Worship Really Works When the Chips Are Down

Rev. Dr. Christopher Carlson

What we might call “foxhole conversions”, when people get in trouble they pray.  Or when the chips are down they turn to God, and maybe that is the time they have done it, the only time they have done it.  But I am not sure that is all bad, at least they are turning to God, because life is tough. Life is full of trials.  Life is full of temptations.  And it may surprise you to hear me say it, but I believe that is the time that we ought to worship.  Because the tools that God gives us to deal with life, chief among them is worship.  I’ve been preaching a series of sermons and today is my last one on “Worship That Really Works”, using the Lord’s Prayer.  We have gotten to a precarious part of the prayer where Jesus asks to pray “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:13).  That serves as part of our scripture today and I would like to also read to you actually two more, two episodes in which Jesus is tested, when Jesus is tempted, familiar stories to us.  The first is from Luke Chapter 4 when Jesus is lead into the desert and is tempted by the devil. 

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone.']" The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'" The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down from here. For it is written: " 'He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'" Jesus answered, "It says: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

While Satan tempted Jesus and tested him throughout his life but that opportune time came toward the end.  Came just after the day we celebrate today called Palm Sunday when Jesus came into Jerusalem triumphant and yet just a few days later tempted to the point of death. Jesus has just told the disciples he is going to die and then all will fall away because of that.  (Matthew 26:33-46) Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.”  “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “this very night before the rooster crows you will disown me three times.”  But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you I will never disown you.”  And all the other disciples said the same. And Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane and said to them, “sit there while I go over there and pray.”  He took Peter, of the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me." Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" he asked Peter. "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." He went away a second time and prayed, "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done." When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!"

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Will you pray with me.

Father in heaven I come before you and ask your Holy Spirit to be upon us all, on to our hearts and minds so that we may hear your word.  Be with us Lord, teach us what you would have us know, each individual and as a church.  We pray in Jesus name, Amen.

Does God tempt us?  it seems to say that in the Lord’s Prayer and yet we find that certainly God does not tempt us.  James says a little later, “When tempted, no one should say ‘God is tempting me’ because God cannot be tempted by evil nor does he tempt anyone.”  You have to understand the Lord’s Prayer in context, we have to understand the saying ‘lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one,’ in the context of the prayer itself.  We have just been told by Jesus to address the God of the universe as “Papa”.  Certainly, there are many human fathers who are not good fathers but God who is our father is a very good father.  As someone we would address as “Papa” is not going to lead us into evil.  We have also asked our Papa to take care of our needs for today, ‘give us today, our daily bread’. We have also asked him to take care of our yesterdays, ‘forgive us our sins, our debts, our trespasses’.  And now we need help facing our tomorrows, ‘lead us not into temptation’.  I like Max Lucado’s illustration.  He imagined a father and a son walking on a cold day, ice all around.  The father cautions the boy to slow down but the boy is too excited and leaves the father’s hand and sure enough falls onto the ground.  He hits that first patch of ice, he slips and falls.  After being picked up, the boy clings to the father and says to his father, “Keep me from the slippery spots, don’t let me fall again.” I like that except I think there’s to it than that.  Life certainly is full of slippery spots, things which test us, which tempt us, which cause us to fall.  But there is also an act of being or beings tempting us.  That is why it says this ‘lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the (we like to say evil but it really is) evil one’.  The Christian view is that Satan is alive and well hates us and tempts us and tests us.  Life is difficult enough by itself but Satan makes it harder.  ‘Lead us not into temptation deliver us from this evil one’, protect us, hold on to us, don’t let us fall or if we fall, don’t let us fall beyond our ability to take it, beyond our courage. 

With that in mind, how indeed does worship help?  I’m not sure we think of worship that way.  We think of worship as something we go to on Sunday mornings and maybe its easily not gone to if we have something better to do.  We don’t think of worship when we get up in the morning or when we go to bed at night, we are lucky to think of it at all.  It’s an option, something that is nice, something that is comforting.  And it certainly is all of that. But, how is worship power to deal with life?  Well I think it deals with life because it does give us power.  You know when you are in the midst of temptation, one of the best things you can do is like the man in the foxhole and say, “Lord help me”.  You know again, that is the last thing we want to do because the things we are tempted to do we really want to do.  The things we are doing we really like.  James says, “God doesn’t tempt us, but each one is tempted when by his own evil desire he is dragged away and enticed then after the desire has conceived it gives birth to sin, and isn’t that the way it works.  We think of something we like to do and then we say “Oh well, I shouldn’t do that but boy it looks good”.  And it goes on and on.  Its there in the midst that we have to say “Lord help me”.  The Lord knows what’s going on in our hearts, he’s seen it before.  And He will help us.  but worship also gives us perspective.  You know many, many temptations, many problems we have often boil down to this idea and the reality that we wnt to do what we want to do.   

Many scholars point to Isaiah 14 as a description of Satan.  We are told that Satan was an angel, or some kind of being that fell from heaven.  And Isaiah seems to point to this.  List to what it says, Chapter 14 (verse 12 - 14) How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn!  You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart,  "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High."  Did you notice “I will, I will, I will, I will”, I will become like God.  And do you remember the first temptation of Adam and Eve?  You will become like God.  It is our temptation as well.  Oh we don’t think we are deities but we like to run our lives.  Jesus too was tempted.  One of the aspects of this is self-sufficiency.  Jesus was hungry and the devil came to him and said, “You’ve got the power, turn these rocks into bread.”  Its interesting how rocks in that part of the world were a lot like bread, round and in the sunlight and dusk looked just like baked bread.  “You’ve got the power, don’t wait for God to take care of you, do it yourself.  Turn these stones into bread.” Some of us think we have the power to run our own lives too.  You are a self-made person.  You don’t bow your knees you just roll up your sleeves and put in another twelve hour day.  You don’t bow knees, you just try harder.  You just read another book.  You figure it out; you don’t wait for God to help.  Now that may work in parts of your lives, it may work in your business but when you face your own grave, or your own guilt, or your addictions, or the fact that your family is breaking up.  Whatever it is, you find that it is not enough.   

I love Peter.  I find myself a lot like him, in the negative ways, “Even if all fall away, I will never fall away, I can trust in my strength.” Human nature hasn’t changed much.  And Jesus just looks at him and says, “Really.”  And certainly, you remember the story, trusting in himself, he fails miserably.  And you might be wondering why Jesus let Peter go through this at all.  God does not tempt us but God certainly tests us.  If you read the Bible at all, page after page, is full of the testing of life and testing of God of His people.  And you might wonder why.  Jesus really could have said to Peter, “You know things are going to get rough around here pretty soon.  You need to get out of Dodge for awhile.  Go back home for a couple of weeks and then come back, because things are going to get really bad.  If you stay here you are going to go through all kinds of terrible things.  Go home.  Go fish.  Take a trip.”  But, no Peter was sifted like wheat.  You remember the story, denying his Lord three times and then seeing the Lord look at him and being devastated.  We know that feeling.  Peter went out and wept before the Lord he worshipped.  Peter was driven to worship, oh it wasn’t in a church but he fell on his knees before God and cried out to him.  And in that Peter found forgiveness and power to live.  Its funny how many lives are turned around in just that way.  When nothing else works, when we’ve reached the bottom and we have no place to look but up God comes.  We worship.  It gives up the perspective we need that we are not sufficient.  We are not God. 

We also find in worship a confession, not just of sin but simply of the truth.  What is the first commandment?  You should worship no other gods before me.  And that issue is still with us in every part of life.  We see it in the macro way in the world today.  A war, if you will a discussion about who is God.  And the world’s answer is, “Well, it doesn’t matter, if that person believes in a certain kind of God, that’s okay for them.”  But the Bible says ‘you should have no other gods before me, I am the Lord, worship me and me alone.’  The devil took Jesus up to that high place you remember and said, “Hey, I’ve got all the kingdoms, I could give you all of them.”  Now that was a lie.  He says, “I can give them to anyone I want.” And Jesus answered, quoting, paraphrasing the first commandment “worship the Lord your God, in Him only serve.”  Well we might say, “What about all those poor folks out there? What makes us special to know the real God and them not?”  You know, I don’t know what God is going to do with others.  Judgment is up to God, not me.  If God chooses to save everyone, that’s his business.  And whatever means he wishes.  But all I know is that people need Jesus.  And that is the mission of the church.  I overheard a conversation once in which a man was saying something about the mission of the church and he said, “You know its not really about the church growing, its about the church becoming better and better, ministering to its members.”  And I said to myself, “That’s only half right.”  You see it doesn’t say, “Go therefore and purify the church.”  It says, “Go therefore and make disciples.”  Discipleship is becoming more pure, for sure.  But our mission is outside of ourselves not inside of ourselves.  And we have to decide who is God, personally and as a church.  The temptation is out there, everywhere.  You know, we have a lot of gods, a lot of priorities in our lives.  It may be our vacations, it may be our job, it may our families, it may be our money, it may be all kinds of different things.  We have to fight against the idols in every part of our lives.  As Satan tempted Jesus, “I will show you all their authority in splendor”, many things have splendor.  Many things entice.  And when the chips are down worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve for He is God. 

Another thing we learned in worship is trust.  It may have been Oswald Chambers, it may have been someone else, someone once said, “We have to believe that God is good even when the evidence suggests that He is not.”  And what I mean by that is that lots in times in life when all hell is breaking loose, when things are going wrong time after time after time, when people are dying and getting sick, when we are in the midst of cancer, when someone has Alzheimer’s, when we have wars, when we have all kinds of challenges in our lives.  When God says, “Go and do this,” and you know if you go that you will be hurt.  This is what Jesus faced.  He was going to die on a cross.  We have already talked about, many times, what that means the most horrible of this.  He was going to be deserted by everyone.  And he was going to take on the sins of the world on his back.  He didn’t want to do that.  The human side of him did not want to do that, none of us would want to do that.  And yet, he trusted God and his plan and he trusted most of all his Father God, he knew his Papa.  And so he worshiped.  It wasn’t fun worship.  It wasn’t hallelujah worship.  It was “Lord help me” worship.  ‘But not my will, but yours be done.’  Worship on every Sunday and everyday builds trust.  Because it is in worship that we get to know this Father God of ours.  And if we just blow it off, if we just never do it, if we just come on Easter, if we only do this or if we only do that, we are not going to know this Father God when the chips are down and may be in a foxhole that we cry out and He will answer.  But wouldn’t it be better if we weren’t so desperate?

Last but not least, we find strength in joy.  The Bible says, “The joy of the Lord is my strength.”  You know, I think the power of positive thinking movement has tapped into this idea a little bit.  It’s kind of a secular version of it but its still tapped into this a little bit because there is strength in thinking in a positive way.  There is strength in looking at the good side than simply the bad.  How much more to have joy in the Lord, to have joy in a relationship with God?  God is not a killjoy.  God is the author of joy.  And sometimes you can be in a relationship with God and a moment of worship in which your eyes are shining and the Lord is just with you and you feel like you can go out and conquer anything.  Joy is power.  Its part of worship.  And that is what I’d say to you, “What better time than Easter than to return to the Lord to get right again, to seek God in worship?”, before the chips are down, but maybe in your life, when the chips are down.  Because worship really does work, especially in the times in which we are tempted and tested and things are not going well because as Jesus says to Paul, “my power is made perfect in weakness.” 

Let us pray. 

Father we thank you for Jesus, our Savior who came into Jerusalem in the midst of shouts of Hosanna and yet came with the mission to die for the sins of the world.  In the midst of that he worshiped and he praised and he obeyed and we pray the same for ourselves.  In His name, amen.