It was Saturday, July 21st, 2001 and it was game 97 into the MLB baseball season. The Seattle Mariners were on a torrid pace to crush the single season wins record for any Major League Baseball team of all time. At this point the Mariners record was 70 wins and 27 loses. For the non-baseball fans, this record at this time of year was never heard of.

Through a contest I had won, I was asked to throw the first pitch out at the game that day in front of 47,000+ screaming fans who were all there for a purpose to be a part of something special. I threw the first pitch as hard as a could to make sure I made it to home plate.

Everyone screamed and yelled as the ball reached the catcher at home plate. Everyone was so juiced up for the upcoming start of the game that they would have still screamed even if I botched the pitch (which I didn't). Personally as a sports fan, even though I wasn't on the Mariners actual team, when they won I felt like I won. I shared a great commonality with the entire city of Seattle and that was experiencing their team becoming the single season record holders in Major League Baseball. I could say that day, I felt like I was a part of a family. A family of the Seattle Mariners. 

Why do you suppose we all long to be identified into a family? No matter who I talk to, no matter what background or different type of family history they have, without fail everyone wants to identify with a group of people that they can call family. People want to share in something special and feel special. Why is that? 

I Am A Part Of That!

We all have friends who describe how loving their parents were to them. We also have friends who have had some of the most atrocious things happen within there immediate families. And yet the commonality is that both of these people you talk to long to identify with a family of people to find purpose, love, community, acceptance, etc. As we look out into our culture we see many of these social "family" categories that we all identify with. For example, democrats, republicans, sports fans, beer drinkers, religious, etc. Everyone identifies or longs to identify with a group or "family" of people to gain stability, structure, acceptance and/or love.  People want to feel something. They want to feel special even if it is just for a moment to forget about there personal problems in their lives. Everyone wants to be a part of something. 

About 11 years ago I had such a significant moment in my life that would alter my view on the significance of the term "Family" and I would never be the same since. What I experienced that day, changed everything for me. God made me believe the Gospel and I became a Christian. And in that moment, I was told, well now you are in God's family because of what Jesus has done.

Really? The Creator of the cosmos wanted me in His family! Why would He want me? I am a terrible family member. Before this I had so many different presuppositions on what it meant to be in a "Family". I had personal experiences from being a part of my immediate family, being a part of sports teams, to friendships. I experienced great times within these groups and also hard times. But when God opened my eyes to the realities of His family and that I was a part of that, He started a journey that would teach me what being in a "Family" truly meant. 

Family Biblically

Through this journey, I found out that being a part of God's family was the greatest thing I could ever be a part of. We don't choose this "Family", it was through what Jesus Christ accomplished upon the cross that God chose us to be a part of His family. Even though we don't choose our immediate family, we have a choice like all the rest of this world to choose who we want to be a part of or associate with. Being called into God's family is not the case. He sovereignly chose you, if you are in Christ, to be a part of His family apart from anything you have done. 

He changed our hearts. He allowed us to finally see the truth about Him. For those who are in Christ you are a child of God who belongs not just to God but to to the entire universal church (all believers for all times). Together we are God's sons and daughters, predestined for adoption, heirs to God and fellow heirs with Christ. I started to grab hold of these biblical concepts and it completely changed my entire few of what it meant to be in a "Family". 

As Christians, we share all these things with each other because Jesus gave Himself and because He gave us our new identity. Our identity is no longer in the movements or earthly families we identify with but we identify in the Creator's family. As Christians, we live on this earth as exiles, waiting until we are home with God. We are excitedly anticipating and yet waiting to be with Him in the perfect city that He is building for us so that we might spend eternity with Him.

What Do I Do Until Then?

This means practically, as Christians we do life together with other members of the body of Christ. If you looked at a family that never spent time with one another, you would say that is a pretty dysfunctional family. This also means we meet together often, to be known by one another. We embrace accountability, responsibility and commitment all the while we are growing in what it truly means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. 

God has called Christians into His family and while we wait to be with Him forever, He is still with us. He isn't just preparing a place for His family to gather together with Him one day but he is preparing that family for that place he is preparing. This is why we enter into the "Family", the church, to grow together as we learn together. 

We all feel a part of something, but is what you are a part of eternal? 

I've watched way too much TV over the last few years. Hours, and hours, and hours. Some of those hours were spent watching alien documentaries and cookie-cutter war films, but the vast majority were spent on TV series that were cool... awhile ago. It started with White Collar. Currently, it's Parks and Rec.

And, though I'm slightly ashamed to admit it, most of it was CSI: Miami.

There's a lot of bad things to be said of CSI: Miami. The hero, Horatio Cain, is probably the most predictable, melodramatic protagonist that ever was. There's not much to be said for character development, either, at least in my opinion. And, the producers put far too much attention on what people were - or were not - wearing. 

But one of the main reasons I loved CSI: Miami is at the end of every episode, you found out what made every suspect tick. You learned what they intended, and you watched what it made them. You learned what they sought, what they thought it would give them. And then, you watched them come face-to-face with the earthly consequences of giving a good thing god-hood.

You learned what they worshiped.

And then you watched what they worshiped turn and devour them.

No One Does Not Worship

No one does not worship. Every human is a worshiper.

The Bible often speaks of worship as "ascribing", or bowing, or submission.

Harold Best, in his book Unceasing Worship, defines the term "worship" as follows:

"Worship is the continuous outpouring of all that I am, all that I do, and all that I can ever become in light of a chosen or choosing god."

Worship is always happening. We are always ascribing god-hood to someone or something.

We were made to worship God, to give Him glory with our thoughts, words and deeds. The problem is, we often don't want to. We'd rather worship creation than the Creator.

Much of what we choose to worship is beautiful and good. It's not wrong to want a promotion. It's not wrong to love the mountains. It's not wrong to want to get good grades.

These aspirations and desires are good. They're just not ultimate, and they cannot give us the satisfaction that we seek, at least long term.

Perfect Worship

However, as Christians, saved by God's grace, we want to make sure that our worship is rightly directed.

But we're still "prone to wander" as the old hymn says. Though we've tasted and seen God's goodness in the giving of His Son, in whom "completion" is ultimately found, we want a shortcut. And good gifts look like great shortcuts.

But though we often wander, God's grace is sufficient. For Jesus, our Great High Priest, our Advocate to the Father, lived a life of perfect worship, of perfect submission to the will and word of God. He then, on the cross, swapped out His record of perfect worship for ours, a massive list of misdirected worship.

Because of Jesus, God the Father sees our worship as perfect.

Risen and ascended, He now advocates for us to our heavenly Father.

Where we fail, He has succeeded. In Jesus, we have nothing to fear.

And what Jesus has done demands a response. We must worship Him.

Continuous Outpouring

Romans 12.1 says "I appeal to you therefore brothers [word meaning "brothers and sisters"], by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."

There's a lot here. Paul has just spent pages talking about who God is and what He's done in and through Jesus. The "therefore" is there to say "in light of everything before this."

In short, Paul is saying, "Because of God's grace and mercy toward you, worship Him with all that you are and all you will be."

This is massive. God has given you the ability to worship Him through the Holy Spirit. So you actually can do this.

And it's not quite as grandiose as one would think, at least in practice.

This is waking up in the morning and acknowledging that you're still alive. That you didn't have to think about breathing. And praising God for a new day, though it may not be quite up to your specifications, for God has given you more time on earth to glorify Him.

This is approaching your work, your studies, and your family life as a gift to you, and wanting to do a good job with the gift you've been given so that you can point people to Jesus in word and deed.

This is just being nice, treating people as humans, creatures made in the image of God, in the hopes that they'd get to experience the grace and mercy that you've been shown in Jesus.

This is getting into a Gospel Community or small group, serving in a local church, becoming a member, partnering up for ministry with other Jesus-Worshipers who want people to hear about Jesus.

It takes a bunch of different forms, and shows up in a bunch of different ways. But "whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." (Col 3.17)

Worship Rightly Oriented

At Redeemer, we want our worship to be a rightly oriented response to a good and gracious God.

We want to bear witness to who He is and what He's done.

We want everyone, everywhere, every day to hear and experience the gospel of Jesus. We want them to hear about Him and respond in worship to Him.

We want them to know that the gods of money, of power, of family, of cultural significance, cannot hold a candle to the God of the Bible. If you pursue them, they will ultimately turn and devour you. But in Jesus, there is freedom, and in Jesus, there is life.