True Worship: Obedience and Faithfulness to God

Who came this morning, expecting God to show up? Who got out of bed this morning and thought to themselves, “I can’t wait to get to church to worship the Lord and see what he has in store for me?”

If you come to church without expecting God to show up. How can you leave church, when church is over and be disappointed about anything? I love the praise and worship time. The things that we need to keep in mind worship time shouldn’t be about what we can get out of it, but rather how are we worshipping the Lord during that time?

Can I be honest with you? Well, too bad. There are some of the songs we sing that I don’t like as much as others, but here’s the deal and it is twofold. First thing, songs that I don’t like as well are the same songs that some of you love. Also, all the songs we sing are not for my glory. So, keeping that in mind. It ain’t about me. It ain’t about you or you or you. It is supposed to be all about our worship of God. What is the best way to worship God?

Let’s read our main text found in Acts 11:19-24.

Pastor Mark how in the world does this set of scriptures tell us how to worship God? Well as we go through them this morning and break them down, we might just find a little something that we can use to enhance our worship of God.

The way that we can worship God may not be what we expect and maybe it is what we expect but we don’t do it. The best way to worship God is through obedience and faithfulness.

Sometimes that obedience and faithfulness is not always what we would expect. Point 1 tells us

1. Sometimes it is okay to run.

Acts 11:19

Hebrews 12:1-2

As I was reading our main text, I was thinking about all the disciples that scattered like sheep when Jesus was arrested. How they ran off and didn’t stand up for Jesus on that horrible night. I thought about how they really let Jesus down because they didn’t stay and speak the truth about Jesus being the Son of God.

I thought about how, so many times in the past, I thought about them being cowards. I thought about how they could have made a stand and been brave. Then, as I read this set of scriptures, I have a different type of perspective.

What would have happened if they would have fought back? They probably would have been killed. Who would have shared all that Jesus went through? Who would have healed the man at the gate of the tabernacle that we talked about last week? If Peter and James would have been killed, who would have healed this man and stood up to the religious leaders? Who would have spoken to the Eunuch? If Philip would have been killed that night with Jesus. Who would have explained the scriptures to this man?

Now, don’t get me wrong. There is a time to stand your ground. There is a time to stand up for Jesus and in the great United States of America, there isn’t really a reason to run. There may be a time to respectfully disagree, there may be a time to walk away. Plant the seed and go.

When we think about all these people in Acts 11, they ran. They ran a long way and guess what? They were doing exactly what they needed to do.

I have always loved a good argument. I love to debate about many things. Sometimes I discuss end of times with people that believe differently than I do. With the understanding that maybe, just maybe, I might have misunderstood what the bible said. I don’t believe that I do, but what you believe about the end of times is not part of your salvation.

Believing in Jesus as the one and only Son of God, that died on the cross as payment for our sin and that it is only through Jesus that we can make it to the Father, now that is what we need to stand up for. No one says you can’t run from persecution. Unless it is the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit says stay, you stay. If the Holy Spirit, says go, you go.

It’s all about being obedient. And another great way of being obedient is point #2….

2. Never stop sharing about Jesus.

Acts 11:20

I Peter 3:13-16

I want us to pay close attention to this one. These guys and gals were scattered. The going got bad and they left. They didn’t stay to fight to the death. They left. But when they got to where they were going, the shared about what Jesus had done. Even though they had no where to live. Even though almost all they owned they probably left behind, especially if they had homes, they had nothing and they shared about Jesus.

How many of us when we are going through hard times, are sharing about how great God is and how He sent His Son to make a way for us to go to heaven? Now I do not know about most of you handle situations that are not good, but I like to throw a big old baby fit. Who’s with me? It is not usually the best side of us coming out in these difficult situations, but it should be. It should be the time that we hold on to Jesus with all that we have and share Him to others.

Isn’t that just one of the most interesting ideas? Think about this, if I share my ice cream with Cheryl. I get less ice cream. If I share my time with someone, I have less time for myself, but if I share Jesus with others, the more Jesus I will end up with.

And that brings us to the last point of the day…

3. When the Lord is in it, great things can happen.

Acts 11:21-24

John 6:8-13

Let me tell you about my Wednesday morning at camp meeting. In the mornings there is a conference for the adults that starts at 9 am. We were in the conference and I get a message from Ronnie about the people paving the lot and wanting paid. Why would anyone want paid for the work that they have done, right? Anyway, I called Ronnie and told him that I would take care of it. I sent a text to my contact at the paving company. Asking for an invoice sent to my email so that I could forward it on to Shauna for payment.

Then when we were in our morning service, Johnnie sent me a text asking if there was anything else that he needed to do for our loan. I asked him to email the loan officer with minutes from our Board of Trustee’s meeting. He told me that had been completed. So, I emailed the bank and asked them if there was anything else that we needed to do to get this loan going. He told me he needed insurance information.

So, I start emailing the insurance company and messaging Shauna. While all this is happening, I am running sound for the morning service and the batteries went out on the cordless mic of the evangelist. 2 times. I was so frustrated. It felt like if it could go wrong or cause a problem it was happening. I was so focused on my problems I almost missed the fact that we had a new paved parking lot and about a third of those in the service at the altar.

Now let me tell you something, it was not the way that I wanted it to go, but God was still working things out for the good even when I was losing focus.

I am sure that many of these Christians that were “scattered” were probably thinking about how they have lost their homes and wondering if it is all worth it, then a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

Sometimes things are not what we expect to happen in our lives. Sometimes things are not what we expect because of things that we didn’t expect to happen in our lives. And when we give God control and we are obedient the blessings far out weigh the cost. I know that most of us don’t like to think about dying, but guess what, no one gets out alive. Anyway, Paul said that to die is gain. No matter how great things are for us here, heaven is so much better.

I am not ready to die, because I want to spend more time with my family. Teach your family about Jesus in a way that you can spend eternity with them in heaven. How much more time do you need?

If God always worked in the way that we expect, then we would miss out on greater things. If God always worked in the way that we expect, we would not be as grateful for answered prayer. We would be spoiled brats and God would be our servant instead of us serving and worshiping God.

Are you at wit’s end with things in your life? Are you there because you aren’t getting your way? Or God’s not working fast enough? Maybe you need to change the way you think.

Not Always What You'd Expect