What is Worship? Part 3-Doug Crum

Lance mentioned uh just a moment ago that if you've been here a while, then you know one of the strengths at Austin Avenue is our adult classes and our youth classes and our children's classes.

But if you've never been here before, I want to suggest that one of our strengths is our young, charming, dashingly handsome preacher.

I mean, that's just an observation that I've made.

You you may disagree with me and get in line, because I think everybody would disagree with me on that.

One of the things that you may not know about me is that I love uh World War II.

Uh, and so we're gonna spend just a few minutes talking about this.

There were two groups of people, you might say the good and the bad.

We'll we'll call them the Axis and the Allies.

And there were multiple countries, but here's the core countries: Germany, Italy, and Japan.

Uh they were the Axis side.

The Allied powers were the UK, Soviet Union, Russia, uh, United States, China, and France.

Uh, and and there was some some play that went along.

Russia was not always uh with the Allied powers, but I don't have to give you the whole history lesson.

You can look it up.

It's available anywhere or watch a documentary.

But here's something that's really interesting about this is if you look at the population of the countries that represented those two sides.

Uh Germany was 80 million, Italy a little over 40 million, Japan, 104, especially for being on such a tiny island.

They had about 228 million their population.

The Allied powers, uh, you can see add up those numbers yourself, and it comes to 931 million.

The bottom line is this number right here.

The population uh is one to four.

The the Allied powers drastically outmanned the the Axis powers.

Let me show you one more statistic that I think you'll find crazy uh interesting is this.

Look at the land area of the Axis powers.

Again, Italy is not big, Japan is not big, Germany is not big.

They represent a total of 444,000 square miles.

That's under a half a million square miles.

If you add up all the land, especially when Soviet Union uh became with uh came over to the Allies, uh they represent, we represent 16.3 million square miles.

I mean, it's not even close.

The number to look at here is for every square mile of land that the Axis power had, um we had, the Allies had 37.

37 times as much land, and that was a played a pivotal role in the outcome of the war.

But the question is, who ever thought that this tiny group of three countries ever had a chance when they were outnumbered four to one and the re the resources were outnumbered 37 to 1?

It never should have been a shot.

And so the question that I have is how did they ever have any sort of control?

How did they ever have a shot?

And the fact is, is that the Axis powers and specifically their leaders were passionate and they were aggressive and they used every avenue and resource that they had to try to win.

And that's why it turned into a world war.

That's why it started in 1938 and didn't end until 1945.

It raged on for seven years because this small group of crazy people got together and said, we are going to fight and we are going to win.

Hitler was so charismatic that when Germany invaded Austria in 1939, the German soldiers were welcomed into the country like there was a parade being thrown in their honor.

They were so excited about being on board with what the Germans were doing.

They would later change their mind when they saw what was going on.

But Germany and Italy and Japan said, we are going all in.

And over the course of the next several years, that's exactly what happened.

Poland was invaded by Germany in 1939.

France was defeated in 1940.

Belgium and the Netherlands, they were taken over by what was known as the Blitzkrieg, uh, with all the tiger tanks in uh Germany's arsenal.

Denmark and Norway were invaded in 1940.

And then, of course, you probably remember Greece and Yugoslavia in 1941, the brutal way in which Italy and Germany invaded those two countries.

There was a time at the war early on, late 1940s, early 1941, where it seemed certain that this small group of three countries was going to win.

No one could stop them.

They were passionate and they were aggressive and they used every avenue and resource that they had.

You're going to hear that phrase again and again this morning.

And so the question is, what happened?

What changed the power going from the access to the allies?

Well, there's basically three things.

One is that um Hitler decided to invade Russia uh and he lost Stalin and the Ro and uh the USSR as their greatest ally.

They flopped over.

So Germany attacked Russia.

That was number one.

Anybody remember what number two was?

Sometime in December of 1941.

You remember what happened?

Japan attacked the US at Pearl Harbor.

And later, historians argue, but some of them believe that Yamamoto, General uh Yamamoto said that I fear that we have what?

Awakened the sleeping giant.

Those are two really big reasons why the Axis power could not win long term.

Russia flipped sides and the U.S.

got involved, and all of a sudden that swing shifted, and and from then on, that there was a two-front war that Germany was facing and they could not hold up.

But before Russia flipped and U.S.

entered, there were some other people who were fighting.

All over the world, small pockets of people began disrupting the access powers.

Before U.S.

entered in, they were fighting.

The French resistance was targeting supply lines.

The Polish home army, they derailed supply chains, they blew up bridges, and they they were able to get their hands on the blueprints for the German V-2 rocket and shared that with Britain.

The Greek resistance that destroyed a viaduct that was uh providing supplies to Rommel's uh forces uh in Africa.

Munitions factories.

There were people who were forced to work in there, and resistance workers would slightly change the dimensions of uh the ammunition so that it wouldn't go off, or even worse, it would go off prematurely.

The Jews did the same thing as they were forced to work in the ghettos.

They were responsible for making grenades, and whenever they had the opportunity, they would cause the grenades not to go off or to go off immediately when the pin was pulled.

That was their way of fighting back.

The French used sugar, and why not?

They would pour sugar into the German gasoline or diesel tanks, which caused the engines to stop working.

In Belgium, saboteurs replaced grease in the train axles with sand, causing them to lock up and not be able to go on.

Some people decoded information, others sent coded messages over the radio, and there were even people who would take sensitive information behind enemy lines.

One of the most famous acts of rebellion in World War II were those civilians who would hide Jews in their attics in sheds and in basements, risking their own lives in order to save others.

The OSS, which was later renamed the CIA, created a simple sabotage field manual.

And the purpose of this was to show people how they can fight right now, right where they are, even without weapons, even without any type of groups.

They could just come together as they could and fight back.

So why are we wasting our time this morning talking about World War II?

It's because of this.

Because we are still at war today, and there is so much more at stake than just a land grab.

The enemy is far more devious, persistent and vicious than Hitler and Mussolini and Tojo all to die.

The question is Are we going to be warriors to stand up and fight in battle?

Or are we going to simply sit here?

There are millions of spiritual battles that are being fought, and there are thousands of casualties in our very community this week.

God is being cursed, Jesus is being mocked, and the spirit is being ignored.

And I want you to know that I will not stand by idly while this happens.

I'm not going to turn a blind eye.

I don't want to spend one more second comparing our style of worship versus the one across the street.

Those Christians are not the enemy.

And we have people in Brown County who are dying spiritually.

And we are called to be a mighty force that will fight against Satan.

We need to mobilize as a group and as individuals.

And we've got to take the fight back.

I don't know if that involves sugar and Satan's gasoline tank.

I don't know if it means sending decoded messages.

I don't know what it means.

But my call for us is for us to stand up and fight back.

The only reason why the war changed is because people said, I'm sick of the enemy winning.

And they started to do something.

The U.S.

was a country that for a long time refused to enter into the war, and people died while we sat back and waited until we were forced to go in.

If the U.S.

had not entered into the war, we might be speaking a different language now.

But people stood up.

Those in France and those in Belgium and those in Yugoslavia said, I may not be a part of an army, I may not wear a uniform, I may not have a gun, but I will not sit by idly any longer.

And that is the call that churches need to have right now.

Randy Harris is an author and a professor at Abilene Christian University, and he wrote this in one of his books.

Christians can be effective by embedding themselves into a culture and begin committing subversive acts.

I want to say that one more time.

Christians can be effective by embedding themselves into a culture and begin committing subversive acts.

What is a subversive act and who is it against?

Well, the answer to the second question is this the enemy is an evil regime of the devil who is trying to destroy by means of division and deception and distraction.

And he is winning lots and lots of battles because too many Christians think that their faith involves a pew on Sunday or going after the enemy next door because of their worship style.

And Satan loves to use this tactic.

And so what is a subversive act against Satan?

And I am really glad that you asked.

Because I think if the church had a simple sabotage field manual which outlines how we can be a part of a resistance, how we can fight back, how we can send Satan running, it would probably look a lot like Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

And so we've been talking about what is worship.

What are these acts of rebellion?

How can we bend the knee?

How can we bow our head?

How can we make a difference in the lives of our families and for our kids and at our workplace and in our schools?

What can we really do?

I think Romans chapter 12 is a perfect place to look at how you can worship God, and it looks very different than what we're doing here.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

And so here's what I want to encourage you to do.

I'm not going to force you to do it, but I'm going to read Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

And at certain points, I'm going to pause.

And if you believe that what I have been reading is worship, then just say this is worship.

Worship is not just singing, it's not just praying.

It's not just something on Sunday.

It's how we fight back.

We not only bow to God, but we lift our fist against Satan and say, we're not going to lose more kids.

And we're not going to give up on our families.

We're going to be people who fight back.

And so I want to read Romans 12 and I want you to join along with me.

We've looked at this is what we think worship might look like all different ways.

We talked about the evolution of worship.

This could be what worship bending, sticking out our necks for God.

I think this is a great image of what worship is.

Because sometimes you're on the peak, sometimes in the valley, worship means going up and back and up and back.

And sometimes you're basking in the sunshine, and sometimes you're stuck down in the shadows, pleading for God to act.

And so I want this morning for us to reclaim what worship is and take it as we leave this place.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God.

This is your true and proper worship.

Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world.

It doesn't matter if Facebook is saying it's okay or Instagram says it's good.

We will not conform to what they think life should be like.

But be transformed by the renewing of your minds.

Does anybody remember?

You guys don't, but a long time ago, we we had toys.

When we were kids, they were, I mean, we didn't play video games because that wasn't a thing.

We had these little toys, and they were called transformers.

Or if you came from a poor family, you got go-bots because we couldn't have formed that.

And so they would be like a car and it would turn into a robot or a lion and just all sorts of things.

It complete it changed into something different.

I don't want to be just a normal person walking around like everybody else.

I want to be transformed, and that requires renewing my mind.

Then you will be able to test what God's will is, his good and pleasing and perfect will.

For the grace given to me, I say to you, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought.

But rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the faith God has given to each of you.

Thinking of yourself with humility, not having an ego or being arrogant or telling other people what they need to do for you.

You know what that is?

This is worship.

For just as just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ, we, though are many, we form one body.

We come together as a unit.

You know what this is?

When we come together and we think differently and we vote differently and we dress differently and we look differently, and some of you are young and some of you are really, really, really old.

I did not make eye contact with anybody when I made that statement, but we come together as one.

What is this?

This is worship.

And each member belongs to all the others.

You're not alone.

Your husband may have left you.

You may be stuck trying to raise your kids, and you're afraid and it's scared, and you're not just whelmed, you're overwhelmed.

Right?

And we come together and we bear one another's burdens.

You know what that this is?

That's worship.

We have different gifts according to the grace given to each of you.

Isn't that awesome?

Some of you can throw a football, some of you can write an essay, some of you are really good at playing instruments.

I'm really good at playing the radio.

I'm good at that.

But you know when we all come together and we do different things, you know what this is?

This is worship.

I don't want you to look like me.

That would be awful.

God has created us different.

If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy according to your faith.

If it is serving, then serve.

If it is teaching, then teach.

This worship.

I was with a couple of kids this morning in the kindergarten class.

I was the second best teacher they had in class this morning.

I co-teach with my wife, so she definitely I'm the one who is like wild and crazy, and Jennifer's like, okay, we got to get back on track here.

We had, it was awesome.

If that's the role that you do, you know what that is?

This is worship.

If it is encouraging, then give encouragement.

Some of you are really, really good at this.

And I want you to know that when you do that, when you offer a kind word at your work or to your spouse or to a stranger, this is worship.

If it is giving, then give generously.

You know what this is?

This is worship.

If it is to show mercy, then do it cheerfully.

Love must be sincere.

Guys, the generation that I grew up in for sure, we're all a little skeptical.

I grew up in a generation where they we were being sold everything.

Everything for us.

I mean, we still today, we're being sold something.

And we're we're now very skeptical.

Don't be faithful.

Don't pretend that you have it all together, because most likely you don't.

If you do, write a book and give me a copy because I need it, because I'm not perfect, and I really need help.

And I just want you to know that we need to love people and we need to be sincere.

Because when we're sincere in our love, this is worship.

Hate, what is evil?

Yes, it is.

Hate, what is evil?

Folks, we've I our hairs on the back of our neck need to stand up more than they do.

We need to be willing to ball up our fists.

We need to be willing to turn the radio station and set down the remote and put up the phone.

Like we need, when we see this, what's going on, we need to say this is wrong.

We need to hate what is evil.

Right?

You want to know why?

Because this is worship.

Cling to what is good, be devoted to one another in love.

This is worship.

Honor one another above yourselves.

Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor.

We should be zealous.

We should be passionate.

Hey, newsflash.

This is not a funeral.

Jesus is not dead.

He is alive.

Sometimes we walk in here when people look around, they say, are we here celebrating the resurrection of Jesus?

Are we just here because we're biding our time and we have to listen to this guy scream for 30 minutes?

Listen, we should be joyful.

Your life is completely different.

You're saved.

Listen, I want to tell you something.

I'm not trying to brag, but but I will just a little bit.

Um my my dad is about to turn 76 years old.

Tomorrow he's having surgery, open heart surgery.

Listen, I don't understand the math, but he's got an artery that's 100% blocked, two that are 98% blocked, and one that's 85% blocked.

Out of 400%, I don't know the math, out of 400%, he has like 17%, 19% working.

Like he should be dead.

And he started having some heart issues.

He's going into the hospital, and they're like, we're gonna have to have major surgery.

You got a valve that's leaky.

We might have to replace this.

This is gonna be a really long surgery.

It's really serious.

And so you walk into his room at the hospital where he's about to have major surgery.

And he's laughing.

And he's talking about Jesus.

And there is not a nurse or a doctor or a cardio thoracic team member that has walked out of the room without hearing about Jesus.

And without hearing my dad say, here's what's gonna happen.

I'm either gonna make it out alive, or I'm gonna be alive in heaven with Jesus.

Folks, don't lose our zeal.

Whether we are in here on a Sunday morning or we're out on the streets, wherever we are, people need to see that we're different.

If you're if you don't have joy in your life, go back and look at what Jesus has done for us and what he's promised for us.

This is worship.

Oops, I went backwards.

This is worship.

Serving the Lord.

This is worship.

Be joyful in hope.

Be patient in affliction.

That's what we talked about in class today.

God is patient.

Now this might be one of the hardest things to do.

Not just patient, but be patient when times are really tough and when you're hurting and you're broken or you're lost or confused.

God says, just trust me, be patient.

And when we do that, this is worship.

Be faithful in prayer.

This is worship.

Share with the Lord's people who are in need.

This is worship.

Practice hospitality.

Man, there's some ladies in here who do such a fantastic job.

And I'm sure there's probably a couple men, mainly because their wives are telling them to.

But they're being hospitable.

This is worship.

Right?

Bless those who persecute you.

Oh man, that was the longest pause.

Y'all, I'm not saying that.

Bless and do not curse.

This is worship.

Rejoice with those who rejoice.

Mourn with those who mourn.

Live in harmony with one another.

Do not be proud.

But be willing to associate with people of low position, folks.

We have people who are hurting in this community, in this congregation.

You don't have to look very far.

Just open your eyes.

Walk up and down the aisles of Walmart instead of staring at what cereal you're going to get this week, look at the eyes of people.

The little widow who is going to the grocery store for the first time without her husband.

The single mom who is wrestling three different kids and they're all trying to chunk junk food into the grocery car.

Be willing to look at people who are struggling because this is do not be conceited.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil.

Yeah, you got that.

Not being vengeful is worship.

Oh, you already said that.

Be careful.

Y'all are so good.

Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Do not take revenge, my dear friends.

But leave room for God's wrath, for is written is mine to avenge.

I will repay, says the Lord.

I love.

Oh, sorry.

Say it.

There you go.

This is my favorite part.

If your enemy is hungry, feed him.

And if he's thirsty, give him something to drink.

In doing so, you will heap burning coals on his head.

This is worship.

Isn't that awesome?

You get to be nice to someone and it kicks them off.

I love it.

My daughter's like, Dad, that should not be your motivation for being nice to someone.

I said, I know, but it still is.

I love, like, oh yeah, you want to be mean to me.

I'm going to be super nice to you.

And they're going to be like, you weirdo.

I love that.

This is worship.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome with evil with good.

This is worship.

This is worship right here.

But what we just listed, that's worship too.

I'm going to close that if you'll give me 30 more seconds.

I want to read something.

You're going to be familiar with this.

I had to screenshot this uh this morning.

Come set our hearts ablaze with hope, like wildfire in our very souls.

Holy Spirit, come invade us now.

We are your church.

We need your power in us.

You say this.

Build your kingdom here.

Let the darkness fear.

Show your mighty hand, heal our streets and land.

Set your church on fire and win this nation back.

Change the atmosphere.

Build your kingdom here, we pray.

I will not sit around any longer.

And I'm going to ask you: join the resistance.

Fight back against Satan and love your neighbor and your enemy and your mean sister and your complacent husband and your kids that are, well, they're your kids.

I mean, sometimes it's looked, I mean, look over there, Fritz.

Like, man, he's like a teenager.

Oh, love that kid.

Like we are called.

Let us take back right now.

Wherever you go tomorrow, it's where God is sending you to join the resistance against Satan and let us be willing to show Jesus and glorify our God.

If you are it's telling everyone which master you have chosen to serve.