SPEAKER_00 0:00

Listen, I've been preaching a long time. And uh I don't know why, but I have a nervousness today. Uh, not because I'm intimidated by the content, uh, but because I know that um uh I don't have time to really delve into this the way I need to in the short window that we have, and because I'm just scanning surfaces, so much of what I say could be taken out of context. So my prayer is Lord, help this land right in hearts right and help it mature all of us in following you. Uh last week we laid the theological foundation for what a corporate or gathered worship of the church is supposed to be, and we saw a desire in the heart of God for wholehearted, engaged, participatory, collective, united worship from his people when we come together. And consistently in scripture, when the gathered worship of God's people happened the way God desires it, he fills that worship environment with his presence. There is a transformational and supernatural environment. God comes into those places. And this week we promise to get quite a bit more practical and answer some of the harder questions, like, what happens when worship happens in a room full of people who don't all express worship the same way you do? And what happens when your freedom and the person's freedom next to you have to live in the same space at the same time? I want to begin answering those questions today by looking at one of the primary things that God asks of us as his people all the time, but especially when we come together. Turn to Psalm 133 in your Bibles. This psalm speaks to the potential that lives in the unity of God's people. United hearts around the glory of his name is the ultimate goal of corporate, collective, and gathered worship. We as a church are a very diverse group of people. We come from all kinds of different experiences and ethnicities and backgrounds and personalities, but the one thing that brings us together is Jesus. And I want us to see the potential of what can happen when all of this diversity comes together and gets unified around the worship of God. Psalm 133 says this how good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity. It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down the collar of his robe. It is as if the dew of Hermon, Mount Hermon, were falling on Mount Zion, for there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore. There's a lot we could say, but there are three key things the psalmist is trying to point out here that we can't miss. Okay, first, unity is the prerequisite for God's presence. Everything that created the atmosphere for God to bless and come into the environment the psalmist is talking about is unity. It is if God, it's like he's drawn like a magnet to a unified gathering of his people. And you see this all throughout the scripture. And the pinnacle of that you see in Acts chapter 2, where it says that on the day of Pentecost they were what? In one mind and one accord. That's unity when the Spirit filled that upper room on the day of Pentecost. Unity attracts God. Second, notice the abundance of the anointing that was present in the atmosphere of the unity. The psalmist is illustrating this by using the imagery of Aaron being anointed into the priesthood, and he describes this saturation of the, it's like the oil that runs from his head to his beard all the way down to the collar of his robe. He's painting this picture of saturation where God's people are gathered together in unity. The whole environment is going to be saturated with his presence. Third, the supernatural happens in an atmosphere of unified worship. And this is the part that we would easily miss if we're not familiar with geography. The dew of Mount Hermon, he said the dew of Hermon falls on Mount Zion. The dew of Mount Hermon can't naturally fall on Mount Zion. They're a hundred miles apart. Mount Hermon is in the far north, it is snow capped, it is, it is, there's a great moisture there, a heavy, continuous dew that sustains life. In contrast, Mount Zion is located in Jerusalem, the much drier, arid south. So there's no way in the natural that the dew of Hermon is going to fall on Mount Zion. But the psalmist says that when God's people come together in unity, the impossible happens. The refreshing dew of Hermon falls in the faraway, arid places. The supernatural happens when God's people are gathered together in unity. Let me make two key statements here about unity before you get the wrong idea, because I think a lot of us, especially in the body of Christ, have the wrong idea of what it means for us to be in unity. Two key statements. One, unity is not uniformity. And two, our diversity does not equal division. When people hear the word unity in worship, they get this idea of some cookie-cutter, homogeneous image of everybody being the same and everybody responding the same way. That's not unity. That's uniformity. God does not require uniformity of our external posture. People can be forced into external compliance, but not possess a unity of heart. They may all be doing the same thing, but their hearts are in all different places. This is what I've learned. The more spiritually mature you become, the more grace you give to those who express their worship differently than you do. I was reminded of that this week when I was watching these teenagers passionately and zealously going after God, many of them, most of them, up here at the front of this room, seeking God at Campference. Through the years, I've had a few older people pull me aside and say, Pastor, is it necessary for those kids to be jumping up and down like kangaroos when they worship? And my response is usually something like, No, it's not necessary, but neither is a bath, but you sure feel better when you do it. On the other hand, I've had some very young, zealous worshipers say things to me like, Pastor, these older people don't even stand up during worship. Everybody's pouring their hearts out to God, and these old folks just sit there. And I usually say something to them like, you better be careful judging the worship of the aged. They've been through some stuff, and they're probably going through some stuff right now, and their legs and their aches and their pains may not allow them to stand during the whole worship service. But you better know this. My mama could touch heaven better sitting in her pew than all of you can bunny hopping around the front. Young or old, remember the more spiritually mature you become, the more grace you give to those who express worship differently than you do. It's not the external posture that matters as much as the posture of our hearts, which means we can be unified around Jesus in our worship, but not uniform in the way we respond. Our diversity is not division, it's the beauty of the gathered church. A little over 30 years ago, I had a formative experience in prayer that continues to shape my life to this day, especially around the topic we're addressing today. Haley and I are wired very differently. She is more reserved, I'm far more expressive, and that's true in our lives, but it's also true in the way we worship. When we were first married, I was praying in a moment, a significant moment of prayer, and I was asking the Lord to help me better understand and explain the differences between the two of us. And I felt like the Holy Spirit illuminated something in my heart, and it didn't just help me value Haley more, it helped me value the diversity and worship expression across the body of Christ as a whole. I was sitting alone on my grandparents' front porch, looking out through their screened-in porch, and in their yard is there was a willow tree and there was an oak tree. And the wind picked up as I was looking out, and the flimsy limbs of the willow tree were flipping and flopping everywhere, and in that exact same wind, only the outermost tips of the oak tree's leaves were barely visible, visibly moving. And it was as if the Lord whispered to me, Brian, you're the willow, Haley is the oak. And I designed both of these trees to be exactly what they are. And because I made them the way they are, when the wind blows, they both worship me, but they do it differently. One more visible, one more reserved. When the wind of the Spirit blows, your worship is more visible. It's the way I wired your personality. Haley's worship is less visible, but it's deep, mature, and rooted. And don't forget, when the storms come, that willow will be uprooted long before the oak. Never underestimate the depth and maturity of the more reserved worshipers and personalities in the room. That moment with the Lord, with the Lord helped me understand Haley, helped me understand the church. I learned something that day that helped me as a husband and a pastor, which is why I chose to use the imagery of willows and oaks to frame this conversation, and it's why I uh I used it as the title for this sermon: Willows and Oaks, the beauty and diversity of worship in the church. Now let me explain for a minute what I mean when I say I'm a willow. This is over 30 years ago. Uh, this is one example. I could give you many. Uh it would be a real, you'd laugh at me, but but I just give you one example. This is over 30 years ago. I was headed to an appointment across the state. Um, and it was, I had to leave at like three in the morning, drive mostly in the dark to get to where I was going for an early morning appointment. It led me through rural Arkansas at that time. Uh, this was I didn't, I don't even think I had a cell phone. If I did, it was one of those bag phones, you know, where you put the star skin hutch antenna on the top with a magnet. Some of you know what I'm talking about. Emergency only, like $2.99 a minute to talk on it. Okay. I and and and so for navigation, we didn't use our phones. It was one of those things you put a suction thing to your windshield, and it was navigating me. And I'm on this long trip and I'm worshiping. I'm alone in the car, and it was one of those rare moments, you know, you feel God, but one of those moments where you're overwhelmed by God. And I wept and I repented, and then I went into this time of celebration, and I was listening to a black gospel choir cassette tape. And and in that moment, I just started, man, I just like it was me and Jesus, and it I just said, I just thought, man, if I had half a reason to stop this car, I would dance like David danced in the middle of this road. Well, about that time, the uh the navigation thing told me to turn right, and I had been driving parallel to a railroad track, and when I turned right, the guardrails were down and there was a train on the track, and something inside of me said, Here's your chance. So I got out of the car and I danced like David danced in the middle of the road at 4:30 in the morning in the middle of nowhere. All right. So I don't know what happened, but I was I'm I'm tears running down my face. I'm praising God. I was caught up in the moment, and all I know is when I got out, there was a train, there were there was nobody there but me. When I finished, the train was gone, the guardrails were up, there was a line of cars on the other side, a line of cars behind me. Thank God, there was probably no 911. I would have been arrested. They had to think I was crazy. Okay, I um uh I I I was doing what there's a Hebrew word for worship called halal, H-A-L-A-L, and it literally means to lose your mind in worship. It's to look foolish. You look it up, H A L A L, a Hebrew word for worship. That's what I was doing in the moment. Listen, Haley would never. Okay, you understand? She's an oak, I'm a willow. I'm gonna spend the majority of our remaining time talking to the people wired like me, the willows. But before I do, I need to offer one warning to the oaks. This is the only thing I'm gonna say to you that are oaks directly. Those of you that are more reserved and less expressive among us, if you're not careful, you can easily hide your spiritual apathy behind your more reserved personality, and no one but you will ever know. And that's every bit as dangerous as anything I'm gonna say to the more expressive among us. Now, to all of you that are wired like me, willows, listen, you need to hear this. Activity does not equate to anointing, and being louder does not make you more spiritual. Just because you are louder and more expressive and your worship is more visible doesn't make you any more spiritual than anybody else. I think the Apostle Paul offers all of us some great pastoral wisdom, especially the more expressive willows among us, when it comes to some guidelines and our gathered worship. When Paul is giving pastoral direction to the Corinthian church, he's specifically talking about the public expression of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in public worship. He does this in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, it continues all the way to chapter 14. And the principles he offers there serve as a beautiful guide for all of our expressions of gathered worship. Paul is writing to correct an error in the Corinthian church. Their public worship had become a place of chaos and disorder and disunity. God had given them something that was meant to be beautiful and strengthen them, but because they were being selfish and inward-focused, they didn't realize the damage how they were responding in public worship, the damage it was doing to their witness with spiritual inquirers that had come into the room to investigate faith in Christ. So for the sake of our time today, I'm only going to point out three things. There's so much said in those three chapters, 12, 13, and 14, but I'm going to point out three things Paul says should guide our public worship. First, the common good. Paul refers to the common good. When he does, he's giving us the answer to the question we ask at the beginning of this sermon. What happens when worship is taking place in a room full of people who don't all express it the same way? Here's how Paul answers that question. 1 Corinthians 12, 7, to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. That's the filter we have to think through when we come together for public worship. All of our expressions have to contribute to the common good, not take away from it or distract from it. My fellow willows, listen to me. Our personal liberty in worship should never disrupt the common good by drawing attention to ourself and taking everyone else's attention off the Lord. With pure hearts and no ill intended, but due to our expressive personalities, we can infringe unknowingly on the common good if we're not biblically aware and self-aware. It cannot become about us. It has to always be about the Lord and the common good of everybody that is gathered to worship him. Here's a practical picture of what serving the common good actually looks like. Follow the crescendo. Let your worship build with the room as everybody's praise builds with the room. Personal expression serving the common good builds with the room. It doesn't announce itself ahead of that and it doesn't compete against it. Here's the second thing Paul said that points out what is really important about this conversation. We must consider how our expressions impact the new and uninitiated to our worship culture. Again, Paul is specifically writing about the public expression of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But what he says serves as a powerful guide to all of our expressions of worship. He says this in chapter 14, verse 23. If unbelievers are people who don't understand, that's important. That's the filter he's putting in place. If unbelievers or people who don't understand these things come into your church, meeting and hearing everyone speaking in unknown language, they will think you are crazy. But if all of you are prophesying, which was in an unknown language, and believers or people who don't understand these things come into your meeting, they will be convicted of sin and judged by what you say. As they listen, their secret thoughts will be exposed and they will fall to their knees, worship God, declaring, God is truly here among us. Now, so much is happening right there. Paul is talking about the gift of tongues and the gift of prophecy and how they ought to work. But there is a principle here. Here's what he's saying: the presence of unbelievers and people who don't understand has to be the filter to how we respond and react in our public worship gatherings. If we do this right, they're gonna be drawn to Jesus. If we do this wrong, they are going to be turned away. And Paul must have had some of the same things said to him when he tried to pastor the Corinthians that I've had said to me. When I had, because something he writes just a few verses later that we're gonna read. When I've tried to pastor people in moments like this, I've gone to some of the willows among us to make them aware that their personal liberty in worship was negatively impacting new spiritual seekers. And when I talk to them, kind of pull them aside and just kind of have a pastoral moment, here's what I often hear. Oh, but pastor, when the Holy Ghost comes on me, I can't control it. Oh, but you can. Oh, but you can. According to Paul and Scripture, you can. Because Paul must have had that said to him. So just a few verses later, he says in verse 32, the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. There were people in the Corinthian church, they were all talking all over each other with outbursts, speaking over each other, speaking over the pastors that were leading the service, contributing to the chaos instead of the common good. And Paul is saying, those of you who say you can't control it when God moves on you, that's not true. Because the spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet. The Holy Spirit does not override a person's will or cause uncontrollable outbursts. The entire time the worshiper is self-aware, in control of their expressions, and responsible for their actions. And as a pastor and the elders of this church, we use these things as a guide for the culture of public worship here at North Place. We actually have corporate language for it, but our worship here will be experiential, but not spooky. And that's not the way it was when I grew up in a highly expressive Pentecostal church. Did we experience the power of God? Absolutely. Did it mark my life? Absolutely. But it was experiential and spooky. I never invited my unchurched friends to church with me. And Saturday night, I don't want to spend the night with you and say, No, I want to go to your house on Saturday night. You come to my house on Friday night, I'll go to your house on Saturday night. The culture we created in our little Pentecostal church was all about the insider with very little thought about what was going on in there and how it might impact somebody that was not familiar with the environment. It was real, it was powerful, but it was only understood by our tribe. Paul says that public worship has to be conducted in a way that draws unbelievers toward Christ, not turns them away. And he ends this entire section where he's addressed public worship with this statement. This is how he ends the whole section. But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way. You have to hear my heart today. I'm not judging the churches today that gather together and they have a free-for-all every time they come together to worship. That's the world I grew up in. I'm not responsible for them. I'm not here to judge every rigid and reserved church in the way they do worship. I'm not responsible for them. As a matter of fact, it's just one more testimony to me about the beauty of diversity within the body of Christ. But our eldership is responsible for this church. And while we have a responsibility to grow the maturity of the saints, we have made a commitment to welcome the outsider with the ultimate mission of introducing them to Jesus. And because there are unlearned, uninitiated folks present and the Great Commission is a priority of this church, we don't cater to the insider and use insider stuff. We present and express the truth in a way an outsider can Can understand it. That's the culture we feel the conviction to create. It's balanced. It's not a rigid, lifeless worship, and it's not a carnival of chaos. It's not one extreme or the other. And at times, if you're a willow, it may inconvenience you and it may infringe on your personal liberty, but it's for the common good, driven by a desire to see a spiritual seeker drawn into relationship with Christ, not turned away. Through the years, I've had the uncomfortable responsibility of helping some of the willows among us see how their outbursts in worship are impacting those around them. And I'm not talking about the worship that crescendos with the room and builds with the worship of everybody else. I'm talking about outbursts that interrupt what God is doing and bring the attention to that individual worshiper. And those kinds of conversations and correspondences, when I have to have them or someone on our team, they're never reactive. There is grace and patience trying to see is this an incident or is this a pattern in a person's life? And it takes the deep wisdom of God to know how to pastor that person and pastor the church in moments like this. And in my experience, most of the people I've addressed have had pure hearts. Their sincere desire is just to simply respond to what they sense God doing, but no one has ever brought to their attention how their personal liberty and worship might be impacting other people. And there is a limit to that liberty, and it is the common good, or how your life impacts, in Paul's words, the unbeliever and those who do not understand. Many of those people allow themselves to be pastored. They respond graciously. Some of them don't. But at the end of the day, I can't knowingly allow anything to turn spiritually hungry people away before they ever have a chance to hear the gospel and receive Jesus as Lord. We've used the common good phrase a lot today. It comes from 1 Corinthians 12 7. Here's how the New Living Translation expresses that concept. So we can help each other. All of our expressions of worship have to be filtered by the way they affect others, especially the new among us. They are there, our expressions of worship, to help each other and not inhibit each other. We are a diverse people. Willows and oaks and palm trees and everything in between, side by side, operating in the same wind of the Spirit. That is not a problem to be solved. It is a beauty to be stewarded. And here's how Paul says we should steward the beauty of these differences in Ephesians 4. Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep or guard the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, through all, and end all. We started in Psalm 133 today, where the psalmist says how good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity. And here, Paul says it this way: one body, one spirit, one Lord. And nothing says that better than what we're about to do. We're going to come to the Lord's table. All of our diversity and personalities gather around the sacredness of a shared cup and what it means. You were given an opportunity to get these when you came in today, and we have a serve team that is going to make their way through the auditorium. If you did not get the communion elements today, then please get their attention when they make their way down the aisle to serve you so that you can make sure you have access to this. We have a few minutes here while I set this up. This is what I want you to do. This is kind of what I want you to frame your heart today. We we practice an open communion here at Nord Place. Um and what I mean by that is you don't have to be a member here. Okay. You you can just you can be a believer that happened to be in worship with us today. We want you to experience this moment with us. But when I say be a believer, that that is the thing. This is a family, somebody that is in the family of faith. Um we want you to we want you to be a part of this, okay? Um when Paul is writing about this experience, one of the reasons I did this. Last week, last week we ended worship with just a more expressive time of worship. I wanted to come back to something that was very, very sacred. Been in the church, Jesus started this. This is a more reserved way for us to worship, a very sacred moment for us to just lean in together at the Lord's table. Very different than last week. There's there's something I noticed when I was reading through this this week that I want to bring your attention to because this is the way I approach, I want us to approach coming to the bread in the cup today. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 11. He said, I passed on to you what I received from the Lord Himself. On the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread. Listen to this, he gave thanks to God for it. Okay. Then he broke it into pieces, and and and he said, This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he took the cup, which means he gave thanks to God for it. That's how it all started. This cup is the new covenant between God and his people, an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it. For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you're announcing the Lord's death till he comes. We focus on the cup, the bread, but we often miss He gave thanks for it. Thanksgiving and gratitude is what framed that entire moment. And I want it to frame our hearts today. Thanksgiving for the sacrifice of Christ and thanksgiving for the spiritual family, each other, as different as we are, that he's allowed us to be born into by his grace. Okay. I want you to prepare your hearts to receive the bread. It's at the very bottom. If you've never done this with us before of the cup, um and I want our hearts to just let, I want our hearts to be framed with gratitude for the beauty of the diversity of who Jesus saves. Father, I hold in my hand the bread, which is a symbol of your body. It was broken so that we could personally be made whole, but this is also a symbol of your church, the body of Christ. For ages, people have come together around this bread and this cup to signify they belong to you. And I pray that as we join our hearts together in unity and a moment of communion together, as we take of the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that our hearts would be more deeply united to you and more deeply united to each other. Our hearts give thanks today for your broken body, the same way you did when you introduced this to us at the Last Supper. Lord, would you bless this moment and may everything that is available to your church through the broken body of Christ, may it be ours today. In Jesus' name. Amen. Would you take the bread together? Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Father. Now, Lord, we pray over the cup since that night at the Last Supper for 2,000 years. People have held this cup in their hands as a witness to their faith. And I think the majority of the time we do it, it's our connection to you. And we overlook the community of it. That it is a commitment to each other. We are joining the saints and the martyrs. We are joining every believer in this church and around the world that can that professes Jesus Christ is Lord. Today my heart is filled with gratitude for you and the shed blood that is represented by this cup. Not only seals my salvation, but Lord, it it invites me, adopts me into a family that I would not belong to without your grace. Lord Jesus, would you bond our hearts together as we take this sacred shared cup today? Ethnicities and experiences and personality differences, we all come from different places, but one faith, one Lord, one baptism in this one cup. We're grateful for you and we're grateful for each other. Lord, may everything that is available to your people through the shed blood of Christ be ours today in the name of Jesus. Amen. Would you take the cup together?

unknown 31:56

Thank you, Lord.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

I'm gonna ask you to stand across our campus family here in the room today, across our campus family, and we're just gonna go into a brief moment of worship to seal this before I bless you and we walk out of here. Come on, can we just praise the Lord just for a moment?

unknown 32:16

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

Where is your seat? For Christmas.

SPEAKER_00 33:45

Last week it was incredibly expressive. Our our our worship times at the end of the service flowed into the next service, and people were coming in thinking they were late because the last service didn't end. It was so beautiful. Today, this is just anchored in 2,000 years of history, the blood and the body of Jesus Christ. Our hearts are filled with gratitude and everything that is available to us because of that. As people respond to this altar with their needs, would you meet them there and would you mark their lives? Here's my prayer over them, Lord, straight from your word. Will you bless them and keep them? Would you make your face shine down on them? Would you be gracious to them? Would you turn your countenance their direction today? And would you grant them peace in Jesus' name? Amen. These altars are opened today. God bless you.