Ephesians 3:14-21

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith —that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

I have so much to learn from this prayer of Paul. This is a great model of praying for others to be strengthened by the Holy Spirit to know Jesus Christ and to abide in him, glorifying the Father.

There is a beautiful phrase in 1 Timothy 1:11 buried beneath the too-familiar surface of Bible buzzwords. Before we dig it up, it sounds like this: “The gospel of the glory of the blessed God.” But after you dig it up, it sounds like this: “The good news of the glory of the happy God.”

...And this is the gospel: “The gospel of the glory of the happy God.” It is good news that God is gloriously happy. No one would want to spend eternity with an unhappy God. If God is unhappy then the goal of the gospel is not a happy goal, and that means it would be no gospel at all. But, in fact, Jesus invites us to spend eternity with a happy God when he says, “Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23). Jesus lived and died that his joy—God’s joy—might be in us and our joy might be full (John 15:11; 17:13). Therefore the gospel is “the gospel of the glory of the happy God.”

 

From sample, Pleasures of God, by John Piper

Does this sit well with you? Do you find that 'God pursuing his own happiness' is a challenging concept? You are not alone. It gnaws into our sense of justice; because we know it is destructive for us to live like that and we fall into the trap of forgetting that God is much more than the creatures we are - that he is perfect in every way. Piper challenges a myopic understanding of God, this is what I love about him.

It would be a questionable boon to be aroused, and yet not to escape from the danger. Remember, awakening is not salvation. A man may know that he is lost, and yet he may never be saved. He may be made thoughtful, and yet he may die in his sins. If you find out that you are a bankrupt, the consideration of your debts will not pay them. A man may examine his wounds all the year around, and they will be none the nearer being healed because he feels their smart, and notes their number. It is one trick of the devil to tempt a man to be satisfied with a sense of sin; and another trick of the same deceiver to insinuate that the sinner may not be content to trust Christ, unless he can bring a certain measure of despair to add to the Savior's finished work. Our awakenings are not to help the Savior, but to help us to the Savior. ...A sense of need of salvation by grace is a very healthful sign; but one needs wisdom to use it aright, and not to make an idol of it.

Spurgeon, Around the Wicket Gate

Entertainment-saturated people who do not treasure Christ above all are like skydivers who think that the wind passing through their fingers at 120 miles an hour is the ultimate thrill of being alive when in fact they have no parachutes and the gravity that pulls them inexorably to the ground is the wrath of God. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” ( John  3:36 ).

Matthew 6:5-8

 

5 “ And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

 

7 “ And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 

It is a gross and shameful profanation of the name of God, when hypocritcs, in order to obtain glory from men, pray in public, or at least make a pretense of praying. But, as hypocrisy is always ambitious, we need not wonder that it is also blind. Christ, therefore, commands his disciples, if they wish to pray in a right manner, to enter into their closet. Some expositors, thinking that this has the appearance of absurdity, give it an allegorical turn, as referring to the inward recesses of the heart: but there is no necessity for such trifling. We are commanded, in many passages, to pray to God or to praise him, in the public assembly, amidst a crowd of men, and before all the people: and that for the purpose, not only of testifying our faith or gratitude, but also of exciting others, by our example, to do the like. Christ does not withdraw us from such an exercise, but only admonishes us to have God always before our eyes when we engage in prayer.

 

We must not literally interpret the words, enter into thy closet: as if he ordered us to avoid the presence of men, or declared that we do not pray aright, except when there are no witnesses. He speaks comparatively, and means, that we ought rather to seek retirement than desire a crowd of men to see us praying. It is advantageous, indeed, to believers, and contributes to their pouring out, with greater freedom, their prayers and groans before God, to withdraw from the gaze of men. Retirement is also useful for another reason, that our minds may be more free and disengaged from all distracting thoughts: and accordingly Christ himself frequently chose the concealment of some retired spot for the sake of prayer. But this is not the present subject, which is only to correct the desire of vain-glory. To express it in a few words, whether a man prays alone, or in the presence of others, he ought to have the same feelings, as if he were shut up in his closet, and had no other witness but God. When Christ says, thy Father shall reward thee, he declares plainly that all the reward, which is promised to us in any part of Scripture, is not paid as a debt, but is a free gift.

Matthew 1:18-23

 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “ Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

“ Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

"And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him."
John 12:23-26

We are all called to believe in Jesus and follow Him. He died and rose from the dead that all who entrust their lives will no perish but have eternal life (John 3:16.) If we continue to love our lives, seeking to protect ourselves from harm, loss or suffering; if we continue to build for ourselves a life of pleasure and self-wrought-contentment, we will in the end find it swept away in the deluge of God's wrath. Jesus calls us to invest our life completely in him, for our own good and for His Father's glory:

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
Matthew 7:24-27

Have you fully entrusted your life to Jesus? Do you consider your life to not be your own, but rather belonging to God; purchased and redeemed by Jesus Christ the lamb of God? If you do, then rest in his love and obey him out of relationship. If, however, you see you are fully invested in making your life as good as you can; if you love your life then you desperately need to change direction. Christ offers eternal life to you and this starts when you surrender all to Him. Every Christian lives a new life in Christ and can say with the Apostle Paul:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20

Session 2

Chapels/cathedral thinking - "shhh be quite, this is a holy place." The size and scale of the building is designed to overwhelmed you with the thought; God is in here. As well as sacred places, we think of holy days - and 'hour of worship' on Sunday.

Is sunday at 10am the hour of worship?

Jesus, talking to the samaritan woman, was breaking all the rules. It is a remarkable conversation and it's remarkable how he reveals who he is. Its also remarkable how brillinat she is at changing the topic "you Jews claim..." Jesus is the master of spiritual conversation and he picks up on her cue. "We are on the brink of a new era in God's plan - now there is no one right place to worship God.

OT worship was very complicated. Why? God established a people that should worship him, but because of the fall, their access to God had to be carefully structured and mediated. Sinful man cannot just rock up to God and worship him.

The new era - the place of worship no long Jerusalem in the temple. All that was a sign pointing forward to Jesus. To prepare, teach and train in sign and symbol, to point forward.

'Salvation is from the Jews' - it is through that OT worship system; God has been pointing forward to Him. Now all the signs and symbols would fall away, as 'the one' has come.

Image: Girls playing with dolls, they call them babies; when motherhood comes, the dolls will disappear. When the wonderful reality has come, the symbol drops away.

Tabernacle means tent. Jesus became flesh and tented/camped in our midst. John 1. The temple he was speaking of was his own body, when speaking of that God would raise up his temple in 3 days.

Now the holy building is God's people. 1 Peter 2 . 1 Cor 6. Your body is his temple; his dwelling place.

"True worship centres on Jesus Christ, everywhere, all the time"

There are not nations more holy than other ones. Jerusalem is now no more holy than Launceston. The holy spirit is with you wherever you go. The holy spirit is very sensitive to what he watches at the movies. God is present in us everywhere, all the time. You cant confine him to a particular place and time.

The need to change your language. "Who is leading worship this morning?" "We are going to have a time of worship, and then there will be a time of preaching." Even narrower: songs of praise and songs of worship.

Remember from eden: worship is about what captivates, rules and governs our hearts.

If it is always taking place, what is the essence of true worship? In spirit and in truth (John's loaded words) spirith: John normally means capital S spirit. Not worship primarily in us - its in the Spirit of the living God. Truth needs a capital T too. the truth is Jesus Christ.

John Stott: A wonderful old building, powerful floodlights to highlight building. meant to say "what a marvellous building, not looking into the floodlight and saying, "what an amazing floodlight!" True worhsip is worship enabled by the holy spirit as we come to know the truth of Jesus Christ himself.

Of the father, through the Son by the enabling of the Holy Spirit

Jesus is the final priest - no sacrifices need to be made. Our whole lives are now to be a living sacrifice to God. Living in such a way that the Holy Spirit animates us to praise Jesus Christ to the glory of the Father.

The Practice of True Worship.

It must begin with our relationship with Jesus Christ. This begins when we first place faith in Christ. See what we are doing in terms of relationship, not duty. This is how we find ourself doing it:

1. read bible 
2. cant do it so read a 1 minute devotion book 
3. serve out of duty

Men: talk and listen to your wife. Women want to talk and guys want to do. If Jesus is the perfect man, we have no excuse. Christianty is an intensity relational religion. It's manly to be relational, to be personal and to share and trust. Christ, living his life through and in us by the power of the Spirit.

Find time with God - walking with God whenever the cool of day is best for you. We need times to stop, turn off everything else and talk with God and hear God speak through his word. Do it with your family as well. intentional time with God. WHen it is finished - you are not finished worshiping. Now with Christ on our mind, we start to see everything else differently.

Our time with christ is what actually sets our measure. We will find things in the world jar us and things don't grip us the same way in the world. Heading off to work to worship God, with our minds full of Christ.

Colossians 3:23, Slaves doing mundane work. Do your absolute best as an offering to God. He wants all things done well. Do it seeking opportunities to witness, opportunity to be the presence of Christ in that place, to love and care and improve the world. We seek to represent the values of God in the world, and then we come home (the most dangerous place in the world) If I'm gonna snap I'll snap at home. If I'm gonna misuse time, goof off, etc, its gonna happen at home.

Lets enjoy the good things of His world. If you cannot enjoy something to the glory of God, don't do it. Spurgeon on cigar smoking. Now its very hard to do it for the glory of God. Hold all things loosely with open hands, not closed fists. If we were devastated, maybe it was because that was what we were clinging to, not God.

Worship God with time and money. We all have same time, but different amounts of money. Begin to see things in the right perspective. Turn your passions into mission. See if the things you are passionate about can be harnessed to the Glory of God.

Easy and blessed corporate worship, after a week of hard worship. Gather for worship then scatter for worship.

God's plan, he made you for himself, redeemed you that you may know him, enjoying all this you now hold up all that he has given you as a living sacrifice. Now we begin to taste real joy and satisfaction. In the world to come, there will be an absolute feast.