Dalton First United Methodist Church Podcast
The Duty of Delight - Pastor Steven Usry
The Duty of Delight - June 4th, 2023
What if every moment could be a song of praise? Let's challenge ourselves to make much of God in our private lives and prepare our hearts for an explosion of worship when we come together. Discover the significance of prayer and giving in true worship, and learn from the story of David, the shepherd boy, about consistency in worshiping our Lord. Don't miss this opportunity to celebrate the resurrection in worship, as we uncover ways to glorify God and demonstrate our faith on a daily basis. Let every moment be a testament to our gratitude and joy in His name.
Learn More at daltonfumc.com
The Duty of Delight - June 4th, 2023
What if every moment could be a song of praise? Let's challenge ourselves to make much of God in our private lives and prepare our hearts for an explosion of worship when we come together. Discover the significance of prayer and giving in true worship, and learn from the story of David, the shepherd boy, about consistency in worshiping our Lord. Don't miss this opportunity to celebrate the resurrection in worship, as we uncover ways to glorify God and demonstrate our faith on a daily basis. Let every moment be a testament to our gratitude and joy in His name.
Learn More at daltonfumc.com
You are listening to the Dalton First United Methodist Church podcast. To learn more about Dalton First United Methodist Church, visit us online at DaltonFUMCcom. We hope that today's message from Pastor Stephen Usry inspires and encourages you. I always love First Sundays because that's a Sunday that we reserve for Holy Communion. I don't know if you might be new to our church, but each First Sunday of the month we celebrate Holy Communion together. So in the next few moments as we turn to the scriptures, i hope that we have a moment to prepare our hearts to receive and to experience the presence of Christ through that Holy Act. Inside your worship guide, in the very back of it, you'll find a message outline.
Speaker 1:I always use a message outline. That helps me, but I pray it helps you. I've already heard from many of you who enjoy the message outline, and that message outline is there, i hope, to help you remember the message beyond just the moment. I hope it is there to encourage you along the way You're invited to engage in whatever way you will, but there are pins located in the seat backs in front of you there and there will be some scriptures that I'll be inviting you to underline some things and circle some things. There'll be some fill in the blanks. I just invite you to engage with that outline, however you will.
Speaker 1:You know, today I want to talk to you about worship. Worship, this beautiful thing that we come to, that we get to do together, but, maybe more importantly, this understanding of what God created us to be and to do. You were created to be a worshipper, and so I just want to talk to you about that for a few minutes, and there are many scriptures in the Bible that we can turn our attention to, to think about how we are worshipers and how we do worship together. You know, you'll notice at the top of your outline a simple question, and the question I want to pose to you today, as we begin, is this why are people so excited around this place? Have you noticed the buzz? Have you noticed the happiness? Now, if you have your pin, i will invite you to answer that question Before I talk too much. Answer that question for yourself. Why do you think people are excited right now here at Dalton?
Speaker 1:First, in the last little while, we've had meet and greets. We've had a chance to meet many of you, not all of you. We've hosted meet and greets here at the church and at homes all over the place, and one of the questions that I began every one of those meet and greets with is what are you feeling? What's going on in your mind and in your heart? And you know, for many folks I heard very similar types of answers. Why are they so excited? I heard people say that they're filled with joy, that they believe a new spirit is moving in our church. I've heard people use words like excited and happy and joyful. Again, i heard the word a lot enthusiastic that there's an enthusiastic spirit going on our church. And one of the best answers that I heard was that someone in our meet and greets says that we are experiencing a revival of our spirits. That's a beautiful picture, isn't it? A revival of our spirit here in the church? Now, what I want to tell you is whatever God is doing in our church, make no mistake, he is the center of it all. The reason we exist is to make much of Jesus, and so he is the very center, i think, of why that excitement, that enthusiasm and that revival of our spirit is happening.
Speaker 1:A little while ago, i read a little small book. I would encourage you to read it. I actually based the sermon title today on that little small book. If the book was called The Dangerous Duty of Delight Pretty catchy title, don't you think? The Dangerous Duty of Delight. And the author in that little small book said one of the greatest things that we are to do in this life is to delight in God. I mean, think about how many times the psalmist said delight in the Lord, taste and see that he is good, have gladness in your worship before the Lord. And as I read that book, i thought about the title the dangerous duty of the light. You know, when it comes to worship, we normally don't think I don't think we embrace that word duty, right That we have a duty to worship, that it is our responsibility. It's something that we have our challenge to do and get after. But what the author was saying there at the heart of it was you were created for worship, you were created to delight in God.
Speaker 1:Now, by the way, every parent understands this concept. Every parent, every grandparent. We want our children to hold us in time for us. We hope that they have fun when they're in our presence. We hope they want us to be around us. We hope that when they are with us there is a certain element of delight, joy, happiness that they're experiencing because they're with us. Church, listen, your heavenly Father wants you to delight in Him. He wants you to celebrate all the goodness that He brings to you and to your life and to your family's life Delight. It's a neat concept, isn't it? Last night I went without the dinner with some friends and we had a feast. It was great food, all kinds of different dishes, each had their own flavor. It was a delight And you could say in some ways that you're delighted around this or that. Certainly, the brisket was a delight. There was a lot of different things that you could delight in in that meal. Guys, when we come to worship, here's the beautiful picture That we should, together, delight in the Lord That you have something to celebrate different than you have to celebrate, but together we all come to be able to feast upon the goodness of God together and lift Him high in our worship.
Speaker 1:When I was a very young Christian, i ran across the Westminster Catechism. Have you ever heard of it before? The Westminster Catechism? I found to be very instructional because it was very simple The chief aim of humanity is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. When I found that, as a young Christian, it just made sense to me. I thought, wow, this is really the maybe the grandest purpose of my life To be able to glorify God, make much of God and to enjoy Him forever. If you don't understand that, heaven's going to be a huge bore, okay, because let me tell you, heaven is all about us worshiping and bringing glory to God and enjoying Him forever.
Speaker 1:The Apostle Paul was trying to get this across to a church that he was speaking to, and he said it this way. He said therefore, i urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices. If you have your opinion, you might want to underline those two words Living sacrifices, all for your bodies, as living sacrifices. By the way, living sacrifices, that's an oxymoron. You know what an oxymoron is? Jumbo shrimp Two words that don't go together. A sacrifice is normally dead, it's not living. Okay, paul takes that word, he turns it on its head and he says you know what you're supposed to do Offer your body as a living sacrifice on the altar, offering unto God. This is your spiritual ad-divorship.
Speaker 1:Somebody said to me one time Pastor Steven, that's quite the image, isn't it? I said, yes, a living sacrifice. And he said here's the problem with that image, pastor Steven. I said what's that? He said living sacrifices can crawl back off the altar, right, i mean, if dead sacrifice is going to stay on the altar, but a living sacrifice? I said, oh, maybe not today, i've got other things to do, right? Do you see what Paul is after? Paul is giving us this beautiful picture of our voluntary delight in offering ourselves to God as a living sacrifice every day. This is your spiritual act of worship.
Speaker 1:I found another translation it was read today from Romans, chapter 121, said a little differently here's what I want you to do God helping you. Take your everyday, ordinary life you're sleeping, eating, going to work and walking around life and place it before God as an offering. That is a beautiful picture of how we are to live everyday as worshipers. So you see that next question. I've got there in front of me. I'm pushing you a little bit here today, okay, what comes to your mind when you hear the word worship? I want to invite you to take your pen fill in that answer. What comes to your mind when you hear the word worship? For some of you, you might just have written a sanctuary choir hymns. Others of us might have written Christmas Eve, christmas Eve service or Easter. Others of us might have written something as beautiful as a heart fully surrendered to God. I don't know what you wrote, but here's the beautiful thing about that question. I hope there's a thousand images that you have when you hear the word worship.
Speaker 1:I think about the word worship. I think about moments that I've been driving down the road in my car just singing songs of praise to the Lord, others crying out to Him. I think about moments standing on a beach and worshiping, or maybe on a mountain. Maybe you think about moments where you've had a silence or communion like we're going to have today. The beautiful thing about worship it is so multi-dimensional that when we think about worship, we can think about all these different facets of how we worship with our lives. So today, with just the next few minutes, i want to challenge you around five different ways to delight in the Lord, and I especially want to talk to us as a body, because we gather here every week to worship the Lord together. This is our witness to the community of Dalton, and I want to talk to you, as your pastor, about how we do this thing called worship. Okay when we gather together. So, if you've got your pin, i just want to talk to you about a few thoughts that I have about us delighting in God together.
Speaker 1:And first and the simplest, we were created to worship together. We were created for moments like this when, together, we become this beautiful choir of prayer, of singing, of worship, of studying. There's a beauty when we worship together. The Bible says it this way in two scriptures Matthew 22, love the Lord, your God, with all of your heart, with all of your soul and with all of your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. By the way, choir, thank you for leading us in worship today. You are the source of my strength. I lift my hands in total praise to you. This is the beautiful picture of how we're to give all of ourselves to worship.
Speaker 1:And then the writer of Hebrews said it this way let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. You know, even in the earliest days of the Christian journey, of the way of Christ, in the earliest days, people were giving up, people were stopping meeting and worship, and the writer of Hebrews had to say no, no, no, that's not who we are. We were created to worship together. Do not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing, but instead let us encourage, let's give strength, let us give heart to one another, the more as we see the day of the Lord coming near. So listen, church. You might write in your margin, when I think about this aspect of worship, how we were meant to worship together. Think about the super-dimension of worship. What is right? You were created to be a worshiper every day, every moment of every day. Worship isn't something we just come to. Worship is something we do all the time.
Speaker 1:When I think about our private world, i think about the word consistency. We should be worshiping our Lord consistently every day, finding ways to make much of Him and lifting Him up. This is the beautiful picture of us doing this in our private world In my mind. I like to think of the stories of the little shepherd boy, dave, who would go off into the hills, remember. He would keep us polishing, he would play songs and he would write songs and he would give us some hymns. Out there, he would worship, or he learned how to worship in private. When we worship our private lives, there should be this beautiful rhythm, this consistency, and then publicly. I like to think about this, by the way, when we get together, there should be now think about it. If we were all little Davids off, worshiping all during the week, all by ourselves, each one of us worshiping consistently. When we get together, a bunch of us Davids, there ought to be explosion of worship, don't you agree? We're together, our worship, when we all get together, becomes this beautiful, vibrant thing. Together, i want to challenge you, as we delight in God, that our worship would be this beautiful explosion of vibrancy because you've been worshiping consistently in private.
Speaker 1:Here's the second thing I want to challenge you to do prepare your hearts for worship. We must prepare. There are stories in the Bible about how, when people didn't prepare for worship, things did not go well. Just two scriptures as a reference 2 Chronicles, chapter 12, we abound at evil because he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord. And just another scripture that is there. The Bible says in Psalms who may climb the Mount of the Lord, who may stand in his holy place? only those whose hands and hearts are pure.
Speaker 1:So I think one of the things we have to do when we're getting ready to come together as worshipers to be a light on the Lord together is to make sure we have prepared our hearts to worship the Lord. Well, pastor Stephen, how do I do that? You know it's an awesome thing to worship the Lord, and so sometimes that might look like silence. Sometimes it might look like contemplation. Quite often times for me it looks like just private prayer, preparing myself to meet with God. Sometimes it looks like confession and repentance. Sometimes it looks like rest on the Saturday night because you've got church on Sunday morning all right, and going to bed a little bit early. So when you come together with the rest of God's people, you bring your best to worship. I can tell you for sure, though for me it always looks like this arriving early.
Speaker 1:I grew up in a home where we were always late for worship. I'd be there every Sunday. Not only were we late for worship, but we were always on the new walk in the door. We'd been fighting the whole way just to get there, all right. You want to talk about having a hard time preparing your heart and your mind. We were with, and I know you've probably been there before. I'm not alone. Shake your head up and down. You've experienced this before. Right, you know what it's like to show up late and to be arguing on the way, and you also know what it's like to, in that moment, feel like your heart isn't quite in the right place, like you really want to be worshiped. We were created to worship together and this is this private consistency that we need to be doing every day. In this corporate vibrancy, we must come and prepare our hearts and not ever take our worship callously or without a lot of fault. Here's the third thing, and I'll go a little bit quicker Prayer must be a prayer.
Speaker 1:The Bible teaches us that when God's people pray, god's presence envelops them and shows up, and prayer must always be a very significant portion of our worship. The Bible says in Acts they met together continually for prayer. This is a beautiful picture of the early church. They knew the power of prayer and they just kept doing it continually, lifting up their prayers. For what great nation has a God as near to them as the Lord? our God, is near to us whenever we call on him. Moses wrote those words in Deuteronomy, talking about how God is near whenever we call on him. So when we gather together, our prayers need to be fervent and they need to be concentrated, and it's okay for us to have all kinds of prayer, but prayer is a big portion of our private and our public worship.
Speaker 1:And just two last encouragements At the core of worship is always giving. I think sometimes we will allow our giving to be disconnected from the way we see our worship, but at the core of worship is always giving. That's the way it was in the Old Testament, that's the way it is in the New Testament and we need to make sure we never let our giving be divorced from our understanding of our worship. Matthew 6 Jesus said for where your treasure is, there your heart will be. It's this I have a little arrow on it from the word treasure to heart. It's this idea of where your treasure is. Your heart will always be linked. And you know what this reminds me of. I wish I were there When Jesus was sitting in a worship service, just like we're doing today.
Speaker 1:And you can't remember the story. A widow walked up and she gave her all. She gave the smallest coin that they had in their economy. She gave a might. For others it wouldn't have meant anything, but for Jesus it was a stop to the press moment. The Bible says he called his disciples over and he said look what just happened. You remember that? Look what just happened. She gave all. She has this beautiful picture of a widow's trust in God to be her divine and her worship, her faith filled worship as she gave. Giving is always at the very center.
Speaker 1:I'm not just talking about financial resources. We say the word giving and everybody thinks I'm talking about finances. I'm talking about giving of our energy and our time, giving space and presence to God. These are very important things. And then, finally and this one's important to me, you probably already know it when I say it Number five worship is a festival, not a funeral. Worship is meant to be a festival, not a funeral.
Speaker 1:Have you ever been to church before? and it seemed like every Sunday it was just a dirge. I mean, every key was in minor and it was what I call bow ring. Have you ever experienced church like that before? Yes, you have. But let me remind you church, you are an Easter people, you are a resurrection people. We live on the other side of the cross. We know that he has conquered death and the grave, and one of the reasons we worship on Sunday is because that is the day our Messiah walked comfortably out of the tomb and gave us life forevermore.
Speaker 1:So when we gather together, it's this beautiful picture of God's people celebrating in a festival of how he has saved us and redeemed us again. I like it how it says in 2 Samuel David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with songs and harps and liars and tambourines and systems and symbols. It's this idea that they were having a party before the Lord celebrating them. And when the psalmist said it this way I will celebrate and be joyful because you, lord, have saved me. You may not have even noticed, you certainly wouldn't have noticed if you arrived late today, but we began this service today by playing with that man. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness, morning by morning. You mercies. I see This is a beautiful picture.
Speaker 1:When we gather together, it's once again a moment for us to worship the Lord with all that we have and to join gladness and thank Him for saving me. It reminds me of John Wesley, who said the Lord didn't just save me one time, he is saving me every moment of every day. So, churches, i close this message. As we come for Holy Communion, let me just remind you of something Your Father wants you to delight in Him. May, this week, you worship Him with your every day in time. You're going out, you're coming in, you're working, you're playing. May your life be a worship song. And they said that we've got to get it again A bunch of days and there'll be another institution, a vibrant time for the soul to reign. Would you pray for me?