Private Worship -- Part 1 Series

Scripture

During our Sunday Evening Worship Services, I am preaching a series I am calling “Worship Matters.”

Last time, we set a foundation for worship in a message titled, “All to the Glory of God.” For the next two messages, I would like to examine “Private Worship.”

Our text for this series is 1 Corinthians 10:31:

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

Introduction

A. W. Tozer, a well-known preacher in the middle of the last century, wrote, “Worship is the missing jewel in the evangelical church.” That was Tozer’s assessment of his generation. If Tozer were alive today, I believe he would find that worship is still the missing jewel in the evangelical church. Our generation knows very little about true, biblical worship. And it is for that reason that I started a series on the subject of worship. In this series of messages I want to examine the doctrine of worship and discover what kind of worship is acceptable and pleasing to God.

Review

Let’s briefly review what we covered in last time.

A. The Definition of Worship

Last we used John MacArthur’s simple, sound definition of worship: worship is honor and adoration directed toward God. Worship is ascribing worth to God and giving him the honor and adoration and glory that is due to him. Worshipping God is glorifying God. It is lifting up and exalting him before all other gods.

B. The Importance of Worship

We also talked about the importance of worship. We said that worship is important for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that Scripture is dominated with the theme of worship.

C. The Kinds of Unacceptable Worship

Then I listed four kinds of worship unacceptable to God. These are:

• The worship of false gods,

• The worship of the true God in the wrong way,

• The worship of the true God in a self-styled manner, and,

• The worship of the true God in the right way but with the wrong attitude.

D. The Kind of Acceptable Worship

Finally, last week we mentioned the kind of worship that is acceptable to God. Worship that is acceptable to God is that which does all for the glory of God. In fact, my theme text—1 Corinthians 10:31—for this series of sermons on worship describes the kind of worship acceptable to God: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

All of life, then, is worship. And this is the foundation upon which private worship, family worship, and public worship is built. Let us now look at today’s topic of private worship.

Lesson

In this lesson, we want to begin looking at our private worship of God.

I. Our Private Worship of God

Throughout the Scriptures, God calls his people to daily, private worship. For the sake of our study, I am dividing daily, private worship into two broad categories. First, there are unscheduled acts of worship. And, second, there are scheduled acts of worship.

A. Unscheduled Acts of Worship

Let’s examine, in the first place, unscheduled acts of worship.

First Corinthians 10:31 says: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

Our own Westminster Standards, in answer to the question, “What is the chief end of man?” says, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God….” Our chief end, our primary purpose in life, is to glorify and worship God. But how do we do that? How do we worship and glorify God throughout the day? Here are several ways God may be worshipped throughout the day.

1. By Trusting God

First, by trusting God.

God is glorified when we trust him completely. Trusting God is the most basic form of worship. Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

As Christians we say that we believe God keeps his Word and never breaks his promises, but so few of us live lives of total trust in God and his Word. When we fail to trust God we fail to worship and glorify him. But more than that, when we fail to trust God, we are saying to all, “My God cannot be trusted. He is not worthy of trust.”

A good example of unwavering trust that glorified God is the account of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Daniel 3 tells us that before Nebuchadnezzar cast them into the white-hot furnace he gave them a chance to recant their trust in God and worship a golden image of the king instead. Verse 17 is their answer to him: “If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.” Then they added these words in verse 18, which reveal their complete trust in God, “But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”