Sunday Worship: What's the Point? Or, Why Bother?# 3 "Worship Defined"

- After reading the following portions of Scripture (Ps. 95 & 96), we can begin to tear down what we assume about worship and replace it with God's truth. There are numerous worship substitutes.

- Many of us assume that worship is like a program and many pastors, worship leaders, and church people often assume that the sermon is the meat and potatoes of the worship service program.

- Many church people assume that they haven't worshiped God unless they've heard a good sermon or taken good sermon notes.

- But the truth is something different. The Scriptures contain more than 800 references to worship and not one of them equates preaching with worship.

- Another popular substitute for biblical worship is entertainment.

- We come to Sunday services and are entertained by the music, Scripture, message, prayers, perhaps, drama, puppets, video and multimedia presentations, and experience an emotional high from being in that situation...(or perhaps we're bored).

- But what with everything that goes on through the Sunday morning program, is there any room for worship like the psalmist describes, or is there any room for worship that is centered on Jesus Christ?

- That brings me to this morning's question: what do the Scriptures teach that worship is?

- As we heard a few minutes ago from the Scriptures, worship has to do with our actions and our attitudes.

- Let's read again a few verses from Psalms 95&96.

1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

 6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!" Psalm 95:1, 2 & 6 (ESV)

1 Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. 3 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!

9 Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth! 10 Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.” Psalm 96:1-3, 9-10 (ESV)

- What about Jesus? When asked about which Commandment in the Law of Moses was the greatest, ²⁹ Jesus answered, “The most important one says: ‘People of Israel, you have only one Lord and God. ³⁰ You must love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.’ ³¹ The second most important commandment says: ‘Love others as much as you love yourself.’ No other commandment is more important than these.” (Mark 12:29-31, CEV)

- You must love him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And love others as much as you love yourself.

- After his resurrection, the New Testament shows us that the followers of Jesus worship him.

- Matthew describes Jesus greeting the women near the tomb and the women returned the greeting with a posture of worship.

- Just as Matthew wrote in Mat 28:9, "And they (i.e. the women) came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him."

- When Thomas finally got to see and touch Jesus and know for himself that the resurrection of Jesus was real, his immediate response was a spontaneous and astonished declaration of worship: "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28)

- The newly born church devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers and they were daily in the temple praising God, and breaking bread in each other's homes.

- And we can be absolutely certain that the breaking of bread involves sharing a meal that was focused on remembering the broken body and shed blood of Jesus.

- Worship has to do with our actions and our attitudes.

- What is worship?

- Worship lives our expressions of love for God, celebrating God's saving act in Jesus Christ.

- I said last week, it is important that our worship witnesses and one of the ways that our worship witnesses is through singing a new song.  As David said in Psalm 40:3,

- "And you gave me a new song, a song of praise to you. Many will see this, and they will honor and trust you, the Lord God." (CEV)

- It's because of God's saving acts in David's life that David sang a new song.

- The point is not the new song. The point is why David is singing and for whom David is singing.

- David's singing is spontaneous praise to God, but his singing is also intentional praise to God for the many who don't know this wonderful God about whom David is singing.

- He sings for God, and he wants "the many" who don't know God to hear his song and trust and honour God too.

- David desired that his life would be like a hymn of praise to God, like a new song that captures people's hearts everywhere for God.

- What about us? Is it our desire that our lives would be like a hymn of praise to God, like a new song that captures the hearts of those around us for Jesus Christ?

- It's only because of God's saving act in Jesus Christ for our lives that we can sing a new song.

- As I said last week, we worship like David worshiped when our worship witnesses.

- What is worship?

- Worship lives our expressions of love for God, celebrating God's saving act in Jesus Christ.

- I believe that we need to rethink our approach to worship and open our hearts and minds to new possibilities and new expressions of worship.

- I am convinced that our traditional assumptions of what worship is have us stuck in a rut.

- Although there may be preaching because people need to hear from God's Word, worship is not what we do to get ready for the sermon.

- Although we may be entertained because expressing our love for God brings joy and enjoyment, worship is not merely for our entertainment.

- However we express our love for God, expressions of worship please God most when they point others to Jesus.

- What does a life that points others to Jesus through worship look like?

- A life that points others to Jesus through worship is a life that literally looks like what the Scriptures picture.

- It's a life of singing, making a joyful noise. It's a life of thanksgiving and praise to God.

- It's a life that physically displays worship of God, whether it's kneeling, bowing, lying face-down, dancing, hands lifted up, hands lifted out, head bowed and eyes closed or eyes lifted up gazing toward heaven.

- It's a life willing to learn new things for God. It's a life that blesses God not just on Sunday morning, but tells others about his salvation day after day.

- It's a life that declares God's glory out in the world describing to others the wonderful things God has done in Jesus Christ.

- It's a life that willingly shares the message that God is King even in a world where there is so much injustice because Jesus will judge fairly when he comes again.

- It's a life whose love for God overflows and learns to love others as much as the self and shows it through acts of kindness, mercy, justice, and humility; doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with God (Micah 6:8).

- It's a life that learns to recognize that everything we do can be done out of worship and obedience to God.

- 1 Cor. 10:31 (ESV) So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

- Col. 3:17 (ESV) And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

- Col. 3:23-24 (ESV) Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

- 1 Thess 5:16-18 (ESV) Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

- What is worship?

- Worship lives our expressions of love for God, celebrating God's saving act in Jesus Christ.

Sunday Worship: What's the Point? Or, Why Bother? # 2: Worship First

Last time, we looked at an example from the life of David, the lead into his confrontation with the hulking Goliath of Gath.

- Today, we're going to continue to look at David by looking at David's expressions of worship, since he was, after all, "a man after God's own heart."

- As followers of Jesus, the Son of David & Son of God, Christians are David's spiritual children as well as Christ's. 

- We need to cultivate in our lives the spiritual legacy of worship first, above all things because it helps us to put God first.

- We worship like David worshipped when we make worshipping God our number one.

- That statement causes me to ask a question: how did David worship?

- The answer may be found in many of the Psalms, which David wrote because they are a written record of David's personal spiritual life.

- How did David worship?

- First, as we saw last week, we worship like David when we approach worship as a walk.

- In Psalm 15, David asks, "Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart;" (1-2, NIV)

- In the 23rd Psalm, David, wrote, "Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

- In Psalm 56, David wrote, " I am under vows to you, my God; I will present my thank offerings to you.  For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling
that I may walk before God in the light of life." (12-13, NIV)

- In Psalm 101, David wrote, "I will walk with integrity of heart within my house; I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me." (2-3, ESV)

- And again in verse 6, "I will look with favor on the faithful in the land that they may dwell with me; he who walks in the way that is blameless shall minister to me." (ESV)

- So, according to David's own experience, worshiping God isn't just about showing up on Sunday morning.

- It's about a worship lifestyle, a life of integrity, and it's about being open to experiencing the presence of God throughout all of life's moments.

- Worship is walking with God as a way of life.

- Second, we worship like David when we worship without compromise.

- Uncompromising worship is worship that is: wholehearted rather than half-hearted, lavish rather than stingy, passionate rather than feeble or indifferent.

- Listen to how David describes it in Psalm 27:4.

- "One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
    and to seek him in his temple." (NIV)

- God was the earnest desire of David's heart.

- In Psalm 26:8, David, wrote, "Lord, I love the house where you live, the place where your glory dwells."

- David opens Psalm 18 with these words, "I love you, Lord, my strength. ² The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." (1-2, NIV)

- David was nothing if not passionate about his God.

- Worship without compromise is wholehearted, lavish and passionate.

- Third, we worship like David, when our worship witnesses.

- As David wrote in Psalm 57:9, "I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples."

- David didn't hide his worship from the rest of the world. He made it public.

- He expected God would draw the unbelieving world back to himself through David's passionate worship and through their experience of God in David's worship.

- As David wrote in Psalm 40:3, "He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him."

- And in the last five verses of Psalm 22, which plainly foreshadows Jesus' crucifixion, the main idea is witness.

- "All the ends of the earth
    will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
    will bow down before him,
 for dominion belongs to the Lord
    and he rules over the nations.

 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
    all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
    those who cannot keep themselves alive.
 Posterity will serve him;
    future generations will be told about the Lord.
 They will proclaim his righteousness,
    declaring to a people yet unborn:
    He has done it! (27-31, NIV)

- Our worship is supposed to witness.

- What can we learn from this?

- David took worship very seriously, as the leader of God's people. Worship was David's number one.

- And he didn't just take it seriously because it was something the Holy Spirit gifted him to do because God commanded all his people to worship him.

- In the 10 Commandments that God gave his people at Sinai through Moses, the first four commandments have to do with putting God first and worshiping only him.

- Jesus himself placed worship first and taught others the same. The first and greatest commandment is to love God fully, with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

- So then, worship must be number one for the church.

- Upon the birth of the church when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the believers at Pentecost, we see that the church devoted themselves to "the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers."

- That sounds like worship! Of course, it had to be worship.

- In first Peter chapter 2, Peter describes worship as the number one purpose of the church.

- He wrote, "As you come to him, the living Stone – rejected by men, but chosen by God and precious to him – you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house…"

- What for?

- "To be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."  That sounds like worship.

- Again, Peter wrote, "you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood of holy nation, a people belonging to God..."

- What for?

- "That you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."

- Again, that sounds like worship.

- Plainly, God is making it clear that the number one priority for his people is to worship him.

- We worship like David worshipped when we make worshipping God our number one.

- Why must worshiping God be our number one?

- Worship must be our number one because of God's great rescue plan, his mission.

- In his conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus said, "a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks." (John 4: 23, NIV)

- God is seeking true worshipers.

- God is looking for people from every tribe and language and people and nation who will worship him.

- The ultimate goal of the church is not evangelism for evangelism’s sake.

- God doesn't want people that only have fire insurance faith.

- God wants more, better worshipers.

- If we wonder why our witness is weak, why more people aren't coming to Christ, why we are bored, why worship seems flat, or why we are stuck in a rut, then we need to examine ourselves, our relationship with God and the priority that we give to worshiping God seven days a week.

- We worship like David worshiped when we make worshiping God our number one.

Sunday Worship: What's the Point? Or, Why Bother? #1: God, Not Us May 5, 2013

Scripture: 1 Samuel 17:26, 31-37, 40-47 (especially 26, 37, 45-47)

- Do you ever take the time on Sunday morning to take stock, and ask yourself why am I here? Why am I attending a Christian worship service?

- There are so many other things we could do with our Sunday morning.

- We could sleep in. We could read the paper. We could watch the news. We could spend time with our family or our spouse. We could dig in the garden or take some personal leisure time.

- But, for most of us here today, going to church on Sunday morning is a loyal habit. It's part of our regular schedule. It is something we do automatically. It's a part of our natural rhythm that we do on autopilot.

- Sunday comes, we get up, get breakfast, and get ready for church.

- Now, there's nothing wrong with worship being a part of our natural rhythms, that is to say, a regular habit.

- But now and then, it's important for us to put on the brakes and say to ourselves, "why do I bother, what's the point?"

- I think the answer to that question is longer than what we can deal with on a Sunday morning and raises more questions itself, some that are simple for us to answer.

- One question it raises for me is: can we accomplish our mission as God's people without meeting together for worship regularly and without hearts and minds that are focused upon worshiping God?

- What is our mission? Our mission is to be the hands, feet, and voice of Jesus in and for our community until the light of Christ shines in every home.

- I'm quite certain that we can't accomplish our mission without being devoted, committed, wholehearted worshipers of God. Of that I'm convinced.

- What about our vision?

- As a church, each member will be involved in ministries that reach out to each other, our families and community with fervent commitment, focussed compassion, and fruitful teamwork as we strive to meet needs and grow through evangelism, discipleship, and social action.

- Can we have an every member ministry that reaches out to our families and communities and beyond with fervent commitment, focused compassion and fruitful teamwork striving to meet needs and grow without being devoted, committed, wholehearted God worshipers? Can we have a successful every member ministry without worshipping God together regularly?

- I'm pretty sure we would all have to say no, we can't.

- Those are a couple of the short answers as to why we are here together.

- The longer answers begin with our longing for God.

- Former inter-varsity staff worker Dr. John Bowen used to say that all of us have a God-shaped hole in our hearts that can only be filled by him.

- We are all "god-aholics" and will continue to try to fill that hole in our hearts with other things.

- Until we recognize our "god-aholism" and allow the one true God to fill the God-shaped hole in our lives, we will keep trying to fill it with everything but God.

- There is a hole in our hearts and lives where God belongs, and he has put that longing within us.

- That hole can only be filled by God's presence through a lifestyle of devoted worship of God.

- As we see in the life of young David, before he is crowned King of Israel, David had a lifestyle of devoted God worship.

- God was at the forefront of his mind and his thinking, his heart and his actions. 

- The praise and knowledge of God that came from David's mouth in worship became part of his regular life.

- David did not simply worship God on the Sabbath without it affecting his whole life. His Sabbath worship of God worked out into his actions and his speech causing him to live out his faith in God.

- God transformed David's life through worship, making him a man of integrity and using him as a man of integral mission, i.e., being, saying, and doing what is good and right and true on God's behalf, carrying out God's mission.

- Real worshipers want more of God, longing only after him.

- David's experience of God through worship deeply impacted his life.

- We find a great example of this worship lifestyle in 1 Samuel 17, the story of David and Goliath.

- Being the youngest in the family and having several older brothers David was responsible to stay home and look after the sheep during wartime.

- It was also David's responsibility to take food to his brothers while they were away at war.

- The Bible tells us that David was taking food to his three oldest brothers who were at war, when he learned of the challenge of the Philestine, Goliath of Gath.

- David had a "who-does-this-guy-think-he-is" response to the threats of Goliath, as verse 26, says,

- "For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?" (26b)

- Putting God worship first in his life gave David a big picture point of view and the courage to raise the question about who's bigger, Goliath, or God.

- By insulting and challenging the armies of Israel, Goliath was insulting and challenging God.

- Now, David's brother tried to put him in his place and David responded, telling Eliab, "I only said a word, I just asked a question."

- Well, word of David's question got back to King Saul, so Saul sent for David and had a conversation with David about Goliath.

- David not only had the courage to raise the question, but he knew from experience that God is bigger.

- Listen to what David said: "Your servant has struck down, both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God." And David said, "The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." (36-37)

- Through his experience of God, David knew God's power, giving David the courage to tell the King that God's power is able to deliver.

- But there's still more.

- David's experience of God not only gave him the courage to speak. It also gave him the courage to act.

- David went out to meet Goliath in front of both armies, the Philistines and the Israelites, and there was Goliath, a hulk of a man and a professional soldier, insulting David and mocking him and making fun of him because he was barely even young man.

- How many of us would have been so intimidated by such a scene that we would have fled?

- But not David, David's confidence was not in himself. David's confidence was in the living God.

- Just as he responded to the mocking of Goliath, "You come to me with sword and with spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand...that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hand." (45-47)

- Because David put God first, every day in his life, David understood that he wasn't fighting life's battles by himself.

- In fact, David understood because of his relationship with God that his confidence belonged in God and in God's ability to fight and in God's ability to empower David to overcome hardship and danger.

- In his heart and in his mind, in his speech and in his actions, David depended upon God alone.

- We see this dependence modelled in the life of Jesus.  Jesus was always ever only concerned with doing his Father's will.

- What does this have to do with Sunday morning worship?

- Real worshipers want more of God, longing only after him.

- Too many of us think that worship is about us, what we do.

- But worship is not about us; worship is about God.

- While 1 Samuel 17 is not about worship. It is about the kind of life which places God first above all things, which comes from a lifestyle of worship.

- David was zealous to put God first in his life and in the life of God's people. It showed in his words and in his actions.

- Do we have hearts like David's? Do we place all our confidence and hope in God?

- Worship is about practicing together placing our hope in God.

- Real worship is not about what kind of songs we sing, what translation of the Bible we use, how much we put in the offering plate, it's not about liturgical dance, incense, icons, symbols or the pastor's preaching. 

- Real worship is about longing after God and being inspired to continue longing after God daily.

- Real worshipers want more of God, longing only after him.