“Oh, he TOOK A FALL.” S31e26 Matt4:9

Falling is a big deal. Falls can be life-changing, watershed moments.  Further, WHAT YOU FALL for, the reason you fall is A BIG DEAL.

Fall-down-worship is a big deal too. It is disruptive, unpretty, and may have permanent effects.  

True fall down worship often results with us not on our FACE, but on our BACKSIDE. 

When you TAKE A FALL in worship it will be disruptive, unpretty, upending, unplanned, and result with you on your spiritual Kiester.

Here is an invitation to enjoy this type of thing tomorrow: 

https://youtu.be/6m8p7NP7Q9A

Transcript

matthew

“Oh, he TOOK A FALL.” S31e25 Matt4:9

I was at church catching up with a friend back from vacation. She described a milestone event in the life of a mature person.  She told a feature story of their time away, referring to her husband, she said something we all dread: , “Oh, he TOOK A FALL”

By that is meant: it was Unexpected, unplanned, unpretty, upending, overturning disruptive, and sudden.

Falling is a big deal: everytime I go to the doctors, it is asked: “Have you had 2 falls in the last year”. The reason they ask, and spend a disproportional amount of concern on the topic is that FALLS ARE A BIG DEAL. These kind of falls can be life-changing, watershed moments.  Further, WHAT YOU FALL for, the reason you fall is A BIG DEAL.

This story particularly caught my ear, because the next morning, as I was studying our beloved Gospel of Matthew, the villain satan stands on a high mount with Jesus and asks for HIS WORSHIP. Listen to the third temptation in the Wilderness:

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, 

       “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God 

and him only shall you serve.’ ”

11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. 

Point #1: these weren’t his to give.  It would be like me taking you to a car dealership that I don’t own and saying to you, “if you fall down and worship me, ALL these cars I will give you.” Ridiculous lie, I don’t own the cars I’m offering. He could never come through on his fulfillment of the bargain. Satan is a liar.

Point #2: Satan desires the worship of everybody.  He already thinks pretty highly of himself, and wants the world to worship him.  Hilariously, he also wants JESUS to worship him, which is exactly upside down and blasphemous. 

Poin’t #3 is the part that caught my ear and heart is this quality of worship or perhaps quantity of worship.  There is a worship-category that is FALL DOWN WORSHIP. Here I think we might have something to learn from the knucklehead Satan.

Let’s think about fall down worship in the context of my friend who “took a fall”. Let’s take the pretender out of the story and replace him with the true Person of worship: Jesus. Let’s think abot fall-down worship of JESUS:

It will be disruptive: it might just rip the story of your life into two halves: the before fall down worship era and the after fall down worship era.

It will be upending: good worship always gets us off our own little thrones—sometimes dramatically and violently. and clears the way for Jesus. True fall down worship often results with us not on our FACE, but on our BACKSIDE. X2

Fall down worship is unexpected. Perhaps we can put our minds toward fall-down worship and plan it a bit, even schedule it.  But the results of the heart of fall down worship are unexpected.  This is a rare-event in the life of the believer, who knows what might happen. The RESULTS of fall-down worship might be a surprise.

When one takes a fall it is always unpretty.  The internet is full of such falls that got caught on video. What if we could film the spiritual event of fall down worship: might there be some beautiful stuff? Singing, praying, posturing?  Might there be some ugly stuff too: weeping, repenting, regretting, longing for? There will be some UNPRETTINESS in good fall-down worship.  Good worship may reveal stuff on the inside that will need further attention

Fortunately, my falling friend was perfectly fine, and walked up right at the “He took a fall” moment in the story.

Today is a call to worship; to true worship of the True God.

It is a call to fall down worship:

May you be disrupted. May you be upended. 

May you be permanently affected by this.

May you be willing to have some of it be UNPRETTY

May you be upside down, turned inside out, permanently affected

May you TAKE A FALL in Worship. True Worship. True God.

True fall down worship often results with us not on our FACE, but on our BACKSIDE.

When you TAKE A FALL in worship it will be disruptive, unpretty, upending, unplanned, and result with you on your spiritual Kiester.