As Christians living under Grace, we are called to be many things, most importantly worshippers of Christ. This past Sunday, I had the opportunity to hear one of our church's campus worship pastor, Aaron Keyes, teach on what it means to be a worshipper. He confronted what musical aspect of worship, what worship itself is, and the very act of worshipping as a congregation. John 4:23 states, "...true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit AND truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him." Pastor Keyes put it this way, Spirit is the soft, flowing things, whereas Truth is the fixed, ancient, and unmoving things. There are many references to Spirit in the Bible. For example, in Acts 2 the Holy Spirit comes down as a mighty rushing wind and tongues of fire, and those who were gathered at the time for Pentecost were filled with the Holy Spirit. Another example is John 7:38-39, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive..." You can delve even deeper into the old testament and discover more examples of the Spirit, such as the anointing of oil. Oil along with the action of anointing someone with oil stands as a picture of the Holy Spirit being poured on someone so they may operate under the authority and power of the Holy Spirit. Thus, worshipping in the Spirit is compared to oil, wind, a river/water, and fire (Keyes). On the other hand, Truth is the foundation for us to stand upon, a double-edged sword, an anchor for us to be grounded to; obviously very different than a rushing river (Keyes)! "As those living under Grace, we need to be able to worship in the dynamic flow of Spirit, while being rooted in the solid foundation of scripture and of truth," (Keyes). Pastor Keyes states, “The way to be deep in Spirit is through truth, and the way deeper in truth worship is through spirit.” The attributes of Spirit and Truth are as follows. Spirit: •Spontaneous •Emotional •Passionate •Spiritual Truth: •Scriptural •Substantial •Thoughtful •Considerate (Keyes) Spirit is the spontaneous and passionate worship in which we involve our emotions, while truth is the theological aspect of worship; having the combination of both Spirit and Truth within our worship is what pleases the Lord (Keyes). Engaging our emotions in worship while also being thoughtful; Passionate yet considerate; spontaneous and substantial (Keyes)! To be thoughtful in our worship, what we are singing, for example, must become personal and meaningful, not just "generic and abstract," (Keyes). Take the song that has the lyrics, “God is so good, God is so good to me.” How is He good in our lives? How is that personally true for us? “I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.” Psalm 3:5 <-- Just one of countless ways the Lord is good to us! Taking our worship and applying it to our lives, making it personal and meaningful is how we can worship in rooted truth. We are to be "Rooted but not rote, and Charismatic but not careless. Not hasty or thoughtless, but believing that God is still fully present, moving, and performing miracles. We want to be rooted and not just drifting, but not rote and just going through the motions,"(Keyes). As Christians living under Grace, our aspiration and goal of worship should be worshipping in spontaneity, freedom and flow, while rooted to the foundation, Truth, and anchor (Keyes). The link to the sermon by Aaron Keyes that inspired this post below! http://gfc.tv/monroe/2018/06/we-are-grace-worshipers/ And the link to Aaron Keyes' bio is provided below! http://www.aaronkeyes.com/bio/
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