Bubble-Popping

11/1987

How do we handle bubble-popping as the Lord would have? And of course bubble-popping refers to the art of being honest rather than mesmerized by something in front of us. We can be hypnotized by the liturgy of two songs and a prayer and the liturgy of we’re having a talk like this and, after all, I’m saying something supposedly important and I see a tear in somebody’s eyes, but I’m too busy and too selfish and too caught up in this thing, this presentation, this external form to stop and say, “Hey, what are you feeling? What are you thinking right now? What’s going on? How can I help you? Is there anyway I can help you? Is it something I said? Did I offend you? Is it my fault, honestly? Where do we stand? Let’s just be heart to heart here.” That’s what bubble-popping is. It’s being heart to heart rather than caught up in something.

We’ve had visitors into our gathering tonight. I remember Kathy saying, “Why did you let that happen? Don’t you know we had none Christians here? How’s come…?” I said, “Hey, I don’t care. I’m not trying to put anything on a stage. I just am who I am and hopefully I’m helping everybody else to be who they are and they’re helping everybody else to be who they are.

We are not putting anybody on a stage. We’re not having a service to entertain people and to convict people into our way of thinking. We’re just being brothers and sisters with everything we’ve got and helping each other with everything we’ve got. This is not a presentation for believers or unbelievers. It’s life.

That is the religion that Jesus Christ started unlike any other religion in the history of mankind. It was face-to-face, eye-to-eye, heart to heart - let’s talk and base it on the truth of the Word of God, not just “sharing” and not just pooling of ignorance. It’s not group therapy, but it’s taking the word of God and applying it to every situation in life with honesty. Not just form - another wonderful lesson from your word, not that! But Life - let’s talk. What’s this got to do with you and me…“Brothers, what must we do?” Get to the point, will ya. That’s the way we’ve got to relate to each other.

And bubble-popping takes a little bit of guts. Like for instance last night, it was the last thing I wanted to do, but I saw something there that if we went out of that room, it would have been an illusion to have not touched it. And so to be willing to touch it - even if there’s some cost personally, some risk personally - the willingness to touch it and to apologize if you’ve hurt them by that, to be vulnerable, not self-righteously touching, but sacrificially touching. That’s got to be the way it is.

So that’s what bubble-popping is. It’s just a word that I only even thought of in the last two weeks to describe what I’ve really felt the vulnerability in my life to do. To say, “Steve, what about it man? You sit there. You’re thinking something, but I don’t ever know what you’re thinking? What are you thinking about? What’s on your mind? I don’t hear you saying anything. I need to know what you’re thinking. What you think is important to me. I care.” And then if something comes out that’s not of the Word of God, then we apply the word of God. If it is of the Word of God, then we listen because we’re a priesthood of believers. That’s bubble-popping.

What is wrong with worship, as we know it? It’s dishonest. It doesn’t celebrate life. It’s a thing that we do as if God is impressed with it. It’s like burning incense and lighting candles that I grew up with. There’s no real reality to it. Worship is to be the expression of the celebration of life, okay? Which means that as we have a time like last night or some other time where somebody pours out their heart and they say, “Hey, my life has not matched the light, the life of God, and I need your prayers and I need your help.”

And the Word of God comes and says, “By the blood of Christ, you can enter boldly into the Most Holy.” Wow! Not based on performance? Nope, by the Blood of Christ. The Blood of Christ sprinkled on our consciences, cleanses us from guilt in regard to sin, not just sin. Really? Really! We’re made perfect in Jesus Christ and being made fruitful. Made perfect? Me? Right! Being made useful? Well, yes, being made into the character and fruitfulness of Jesus, but you’re already just as much a son as He is or daughter as He is, but now you’re growing in the ability to do the work that He did. Wow, that’s exciting!

We sing - There is a Redeemer, Jesus God’s own Son - we sing and celebrate what is happening, rather than “I like this song.” “Well, I got a song.. I got a song.” “I like this one.”…a sing-a-long versus reality. We celebrate life. We celebrate Jesus. We celebrate what is happening or we have a sing-a-long because we like songs. See, it’s two totally different things and that’s what is wrong with worship, as I have known it.

I’ve never been to one of your worship services, but worship, as I have known it has been faulty because it’s not been reality. It’s not been celebrating what God IS CURRENTLY doing. It’s just a thing for Him like burning incense or lighting candles. It is not in Him, it’s for Him. It says in Romans 11 (and this is noteworthy because it describes something that has become important to me) “Oh the depth of the riches - the wisdom of the knowledge of God. How unsearchable His judgments and His paths beyond tracing out. Who has known the mind of the Lord? Who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay Him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be Glory for ever. Amen. From Him and through Him and to Him. It’s like it is from Him, it’s through Him, and then to Him - it’s not just for Him. The worship comes out of the heart of God.

It says in John 4 Jesus was talking to the woman there He said, “The time is coming and now is where you’ll not worship on this mountain or Jerusalem. It’s not a place you go to. It’s not a church building, it’s not a steeple and stained glass and pews, either in Jerusalem or on this mountain. The real worship that is coming and has now come is - God is Spirit and those that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.

He said God is Spirit first because He wanted us to see that if God wasn’t in it, then there is no way we could do it in Spirit. God is Spirit and if God wasn’t present, we wouldn’t be able to do it. Now that’s a test that I’ve offered myself many times is if God decided to withdraw His presence, would everything go on exactly the same. If so, it’s not true worship. Because true worship is God is Spirit and those that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.

If God decided to withdraw His presence and I can still do my two songs, a prayer, and sermon with nothing changing because it’s for Him rather than from Him and through Him and to Him, then I’ve missed the whole shooting match and I might as well be lighting candles and burning incense. God is Spirit and it can only happen as is inspired by God. It has to do with from Him and through Him and to Him rather than for Him.

And that’s the difference between what I used to view as worship, which I see now as worship services for Him versus worship, which is from Him and through Him and to Him because God is Spirit. Then and only then can I worship Him truly in Spirit and in Truth. “When two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in your midst.” If Jesus the Head of the Church wasn’t in our midst, would we go on anyway? Well, I hope not. If things would go on the same, regardless of whether or not Jesus was in our midst, then it’s not true worship. It is just an external form in the name of Jesus, but like the seven sons of Sceva, the demons are not impressed with things in the name of Jesus. It has got to be from Him, and through Him and to Him or the demons could care less.

Why does our worship need to be different? And is it a natural offshoot of a life and so how do we be sure that it is? Again, “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices,” (Romans 12:1-2) “which is your spiritual worship.” That was Jesus’ worship, was His life, was a fellowship with the Father and with his brothers and sisters both. With His brothers and sisters and with His Father.

1 John 1: “Our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son who was with the Father from the beginning and with one another in order that our joy might be complete.” It’s this cycle of life where we are the body of Christ. He is the Christ. It says in 1 Cor. 12 we are the Christ. It says in Ephesians “the fullness of deity dwells in the body.” The fullness of the Godhead - the Father, Son and Holy Ghost—the fullness of Deity dwells in the body. So it’s only as we relate to one another in love because God is love. God is agape. It’s only as we penetrate into agape for one another that we find the fullness of deity.

You can’t serve God and worship God in a vacuum. There is no way you can do that. Worship of God is to penetrate into the fullness of deity, which is in the body. It’s only as we keep no record of wrongs, always hope, always trust, never envy, never boast, rejoice in good, hate evil - the agape that Paul talks about through the Holy Spirit. It’s only as we penetrate into that, that we penetrate into the life of God. God is agape and only as we lay down our lives for one another in that way do we ever find the fullness of deity. That is just the mystery of God.

And how he allowed us to have true worship is to invest in each other, to lay down our lives for one another. “This is how all men will know you’re my disciples…” - that this is from heaven and not just a man-made philosophy and a man-made religion. It’s because the agape that you have for one another allows you to penetrate into the fullness of deity that created the heavens and earth. And then there will be no denying it. It will be a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden. The Gentiles praise our Father on the day of His return because of our light. Now any other kind of worship that is not that will not penetrate into the fullness of deity. So it will fall short of the kind of worship that you read about in the Bible where men are just expressing life and liberty, and there’s power there rather than just ritual and form.