The Approach To Worship Series

THE APPROACH TO WORSHIP

Psalms 24

Some time ago, for our Wednesday night Bible studies, we covered a course on the church. Some of you were here and perhaps you remember that I passed out a sheet of paper with a list of various missions/functions of the church, including such things as evangelism, ministry, and service. I asked you to rank in order of what you felt/thought that the most important functions of the church were, with #1 being the most important and going down in importance from there. We then discussed what the Bible said about the goals of the church. It is important that we keep the main thing, the main thing, and the main thing of the church is simply this, to glorify, or to worship God. Worship is important to God, so much so that out of the 10 commandments, the very first one deals with the subject of worship. Exodus 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. In Exodus chapter 34, the commandments are re-instated and God says in verse 14: Exodus 34:14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: The insinuation here is that while we do not worship other gods, there is One God Who is to be worshipped. When you read the Old Testament, you can not help but see the important of worship in the lives of the people of God. Abraham worshipped (Gen. 22:5), Jacob worshipped (Heb. 11:21), Moses worshipped (Exodus 34:8), Joshua worshipped (Joshua 5:14), and of course David the king worshipped (2 Samuel 12:20) Worship was an integral part of the lives of God’s people through out the Old Testament. Worship was so important that God Himself designed and established the very first worship center, set up exclusively for worship.

We find in the New Testament that worship is still important. Jesus told the woman at the well that God is seeking for worshippers. John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. The Greek word used here for seek is zhte,w zeteo {dzay-teh’-o}seek for, desire, or to demand. God is looking for and demanding true, sincere worship. The disciples worshipped the Lord (Matthew 28:9), the New Testament church worshipped (Philippians 3:3) and at the end, when God wraps up this world in the completion of His redemption plan, worship will still be important. Revelation 4:10 The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him…

Our highest priority as Christians is to give glory to God, to exalt Him by giving Him worship. The very first proclamation that we make in our mission statement is that God has called us to worship and exalt Him.

That’s leads to the all important question, “What is worship?” There are over 350,000 churches in America with millions upon millions dollars spent upon “worship” facilities, but do we truly worship? Again, what is worship? A great theologian and preacher from the turn of the last century named A.W. Tozer said that worship was the “missing jewel” of the church. He said that man was made to worship God. Man was given the largest and most sophisticated harp (vocal cords) out of all the creatures that God made but because of sin, has taken it and literally thrown it into the mud, and fills his mouth with curses instead of praise to his Creator. Tozer continued by saying, “What is worship? Worship is to feel in your heart and express in some appropriate manner a humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe and astonished wonder and overpowering love in the presence of that most ancient Mystery, that Majesty which philosophers call the First Cause, but which we call Our Father Which Are in Heaven.” I have read many definitions of what worship is and one of the best I have came across is this one. “Worship is one’s heart expression of love, adoration, and praise to God with an attitude and acknowledgement of His supremacy and Lordship. This gives up the ability to magnify the Lord with our whole being, body, soul, and spirit.”

We know that we are called upon to worship, we know that the reason that we gather together here today is to worship the Lord and I believe that when God’s people gather in worship that God does great things for them. Here’s what I want you to understand, our worship begins long before we enter into this sanctuary. Cooperate worship is important, but it hinges upon our individual worship. The devil knows that if he can defeat us in individual worship, that it will hinder our cooperate worship. In Psalms 24, we find that David outlines for us some very important aspects of what our approach to worship should be. It is believed by most scholars, that this psalm of David was written not long after David had captured the city of Jerusalem. David’s desire was to build a religious and political center for his kingdom and Jerusalem was to be it. David wanted to establish a permanent place of worship for God. The ark of the covenant had been placed in the house of Obededom the Gittite and God was blessing his house (2 Sam. 6:10-17). However David desired to bring the ark to Jerusalem and set it up upon the Mountain of Zion and so he does. The ark is placed upon the “holy hill”. After the ark is set in it’s place, the question is raised, “who can ascend to the hill of the Lord?” to worship. In other words, what are the conditions to approach the Lord of Hosts in worship? Here David shares the conditions for the approach of worship.