Participants: Jason McCracken, Karen Thomas
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000067
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00:31 Welcome to another edition of Issues and Answers
00:33 Hey, have you ever stayed home because you didn't feel welcome 00:37 at a particular church so you didn't go to that church. 00:40 Or have you felt like boy I really would like to go some 00:43 place where I could feel welcome What do they really mean to 00:46 worship God and why do I need to do it amongst other people? 00:50 Well today we're going to learn about what it means to worship 00:53 God in joyful fellowship from the word of God, the Bible. 00:57 Now our guest today is Pastor Jason McCracken. He is a youth 01:00 evangelist for the Review and Herald Publishing Association 01:05 as well as a marketing representative. He helps with 01:08 the Message magazine 01:09 publication and has traveled around the globe speaking to 01:12 young people and everyone else about what it means to worship 01:15 God in a joyful way. We're grateful to have you here today. 01:18 Welcome to the program. Thank you Karen. 01:21 Well I'm very happy to be here today and I would like to focus 01:25 my attention on Bible foundations for the mission of 01:28 the local church before we get into worshipping God in a spirit 01:33 of holiness. When we look at the local church it's called a 01:38 congregation and in that congregation we have to have a 01:43 mission. It's empowered by the Holy Spirit. But there are some 01:50 areas that the local church must focus upon. Number one: It's 01:54 entire focus must be on the gospel message of Jesus Christ. 02:01 Secondly, the mission to make disciples. Thirdly, the ministry 02:07 of every believer; every believer focusing on preaching 02:10 the word of God, preaching the gospel of Jesus to their 02:14 community and their friends and family members. The role of the 02:18 function of the Spirit of God in the local congregation. 02:22 The church as the body of Christ growth to maturity in Christ, 02:26 the headship of Jesus Christ and the role and function of pastors 02:31 and lay leaders alike. This encapsulates the Bible 02:35 foundation for the mission of the local church. 02:38 So this is what churches do? 02:39 This is what they do in order to get excited. And so today we're 02:44 going to talk about the area of worship. First of all, before we 02:48 even do that I would like to read from the Bible here a very 02:52 familiar passage of scripture and we're going to read from the 02:56 book of Psalms. OK. Psalm 100, a very familiar text of 03:03 scripture to many Christian friends and believers. Psalm 100 03:09 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands. Serve the 03:15 Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing. Know 03:21 ye that the Lord, he is God. It is he that hath made us and not 03:28 we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. 03:34 Enter into his gates, that means the church, with 03:40 thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto 03:46 him and bless his name, for the Lord is good. His mercy is 03:51 everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations. 03:55 That means your mother's generation, our past generation, 04:00 all the generations. But now verse 1 says make a joyful 04:05 noise unto the Lord. That is one of the essentials in a 04:10 congregation. What kind of joyful noise are we going to 04:14 make? Well of course, we're going to sing hymns, we're going 04:19 praise God, we're going to pray, but in all of this we must 04:23 Acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. 04:29 That's the basic essential in worship... 04:34 When that happens in a Christian church people can 04:39 begin to feel the Spirit of Holiness in worship. Because 04:43 worship is adoration. Worship is praise. Worship is singing to 04:52 God. Worship is actually, in a group situation, a church 04:56 situation it makes everyone feel that they are one with God. 05:01 So I can't do that at home, huh? Watching television? 05:04 For the most part? Well watching television does 05:09 not have a spontaneous reaction. Everything is controlled on 05:14 television. If you're worshipping God and 05:17 you're singing hymns and there is a response in the 05:20 congregation, there's some songs we used to sing when we used to 05:23 go camping. You know, rejoice in the Lord always and again I say 05:26 rejoice. And then it goes around and around and around. 05:29 Yeah, you miss the round. You miss the round. Yeah. 05:31 So on television, how do you program that? 05:32 And then if you don't go to church you don't get to share 05:35 that hymnal with that person who just came to sit by you. 05:40 Right. Remember worship is about fellowship, it's not about 05:44 sitting home, it's about fellowship. Because when people 05:47 are having difficulties in their lives they come to church and 05:53 express what God has done for them in worship and they 05:56 acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and they 06:00 also acknowledge him by being thankful for what God has done. 06:04 So that's the essential of worship. Worship of God in 06:09 joyful fellowship. So the times where a person goes 06:14 away to the mountains or goes out into nature, what about 06:19 those times? A person says OK I'm communicating with God in my 06:23 own way. Well we can communicate to God 06:27 because that's personal and we need to continue to communicate 06:32 to God, but as our communication grows, we must communicate to 06:37 others what God has done for us. It's interesting; let's say you 06:40 were driving a car and all of a sudden you had a car accident 06:44 and you're car flipped over three or four times and you 06:48 didn't even have a scratch. The car was crushed, everything, the 06:53 car was totaled but yet you were saved. Now would it be 06:58 adequate for you to go up in the rocks and mountains and tell the 07:02 trees that God has saved you, or in a relationship with people 07:06 in a church you would say look what the Lord has done for me. 07:11 And so you're encouragement now stimulates growth, it stimulates 07:17 joy. That's why it's based on fellowship. 07:20 And certainly it could encourage someone else to say I'm going 07:24 keep trying, maybe. That's right. That's the 07:26 community of believers. 07:28 I mean, I would like to hear that story if I was sitting in a 07:30 church. I've heard so many stories. 07:33 I remember I went to church one day. I was kind of sad, you know 07:36 and gloomy. We do have those ups and downs. Somebody gave a 07:42 testimony to just stir my soul. I was so excited. I said that's 07:47 why I should be in church because I want to hear what God 07:50 is doing for other people and at the same time what God's doing 07:56 for me. Amen. So that's the most important thing. Joyful noise, a 08:01 joyful noise. Number two:... 08:08 Now there are three things that we must emphasize: Praise him in 08:12 the worship services for number 1 his goodness, number 2 his 08:16 mercy, number 3 and blessings. So there are three things 08:21 Goodness: Have you ever heard somebody say God is good all the 08:27 time. Yeah, All the time God is good. 08:29 And so that's goodness. God helps us through many different 08:33 facets in our lives. He helps our family, our friends, our 08:37 health, our life, our breathing, our walking, our talking, our 08:42 sitting up, our sitting down. I mean he is there to provide for 08:46 us. That's why he's so good. He saves us. He protects us. 08:50 He leads us. He guides us. And without God we can do nothing. 08:54 I remember my grandmother used to sing the song without God I 08:58 can do nothing, without God I would fail. I would be like a 09:02 ship without a sail. I didn't understand the song. Now I do. 09:07 I can understand the song now because without God I'm like a 09:12 ship without a sail. I'm going nowhere. But with God, because 09:17 he is so good to us, he provides what we need, that spiritual 09:22 food, that spiritual food. And also physical food. Mental food 09:27 like a logical food. He helps us in every facet of our lives. 09:32 The mercy: This is very interesting. What is mercy? 09:37 What do you think mercy is? 09:39 Compassion when you know that someone's in a tight situation 09:44 and then you ought to help them out or maybe don't point out all 09:48 their faults. Mercy to me is like the last resort. I mean, 09:54 God is helping me in the time of a storm and I feel that the 09:59 storm is going to take control of me. The storm is going to 10:04 overwhelm me. I was in a tent and this violent storm ripped 10:08 through the woods. Lightening bolts were ripping through the 10:12 woods knocking down trees. We're in the tent at night. 10:16 We're like praying Oh God help us. Trees are falling. In fact, 10:21 we didn't know it was a tornado. We had no way of knowing it was 10:26 a tornado. But he impressed us to go in the valley and in the 10:30 valley that's where we were saved. When we came up from the 10:35 mountain the entire place was leveled. 10:37 So what did you do? Did you actually come out of the tent 10:39 then go or had you already encamped in the valley? 10:41 We were in the tent late at night sleeping and then all of a 10:44 sudden all of this was happening but the tent was rocking back 10:48 and forth. I had an igloo tent and so it was rocking back and 10:51 forth and now we're pleading with God. We're pleading for 10:54 mercy, we're pleading for mercy now, not just for protection 10:59 but for mercy because now our lives are in so much danger that 11:03 we could die at any moment. That's the mercy that we needed 11:07 to ask and we got it. I'm here today to testify of that. That's 11:11 that mercy. And so it's an extended help when we need it. 11:14 You know, I often think about a person maybe who is terminally 11:21 ill and they die. That in a way is mercy. I mean, I've seen many 11:27 people who've died of cancer or some illness and God gives them 11:33 mercy in that don't have pain those last few days. That's 11:36 mercy. Yes, that's mercy, that's mercy. 11:39 The other is blessings: Now with the goodness that we receive, 11:43 the mercy that we receive, the forgiveness that we receive here 11:47 comes the blessings, the blessings. Now blessings people- 11:52 As I travel around people say How you doing. I say I'm blessed 11:56 They say you're blessed? I say yeah I'm blessed. I'm blessed to 12:00 be alive. I'm blessed to be healthy. I'm blessed not to be 12:07 crippled. I'm blessed just to breath with lungs. There are 12:13 people who are breathing with one lung. I'm blessed just to be 12:19 alive. So those blessings are coming. 12:22 Everything we have really, if we look around, we can see a 12:26 blessing. We can see a blessing. Even when 12:32 you're down to your lowest level of spirituality sometimes here 12:37 comes a blessing. Yeah that's encouraging. 12:40 Someone said every trial's a stepping stone. 12:43 It's a stepping stone. Well the Bible says in James 1:3: Knowing 12:46 this that the trying of your faith worketh patience, or the 12:50 testing of your faith worketh patience. Sometimes a blessing 12:54 comes by teaching us patience. 12:56 Yeah, that does become a blessing especially if you did 12:59 not have it before then if you hadn't experienced that 13:02 situation. And if you have children, oh 13:04 yeah, you need patience. If you don't have patience and you have 13:09 children you need help. You need mercy. You need mercy. OK let's 13:14 go to number 3. Number 3 is to provide opportunity for penitent 13:21 and intercessory prayer. 13:22 And this is within the worship service at a church? 13:24 It is essential to have prayer. Prayer is communicating. 13:30 I taught my kids to pray like they talk to me but with more 13:36 respect. They must pray, not those formal prayers, you know 13:41 those formal prayers, Now I lay me down to sleep, all that stuff 13:47 That's not prayer. That's something that somebody can 13:51 quote. Prayer is speaking to God and he communicates to us 13:57 through his will, through his word. And so now as I pray I 14:02 need to stop and listen to God. In the worship service this is 14:06 very possible. While we're on our knees praying for somebody 14:10 to be healed. While we're on our knees praying for a young lady 14:14 who's in trouble. While we're on our knees even praying for our 14:18 pastor. While we're on our knees praying for spirituality. While 14:21 we're on our knees praying for help. Prayer is very much a 14:27 part of the worship service. And prayer inspires us to speak 14:33 freely and openly to God. 14:35 So now tell me, what is it about because we can pray at home, 14:39 what is it about the prayer when you're actually in a church 14:45 service amongst believers. What is it about that the joint 14:51 prayer that makes it so powerful? 14:52 It binds us, it binds us, it draws us closer, it keeps us 14:59 in a type of mood where we know that we are together. Have you 15:05 ever heard of that saying, let's see, my grandma used to say, the 15:11 family that prays together stays together. And so when you're in 15:17 a congregation and you're praying together and you're 15:20 holding hands you stay together because all of you now realize 15:25 that we're sinners and we have the same problems but we're 15:30 going to get through this together. That's the thing 15:33 about togetherness in prayer. We should pray alone of course 15:37 we should do that in our private time in the morning and the 15:41 evening before we go to bed. That's very important, but in a 15:45 congregational setting what makes worship so beautiful is 15:48 when we even go to the altar and get on our knees and pray. 15:51 It's like we're touching and agreeing. We're praying in a 15:54 community. And it makes us get that much 15:57 closer to God. When I did a week of prayer in a Canadian 16:02 University recently, very interesting. I asked the 16:07 students rather than praying into pews come up to the altar 16:11 and pray. The place was full of students, hundreds of students 16:15 would come up. And they said oooh we never experienced that 16:18 before. Why? Because sometimes we just have that simple prayer 16:22 and that's it but if you do congregational prayer, if you 16:26 kneel and pray, you hold hands and pray, you can stand in 16:31 prayer. Prayer is a time to reach out to God. The Bible 16:35 talks about prayer, pray without ceasing, in 16:38 I Thessalonians. 16:39 So it's like during the day with whatever we're doing, huh? 16:43 The prayer of a righteous, let me get this straight, the prayer 16:46 of a fervent, righteous man availeth much, something like 16:51 that. Hey, the bottom line is that it 16:52 avails much. It avails much. But I guess also the point is the 16:57 righteous person, in other words if we are standing before God 17:01 saying Lord here we are and we just want to have your 17:07 righteousness of Jesus. So it's an easy thing. 17:10 Speak to us Lord in that congregation. That's where we 17:16 connect with God. We connect. That's why I urge people, don't 17:21 sit home. Sitting home having church is not the best type of 17:27 worship service. Go to a local congregation, join with them, 17:32 touch with them, hug them. There are times we need to be hugged, 17:36 embraced, in prayer. There are people who are crying. Sometimes 17:40 we need to hug them and embrace them. And so they feel a sense 17:44 that God is with me because someone else is touching me 17:48 right now. You can't get that at home. You have to get it 17:53 in a joyful fellowship with worshipping God. Let's go to the 17:58 next one. Now this is what I like... 18:09 The Bible should never be used as a hammer even though it has a 18:13 black cover. You're Bible's not black. It's a different color. 18:18 It's a feminine burgundy. Yes it is. But we shouldn't use 18:21 the Bible as a hammer to beat people. 18:25 Yeah. No the Bible is not for that. Why would I want to do 18:28 that? Now the Bible says for the word 18:29 of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword 18:34 piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul. The Bible 18:40 has healing, healing properties. It heals a person. It counsels 18:46 the person. That's why it says in 2 Timothy 2:15: Study to show 18:50 thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be 18:55 ashamed, rightly dividing, rightly dividing the word of 18:59 truth. So when the word of God is proclaimed in the local 19:04 congregation, it's not to beat on the people. Now some people 19:08 would say, Cry aloud and spare not. Lift up thy voice like a 19:12 trumpet and show my people their sins. You can show people 19:16 sins in a redemptive way, not in a way that's going to hurt, 19:22 bruise or condemn. Jesus came not to this world to condemn 19:27 but to save it. And so in this part, proclaiming the word of 19:32 God in clear, compelling and redemptive way. That's a part of 19:37 worship. The word of God must be essential tool for effective 19:42 preaching in the local congregation and that 19:45 is a must. Without the preaching of the word... For faith cometh 19:51 by hearing and hearing by the word of God. That's essential. 19:55 I went to a church one time and they said, Oh, we just had a 19:59 video last week. And I said a video, you popped in a video. 20:03 And they said yes. And I said and there was a speaker? Yes. 20:07 Now was the sound system good of was it bad, because remember 20:11 there are people in the congregation who have problems 20:14 with hearing and so you have to make sure even if you pop a tape 20:17 in, make sure that the sound is clear, it's distinct, it feels 20:21 and moves so that people can understand what is being 20:24 preached. Let me give you an example. I went to a small 20:28 little congregation. In fact, it was the first Seventh-day 20:32 Adventist church, English- speaking church, in Canada. 20:36 It's in the Provence of Quebec in Canada. It's about two or 20:42 three hours from Montreal and it's near the United States 20:46 border so some pioneers came over to Quebec and started a 20:50 small English church. It was the first actually Seventh-day 20:54 Adventist church in Canada. Very small and because I have a 20:59 booming voice I was preaching very loud and after the sermon 21:03 this old man who had a problem of hearing, he had two hearing 21:07 aides, he said I want to speak to the pastor. He was blind. He 21:11 said I want to speak to the pastor. And I said, Oh, oh. 21:15 I know what's going to happen now. And so he said son sit down 21:20 And I said OK. And he said, you know what, that's the first time 21:24 I heard a sermon in 15 years. Oh my goodness. 21:31 He said Praise God, Praise God. I said well thank the Lord for 21:34 the encouragement. I thought you were going to condemn me. He 21:37 said, no, the problem is with this church here, they don't 21:41 preach loud enough. I said well praise God! 21:43 Well when we were living out in Sacramento there was an 21:46 individual I can think of in particular who did come to our 21:49 church because he could hear the sermon. So that is about meeting 21:54 people's needs in the congregation isn't it? 21:57 You can be a soft-spoken person but if you need a microphone and 22:01 some speakers to help you out, I think you ought to have it. 22:04 Some people feel that OK I can just speak and they'll hear me. 22:08 Not necessarily. You might find that a lot of people go to sleep 22:12 especially in a congregation. That's the compelling way. 22:17 That is compelling and it must have a sense of urgency. 22:20 The word of God must have a sense of urgency. If it's 22:23 preached in such a way, well everything's wonderful, 22:26 everything is good, everything is fine, I don't think people 22:31 are going to be convinced or convicted by just well 22:35 everything is good, everything is fine. It's like a newspaper. 22:38 You want to read the headlines for that day. It's like 22:41 listening to a news broadcast on television and they're stressing 22:46 something that happened that day and you're like glued to the 22:49 television set because you want to know what happened in your 22:53 community and the word of God has to be similar to that. You 22:56 must stress it, emphasize it, in such a way that people now 23:00 will say wow, man, that's what I need. 23:04 So even if you're not a preacher and you're not going 23:07 to be preaching the word of God in the pulpit, even in sharing 23:11 your faith you want to have some enthusiasm. 23:12 You have to generate enthusiasm. 23:14 Or genuineness; somehow be able to portray a genuine spirit. 23:18 Some people are very soft-spoken. 23:19 Yes they are. But I'm sure there is a way. 23:22 How would you like to go to a wedding and the minister says do 23:28 you take this you know woman and what have you and you get to the 23:32 point where you have to say I do and you'll say something like 23:37 Yeah, I do. Can you imagine if the word was preached that way? 23:42 Yeah, Jesus is OK. He's the savior of the world, believe on 23:47 him. Enthusiasm is very much a part of the gospel. Jesus 23:53 preached with enthusiasm. Now let's look at this. Jesus is 23:58 preaching to 5000 people. He didn't have a microphone, he 24:04 didn't have a sound system. But his voice was strong and 24:10 powerful. The people heard it. Now the Bible said there were 24:16 5000 but there were 5000 men plus children plus women. So I 24:21 can see a coliseum of 15,000 people or more and Jesus is 24:26 preaching to them on a mountain side, preaching with a strong 24:33 voice and they heard the voice of God. A booming voice. That's 24:39 good. Well let's move on to this one. Now this we have to take a 24:45 couple more minutes... 24:56 Now if I would change it around I would say, Express the 25:01 Christian message for those of you who are not Adventist, but 25:06 express a gospel message... 25:17 That was kind of going back to what you were saying about the 25:23 person who couldn't hear. The Bible must be relevant. It must 25:30 create a response. When somebody asks us to give money, would you 25:35 like them to say well just give, you know, as much as you can. 25:41 And the Lord will bless you. If it does not create a response 25:46 you won't have any money that day. I mean, an offering must be 25:51 given to God. There are special offerings at various times. But 25:56 now if there's a special offering, it must be in such a 25:59 way that it creates this response where people say, well 26:02 I'm going to give all that I can give. And the last one is... 26:11 It must be happy, bright, spiritual and essential 26:15 for worship. Now who fosters that? Is that 26:18 the preacher or are those the people who come to the church or 26:22 you know, who's fostering this? 26:24 The plan of the worship is the responsibility of the members 26:28 and the pastor themselves. So then they can create this 26:32 beautiful, joyful worship. 26:34 OK. So I really enjoy this study in worship of God and joyful 26:39 fellowship and for those of you at the beginning of the program 26:44 we mentioned that you would be able to learn some things if you 26:48 were looking for a church to go to or if you weren't satisfied 26:51 with the congregation where you have been attending. It sounds 26:55 like these are the elements for a very wonderful, joyful 27:01 experience in the Lord and the big part is that you can be a 27:06 part of it. Isn't that right? 27:07 Yes, definitely. Well if you'd like to know more 27:10 about today's topic, I encourage you to go to the 3ABN web site 27:14 www.3ABN.org and look up the name 27:19 Jason McCracken and the Review and Herald. 27:22 Yeah, it's on the Review and Herald web site. 27:25 You can send him an e-mail. Yes. Look up Message Magazine. 27:28 It's there. Oh, I think we have a copy of 27:33 Message Magazine don't we. I'll just show this very quickly 27:36 This is Message Magazine, so you can look for this particular 27:40 icon on the web site. And we certainly encourage anyone who 27:45 is looking for a church home, to look for the word of God and 27:49 find that place that will fill your need. God said he would 27:52 supply all of our needs. I attend church and I encourage 27:56 you to do the same. God bless you. |
Revised 2014-12-24