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“Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).

Online worship.

Meh. I know. It was cool for the first couple of weeks.

I know. Online worship is not the same thing as gathering in person as a congregation.

In light of the spiking Covid-19 cases in our area and around the country, I don’t see the Little Church and Lakewoodgrace opening up for full worship anytime soon.

Here’s the thing about worship. Worship is not something we can choose to opt out of. If God is God, if Jesus is our Savior, if we are Christians, worshiping God is one of the main things Christians do. We worship because God calls us to worship. We worship because worship is one of God’s tools to touch our hearts and lives. We worship because it is one of the best testimonies to a world who doesn’t know who God is.

As Jesus was entering into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked Jesus to order the disciples to stop. Listen to Jesus’ response: “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones will cry out” (Luke 19:40). Praising and worshiping is what we are called to do.

I know online worship is not the same as in person worship. But until a cure and a vaccine for covid-19 is available, this is what we’ve got.

Let me close with a story I came across on social media.

A lady went to her pastor and said, “I won’t be attending church anymore.”

“May I ask why?” the pastor inquired.

She said, “I see people on their cell phones during the service, some are gossiping, some just arent’ living right, they are all just hypocrites.

The pastor got silent and said, “Ok. But can I ask you to do something for me before you make your final decision?”

She said, “What’s that?”

He said, “Take a glass of water and walk around the church two times and don’t let any water fall out of the glass.”

She said, “Yes, I can do that.” She came back and said, “It’s done.”

He asked her three questions:

1. Did you see anyone on their phone?
2. Did you see anyone gossiping?
3. Was anyone living wrong?

She said, “I didn’t see anything because I was so focused on this glass so the water wouldn’t fall.”

He told her, “When you come to church, you should be just that focused on God so that you don’t fall. That’s why Jesus said, ‘Follow me.’ He did not say follow Christians. Don’t let your relationship with God be determined by how others relate with God. Let it be determined by how focused you are on God.”

So, friends, when it comes to online worship what are you focused on?

“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23).

2020 is full of surprises! As far as I am concerned, I would be perfectly fine with no more surprises for the rest of the year.

When we’re faced with perplexing and confusing situations, how are Christians to lead? What is the basis by which we ought to live our lives?

Something I hear a lot in such situations is “Go with your heart. Go with your gut feeling. Go with what feels right to you.”

STOP!!! That’s terrible advice. That is a recipe for terrible decisions.

The heart has no business leading. The heart is something that is to be kept and guarded. The heart is not something that should lead. The heart is something that should be led.

The word for “keep” is also translated as “guard” in the NIV. The Hebrew word mishar actually means to imprison, jail, watch, keep, or guard. The sense is that the heart is something that must be watched and kept under control because the heart is unreliable.

Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse – who can understand it?” Look at the words God uses to describe our hearts: devious and perverse. You see the heart is devious and perverse because it has no boundaries and no morals. The heart doesn’t care that you made a solemn vow to God and your spouse. The heart doesn’t care about right or wrong. When the heart feels tenderness for someone other than your spouse, it tells you to go for it. The heart says, it feels so right it must be right.

NO!!!

The heart is to be guarded and kept under locks because it must be led. Christians cannot allow the heart to lead.

Then what is to guide us? For the Christian this is a no brainer. It’s God’s word. God’s word is the only true guide for the Christian.

“How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1).

When I was a pastor in Texas our church used to send short-term mission teams to Uganda every year with the exception of one year. Uganda was holding a contentious election and the US Department of State had put a travel warning for Uganda for the potential for violence after the elections. I remember thinking then how grateful I was that I lived in a country that did not have to worry about such things…

As I write this the voting polls are closing on the East Coast. Soon, numbers will start coming in. I pray that as you are reading this in the morning that the threat of violence was just that, a threat. I pray that there is a peaceful acceptance of the election results.

No matter how the election results come out, this I know: nothing happening today is catching God by surprise.

• For whatever today holds, God sent Jesus to make all that’s wrong, right
• For whatever today holds, Jesus established the church and sent the church into this world to be God’s agent of hope and light
• For whatever today holds, God is the answer, Jesus is our hope, and the church is God’s agent to establish God’s kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven

The text today expresses God’s heart and will: “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!” It is good and pleasant because unity is such an oddity in a world filled such acrimonious and differing opinions. Unity does not mean uniformity. Unity does not mean that all Christ-followers are pro-life, or pro-choice, or democrats, or republicans. For the Christian, the source of our unity does not lie in anyone or anything that is creation-bound. For the Christian, the source of our unity is Jesus Christ. Our commitment to Jesus is what unites us.

This means:

• Jesus is greater than any presidential candidate
• Jesus is greater than any political party
• Jesus is greater than any political ideology
• Jesus is greater than any other being or identity that vies for our ultimate devotion

When Jesus has his rightful place on the throne in the lives of his followers, there is unity regardless of who we voted for. It is Jesus who is the hope for our broken world. It is Jesus who can bring healing in our divided world. It is Jesus who can save those who are lost and dying for meaning, purpose, and direction.

Christian, we get to have the privilege and the honor to declare the truth of Jesus Christ to a world who desperately needs what only God can offer through Jesus Christ.

Tell the world. Tell your friends. God’s got this.