The Power Of Worship Series

1. Quotes on Worship:

Ralph Waldo Emerson hit the nail on the head when he said:

THE GODS we worship write their names on our faces, be sure of that. And a man will worship something —have no doubt about that, either. He may think that his tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of his heart—but it will out. That which dominates will determine his life and character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.

2. Worship Issues in the Church of Christ

a. Gender Roles

b. Communion – When? How?

c. Contemporary or Traditional

d. Four Part Harmony

e. Order of Worship

f. Praise Teams

g. Invitation Songs?

h. Instrumental Music

3. Worship is important:

a. It identifies our God

b. It transforms us into what/who we worship

4. Scriptures:

5Thus says God, the LORD,

who created the heavens and stretched them out,

who spread out the earth and what comes from it,

who gives breath to the people on it

and spirit to those who walk in it:

6"I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness;

I will take you by the hand and keep you;

I will give you as a covenant for the people,

a light for the nations,

12Let them give glory to the LORD,

and declare his praise in the coastlands.

13 The LORD goes out like a mighty man,

like a man of war he stirs up his zeal;

he cries out, he shouts aloud,

he shows himself mighty against his foes.

17 They are turned back and utterly put to shame,

who trust in carved idols,

who say to metal images,

"You are our gods."

Isaiah 42.5-6; 12-13; 17

7 In that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel. 8 He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not look on what his own fingers have made, either the Asherim or the altars of incense. Isaiah 17.7-8

5. Worship was intended to Radical and Revolutionary to the world in which we live.

I. The IMPERATIVE of Worship

A. Worship Is Going to HAPPEN

1. It may be worship of God – Exodus 20; Isaiah 6; Revelation

2. It may be to false gods of our day

Modern gods:

Strange for us to think of idolatry as being something in the modern world but consider this:

There are actually people who worship crawling creatures: In a museum in Egypt there is a monument to the scarab beetle.

Today you find that there are 330 million gods of the Hindus, 8 gods for every person.

In Thailand there are 20,000 Buddhist temples. In one there is a 2 inch tooth supposedly saved from Buddha’s funeral.

In China a Buddhist statue actual fell on a man and the family sued the Buddhists in the temple and it was found guilty and it and 14 other statues were actually beheaded. IDOLATRY is rampant in our world.

Someone has said that the god of the last half of the 20th century is MATERIALISM. I can’t think of another generation that has spent more of their resources and time to accumulate more stuff than we do today. It is the reason many people go to school or choose the kind of work they do

B. Worship SHAPES Us

1. In what way depends upon what we worship

But they came to Baal-peor

and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,

and became detestable like the thing they loved. Hosea 9.10c

2. False gods or YHWH? – No other gods. . .

II. The INADEQUACIES of Worship – Cultural Compromise

A. The HEBREWS and Their Gods

7Their land is filled with silver and gold,

and there is no end to their treasures;

their land is filled with horses,

and there is no end to their chariots.

8Their land is filled with idols;

they bow down to the work of their hands,

to what their own fingers have made.

9So man is humbled,

and each one is brought low—

do not forgive them! Isaiah 2.7-9

Baal worship led to:

Immorality Military and Political Power

Drunkenness Works of the Flesh

B. WE and Our Gods

They made kings, but not through me.

They set up princes, but I knew it not.

With their silver and gold they made idols

for their own destruction. Hosea 8.4

We tend to make compartments for our lives:

WORK – FAMILY – RECREATION -- CHURCH

I do what I want – “out there” as long as I get the actions right “in here.”

10Hear the word of the LORD,

you rulers of Sodom!

Give ear to the teaching of our God,

you people of Gomorrah!