Today, I am going to be talking about worship, both in our private lives and in our church. I am going to do a lot of comparing between worship in the Old Testament to worship in the New Testament. And I am going to be using two main scriptures to do so. Let me start by reading them to you and then I will explain them more in detail as I go along.
1 CORINTHIANS 6:19-20
‘Do you not know that you body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body.’
1 CORINTHIANS 3:16-17
‘Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?’
A dog food company’s latest product was not selling very well, so the president called a board meeting to discuss why.
The advertisement department said the ads were great and going full speed ahead. The research and development team said the product was designed to sell with the latest of technology.
The president of the company wanted to know why the dog food was not selling if everything was so great. One manager timidly stood up and said, “It’s those stupid dogs, Sir; they won’t touch the stuff.”
Consumers want their money’s worth of whatever it is they are buying. They don’t want to be bamboozled. You can have the greatest marketing campaign in history, but if the product itself is not good, it won’t sell. And that is not just limited to the things we might buy in a store.
That can be extended to almost everything in our lives; even the church. We have all seen churches that have the slickest ad campaigns going, and everybody walks around with big smiles plastered on their faces and they reach out to grab your hand in wonderful handshakes, but you can tell there is just something that isn’t right.
We belonged to a church in Arizona that had greeters at the door. One gentleman would smile, look right through you, grab your hand, and as he shook it, he pulled you through the door so he could hurry and get to the next person coming in! I really didn’t like shaking this man’s hand because I knew it was not sincere; it was surface only.
Why are some churches filled with people like this? I believe it is because most people look at themselves, not as Christians who have to walk through this world on their journey to heaven, but as people of the world who also happen to call themselves Christians. Almost everything we do is benchmarked against what we do in the world: Are we good neighbors, good employees, or do we think people look at us as good people?
When we start to understand the promises that are given to us through Christ Jesus, we will start to view our existence here on earth, not against the backdrop of what the world expects, but against the backdrop of what Christ expects. And that will help us to better realize just who we really are. We should fully be who we say we are.
There is a story of a man in Nigeria that went around telling everyone he was in the military. He wasn’t really in the military, but when people heard him saying he was, they would give him many benefits only due a soldier.
He received discounts at different stores and many things were just outright given to him for his service in the military. (If Americans would only look at our men and women in uniform with the same amount of respect.)
This went on for several years and then one day the military police came and arrested him. They charged him, not with impersonating a soldier, but with being AWOL from his duties. Why did they do this? Because they took what he said at face value and expected him to be who he said he was.
And that is what the world expects from us as a church, and from you as a Christian, to live up to our words. In the book of ACTS, there was a very noticeable difference between the way Christians looked and acted compared to how the world around them looked and acted. Today, however, there is no appreciable difference. The world may hear an occasional word from us indicating that we are Christians, but do they see us in action?
So tell me; who are you? Are you a Christian who really tries to live for Christ, or are you a person who goes to church, claiming to be a Christian, but continuing to do the same things you have always done?
If you are a true Christian, then you are God’s temple. You are the dwelling place of the Almighty, and the Holy Spirit dwells in you. And this church should be a real church, not just a slick ad campaign. Just as you are God’s temple, this church should also be God’s temple. God should dwell here just as He dwells in your hearts. The Holy Spirit should dwell here just as He dwells in your hearts. And Jesus should be the center point of all we do, just like He should be the center point of all you do.
Too often, we are so focused on what we see in this world, we tend to start thinking that God is a concept or symbol. I want to talk about three things this morning, and the first thing I want to talk about is ….
1. THE REALITY OF GOD
In the movie Jurassic Park, there was a scene when this expert on dinosaurs came face to face with one for the first time. What did he do? He dropped to his knees in fear. See, there is a big difference between studying about something that does exist, and encountering it – living and breathing right in front of you.
For many people, “religion” means reading about how powerful the voice of God "was" as He spoke to Moses, and doing so from the comfort of a recliner that sits in front of a TV. Or sifting through the artifacts of faith, studying something that may have happened thousands of years ago, and paying homage to it now by going to church and going through the motions.
We gather to talk about what happened “then.” That is all well and good, and we should do so, but not to the exclusion of what should happen “now.” Every Christian should have an encounter with God that is so powerful it actually changes their lives! Have you had your encounter yet, or have you just read about Him and heard about Him?
God lives in each individual Christian in the person of the Holy Spirit. And God lives in His church as individual Christians come together to worship Him. In other words, God dwells both in you and in the church, which is made up of others just like you. He is not dwelling in you and in the church in some abstract concept or design; He is dwelling in you in reality, just as much as you are really sitting in your chair right now. God is in this place as I am speaking. Look around and welcome God to our service!
In the Old Testament, God would meet His people in the Temple.
In 1 KINGS 9:3 God tells Solomon,
‘… I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting My Name there forever. My eyes and My heart will always be there.’
In the Old Testament, people went to the Temple to be near to God, to worship Him, to enjoy His presence. But things have changed since Jesus died for our sins. Now, God says our hearts are His dwelling place, through His Holy Spirit.
God lives in us, and therefore, is with us every moment of every day. Going back again to 1 CORINTHIANS 3:16, Paul reminds us that the Spirit of God lies in us. In the Old Testament, God appeared as a cloud, or a burning bush, or a strong voice in a cloud. Today, however, God appears to us from our hearts. From within us – and from within our church.
We are His Temple,
We are His dwelling place –
And our hearts give Him worship
As we bow under His grace
We are His Temple
In us, He lives and He loves –
He will always be with us
Until he calls us from above
And if I really believe this, it will cause me to reassess my life. I will change my attitude to be more positive in His love; I will make sure my level of commitment to His Son is one that puts Him first in everything I do and say; and that everything else in my life is directed first toward God, and then toward those things I must do in the world around me.
And if I do these things for God, God will always be with me. I will be filled with His power, a power that I have never known before. I will realize just how much God loves me, so much that He gives me what I ask for in His Son’s name.
(ILLUSTRATION: Have a glove on the pulpit.)
I want you to look at this glove. The glove cannot do anything, can it? It occupies space, but that is all it is good for. But, when I put my hand in it, the glove conforms to my hand, and then it can do all the things my hand can do.
Likewise, it is not us who performs Christian acts, for by ourselves, we can do nothing. It is the Lord in us that gives us the abilities to do what we do for God.
PHILIPPIANS 4:13 illustrates this.
‘I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.’
You are the glove. The Lord in us is the hand in the glove. When you are filled, you are ready to go to work. But to do the work, God must be in full control.
You would never go to work and ignore your boss while you always did things you way, would you? What would happen? You’d be out of a job very fast. And you shouldn’t step into God’s presence and ignore His will for your life while you cling to those things in your life that you want to do.
When we put our desires first, we deny God a place in our lives. When we focus on what we want to do before we focus on what He wants us to do, we deny God a place in our lives. But when we allow Him to work His desires in us, we benefit by it, whether it is in our personal Christian lives or the corporate church life.
And speaking about the church, more than anything else that goes on in here …
2. GOD IS WORSHIPED IN THIS CHURCH
PSALM 5:7 says,
‘But I, in Your great mercy, will come into Your house; in reverence will I bow down toward Your holy Temple.’
The Temple of the Old Testament was a place where God was worshiped. The focus was to have a place where people could actually worship God above everything else.
Too many times, we find people today who view the church as a place they should go, but they don’t focus on the worship as much as “how” they do things. For example, I know a man who is a long time elder in his church. His focus, as he has explained to me, is making sure things in the church are done exactly the way things were done when he was a young man.
I have tried to explain to him that, as Christians, our whole life is about change. Jesus’ ministry was all about change; getting people to change their focus from “how” things had to be done (the law) to “why” things should be done – to worship God from a heart full of love.
Today, our church is all about worshiping the Lord God. Every single thing we do in church should be done with a heart that is bowed down to Him in worship. This morning, as we sang the songs of worship, what were you thinking about? Were you thinking about worshiping God with your life, or were you thinking about how much you have to do when you get home?
Yesterday, as you did the things you did, what was your focus? Was it on doing those things for God, or doing them for your own enjoyment? Everything you do away from church, and in church, should be done from a heart of worship.
We fall into the trap of thinking worship is singing a few songs in church, or listening to a sermon. We have to change our way of thinking. We are not here to see a Christian variety show. We are here to worship our Lord God.
Too many people have sat under false teachings in the past and don’t feel comfortable with true worship. Imagine something if you will. Imagine that you are home alone, doing housework or working in the garage, and all of a sudden, God Himself appeared to you. You see that light that is brighter than anything you have ever seen, but somehow, it doesn’t hurt to look at it. In that light, you feel the warmth of an enormous love, and it surrounds you with wave after wave of His wondrous compassion.
Now, if that were to happen, how would you feel and how would you react? There are some who do not show emotions in God’s house because they have been taught not to. This is a false teaching! True, God wants an orderly service, but He is the one who gave us emotions.
Worship means to humble our hearts. I have never met a person yet who truly humbled their heart without showing some kind of worship emotion. For some, it is raising hands in song or prayer. For some it is the shedding of tears. For others, it is the lifting of your eyes towards Heaven, and for all, it is the absolute joy of being in the presence of our Lord and Savior. The way you would react if you were to encounter God, is the way you should react during worship – no more and certainly no less.
We have gathered together in worship to be met by God the Almighty God; the Creator of the Universe, the One who sustains our lives, our Redeemer and King, is present through proclamation and remembrance. He wants to communicate to us, to penetrate our inner self, and to take up residence within us.
And, as we go through the experience of meeting with him in this moment of public worship, we are to respond. But like I said earlier, worship is not just singing a song, not just saying a prayer, and not just sitting there while the pastor preaches. Response, from the very beginning of worship to the end, must be a powerful inner experience of actually being in the presence of God.
Whether we are singing, praying, or listening to the proclamation of God’s word, we should do so while expressing a feeling, bringing our souls, truly responding and communicating to the living and active presence of a loving and merciful God.
Right now, as I deliver the preaching part of worship, God is listening to every word that I speak, and He sees inside each one of our hearts, to see if you are eagerly concentrating on His word, or whether you are busy thinking about other things.
I like what it says in HEBREWS 12:28.
‘Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably, with reverence and awe.’
Anything less than reverence and awe is a denial of God’s presence here today. I have something to ask you now. It is very personal, and I don’t want you to answer it out loud. I do, however, want you to answer it to yourself.
Why are you here today? I mean, why are you really here today?
There are many ways in which you might answer. You might say you are here to be encouraged or to encourage. You might say you are here to learn more about God. These are correct answers, as are many others you might list, but none would be THE correct answer. THE correct answer would be that you are here to simply worship God in all you do.
This is God’s Temple. We are on holy ground. We are in the very presence of the Trinity; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We are in the presence of forces so strong they actually created the universe with nothing but a spoken word.
And if we are here with any other purpose than to simply worship the Father, we are here for the wrong reason. Each one of us should pray daily that God instills within us, a heart of true worship.
In a moment, we shall ask the Praise Team to come forward for our invitation.
If God is real, and if we worship Him in this church, we must …
3. HONOR HIM IN ALL WE DO
I want to re-read the two passages I began this message with. But this time, I want to add some background so we get a better understanding.
Paul was writing to the church in Corinth. That church has many problems that kept them from fully focusing on the Lord. One of those problems was that the church members were engaging in very inappropriate sexual relations.
So Paul wrote to them.
1 CORINTHIANS 6:19-20
‘Do you not know that you body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body.’
He is telling them to stop defiling the Temple of God, which was their bodies. The one thing we forget most of all, is that no matter what we are doing, God is there with us, seeing every action and knowing every thought. I wonder how many of us would do the things we do, if we could see God standing there watching us as we do them. My guess is we would clean our acts up very fast.
This passage pertained to the people on an individual basis. But the next passage dealt with the church as a whole.
1 CORINTHIANS 3:16-17
‘Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?’
Here, Paul is telling them to basically stop defiling the Temple of God, which was their gathering place. He was telling them to stop dividing the people.
In both cases, God’s Temple was being dishonored because people were focused on themselves instead of on the Lord. As the Temple of God, we take God with us everywhere we go. If we go to the movies, we take Him with us. When we go to work, we take Him with us. And when we engage in any kind of sinful behavior, guess what? We take Him with us there, too.
EPHESIANS 4:30 gives us a command.
‘And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.’
Think of it this way: God loves you. He is with you. And when He sees you honor Him, the love and happiness is so great He shares it with you. But when He sees you dishonor Him, even though He doesn’t stop loving you, His heart breaks and His Spirit hurts. Now, is that something you want to do to God?
I think the problem is that most people do not visualize God as being real. They don’t feel Him in their lives, so they end up acknowledging God, but looking at Him as a vague idea or concept.
I used to do that. But one day it dawned on me that He is very real and He is with me, and I had done very little in my life to honor or please Him. My heart was cut to the quick with the sober thought that, as “good” and as “safe” as I thought I was, I was on a one-way trip to the entrance of hell.
From that point on, God was very real to me, and that sense of reality was what enabled me to start worshiping Him for the very first time. I began to think about honoring Him, and I started to feel His love in my heart.
Would the Praise Team please come forward?
I want to close this morning by asking you to ponder three questions over the coming week.
Firstly, since you now understand that God wants nothing but for you to love Him, what will you change in your life to show Him how you feel?
Secondly, since you now understand that God wants you to honor Him, what things in your life will you change to do so?
INVITATION
