Sermon

Two Ingredients To Worship - Glen Osburn

Church of Christ - Bakersfield, Ca

Open publisher episode ↗

Publisher transcript

Transcript

View source ↗
  1. This week, we have really been studying the inner aspects of

  2. Christianity as well as the outer aspects.

  3. But most of all we've been focusing on being authentic and

  4. genuine. You know, if there's anything

  5. that causes shame to the cause of Christ, it's those who are

  6. inconsistent in between what they Proclaim.

  7. And the way they live, it is inconsistency in what we say or

  8. what we pledge, allegiance do and then sure.

  9. Go by our Behavior, what our true Allegiance is to.

  10. And so we've been trying to eliminate or erase any

  11. discrepancy between our claims to be followers of Jesus Christ

  12. and really imitating him. We've been trying to understand

  13. how important it is for us to have an inner life that

  14. expresses itself and our outer deeds and how important it is to

  15. get to make sure that those are Those aspects are clear and

  16. solid so that we will be successful and not vacillating

  17. and our Christian commitment. We talked last night about James

  18. 4 and verse 8. A Bible that tells us about a

  19. double-minded man. It says the double minded.

  20. Man, is supposed to cleanse, his hands from sin, and purify his

  21. heart. That means to make single why?

  22. Because that's what is expected by God, is for us to be genuine

  23. and authentic in our behavior and Our Deeds are not supposed

  24. to be sinful and our hardest opposed to be pure and anything

  25. else. Other than that is hypocrisy in

  26. James 18, it tells us that this double mindedness is evidenced

  27. in instability in our Christian Endeavor.

  28. It says a double minded, man is unstable in all his ways.

  29. So sometimes if we wonder why we're not as stable as we should

  30. be, perhaps we should examine our Then examine our hearts.

  31. As we've been trying to looking into the word of God this week

  32. to see what manner of people. We are and go away and not

  33. forget what we are tonight. Do I want to talk about?

  34. If you will not necessarily the other side of the coin, but I

  35. want to make sure that we're balanced and make sure we

  36. understand that there are two ingredients to acceptable

  37. worship. The Bible says in John 4, verse

    John 4:23

  38. 23 and 24 that God is Spirit And though the and those that

  39. worship Him must worship Him in spirit, and in truth.

  40. Now, there are many commentators that say, that that's not too

  41. different ingredients of acceptable worship.

  42. They will say correct. Spirit means basically with our

  43. spirit and other words, a man must worship with spirit and

  44. according to truth, well, I don't see any discrepancy in

  45. identifying that. Whenever he says, in spirit

  46. there, he's talking about with our spirit that is with the

  47. authentic or Genuine. Of our inner life.

  48. In other words, worshiping God in our spirit.

  49. And that means with proper emotion than truth.

  50. According to God's word, John 17:17.

    John 17:17

  51. I see no discrepancy and understanding that that passage

  52. is teaching. Both are elements that are

  53. needed in order to have acceptable worship before God.

  54. But there are some people today who are saying spirit is more

  55. important than truth and we know that that's not truth.

  56. That is Unbalanced and it is just as improper to put that

  57. kind of a spin on that passage. As it is for people, to say, all

  58. we need is a form and not having any real heart in it, that

  59. that's more important to. We've been showing all week that

  60. the acceptable sacrifice must be both inner and outer in order to

  61. be acceptable. We've been showing that alike in

  62. 1st Corinthians, 13 chapter, verse 1 through 3.

  63. How important it is to have a That does things proper from a

  64. proper motive in order for it to be acceptable to God.

  65. And that passage, he's talking about love and says, yay though.

  66. I give my body to be burned and have not charity.

  67. It profiteth nothing. In other words having the proper

  68. attitude. When one sacrifices must be a

  69. necessary in order for God to view that as a genuine and

  70. authentic sacrifice, because it profits.

  71. Nothing. Oh, is it a great sacrifice?

  72. Yes, it's a great sacrifice, but many people have died.

  73. For country or for Honor, or for themselves and not really for

  74. God and God says, Hey listen, give him the body.

  75. Making a great sacrifice is not the point.

  76. It's, whether it's done both inwardly, and outwardly in a

  77. proper way to really focus our minds on this.

  78. I want you to look at one of the last book.

  79. The last book in the Old Testament.

  80. If you have it in your Pew Bible, please open up to Malachi

  81. The Book of Malachi. He is basically chastising the

  82. priests because the priests are corrupt.

  83. Let's just be straight about it. The priests are corrupt.

  84. They are doing wrong things. They are, they are even

  85. wondering in themselves if it's worth it.

  86. To serve god. Notice how the Holy Spirit

  87. reveals their heart in some of this passage.

  88. We're going to start reading with verse 6 of Malachi the

  89. first chapter, notice as a son honors, his father and a servant

  90. is Master, then if I am a father, where is my honor?

  91. And if I am a master, where is my respect?

  92. In other words, he's saying in your Earthly culture, you honor

  93. those who have some authority over you.

  94. Where do I fit in? Where's my respect?

  95. Where's my honor says the Lord of hosts To You O priest who

  96. despise my name. But you say how have we despised

  97. your name? In other words, he's saying

  98. priest. You not honored me and they said

  99. wow how do we do that? Verse 7 you are presenting

  100. defiled food upon my altar but you say how have we defiled you

  101. in that you say the table of the Lord is to be despised.

  102. And other words they were looking at what was going to be

  103. on the Altar and they say it's going to be burned up anyway,

  104. therefore, the quality of the sacrifice doesn't really matter.

  105. It doesn't really matter. You notice, he goes on down to

  106. name this verse 8. What when you present the blind

  107. for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame

  108. and the sick, is it not evil? Why not offer to your Governor?

  109. Would he be pleased with you or when he receive you?

  110. Kindly says the Lord of hosts. Notice he's challenging them

  111. here. He's saying, you say sacrifices

  112. sacrifice since it's going to be burned up, why not offer the

  113. lame and the sick and the Blind and offer them to God.

  114. God says because the quality of what you're offering to me,

  115. shows your lack of respect for me as his point.

  116. He said you're offering me. Sick and blind and lame.

  117. Sacrifices expecting. Are you offering sacrifices?

  118. Yes. Are they quality sacrifices?

  119. No. Because of that.

  120. Others dishonour me. That's what he's saying, he's

  121. challenging these people. He says, listen, what you're

  122. doing is bringing disrespect to me disrespect and dishonor to

  123. me, would your Governor be pleased with it?

  124. No notice verse 9 and hat. Now will you not entreat God's

  125. favor, that he may be gracious to us with such an offering on

  126. your part? Will he receive you?

  127. Kindly says, the Lord of hosts? In other words, he's asking a

  128. rhetorical question, expecting the right answer, in other

  129. words, he's not expecting them to I wonder what the answer is.

  130. The answer is supplied know God is not respected by what you're

  131. offering. Verse 10.

  132. Listen. Oh, that there would be one

  133. among you who would shut the gates that you might not

  134. uselessly Kindle Fire on my altar.

  135. I am not pleased with. You says the Lord of horse host,

  136. nor will I accept an offering from you?

  137. Now, first of all, I want to get this really clear one more time.

  138. Let's answer the question word. They offering something.

  139. Where are they offering something?

  140. The answer is, yes. You know, we're not talking

  141. about people here, we're not talking about atheists, we're

  142. not talking about people, not worshiping.

  143. We're talking about somebody who was worshipping.

  144. They were offering something to God.

  145. Yes, you would say they were going through the axe was God,

  146. pleased with what they were offering?

  147. No, he was not, he was not. Accepting their sacrifice at

  148. all. In fact, he said you are

  149. uselessly kindling. A fire on that altar.

  150. I'm not accepting your worship, not accepting it at all.

  151. You notice, when he goes on to say verse 11, for from the

  152. rising of the sun, even stood, setting, my name will be great

  153. among the Nations. And in every place, incense is

  154. going to be offered to my name and a grain offering bet is pure

  155. 49. My name will be great.

  156. Among the Nations says, the Lord of hosts verse 12 but you are

  157. pro feigning it profaning it in that you say the table of Lord

  158. is defiled. And as for its fruit, the food

  159. is to be despised how tiresome it is.

  160. Notice their attitude in verse 13.

  161. And you also say my how tiresome it is and you disdainfully sniff

  162. it. It says the Lord of hosts you

  163. bring that with just taken by robbery and what is Lamer sick?

  164. You bring the offering, should I receive that from your hand?

  165. Says the Lord, but cursed be the swindler who has a male in his

  166. flock and boughs it. But sacrifices the blemished

  167. animal to the Lord for Or I am a great king, says the Lord of

  168. hosts and my name is feared among the nations.

  169. In other words, basically, he's saying there are Gentile Nations

  170. that fear me, and you guys are treating me worse than you treat

  171. your own. Governor, would you offer that

  172. to your governor and you offer it to God?

  173. How sad. How sad how disrespectful?

  174. In fact, he uses a very unusual word here.

  175. He uses the word profane. The word profane means to take

  176. something holy and use it in an Unholy way or to treat it in an

  177. Unholy way. A nun.

  178. Special way, we use this word whenever we talk about

  179. profanity, that is where we take the lord's name and use it.

  180. It in an Unholy way. We're not really addressing God

  181. In Prayer. We're just using his name.

  182. When we hit that, you know, thumb with a hammer or whenever

  183. we use God's name in a profane way.

  184. That's why we call it profanity, it's not used in its proper

  185. since well. The Lord says, I want to be

  186. respected among the Nations and you guys aren't respecting me

  187. because of your attitude about the offering and the offering it

  188. self. There are many other points here

  189. in the Book of Malachi. And you know, Jesus continually

  190. in the New Testament focused upon these this this

  191. hypocritical attitude on the part of worshippers as well.

  192. And we're going to get to that in just a moment but as I said,

  193. we're going to look at both sides of a coin here tonight.

  194. We're going to look at both sides of it because whenever it

  195. comes to acceptable worship as I said there are two elements to

  196. acceptable worship and some have gone too far.

  197. The other way they have gone to what we call emotionalism.

  198. Mmm. Now, what is emotionalism?

  199. Well emotionalism is just as biased as formalism if you will,

  200. in that, it goes so far that it believes that somehow the

  201. emotion itself is what we're after that.

  202. An emotion is what we're after. And that's what worship is all

  203. about. Is just generating a certain

  204. emotion amongst us and then if we can get to that place, then

  205. oftentimes the ends justify the means and we get this emotion

  206. about our religion. And their motion is all that.

  207. It is. Emotion is an end of itself.

  208. Well, tonight that's not true. Either.

  209. That's not true. That is just as wrong as

  210. formalism doing something without the right attitude or

  211. doing something for an emotion without the right objective as

  212. well. Both of them are just as wrong,

  213. and I think we need to really identify here what we're talking

  214. about. Let's examine emotions and what

  215. the Bible has to say about them and how they are.

  216. Sometimes, in this world, we go to two extremes and yes, I do

  217. believe this applies to us in a very real sense.

  218. Since what we've been talking about this week is change and

  219. sometimes people look at what happens in the church about our

  220. worship and they said our worship needs to change.

  221. Now, sometimes they're talking about the form and that can't be

  222. changed. True worship is true worship,

  223. period, John for 23 and 24. It's either acceptable or it's

  224. not acceptable. The form is either, right?

  225. Or wrong, you're either imitating.

  226. What happened? The night Jesus was betrayed or

  227. you're not. That's all there is to it.

  228. But sometimes they're talking about the attitudes.

  229. Sometimes they're talking about the attitude that offering is

  230. made, and sometimes that does need to change, but sometimes

  231. they go so far as to say, well, the attitude is more important.

  232. Then the form and that's wrong. That is just as wrong.

  233. You go too far, one way or the other two forms are two extremes

  234. just because it's extreme doesn't make it right.

  235. Sometimes the truth really is a combination of both of these

  236. ideas. And that's what we want to show

  237. tonight. Is it some people worship

  238. emotion? You know, whenever you talk

  239. about dating someone I've heard some people they say well you

  240. know I don't know if I love them and whenever they're so

  241. immature. You begin to talk to them about

  242. infatuation. You talk to them about

  243. friendship and you kids come and they want they want their the

  244. some of these issues sorted out. I don't know how I feel about

  245. this person. And and then I said well how

  246. would you feel if that person didn't love you and oftentimes

  247. that sorts it out real quick? Well, you know, I wouldn't love

  248. them then I say well then you're not in love with them, you know,

  249. you're not in love with him. The Bible says a friend loves at

  250. all times. Faithful are the wounds of a

  251. friend, you know, in other words a friend, you like whenever

  252. they're they're supporting you and you like whenever they're

  253. there, chastising you're correcting, you.

  254. And you know, that's what it friend loves at all times.

  255. And whenever we love somebody, it's not just conditioned on

  256. their behavior. God loves us while we were yet

  257. enemies. The Bible says in Romans the

  258. fifth chapter that's the kind of love mature.

  259. Love is shown oh does God love us.

  260. Oh yes, he loves us. Will he accept us in our sin,

  261. not on your life. God wants us to repent.

  262. We've learned that this week acts 17:30 God commands, all men

    Acts 17:30

  263. everywhere to repent. Well, if God commands me to

  264. repent, if he's critical then he must not love me.

  265. Me no that's wrong. God loves you but he demands you

  266. repent, you see and then whatever it comes to

  267. relationships and and things like that.

  268. People sometimes only want, one kind of relationship.

  269. They only want love. They only want peace.

  270. They only want joy and anything that causes them to maybe

  271. reflected, or maybe be remorseful or maybe have other

  272. feelings. They don't really think that

  273. that's proper in the church. Well, my friends, whenever we

  274. sing songs of praise to God, sometimes those songs of praise

  275. are joyful in that they express the hope that we have in heaven.

  276. But if somebody dies as was have, we've had happened here in

  277. this congregation in the last week, sometimes we have grief

  278. and sometimes we sing songs of morning being not in our

  279. Heavenly Home, sometimes we as a congregation can appropriately

  280. seeing The Blues. Because that's the authentic

  281. way. We feel at this moment.

  282. If a leader dies is it proper to go and sing the fastest possible

  283. song? You know, there's some people

  284. that just don't think worship is happening.

  285. Unless that pedal is to the metal and we sing that song as

  286. fast as we can, sing it. Have you met those brethren?

  287. In fact, they sing it so fast. You don't even know what words

  288. you're saying. They try to sing songs fast,

  289. they say, worships got to be fast.

  290. It's got to be quick, and it's got to go.

  291. Go go, sometimes it's appropriate for us to slow down

  292. and sing songs of soberness and sing songs of longing.

  293. In an appropriate slow fashion, because it needs to be authentic

  294. and real. This is what I'm talking about

  295. tonight. Sometimes we have people who

  296. judge worship as to whether it's exciting and they seem to be

  297. excitement is all they're shooting for and that is not

  298. appropriate according to the scriptures.

  299. Sometimes they want a better felt then told truth they want

  300. just just dissed, get everything, you know and other

  301. Brethren. They're just not in touch with

  302. their emotions at all. In anything, that's emotional.

  303. They get to feeling uncomfortable about because

  304. Emotions are out of control. What is the truth in on this?

  305. Well, emotions have a scriptural role in the life of the

  306. Christians and the Bible speaks of it yet, whenever emotions

  307. become the object of worship. We're in grave danger as well.

  308. So let's talk more in detail about this.

  309. In the scriptures, the Bible tells us in First Corinthians of

  310. 14 chapter and verse 40 that worship is to be conducted in a

  311. decent and orderly fashion. That is in a fashion, that's

  312. appropriate to the assembly. Now, sometimes decently and in

  313. order, Lee is different, even for different cultures.

  314. Now Glenn, what do you mean by that?

  315. Well, you know, throughout history The Church hasn't had

  316. clocks, especially digital All clocks are clocks that are set

  317. by the atomic clock throughout history.

  318. Think about it, the church existed for thousands over 1,000

  319. years without literally, timekeeping pieces.

  320. But when did they assemble? Well, they assembled to break

  321. bread on the first day of the week.

  322. The Bible says for them to Terry one for another and other all

  323. assembled there. They did not show up within five

  324. minutes now brother and I've been at some places that five

  325. minutes but the audience was empty, I mean, there wasn't

  326. anybody there and within five minutes, if you dropped your

  327. pencil in the hall, you better step back because you're going

  328. to get trampled if you try to pick it up.

  329. There is a rush of Christians in or just you could feel a breeze.

  330. They create a breeze. And whenever services are over,

  331. that's just a biggest rush to get out.

  332. We seem to be so precise. But, you know, you can't take

  333. that concept everywhere to the churches in Africa, those

  334. brother, and assemble, and they start singing before they get

  335. there. And whoever shows up, they start

  336. singing. And then they wait till

  337. everybody gets there, and they're all see until everybody

  338. gets their, that's their culture.

  339. And that's the way they do it. But, you know, decently in order

  340. there and decently in order, here might be two different

  341. things. We might consider somebody that

  342. starts a song before Services started to be little out of

  343. place. Well, I didn't know service a

  344. start and it might be disruptive but you see it has to do with

  345. its culture. Some people are a lot more

  346. easygoing in some places than others, but the Bible does tell

  347. us to have certain appropriate things.

  348. He says, listen, I want it done decently and in order, I don't

  349. want it to be raucous. I don't want it to be Rowdy.

  350. I don't want it to be out of line, a service that does not

  351. reflect honor and respect for God.

  352. The Bible tells us whenever we do have worship that, it

  353. sometimes can be so formalistic that it lacks emotion at all.

  354. We sing songs in such a deadpan mechanical way that the way and

  355. the attitude with which we sing that song has absolutely no

  356. relevance to its message or to its lyrics at all.

  357. You know, I remember singing that song come we that love the

  358. Lord and let our joy abound you know Mark and everything and it

  359. sounded like a horrible song like it was something that was

  360. just horrible and stand up for Jesus and revive us.

  361. Again. How many of us have heard revive

  362. us again? Sung like a funeral March that's

  363. just so out of character. The world is watching.

  364. When they come to worship, they look at the words because it's

  365. the first time, they look at them and they look at those

  366. words and they look at us. And if they see a discrepancy,

  367. they think that it's hypocrisy. And maybe it's just because

  368. we've heard that song for the last 30 years of our life, maybe

  369. it's just old to us. We need to be careful in our

  370. worship to make sure that other emotion is fitting.

  371. The songs that were singing. We need to have it as being a

  372. proper proper and decent and in orderly way whenever we do

  373. choose the songs, Now, Terry, I'm going to tell this because

  374. I've often used this point here, whenever I first started

  375. teaching, I mean, we were young and doing different things that

  376. I remember. It was one of either the second,

  377. or third lesson that I ever gave, I gave it on true worship

  378. in Cottage Grove, Oregon on the Lord's Day morning and Terry got

  379. up and led the invitation song. Oh, why not tonight now?

  380. That's not necessarily bad. But I was going, why don't, you

  381. know? Not this kind of if it's but,

  382. you know, brother, sing songs that are appropriate to what's

  383. being said to what is being talked about, it is appropriate

  384. song leaders to ask the teacher, what?

  385. He's teaching on and seeing if your songs can match the message

  386. that's going to be given that morning and says worship it,

  387. enhances Focus. It gets our minds properly

  388. addressing what's going to be talked about that morning.

  389. And in Matthew the 15th chapter verse 7 you probably all knew we

  390. were going to this passage but in Matthew 15 notice what Jesus

  391. said in verse 7 and 8. You Hypocrites, rightly did

  392. Isaiah prophesy view. This people honors me with their

  393. lips, but their heart is far from me.

  394. But in vain, do they worship me teaching as doctrines the

  395. precepts of men? If it applies, then it applies.

  396. Now, vain means, empty, empty or hollowly and he says it's just

  397. like in the Old Testament. I wish that they would not have

  398. ever kindled. The fire at all in loving and

  399. serving God and Matthew. The 22nd chapter In Matthew 22,

  400. it involves our total being in Worship in Matthew, 22 and

  401. starting in verse 37. He says.

  402. And he said to them, you shall love the Lord.

  403. Your God with all of your heart with all your soul, with all

  404. your mind. This is great.

  405. Foremost commandment in the second liken.

  406. It to it. You shall love your neighbor as

  407. yourself. God wants us to have a heartfelt

  408. religion. Is emotion necessary in order to

  409. please God. Well, yes, there is Is an

  410. emotion called love. Let's look at a few passage.

  411. I want you to follow along with me as much as you can.

  412. I'm going to repeat these verses twice but in 1st Peter 4, verse

  413. 8 that is First Peter 4, verse 8.

    1 Peter 4:8

  414. Let's look at a few passages tonight 1st Peter 4 verse 8.

  415. Notice what it says above all keep fervent in your love for

  416. one another because love covers a multitude of sins.

  417. Does God expect us to have fervent emotions?

  418. Oh yes, he does, fervent emotions.

  419. We need to be in contact with our emotions because he says, I

  420. want some fervent emotions. I wanted you to fervently love

  421. your brethren in First Corinthians.

  422. A sixteenth chapter First Corinthians, 16 and verse 22.

  423. Notice what it says here. If anyone does not love the

  424. Lord, he is accursed merriment Maranatha.

  425. Does not love the Lord. Are we supposed to have love for

  426. the Lord? Our is that supposed to call for

  427. some emotion from us? Yes, it definitely does.

  428. Is there supposed to be the emotion of Hope?

  429. And, yes, Hope does have an emotional aspect to it.

  430. We're going to notice more about that in a moment, but notice in

  431. Romans 12 and verse 12, if you No, Romans 12 and verse 12.

  432. It says here, rejoicing in Hope persevering.

  433. It's in Tribulation devoted to prayer, rejoicing in Hope.

  434. Is rejoicing emotion? Yes.

  435. Is it caused by Hope? Oh, yes, this is an emotion

  436. rejoicing is something that we are definitely supposed to have.

  437. And notice in Philippians 4 verse 4, he puts it even more

    Philippians 4:4

  438. specifically, Philippians chapter 4 and verse 4.

    Philippians 4 chapter mention

  439. Notice what it says, it says rejoice in the lord always.

  440. And again, I say rejoice, Rejoice.

  441. How many times have we had someone consider us to be on

  442. authentic Christians because when we sing a song about joy,

  443. we express no joy while singing it.

  444. They have a right to say that we're Hypocrites whenever we

  445. sing about joy and we're not expressing.

  446. Any enjoy, we're not emoting any Joy.

  447. If you will notice in second Corinthians 7 verse 10, second

    2 Corinthians 7:10 2 Corinthians 7:10

  448. Corinthians 7 verse 10. For the sorrow that is according

  449. to the will of God, produces a repentance without regret

  450. leading to salvation but the sorrow of the world produces

  451. death. What is this verse suggesting?

  452. It's suggesting that sometimes whatever.

  453. We are taught some passage of scripture.

  454. We it produces within us, asaro a sorrow.

  455. But what happens with that sorrow we're going to notice in

  456. a minute. It produces a fruit or has a

  457. fruit and that fruit It is repentance.

  458. But what is the, what is the emotion?

  459. That hearing disobeyed God or God is not?

  460. Well pleased with this. What is the emotion that we feel

  461. sorrow? That's what happens.

  462. Sometimes, when we look to the word of God and we see him, it

  463. produces within us a sorrow because of our love for God.

  464. It produces sorrow within our hearts, you know, I'm sad.

  465. Whenever I love my wife and I find out that what I've been

  466. trying to do for her is not pleasing to Or you're trying to

  467. please your eyes. I fixed this favorite thing for

  468. you and he's not, please, you, he produces some kind of Sorrow

  469. within you. Well, that is proper whenever

  470. we're trying to serve God and honor him and find out that

  471. we've been doing something wrong, it produces sorrow, but

  472. not just the superficial sorrow. It's a sorrow that has some

  473. fruit to it, and we're going to notice that more in a moment.

  474. But this is a proper response to God's word.

  475. I want us to get that. It's a proper response.

  476. And to God's word. What about the emotion of hate?

  477. Is that a god-given emotion as well?

  478. Yes, and I'm just going to Proverbs 8 and verse 13.

  479. The Bible says, we're supposed to hate evil and wickedness and

  480. the wicked way even the Lord hates.

  481. The Bible says, there's to be the emotion of fear, Matthew,

  482. 10, and verse 28. There's a place for emotion in

  483. the life and in the worship of the church in the life of the

  484. Christian, and in the worship of the church, there is a place for

  485. this, but This emotion must have a basis.

  486. It must be rooted in faith. It must be rooted in the word of

  487. God, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God

  488. Romans 10. And verse 17, this requires us

  489. to use our intellectual fat faculties in whenever addressing

  490. issues of emotion. In other words, let's be very

  491. clear about this. There's an aspect of Love.

  492. That is a choice. There's an aspect of love that

  493. requires obedience. God commanded in first, John,

  494. that we love one another. We make it either a choice to

  495. obey or not obey. Well, Glenn, how can a motion be

  496. commanded? How can a man be commanded to

  497. love his wife, Ephesians 5, Well, it is a command.

  498. So, love is a choice, isn't it? Yes.

  499. What we love is a choice. Now, how we feel about that is

  500. our responsibility as well as just an emotion.

  501. Sometimes, if we don't have feelings of love for our

  502. brethren, we have to learn to develop them because to fail to

  503. do so would be Disobedience when a husband refuses to love his

  504. wife? He is being Disobedient to God.

  505. When a man refuses to love God, he is refusing to be obedient to

  506. God, whenever we do not subject-- our heart soul and

  507. mind to God, we are being disobedient to God.

  508. So, part of love, part of Hope. And part of all of these things

  509. are choices intellectual choices.

  510. There's a part of that within us how we feel about things.

  511. Is not just a automatic response.

  512. There is a responsibility to feel certain ways about certain

  513. things about our wife about Sin and about these other things.

  514. Glenn, that's awful tough. It's hard for me to develop that

  515. emotion my friends. That's the whole point.

  516. I'm getting at tonight, sometimes if there is a variance

  517. in, how we feel about sin or how we feel about our wife,

  518. sometimes that's evidence of disobedience in our heart.

  519. And in our will have you ever thought about that?

  520. Have you ever thought that? Maybe if you're having improper

  521. emotions, it's because of improper decisions Or a lack of

  522. devotion. You see?

  523. There's that's symptomatic. Whenever we don't have proper

  524. emotions, it's symptomatic of other things.

  525. Whenever we read about God's love in the word of God, we

  526. should be moved to love him. Notice in first, John, the

  527. fourth chapter, this whole book is dedicated to teaching

  528. Christians, if you love God, you ought to love one another.

  529. But notice what he says here in 1st, John chapter 4 And verse 9.

    John 4 chapter mention

  530. By this is the love of God was manifested in us.

  531. That God has sent his only begotten son in the world so

  532. that we might live through him in.

  533. This is love not that, we loved God, but that he loved us.

  534. And sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

  535. Beloved, if God, so loved us. So, awful ought, we to love one

  536. another. Love one another.

  537. He makes some rational conclusions here.

  538. He says listen because of God, loving our first.

  539. Doesn't that bring about certain other emotions.

  540. There are certain consequences to this love.

  541. Yes, he says, if this is the way God loved us.

  542. Can't we now learn what? It means to love one another.

  543. Yes we can. God God wants us to understand

  544. that if we can feel this way, if this situation, we ought to

  545. learn. Then to Transpose.

  546. Our understanding of this situation to another situation,

  547. if you love here, why can't you love here?

  548. And so he tells us to learn from one experience and apply it to

  549. another notice, though, scriptural emotions.

  550. In other words, they have a foundation, they have a fruit

  551. that is born. They are not simply a motions,

  552. for emotion sake, their emotions that have certain kind of fruits

  553. to them. Look, this is the most important

  554. part of the lesson. I want you to listen, very

  555. carefully to the next five minutes of this lesson.

  556. Listen very carefully and read and take notes.

  557. Listen, very carefully. The emotion of love bears fruit

  558. in obedience notice in John. The 14, if you have your Bibles,

  559. please open the Book of John Gospel of John John, the 14th

  560. chapter And verse 15, notice what Jesus says here, if you

  561. love me. You will keep my Commandments.

  562. There it is. He says, here's the fruit.

  563. Emotion has fruit. There's a consequence to that

  564. emotion and God designed for it to Bear a certain kind of fruit.

  565. Not a motion for a motion sick and not emotional own.

  566. Emotional own is just emotional ism.

  567. What true and authentic realistic emotion.

  568. Emotion has fruit in our life has fruit.

  569. Notice what he says here. If you love God, you'll keep my

  570. Commandments. Jesus goes on in this book and

  571. says, if you keep my Commandments, he it is who loves

  572. me Jesus, determined that emotion by its obedience in

  573. their manner of life. Let's look at some other paths.

  574. And first John 5 verse 3, if we've just came from first John,

    1 John 5:3

  575. but notice in first John 5 verse 3 For this is the true love of

    1 John 5:3

  576. God, that we keep his Commandments and his

  577. Commandments are not burdensome. You know, whenever you love

  578. someone you're not going to find his Commandments to be a burden.

  579. You're not going to find his restrictions to be in a burden,

  580. you know. It's just not going to be that

  581. way. You're not going to chafe

  582. against the command that, you know, was given for your

  583. welfare, God loves us. He wants to give good gifts to

  584. us. God did not give us commands.

  585. Just give commands. He gave us our commands for our

  586. welfare for our benefit, God has to design in the parameters in

  587. the barriers and in the limits. He put in our life, you know,

  588. kids like to say to their parents in their immaturity.

  589. You know, oh, you just don't want me to have any fun.

  590. You know, the parents would they're almost tempted sake.

  591. Yeah, go ahead and play with the lighter.

  592. Go ahead, play with the knife. See if you can juggle them, you

  593. know, we sometimes just want to say how you kids are so dumb.

  594. But the point is, is, you know, that that's immaturity on the

  595. part of the child, you say to them?

  596. No, the reason why I told you not to play with knives, you may

  597. not understand it now, but I don't want you to hurt yourself,

  598. right? Sometimes you want to tell him

  599. to go out and play in the highway but most of all you

  600. don't because you don't want to See him hurt and that's why God

  601. told us for that. There's parameters.

  602. That's why God told us not to do certain things.

  603. It isn't because he wants us, not to have fun.

  604. It's because he knows it'll hurt us, he knows it'll be harmful

  605. for us, you know that it doesn't promote spirituality.

  606. He knows that it's not good for us eternally.

  607. And therefore the Bible says this is the love of God, that we

  608. keep his commands, and his Commandments are not burdensome

  609. whenever you love God. His Commandments are not

  610. burdensome. So that's the fruit if you will

  611. of loving God, but notice the emotion of Hope also that we've

  612. identified has a fruit, notice what the Bible says in Romans 8

  613. chapter in verse 24, in Romans 8, verse 24, Notice for in hope

    Romans 8:24

  614. we have been saved but hope that is seen is not hope for who

  615. hopes for what he already sees. But if we hope for what we do

  616. not see with perseverance, we wait eagerly for it.

  617. Well, what is the fruit? What is the fruit of of Hope?

  618. If you will Desire with expectation?

  619. What's the fruit of that? Patience.

  620. Endurance. We endure we endure whenever we

  621. have hope it helps our endurance.

  622. It helps are holding on. What about the emotion of joy in

  623. second Corinthians chapter 8? Notice the passage in second

    2 Corinthians 8 chapter mention 2 Corinthians 8 chapter mention

  624. Corinthians chapter 8. Notice what it already said.

  625. I believe we've already read it in second Corinthians chapter 8.

    2 Corinthians 8 chapter mention

  626. Starting reverse to notice for in a great deal of fliction,

  627. their Abundance of Joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the

  628. wealth of their liberality for a testify, according to their

  629. ability and beyond their ability.

  630. They gave of their own accord, begging us with my much urging

  631. for the favor and participation of the sport of the Saints.

  632. And we this not as we'd expected but they first gave themselves

  633. to the Lord and To Us, by the will of God, now hear this joy

  634. that they had in their, in their lives.

  635. It bore fruit in sacrifice. That's the effect.

  636. That was the fruit of This Joy. They wanted to do this and what

  637. it led them to was sacrifice to God.

  638. And we noticed in second Corinthians, notice just back

  639. one chapter chapter 7 and verse 10 of chapter 7 and verse 10.

  640. Notice, it says, for the sorrow that is according to the will of

  641. God, produces a repentance without regret leading to

  642. Salvation. Why does the effect of Sorrow

  643. Godly sorrow repentance? It has an effect.

  644. It has a fruit. T' to it, notice the emotion of

  645. hate bears with it. The rejection of are in Psalms

  646. 119. The Bible says in verse 127 and

  647. 128 that the person who love who hates the iniquity, who does not

  648. want to to do those things, which do not please God, that it

  649. affects them and they and they can't stand false worship and

  650. false ways before God, Psalms 119.

  651. Reading verse 127. Notice therefore, I love your

  652. Commandments above gold. Yes above Feingold.

  653. Therefore, I steam right? Your precepts concerning

  654. everything. I hate every false way so we

  655. don't we do not approve. We do not appreciate those who

  656. teach false Doctrine and those who teach error not that we

  657. don't love the person. We love them as much as God does

  658. or we should. But we hate the fact that false

  659. Doctrine is being preached. We do not approve of it.

  660. We do not endorse it, we do not give it a greeting as the p.

  661. As the scripture says, well there's the emotion the emotion

  662. of fear also bears fruit in departing from Evil, the but the

  663. book just flat-out says that in Proverbs 16 and verse 6, the

  664. fear of the Lord caused us to reject people.

  665. So that God has a design for his emotions.

  666. God gave you your emotions So, both aspects are wrong.

  667. To have formalism without emotion is Apocrypha.

  668. See. Do I have a motion without it?

  669. Being based on a scriptures, it's nothing more than fleshly.

  670. It is, fleshly people who we just want excitement, they want

  671. Thrills, you know, in our culture and I'm going to be very

  672. plain here. I could go I have several more

  673. pages because this was an interesting study, but I'm going

  674. to wrap it up here. Let's just wrap it up.

  675. There are people who have been critical of the church in the

  676. past saying I'll Glenn, you know, the church is just so

  677. dead. They just don't show any

  678. emotion. You know what, I don't defend an

  679. emotional assist with emotion less worship service.

  680. If you think a song about Joy, I hope your singing with joy.

  681. But if you've got together and your Sorrowing with the loss of

  682. brother, my friends, it's perfectly appropriate for us to

  683. get together and cry together and bear one another's burdens.

  684. It's the Bible says Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with

  685. those who weep. Now, don't tell me the church,

  686. doesn't have any motion. If it doesn't, it's wrong.

  687. But at the same time to worship emotion is just as wrong to just

  688. go after a sensory experience of hand-clapping and joy and just

  689. believe that we have to roll in the aisles and we have to have

  690. all these other things. My friends, that is nothing more

  691. than fleshly excitement. That's not genuine either.

  692. Both extremes are wrong. What we need to have in the

  693. church is real and authentic worship where we combine words

  694. with authentic feelings. When we sing, And songs of Joy

  695. are songs of joy and songs of hope, our sons of Hope and songs

  696. of regret are genuinely songs of self-reflection.

  697. And whenever we give I want to talk more about worship with the

  698. Bible demands it whenever we give we give cheerfully not

  699. grudgingly or under compulsion that word under compulsion there

  700. doesn't mean like we're being commanded by God and therefore

  701. there must be a contradiction in Scripture that word under

  702. compulsion is talking about as if it were a tax and they hated

  703. paying taxes back, then it was like Like extortion.

  704. And you know what? Feelings of extortion.

  705. Feel like it's whenever a spyware company infects your

  706. computer to sell its spyware. That's extortion.

  707. Get irritated at that. You know what?

  708. That's like. But the Bible says, whenever you

  709. give to the Lord, that's not the supposed to be attitude.

  710. You, in other words, we're happy.

  711. We're thrilled were chill for that.

  712. We have been blessed so that we can promote the cause of Christ.

  713. We have been blessed so that we can support the The gospel to

  714. the world. I'm thrilled to have a job so

  715. that I can serve god with what he's blessed me with.

  716. I'm thrilled to be able to help the cause of Christ, in this

  717. way, and to help out poor Brethren.

  718. I am cheerful. I am happy and thrilled.

  719. The God says, God loves a cheerful Giver.

  720. And whenever it comes to our songs, they need to be

  721. appropriate when it comes to our prayers.

  722. How many times I literally have been ashamed in a service where

  723. I have bought Brethren and the dismissal prayer was said in one

  724. breath, This person isn't talking to God, they're talking

  725. at God, and it is not appropriate and it is not

  726. reverent to spit out phrases that you don't know.

  727. And you don't understand and to talk and shoot something at God

  728. how ashamed we should be to pray.

  729. So repetitively. And so inappropriately that we

  730. just want to get it over with and see how quickly we can get

  731. through a prayer or how quickly we can get through a song.

  732. Shame on us for thinking that way.

  733. Let us be real, let us be authentic.

  734. And whenever we reverently approach God, We need to pre

  735. aware and talk to him as if God were present and be humble

  736. before him. And be able to thank God for

  737. what's happened. And what's going on my friends?

  738. Teach your children to pray, appropriately.

  739. The prey, a properly. Whenever it comes to teaching,

  740. we're not just goes to preach. We're supposed to preach the

  741. word. Not just preach preach the word.

  742. There's some people say man. He just preached.

  743. He preached. All right but the him, preach

  744. the word. We're supposed to preach the

  745. word whenever we sing. We're supposed to sing

  746. appropriately. Pray, pray, appropriately.

  747. Give give cheerfully. And whenever we take the

  748. communion, I don't know if anything that's more emphasized

  749. in First Corinthians 11 than to do.

  750. So in a proper manner, Examining yourself.

  751. Because two failed to do. So we'll eat and drink judgment

  752. to himself now. Brethren, let's just be real

  753. about this for a moment. People who visit our assemblies

  754. do see quickly, how we sing, how we pray and how we teach.

  755. And if they don't come back, If they don't come back, we need to

  756. ask ourselves. Is it?

  757. Because they've seen a disconnect from real and

  758. authentic emotions from what we're doing?

  759. Both sides are wrong formalism is wrong.

  760. If you will, in that sense, and emotionalism is wrong.

  761. The Bible says, whenever you approach, God don't just do it

  762. with your lips. Your heart far from him.

  763. Serve God, with all of your heart.

  764. Soul, mind and strength. When you sing a song, sing it.

  765. Like, you mean it and if you can't sing it, like, you mean

  766. it? Don't sing it, don't lead it.

  767. There are some songs that I think are inappropriate, you

  768. know, when we need to there's there's one song that I think

  769. sounds sarcastic, you know, just wait till you see me in my new

  770. home, That sounds arrogant to sweat it.

  771. Like there's Nan and out all the way through it.

  772. Just wait till you see me in my new home, I just don't like that

  773. song that's personal and if brother and choose delete it,

  774. they can lead it with spirit and understanding.

  775. I don't sing it. Whenever somebody leads it, I

  776. just don't You have yours. I have mine.

  777. I hope. I hope you're not the author of

  778. the song or we're going to have words after it just because it's

  779. a song, doesn't mean we have to sing it.

  780. But I'll tell you what. We need to think more about the

  781. songs we pick. Do I hear an amen.

  782. We need to think about the way we pray.

  783. Amen. Because to do otherwise is to

  784. dishonor our God It's disrespectful to God brethren.

  785. To offer him in sincere worship. So tonight church, we can't talk

  786. about change without talking about our emotion as well.

  787. And yes, we need some emotion, but not more for more sake.

  788. We don't need more emotion, just to be emotional and to be

  789. sensory and to have some overload and to have some kind

  790. of excitement. No.

  791. We need real worship. Told me the real thing tonight.

  792. If you're coming to God, why don't you make some choices?

  793. You may have to make some choices about your love for God.

  794. Do you love God enough to commit to him tonight?

  795. Does this emotion have its fruit?

  796. Does it have a fruit? Does your love for God?

  797. Leads you to obey him tonight in needs to it, needs you to lead

  798. to a commitment, it needs you to lead to repentance.

  799. If you're, maybe you're feeling. In sorrow tonight over some of

  800. the things that you've done or the way you hey, perhaps that

  801. sorrow needs to lead to a change repentance.

  802. Maybe you have joy tonight. Maybe you understand?

  803. For the first time that God wants you to be saved and he

  804. desires for you to be saved and you obey him and you're thankful

  805. that you have the opportunity to obey him tonight.

  806. Express your joy in obedience tonight, but let that emotion

  807. have its proper fruit. God designed it.

  808. Emotion have fruit have effect proper Effect in our life.

  809. We thank you for listening to our podcast, put on by the

  810. Church of Christ at 22:15 plans. Road in Bakersfield, if you

  811. would, like any additional information, or you would like

  812. to receive a free Bible correspondence, course by mail.

  813. Please email us at info at her Church of Christ

  814. Bakersfield.com. Our service times are on Sundays

  815. at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. And Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m.

  816. please, make plans to join us. We would love for you to be our

  817. honored guest