Future Church Brisbane
Join Luke Kennedy and friends at Future Church in Brisbane, Australia.
Talks from our gatherings as well as deeper discussions and Application panels around the practicals of Following Jesus.
Future Church Brisbane
Sabbath Finale: Embracing Worship as a "Set apart" time!
As we culminate our Sabbath series, let us guilt you through the profound practice of worship, revealing how dedicating this day to the Lord can enrich your spiritual walk and amplify your life's purpose. Together, we'll rediscover the rhythms God intended for us, examining how worship extends beyond a mere routine to become a heartfelt gesture akin to reserving our most treasured family heirlooms for the grandest celebrations.
In this episode, we contemplate the essence of making time holy and the life-changing power that comes with presenting ourselves as living sacrifices—a true act of spiritual worship as envisioned in Romans 12. Whether worship is your second nature or a step out into the unknown, we invite you to join us in this space. As we close with a collective prayer and extend our hands to worship together, we affirm that this act is more than tradition—it's an outward expression of our inner transformation and profound love for God.
--------------------------------
Future Church Brisbane Website // https://www.futurechurch.io
Future Church Brisbane INSTAGRAM // https://www.instagram.com/futurechurchbrisbane
We've been on a bit of a journey the last three Sundays and into this fourth Sunday, exploring the concept of Sabbath and God's rhythm for the world, and today we are going to finish that teaching journey and next week we're going to do some Q&A kind of Q&R maybe more appropriate response and some application panel, I guess you could say of how are people actually implementing this in our church. So we'll hear from a bunch of people what they've been trying, what's not been working, what's been working, that kind of stuff. So hopefully that's going to be really helpful. But have you been enjoying this? Has it been good? A lot of discussion around this topic, which has been wonderful, and I'm really hoping that this doesn't just it's not just a wave that passes over our church, but something that becomes really embedded in just the rhythm and the flow of how we do community, how we do, how we do together. So we are going to look today at the fourth kind of rhythm of this progression, I guess you could say, around Sabbath, and that is around worship. So we started off talking about stopping. Stopping is the first part to learning how to Sabbath with God. The second rhythm was around rest and then we talked last week about celebration and we talked last week about celebration. So celebration and delight and joy and having a party, learning how to be joyful with God as we rest with him. And then today is the final kind of progression of that and that is into worship. So thankfulness, and overflowing thankfulness to God for what he's doing in our lives. Sunday is a great day to worship God, isn't that true? Sunday is a great day.
Speaker 1:For many of us, sunday is the best day to Sabbath with God. It's the best day we gather together. You know, for many centuries the early church called this the Lord's Day. It was a day for God, not for us, but for God. They gathered together, they celebrated the Sabbath together, they called it the Lord's Day. In the modern West we have kind of what Eugene Peterson calls kind of like a bastardized Sabbath, which is basically a melding of the weekend and Sabbath, if that makes sense. So we've taken what was a spiritual concept, a profound, deep concept of Sabbath, and then we kind of turned it into a day off. In the West we kind of turned it into a day off in the West we kind of turned it into a weekend, and that has influenced the church in many ways as well. Many Christians still today. We have a weekend but we don't really have time with God that is set aside and set apart as special for God, and that's something that we need to bring back.
Speaker 1:You know, for many people, sunday probably looks to something like going to bed late Saturday night, having a good night out, maybe, or, you know, watching movies up until late. You know watching movies up until late all the students, you know like 2 am in the morning having, you know, entertainment time and then waking up the next day feeling a little bit like a little bit, you know, not on our best, and then dragging ourselves out of bed to get to a church service somewhere and getting through that and then, after the church service finishes, crashing at home on the couch with the TV on watching some footy, some magic round go Broncos Finally got a win last night. Just I was holding my breath and you know that's kind of what Sabbath kind of looks like. But but that is so far from what God had intended for the rhythm for his people. There's so much more that God would want to offer you, uh, to care for your soul. God loves you so much and I want to have a look at Genesis 2 for the very last time.
Speaker 1:Okay, genesis 2, we've been looking at this every week, verse 2 and 3, it says by the seventh day God had finished the work that he began doing. So on the seventh day he rested from all of his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and he made it holy Because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had been done. So notice two things here. We notice number one, that God blessed the seventh day. So we talked about this last week, about blessing it, meaning it's a celebration, it's a celebration over the day, blessing and fun and joy and celebration over that day. It's a wonderful thing. Secondly, the second thing you notice is God makes it holy, god makes the day holy.
Speaker 1:Now, holy sounds like a really religious word, but it's actually not a religious word. It actually is a very simple word and it just means to be set aside for something special. Yeah, to be taken aside for something special, not to be treated as common but to be treated as special. So you know, in most religions in the world today, you will see places that are very holy, you know whether that's, you know, some holy mountain or there's a holy temple or there's a place that's very holy and very special, and when you go to that place, that place is holy. But God does something very different. In the Genesis story, god calls a time holy, he calls a specific time. This time is going to be a special time. So, wherever you are in the world, whatever you are doing this time, when we enter this time, it's going to be a time that is set aside, and what's it going to be set aside for? It's going to be set aside for god.
Speaker 1:I, growing up, I had had my grandparents maybe Does anyone's grandparents here have like the Royal Dalton set Anyone? Anyone know what I'm talking about? The Royal Dalton, yeah, the china, the beautiful china that was in the glass cabinet. I see some people nodding. This was my grandma had the Royal Dalton set, the tea set. No one ever touched the tea set. No one ever touched the tea set. I mean, if you touch that tea set, you, you were, you were gonna, you're in trouble, you're in big trouble. Uh, so we would go to her house and if you tried to get the royal tea set out, you'd be. You know, you want to run the other way, but she would give you maybe a plastic cup or something like that. We had these beautiful ones here and then we had the, the plastic cups, which were fit for the children, because I have children. I know my children. If there's a way to smash something, they will find it. So we we've got a lot of plastic in our house at the moment. It's probably not great, but, uh, it saves us from cleaning up glass all over the floor every day, and that's kind of the concept when it comes to this word.
Speaker 1:Holy is. We've got things that are prepared for everyday use, normal use, and then we've got things that are special and are used for special times. At Christmas time, we bring out the Royal Dalton. At the big birthday party. We bring out the Royal Dalton. At the big birthday party, we bring out the Royal Dalton. It's the same with our time with God when we get to the Lord's Day. It's a time that is set aside for God. It is not common time. It is not a time to be treated as normal. It is a time to be treated as special. It is a special time.
Speaker 1:We've tried in my family to make sure that our time on Sunday, especially with church, is the best day of the week. For us it's the best and most exciting time is the time that we build around, gathering with the family of God. It's always been a very exciting time. That's the way that we've always presented it to our children. That's the way, at times, we've always talked about it, even though the church is not perfect. But we're setting our children up with an understanding that this is a very special thing that we're a part of, setting our children up with an understanding that this is a very special thing that we're a part of. So to make a day holy is to set aside for something special.
Speaker 1:Jesus said this when it comes to following him. Matthew, chapter 7. He said Broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. It's common, but small is the gate and narrow is the path that leads to life and only a few find it he's talking about. There's a common thing and there's a special thing. It's common to go your own way. It's common to do whatever you want, whatever pleases you. Everyone did right in their own eyes. So many times the Bible talks through that. It's a common way. But then there's a special way, and it's special because it's holy, it's set apart for God and it's the narrow path. It's not narrow because it's narrow-minded. It's narrow because it's special and to get on it you have to choose to get on it. It's not just flowing down the river.
Speaker 1:So in the Torah they would have pots, and pans that were holy, utensils that were holy, all kinds of things that were set aside for special things, and I think that is the same as us today. Look at Exodus 16, verse 23. This is Moses speaking. He said this is what the Lord commanded. Tomorrow is a day of Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. It's holy for God. I hear a little noise, that's all right. I hear it's a holy day for God. I want to make this day for God. So bake what you want and bake and boil what you want to boil, save whatever is left and keep it until morning.
Speaker 1:Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none Isn't that interesting that when you make common a holy thing, it's not as fruitful as you want it to be. Meaning this, I think you will be more successful in your work if you will commit to prioritizing having a day as holy. Meaning this, you will get more done in six days than with God doing it God's way, than you would in seven days doing it yourself. Does this make sense? When you present your time to God, you allow God to make this day holy. This time together, special, unique time for him. He's actually going to multiply the rest of your time.
Speaker 1:Where there's a group of people here that would not trust God, with that, they still wanted to work on the day that God said is holy and they actually went out and found nothing. They became fruitless in their pursuit of more and more and more, and I think that is something that we need to be careful of today. So the Sabbath is an entire day that is set aside, not just for rest but also for God. We call this worship Worship. Now, what is worship Worship? Is anything that we do, that where we center God and we direct our heart in love towards God and his goodness, his glory. That's a form of worship, and I think our church really loves that message. Everything in our whole life can be worship. When it's directed at God, that can be an act of worship.
Speaker 1:I think our church loves that message. That's great. That's a strength here, I think, but you know, it's also, I think an area that we need to get stronger at is in worship with our bodies. Worship with our voices, worship with our bodies, worship with singing, worship with praising. That's an area that we need to get stronger in. It's a little bit less comfortable to be exuberant in your worship to God. It's easier sometimes to say I'm going to worship God by honoring God with my workplace. That's great and I applaud that. That's wonderful. But you know, there's also a powerful place where you get out of your comfort zone and say God, here's my body, here's my voice, I'm going to sing, I'm going to praise, I'm going to worship you. That's really powerful.
Speaker 1:Have a look at Romans 12 with me, verse 1 and 2. It says I appeal to you, therefore, people at Future Church this morning, you, therefore, people at Future Church this morning, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your act of spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that by testing, you may discern what his will is, what he's good and acceptable and perfect. Why would Paul say, present your bodies? Is he some kind of like sicko that's like into, like human sacrifices, or I remember growing up as a teenager thinking that when I was reading that, wow, that's really hectic. Hey, is that what we're going back to? Or is he like talking about? Maybe, like you know how some traditions, like whip themselves, say something wrong. Maybe it's that kind of thing. No, what he's saying is in the Christian tradition, in the Christian worldview, there is no distinction between soul and body.
Speaker 1:We don't separate these things like Gnosticism. We don't say what we see is important and what we don't see is unimportant or it's out there somewhere that we don't really connect with. In a Christian worldview, the soul and the body are both extremely important and absolutely integrated. So my body is very important and what's happening on the inside is very important and really connected. Is this making sense? Very different than what our culture would say to you, meaning maybe they would say your body's not very important, so you can just go sleep around, it's totally fine, because your body, it's just your body. Who cares what's in my heart? That's important? God would say no, no, no, that is not the case. Your body is extremely important to God and connected to who you are, inextricably connected to who you are as a person. It's a gift from God, and some people would say it's all about the body. The body is so important and maybe worship their body but really neglect who they are on the inside. God would also say to that no, what's happening on the inside is extremely important and these things are very much connected. So our faith, our worship, is not just something in our hearts, guys, it's not just something in our minds. It's to be lived out bodily. When we come to church, when we come and we gather as the church here together and we start singing together, it's not just singing in my heart, it's not just presenting my heart to God, it's actually presenting my body, my life, my soul, everything I have, to God. That is my worship and that is what is very powerful. So let me challenge the young men here just for a second, because I think many of the girls get this much more naturally than a lot of the young guys. Okay, so let me just throw this out to you. 1 Timothy. This is Pastor Paul speaking. 1 Timothy 2, verse 8. This is Pastor Paul speaking. 1 Timothy, 2, verse 8.
Speaker 1:In every place of worship, I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up to God, free from anger and controversy. So, young men, I want to see you worshipping God with your hands lifted high and your voices with some volume. That's what I want to see. This is possible. Come on, come on, young men, let's hear it, let's see it, not just in your heart. Will I connect with God a bit better in nature? Fantastic, but I still want to see you worshipping God, unashamedly worshipping God. We need to see that.
Speaker 1:I see a lot of young men who are willing to put their hands up pretty quickly when they're not getting their own way, or they're in a bit of controversy or they're getting offended. They got their hands up pretty quickly or they're getting offended. They got their hands up pretty quickly. But what about your hands up to God? I see a lot of young men with their hands up at the football stadium. But what about your hands up to God? This is surrender. This is God. Here I am, this is God. All of my life is pointed towards you. God is the one who deserves our worship. That is a sign of worship, and I believe that there's so many people in your life, around your life, who need to see you worshipping. Guys, come on, they need to see it. My wife needs to see me worship. My children need to see me worshiping God. They need to see that they're watching. I know they're watching. They're always telling me they're watching.
Speaker 1:And Paul is saying young men, you need to stop being angry, stop being controversial, like getting into arguments with people, and you need to start worshipping God with your hands up in peace. That's what he's saying. That's the model I want to see for young men Not delegating spiritual things to the people around you, okay, but leading the way in worship. It's very easy. I've been married for a long time. It's very easy to delegate spiritual things to my wife because she's probably naturally like I wouldn't say more spiritual, but like she's naturally more in tune with stuff than necessarily me sometimes. So it's very easy to oh, you pray, you can pray for the kids or you're more natural at that or whatever.
Speaker 1:And I've realized over time there is no substitute for my voice in worship and in prayer in my home. There's no substitute for it. I need to lead that. My wife wants me to lead that when I go and pray over the kids and pray with them. There's no substitute for that. I need to be a part of that, not all me, but I need to really be actively part of that.
Speaker 1:This is a challenge. So, guys, are we good? Are we okay? Are we all doing good? Yeah, someone said amen, thank you, that's good. Yes, amen for the young men, thank you, thank you, they're a little bit quiet, but that's okay. We've got a little bit more time. We'll keep working on it. Time, we'll keep working on it.
Speaker 1:Um, so worship is the final and most important rhythm or movement in the worship. Okay, um, I find this for myself is when I first stop. Stopping is the hardest part. Stop, um, because we love to work. Stopping is the hardest part. The next part is is rest, and rest is like almost like um, the, the hot, the air of pressure, the depressurization coming out of my body. Um, when, when I rest, and but when, what I find is after, after I've rested for a little bit, what happens is I just start wanting to celebrate and have fun and delight and we'll start cooking and start telling a lot of jokes and we'll have a lot of fun together.
Speaker 1:And the final part is my heart starts moving towards God and thankfulness is the last thing that I really embrace when it comes to Sabbath. We usually end our Sabbath with our family together, praying over each other and prayers of thankfulness. Yeah, I think I shared this before, but you know, my children will often treat God as a Santa Claus and have a big to-do list for God. That's how they're going to pray, which is not a bad thing, because they believe God will answer their prayers. But we've slowly been teaching them over and over that thankfulness to God for what we have is really, really important, and that is one of the ways that we worship God. So we are going to spend just a little bit of time in worship now, and Lisa's going to come back. We're going to worship a little bit. We've just got, you know, a few minutes left, all right, but I really want to encourage our church that our church, the church, is called to be holy, not because we're separate from the world, but because we're called to be set aside for a special purpose.
Speaker 1:The church is not common. The word profane right, profane. It sounds like another big, scary word, but profane just means to treat a special thing like it's common. That's what it means, and we're not meant to profane the church Like. The church is not meant to be common. Like common, as in like ah, just whatever. It's just a normal thing the church is meant to be. I mean, I'm talking about the church, right? God's church, the bride of Christ is meant to be a special thing, called aside for a special purpose.
Speaker 1:Too many of us are, so. We've got so deeply in our psyche I don't want to stand out, I don't want to be different than anyone, I just want to fit in. And you need to put that to bed, because the truth is, if you're a follower of Jesus, you are not called to be the same as everyone else. You're not. You have to come to grips with that in your heart. I'm not called to just be the same as everyone. It doesn't mean I'm better than anyone I'm certainly not but I'm called to live differently. And the sooner you come to grips with that, the sooner you can enter the blessing of living differently, not wearing a Christian hat and then living exactly the same as everyone else around you but expecting different results. No, the way of Jesus is faith. That is true. You enter the kingdom of God with faith, but it's actually a different way of living. It's not the same way as everyone else's living. When others choose revenge, we call to choose forgiveness. That's a different way of living man. You know, it's a path of grace. It's a path of um spiritual practice and as a family here together, we are meant to be supporting each other in that.
Speaker 1:So worship is important. If you, if you find it hard to worship maybe some of you guys like personality-wise, it's not natural for you. I think as you step out in faith and worship God, there'll be something even more special for you. If it's not natural for you and you're still being obedient to God and worshiping God, I think that's wonderful. I really do applaud you for that. You might say well, I don't necessarily feel, I'm not necessarily a touchy-feely kind of type. I don't really. And Will was saying to me he was saying to me the other day, like, coming from an Anglican background, if I can get into worship, surely anyone can. I've learnt how to worship God in this stream and I think that's really a wonderful, wonderful thing.
Speaker 1:Maybe you come from a place where worship isn't common. Being expressive of what's happening on the inside, letting it come out, is not common. But let me just encourage you as you do that in faith, I really believe that God will meet you where you're at. He really will and he will honor that. Okay, so let me pray for you and then we're going to worship a little bit together, all right. Thank you, jesus, for just who you are. We love you so much. What you've done for us, what you've done in our lives, you've come in, you've made us free, you've filled us with your spirit. So I pray God as we worship you, what's inside would come out. We'd not stay inside, but would come out. We thank you God. We love you Amen. Will you stand with me? We'll worship God together, amen. Thank you to stand with me and worship God together. Thank you.