WORSHIP IS REMEMBRANCE

By: KIRBY KAPLE

It's important for us to know why we gather, why we enter into these spaces every week. I look around sometimes and I know the brunch deals that are going on down the street. And I'm like, "y'all should be at brunch right now. What are you doing here? There's like something crazy going on at West Egg. You should be down there or whatever." But you're here. You're here and you've decided. You've chosen to place yourself every week in places like this where you can be reminded of who God is. Postures of remembrance. Worship is remembrance. That's why these spaces are so important. And if we looked at this from an outsider's point of view, who doesn't have any context for what we're doing in here: when we gather, especially during the worship part, it can seem kind of strange. What are these people doing? Singing a bunch of love songs to no one? You know. What are they doing in here? Have you ever thought, "what are we doing?" Have you ever just gotten so used to worship that you just entered into it and you didn't really...it was just kind of what you [did]. Whatever. It's important to know why we do what we do. Because if we don't, we can so easily slip into the form of it. And if we slip into the form of it, this thing that we're doing loses its power and its substance. So we get really caught up in our heads about what worship experiences are. And we can really, really over spiritualize it. But you're just coming to remember.

REMEMBERING WHO GOD IS AND WHO WE ARE

Worship is remembrance. And remembrance reconnects us to God. It reconnects us to ourselves. But it also reconnects us with the world around us. When you enter into this relationship enough, it's going to start changing your perspective about the people around you and the events that are happening around you. Politics aside, we need to remember. We need to remember who God is, and get reconnected with ourselves, and get really reconnected with his perspective about the world around us. That's very important. Anybody seen the movie Hook? Yeah. Raise them high again. Come on. I need to know where my people are at. So me and Rob watched it this week. And I love this movie because...I'm just going to give you a little backstory. Hook kidnaps Peter Pan's kids, and Peter Pan is old now, and he's forgotten that he's Peter Pan, okay? And he's Robin Williams. That's who plays Peter. So he's old Peter Pan and he's grown old and he's forgotten, but he needs to go save his kids. So he goes to Neverland. And the Lost Boys are playing games with him to try to help him remember. And if you rewatch this movie, it's so sweet to watch the Lost Boys and how committed they are to these games that help Peter remember his inner child. There's that scene that I love. All the Lost Boys are having a feast after a whole day of wearing out Peter Pan old Peter Pan. And he still hasn't remembered who he is yet. And do you guys know the scene I'm talking about, where they go in for the feast and they're all at the table and the Lost Boys are so excited to eat, they're like smelling the fake food? And even Robin Williams smells it too. Peter's like, that smells so good. And then all the stuff, all the platters are on the table and they take the lids off and nothing's there. The Lost Boys, it does not faze them. They're dipping their little bowls and their spoons in these empty platters and empty bottles, and they're eating anyway. And I love this scene where the little boy pretends there's a hamburger and he fixes it and stuff and he eats this bite of this giant hamburger. Robin Williams is watching him and trying to eat it too. It's so funny. But at one point, he enters into this banter with Rufio. Who knows Rufio? Rufio Rufio Rufio. There you are. You're alive in this place. Okay, so he's in this banter with Rufio and then Robin Williams decides he's going to fake throw food in Rufio's face. So he's like, "oh, Rufio." He's just kind of entering into this little game they're playing. Little does he know he's about to get got, you know. Okay so he throws this and he is in shock. That icing lands on Rufio's face. And then all the lost boys are like -- oh, this is so beautiful -- they said, "You're doing it, Peter, you're doing it. You're playing with us here. You're doing it." Do you know the scene I'm talking about? "You're doing it, Peter." And all of a sudden they get in this big food fight and food's everywhere, and they're eating and they're feasting and they're playing. And so that's what it's like. We have to remember our inner child. I just think that's such a beautiful picture for us.

BRING YOUR HONESTY

Last week in worship, if you were here, you probably heard me talk about how children are not scared of monotony. And we were repeating melodies over and over and phrases over and over in worship. And I was trying to dignify for us all the reason why it's so cool and so important when we enter into singing the same things over and over again. It can get boring to us. But the value and the fruit of that monotony is the more you sing something, the more you say something, the more it gets in you. The more it takes root in your heart. And it might take moments of boredom and moments of "what are we doing? I'm so tired of this chord. I'm so tired of these words. I'm tired of singing this over and over. Can we move on? Can we move on to the next song? Can we move on to the next song?" Sometimes we just need to sing something over and over.If you've been around for a while, you know that I often say in worship, "don't leave your doubt at the door. Don't leave your confusion at the door. Bring it. Bring your whole life into this room. Bring your whole entire life, all the feelings into these spaces." Because I really, truly believe that if we're not bringing it in, that God can't deal with it, at least not with us. You know, He wants to do that with us. You know, He doesn't always want to have this miraculous intervention. He wants to partner with you in dealing with the mess and dealing with the pain. He wants you to bring that lie up in worship. Did you know that your confusion that you bring into these spaces of worship is an offering holy and pleasing to the Lord? Your doubt is an offering holy and pleasing to the Lord. You may have come into these spaces like this every week and every time you've got all your crap together. But let me tell you, if you bring some confusion, God's going to speak truth to it. If you bring that doubt, God will speak truth to it. Or at least you'll be open to receive truth. These postures are so important. So I always say, "bring your whole life, bring your pain, because life sucks a lot of the time and pain is real and pain is present." But listen to this. The beauty of pain is that pain exposes our need, and our need opens us up and makes space for a new kind of encounter with God. Maybe you don't like that word encounter because it's a little too spiritual for you right now. Let me tell you what encounter means. Encounter means a new kind of learning, a new kind of leaning. Maybe you've always come in here perfect. And you left your confusion at the door. But if you bring it in, that's a new kind of leaning into the Lord. You're leaning into him with your life. Maybe you've never done that before. I encourage you to. A new encounter with God will take place. It's a new kind of learning, a new kind of leaning, a new kind of hearing and a new kind of healing. That's what I mean by encounter. So pain exposes our need and opens us up for these spaces and these encounters with God, new kinds of learning, leaning, hearing and healing. All the heroes of the Bible, they all had a pit, a cave or a desert. A pit, a cave or a desert where their faith was tested. Tested and tested and tested. But they gave into remembrance. They gave into thankfulness. They gave into talking with God about it, even if it was shouting at Him. You know, David had a lot of that. So I love the Psalms. The Psalms give us permission to be really, really honest, guys. You can see David change his mind about God over and over, and his prayer changes. His prayer changes over and over. It morphs into more holistic perspectives. So these heroes of the Bible all had a pit, a cave or a desert, and they gave in to worship. They gave in to seeking, they gave in to remembering the Lord. So what we do in the pits, the caves in the deserts of our life really, really, really matters. Rob and I have a story that we've gone kind of public with. I released a single like a month and a half ago called "Pain and Grace". And it's my honest worship song to the Lord about our painful season. So since we went public with it all over social media, we'll just we'll just going to talk about it. That's okay. So, Rob and I have been trying to have a baby for over six years, and it hasn't happened for us yet. But we are so partnered with the Lord's perspective on it and we go through seasons where that's really easy, and seasons where that's a little bit harder. But we are so partnered with God. I do not share this story with you for you to feel sorry for me or for us, but for us to encourage you that worship, authentic worship, is so possible through beautiful honesty about your brokenness. And if you don't mind this morning, I'm actually going to share this song with you. I'm going to make my way over here. Who's heard this song before? I got my people in this room. I love it. So when I wrote this song, it was actually a Sunday night. And I didn't have to be here. And so I was walking around the house like, okay, well, what show on Netflix do I turn on and just, you know, kind of forget the world for a while? And my keyboard was in our guest room and I just felt God say, "why don't you just come in here and sing? Sing to me for a while?" And so I didn't want to. Because at that point, this situation was really hard. But I did it anyway. And I turned on my voice memo app and just kind of sang whatever. And it was over 20 minutes long. And I re-listened to it after I was done and this whole song was there. It was just there. I'd sing it and I'd sing a bunch of other things, too, that didn't make the song. But the things that did make the song I sang over and over again. And in some ways I didn't know what I was singing because I was just kind of mumbling things until I realized what I was singing. And then I just kept singing it over and over again. And then the song was there. And it goes on the whole journey of bringing your question, your honest question to the Lord, and then letting him speak to it, letting him change it. And by the end of the song, it's completely different. So I'm going to sing it for you this morning. Not so you'll cry, but so you'll be encouraged. And it's okay if you do cry. It's okay if I cry. Are you pleased or are you angry with us both For the fires we quenched and the ones we stoked For the dreams we let burn and the ones that took turns Oh my heart is breaking Did I cause this aching? Hope don't let me go I can't face this thing alone Be my eyes to make sense of the pain Hope don't let me go Don't let go I've been living in a world so small I've been living in a faith so weak Do I believe you are better than this Do I believe you are good? Hope don't let me go I can't face this thing alone Be my eyes to make sense of the pain Hope don't let me go Hope don't let me go Don't let go The pain it was worth You know it better Time was not lost You know it better I'm here in the silence Waiting for the moment coming When you'll walk in and change my mind Change my mind Change my mind Change my mind All this pain All this grace Wasn't it so much better Looking back I wouldn't change a thing All this pain All this grace Wasn't it so much better Looking back I wouldn't change a thing Looking back I wouldn't change a thing Oooh Oooh All this pain and all this grace All this pain and all this grace Is gonna be worth it, gonna be worth it one day Ooo change my mind, change my mind, change my mind Change my mind, change my mind, change my mind Oooh, oooh Change my mind, change my mind I sing that for you this morning as an encouragement. Hopefully it opens the door for you if you find yourself in a pit, a cave or desert. Opens the door for you and gives the language for you to worship no matter what. To worship in a dark season. To bring your questions. And hopefully you saw in this song how those questions turn to certainty. And I love what Hartley was sharing this morning during that song. And these moments, we have a snapshot, but God has the whole story involved. He has the whole story in mind. Our whole story.

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