nooma_sunday10.22.06

Before i get into nooma_sunday, i need to let you know of scriptures corrections that need to be made. We read from Matthew 22:1-7 and Matthew 22:13. Now somehow i made it fit (kind-of), but those were the wrong verses. The RIGHT scripture is actually Matthew 23:1-7 and Matthew 23:13 (complete verses typed out below). I apologize for this and encourage you to remember the overall theme of nooma_sunday with the right verses in mind.

If you were like me, then you went to church because your parents brought you. After all, all good people go to church. But why? Why do we go to a building one morning a week? What is the relevancy of this ritual? Time and time again scriptures remind us that God is not concerned with an empty ritual -even one done in his name. God is concerned about the heart. He wants us to want to serve him. He doesn't want us to serve him in a zombie like state of unconsciecness, but rather in one of eagerness using all of our senses, Mark 12:30 says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'"
God wants us to want to serve him. He wants us to know why we are serving/worshiping him, not just going through the motions with no knowledge as to why we do what we do. Have you ever attended a church service out of a sense of duty? Or because you think you're supposed to? The next time you are in a church service, look around and ask, "Is this what God had in mind?" Is this the type of atmosphere and mood God wanted present in the presence of a gathering of believers? When believers gather together for worship and fellowship, what was God's reason for having his followers 'not give up meeting together.'?
Honestly, i think there are many gatherings accross the world that experience and create the type of vibe God had in mind.
Matthew 23:1-7 "Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
"Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them 'Rabbi.'"
Jesus is not giving these guys a compliment. He is essentially telling the religious rulers of his day, "All you care about is looking good in front of others. You don't care about the burdens of the oppressed, in-fact, you laden them more by heaping weights on them you yourselves are not willing to bear."
How much time do you spend worrying about what other people think about you? Look how Jesus continues his verbal descent on the Pharisees, Matthew 23:13 "I've had it with you! You're hopeless, you religion scholars, you Pharisees! Frauds! Your lives are roadblocks to God's kingdom. You refuse to enter, and won't let anyseeone else in either." (Message) Jesus is saying, you are actually keeping people from entering heaven. "You are roadblocks." I wonder if we ever become roadblocks to people seeking God? You know sometimes people confuse God with religion and end of walking away from both. Whenever we put rituals, appearance or religious duty before passionately approaching the throe of God, we become a roadblock.
God wants us to be a gathering of believers that bring our minds with us to service. He wants us to bring our hearts with us when we see hurting brothers and sisters. He wants us to use our strengths for his purpose and glory. When we do this in a corporate gathering of believers in Jesus, we remove ritual and replace it with relationships.
Do you give money to the church? Why? Do you take communion everytime it is passed infront of you? Why? Do you stand and sit when the worship leader tells you? Why? People coming into our buildings for the first time see us doing things that may appear ritualistic, and in a sense we are. However, the reason, the motive for our actions is out of a desire to obey God. Because we love God, we obey him.
Isaiah 29:13 says, " The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men." God wants our hearts. How do we know if God has our hearts and that we're not just going through the motions?
We know God has our hearts when we care about the people and things God cares about. "God can't stand it when we put on a religious show and then we ignore the poor and the broken and the marganlized and the oppressed." (-Rob Bell)
Church is not a building. It is not an hour long service once a week. Church is people. People whose hearts are beating more and more like God's. What does it mean if our hearts are beating more like God's? How would this change the view of Christians if our hearts were all beating more and more like his?