plugged into christ

February 4, 2024
Elder Randy Hughes

I would like you to turn to Ephesians chapter one. Having found Ephesians one, let us just bow in the word of prayer. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, we thank you so much. We praise you. We give you thanks for your mercies. We give you thanks and praise for your strength and your compassion. for the wisdom that you bestow upon us and Lord we're thankful so very thankful for the Word of God and for the opportunity we have to come before you today to borrow heads in prayer and to approach the throne of grace your throne with our prayers and our supplications and With our Thanksgiving Lord we can't thank you enough for the blessings that you have bestowed upon this church, this body of Christ, and also individually. And Lord, we just ask your blessing upon this time as we open your Word. May you be honored and glorified by it. And Lord, I just pray that you alone will be praised for what comes forth. from your word today. And I pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. 
I want to talk to you today about worship. And worship is more than just coming to church on Sunday morning and singing songs and praise and listening to the word of God preached. It's more than that. It's what we are supposed to do each and every day of our lives. We are to worship God and thank him for the amazing things that he's always brought to us. And I want to talk today about just not going through worship, but actually connecting, connecting with God's heart through worship. As believers, we understand the significance of worship in our lives. And through worship, we express our love, our adoration, our gratitude to God, the one who deserves all honor and praise. But have you ever wondered what true worship? really means. And how can we worship in a way that genuinely connects to God's heart? God laid this on my heart a couple weeks ago when Randy Waskurchin was here and preached. And then that was followed up by Luke last week. And I was just thinking about the things that both of those men shared with us and just how important they were in our lives. And I think it's when we hear those types of things that we need to react to God. 
We need to ask God, what is it that you want me to know? What is it that you want me to learn and to do in my walk with you? it's easier than done. You know it's hard sometimes to worship. It's not easy for us to keep our focus on our worship toward God, especially when you have the lies of the devil. The time you walk through that door. He's going to do all he can from keeping you to having that worship. And there's the lies of the world too. and the lives of the flesh. All three of those things are working against us when we think about worship. Satan wants to keep our focus off of worship of God and he does it by condemning you. He brings up all those past naughty things we did, those sins that we have. He's going to continually want to bring those forward to disrupt our worship. And the world says it will try to keep our focus off of worshiping God by competing for our worship. You understand that? The world competes us from keeping our worship. You know it's like, it says here's something else. you might want to worship even more than Christ. There was a time in my life I think that was true of my walk. I love football. I played football. And I love football. And there was a time in life when I watched football on Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday, okay, we took a break. That's just because it wasn't on. You know? The world is going to compete. It's going to want to take our minds off of worship. And then something else maybe, you know, think about this instead of worshiping God. The flesh will keep the focus off of your worship of God by just censoring your worship. You know, you should not get excited about worshiping God because he's not listening. When we think about worship there is a foundation that needs to be laid. And it's so that we would through our worship connect with God's heart. And once we set this foundation of worship, it's not that we never again will have a struggle, but the focus of the matter is that the problems of focusing on God will be lessened if we have a good foundation of what we need to worship about. The foundation of worship is given to us in Ephesians chapter 1. I want you to look at with me at verse 3. Blessed be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. 
The foundation of worship is knowing that you, I, we all belong to Jesus Christ. If you put your faith and trust in Christ, you belong to Him. And nothing will help you to focus your worship more on God than knowing what it means to belong to Christ. I'm going to read Ephesians 4 through 9. This tells us what it means to really belong to Christ. according to the according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love having predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted into beloved, and whom we have redemption through his blood for forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us. the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he has purposed in himself. I am chosen in Christ. You have been chosen to be in Christ. Now that's an interesting statement. When you think, and I'm not going to go into a big long try to explain what predestination means. Bert, I think it's very easy to understand. You don't have to get into a deep theological discussion about it. I know I can focus better on worshiping God only if I know that I have been chosen in Christ. because to be chosen in Christ means I am holy. We are holy in God's sight. We are blameless in God's sight, and we have been adopted into God's family. There's no doubt, there's no doubt that Satan will do all he can to tell us that's not true. He will say that you're not chosen. You're not holy. You're not blameless. Look at what you've done. Look back at what you did. Look at all those sins that you've permitted. And he's definitely going to tell you there's no way you're adopted into God's family. That's what Satan is going to do. And the only way to battle that is our need to understand this passage how God chooses a person to be in Christ and know that Satan is a liar. God chooses a person to be in Christ according to four criteria that we read in that passage. First he chooses us to be in Christ according to his love. And the question is, doesn't God love everybody? Yes, he does. He does. 
Turn to John 3:16. I know we all know this passage, but turn there anyway. John 3:16, let's read it from God's Word. This is a verse that our Coached by Christ Club is learning. How important is it for our five, six, seven-year-olds and older know what it means when we talk about John 3:16? We just don't memorize verses that are Coached by Christ. We actually challenge them to understand them. When our leaders listen to that verse, They ask questions. How does this apply to you? It's important. For God so loved the world and that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now, does that just say Mike Levenhagen has that? and the rest of us don't. Does he say that about Bernie, about Luke, about Stephanie? No. He says whosoever will leave it will have everlasting life. You know his love, he commanded his love toward us. That why we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Romans 5, 8. And you know, there's no doubt that the reason why God chooses one to be in Christ is according to his love. He also chooses one to be in Christ according to his pleasure. When he created Adam, the reason for it was is that he wanted to have fellowship with Adam. That's why Adam was created. And he understood that Adam needed to have fellowship. So he created Eve. It's according to his pleasure that he's chosen us. How does that affect your worship? every day, not just in church, but every day. He chooses one to be in Christ according to his will. Do you think God takes pleasure in sending to someone to hell? 
Do you think that pleases God? I don't think so. that's not what his desire was. In fact, turn to 1st Timothy. Turn to 1st Timothy. And we read these verses a lot. And quite frankly, I think we need to read them every day. 1 Timothy chapter 2 verses 3 and 4, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men, not some of us, but have all men to come unto, to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. God's will is not to send anyone to hell. God's will is to have everyone saved. Everybody. And, you know, he makes that very, very clear right here in his word. It's God's desire to see all men saved. How does that affect your worship? How does that affect your prayer life? How does that affect your walk? and the importance of sharing Jesus Christ with loved ones. and with people that we work with, and people we come in contact with. God's desire is to see all men saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Now, this is a bit off a little bit, but I'm just going to say this. Folks, I was talking with Nick a little bit earlier. You know? I don't understand why people leave a Grace Church to go to another church that isn't preaching the gospel of the grace of God. I don't understand that. But God's given us all a will. He didn't make us robots. He gave us a will to choose. And I don't understand how a pastor or a board can allow a grace church to walk away from the message of the grace of God. 
And I praise God, here in this church, we stand firm on that gospel. We will always stand firm. on that gospel. As I told Nick, I don't care if there's only ten of us here. We're going to stand firm on the gospel of the grace of God. And then the fourth thing is he chooses one to be in Christ according to his grace. If you would turn back to Romans, please. Romans. And I love the book of Romans, but I really love chapter 5 in Romans. It has so much truth. Just read it one time. It's got so much truth in it. And it says so much of us about our lives. But Romans chapter 5 verses 17 through 21, For if by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more they which received abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in a life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation. and so by the righteousness of the free gift that came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." You know, you stop and you think about that. Every single one of us were born into sin, were we not? Every single one of us. And as we went through our lives, some grew up in a Christian home, and had great Christian parents, and talked about salvation. And you reach salvation at a young age. My wife's been saved for many, many years. It took me 18 years to recognize my need for Christ. But the point is, is that man has a will to make that determination. You see, when the scriptures say that God chose us in Christ, it does not mean that God chose you and not someone else. That's not what that means. The only reason for anyone not being chosen in Christ is because they chose not to do it. That was their decision. That was what God's will was. They have chosen not to be holy and blameless in God's sight, not to be adopted into the family of God. And they have chosen to reject God's grace. And all of this for what? Why? Why have they not yet put their faith and trust in Christ? I don't understand. It's a free gift. It doesn't mean that you have to do anything. And the only reason I can come up with is this, so that they could focus their worship on something else. That's the only reason. They don't want to worship God. Maybe they don't believe in God. Maybe there's things in their life that they quote unquote don't want to give up. But I don't see anything in the Word of God where it says, you gotta give up anything. You know, are you one of those that are chosen in Christ? Are you one of those? And if you don't think you are, you can be. You can be. Look at verses seven and eight again in Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter one verses seven and eight. And it says, In whom we have redemption through his blood, for forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure he has purposed in himself. God has given us the opportunity. We are secure in Christ. Once we put our faith and trust in Christ we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. We're secured in Christ and I have been given everything I need, everything I need to put my focus on my worship on God. I haven't lost any of that. In fact, God has made that clear that we are to put our focus on God. and this is both very comforting but it's also very convicting at the same time. Is it not? We struggle. I know I belong to Christ but sometimes I allow other things to get in the way of my worship. That's the convicting part. It's like I need something more than Jesus Christ to have a worship that really connects with God's heart. I wrote down a few of them. This first one, it's not me. But some people can't worship without first having their morning coffee. I mean, it's just a matter of fact. Or, I can't worship without everything looking good and not a mess. My wife would say, that's me. I can't stand to sit down and read my Bible and pray and worship without my desk being cleaned off, cleared, organized. Can't do it. Drives me nuts. 
I can't worship without seeing what the weather is going to be. Or I can't worship without looking at my phone. Wonder how big that is nowadays. Or I can't worship because I have a project and I want to get it done. You know, I struggle with that. I struggle with that a lot. Because we're getting ready to move and we got so much junk. You know you guys looking for anything you want for your house? Come on over and see us. It's junk to me. It may not be junk to you, but anyway come and see us. But sometimes I work in different ways. If I got stuff I gotta do, and I gotta do that before I can really sit down and worship and pray. And then it gets to be noon and one o'clock. Now I'm tired. Sometimes, you know, it gets in the way. Or how about this one? I can't worship because the fish are calling me. Or the Packer game is on. or your favorite TV show is on. You know, the list can go on and on and on, but that's what the world does for us. Here are some other things that you can worship. That we worship our cars. What is it that gets in the way of us having that worship that really connects with God's heart? You have been given everything you need to worship Christ. Turn, if you would, to Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 16. Here's a great example for us. Acts chapter 16. And I'm going to read verses 22 through 25. and the multitude rose up together against them. And the magistrates rent off their clothes and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely. Who having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison. When he says he thrust them, he didn't walk them in and have them sit down and talk to them. He threw them into the... and then he shackled their feet through the wall. In verse 25, And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang, Praise us unto God, and the prisoners heard them. They had just been beaten. And the Word of God says, many stripes. I don't know how many that was, but I bet it was enough. He had just been whipped. And then they were thrown into a cell and shackled to it. And what did they do? At midnight, they prayed and they sang praises. 
They worshiped God. What takes our focus off of God? When you think of that example. You know, I want to read on because this is really, I think it's important that we see this. And suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were open and everyone's bands were loosened. And the keeper of the prison was out on awakening out of his sleep and drew his sword. and would have killed himself supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried out with a loud voice saying, do thyself no harm, for we are all here. Now that's that situation. But I will tell you, I know when I have a good worship time, I told Paulie, the last several weeks, I have gone home just praising God because the worship we've had here at this church has been nothing short of amazing. I've loved the songs we've sang. I've loved the special music we've heard. I love the prayer time. I love the worship service. It meant so much to me. It reached me. I believe here that's exactly what happens. But that happens also, and happens also in our own personal lives. You want to have a great day? God says, let us rejoice and be glad in the day in which he's created. Rejoice. Worship. Take that time in the morning to worship God. And I'll guarantee you, you will have a great day. I'll guarantee you will have a great day. Why do those in Christ need nothing more in order to worship God? Because He's already given everything we need. Christ has given us redemption through the blood of Christ. By far, just want to share a little illustration with you. By far one of the biggest stories in 2010 was the rescue of the 33 Chilean minors. Do you remember that story? What happened to those minors is similar to what happens to every believer who has trusted in Christ. They were stuck in a place they did not want to be in. They were stuck for a long time. And they were redeemed, they were rescued one by one in a capsule. Spiritually, you and I have had that same experience. I know I was in a place that I did not want to be in. we were separated from God. And some of us were stuck there for a long, long time. It was years. But God sent us a Redeemer. He sent us Jesus Christ. And it wasn't in a capsule. In Colossians 1:13 it says, or relocated us into the kingdom of his dear son. That's the present reality. We are in Christ Jesus. And the miners, they were trapped for 69 days in total darkness. I don't know how I could handle that. That was, and it was no fault of their own. When they were rescued, they did not need to ask forgiveness of it. we who are redeemed in Christ, we need to acknowledge that we were sinners. And our sins were not caused by anyone else. We need to own them. And, you know, sometimes we like to blame others, don't we? Adam did. He blamed Eve. Eve did. He blamed the snake. You know, we blame those who cut us off in our driving. When you're taking your car out there, and somebody, I had other words I'd use, but. somebody pulls out in front of us, makes a slam on our brakes. 
You know seriously we need to take blame for our own sins. We need to acknowledge that we are sinners and put our faith and trust in Christ. We will be saved. God has given us His grace and God does not only give us a Redeemer and which includes all of those spiritual blessings that I talked about up there in the first part of the message. He gives us riches. Here's a list of the gifts that the miners got. They got $10,000 each. A vacation to the Greek islands. And above all else, they got a trip to Graceland. They got to go see Elvis. Wow, isn't that amazing? Grace is much more than material things. He gives us his word so that we can grow in our walk with him. He gives us all the spiritual blessings. He gives us a clear focus so that we can connect with God in his heart through worship. My hope is that we can focus our worship both in the church and personally. toward God and we are confronted with His holiness, His sovereignty, His eternal nature that He has. The holiness of God speaks to His absolute purity. He wants us to be that way. His separation of sin and His perfect character, that's what God wants for us. It caused us to lay aside our pride and our self-centeredness, recognizing that worship is not about us. It's about magnifying the glory of God. And we do that through cultivating reverence and humility and genuinely connecting with God's heart. And it's an experience of transformation of power of worship. Worship should engage our emotions, our thoughts, and our actions. as we pour out general, genuine adoration and gratitude and love to God. These are the things we are to worship God for. It's just not asking of Him, but it's also recognizing who He truly is. We must offer ourselves fully, bring our joys, bring our sorrows. God understands that. Our doubts and our hopes before Him. You know, we can experience transformation power of worship as our hearts align with God and His presence permeates our lives. It's not an act of duty. It's a response to God's love and to His grace. I want to read verses 13 and 14 in Ephesians chapter 1:13 and 14, and it says, whom we also trusted after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed that the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until redemption. 
Let us pray. Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, we thank you. so much for this morning. I thank you Lord for your spirit, his direction as we shared your word today. I pray that you were honored and glorified by it. And God I just ask that you help all of us, not only in our worship here at this church, but our worship personally, that we do spend time thanking you for your grace. and for your mercies and for the spiritual blessings that you have bestowed upon us. I pray all of these things in Jesus' name, amen.