Sermon Central
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Prerequisites Of Worship
Contributed by Matthew Sickling on Feb 12, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: This sermon lists several things that we as Christians should do in order to be better prepared to worship Him when we enter into His presence.
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Title: Prerequisites of worship
Text: Psalm 100
Date: 2/10/2008
Location: Sulphur Spring Baptist Church
Introduction: A man by the name of Jim Dunn was serving as the pastor of the First Baptist Church. His wife, Gladys, was a very friendly lady. She understood how important it is to make people feel welcome at church so she always made a point to talk to as many people as she could both before and after the service.
One particular Sunday the morning worship service lasted a little longer than usual. In fact it lasted so long that most of people were either looking at their watches or fidgeting in their seats. And of course there were even a few who fell asleep.
After the service, the pastor’s wife was walking around talking to different people in the congregation when she noticed a man who looked like he was still about half asleep. She walked over to the elderly gentlemen who was sitting there trying to adjust his hearing aid and said, "Hello, I’m Gladys Dunn." The man looked up at her and said, “yea, me too, I didn’t think he was ever going to quit.”
I certainly hope that’s not the kind of worship experience you have today.
Last week I shared a message with you in which I mentioned a few things that we as a church need to improve upon. One of the things I believe we need to concentrate on this year is worship. Too many times we allow ourselves to get into a spiritual rut and simply going through the motions. We know when to stand up and when to sit down. We know when to sing and when to bow our heads. But that’s about it, we’re simply going through the motions, we aren’t really worshipping God. So this morning I want to spend a few minutes talking to you about worship. I’m going to share several things with you today that I believe will help you improve your worship experience. We’ll be looking at several different passages of Scripture this morning, but I’ve chosen to read Psalm 100 as our text. I’m going to ask that you do something different this morning. Today in honor of God’s Word, I’m going to ask that you stand as I read this passage of Scripture.
“Shout triumphantly to the Lord, all the earth.”
Serve the Lord with gladness;
come before Him with joyful songs.
Acknowledge that the Lord is God.
He made us, and we are His -
His people, the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving
and His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him and praise His name.
For the Lord is good, and His love is eternal;
His faithfulness endures through all generations.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us this opportunity to come together in your house, and in your presence to worship you. We ask that you would help all of us to focus our minds and our attention on you this morning. Speak through me, the Words you want all of us to hear this morning. It’s in the name of Jesus Christ that I pray. AMEN.
The first thing I want to share with you this morning is this:
I. I BELIEVE WE ALL NEED TO DO A BETTER JOB OF PREPARING OURSELVES FOR WORSHIP.
Many athletes have certain routines they go through before a big game. They eat certain things and do certain things to prepare themselves, mentally and physically for that game. Most if not all of them start this process several days before the big game.
That’s one of the things I believe we need to do a better job of. Most if not all of us need to do a much better job of preparing ourselves, physically, mentally and spiritually for worship.
Let me ask you a few Questions this morning. What time did you start getting ready for Sunday School and Worship and what specific things did you do? Many of you would probably respond to those questions by saying. “Well I got up around 8:00 a.m. ate breakfast, took a shower, picked out what I wanted to wear, got dressed, found my Bible, got in the car and drove to church.”
Even though that’s what the majority of us do each and every week, that doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s what we ought to be doing.
What would you say if I told you that we need to start getting prepared for worship on Saturday night instead of waiting until Sunday morning? And what if I told you there is a Biblical precedent for doing so? You would probably say, ‘well I’ve never heard that before, because to be perfectly honest I hadn’t either until just recently. But I want you to think this through with me this morning.
