Non-Negotiables of Worship
Psalm 33:1-9
“I propose we drive a nail in the altar. Or the pulpit. Or the Communion table. Or the organ bench…or pipes. Or the Choirmaster’s music stand. Or any place visible and significantly shocking to provide a counterpart to the ancient door at Wittenberg. When Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the university entryway, the sparks from his hammer ignited the Reformation. Nearly a half-millennium ago, the church was shaken to its roots – dragged by the nape of its neck to confront the reality of God’s Word, and forced to face the fact that its forms had chained its people rather than freed them. We’re overdue for another one.”
Jack Hayford, a pastor, author, and writer of the song “Majesty”, penned these words in the very first lines of his book, “Worship His Majesty”. When I look at the current condition of the church in the United States, especially in the area of worship, I have to agree with him most of the time. We are long overdue for a reformation of our own, and it may take something drastic to do it. However, this reformation can only take place if we are willing to question everything we do down to our very basic activities. To start, we need to ask ourselves one simple question. Why do we come to church? There are many different answers that you could give here, but if you had to sum it up with one short statement, could you do it? We should come to church to give glory to God. We can do this by showing love in fellowship, by learning from His Word, or by singing praises to God. We can do that by giving in the offering, praying, or using our abilities to praise God. Whatever we do here though, our primary focus should be on worship of the Lord Almighty. What kind of worship are we talking about? We are talking about Biblical worship that we find in God’s Word. Turn with me this morning to Psalm 33:1-9 to see what I am talking about.
Sing joyfully to the Lord you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise Him. Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to Him on the twelve-string lyre. Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully and shout for joy. For the word of the Lord is right and true; He is faithful in all He does. The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of His unfailing love. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, the starry host by the breadth of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; He puts the deep into storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere Him. For He spoke and it came to be; He commanded and it stood firm.
This morning we are going to take a look at some non-negotiables of worship. These are things we should never forget in our worship times if we wish them to be pleasing in God’s sight. Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will speak to our hearts today as we uncover these non-negotiables of pleasing worship from our passage in Psalms.
Non-negotiable: Worship Must Be God Centered
One of golf’s immortal moments came when a Scotsman demonstrated the new game to President Ulysses Grant. Carefully placing the ball on the tee, he took a mighty swing. The club hit the turf and scattered dirt all through the president’s beard while the ball placidly waited on the tee. Again the Scotsman swung, and again he missed. Our president waited patiently through six tries and then quietly stated, “There seems to be a fair amount of exercise in this game, but I fail to see the purpose of the ball.”
In golf, the ball is the most important part of the game. After all, until it rolls in the hole, you cannot complete the hole. You can have the finest clubs, technique, clothes, and equipment, but if you do not have the ball, you cannot have a good golf game. The ball is the central focus of the game, and it is usually the most ignored piece of equipment.
In times of worship, we have a similar thing happening. We worry about what instruments we are to use. We wonder about the kind of songs we are going to sing. We become concerned about whether we follow the order of service. We let our thoughts become consumed with these things and we forget about the most important thing. We forget about God and that we are to be doing all of this for Him.
We are reminded time and again that God is to be the center of our attention when we worship. My favorite Scripture example of this is in Hebrews 12:2, and it states, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” Let me see if I can give you some practical examples of this. Ladies, when the big game is on television and you want to get the attention of your husband, what do you have to do? Usually, you have to yell. You might have to physically reach out and smack them. You might have to walk in front of the television. Why do you have to do this? It is because they have fixed their eyes on the game and nothing else can take their attention away from it. Their thoughts and minds are so consumed that nothing else matters.
This is how we are to be when we come before God in worship. We need to fix our eyes on Him and nothing else. We are to be so consumed by the presence of God that everything else fades away. That is what it means to have God in the center of our worship, but many times it is not the case. We focus our attention of the new person in the back and wonder who it may be. We become concerned with what so and so is wearing. We think about what we are going to have for lunch when church is over. None of these thoughts seems like grave sins, but the devil places them before us to keep us from experiencing true, powerful worship. They keep our eyes off Jesus, and that diminishes the effectiveness of our praises. In a time of worship, we must make every effort possible to put aside all other thoughts and focus our entire beings on God. God must be at the center of our worship or He will not be here at all.
Non-negotiable: Worship Must Maintain Excellence
Imagine with me for a moment that the President of the United States gives you a call and tells you that he wants to come to your house for dinner. When you hang up the phone, would you go about business as usual, or would you make every effort possible to please him? Your house would probably be cleaned in places untouched by human hands in years. You would go to the grocery store to buy ingredients for the best meal you knew how to make. You would go to the china cabinet to get out your best dinnerware. You might even go to the store to buy a new outfit to wear to the meal. Ladies, you might even practice manners with your husband and children. And, I am sure that you would tell everyone you know that you were having the president in your home.
Each week that we come to church, we are to have someone far greater than the president in our midst. We are to have the King of Kings and Lord of Lords here every Sunday, and yet we make no special preparations. We do not tell our friends and family that we are going to meet with the Almighty. Why is this? It is usually because we have settled for mediocrity in our worship times, and so, there is nothing to tell others about.
We must maintain excellence in our worship in two ways according to our passage. First of all, we are told that it is, “fitting for the upright to praise Him.” In order for our words and deeds to be pleasing to the Lord, we must make sure that there is nothing keeping us from being upright or righteous. We must make sure that we cleanse ourselves from all sin so that we can go before His throne. In the morning before you get here, all you need to do is say a simple prayer. Something like, “God, I want to give you glory and praise today, so please take away anything that will hinder that,” should suffice. We need to prepare our hearts for worship by asking the Lord to cleanse us and to work in our hearts because worship does not happen on its own.
The second part of excellence in worship is found in verse two through the words, “play skillfully”. You see, God wants us to do our best for Him. He has given us all gifts to use for His service, and so we need to develop, hone, and practice them to give our best to God. If a hockey player wants to get better, he must practice his skills, spend time watching film, and put effort into getting better. Now, a hockey player does all of this just to try and win a silver cup. We, as Christians, do what we do to earn eternity in paradise. Our prize is much greater, so we should put much more effort into what God wants for us than a hockey player does for his sport. If God has given you a voice to sing, He wants you to hone it and use it for His glory. If He has given you the talent to play an instrument, He wants you to use it for His service. If God has given you the gift of hospitality, you should use it in worship to greet new people. God wants us to use our gifts, and he wants us to put as much effort forward as it takes to do these things excellently.
Non-negotiable: Worship Must Be Passionate
How many of you know what an oxymoron is? Basically, an oxymoron is when you put two words together that self-contradicts each other. In fact, the word oxymoron is an oxymoron. It comes from the words “oxus” which means sharp, and “moros” which means dull. Here are some oxymorons that I have found.
• Jumbo shrimp
• Freezer burn
• Plastic silverware
• Cafeteria food
• Professional wrestling
I have even found some in the church.
• Brief committee meeting
• Pastor’s day off
• Contemporary hymnal
• Quiet toddlers
• Emotionless worship
There is no such thing as emotionless worship because if there is not passion in it, it is not really worship. If you look at our passage, the phrases “sing joyfully” and “shout for joy” resonate in it. It is telling us to put some oomph into it. We need to act like we really want to be here with God, and we need to show that we really do mean the words that are coming out of our mouths in worship.
I love reading old accounts of church history. You read about services where the singing was so loud that people would come in off the streets to see what was going on. You read about “Amens, Hallelujahs, and Praise the Lords” ringing through the congregation as the pastor spoke. These Christians were passionate about their worship in church. I also love the beginning of chapter 19 in Revelations. “After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God.” These people were excited about praise! Their worship is described using the words roar and shout. They were having a grand old time, and they were not afraid to be passionate toward their God. They showed passion, and passion leads to our next non-negotiable.
Non-negotiable: Worship Must Have An Aspect of Celebration
A little boy once asked his mother if she could remember the highest number she had ever counted to. The mother did not know, so she asked him what his highest number was. He answered, “5,372”. The mother was puzzled and asked him why he stopped at that particular one. The boy responded, “Well, church was over.”
I don’t know what kind of church these people went too, but if he had time to count that high, I doubt that there was any celebrating going on there. Every Sunday, we should be celebrating the victory that we have in Jesus. He conquered death. He has given us free salvation. We are going to inherit a mansion on a hilltop. We have so much to celebrate, and yet we often just go about business as usual. To the typical non-Christian that visits a church, the services seem more like a funeral than a celebration, and no one wants to come to a funeral every Sunday. It’s time we start partying and show some joy like we are told in our Scripture.
Psalm 9:1-2 goes on to clarify this further. “I will praise You, oh Lord, with all of my heart; I will tell of all Your wonders. I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praises to Your Name, O Most High.” Again, in chapter 95 we are told to celebrate and be joyous. “Come let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song.” The bottom line is that we have to wake up and have a bit of a fiesta. A boring service is an offense to God. He requires the opposite. When we draw near to God in our personal lives, we can’t help but celebrate when we think of all He has done for us. We need to pray prayers like, “Shake me up,” and “Shock me Jesus” so that we will have enthusiasm, fire, and power in our worship times.
Non-negotiable: Worship Must Be Done With Reverence
A few years back, there was a woman who was at an ice cream stand paying for her cone. When she turned away from the counter, she was standing face to face with Paul Newman who was in town shooting a new movie. She looked into his blue eyes, and she became weak in the knees. He gave a, “Howdy, ma’am” that almost floored her. She never took her eyes off him as she walked away with her eyes glued on this handsome man. She got about a block away still thinking about this encounter when she finally remembered that she had no idea where her ice cream cone had gone to. She hurried back to the ice cream stand to see if she had set it down. To her surprise, Mr. Newman met her at the door. He said, “I bet you are looking for your cone. You put it in your purse with your change.”
I think it is safe to say that this lady was awestruck by Paul Newman. As great as you think Paul Newman is however, you must admit that God is better; so, He deserve our awe and reverence. Our passage tells us, “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere Him.” We must hold the Lord in high regard when we sing, pray, and worship.
Now, you may be saying to yourself, “Wait a second. Isn’t the pastor contradicting himself? He just told us to celebrate, and now he is telling us to be reverent.” The reason this sounds like a contradiction is because we have a false definition of what reverence is. Contrary to popular belief, reverence does not mean silent or slow. It does not necessarily mean that we need to be solemn. Pastor Jack Hayford even states, “There is nothing reverent about slow.” Reverence simply means to be respectful in our worship and to be mindful of the awesomeness of God. It means that we give our utmost attention to what God is doing through the pastor or worship leader. It means that we focus our thoughts upon Him. We lay ourselves down before the Lord so that He can be lifted up. We put all other cares aside and we worship with Holy fear and awe.
Non-Negotiable: Worship Will Be Diverse
I am just going to touch on this briefly since my time is going quickly, but that does not take away from the fact that diversity in worship is essential. We are told in our passage to, “Sing to the Lord a new song.” We just need to mix things up with our song selection, because every person has a different song that makes it easy for them to worship. The passage also goes on to list the different instruments that were used to praise Him. This allows everyone, no matter what talent they have musically, to become involved. It also tells us different ways to praise God. We can shout or sing. We may dance or fall to our knees. No one way is better than the other.
God loves diversity. If he didn’t, he would have made us all the same. Since we are all unique, we must allow each other to be different in our worship styles. Just because someone worships God in a way that is different than we are used to, we must not condemn them. We must allow them to express their gratitude to God in a way they are comfortable with. All of us have a unique way of worshipping, and every one of these ways is beautiful in the eyes of the Lord.
I want to close this morning with an example of true worship that I have experienced personally. At a worship concert our band performed in Lancaster County, we had a great time in the presence of the Lord. Even though we played a rock style of worship music, there were a variety of people there. There were teens and seniors. There were those there who attend contemporary churches, and there were those there from the Mennonite and Amish community that are very traditional. As the concert progressed, you could feel the presence of God there, and people were all worshipping according to their own ways. Some had tears in their eyes. Some stood on their feet with hands raised high. Some sat in their seats with eyes closed and heads bowed. There was one teenage girl there who did not worship at all until the very end. The power of God was so real that she jumper to her feet with tears running down her face, and she sang loud enough that we could hear her over the instruments. At the end of the concert, all were blessed because they had decided to focus on God and let everything else fall into place. Once they focused on God, the excellence, passion, celebration, reverence and diversity flowed with no inhibitions. All were worshipping God with all of their hearts, and that is all God calls us to do in worship. He calls us to give ourselves completely over to Him. This morning, I hope that you will make the effort to include these non-negotiables in your worship. It will completely change and inspire your entire Christian life. Let’s pray.
