Pathway to Victory

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Hey, podcast listeners, thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's Word through the most effective media available, like this podcast.

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Now here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

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Hi, this is Robert Jeffress, and I'm.

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Glad to study God's Word with you every day.

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This Bible teaching program on today's edition.

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Of Pathway to Victory. When we worship God, we are focusing on God rather than our problems. We're thinking about his bigness, his power, his wisdom, his forgiveness.

And here's the interesting phenomenon. The larger God is, the smaller our problems become.

Speaker 1

Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress. Since the beginning of the church, worship has been an integral part of church gatherings.

But what exactly is the definition of worship? And how can we be sure our praise is authentic?

Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress explores the definition and the characteristics of genuine worship.

Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.

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Dr. Jeffress thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Have you ever felt like something was missing from your faith? Maybe the excitement and passion you experienced as a new Christian has faded. Perhaps things like going to church or reading your Bible have started to feel like a chore. Or perhaps you used to believe that God could perform miracles in your life, but now you're not so sure.

Well, I think every Christian has felt that way at some point in their spiritual journey, including me. That's why I've written a book for you called I Want More. My book contains practical steps to help you activate and unleash the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. And it's available to you today when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory.

In addition, when you respond today, I'm pleased to include an exclusive brochure we created at Pathway to Victory called the Jesus Map. This multifolded pamphlet conveniently fits into the cover of your Bible, and it traces the footsteps of Jesus throughout his earthly ministry, along with 52 key events that took place along the way.

We'll say more about my book and the Jesus Map later on, but right now it's time to get started with today's message. Over the past few weeks, we've been discovering a number of channels through which God pours His power into our lives. The first two were the Word of God and prayer. And today we'll look at channel number three, the Church. Take your Bible and turn to Acts, chapter two for a message I've entitled Up with Worship.

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Dorothy Sayers has written that in God's effort to rescue humanity, he has willingly undergone three great humiliations. The first humiliation was the Incarnation, when God willingly gave up his rights as God and came in human form to earth. God's second great humiliation was the Crucifixion, in which God willingly allowed his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be tortured and executed by his own creatures. But Sayers says the greatest humiliation God willingly has undergone is the church. The church in which God has entrusted his reputation to sinful human beings like you and I. Yes, the church is the body of Christ. The church is God's representative here on earth. But the church is also a channel, a conduit through which the Holy Spirit pours his power into your life. You will never experience the power of God without, first of all, being connected to the people of God, the church. And that's the truth we're going to see in today's passage.

If you have your Bibles, turn to Acts, chapter two. Acts, Chapter two. In our series Unleashed, we're discovering how to experience the power of the Holy Spirit in our everyday lives. And we've seen that there are really four channels, four conduits through which the Holy Spirit's power is generated into our life. First of all through the word of God, that is the Bible. Secondly, through conversation with God, that is through prayer. And today and next time, we're going to look at that third channel through which the Spirit's power flows into your life, and that is through the people of God, that is the church. Without a vital connection to a local church, you're kind of like a severed limb from a body. If you were to take my hand and separate it from the rest of my body, this hand would quickly atrophy, it would wither, and then it would die. And it is the same way with members of the Body of Christ. You cannot exist as a Christian apart from the connection to a local body of believers. I'm going to say it again, so nobody misunderstands. You will never experience the power of God in your life unless you are vitally connected to the people of God, that is the church.

Now, I know that runs contrary to people's thinking today. In our day, in our culture of rugged American individualism, we get this idea that we don't need other people. We've got everything we need. It's the Holy Spirit in me, and that's all I need to have a relationship with God. In fact, George Gallup surveyed Christians and he found that 70% of Christians today believe that it is possible to have a vital, growing relationship with God apart from any involvement in a local church. But that is not what the Word of God says. The word of God says that we need the body of Christ. You see, a lot of people look at the church just like they do any other human institution. In fact, one person said, now I see the church as not much different than the government. Both are overpowering. They just build buildings and take our money. The buildings and the foreign mission programs are nice, but the church has become a power broker.

And yet, in spite of its flaws and potential pitfalls, the Bible says God created the local church to carry out his purpose in the world, but he also created the church through which to pour his power into your life. How does God pour His power into our life through the church? Well, look at Acts chapter two. The setting in Acts two is just days after Christ's ascension back into heaven. And remember, as soon as that occurred a few days later, God sent His Holy Spirit to baptize every believer into the body of Christ. For with one Spirit we have all been baptized into one body. And the result of the baptism with the Holy Spirit is Christians were not only joined together with the head of the body, Jesus Christ, but we are also joined together with other believers in the body. And it is through those other believers as well as the head, that God pours His life, his energy into our life.

I want you to notice the energy that was in this first century church. Look at Acts 2, beginning with verse 42, talking about these Christians. Luke says, and they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe. And many wonders and signs were taking place throughout the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common. Now look at verse 46. Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house. They were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. The result? Look at verse 47. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day, those who were being saved.

Now as I look at what the early church did, I find four activities, four priorities that the early church had through which God poured His energy into the lives of other Believers, and today and next time, I want to share with you four ingredients of a successful church. Four priorities that every church should have if the individual members want to experience the power of the Holy Spirit of God. What did that early church do? First of all, notice that they were focused on worship. Verse 47 says they were praising God and having favor with all men. Now, what is worship? When we talk about worshiping God, what are we talking about today? It's been popular in many churches to use worship as a synonym for music. Some churches call their minister of music the minister of worship. And it's very easy in our thinking to limit worship to music. You know, we talk about the worship portion of the service, and we talk about the wonderful choir and orchestra. Then we have a great time of worship. We have the great time of worship. And then we separate that from the preaching, which may or may not been so wonderful, you know, and we separate that in our mind. But the Bible never, never makes that separation. Music is an essential component of worship, but it's not the only component of worship.

What does it really mean to worship God? Donald McCullough writes about an experience he and his wife had when they went to hear the famed tenor Luciani Pavarotti listen. What was their response to that concert? Donald McCullough writes, Pavarotti held nothing back. It seemed every single note was filled with boundless passion and glorious beauty. We had to respond. We jumped to our feet and we clapped and hooted and whistled. We did not stop. We could not stop for a long time. Wave after wave of grateful applause was sent up to the platform, calling forth encore after encore. In the midst of this mayhem of gratitude, when my hands were beginning to ache from all the pounding, I thought to myself, this is deeply satisfying, a profound joy. It felt right to offer praise in response to such excellence.

Now, folks, that is what worship is. Worship is expressing our praise, our admiration to God for who he is and for all he has done in our life. Worship is expressing our admiration, our appreciation to God. Isn't that what the psalmist said in Psalm 34, verse 3? We read it just a moment ago. The psalmist said, oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. Oh, magnify the Lord with me. What does it mean to magnify the Lord? Now you understand that word, magnify. If you take an object and you place it under a magnifying glass, what does that magnifying glass do to the object? It enlarges, makes it larger. And the psalmist said what worship is? It's coming together to magnify the Lord to make him larger.

You say, now wait just a moment, Pastor. When you magnify something, aren't you really distorting reality? Aren't you making it appear different than it is? Well, you know, vision is really a matter of perspective. When you think about it. For example, you know, I can look up at the sun. Not for very long if I want to keep my eyesight. If I look up at the sun, I mean, it seems distant. That sun is huge. But interestingly, as large as the sun is, I can take two nickels out of my pocket, put them in front of each eyeball, and I can completely block out the sun. Even though the sun is billions of times larger than those nickels. How is that possible? How can something as small as a nickel block out something as large as the sun? It's very easy. That nickel is what is up close. It's what is in front of me. Vision is a matter of perspective. And it's the same way with God.

You see, the fact is, every day you and I have our problems up close and personal to us. Every day we're focusing on what our jobs, problems we have with our families, maybe difficulties in relationships, health problems. Those are the nickels, so to speak, that block out God from our view. And we are focused on those problems. And the fact is, they seem much larger than they really are because they're what we're dealing with every day. And when you spend all of your time focusing on your problems, you know what the result is? Unnecessary stress, unrelieved anxiety. There needs to be a time every week, the psalmist says, when we shift our focus. Instead of looking at those up close and personal problems, we need to look away from them and let God regain his proper perspective in our life, see God for who he really is. And that's what worship does for us. When we worship God, we are focusing on God rather than our problems. We're thinking about his bigness, his power, his wisdom, his forgiveness. And here's the interesting phenomenon. The larger God is, the smaller our problems become. And that's why worship is so vital. It is a time for us to come and focus on the greatness of God.

What is genuine worship? What does it mean to truly worship God? Let me share with you three characteristics of genuine worship. There's a lot of things in churches today that are passed off as worship that are not worship. What does it mean to really worship God? First of all, genuine worship centers on God, not on us. Genuine worship centers on God, not on us. Now, there are a lot of benefits that accrue to us when we worship God. An exhilaration of spirit, a regaining of our joy, a fresh perspective on our problems. Those are all benefits of worship, but they are not the purpose of worship. Remember, the purpose of genuine worship is to express. Express to God how much we appreciate him, how indebted we are to Him. It's expressing to him our commitment to following Him. And that means every song, every message, every prayer that is uttered should magnify God, not the person delivering them. Genuine worship does not center on man. It always centers on God. The psalmist said it this way in Psalm 29:21. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness. To worship God is to ascribe to him the glory that is truly due Him.

Secondly, genuine worship is corporate, not only individual. True worship is corporate, not only individual. Sometimes people will say to me, well, Pastor, I don't need the church to worship God. I can worship God in my car. I can worship him on the golf course. I can worship him while fishing in my boat. I don't have to go to church to worship God. To which I say, I agree 100%. You can worship God anywhere. The fact is, if you're a Christian, you are indwelt with the Holy Spirit of God. That means you're your own private tabernacle, so to speak. You can just move from place to place and wherever you are, you can talk to the Lord, you can worship God. But just because we worship God individually doesn't mean there isn't a time once a week when we need to come and worship him corporately.

Let me illustrate that for you why corporate worship is so important. Do you remember what happened on the streets of downtown Dallas after the Dallas Mavericks grabbed the NBA championship? The citizens of Dallas, we wanted to express our appreciation to the Mavericks for what they had done. So what happened? Over 200,000 fans lined the streets of downtown Dallas, and the Mavericks were paraded through the streets, and the people cheered and applauded, showing their appreciation to the Mavericks. Suppose somebody, a fan of the Mavericks, said, you know what? I don't have to go to downtown Dallas. I don't have to go down there to show the Mavericks how much I appreciate them. I'll send them an email or I'll write them a card. And so instead of having a big parade in downtown Dallas, all the fans just sent cards and emails. Would that have had the same effect? No. No. There's something powerful about all the individual fans coming together in one spot and showing the Mavericks how much we appreciate what they've done.

Now that is the value of corporate worship. It's like somebody said, we Christians, we're like a bunch of little lights scattered throughout the community, illuminating the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But there comes a time when all the little lights need to come together to form one giant floodlight illuminating the greatness, the glory of our God. That's always been God's pattern, by the way. It's always been God's will for all believers to come together in a central place to worship. You see that in the Old Testament, before the tabernacle and later the temple, God established worship centers in Bethel and Shechem and Shiloh for the people to come together, congregate together to worship. Later, he ordered the construction of the tabernacle, a central worship place later, the temple. And when we come to Acts 2, here, even though the Holy Spirit has come, the New Testament is in effect. The apostles are still going to the temple to worship God. And the pattern continues today. In Hebrews 10:25, the writer said, do not forsake the what the assembling together of yourselves. Remember Psalm 34, verse 3. O magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name.

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How?

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Together, together. Worship can be done individually, but it is also something that is to be done together. By the way, not only does that benefit God, it benefits us as well when we come together. Pastor Leith Anderson expresses our need for corporate worship this way. He said, it is easy in this life to lose hope, to become pessimistic, to convince ourselves of defeat. But as Christians, we must open our eyes to see the view from where Jesus sits. When I am discouraged and my hope runs thin, I remember that I am a part of something much bigger than I am. Coming together every Sunday as a church is a way of reminding ourselves that we are a part of something much bigger than we are. There's encouragement. There is power in that. Genuine worship is corporate as well as individual.

A third characteristic of genuine worship. Write it down. Genuine worship is active, not passive. It's active, not passive. A few years ago, William Hendricks wrote a book entitled *Exit Interviews*. He tried to figure out why people were leaving the church in droves. And so he interviewed people who had left good, sound evangelical churches to find out. Why did you quit going to church? You know what the number one reason people gave was? Boredom. Boredom. But Hendricks was quick to point out. When he probed further, what he found was they weren't looking for more entertainment. They were looking for participation. They wanted to be involved in what was going on in the church. That's the way the first century church is the one that we're reading about now. They were not passive. They were active in worship.

In fact, if you want to know what a first century worship service was like, we get a clue in First Corinthians 12, verse 26. In the first century church, this may surprise some of you. People did not sit in pews staring at the backs of one another's heads, okay? That's not how first century worship happened. They just didn't sit there and watch the paid professionals do their thing. Instead, we find a glimpse of what the early church was like. In First Corinthians 12:26, Paul says, what is the outcome when you assemble? Each one has a psalm. Each one has a teaching or a revelation or a tongue or an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. In the early church, everyone participated.

Now, remember, this was in the days before there was a New Testament, okay? There was no New Testament to preach or teach from. So the apostles would teach, yes, but also the members would participate. Don't let the words revelation and tongue throw you off. The real point here is that worship was not just passive, it was active. Now the question is, how do we pull that off today? How do we make our worship active rather than passive? We need to be careful here to avoid the extremes. There are some churches that have decided to completely overhaul their worship services. They've said, we don't want to do just presentational worship where it's the pastor and the choir director and the choir doing everything, and everybody else just sits out there. Instead of having presentational worship, we want to have participatory worship.

Well, what should we be? Presentational or participatory? Well, the answer is both. We're both. But just because we have a presentation, it doesn't mean we shouldn't participate as well. There is. There ought to be a time when people get to participate in worship.

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And on tomorrow's edition of Pathway to Victory, I'll show you two ways you can actively participate in worship at your church, whether it's online or in person. At the beginning of today's message, I said that the church is the body of Christ. And if you don't have a vital connection to a local church, it's like one of your limbs being severed from your body.

If that's an accurate description of how you feel today, then let me encourage you to request a copy of the book I've written titled *I Want More*. In this highly personal book, I'll teach you how to satisfy your spiritual hunger for more by experiencing God's supernatural power in every area of your life. It was written by following a season of personal discovery that completely revolutionized my understanding of the Holy Spirit and His work in my life.

In talking to Christians for many decades, many people feel like they've been spiritually shortchanged. By that I mean they have gone through all the motions but never have seen the results they expected. In my book, I'll show you why God has given you this longing for something more. I'll help you put a plan into action to overcome the spiritual battles you face.

Please get in touch today while there's still time. A copy of my bestselling book, *I Want More*, is yours when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory.

Now don't forget, you can watch Pathway to Victory Sundays on hundreds of stations and thousands of cable systems around the world. You can always catch us Sunday mornings at 9am Central, 10am Eastern on TBN, the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Or you can catch us Sunday afternoons at 5pm Central, 6pm Eastern on Daystar.

David, thanks, Dr. Jeffress.

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You're invited to request a copy of the book *I Want More* when you support the ministry of Pathway to Victory by giving a generous gift. To make your request, call 866-now-give or email online@ptv.org when your gift is $75 or more. We'll also send you the complete CD and DVD teaching set for this month's teaching series called *Unleashed*. Again, you can reach us at 866-999-2965, or go to ptv.org if you'd prefer to write. Here's that mailing address: P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, TX 75222. One more time, P.O. Box 223689, Dallas, TX 75222.

I'm David J. Mullins. Tomorrow we'll hear the conclusion of this powerful message on worship called *Up with Worship*. So join us again Friday for Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas.

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