Episode 1192: How We Worship

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,192 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:06] Donna Renay Patrick: I am Donna Renay, Patrick. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your. Having the ability to use your temple and thoughts is vital to live out your purpose. And one way to be inspired to do that is listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer.

[00:00:38] Scott Maderer: This is about using worship to inspire us, to actually go out and live for God's justice in the world. And God's justice is often not what we think. It's not about going through the Bible and proof, texting it, to find all the things that support what you already believe and ignore the [00:01:00] things that don't support those things.

[00:01:02] Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to. Then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:29] And today's spiritual foundation episode about impacting the world. I talk with you about Isaiah chapter one versus 10 through 20. I share how Isaiah is asking us to look at our worship and not in the way that you might think. Instead, it's asking about what we do outside of church, not inside Isaiah chapter one versus 10 through 20.

[00:01:55] Hear the word of the Lord. You rulers of Sodom, listen to the [00:02:00] teachings of our God. You, people of Gamora. What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, says the Lord I've had enough of burnt offerings of Rams, the fat of fed beast. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats. When you come to appear before me who asked this from your.

[00:02:20] Trample. My courts know more bringing offerings is futile. Incense is an abomination to me, new moon and Sabbath and calling of convocation. I cannot endure solemn assemblies with inequity, your new moons and your appointed festivals. My soul hates. They have become a burden to me. I am wary of bearing them.

[00:02:40] When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourself clean, remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes cease to do evil, learn to do good. Seek justice rescue the oppressed, [00:03:00] defend the orphan plead for the widows.

[00:03:02] Come now, let us argue it out. Says the Lord though, your sins are like Scarlet. They shall be like snow they're though. They are red, like Crimson. They should become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the. But if you refuse in rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

[00:03:24] Now, this is one of those old Testament passages that you come across when you're reading and the prophets often appear to be grumpy, to be. Upset to be angry and to be pointing out what the people are doing wrong. And I think it's easy to get bogged down in the text about sacrificing of animals and burning of incense and these sorts of things and say that's not how we worship today.

[00:03:52] That's not connected to what we're doing today. And yet the point is. [00:04:00] This is saying in part is the actions that you're doing out here that are obvious, that are visible, that you consider worship in doing what God wants you to do. Aren't actually the things that God is trying to pay attention to.

[00:04:17] Instead it's saying why aren't you taking care of the orphan? Why aren't you helping the widow? Why aren't you actually going out and doing justice in the world? At first glance, it feels he's not talking to us, he's talking to the Kings here. He's talking at the very first verse in this book, there's a list of the Kings of Judea.

[00:04:37] And he's saying I'm calling you out, but he's actually calling out all of us both at that time. And even today, because this isn't about worship in terms. Do you have contemporary music or do you have hymns? Do you have a smoke machine or do you have a screen or a presentation? What does the sermon look like?

[00:04:58] How often do you pray? [00:05:00] Instead it's about our heart. It's about do the words of worship. Do the actions that we're taking place that we're doing as signs of worship ma match up on Sunday and actually are they reflected in what we do? The rest of the week. It's about whether what we pray for is actually what we work for.

[00:05:26] If you think about it, oftentimes you'll hear on Sunday, someone lifting up something in prayer, but then is that showing up in their actions during the week is what we hope for what we live. , this is about looking and examining our hearts and saying is what we recite is what we repeat is the ritual we go through.

[00:05:50] Is it actually of meaning? Does it have a connection to our actual lives or is it just something we show up and [00:06:00] do and go through the motions? So it's something that we just show up. It's Sunday. So we do it this way and that's how we've always done it. This is a way of looking at ourselves. As opposed to the liturgy of the church, as opposed to are they playing the hymns that you like, are they playing the music that you like?

[00:06:24] Are they doing worship the way you want it to be done instead? It's about saying, are you out in the world doing what you're called to do? Whether it's the Lord's prayer, whether it's any of the other liturgy that you might read in your church, we often become divorced from it because it's something we do every Sunday.

[00:06:48] And we stop thinking about it as an actual call to action God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And. we [00:07:00] say it, but do we actually live it out? Do we do it? This is about what happens, where we live and where we work much more than it is about where we worship or how we worship. This is about using worship to inspire us, to actually go out and live for God's justice in the.

[00:07:23] And God's justice is often not what we think. It's not about going through the Bible and proof, texting it, to find all the things that support what you already believe and ignore the things that don't support those things. Instead, it's about looking for people that are being mistreated. Even if they're doing something that you don't agree with and standing up for 'em it's about standing up for justice and working together to lift.

[00:07:52] Not just the people that you already agree with and look like and love, but all people. Thanks [00:08:00] for listening.

[00:08:01] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor, go over to facebook.com/inspired stewardship and like our Facebook page and market that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we are serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there until next time invest your.

[00:08:47] Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.