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.
Do any of you know when the Sabbath day begins and ends? The Jewish Sabbath begins at Sundown Friday and concludes at Sundown on Saturday. Typically Jews gather together on Friday Evening with their Families and have a meal together. Then they spend a relaxing evening together. Some, play games, some may watch t.v. or a movie, while others sings songs and have a period of family worship.
Now, I know what some of you are thinking? You’re thinking to yourself- what in the world is he talking about, we’re not Jewish and you’re right about that, but just hang with me for another minute or so.
Let me ask you one final question. “Why do you think God decided that the Sabbath should begin at Sundown on Friday night, even though the Sabbath worship service didn’t take place until Saturday morning?”
I believe it’s because He wanted the people to be well rested and prepared to worship Him when they arrived at the Synagogue or Temple on Saturday morning.
So perhaps it would be wise for us to re-think our Saturday evening plans and activities. Maybe we should spend more time at home with our families rather than going out to eat, shopping or going to a late movie. Instead of watching t.v. or playing video games until we go to bed maybe we should spend some time reading the Bible, studying our Sunday School lesson and praying. Perhaps then we would be better prepared to worship Him when we get to church on Sunday morning.
So one of the things we can do to better prepare ourselves for worship is to start preparing sooner, perhaps as early as Saturday evening.
II. THE NEXT THING WE NEED TO DO IN ORDER TO BE BETTER PREPARED TO WORSHIP IS TO ‘FORGET ABOUT OURSELVES AND CONCENTRATE ON HIM.’
Let’s face it that is a lot easier to say than it is to do. After all we are human, and the natural thing for us to do is think about things that are going on around us and how they affect us. By nature we are self-centered individuals. However, in order to truly worship God and not just go through the motions we must ‘forget about ourselves and concentrate on Him.’
In His book, “Experience God in Worship,” Christian Author George Barna says that the main reason millions of people in America go to church every week is not to worship God, but is instead to have a pleasing experience. He goes on to say that… “most Americans go to church to satisfy or please themselves, not to honor or please God.” Amazingly, few of the people that Barna’s research team interviewed said that worship is something that they do primarily for God. Instead a much larger percentage of those who attend worship services on a regular basis claim that they do so for personal benefit and pleasure. This is something that has got to change. We must forget about ourselves and concentrate on Him! He must be the primary focus of our worship.
When we sing a song or a praise chorus the focus must be on Him and not on us. Now what do I mean by that. I mean it doesn’t matter whether you like the song or not. What really matters is that you sing, or at the very least think about the message of the song.
For instance: When we sang “We Have Come Into His House” earlier in the service were you looking around to see who was here and who wasn’t, or did you forget about yourself and everybody around you and magnifying His Name?
When I played the song “I can only imagine” were you admiring the beautiful scenery and wishing you could be there instead of here this morning, or were you thinking about what it would actually be like to be ‘Surrounded by His Glory.”
When Debbie was talking to the Children about “Being fisher’s of men” during the children’s sermon were you thinking about your responsibility to share your faith, or were you more concerned about the fact that she had a fishing pole in the sanctuary?
When I read Psalm 100 earlier was your Focus on God and What He was going to say to you through His Word? Or were you more concerned about what version of the Bible I was reading from or about the fact that I had asked you to stand during the Reading of His Word.
Do you understand what I’m saying? Worship is not about us it’s about HIM! CAN SOMEONE PLEASE SAY AMEN!
III. NOW, LET ME SHARE A FEW THINGS FROM OUR TEXT THAT ARE IMPORTANT FOR US TO REMEMBER AS WE PREPARE OURSELVES TO WORSHIP.
In our Text David told us that we are to “enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with Praise.”
Did you Praise God this morning and thank Him for protecting you and your family this week from the storms that devastated other communities or were you more concerned about the temperature in the auditorium?
David also stressed the importance of acknowledging that the Lord is God, and that we are His people. In other words we must acknowledge the fact that God is God and we aren’t. We must acknowledge that He is our Father, and our Creator. We must acknowledge that He is our Savior and Sustainer. We must acknowledge that He and He alone is worthy of our worship and praise!
We must also acknowledge that as His people we are just as helpless as a bunch of sheep without a shepherd.
We must acknowledge that even though He is Good, we are not! When we enter into His presence we must come to the same conclusion that the Prophet Isaiah did in Isaiah 6:5, when He saw the Lord High and Lifted up, He cried out and said, “Woe to me, 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!”
We must acknowledge that His love endures forever, while admitting that our love is usually only reserved for those who love us.
We must acknowledge that His faithfulness endures through all generations, while at the same time acknowledging the fact that we are much less faithful than we ought to be. Especially when it comes to worship.
We could all learn a lesson about faithfulness from President James Garfield.
After being elected President in 1880 James A. Garfield became the 20th president of the Untied States. After His inauguration in January of 1881 a member of His Administration came to see the President and insisted that he call a cabinet meeting for 10:00 a.m. Sunday morning to address a matter of grave importance.
President Garfield told the man that He already had something scheduled for that particular time. The cabinet member then proceeded to encourage the President to break his previous engagement. But GARFIELD continued to REFUSE. The cabinet member finally said, "Well, could you at least tell me with whom you could have an engagement so important that it cannot be broken."
Garfield looked at the man and said, "I will be as frank as you are. MY ENGAGEMENT IS WITH THE LORD TO MEET HIM AT HIS HOUSE AND AT HIS TABLE AT 10:30 A.M. TOMORROW AND I WILL BE THERE."
Until we come to the point in our lives where we realize that no-one is more important than God, and that nothing is more important than being in His House and being prepared to worship Him on Sunday, we will continue to be spiritually weak and unable to live the full and abundant life that Jesus wants us to live.
IV. FINALLY, I BELIEVE THERE ARE A COUPLE MORE THINGS WE MUST DO IN ORDER TO TRULY WORSHIP HIM AND EXPERIENCE HIS GLORY.
1. We must have a SENSE OF AWE…when it comes to God.
He really is an Awesome God! His Power and His Majesty may be beyond our comprehension but we better not make the mistake of entering into His presence unprepared. If you do, you are sinning against God and will be in danger of experiencing His wrath.
2. Secondly, We must have A SENSE OF ANTICIPATION WHEN IT COMES TO WORSHIP.
We must come expecting to experience the Presence of God. After all He has said that where 2 or 3 are gathered in His name that there He will be also.”
Not only this, but We must also come expecting to hear a Word from Him and be challenged to live a life worthy of our calling.
If we don’t come expecting to Hear from God, we won’t, it’s as simple as that.
Prayer.
