The Way of Jesus 22.0

Well, good evening.

It is a, uh, special privilege for all of us, um, this evening to be

able to spend some time with you as we, uh, intentionally hover

around the word of God together.

And this evening, discuss the way of worship with a particular focus this

evening, uh, on musical sung worship.

Uh, I'm on record as having said this every single time I've had the privilege

of speaking, and I'm gonna repeat it.

And that is, is that as a Christian, we are called to follow Jesus.

That is what we're called to do.

We're called to follow Jesus's character, Jesus' priorities Jesus's

way, because the way of Jesus is at the core of the definition of a Christian.

The logical extension is that if we are called to follow Jesus, then how we

think, how we speak, how we love, how we act, how we worship, how we decide

to be a part of the father's business.

This forms the foundation on which we build our life.

And while perhaps not immediately apparent, and funnily enough, can

only probably be learned in totality by experience being a disciple

of Jesus is in stark contrast to being a disciple of church.

Sometimes following the way is anything but, and as a community of

believers, you and I must be wise and circumspect as misconceptions of worship.

Both in music and in lifestyle are often built on manmade and flesh led bubbles

of inevitable fallibility and comparison.

By way of example and pertinent to our conversation this evening, sung

musical worship is just one measurement of disciple making theologically

sound, communities of faith.

To clarify, just because the sung worship appears good, that does not imply

causality that the church is thriving in its pursuit of Jesus, but it is a

handy thermometer and should not be dismissed out of hand as some sort of

activity, which only musical people do

an individual decision to follow.

Jesus brings with it a connection and a call to communally participate

in the celebration of God's rescue and redemption of humanity from

slavery and turning the chaos wild and waste back into godly order.

This is effectively in summary, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

These are two key thematic motifs, taming the wild and the waste

and the deliverance of slavery.

The Genesis story and the Exodus story.

And these are really important pictures for our conversation this evening.

Now, although not the beneficiary of the fullness and fulfillment

of this promise, the psalmist is clear on a couple of things.

Uh, it's clear that musical worship is a group activity.

It's for us to sing for joy.

It's for us to come before him with Thanksgiving and

extol him with music and song.

So if all scripture, as we believe is God, breathe and useful for

teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training and righteousness, that

the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

It is incumbent on all believers to apply the word of God to our individual context.

21st century.

English speaking followers of Jesus in Perth, Western Australia may see musical

worship through a slightly different lens from the psalmist's intention.

Don't wanna labor the point, but the verses that we read today

do not take into consideration The invention of electricity.

Doesn't take into consideration the invention of the piano, Spotify,

YouTube, or multitracks.com.

This is why as we continue our series in the way of worship, we've decided that

to round out the last nine years of, um, red Door Community Church worship

pastors this evening, we've got Amanda and Davina, uh, building on what Sam

Kieran and Megan shared last week.

Uh, these two, along with my three beautiful friends from

last week have been in the arena.

Uh, our collective faces smeared with metaphorical and literal dust, sweat,

and blood, because we have spent ourselves in a worthy cause in building

a worship community that affirms that Jesus is worthy to be worshiped.

So over the last nine years, all six of us believe that red door has a key part

to play in showing the kingdom through the creation of artistic dreams, through

the cultivation of musical worship.

And it's our prayer that whoever takes over from Davina and Sam will have

the same vision and the same desire to build on this foundation of sung

musical worship at Red Door that we believe will stand the test of time.

So consistent with how do we build on each other's legacy, we're gonna pick

up a few threads from last Sunday.

So I'm gonna do a short teaching on the last supper.

What that will then do is that it will allow us to extract some themes

as it pertains to musical worship.

And then we'll have some questions and attempted answers that Mandy and

Davina will converse about with me.

So just a few high level thoughts from last week.

If you were here, if you weren't, I'd encourage you to listen to the

podcast from Sam, Megan, and Kieran.

We talk about the importance of song musical worship through suffering.

As Drea mentioned this evening, it's a choice, this idea of life, that

this is really, really hard, but God.

Secondly, we see how worship has been packaged into a box of

consumerist entertainment, which can actually impact our frame when we

are looking at God's helpfulness.

What can you do for me rather than God's holiness?

Finally, we talk about the, this idea of the intimacy of the creator God seen

in the Lord's prayer with our Father.

However, we have the unquestionable omnipotence that belongs the name above

all names as we see hallowed be thy name.

The comparing in the contrast of a God who is near, but see

it so powerful and omnipotent.

So as we look at this passage together, why don't you join with me as we pray

and then we will, uh, go from there.

Father, we thank you for this opportunity to sit and consider how you worshiped,

how as the creator of all things and name above all names, how you sang

and how you worshiped in your context.

Lord, for those of us who have hearts that are hard this evening,

would your presence be made known?

Would you open our ears and open our hearts to be receptive to what you

have to show us that as we decide to follow your way, that you would

show us that even though the way.

May not be easy.

It is for good.

And so we thank you for this opportunity to listen, to reflect

and to be able to slowly but surely see how we can follow you better.

In Jesus name we pray.

So in Matthew it says that on the first day of the festival of Unleavened

bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, where do you want us to make

preparations for you to eat the Passover?

So he replies, go into a city to a certain man and tell him.

The teacher says, my appointed time is near.

I'm going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.

So the disciples did as Jesus directed and prepared the Passover.

When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the 12.

And while they were eating, he said, truly, I tell you

one of you will betray me.

They were very sad and began to say to him, one after the

other, surely you don't mean me.

Jesus replied, the one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me.

The son of man will go just as it is written about him, but woe to

that man who betrays the son of man.

It would be better for him if he had not been born

than Judas.

The one who would betray him said, surely you don't mean me.

Rabbi.

Jesus answered.

You have said so while they were eating, Jesus took bread.

When he had given thanks, he broke it, gave it his disciples saying, take an eat.

This is my body.

Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them,

saying, drink from it, all of you.

This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many

for the forgiveness of sins.

I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on

until that day when I drink it new with you and my father's kingdom.

So this emphasis here is mine, not the Bibles.

When they had sung a hymn, they then went out to the Mount of Olives.

We are at a crucial juncture in human history in this verse.

If you have had the privilege of following Jesus for a little while, you'll be aware

that there are three synoptic Gospels.

Matthew, mark, and Luke, Matthew and Mark are written for Jewish audiences.

While Luke is written for Gentile audiences, the difference is extremely

important because we see that the thematic thrust of the gospels in Matthew

and Mark are predominantly with Jewish thought and Jewish education in mind.

What that means is that Jesus is the Messiah.

The better Moses, the better Adam.

Jesus is here to deliver his people and to tame the wild and waste that exists

before God set creation into motion.

Luke's intention for Gentiles as evidence in the first verses of his

gospel directed to a wealthy benefactor, Theophile, is to provide an orderly,

researched historical account.

So what you'll find as you explore this beautiful story is that there

are little morsels of fact that are hidden in Luke's gospel that you may

not find in Matthew, mark and John.

That's why synoptic means seeing all together.

And so there is a concept where you need to read the gospels

in harmony with each other.

So these gospels coalesce on this one night in Jerusalem, we

find ourselves in a secret room.

We find ourselves in the secret room organized by Jesus, the Passover

Festival mentioned in Matthew as the feast of unleavened bread.

They're interchangeable terms, determines that all Jewish

people return to Jerusalem.

What that means is that Jerusalem is crowded.

It means Jerusalem space is at a premium.

And one thing which is interesting and really important for this evening

is that in Jerusalem right now, there are lambs absolutely everywhere.

We know this because as directed in Exodus chapter 12 verse six, lambs are about

Exodus 12 · chapter mention

to be slaughtered the following day, the 14th day of Nisan in the afternoon.

This is the history of the Jewish people.

This is tradition dictated from Exodus.

In one of the things that we'll talk about today, tradition.

Our tradition is important.

These lambs are about to be slaughtered, but they must be perfect lambs.

These lambs must be without blemish.

They are inspected, they are tested for their worthiness to be sacrificed.

So the main source of lamb is in a town called Beth Fiji, just outside Jerusalem.

Here's where this beautiful story gets really interesting to me, at

least, it is from Beth Fiji that Jesus triumphantly enters Jerusalem.

It is from Beth Fiji that Jesus enters Jerusalem in a symbolic messianic gesture,

that he is the greater perfect unblemished Paschal Lamb inspected and tested.

Who will be sacrificed in the afternoon the following day, the 14th day of Nissen.

And Jesus is, and has been aware of this for some time.

So what he does is he sends Peter and John to meet a man carrying a jar of water.

This is a special coated symbol because the carrying of jars of water back

then is traditionally a woman's job.

So what do we infer from this?

This is a clear hatched plan to overcome the din and the busyness of life, timing,

priorities, and organization to be able to create a moment of authentic holiness.

Again, may this be a reminder of how we approach our own

attitudes towards Sunday worship.

And Sunday expressions.

So in this clandestine operation, what we observe is Jesus'

priorities and Jesus' desires.

We see in Luke 2215 that he says to his disciples that he has

earnestly desired to share this meal.

So because it's Luke, we go to the Greek derivation.

The Greek verb for earnestly desired is epi mayo.

What epi mayo means is that my heart has been burning to commune with you.

I just love this concept, whether the omnipotent or powerful God steps down

from heaven in his final evening.

His heart's desire is to commune with us.

His heart is burning to commune with us.

Now, the sad thing about.

This is that as humans, we, we tend to not do things the way in which we should.

And so during this meal, we see a number of disheartening things happen.

Uh, we see conflict and we see suffering.

As it is a common thread of Jesus' ministry become very apparent in Luke's

account During the meal, there's a fight.

There's a fight between the disciples about who is the greatest disciple.

The irony of this entire conversation is that Jesus's first act of ministry is

the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew five, and he preaches in Matthew five about

the upside down kingdom or the right side up where effectively the first shall

be last and the last shall be first.

For those of you who have followed Jesus for a while, you understand

blessed of the poor and spirit for there is the kingdom of heaven.

This whole idea of the reverse upside down gospel.

So no doubt there is the potential to be discouraged where your disciples

after three years of full-time ministry have still not caught the

very first message that you preached.

Then we see that despite the suffering that has been endured, the

grief that has been had tradition dictates that a song is sung.

Tradition dictates that the song is at the end of the Passover Festival

and tradition dictates that the song, that the song is almost certainly Psalm

1 1 3 to 1 1 8, known as the Halel.

These are lyrics that are still sung to this day.

These are lyrics which Jesus himself sung, and as Sam may have said last

week, at least in the morning service, this is where we need to understand

our participation in the collective chorus of generations of Christians

before us and who we all go before.

Tradition matters.

History matters.

Where we sit in humanity, in the great grand tapestry of God's

redemption, of humanity matters.

And it's important that we recognize and respond to our role within that narrative.

So with that as a background, I think a really useful way as you study

the Bible, um, and to grease the wheels for discussion is to always

ask yourself, what is this verse?

Or what is this passage of scripture teaching me about Jesus?

What is it showing me about his character?

What is it showing me about his way?

Um, I love it as a small group question, um, because it allows us to think about

the character of Jesus in different ways.

Um, one really common analogy is that as we look at Jesus together, it's like

moving a diamond as the light refracts in a different way, in a different angle.

Because how I see Jesus is different to how you see Jesus.

But again, based on the definition of synoptic, as we see it all together,

we then get a better, deeper, more meaningful picture of who Jesus is.

I hope that makes sense.

So one of the things which I thought we would do now as we open the

time up to, um, Mandy and Davina is probably just to start off with

what do we think this portion of scripture is teaching us about Jesus?

Would I like to go first?

Thank you.

Testing.

Yes, it's on.

Um, hi everyone.

Um, yes.

Um, so good.

Thanks for setting it up.

So in this passage I was reflecting on it, um, Psalm 1, 1, 8 in particular.

It's not a very long one, but Jesus is.

At the end of the meal, he's going to his death.

He knows the divine, uh, purpose that he needs to fill,

fulfill through the scriptures.

But as he's walking, he's singing this hymn with his disciples and

this hymn, it's, it's in four parts.

So it's in suffering, salvation sacrifice, and then exhalation.

And, uh, it was written by King David and I, I do wonder as Jesus is, is

walking, singing this hymn, it's, is it like a consolation to himself

that he's singing there as well?

'cause he knows the divine purpose and plan of where he's walking towards.

Um, that gets me because he is about to fulfill what the scriptures are saying.

And he's singing what the scriptures have been prophesied about, and

he's walking towards his death.

Uh, it's, yeah, it, the intentionality of the scripture.

Knowing that he's going to be betrayed and acknowledging his suffering.

Um, I just go, Lord, oh, I'm just so humbled by it.

And the other point that I was thinking about in preparation for

today is when fear rises, Jesus worshiped, um, when he was be betrayed.

He worshiped when he knew that his future, even though he knew that was a divine

purpose, but it still felt uncertain.

He didn't want the cup, he worshiped.

And so such a great reminder that worship anchors the soul when circumstances

shake the ground beneath us.

Um, side note, I actually like the side character of the man with the jar.

She kinda forget him 'cause he's such a side character, but for

him to be obedient to standing somewhere with a jar, which is.

What the women traditionally would have done.

I'm like, good on you.

So the obedience of that side character and that passage.

Um, yeah.

Anyway, that was totally sidetracked there, but yeah.

Do you love a good NPC?

So,

um, I love the fact that we look at scripture differently as human beings,

because as Vinny said, it creates a synoptic view of the passage.

I, the first thing that came to mind for me when I read this was,

oh, if I was Jesus, I wouldn't have told Judas where I was going.

You know what I mean?

Like, I would've been like, if I knew that my, one of my closest friends are going to

betray me in my humanity, I would've been like, no, I don't want him to know where

I'm going so that he can't betray me.

But Jesus allowed his father's will to be.

Like sovereign, like he, he trusted in his father's work and his father's plan,

and he allowed Judas to sit at the same table as him and to dip bread with him.

And he extended friendship to this person that he knows is going to betray him.

And that really speaks to me about the kindness of Jesus, even towards those

who do not necessarily deserve it.

Um, so that's my first thought.

My second thought was that, um, you know, in script in, in that passage, it

said, you know, after he has taken the bread and the cup with his disciples,

that he, he said that, um, what was it?

Basically he is, he eagerly anticipated.

Having that meal with them.

But he knew, but he didn't want to have that meal again without them.

So he says, you know, I will not drink of this cup again until I am reunited

with you in my father's kingdom.

And what I love is that he has that same heart towards us as well.

He eagerly anticipates having that meal, that communion with us.

And as we, you know, when we as a church have communion together,

we are telling Jesus together collectively as his bride that we

are an, we are eagerly anticipating having that meal with him in person.

So that's my 2 cents.

Yeah, I love that.

I love that sort of idea of community, even though it's hard, and I'm sure

you have all been in situations where there are people in your community that

you love and they are so easy to love.

It is almost a spiritual act of worship, musical or otherwise to be able to humble

yourself and extend kindness and charity and love to people that are unlovely.

Um, and I think in a strange sort of way, we are seeing Jesus'

priorities come firmly into focus in his last 24 hours on Earth.

What you'll observe in the pattern of Jesus's ministry is that it sort of starts

wide than it goes really, really narrow.

Um, and I just love what you were saying Davi, about how, you know,

that was a choice and as Mandy was talking about, worship is a

choice and how do you actually sing as a sign of spiritual warfare?

You know, a lot of the spiritual practices that we talk about, um, Sabbath as an

example, Sabbath is an act of spiritual warfare because it is so antithetical

to the world in which we live in.

So to be able to actually say, today I'm going to rest today,

I'm going to be productive in other ways, is actually warfare.

Because we're saying no, that's not the way in which we desire

the rhythm of our life to be.

And I think similarly with this, that decision to sing that

decision to worship is warfare.

And I know that that sounds, um, potentially, um, a little

hyperbolic, but it is true because who are you under pressure?

Who are we under pressure?

Um, and what is our response to these sorts of stimuli?

May it be worship, may it be declaring worth unto God.

Um, and so I guess one of the things, and as Andrea said, beautifully construct

the song this for this evening, this whole idea of the son of suffering,

this whole reality where if the gospel.

That you have received is that if you believe in Jesus, you'll have no trouble.

Everything will be wonderful, and you'll get all of your dreams come true.

As if he's some magical genie.

I need to apologize because that is actually not the gospel.

Um, there is a beauty in being able to go through trials knowing that we should take

heart because he has overcome the world.

And so I suppose one of the more practical things and the practical parts

of our sharing now is I suppose why should we worship through suffering?

Why should we worship through grief?

Yeah.

Um, just preface this by saying that everyone's journey in

understanding worship through grief and suffering is so different.

And my experience, um.

In this started when, um, I lost my, my oldest brother, he had just

turned 41 and he was late diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer.

Um, and from his diagnosis to when he passed away was six weeks.

So just crazy whiplash in, in, you know, hearing that, in that news.

Um, but what's beautiful about the memory of my brother is that he loved to sing

and he loved to worship and he was on the quiet Riverview where we were all

going, um, to that church back then.

And shortly after he was diagnosed, um, he was like, man, I just wanna worship night.

I just convene and, you know, a couple of friends just come

over and just sing some songs.

Um, so we, we did and uh, we had that privilege of just gather, gathering

friends and family together and worshiping and praying at his house.

And I just remember, I'm like, Lord, if there was a miracle

tonight and that he would be healed, um, that would be incredible.

But if that doesn't happen, like you are still God.

Uh, I remember thinking that like, that's, that was really hard because

of course you're, you are thinking that the treatment, you know, could work.

It was really late diagnosis.

Um, and so we just didn't know and it was just gonna, we were just gonna hope.

But that was such, that's, that reminder of that night really sticks with me and.

Being able to gather around and worship and pray.

And in that moment it just lifts you out of the external.

Um, because it was crap.

It was hard.

Um, but when we are there and we are singing and we're worshiping, you're

like, okay, what Vinny was saying earlier, but God, um, and that was

something I kind of clung on to.

And so grief is worship.

Suffering is worship.

And you know, just the reminder of, of what I said earlier about Jesus walking

towards his death, singing, worship, um, this I I'll savior modeled that for us.

But I'm also reminded in Thessalonians four 13, we do not

grieve like those who have no hope.

Um, and so remembering my brother's life, even though there's a grief

there, um, by celebrate that because.

He, his life was a good gift.

Um, and in that situation, um, you know, grief is that invitation to

always taste and see God's goodness, even though it's really hard.

Um, and to worship him because he's the giver of good gifts.

Uh, so that, I think that's that revelation to me about how do we

worship through suffering and grief.

We, well, for me in particular, it's, it's seeing his life, it's

celebrating his life and then thanking God, uh, for that gift of his life.

Um, I just wanna take a little moment just to reflect on

that, just for a little while.

'cause it was shared experience.

Um,

I, uh, I just reflect back, I think on, on lyrics.

You know, for those of you who are musically inclined, there

are special lyrics and there are people here who would know.

Um, the song that was Ben's favorite, it's a song called, I'm Yours.

It's written by a review worship leader Rob Humphreys.

And the chorus is basically, I'm yours and you, I'm found, um, more

precious than silver, more cautious than go, Lord, touch me in spirit.

You are my hiding place, or, Lord, I'm yours.

And what what we did as, uh, he was sort of in his final hours is we were

in the Royal Perth ICU and we were really fortunate weren't we loved that,

um, we were able to bring a guitar in and, and have sort of effectively like

worship as he went to be with the Lord.

Um, and so when, when that happened and when the life support was

turned off, my, my mother-in-law, Amanda's mom, she kind of.

Shoot everyone out so she could just have this little moment with Ben.

And I was packing up the guitar, right?

So I was a little bit slower than everyone else, but I just remember

this, this moment where my mother-in-law just lifted her eyes towards heaven and

said, Lord, I give him back to you now.

And you know, that's just such a, a powerful memory where in that moment,

my mother-in-law, who I respect and admire so much, somehow worship was able

to tame the wild and the waste and the chaos that was going through her mind.

Somehow worship was able to be that healing balm for her.

Somehow she was able to lift her eyes up.

Literally and metaphorically and have that presence of mind to understand

that even though the greatest gift of life which has been taken from her,

her son, I now give him back to you.

And I just wanted to just reflect on that moment with you and, and

with you, and just to recognize that

this is horrible, but God

and as a community of faith, how do we respond to that?

How do we react to these sorts of things?

Um, it is super human.

What my mother-in-law did, I've never forgotten it.

I don't intend on forgetting it.

And I need you as my community to remind me of that moment because

there are times when I'm up here and I forget it, I forget.

That God is bigger than my suffering.

I forget that our collective suffering is part of worship.

So, so thank you for sharing that.

Um, Davi,

how do you journey through worship, through suffering and grief?

I, um, I think ever since I was a teenager, music has always been a way

for me to express what words couldn't.

And I don't know if that's been a reality for you as well.

You know, I mean, like many of you, maybe I had a bit of an email phase as well.

You know, I listened to Eminence Para, my husband listened to Reliant

K, simple Plan Eminem, you know, and.

Let me know if you still listen to Eminem, because he's pretty cool.

Um, but you know, when we're going through a rough time, sometimes

we go to Netflix, sometimes we go to food, sometimes we go to work.

Um, like I do, I can be a bit of a workaholic sometimes, or I reckon

sometimes, you know, go to alcohol, addictive behaviors and all of

these things point us inwards.

They edify the ego and the flesh.

But worship turns us outwards, as Fannie mentioned, and it

turns us to God and you know it.

What is going on in our lives, whether the good and bad is true.

I'm not saying that the things that we're going through are not happening.

We're not denying.

What's going on in our lives.

But there is what is true of what's going on around me and in

me right now and what is truth.

And that is very different to what is true for me right now.

And I just want to really like hit that home because we get so caught up right

in what's going on around us and in us.

And sometimes we just gotta sing our way into the truth.

And that was something that I learned while I was in America.

I was, I went to the International House of Prayer.

I was part of the night watch.

So we were in the prayer room from 12:00 AM to 6:00 AM Interesting.

I know, right?

Who would do that?

But that was an absolute gift for me because I had nothing else to study

and to sing, but the word of God and.

There were a lot of lies that I had believed about myself in my twenties.

Um, and through that season I was able to sing my way into the truth.

And so for, just to share vulnerably as well, um, I hope I don't cry at this time,

but you know, Mandy and Vinny went through something that was external of them,

but for me it was completely internal.

So I struggled with deep anxiety.

Um, in, since my teenage years, I had my first panic attack before

my, my English exam, um, in year 11.

And, you know, it was kind of there and then I went, Hmm, okay.

That was hope.

That was a one off thing.

And when I grow, when I grew older, it came back again and again and again,

and again, and again to the point where, you know, my husband has had

to hold me while I sat on the bathroom floor and heaved for 10 minutes.

You know, like these things happen and.

It was a very big shadow over my head.

Um, and in those moments I, you know, I was still lead worship because I

had to sing my way into the truth.

Hmm.

Because all of these things that were happening in me, they were happening.

They were true.

It's not like they're not happening.

Right.

I went to see a counselor, which I absolutely, I

absolutely adore my counselor.

He's wonderful.

And I, I love reading.

I love listening to the podcast.

But all of those words were just hitting and they were just dropping.

They weren't really getting to me because there was this really thick fog

of anxiety that was around my brain, my mind, my spirit, just everything

like a force field just bumping off.

And God in his grace, knew what would get to me.

He knew what could pierce through all of that fog and get to the heart of me.

And that was music.

And so one night when I was just lying in bed, unable to sleep, try not to have

another panic attack, I heard God say, just sing your way into the truth again.

And I come up here and I try.

Sometimes it works long times it doesn't.

And but by showing up, by being here, by leading our wonderful team, I am

telling myself that God is bigger.

I'm telling my soul that anxiety doesn't have the last word in my life.

And that God at the cross, the cross has the final word.

What he has done has the final word over my reality and what I believe to be truth.

And so that's what it was.

My lifeline, I was being whiplash internally by anxiety.

And I would just cover it up.

But God, God and His grace was able to just, just cut through all of that.

And, you know, it's still a journey.

I, I can't say that I'm at the end of it just yet, but I do know that

because of Jesus, I can do hard things.

I can go through hard things.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I love that.

Debbie.

It's, um, it's a couple of thoughts which sort of come to mind as we're

sort of just riffing off each other and that whole idea of like when you are

your most panicked in your most anxious, one of the things about ministry, and

one of the things about worship is that it's a little bit like a muscle.

You have to exercise it.

And so those hours of from 12 till six where you are.

Running through songs and you're doing those core progression and

you're doing those lyrics, like that is a part of ministry fitness.

You know, I sit and there's people here who I know, like lyrically and

ministry and musically, there's a bank of stuff where when life is really,

really hard, you go to that well of verses or lyrics or bridges or whatever

it is to sing your way into the truth.

Um, and Davi, I honor you because your musical fitness, your spiritual

fitness, all of those years of lyrics and chords, they come forth and they

come alive in these sorts of moments.

Um, funny thing about, about anxiety is that if, if any of you do struggle

with it as, as we all do from time to time, I think one of the most

clarifying thoughts for me is to ask ourself whether God goes before.

Because if we believe that God goes before and we see again in the Exodus

story that he is the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and by logical

extension that does suggest that he does go before then anxiety is a false gospel

because of anxiety is fear of the future.

What do we have to fear if we know that God goes before?

And so I pray that for me, I pray that for you.

Um, I acknowledge that it is a space which I do not know enough about, but I

think, um, that has just been a thought, which I think is a, as a bit of a, of a

group we've sort of journeyed together.

Um, course go for it.

Um, I was reading the book by Tyler Statin called The Familiar Stranger,

and it's about the Holy Spirit and his role in the church's life

and what really stood out to me.

While I was reading this book, and this is in the midst of everything that was going

on inside of me, is the word for Holy Spirit in Greek is actually peric CTOs.

And you know, it's an interesting Greek word, but um, it actually

means that it's like a tow ship that finds you when you're lost at sea.

So like, imagine you in a little boat and you get out to sea and you're

lost and the waves are like just going at you and you're like, ah.

And Parato, um, in Greek culture is actually like, almost like the lifesaver

ship where it goes out to where you are.

It meets you where you are.

It doesn't say, oh, come in this direction.

No, it actually goes out to meet you where you are.

It, it then latches onto you and then you don't do the work.

It's actually the lifesaving boat that toes you back to shore.

And that's the Holy Spirit.

He meets us where we are at in all of the storms and the

waves or the chaos of our lives.

He goes, here, let me hold your hand and let me lead you back to shore.

And he's so patient in that he's not like, oh, oh my gosh, why

didn't you just read your map?

Or something like, it it, he doesn't do that.

Like the Holy Spirit is so gentle and so, so patient in that.

So just wanna encourage us with that.

I love that.

'cause it really sort of puts to bed all of the many insecurities that you and I

may hold when it comes to musical sung worship, because it is natural in this

context to be like, oh, I'm not a singer.

I don't understand music.

But when you actually put that in the perspective of this Holy Spirit

tugboat guiding you and loving you and meeting you where you're at,

it doesn't matter.

What the actual external stimuli is.

It singing becomes an attitude of the heart.

Does that kind of make sense?

And so, you know, one of the questions which we were sort of

thinking about over the last week was, what about my insecurities?

And I think just to acknowledge like the Power of God is a really key driver for

us as a community of faith, where there have been moments where like my journey

to Red Door was a slow and gentle one.

Um, and I actually got connected to Red Door through this

little band, um, called Still.

And for those of you who've been here for a while, you remember it.

And there was a moment in where, as part of a creative expression of the

gospel, there'd be functions and um, events outside of the church, which was a

little scary because this is safe, right?

And so there was this one particular event in Fremantle,

I think 12, 13 years ago now.

And I was wracked with my own insecurities.

I was wracked with my own inability to sing.

And I'm very well aware that I have limitations musically.

But one of the things which I just remember feeling impressed upon my

heart, which I just wanna share with you,

was half an hour or so into this set, I had one song and I just felt the Holy

Spirit just impressed upon my heart.

Vinny, if you sing to me and if you sing to me with all of your

heart, no one can touch you.

No one can harm you.

So I sang and I just wanna encourage you with that sort of thought.

Where have you sing?

No one can touch you.

And I think there is a power when we collectively lift our voices.

Um, there's this, there is, there's this lyric in this song called

Never Once, where it's every breath.

We are breathing in your praise and breathing.

Uh, breathing out, uh, in your grace and breathing out your praise.

And it's not very often as a collective bunch of human beings made in the image of

God that we actually get to breathe in and breathe out together in the same cadence.

And I just wanted to sort of have that thought as we sort of go into

our final two questions, which is as red door, um, what are the things

that we can do to support a thriving culture of sung worship at Red Door?

So Davi, you are the, you know, you are the worship captain for

this season, um, you and Sam.

And so, you know, I think one of the, one of the observations, one

of the thought processes that we had is that you're not just the worship

captain of the team, but the two of you are the worship captains for the

entire church, which is a beautiful thing, but also a responsibility.

Um, and so I don't mean to to make bigger of it, but I think that's true if

you're a captain of the football club, you're a captain of the entire club.

Yeah.

And so similar, Dave, um, I guess my question is what do you think

we can do to support a thriving culture of sung worship at Red Door?

I mean, yeah, we feel the weight of that Captainship pusher, um, but we're

just really blessed to have a team who is so supportive and so loving.

Um, and you know, it's a bit like, you know, it takes tu to tango, right?

It's like, you know, having a thriving sung worship culture here.

It's not as Adam would say, it's not all on you or it's not all on us.

It's on all of us as well.

And so Mandy is gonna speak on more of a sort of collective

congregational call to responsibility.

But I'm gonna speak more from a worship team point of view, if that's okay.

So before, lemme try this, let's go back to the beginning.

Before worship teens were a thing.

It was a thing in first and Second Chronicles and they

were called the Levites.

And you know, as you know, the, the 12 tribes of Israel, and they all had

different responsibilities, but the Levites were in charge of the temple.

They were tasked with religious duties playing a crucial role in worship and

service to the Lord in the temple.

You know, there were many different roles as a Levi.

There are people who offer praises on instruments and

they're with the gatekeepers and.

I don't know about you, but if I were given one of one, or, you know, one or

the other, or the other as an option, I'd pick offer praise to the Lord.

Not a gatekeeper, because gatekeeping doesn't sound like a very glamorous job.

Um, and, but gatekeepers is actually what I wanna focus on because it may sound not

very glamorous, but they were actually in charge of keeping the gates at the temple.

It wasn't merely about security, but it was deeply intertwined with the sacred

service and order of worship to the Lord.

Their role was to make sure that only those who were

ceremonially clean and authorized to enter the temple could enter.

And so essentially they were crucial for maintaining the

holiness, holiness of the temple.

And so this represents vigilance, you know, they can't just be like,

oh, I'm just gonna fall asleep on the job or anything like.

It's again, sounds unglamorous, but David actually spoke about this in the Psalms

and it says for a day in your courts it's better than a thousand elsewhere in Psalms

84, 10, I would rather be a doorkeeper IE gatekeeper in the house of my God

than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

To draw on a 10th of wickedness is actually to be seated at

the table of the wicked people.

To be seated at the, the highest place in the table of wickedness can sound

a bit more glamorous than being a door peak doorkeeper as well, right?

And so

it's just, it's just shifting our perspective of what

our worship team is about.

But the good news is that, you know, gatekeeping isn't really

a thing anymore because of the blood of Christ, the Pascal Lamb.

We don't need gatekeepers anymore because we are the temple of the Holy Spirit

through the blood and the body of Christ.

But in a metaphorical sense, our worship team has a job to gate, keep

the worship culture of our church.

That's right.

And to gate, keep the posture towards God in their own hearts.

Yeah.

As well.

And so pointing people to Christ and his holiness.

And it is our responsibility as a worship team to help this thriving

culture of song worship, to keep our hearts tendered towards Jesus.

Um, and to really believe, honestly, really believe that

God hears us when we sing to him.

This is not just Christian karaoke guys.

God actually listens to what we sing towards him.

And I feel like that's a really important thing to know.

That's great Dad.

Like how do we sing faith into each other's situations?

And you know, if you are lacking in faith, then the beautiful thing about.

Corporate sung worshipers.

You get to have faith sung into your ears.

And if you are arriving at a moment where Lukey says so beautifully

where you're full of faith, then it's incumbent on us to speak and sing of

that faith that other people can hear.

So thank you Debbie.

Mandy.

Thanks Debbie.

Um, so with my one about how to support with thriving culture at Red Door, when

you don't understand something, it's actually hard to fully engage in it.

And so I'm actually really grateful for the opportunity and even,

uh, last week listening to the three others who was sharing.

So I encourage you to listen to that podcast, um, on what unpacking worship is.

Um, and I think an encouragement and a reminder to all of us is that.

Worship.

Um, it is, essence is a worship of the heart.

Um, and I really like that verse from Matthew 15 where it's, it's there's

people, um, there's people honor me with their lips, but their heart is

far from me in vain do they worship me?

And that is such a great reminder of we can go to as many church services,

it can all and sing as many songs, and it can all be an external expression.

But if nothing is happening in our hearts towards God, I feel like we've

missed the essence of what worship is.

Um, it's when our mind is rightly valuing God when our heart is rightly re um, and

rightly valuing him and understanding him.

I think that's when we bring that collectively, um, that collective

expectancy and being faith filled when we sing together.

Um, that is something that I, uh.

I really would like to encourage the congregation on.

Um, and there's moments where you walk in and you just don't wanna be here.

Like, I have those moments often, um, and I'm not feeling faith filled, but when I'm

here and I hear you singing, um, you sing on behalf of me, you sing faith into me.

Uh, and I believe that's kind of what we bring when we gather together

expectant what God's gonna do.

Yeah, I love that.

Um, just little analogy to sort of tie those two things together.

Um, I'm really big into names.

Um, I really believe that names are important.

I believe that names are a predicator of who you are.

So my name is Vincent.

My name means conqueror.

Amanda's name is Amanda.

Her name means Worthy to be Loved.

Um, one of the teams that I, that we named together, um, when the worship team

was around was a team called GE Geese.

We believed in the power of names and we believed in the animal kingdom

teaching us about Jesus through the power of a, of, of a flock of geese.

The power of the flock of geese is that because they fly in a V, there is a

momentum which is created as part of the V. So when a goose doesn't feel

like flying at the pace, what happens is that the goose pops out of alignment.

But because of the momentum of the v, the goose pops back into

alignment because of the momentum.

And I think that's a really useful analogy for us as a worship culture because there,

we, as a group of people of worshipers, we set the momentum, we set the culture,

we set the bar for good or otherwise.

Um, and I think for, for me, just listening to the, to the two of

you, like, let's come expectant.

Yeah, because our attitudes and how we posture our hearts is kind of the whole

deal of sharing the gospel of Jesus.

How will people know if we come suen?

Um, which brings us, I suppose to the last question for this evening,

which is, what legacy does the Red Door Community church leave when it

comes to s Sun and corporate worship?

Yeah, that's a great question.

Um, so I've taken this from the passage in Hebrews chapter 13, verses 15 or 16.

Hebrews 13:15

So through Jesus therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of

praise, the fruit of lips, that opening profess his name, and do not forget

to do good and share with others for which such sacrifices God is please.

So two things here.

We'd love, um, red door to leave as a legacy.

And that is of course, acts of praise and repentance in our worship services

and in our house church gatherings.

And then the second acts, um, act is of love to be the hands and feet

of Jesus to willingly sacrifice for, for the good of others.

Um, yeah, those two acts are both worship, um, and they're both important.

And it says God is pleased with them.

Uh, yeah.

So the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name and then the fruit of deeds

is, um, what I would love to see.

Yeah.

Red do leave corporately.

Um, I'm gonna touch on what I already see as leaving as a legacy, and then

I'm gonna touch on what I would love to see and what I wish your team is gonna.

Do.

It's not just a spoken thing, it's not just a dream.

Like we wanna make this a reality as well.

What I love is that worship at Red Door has always been a family affair.

You know, I love seeing families serve the Lord together.

Um, so we had Asha Ard and her husband Simon, you know, join our worship

team, and it's just so wonderful to see them worshiping together and to

see Lily, their daughter, hearing them worship God and to, you know, and even

though Lily's an infant that's going to impact her for the rest of her life.

And I love, you know, the fact that the On MAs are serving, um, as a, as a

family and families that serve together,

they, they love God together.

And I think that's something that we already do so well as, as a family.

Um, it's what I would love to see.

Is, uh, is for us to leave a legacy as people who are unashamed of the

gospel of Christ in our worship.

I would love for us to be able to be unashamed and unafraid.

So if that means that you take up a little bit more space in this room,

in your worship to God, so be it.

If this means that you get out of your seat and go into the yells or come

to the front kneel before him because you wanted to show God your affection

towards him, again, I'm not talking about performative Christianity, like

this is absolutely not that at all.

But I want us, I, I want us to leave a legacy of freedom.

Freedom in our expression of worship and adoration to God,

to show him as the people that have come before us in the Bible.

Like you know Mary who just sat at his feet, right?

To have people like David who were undignified before him with before

the Lord and was unashamed of it.

I would love for us as a church, as a worship team to be able to

worship him in spirit and in truth with everything that we have.

So yeah, that's my little 2 cents.

Yeah, I love that.

It's um, and part of that whole thing, isn't it, where I remember being

asked sort of in 2017, you know,

why do you think this job or this role is so hard?

And I remember telling Anna and Dale and I said to them, I have zero

interest in being a Christian rock and roll superstar, zero interest.

And I don't think I'm the right person for this role, if that's what you want.

But if you want to create a community that is known for how we love, if

you want to create a community that.

It gets to be in this sort of creative sweet spot where we get to do something

we love with people we love for someone we love, then maybe there is a way

in which we can add value to that.

And I think ultimately that's what it comes down to is that as a community of

faith, may we be known for how we love and may as a small sample space of that, let

that be how we worship and how we approach adoring and showing our affections

for God, as Dave said so beautifully through the posture of sung worship.

Um, and I think that's, that's the beautiful thing about being in community

is that the most fabulous thing about this is that we get to make memories

with people that we love the most.

And I think part of, um, growing up.

In church, are those beautiful memories where you're able to actually go,

no, God is so real in this moment.

And so as we sort of conclude this time, I think it's, it's important that we sing.

I was so glad that I think the final song's, living Hope, um,

because that's who Jesus is for us.

So can I pray and then let's sing together.

Father, we thank you for this

moment of peace and of clarity, where as we troll through suffering and

grief and loss and heartbreak and anxiety, ultimately you are Lord.

Overall, you are sovereign, you are good, you are omnipotent.

You are our Father, our Abba father, so close and so intimate.

But yet hallowed be your name.

Your name is holy.

Above all.

So God, as we lift up our hearts and our voices to you this evening, may you remind

us that you are indeed our living Hope

that grave has lost its sting, that death has lost its sting.

So we thank you for this time.

We anoint it as holy.

This moment is holy.

We are standing and kneeling on holy ground.

We welcome your presence.

Make us aware that we are in the presence of a holy God.

In Jesus name we pray.