Going Deeper with the Message:

Because of Who He Is
by: Andrew Archer

When I think about worship, questions comes to mind: why do we worship? What drives our worship? Or better yet, what is our worship defined by? Oftentimes, our worship is defined by our situation. To help explain what I mean, think about it in regard to sports. 

When your favorite sports team is doing well, the coach is making good decisions, players are executing, and they are winning; it’s effortless to sing their praise. Week in and week out, it’s natural to sing praises after wins. But as soon as things go astray—when the coach starts making decisions you don’t agree with, when the players aren’t playing well, as soon as the losses start—the praise stops.

Unfortunately, I think we do the same thing with God. When our situation is good—when we are happy with it and things are going well for us— it’s effortless to praise Him. However, when things become difficult—when we are in a valley and we feel like He is far away—we tend to stop singing. But the incredible thing about God is that, even when our situation changes, He never does. He stays the same no matter what. 

Psalm 100 says this:
Let the whole earth shout triumphantly to the Lord!
Serve the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Acknowledge that the Lord is God.
He made us, and we are his—
his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him and bless his name.
For the Lord is good, and his faithful love endures forever;
his faithfulness, through all generations.

We should not let our worship be defined by our situation, whether good or bad. Our worship should be defined by who God is. He is good. His faithful love endures forever. He never changes. He is faithful to all generations. He is the same God in the valley that He was on the mountaintop. 

I know that some of us are doing really well and that’s awesome. Praise God for that! However, some of us are not, and I’m sorry that things are difficult for you right now. But my encouragement to you, no matter your situation, is this: stop. Let’s stop defining our worship by our circumstances, our surroundings, our situation and let’s begin defining our worship by who our God is. 

When we sing, let’s sing joyfully for who He is. Because He is good. He is faithful. His love endures forever. He is the Creator. He is the Lord of Lords. He is the King of Kings. He is the One who gave it all by sending His son to bring us from death into new and abundant life. He is worthy of our praise whether we are on the mountaintop or in the valley.

Going Deeper with the Message:

Love on Display
by: Andrew Archer

Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. –1 John 4:7-11

When it comes to love, God wants us to have a clear understanding as to just how great His love is. He wants us to know that His love for us is unconditional—it knows no bounds. We have done nothing to earn or deserve it. God doesn’t love us because we first loved Him; He first loved us and He put His love on display for us in His Son Jesus. 

As Tim shared Sunday, Jesus loved unconditionally. He loved people regardless of who they were. Regardless of their gender, race, social status, wealth, and more. He loved people regardless of how they treated Him. Even as he was being crucified, He cried out “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”  And most importantly, He loved people regardless of the cost. Jesus told His best friends that “No one has greater love than this: to lay his life down for his friends.” Then Jesus put His money where His mouth was and took upon the wrath of God not only on behalf of His friends, but His enemies as well. That is true unconditional love.

If we are ones who know this unconditional love of God, then we ought to love one another. John makes it plain that because God is love, if we aren’t showing love to others, then we don’t know God. The crazy thing is, God still loves us even when we don’t love others. That’s what His love is—love without conditions. 

So this week let’s focus on two things:
• Spend time with the God who knows you fully and yet loves you unconditionally 
• Spend time loving others with the same love that God has for you

Getting this right is more important than any other Relationship Goal we have talked about in this series. As Peter says in 1 Peter 4:18:
“Above all, maintain constant love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins.”