God Doesn’t Need Our Worship

GOD DOESN’T NEED OUR WORSHIP

Ps. 33:1

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR: DETERRENT

1. A lady named Beverly Ford told Reader’s Digest that her son always insists on listening to heavy-metal music when he's chauffeuring her around.

2. Knowing that he has very diverse tastes in music, she asked him one day why he always chooses this type of music while she’s riding with him.

3. “Well, Mom,” he reluctantly replied, “it's mainly so you can't sing along.”

4. Maybe she sang off-key, was too loud, or just did it constantly – whatever the reason, he didn’t want her singing.

5. Tonight we’re looking at why the world doesn’t want us to sing to God, but God says it’s the right thing to do. Follow along as we read.

B. TEXT

“Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him” Ps. 33:1

C. THESIS

1. We’re going to look at the world’s wrong ideas about worship, the 5 reasons worship is for OUR good, and conclude with 4 reasons why it’s “fitting” to worship God.

2. The title of this message is, “God Doesn’t Need Our Worship.”

I. WORSHIP IS NOT FOR GOD’S SAKE

A. WORLD’S TWISTED PERCEPTION

1. The atheistic world looks at the worship of a deity as foolishness and superstition.

2. They portray religion as evolving from earlier forms of animism, progressing to polytheism, and finally to monotheism (as man evolved from a monkey to a human.)

3. The Bible tells us it was quite the opposite. Adam & Eve, the first 2 humans (NOT descended from apes), were monotheists, who walked with God. As humanity got further away from that original relationship (the Fall; Romans 1:20-32), they fell into lower & lower depths of sin & twisted perceptions of what God is like.

4. Nonbelievers have always tried to equate the God of the Bible with gods invented by men (Isa. 37:10-13). Lifeless idols bear no resemblance to the Living God!

5. So why does God command that we worship Him? Is it a streak of vanity? If He’s truly God, why would He demand that? It seems so primitive.

6. In the 2010 movie, “Clash with the Titans” with Liam Neeson (as Zeus), the Greek gods derived their power from the worship of humans. So when humans quit worshipping them, they lost their power.

7. Does God NEED our worship to exist? Does it benefit Him somehow? Anyhow?

B. WORSHIP DOESN’T BENEFIT GOD

1. “I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens….If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Sacrifice thank offerings to God” Ps. 50:9,12-14. (Ps. 51:16-17).

2. Heb. 10:8, “First he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them’—though they were offered in accordance with the law.” (Teaching on Ps. 40:6-8.)

3. Paul told the Athenians, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else” Acts 17:24-25.

4. God doesn’t need anything from us! Since this is so, what is the purpose of worship?

II. WORSHIP IS FOR OUR GOOD

Worship is a means for us to come into His presence. The closer we get to God, the better it is for us.

A. FOR OUR PROTECTION

1. The closer we get to God, the less Satan can gain access to us; Satan’s kingdom-influence is lessened and God’s Kingdom-influence and covering are strengthened.

2. Jesus said to the Jewish people, “How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing” Mt. 23:37; Lk. 13:34.

3. For chicks, this is nestling up to their mother; up close and personal. Just as ships who get an escort by U.S. military fall under the protection of American power, so those who walk with God come under the protection of God.

4. Satan said to God about Job, “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land” (1:10).

5. We also see in Job 1:10, God’s spiritual blessing is upon those who fellowship with Him. This affects all areas of our lives.

B. WE GAIN CORRECT KNOWLEDGE

1. It’s only as we commune with the Giver of all Truth that we begin to see things from God’s perspective. “Be still and know that I am God” Ps. 46:10.