Iworship Part 1: Why Iworship Series

iWorship

Part 1: Why iWorship

“To worship God is to ascribe to Him supreme worth, for He alone is worthy.”

-Ralph P. Martin "Worship in the Early Church"

Icebreaker: I heard a cute story the other day about a little boy named Chris. He was going up the steps to a large church. He saw 3 statues of Christian martyrs and he said, “Mom, what are those?” And she said, “Oh, honey, those are Christian saints who dies in the service.” He said, “Which service? 9:40 or 11:00?”

Intro: You know, I think I’ve seen people die in the service before. Haven’t you? Hey, why do we come to church on Sundays, anyway? I mean, really. What do we expect when we come into this building at 10:45? Most Christians don’t have a good answer to that question, or at least not a Biblical one. So for the next 3 weeks, I want us to talk about worship…real worship. True worship. I want us to learn about coming into the presence of God.

-If you look in your notes today, the objective for the next 3 weeks is basically 3-fold. Here’s what I hope for us to do:

Our objective for the next 3 weeks:

1. To examine what the Bible teaches about worship.

2. To deepen our intimacy with God through our worship.

3. To obey God is greater ways, as we learn to express our love through worship.

-Do you think we can do that together? Let’s pray.

(PRAYER)

-Isaiah chapter 6 is where we’ll be in the Bible this morning. It paints a beautiful picture of what true worship looks like.

Scripture: Isaiah 6:1-8

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." 6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

-Wow. That passage of Scripture always give me goose bumps. I mean, I read that and I’m like, “Send me! Send me! Send me!” But you know, I have to admit, usually the worship experience in my life isn’t much like Isaiah’s. I mean, let’s just get down to it, here. Isaiah shouted, “Here am I, send me!” But a lot of times when I come into church as a worshipper, I’m more like, “Here am I…oh me.”

-Do you know what I’m talking about? Most of us come to church on Sunday mornings after a really long week of work, or school, or family drama and we don’t feel much like Isaiah. How could we? There are so many other things cluttering our minds that it’s difficult to focus on the one, true Person we worship.

-It’s okay to admit it’s difficult this morning. I can’t give some kind secret formula that will make entering the presence of God easy. But I do think that God gives us a model in Isaiah 6 that shows us the process we need to take in order to experience true worship, not just on Sundays, but everyday.

-You see, when we come to really worship God, he wants to bring us through a process that changes us. Isaiah 6 gives us that process, clearer and more beautiful than any passage of Scripture. So let’s take a closer look at it, verse by verse morning. Let’s explore what Isaiah went through, and what God what’s to take us through when we worship.

The Process of True Worship (Is. 6)

1. God reveals Himself to us. (Vs.1)

Questions:

Statement: God was revealed in a very special way during Isaiah’s worship experience. In fact, in verse 1, it talks about the fact that King Uzziah died. Look at verse 1 again: “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord...”