Worship Preparation Guide for Sunday, September 23

Cruise-control worship.   The idea of cruise-control worship originates in Jerry Bridges' book The Discipline of Grace. This week Tim Challis commented on this concept in his blog.  I found it to be very relevant to our current sermon series, especially this week’s message from Deuteronomy 7 that God is faithful to gather to himself his redeemed people.  

Do we approach God  with our hearts set on cruise control, or are we racing into his presence motivated by a deep love for him?  What Bridges writes about our obedience is also true for our worship.  They go hand-in-hand.

My observation is that most of us who are believers practice what I call a “cruise-control” approach to obedience. Many cars today have a convenient feature called cruise control. When you are driving on the highway you can accelerate to your desired speed, push the cruise-control button, and take your foot from the accelerator pedal. Some mechanism attached to the engine will then maintain your desired speed, and you can ease back and relax a little. You don’t have to watch your speedometer to make sure you’re not going to get a ticket for speeding, and you no longer have to experience the fatigue that comes with constant foot pressure on the accelerator. It’s very convenient and relatively relaxing. It’s a great feature on cars.

However, we tend to obey God in the same way. To continue the driving analogy, we press the accelerator pedal of obedience until we have brought our behavior up to a certain level or “speed.” The level of obedience is most often determined by the behavior standard of other Christians around us. We don’t want to lag behind them because we want to be as spiritual as they are. At the same time, we’re not eager to forge ahead of them because we wouldn’t want to be different. We want to just comfortably blend in with the level of obedience of those around us.

Once we have arrived at this comfortable level of obedience, we push the “cruise-control” button in our hearts, ease back, and relax. Our particular Christian culture then takes over and keeps us going at the accepted level of conduct. We don’t have to watch the speed-limit signs in God’s Word, and we certainly don’t have to experience the fatigue that comes with seeking to obey Him with all our heart, soul, and mind.

 God is not impressed with our worship on Sunday morning at church if we are practicing ‘cruise-control’ obedience the rest of the week. You may sing with reverent zest or great emotional fervor, but your worship is only as pleasing to God as the obedience that accompanies it.”

In this week’s sermon text we read:   It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,  (Deuteronomy 7:7-9)

God’s love for us is not based on any superior characteristic or potential we possess. God loves us because he loves. John says we love God because he first loved us (1 Jn 4:19).  The grace and love God declares to the Israelites in Deuteronomy points to, and is most fully and perfectly expressed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Again Bridges writes: “We cannot love God if we think we are under His judgment and condemnation. We must continually take those sins that our consciences accuse us of to the Cross and plead the cleansing blood of Jesus. … The extent to which we realize and acknowledge our own sinfulness, and the extent to which we realize the total forgiveness and cleansing from those sins, will determine the measure of our love to God.”

Here is a final crucial thought for your prayerful consideration as you prepare to gather with your church family for worship this week:  “God is not impressed with our worship on Sunday morning at church if we are practicing ‘cruise-control’ obedience the rest of the week. You may sing with reverent zest or great emotional fervor, but your worship is only as pleasing to God as the obedience that accompanies it.”

Take some time before Sunday to prayerfully read the sixth, seventh and eighth chapters of Deuteronomy. (Deuteronomy 6,7,8)  The message of these three chapters is as applicable today to Westwood Baptist Church as it was when Moses first preached it to the Israelites. 

Join me in praying that God would show us here at Westwood where we have abandoned the love we had at first (Rev 2:4), and that he would reveal idols we have set up in our hearts that have caused us to approach God on with our hearts set on cruise-control.  Then join me in praying that after he reveals these idols to us, God would strengthen us to tear them down and race into his presence for worship with humble, thankful and joyful hearts.