(Slide 1- Title Slide) The title of my meditation this morning, ‘Got Worship?’ is a play on the advertising phrase, ‘Got Milk?’ that has been used to underscore the importance of the nutrients of milk in one’s diet.
And just as important as milk is to our bodies, worship of the Lord is important to our souls.
This has been one of the busiest summers for me in many years. Vacation, our national camp meeting in Anderson, Siblings Camp, and the Habitat experience last week in Mississippi have made the past four or five weeks go by very, very quickly.
And I confess that sometimes my personal worship of God has been shortchanged during this time. I noticed it after vacation! It is good and important to worship!
In my research for this morning, I discovered a quote from Sir William Temple about worship: (Slide 2)
‘To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.’
That is a wonderful definition of worship because it goes beyond, well beyond, our very functional view of worship as a couple of hymns and choruses, prayer, the offering, a message of some kind, and a conclusion.
Do you ‘have’ worship? Or does God, through worship of Him, ‘have’ you?
Notice the action words of Temple’s definition: (Slide 3) quicken, feed, purge, open, and devote. All of these actions are, to be noted, going in two directions – from us to God and God to us for as we worship God it opens us to these ways of God working in us.
Music is a very helpful (and fun) avenue to worship. Have we not been moved today as we have sung?
Our main text for today has underscored the importance of music in praising and worshipping the Lord:
Let the godly sing with joy to the Lord,
for it is fitting to praise him.
Praise the Lord with melodies on the lyre;
make music for him on the ten-stringed harp. Sing new songs of praise to him;
play skillfully on the harp and sing with joy.
I don’t know about you, but when there have been difficult and challenging times in life, when I have needed a word of encouragement or comfort, it has often been a phrase of verse of a song – hymn and chorus – that has been brought to my mind.
The musical heritage of the Christian faith is too rich to limit to one style of music. In all the generations of faith, there have been, and there currently are, musical statements of worship and faith that God uses to minister His grace and mercy to us.
For me, I cannot do without ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty,’ anymore than I can do with out, ‘Come, Now is the Time to Worship.’ I need to sing, ‘Great is thy faithfulness, O God my father,’ as much as I need to sing, ‘Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord.’
This morning, I want us to spend a moment to reflect again on Temple’s statement by considering how our conscience has been quickened, our minds fed, our imaginations purged, our hearts opened, and our wills devoted to, by, and for the Lord, in our worship service this morning.
What have we sung, which has challenged our conscience, fed our minds (and hearts as well), purged our imaginations of second class things, opened our hearts (and minds) to God’s love, and strengthened our wills to serve God?
Think about it for a moment, no answering back.
What might be God asking of you? Or reminding you of?
Finally, I want us to remember that in the end, praise and worship of God will still be around after all the other things we get excited and concerned about have gone…
‘After this, I heard the sound of a vast crowd in heaven shouting, “Hallelujah! Salvation is from our God. Glory and power belong to him alone. His judgments are just and true… Again and again their voices rang, “Hallelujah! The smoke from that city ascends forever and forever!” Then the twenty-four elders and the four living beings fell down and worshiped God, who was sitting on the throne. They cried out, “Amen! Hallelujah!”
I hope and pray that each one of us will be a part of that vast and great crowd who will join in shouting and praise our God and Savior on that day. In the meantime, stay faithful and PRAISE HIM! Amen!
Power Points for this sermon are available by e-mailing me at pastorjim46755@yahoo.com and asking for ‘071507slides’ Please note that all slides for a particular presentation may not be available.
