what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of
life he has for Christians, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who
trust him--endless energy, boundless strength!
May our eyes be “focused and clear” so that we may “see exactly what it is [God] is calling [us] to do.”
To that end, I want to ask you to continue to memorize our vision statement. I hope you have been working on it the last few weeks. Then as God brings it to mind, pray for the worship life of our church that it will transcend Sunday morning and truly become a through-the-week event as we experience “the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him.”
Assignment for the week: Memorize: “[Our Worship Ministries exist to nurture worship as a lifestyle characterized by sincere responses-last week] to God’s self-revelations.”
In Christ,
Pastor Scott
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