Wired for Worship Series: Beyond The Palms

We are concluding our mini-series, “Wired for Worship” highlighting worship leading up to Resurrection Sunday. Today is Palm Sunday and Easter weekend is coming. The focus of this Wired for Worship series is a deepening understanding and desire to connect with God in worship that is pleasing to the Lord. In the first Wired for Worship message on the Heart of Worship, in John 4 Jesus met with the woman at the well and declared that a heart of worship involves both a spirit of passionate devotion and the truth of who God is and God’s ways. For the second Wired for Worship message on the Keys to Worship, we explored that we worship because God is worthy. How we worship is through voice, body, lips, service; the list actually is endless. In the third Wired for Worship message on the Power of Worship, we unpacked the truth that worship combats spiritual anemia through the power of God’s presence, which broadens our perspective, aligns us with God’s purpose and priorities, and unites God’s people in worship manifesting a powerful witness to the world. In this Wired for Worship message on Beyond the Palms, we are comparing two scenes as we enter into holy week. Both of these passages have something to teach us about true worship. In Mark 11, the crowd is charged in waving branches to celebrate a triumph of Jesus as Messiah and King. But within a week the crowd chants of worship turned to incriminating cries of “Crucify Him.” Jesus didn’t do what the crowd expected and wanted Him to do, which was to overthrow the Roman Empire. Their worship, in essence, was all about them. In Mark 14, a woman anoints Jesus with oil of extreme value. Because of God’s mercy toward us, and Jesus’ work in us and for us, we are to offer our precious bodies, meaning every aspect of our lives in a continuous act of worship. This lifestyle of worship is our response when we give ourselves to the Lord with a pure heart every day, every hour, and every minute.