Behold: The Posture Matters | Part 3

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

We're in the series called Behold.

How to worship the King.

Behold, to gaze, to wonder, to look at someone or something until something has been grasped of the significance of that person or thing.

I'm really grateful.

Many of you have just shared how helpful and meaningful this series has been.

And it's kind of funny, isn't it?

Because you're like, do we really need a reminder to behold?

And the answer is yes.

In the fast-paced, chaotic world and the season we live, we get caught up in so many things.

Just the reminder.

The reminder of our souls to pause and behold the king, to wrestle with how do you move beyond the hurry of the season and truly behold the one it's all about.

How do you worship the king?

At week one, we talked about preparing the way for the king.

Last week we looked at in being in the presence of the king.

Today we're talking about our posture before the king.

Go ahead and say the posture matters.

Your posture matters.

Now, uh, Saturday, upcoming Saturday, this Saturday, my wife and I will celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversary.

Thank you.

Yeah, this is really exciting.

Um and uh on our 10-year wedding anniversary, we did something we'd never done before.

It was so exciting.

We went to Napa for a couple days.

Had never been there prior to that.

It's this magical land, if you don't know about it, with these grapes and other things.

Uh, it's fantastic.

Uh, one of those afternoons, we're walking through some shops in one of the little towns, and in walks Joe Montana.

Yeah.

Now I'm a Cowboys fan, but I recognize greatness and can appreciate it, right?

So Joe walks in because we're on first name basis, and and he walks in, and I'm thinking to myself, I'm preparing, I'm like, okay, what am I gonna say?

I would like to get a picture with him, maybe an autograph.

And you know, if you've ever had this experience, I'm like, okay, Mr.

Montana, I really love you.

I wasn't gonna share that.

I'm a Cowboys fan.

And just I had this speech rehearsed, and I'm on my way walking to Joe Montana, and a guy gets to him right before me, and he says almost identically what I had rehearsed in my mind.

I hear him, Mr.

Montana, and he goes on, and I'm like, shoot.

And and Joe looks at him and says, you know, I had some lawsuit a while ago.

I don't do autographs or pictures anymore.

And I immediately just turned like I wasn't even gonna say hi to him at all.

But here's what we know who you approach determines the posture that you take.

Who you approach.

Like I'm approaching Joe Montana.

There was a posture, there was a preparation.

I'm like, okay, I'm gonna think through this, I'm gonna call you Mr.

Montana, not Joe.

Who you approach determines the posture that you take, whether it's with a friend or your parents or a coworker or your boss, whether it's someone that you think is influential or important or powerful, who you approach determines the posture that you take.

Now let me ask, what posture are we to take in the presence of the king?

In the ancient Near East, when you went into the presence of a king, uh one there was a preparation, we were talking a little bit about that in week one.

You would not go in your ordinary garb, you would wear your very best, nicest clothes.

We used to call it back in the day your Sunday best.

Um, you know, you would dress up, you would never come into the presence of a king empty-handed.

You would bring a gift, often gold or something precious.

You had to be invited in or summons.

You could not just go on your own at any time.

And a herald would declare your presence, you would enter in and immediately you would bow prostrate before, and you would either kiss the ground, or in other some certain uh cultures, you would kiss the king's feet and extend your right hand as a sign of service and honor to the king.

And then you would be greeted and welcome to stand in his presence, but you wouldn't look him in your eyes, you would look down out of deference and respect, and you wouldn't just speak, you would be spoken to and then invited to speak.

And as you left the presence of the king, you walked backwards.

Because to turn your back on the king was a sign of disrespect, and so you walked backwards out of his presence.

Because who you approach determines the posture that you take.

And I gotta admit, I believe our posture often reveals we don't understand who we're approaching when we worship.

Our posture matters when we worship and approach God.

St.

Augustine said this our whole selves, body, soul, and spirit, must worship God, for we cannot truly love God with only part of our being.

He was a North African bishop, one of our church fathers.

Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest thinkers of Christianity ever, said the soul is not imprisoned in the body, but uses it as an instrument for its own expression.

And T.

Wright, scholar, historian, theologian, says the Christian body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and what we do physically matters spiritually.

It's interconnected.

In fact, research tells us what we do physically impacts us emotionally and spiritually.

In fact, just do this with me.

Would you would you just smile?

Would you just smile?

Research shows that if you just smile, it actually changes your mood a bit.

Our body posture of how we just sit and it sit, pardon me, as we just sit there, and if you're kind of slunched over like this, it can take you down and you can have a negative outlook.

And if you sit rightly up, it actually will lift your spirits.

Your physical reality is connected to your emotional and spiritual reality because you are one being, not separated.

And we bifurcate those two much to our own loss.

And so, how do we approach the king?

Here's what I want to do with our time.

I want uh us to do two things.

First, uh to take one of the most famous descriptions or prophecy of Jesus and look at who we're approaching and the appropriate posture, what it would be.

Secondly, then look at some of the key people in the Christmas narrative and learn from their response.

I want to give us some physical things to do, and I'm gonna invite us to do some things physically.

It might be a little uncomfortable for some, but hey, go with it.

It's not gonna be weird or awkward, but just go with it.

Go with it.

If you got your Bibles, would you turn to Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6?

Isaiah 9:6

We get this beautiful, powerful description of the coming Messiah.

Messiah literally means anointed one or king, speaking of Jesus.

This is who Jesus is.

For to us, a child is born.

To us, a son is given.

And the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, the everlasting father, the Prince of Peace.

Who you approach determines the posture that you take.

As we approach the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, what postures are we to take and worship?

Well, in approaching the wonderful counselor, let me give you the posture of open hands.

In fact, if you wouldn't mind doing it right now, just take your hands out, put them on your lap, and open them up.

It's a sign of receptivity, of humility.

In fact, psychologists tell us that just this posture of openness actually reduces our stress.

As we open up, and you can even take something where you realize I'm clinging on to something, and you visualize what you're clinging on to that your heart's gripping, and you open it up, and God, I want to receive from the wonderful counselor.

I want to receive your wisdom and direction and insight.

I need you to meet with me.

And we do this from time to time in our services, where we just open up our hands as a posture of openness to the wonderful counselor.

What posture do we take when it comes to the mighty God?

Mighty God, I want to suggest, is that posture of bowing down in the presence of a king of getting low.

And I don't know if you've bowed down recently or gotten on your knees where you get low, but this is actually a universal sign of humility in the presence of someone that's greater.

That you just get down on your knees, you get down low.

Um, I have some friends that have climbed half dome.

I'll never do it.

I it freaks me out.

Um, I've had actually nightmares about climbing it.

I'm like, I don't know why.

I'll never do it.

Um, but but they tell me, as you get to the top, you want to get to the edge and look over.

And your body just naturally does this.

They're telling me, as you closer you get to the edge, the lower you get, the closer you get to the immensity of it, you can't help but get lower to the ground.

And it's the same in the presence of God, in the mighty God, the one who spoke and everything came into existence.

As you begin to recognize the greatness and the grandeur of who He is, that we just get low.

There's times in our service where we just need to get low.

We need to humble our heart, and our heart and spirituality is connected to our physical, and so we get ourselves low, directing our spirit in humility to God.

Maybe you need to do this at home.

Maybe just in the morning.

Try it.

Just once this week, try it.

In your prayer time, you can even put your hands open and kneel at the same time.

Look at that, you're doing both.

But we miss out on so much when we don't physically respond in worship as well.

In the presence of the everlasting Father.

The posture is that of a raised hand.

It's the natural response of a child to a parent.

Did you hear the thunder the other day?

Like yesterday?

Is that crazy?

What's up with tornadoes in California?

We pay too much money for tornadoes in California.

We gotta put our foot down here.

We already got earthquakes, we don't need tornadoes.

Woke up to the thunder.

And I remember because as a little kid, I grew up uh until eight in Texas, and that's real thunder.

And real tornadoes.

And I remember hearing the thunder that shook the house, and it just reached out and cried for my parents.

Because that's what a little kid does when they're afraid, when they're uncertain.

Mom, Dad! And we reach out and we raise our hands to our Heavenly Father in desperation and need, but a child does the same in joy.

Mom, Dad, and we reach out and stretch our hands and just God, I just love you.

I want to be with you.

To the everlasting Father, you have a perfect, all-good, heavenly father who loves you.

And so we raise our hands, reminding our souls, reaching out to him in surrender, and joy in desperation.

With the Prince of Peace, our posture, well, is of standing or dancing.

In fact, we're going to sing a song that says, I stand in awe.

As you stand, you stand in awe, you stand in respect.

Standing is also this sign of I'm ready to move or ready to act.

Like I'm in the presence of the Prince of Peace and I'm standing or dancing.

And you're like, well, why stand or dance?

We live in the most anxious age of all time with so much uncertainty, and we have the Prince of Peace.

And so I can have peace no matter what storm I'm going through, not because of somebody, but I have the Prince of Peace with me in the presence of the storm.

And so I have peace, not because the absence of the storm, I have peace because Jesus is with me in the storm, and so I can stand firm in his presence.

Amen.

Somebody, please.

Amen.

And I can dance.

Actually, I can't.

I can't dance.

I can't.

I'm a little too armsy, is what Jenny tells me.

She's like, 10 and 2.

Remember hitch?

10 and 2.

Keep it there.

I I get a little too.

I'm like, come on, it's just to the Lord, or but it's at a wedding.

Um, and it's embarrassing.

We used to have a guy, uh family, part of our church.

Uh, we called him Ozzie Rob because he's Australian and his name's Rob.

We're real creative.

And he, every service, he danced into the Lord.

There's just a joy and a freedom in his presence, and just, God, I don't know what tomorrow may bring, but I'm in the presence of the Prince of Peace, and so I'm secure.

And I'm just gonna dance in your presence out of joy and delight.

I challenge you.

You can try it here.

Or you might want to try it in the privacy of your own home.

But dance.

Who we approach determines the posture that we take.

Wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Why?

Because our physical response directs and impacts our spiritual and emotional.

I want to look at some responses to Jesus and how people in the Christmas narrative responded to him to give us a few more responses, postures to take.

Mary, when she found out she was pregnant, she went to go visit her cousin.

Her cousin, quite a bit older, probably was more realistically her aunt.

And she goes to visit Elizabeth, and Elizabeth had a miraculous uh pregnancy as well.

She was uh older, like I said, and it's gonna give birth to John the Baptist.

When Mary shows up in the presence of Elizabeth, it says that the baby inside her leapt with joy, and she exclaimed in a loud voice.

See, there is a time in our worship to shout for joy.

To shout for joy.

In fact, would you try it with me?

Would you shout for joy?

You ready?

On three.

One, two, three.

That's pretty good.

That's pretty good.

There's something about a giving a good old holler.

Woo! You know, it's like it's cathartic.

You probably need to do it more often than you know.

Oh, just do it in your car though.

Um, no, just do it here.

Like God has met you, God has saved you, and I am shouting for joy.

And then Mary, just a few verses later, she writes the most beautiful, powerful song.

It's called, we call it the Magnificant.

And it said of her that she treasured up all these things in her heart.

That we'd shout for joy and then we'd sing with passion.

Whether we're a singer or not, we would sing with passion.

You know, it's interesting.

Um, I think many of us, and I've fallen into this camp uh uh often, is like, well, I'm not really, I am kind of a shouter, but like that's just not my personality, right?

All these postures, even, well, that's not my thing.

Here's what's interesting.

Um, many of us are wonderful shouters for joy or or the other with our favorite sports team, aren't we?

When Steph Curry hits that shot, woo! You know, and we sing with passion in the presence of some of our favorite artists, whether it's Beyonce, T-Swift, Kendrick Lamar, The Weekend, Post Malone, whoever your cold play is mine.

But whoever your favorite one.

Isn't it amazing that someone who can be so reserved is at a T-Swift waving her, you know, woo! I'm done.

I won't do that again.

I'm sorry, I apologize.

You can't unsee that either.

Now, listen to this.

Martin Luther, the great reformer, wrote this.

Singing with passion and shouting for joy are not just acts of praise, they are acts of warfare against despair.

Truth is, many of you need to start preaching to yourself, speaking the truth of God, singing the truth of God over your lives.

The shepherds, they um had this angelic announcement.

They go and see um baby Jesus, just as it was said.

And then it says of them, they they spread the word, praising God.

They just shared it with everyone.

They couldn't help but just share it with everyone around them.

Did you know sharing the word about Jesus is actually an act of worship?

Um, this right here is a meat masher.

Yeah, I know, it's pretty exciting.

We have a meat masher because somebody that my wife follows on Instagram was talking all about this meat masher and how great it is.

I have a house of teenage boys, you know.

We go through a lot of ground meat as a family.

And so this is incredible.

Just do this, it's so much easier than the little, you know.

And so I we have this meat masher because someone shared about it, and then my wife is sharing with me, and she's sharing with everybody else.

Like, hey, this thing's awesome.

Check this thing out and the ridges, it's amazing.

Why?

Because when we love something, we talk about it.

You love that restaurant.

Oh, I want you to experience it.

I had this great experience, it's amazing.

You gotta try this.

When you love that artist, wouldn't it love that place that you went to?

We just can't help but share it.

It's part of an act of worship.

It's how we're designed and hardwired.

I want to encourage you this season.

Would you share the word?

You've had these Christmas Eve invitations.

Who's a family member, a friend, a coworker?

They go, I Jesus changed my life.

I can't help it.

I'm gonna share with them.

Would you come with me?

Would you invite them to our Christmas Eve service?

You know, is there's a difference between inviting and informing.

A lot of the ways we talk to people, we inform them, you know.

Hey, uh, this is cool.

You should you should go do it, right?

It's like there's a service one, two thirty, and four.

Um it's at my church.

It would be great if you came.

That's informing.

Inviting is this hey, we're attending this Christmas Eve service at 2 30.

Would you come with us?

We'd love to have you join us.

We'll save a seat for you.

In fact, we'll meet you in the parking lots.

And walk with you.

That's inviting.

Would you invite someone?

Shout for joy, sing for praise, share with others, and then the magi.

The magi they come before Jesus.

And remember, you never enter the presence of a king empty-handed.

And they brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

They bowed down and they brought gifts.

Giving generously is an act of worship.

In fact, uh it used to be in our service, in a lot of services, during the offering time, we talk about the worshipful act of giving and have it incorporated in the service.

It's hard.

We in our church, we don't pass baskets, you know.

Most of you give online.

And so it's hard to get connected with like giving as an act of generosity, but as an act of worship.

I want to give you just maybe two practices this week for that.

One, would you take maybe a$5 bill,$10 bill, or$20 bill, just depending on where you're at financially?

Keep it in your pocket.

God, this week I want to be generous as an act of worship.

Who would you want me to be generous to?

And you just hold on to it with that prayer.

Five bucks, ten bucks, twenty bucks.

It might be a person you run into, a person you see that's on the street that's in need.

It might be someone in the line at the coffee shop where you just, I want to bless them.

Who do I want to be generous?

Who do you want me to be generous with?

It will just begin to connect and you connect it.

This is an act of worship to my king.

I'm not coming empty-handed.

You might think of like, okay, I can't do this every week because I automate my giving, but what does it look like to physically in this moment as we gather as a church in worship to remind myself that my generosity is actually part of my worship.

And so you might just go, like, I'm just gonna do a one-time gift in this moment.

Some of you even have checks.

You can do that.

It's really weird.

Uh, but you can do it that way.

But where you just connect, you gotta connect it.

This worshipful act.

I sing loudly, shout for joy, share with others, and give generously are all postures of worship to our King.

So let me ask you what does your posture reveal about how you see God?

I remember, um, oh, I don't have it.

I remember uh one time in church, um, I had a coffee, no shame, this is please uh this is what I've done, but I'd have a coffee cup in one hand and I kind of raising my hand with the other.

Have you ever done this?

Um I definitely do this, and it was just like, wait a second.

I think I'm just being a little too casual.

And so I was like, okay, I just gotta put my coffee cup down because I'm in the presence of the King Almighty, and I just want to just give him everything.

I just want to give him everything in this moment.

And so I'm not even gonna just hold on to my coffee cup.

Let me ask, if you truly saw Jesus as King of kings, how would it change the way you approach him in worship?

That he is king, he is your wonderful counselor, he is your mighty God, he is your everlasting father and your Prince of Peace.

We're gonna close with a time of worship, and I want to invite us to posture ourselves.

It means responding physically in worship to direct us spiritually, our heart and soul, to God.

And so the band is gonna come up, and if it's not already, they're gonna come up and they're gonna lead us in worship.

And what I'm gonna ask us to do, because I don't think we'll do it otherwise, I want us to begin on our knees.

If you're physically able to do that, would you get on your knees with me?

If you're not physically able, please don't, you know, I know for some that's just not a possibility.

But would you get on your knees, recognizing that we're coming to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords?

And then would you open your hands?

And we take this posture of humility before our King and openness that we want to meet with you, we want to receive from you.

We worship you.

Would you overwhelm us with your presence right now?

Would you overwhelm us with your love?

Would you help us to see more clearly who you are?

And so we worship you.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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