Is Worship Important? Series

IS WORSHIP IMPORTANT?

This morning, I want to begin a series of messages entitled PURSUING HIS GLORY

If we are going to…

--be all God wants us to be as a church

--be effective in fulfilling all that God has planned for us

--be relative, dynamic, demonstrative

Then, it’s going to happen one way and one way only: And that us to PURSUE HIS GLORY

Now the main reason…

--this church is here today

--you are here today

--we’re all here today

Is to BRING GLORY TO GOD

But bringing Glory to God doesn’t just automatically happen

There is a scripture (Psalms 29:1, 96:7-8) that says that we ought to GIVE GOD GLORY – inother words it’s an…

--act

--choice

--intention

In fact, NOT giving God the glory is the essence of sin

Romans 3:23 ( KJV ) 23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

So, please understand that bringing glory to God doesn’t just automatically happen

That’s why we’re going to be talking about PURSUING HIS GLORY

And over the next several weeks, we’re going to be talking about…

--what is His glory?

--pursuing through prayer

--pursuing through worship

--passion

--ministry

So many things

So with that in mind, I want to start this series out this morning by talking about WORSHIP!

To “Pursue His Glory” you must worship, so let’s talk about that today

With that in mind, let’s read…

Matthew 4:10 (KJV) 10Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

INTRODUCTION

Today, I want to speak to you on the subject of WORSHIP

You know, worship is a BIG SUBJECT – and one of the first things you’re supposed to do as a public speaker is NARROW your topic

YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE…the little boy who said for “Show and Tell” today I want to talk about the world and all there is in it

That’s a little too big of a subject

Well, in a lot of ways, WORSHIP is a huge subject…we just could not in this one message exhaust all there is about worship

Because, really, when you think about it, WORSHIP is mentioned more in the Bible than any other subject of the Bible

For instance, you’ll only read of…

--the VIRGIN BIRTH in 3 places

--the GREAT COMMISSION in 3 places

But over and over, book after book of the Bible, from Job, who told us about…

Job 38:7 ( KJV ) 7When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

…back in eternity past

Until the final climatic book of Revelation, you’ll…

--read passage after passage

--read principle after principle

--read prophecy after prophecy

--see scene after scene

About this thing call WORSHIP

And really, what you could say is that the Bible is a WORSHIP MANUAL

And when I preach on worship, there’s so many ANGLES that I could go at it on

For instance, I could talk about the…

A. EXPRESSIONS OF WORSHIP

Because there are so many BIBLICAL ways to express worship…

--singing

--dancing

--just a tear running down your cheek

--sacrificing something of value

--shouting

--kneeling

--bowing

There are just so many expressions of worship, and I could preach a whole sermon on the expressions of worship

And then, not only the EXPRESSIONS of worship, but I could talk to you about…

B. THE EFFECTS OF WORSHIP

Because if there’s one thing we learn about worship it is this – something happens when we worship…

--think about the story of King Jehoshapt in 2 Chronicles 20

--Paul and Silas in prison

There’s even a scripture that talks about how in the future in the Millennial Reign, it says…

Zechariah 14:17 ( KJV ) 17And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.

I certainly don’t have time to get into the prophetic implications of this text, but just suffice it to say NO WORSHIP, NO RAIN!

I could go and on but just understand this: THAT WORSHIP CAUSES SOMETHING TO HAPPEN

If you need…

--healing, the best thing you can do is worship

--sanctification, the best thing you can do is worship

--a turn around in your marriage, the best thing you can do is worship

--strongholds to come down, the best thing you can do is worship

--deliverance, the best thing you can do is worship

--breakthrough, the best thing you can do is worship

Something happens when we worship

But not only could I talk to you about…

--the EXPRESSIONS of worship

--the EFFECTS of worship

But, thirdly, I could talk to you about…