Start With Prayer, End With Worship | A Praying Life, Week 6 | Rob Hall | New North Church

A praying life becomes a worshipping life.
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Transcript

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Hey, welcome to the New North Church podcast. It's great to have you listening in with us. Our vision at our church is to be an authentic community of Jesus followers who love and serve people. So if we can help you in any way at all, just reach out to us. The email address is hello at newnorth.church. With that, let's go right to this week's message. All right, good morning again. Um to Sam's credit, I met with a guy this week and he said, Rob, we go to New North, not because of your preaching, not because of the worship, but because of our kids and our student ministries. And I said, Amen to that. I'm glad that you said that. It was a little hard to hear, but it was good. No, no, it was great. Because, yeah, I've always said, man, if you bring your kid and they don't like our kids' ministry or they don't want to be here, it doesn't matter that you like it, right? And so we're I'm so grateful that we have hundreds of kids and students every single Sunday with us. All right, well, hey, um, real quick, I was Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday with about a hundred Bay Area pastors uh suffering for Jesus in the red woods of uh in in in Russian River. It was very, very boring. Let me show you the first picture. It was terrible. Uh I got to I got to golf. Yeah, it was really hard, you guys. That was a really tough hole, and I and I was I bogeied that. And then the food was really bad, you know, because canned food, let me show you. I mean, tomahawk steaks, boring. It was terrible. Um, and so the meat on the bone is the best, just FYI, in case you ever get one. And so, yeah, it was a great, great week uh hanging out with pastors. You know, this is a, you know, I I tell pastors all the time who don't live in the Bay Area, I say, if you've been here for any amount of time, you multiply it by seven because it's dog years here. All right. So I've been a pastor here for in the Bay Area for 20, almost 20 years. So multiply that by seven. This is not Alabama, okay? Um, and uh, but it was great to be with pastors who get it, um, to pray together, uh, to hear what God's doing all across the Bay Area. It was a joy, and so that was really, really fun. Well, um, I want to start by just reminding us of this series. We're ending it today, uh, but it's been called, we called it a praying life because really the goal, remember, of this series was to help our people move from, gosh, like I should pray, I really want to pray, I don't really know how to pray, and to help move them to, man, okay, I know how to pray. I have the tools, I actually even want to pray, and I'm gonna try. And I've heard that story from so many of you, what God's doing in your life as you're becoming a man or a woman of prayer. And our goal, remember, our goal is not guilt. Guilt doesn't work. You know, legalism doesn't work. This whole entire series has just been an invitation for you and for our church to draw near to Jesus. And if you stumble around in prayer, that's okay because everyone's a beginner when it becomes when it comes to prayer. You never like arrive at the summit and you say, Oh man, I got this. I know how to do it. There's always something new to learn. There's always something um new that I'm learning as I pray. And so if you've been with us through this series, let me just summarize for us where we've been. The first week, we looked at how to how to use the scriptures when we pray. I'm a big fan of whenever you pray, whenever you worship, open up your Bible, let the scriptures speak to you. And so I looked at Psalm 23 as just a framework to teach us how to pray through the scriptures. Um, so if you don't have the words to say, that's okay. They're right here. Secondly, the second week, uh I really looked at like how do we hear and discern God's voice? What does his voice sound like? And and we look practically at Christian meditation. So in Christian meditation, we don't empty our mind, we fill our mind with the scripture. And we looked at Psalm 1 and we talked about what does it look like to chew on a passage or chew on a verse all day long, from day to night. That's how we meditate on the scriptures. The third week, um, I really wanted to look at a verse that's really bugged me for many, many years. Actually, it made me feel guilty for many years. And it was a verse where Paul challenges us to pray without ceasing, to pray all the time. And what we found is really that's again an invitation to connect with God all throughout your day. Prayer should not just be compartmentalized in like something we do on a morning for like a few minutes, but no, all throughout the day, he wants you and I to connect with him. And so we looked at that. It's not about praying longer, it's about praying more often. And then last week, Zoe did an incredible job talking about the power of corporate prayer. Like, why do we pray in large groups? And what we learned, and she had a great line, that prayer is not only personal, it was it was it was never meant to be private. Like I learned how to pray in groups, listening to other people pray, going, oh man, man, I want to pray like her. Like that's a woman of faith. And oh wow, like, and God just does something different when we're praying in groups. He moves when he hears the prayers of his people. And so we're gonna actually look at that when we come to the book of Acts in the fall. But anyway, today, here's what I want to do. I want to look at one last thing. I want to look at the relationship between worship and prayer. Because I really believe they go hand in hand. I want to talk about worship and prayer. And so before I go any further, here's my big idea: a praying life becomes a worshiping life. You can even flip that and say a worshiping life becomes a praying life. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's take a moment. Would you open up your hearts? Would you open up your minds to the Spirit of God this morning? Pray for yourself, pray for those around you, then pray for me, and then we'll jump in. Let's pray. So, Holy Spirit, you're here. Come speak to your people. Give us eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts and minds that are open to whatever it is you want to teach us today. In the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, we pray. And everyone joined me and said, Amen. All right, let's go. All right, I want to talk about first about worship. Let's talk about worship. God created you to worship. Everyone worships something. Like every single person around the world today, it doesn't matter if they're Christian or not, it doesn't matter what kind of faith they have or not, worships and centers their life around someone or something. In the Bay Area, it's usually not Jesus Christ. So in the Bay Area, we center our lives, we worship things like success or innovation or comfort or control or pleasure or approval, or for most of us, we simply worship ourselves. And we were actually created to worship not just now, but through all eternity. We will either worship God or we will worship ourselves for all eternity. We were created to worship. This is why C.S. Lewis, who wrote, you know, the Chronicles of Narnia, he was a brilliant writer and Christian thinker of the 20th century. He had a famous line that stuck out to me years ago. He said, the doors of hell are locked from the inside. Think about that. See, what he meant was that hell is ultimately the trajectory of a person who refuses to worship God. So hell is actually a place where it's not thy will be done, it's my will be done. It's truly locked from the inside. I like to say, tell people all the time, God doesn't send anyone to hell. We send ourselves there. We don't want God. So he gives us what we want, ourselves. Now, that's the bad news. The good news is there's a much greater option for humanity. And we're gonna look at that in the last book of the Bible called Revelation. We see this beautiful, we see this powerful picture of heaven and a place that we're gonna see where everything and everyone is worshiping and praying together nonstop. And it's all centered in and around the person of Jesus Christ. And so what I want to do is look into this eternal heavenly worship gathering because what we're gonna see is we're gonna discover who we were made for and what we were created to do. And so, spoiler alert, I'm gonna disappoint some of you. Uh, heaven is not a place where we're gonna wear togas, right? We're not gonna float around the clouds, we're not gonna see a bunch of little fat little angel cupid babies. That's not heaven. I'm sorry to disappoint you. Heaven is a place where we're gonna be constantly in the presence of God, worshiping him, praying together with people from all tribes, nations, languages, and tongues. So, like, it's so hard to even describe. So, um, like think about the very like best moments you've had in worship, where you just like, oh man, I sense you, God. Or maybe think about the best moments you've had in prayer, where you're like, man, God just met me in this moment. Then multiply that by one million, and that's still just a taste of what the glory that's coming when we're in the presence of God forever. So, with that in mind, I want to look at an amazing passage of scripture in Revelation chapter five. If you have a Bible, turn with me to Revelation chapter five. Easy to find, it's right at the end. Um, but let me summarize what's going on in here. In chapter four, we start reading about this throne in heaven, what God's doing in heaven. And in the middle of this incredible time of worship and prayer, an angel like disrupts the worship service and says, Hey, hey, hey guys, we got a problem here. And the angel says, Who is worthy to open the scroll? Like, no one's worthy. And so the scroll is sealed, and John himself, when he hears the news, starts to weep. He says, Oh no. And the scroll is really just a metaphor of God's plan for justice, for redemption, for restoration, for new creation. And because no one can open it, history and humanity are stuck in their sin with no hope of being set free. And honestly, let's just pause for a moment. That describes our world today. That describes what it feels like. We live in a world that is broken, that is unjust, where there's an ache inside of us that's like, man, this isn't right. Something needs to change. And that's what's going on in heaven. And thankfully, one of the elders says, Hey, John, John, John, stop weeping. Oh man, I got good news. A lion is coming. And then John looks, and what he sees is not a lion. What he sees is a lamb. And not just any lamb, the lamb who was slain. And so the lamb is a picture of Jesus' power, not through might, but through a sacrifice, the lamb who takes away the sins of the world. And Jesus comes and he's worthy and can open the scroll because he was slain and gave his life for us. And then as a result of this, the rest of the chapter, what we see is just an explosion of worship. What we see is just an explosion of joy. And enough of my words, let's look at the text. Revelation chapter 5. Look with me at verse 8. And it starts this way, if I can find it, because man, you guys know, um, I keep I keep, you know, living in denial that I need my readers. Um, and as my mom used to say, denial is not a river in Egypt. Verse 8 says this. And when he had taken it, that's a scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb. And each one had a harp. And they were holding, look at this, golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God's people. And they sang a new song saying, You are worthy to take the scroll and open the seals, because you were slain, and by your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them to be a kingdom and priests, to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth. Let's stop there. If you're taking notes, what we see here is pretty clear. Heaven is centered around a throne where there's constant worship and constant prayer. Like heaven's been pretty popular for a long time, right? If, you know, I've I there's I've read a lot of books on heaven. There's always someone getting into a car accident, dying, seeing a light, writing a book, becoming millionaires. I hope that happens to me one day. Uh that sounds good. But like heaven is popular. And so I've gotten a lot of questions about heaven over the years. I even did years ago, did a series on heaven. And what I tell people about heaven, a lot of times they're very surprised. Like often I tell people, you actually don't really want to go to heaven. And they're like, what do you mean? No, I want to go to heaven, bro. Like, and I go, hey, heaven is a place where we're gonna enjoy the presence of God. We're gonna worship him, we're gonna pray with people for all eternity. And I'll say, hey, bro, you're not doing that now. You're gonna hate heaven. Does that make sense? And so what we see so sadly, and I'm gonna pick on America, and churches in America, because this is not the case for parts of the world that I've been to, worship and prayer in so many churches in America is boring, it's passionless, it's totally unengaging. It's no wonder why people don't want to be there. But it's not that way in heaven. And what we see in this picture of heaven, honestly, it's hard to even describe, it's hard to even imagine. I'll do my best, but we see four living creatures. One is like a lion, one is like an ox, one is kind of a man, one is like an eagle. There's 24 elders, there's throngs of angels, there's, and what we see is even all creation bowing down in worship, praying and singing a new song together. If you go back to Revelation 4, the scene is even more stunning. You read about the throne, there's like flashes of lightning, there's thunder, there's like this like emerald rainbow, there's a sea of glass, and all of that is just a description about the holiness and the wonder and the majesty of God on full display. Let me tell you, no one is bored in heaven. There is no one like like distracted about the worship and looking on their phone. There's no half-hearted devotion in heaven. No one cares about their preferences, no one cares about the personalities, there's nothing about self-promotion. It's all about Jesus. But here's what I really want you to see. What we see here is prayer and worship aren't like two separate practices, they're one response to the awe and the power and the glory of Jesus Christ. Both are happening simultaneously. See, worship is our response to who God is, to what Jesus has done. Worship lifts our eyes off of ourselves and our issues and our problems, and it places our eyes on Jesus. And then prayer is our constant connection with Jesus. Prayer draws us nearer to Jesus and keeps our hearts focused on Him. That's what's going on here. But I want to zero in on this interesting thing. Did you see how the four living creatures and the elders all had a golden bowl full of incense, which are the prayers of God's people? Like if you grew up Catholic, you've seen the golden bowls full of incense. Or you grew up like Russian Orthodox. I went to my first Russian Orthodox funeral years ago. I literally had to walk out because the incense was so intense. I was like, I can't breathe. You know, I'm an evangelical, I gotta get out of here. No, it was good. It was good. But there's a point. Like, what does that mean? See, think about it this way. I've been trying to describe this. So we pray in English or whatever your native language is, but Jesus hears it and sees it as incense. Let me say that again. We pray in our native tongue, but Jesus hears your prayers, and he sees your prayers as incense. And when we read about that, our minds should go back to the Jewish temple in the Old Testament, where literally incense was placed in the holy place, and it was burned all the time, and it was in God's presence, and it symbolized the prayers and the worship rising up constantly before God. And now your prayers and my prayers are constantly rising before the throne of God. But what does that mean? This is powerful. It means that every single one of your prayers, all of them, all your prayers you prayed in the past, all the prayers you're praying right now, all the prayers of the future are seen, they're collected, they're valued, and they're offered back to God in worship. You know what that means? That means heaven knows no such thing as a small or insignificant prayer. There's no such thing. Because in the heavenly worship service has started since the beginning of time and will continue throughout all eternity, God continually hears and sees and collects every single prayer. And the harps are being played and songs are being sung in worship, and the prayers of all the saints are just constantly rising before the throne of God. It's almost as if in heaven prayer smells a lot like worship. And so prayer, you guys, is not just, we've talked a lot about it, it's not just asking. It's not only just listening, it's not just discerning God's voice. I believe it's one of the ways we participate in the worship service both now and in heaven. This is why on Sunday, our goal on a Sunday is to give you just a taste, just a little taste of heaven. The best we can. And so we worship God in song and in music. We worship God by praying together. We worship God as the scroll. The scriptures are opened and taught. We worship God by giving him our tithes and our offerings. We worship God with our fellowship, which is our time together. Everything we do is meant just to give you just a small, small, small taste of heaven. And then what John describes next is not just what's going on in heaven, he describes who we're worshiping. Let me just read verse 11 now. Look what happens here in verse 11. He says, Then I looked, and I heard the voice. I mean, this is crazy. The voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousands, and they encircled the throne, and the living creatures and the elders, and in a loud voice they were saying, or they were singing, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Why is he worthy? To receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise. And look at this. Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying or singing to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever. And then the four living creatures said, Say with me, Amen. And look at this. And the elders fell down and worshiped. So what's going on there? What we see is very clear that Jesus is the reason for our worship and our prayers. Everything is centered around Jesus. And again, it's hard to describe it. I'll do my best, but really I want you to feel it the best you can. First, John describes like hundreds, no thousands, no millions, no, he says, too many I can't even count. Angels singing together at one time. What does that sound like? I have no idea. I have some guesses. I bet you no one's off key. I guarantee you. No angel is holding back their praise. And it says it's loud. So if you think our services are loud, your ears might explode in heaven. Again, I bet you no angel was a casual onlooker going, Oh, good for you, Michael. You're always trying to show off, you know? No. Man, like the angels were overwhelmed. And their response and the elders' response was to fall on their face and worship. So what's the point? The point, I think, is not the number of angels. The point is that Jesus is so worthy that heaven just erupts in worship. And then John lays out everything he's worthy of. He's worthy because he's a lamb, was he was the lamb that was slain. That's very interesting. The focus is on Jesus' sacrifice for us. Jesus redeemed humanity. What does that mean? That means he paid the price to rescue and restore us back to God. Jesus conquered sin. He conquered Satan. He defeated death because he was the lamb that was slain. And our only response, once we understand that, once we see that clearly, is to fall on our face and worship. And the reason why we don't is because so often the universe is centered around ourselves. Let me just remind us and remind myself, it's not about you. You were created to worship. The universe is not centered on any king or any president or anyone else. It's centered all around the Lamb who was slain. And heaven responds with worship because it's only there that Jesus is seeing clearly for who he is and what he's done. And I want you to notice, too, that it's not only the angels who respond in worship and prayer. There's the four living creatures. There's these elders. John says, actually, he's like, he's like, guys, everyone's responding in worship. It's almost like this ripple effect that's happening. It starts in the throne and just ripples out. Worship just keeps expanding. And they all declare seven important things that Jesus is worthy to receive. Let me highlight them real quick. Jesus, you get all power, all authority are yours, all wealth, every create everything in creation is his. We give him our reverence, our wholehearted submission. Jesus is given glory. That means Jesus is radiant, that he has divine beauty and majesty, that he lives in unapproachable light. And finally, Jesus is given praise. He deserves the worship of every single voice. And the reason why John chose seven is because seven is symbolic. It means complete. It means perfection. That means Jesus is not only worthy of all these things, he's worthy of everything. And again, and I really don't want to pick on us or the American church, but I will. Like the Bible knows no such thing as casual or flippant or lukewarm worship or prayer. So why does it happen so much in the church in the United States today? And again, there are a lot of reasons for that. But one of the main reasons, I think, the key reason, is we don't see Jesus for who he clearly is. Jesus is kind of worthy. Or our response is often dependent on how we're feeling in the moment. I just don't feel like being here today. It's not about you, it's about him. Lord have mercy on us all. Alright, let me summarize a little bit, and then I want to get really, really practical. Actually, let me make one more point. Yeah, I have more. Prayer, too, what you see here in worship often involves our bodies. Did you notice that? We lift our hands or we fall to our knees. I think because our bodies want to respond to the glory and the goodness and majesty of God. I mean, the elders fall flat on the ground. They're not like, oh, hallelujah, Jesus, yeah, Jesus. No, they just like, whoa, Jesus here, get on your face. I've actually heard it say, this is a good line. The closer you get to Jesus, the harder it becomes to stay standing. Woo! That preaches. It's not mine, but it's good. All right, let's get practical on the time I have left. How do we turn prayer into worship and worship into prayer? I'm gonna give you a couple ideas here. I want to encourage you this week, as you spend time with Jesus, start with a worship song. Either sing it yourself, maybe an old hymn that you grew up loving, or literally play a song on your phone or your computer. And allow that song, that worship song, to prepare your heart to meet with Jesus. And then I want to encourage you, and you can put all the points up there. I'm not gonna have time to go through them all. And then I want to encourage you to end with a worship song. So I'm gonna call this like book end worship this week. Start with worship, pray, focus on God, read the scriptures, end with worship. There's something about worshiping God in song that focuses on heart, our hearts on who Jesus is and what He came to do. Alright, but you can read all those quotes. If you want my notes, email me, I'll give you the rest of them. Blah, blah, blah. Okay, I want to end with this. Um, I'm gonna invite the band to come on back up. I talked about that retreat I was with with pastors, um, and it was great, but but uh they actually, and again, no disrespect, they brought in a famous pastor who has a massive following, a popular podcast, he's written all kinds of books, right? Honestly, he's super impressive. Um but like, and maybe this is just my own pride, like I could care less. Here's why. I don't know about you, I don't need more content in my life. I need more of Jesus in my life. I need the presence of God in my life. Like, I can find all that guy's content on his blog, and I've heard a lot of what he said already. And so, again, no disrespect, because the best part of the retreat for me was not the main sessions. It was Tuesday and Wednesday morning when I woke up at 7 a.m. and met with about 30 of the 90 pastors to worship and pray together. That was the best part. And for me, like honestly, I came to the retreat a little distracted, a little burdened. If I'm really honest, I didn't really want to be there. I just wanted to golf the whole time, you know, and that was a bad attitude. I confessed it. I had a bad attitude. Like they started playing games at the beginning. I'm like, bro, I'm not getting sweaty, I'm not doing this. This is ridiculous. You know, that was like my attitude. Rob, come on and play with me. No, I'm not playing with you. I'm gonna be grumpy and sit over here and watch and judge everyone. Anyway, um, that was what was going on in my heart. Um, but then Wednesday morning, um, you know, we prayed together. And we were praying for one another, and then afterward, we said, hey, um, it was breakfast time. We said, hey, if you need to go get breakfast, go. But if any of you want to linger and stay, we're just gonna pray with you and for you. So a small group of us, maybe about 10 pastors, stayed. And and I don't even know how to describe it, we like uh kind of did like a holy huddle. And the first pastor had shared something, we put him in the middle and we prayed over him with tears and I mean faith-filled prayers, and then another pastor got in there, a woman, we prayed for her, and it was just electric. It was God was just meeting us, tears were flowing, Kleenex was all over the place, and they're like, who's next? And I'm like, it's my turn. I jump in there. And a pastor from the East Bay, man, one of my buddies, uh Hakeem, he's the big black guy. I gotta get him to preach. He's amazing. He took his monstrous hand and just slapped it on my chest. And I was like, oh man. But I'll tell you what, it was like the hand of God was on my heart. And he prayed a prayer for me that I'm just, I mean, I was ugly crying, not just like, oh, I was like ugly crying. Like, you know, that's one of the cries where someone slips tissue in your hand because you're like, oh my gosh. And he just prayed life over me and encouragement over me. And I'm telling you, in that moment, my burden was lifted. And it was just powerful. Why do I say that? Because that's the invitation for all of us. That's the invitation from heaven to meet with God, to join in the celebration with worship and prayer. I'm so sick of religion. I'm so sick of churches performing, I'm so tired of like telling you guys what you want to hear. You know, you don't need another sermon. You need Jesus. You need to encounter the presence of God. And that's where our church is going. It's not that sermons don't matter, they do. Right? But I get, honestly, a half an hour twice a month in your life. That's not a lot. Right? There's about, in your media scrolls, you get about the last report is 49 hours a week of content coming from other people and places. I can't compete with that. And I shouldn't compete with that. But what we need is Jesus. So let's stand. And we're gonna do that. We're gonna end with an extended time of worship and prayer. If you want to come up to the front and and get on your knees or kneel, feel free to. You don't have to. If you want to lift up your hands, I'd encourage you to. In this moment, it's only been gonna be a couple minutes, minutes. Our prayer, my prayer, is again, you just get just a little taste of heaven. That the Holy Spirit, like Hakeem, put on my heart, just comes and the hand of God just comes upon your chest. And you receive whatever it is that you need to receive from God. So let's worship him in spirit and in truth. Hey, thanks for being with us, and we really pray that God spoke to you through his word today. And we want to stay connected, so don't forget to subscribe to this podcast, and that way you'll be notified the moment we have new content go live. And if you'd like uh more resources or to donate to our ministry, just simply go to newnorth.church. Thanks again for joining us. God bless you, and we'll see you right here next time.