From Work to Worship

 Have you ever heard a piano that was out of tune? It doesn't take much. One string can be just a little off, and you notice it. A concert piano has more than 200 strings, and there is an incredible amount of tension pulling on that frame. And yet that tension is what allows the piano to make beautiful music. Too much tension can damage it. Too little, and the piano just won't sound right.

Life is sometimes like that. We have work. We maybe have rest on the weekends. We have worship at a church service we try to fit in, too. And if we get things out of balance, something just isn't right. But this morning I want to concentrate on one of those areas - worship. Because I think sometimes we make worship much smaller than God intended. We come to church. We sing. We take Communion. We hear a sermon. And then we go home. But should worship end there?

We see this perspective in Hebrews 13:9-16 (NIV)...

Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them. (10) We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat. (11) The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. (12) And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.

(13) Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. (14) For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. (15) Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise - the fruit of lips that confess his name. (16) And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

That might seem like an odd passage for a message for 'Labor Day', but I want to unpack it a bit. The first thing I want us to see is that Jesus...

I. Changed the altar

Traditional altars have a way of becoming an end in themselves. In many instances, they become a place to which we confine God's presence. That's why many call this room a 'sanctuary'. We not only find this a nice place to meet with God, but unfortunately it can become a convenient place to leave God.

The writer says in verse 10, "We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat."

In the Old Testament, the altar was where sacrifices were offered. God gave Israel specific places for specific sacrifices. And the altar was in a real place in the Temple. But the writer of Hebrews isn't telling Christians that we now have a new physical altar somewhere. He's pointing us to something - and Someone - far greater.

He's telling us that we have a new sacrifice - and that sacrifice is Jesus! What the writer was getting at was that the altar was now...

A. Pointing us to Jesus

The old system had an altar with priests and sacrifices in a specific place. But none of those things could accomplish what Jesus accomplished! Jesus went outside the city gate and shed His own blood to make us holy! And once Jesus changes the sacrifice, He changes our understanding of worship. Because worship is no longer something we can contain in one location.

The whole book of Hebrews was trying to show us that Jesus is better! A better priest. A better covenant. A better sacrifice. And now the writer says, in effect, we have a better altar! We don't worship because we've discovered the right place. We worship because Jesus has given us access to God!

And then in Hebrews, it says something very interesting, "For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp." And then...

Hebrews 13:12 (NIV)

And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.

Jesus went outside the gate. He didn't stay inside the safe, accepted, religious center of Jerusalem. He went outside. He suffered outside. He died outside. And He did that so that we could be made holy through His blood. That's the point. Jesus didn't come just to give us another place to go worship. Jesus came to give us access to God!

And then comes the challenge in Hebrews 13:13 (NIV)...

Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.

Jesus went outside the camp - and the call is then to...

B. Go with Him

The banners on our wall - KNOW, GROW, GO - what does that GO mean? Where did Jesus go? Outside the camp. Outside the place of safety. Outside the place where everybody was comfortable with Him. And the writer says, "Let us go to Him!"

And isn't that exactly what we see Jesus doing throughout His ministry? He went toward the people everyone else wanted to stay away from. He went to those considered 'unclean' - the 'sinners', the outcasts, those who were unwanted and unholy. The Bible tells us that Jesus left Heaven. And figuratively, He left the Holy Place, He left the Courts of Worship, He passed beyond the accepted theological boundaries and into the darkness beyond!

Imagine you were one of those considered 'unclean' back then. Suppose you were a leper. A priest would go out and examine a leper and perform the rituals that declared him clean, but Jesus went out to "make" the leper clean, to completely heal him - to physically touch the leper. He went out to physically contact leprosy that the leper might live. Imagine if you were that leper and saw Jesus coming towards you...

It says this in 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV)...

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus touched you and me, while we were in our sin. He deliberately took our sin upon Himself to the cross where He suffered and died so that you and I might be declared holy and live. Wow!

This is more than just saying, "Let's leave the church building." It's saying, If we're going to follow Jesus, we have to be willing to go where Jesus went. And sometimes following Jesus will take us places that aren't comfortable. It may take us into a workplace where everybody doesn't agree with us. It may take us into a school where our faith isn't popular. It may take us into a conversation where standing for Christ costs us something. It may simply mean living differently when nobody from church is around.

Many times - we go to church, which is much easier than being the Church. But Jesus didn't call us to stay inside the camp. He called us to go with Him. By changing the altar, by challenging us to go with Him - Jesus changed...

II. What worship looked like

Now let's look again at Hebrews 13:15-16 (NIV)...

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise - the fruit of lips that confess his name. (16) And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

Notice that word in verse 15 - "continually". Not just Sunday morning. Not just when we sing. Not just when we bow our heads. - 'Continually'. So we have this idea of 'worship', of 'praise', and the writer breaks it down into two things. The first is that worship...

A. Comes from our mouths

The writer calls it a "sacrifice of praise"; the "fruit of lips." Our words matter. What we say about God matters. What we say to God matters. But there's a danger here. Jesus Himself said...

Matthew 15:7-9 (NIV)

You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: (8) 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. (9) They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.'

It's possible to have the right words and yet still have the wrong heart. We can sing about surrender and still want to be in control. We can sing about trusting God and then spend all week worrying. We can say, "Jesus is Lord," and then live as though we are lord of our own lives.

God wants more than lip service. He wants the 'fruit of lips' that confess His name. And I think there's something beautiful about that picture. - Fruit is something that grows. You don't staple an apple onto a tree and call it an apple tree. The fruit tells you what's happening inside the tree. And our words can do the same thing. What comes out of our mouths reveals something about what's happening in our hearts.

So the writer doesn't stop with our lips. Because worship isn't just something we sing or say. Worship also...

B. Shows up in our lives

Let's look again at Hebrews 13:16 (NIV)...

And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

Notice that little word - 'and'. The writer is deliberately giving us two connected expressions of worship.

He moves from what comes out of our mouths to what comes out of our lives. Praise is worship. But doing good is also worship. Serving is worship. Sharing is worship. That's what GO on our wall means - GO serve - GO share! Living for Jesus when nobody is watching is worship. That's why I don't want us to just think of worship as something that happens only inside this building.

Gathered worship matters! What we're doing here matters! But corporate worship is not the entirety of worship. When we leave here, worship doesn't stop. In fact, that's when we find out whether what we did here was actually genuine.

The Apostle Paul used a Greek word several times in his writing that, depending on context, could be translated as either 'worship' or 'serve'. There is a very real biblical connection between those two ideas. Worship isn't merely what happens when we sing. Serving God through our everyday lives can itself be an expression of worship. This is where the Labor Day connection happens...

Your job may be ordinary. Changing a diaper may be ordinary. Doing homework may be ordinary. Mowing the grass may be ordinary. Going to work Monday morning may be ordinary. But the way we do ordinary things can become an expression of the One we worship.

You don't have to sing a hymn at work to worship God. You don't have to preach a sermon in the break room. You don't have to start a prayer meeting in the middle of the office. You can simply be a Christian there. You can be honest. You can keep your word. You can work hard and treat people with dignity. You can forgive somebody.

You can share with someone who has less than you do. You can refuse to do something you know is wrong. You can remember that even though your employer signs your paycheck - God is the One you ultimately serve. And that changes the way you work.

We work differently because we worship differently. We treat people differently because we worship differently. We handle money differently. We handle conflict differently. We handle success and failure differently!

Because - Jesus didn't just change what happens on Sunday. Jesus changes what happens on Monday. And that's really what this passage is getting at.

So What?

So what does this mean for us? Don't leave Jesus here. Take Him with you - to work, home, school and into your relationships. Take Him into the ordinary parts of your life. And remember where all of this is headed. It says this in Hebrews 13:14 (NIV)...

For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

And then we get a little more of this picture, one of those places where scripture folds in on itself again. The Apostle John saw the New Jerusalem and he wrote, in Revelation 21:21-22 (NIV)...

The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass. (22) I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

Did you notice - no temple. Why? Because God is there; The Lamb is there! We don't need a special place to get us to God anymore.

So yes, we come together to worship. But we don't worship only when we come together. And one day, we will enter that city that's to come. Until then, let's go to Him. Outside the camp. Into the world. Into our homes. Into our everyday lives. And let our lips praise Him - and let our lives prove that we mean it!

If you've never come to Jesus, that's where all of this begins. My purpose is not to convert you to a church, a preacher, or even a doctrine. It's to bring you to Jesus.

Remember that piano at the beginning? All those strings have to be in tune for the piano to sound right. And I think that's a picture of what Jesus does in our lives. He doesn't just change one part of us. He brings our whole life into tune with Him!

Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Come to Jesus. Worship isn't just something we do in His presence. Worship is what happens when we recognize that our whole life belongs to Him. And as you leave here this morning and go back into the world - now is the time to worship...