Blessings of Following Christ
#1 – We Get to Worship (Part 2)
Various Scriptures
October 21, 2007
NOTE: THE ME/WE/GOD/YOU/WE FORMAT USED IN MY MESSAGES IS BORROWED FROM ANDY STANLEY’S BOOK, "COMMUNICATING FOR A CHANGE."
We: Just a quick warning – you won’t be beating the Baptists to Steak and Buffet today, for two reasons: one, the message is a bit longer than normal, and two, Steak and Buffet closed up.
Last week we looked at the discussion Jesus had with the woman at the well and I said that Jesus tells us in that conversation about worship, and He says that because He has come, we gain three benefits pertaining to worship:
1. We can worship anywhere. He told the woman that worship wouldn’t be on that mountain or in this temple. And the Bible says that we are the temple of God now. All those who are believers and followers of Jesus are temples of God.
2. We can worship in knowledge instead of ignorance – because we worship what we know – the God of Scripture.
3. We can worship God the way He wants us to: in spirit and truth. Basically the idea here is that we’re not restricted to outward formalities, rites, rituals, and locations. We can worship Him with our spirits – our very lives and not just our lips. And we can worship in the truth of Scripture, opened to us by Christ and the Holy Spirit. We worship the God of the Bible – the God of truth.
While working on this message I tried to find a concise definition of worship. I went to Webster’s Dictionary, I went to Bible dictionaries and other such sources, but you know what?
The definitions of worship as a varied as the number of sources to look at. Because worship is an exercise of spiritual faith in the presence of God, it simply can’t be contained in a cut and dry definition. Ask 10 people in here what their definition of worship is, and you’ll get 10 different definitions.
That’s because we all look at worship through different lenses – lenses of experience, preference, and even conviction – whether it be a biblical conviction or not.
The different authors I’ve been reading all have different ideas of what should be involved in worship.
What I want to try and concentrate on today are some of the underlying issues that should form the foundation of worship, both in our private worship times and in our times of corporate worship.
I’m going to focus most of my comments on the area of worship that happens during this time that we call the “worship service,” or church service, because most people think of the service when they think of the word “worship,” although as we’ll see later, worship should not be confined to a Sunday morning in a church sanctuary.
And just to let you know up front, I’m not going to be discussing much about what kind of style is right and wrong for worship.
If you’re waiting for me to say “this style of worship is right and this one is wrong,” you’re going to be disappointed.
I’m going to address the issue of style later in the message, but not in the way you might expect.
God: There is no passage in Scripture that
says, “This is what you are supposed to do in a worship service. Here’s the order of service, here’s the music you should use, here’s where to put the organ and the piano, and here’s how to print the bulletin.”
But the Bible does give us guidelines regarding worship, and I’m only going to bring out a few of them.
Believe me, there is plenty to be said about this topic, and we’re certainly not going to exhaust the topic today, that’s for sure.
1. Worship should focus on and honor God.
I prefer the term “worship service” to “church service,” because the idea of getting together like this is to worship God.
We don’t get together to just waste an hour or so on Sundays, or to focus on our own glory.
We are here to focus on God and glorify Him in everything we do here.
The focus is not the building, the music, the preaching, or anything like that.
Those are fine things, but they are meant to help us take the focus off ourselves and focus on Him.
You see, the worship service is not about us at all – it’s all about Him.
Psalm 29:2 –
Honor the LORD for the glory of his name. Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.
He is the focus – His glory, His splendor, His holiness.
All throughout the Scriptures, the focus of worship is God Almighty.
Not just in what we do, but in how we do it – in other words, the condition of our hearts toward the One we’re claiming to worship. Because worship starts in the heart.
And if our heart’s not right, then nothing we do in terms of the form or style of worship really matters.
Worship – real worship – is not a duty. It’s not something you “do” because you’re supposed to come to church.
Everything about the service should honor Him.
The music should honor Him, because it’s about Him. The giving should honor Him, because it’s done out of gratitude for His blessings in our life.
The message should honor Him. The purpose of the message is to help us be more like Jesus – and that honors God because our lifestyles reflect Christ – in and out of the church service.
The orderliness of the service should honor Him. Paul was very clear that our services should be done in an orderly manner, not just in a random manner that brings confusion to those in attendance.
2. Worship is by the people, for God.
No part of the Christian life is a spectator sport. We are called, and even commanded to participate in honoring God and advancing His Kingdom. Worship is the same way.
Romans 12:1 –
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.
Do you see that? Our worship is supposed to involve the offering of ourselves to honor God in worship.
That “offering” is an active deal. No one passively offers themselves to God. It’s intentional and active.
Offering yourself in worship to God doesn’t happen by accident.
No one walks out of a worship service and says, “Man, I hope I didn’t accidentally offer my body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – especially ‘cuz I’ve got some heavy sinning to do later!”
Too often the church service is viewed as a “production” by the pastor and musicians, and the fact of the matter is that should never be the case.
The singing team and I pray each week in my office before the service begins and often we’ll pray that God would use us to help everyone her to worship Him.
We are simply tools to help you worship. It’s not a show. Our goal is to help you open your hearts to the presence of God so He can be honored and glorified in your heart so He can make you more like His Son.
Ben Merold said this about worship: “In most churches we have the preacher performing, with God as the prompter, and the people as the audience. In truth, worship should be the people performing, with the preacher as the prompter, and God as the audience.”
(SermonCentral.com. Kim Huffman)
But when you just sit there, waiting to be entertained and served, you miss out on the blessing.
Worship is supposed to be by the people for God.
3. Worship should be inviting to those outside the church.
While I believe that only those who have trusted in Christ for salvation are truly able to worship the God of Scripture, we need to make sure that those who don’t yet know Him or are from a background that doesn’t include this kind of service are not made to feel like unwanted outsiders.
On the contrary, we want unchurched people to come to a service and find what their souls have been searching for for so long.
But when we run our services in such a way that only those who have been to church their whole lives understand, then we create all kinds of barriers.
For instance, language. The main reason I don’t use the King James Version is because the people outside of church don’t talk that way – and neither do you! In fact, I can’t think of anyone who talks like that in everyday language.
Jesus spoke to the people using language and figures of speech they could understand.
So I’m committed to doing all I can to make sure that we have little or no “Christianese” – even in the announcements!
We want our worship to be something that is honoring to God and inviting to those who don’t yet know Him in Christ.
Some feel that the worship service is only for Christians and that we shouldn’t worry about non-believers who might come. If they don’t “get it” then what they need is to get right with God and then they’ll get it.
Sorry folks, but I don’t think that’s a very Christlike attitude at all! Jesus was inviting – not exclusive.
He wanted sinners to come to Him – and He went to them, which of course got Him into all sorts of trouble with those who thought they were too good to soil themselves by being around sinners.
Matthew 9:12-13 –
Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ’I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
What’s that got to do with anything? Well, the sacrifices were part of the worship of the Jews in the Bible.
And Jesus is saying that mercy is more important than the trappings of the worship, because what was the reason for the sacrifices? To cover sin. And Jesus was there to take care of that deal once and for all.
Now I don’t believe that the worship service should be the primary mode of telling people about Christ and the offer of salvation. The primary mode, in my opinion, should be you telling your circle of influence about Christ.
But we have to understand that at least for a lot of people, when they think of Christianity and Jesus, they think “church.”
So they come to a church service, hoping to learn something about Jesus or to find something about Christ that they can latch onto to bring peace to their lives as they struggle with finding meaning and purpose for living.
We need to make sure that everyone who comes through those doors is made to feel welcome.
Not tolerated – welcome. Welcome to come and hear about how God deals with the nitty-gritty of everyday life and how Jesus can relate to us on a personal level because He knows what it’s like to be rejected, to be tempted, to be loved, to be hungry and thirsty.
Welcome to come and find that God wants to restore that broken relationship with Him, through faith in His Son.
Welcome to come just as they are because we remember that the best we had to offer God before coming to Christ was just filthy rags. And because nothing in Scripture describes the right “uniform” for church.
Welcome to experience the life-saving and life-changing grace of God.
4. Sunday worship is best experienced by those who worship Monday through Saturday.
Personal worship in regular if not daily devotions is crucial for truly getting the most out of Sunday worship.
Again, the focus isn’t ourselves, but what I’m saying is that if you have a lifestyle of private worship, then your heart is ready to hear from God on Sundays as well.
Jesus modeled a lifestyle of personal time with the Father.
And as I’ve said multitude of times before, if the only input from the Word you get is here on Sundays, it’s not enough.
You need to be getting regular intake of the Word through the week.
Questions:
o What about the “style” of worship?
Isn’t there a “right” way and a “wrong way?”
Yes. The right way is found in the passage we looked at last week, John 4, but let me just read verse 23 –
“…a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.”
The right way to worship God is in spirit and truth. The wrong way is any way that gets in the way of that.
However, I did come across this as I was working on the message – I think I’ve shared this before, but here you go:
Top 10 Ways You Know You’re In A Bad Church
10. The church bus has gun racks.
9 . The church staff consists of Senior Pastor, Associate Pastor and Socio-pastor.
8. The Bible they use is the "Dr. Seuss Version."
7. There’s an ATM in the lobby.
6. The choir wears leather robes.
5. Worship services are BYOS - "Bring your own snake."
4. No cover charge, but communion is a two-drink minimum.
3. Karaoke Worship Time
2. Ushers ask, "Smoking or non-smoking?"
1. The only song the organist knows is "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida."
(SermonCentral.com.)
I mentioned earlier that the focus of worship is God, not us. If the focus of a worship service is God, then it is true worship, no matter what the style.
I would go so far as to say that if you turn your nose up at any style of worship, then you need to examine your heart to see if you’re more concerned about the form of the worship than you are about the focus of the worship. You okay with that?
o What about being “worldly”?
This is the question asked mainly about services that use pop or rock music styles in their services, because they are seen as being worldly.
My first and most cynical response is usually this: why is it okay to dress like mob bosses and corrupt corporate executives in fancy suits and ties but not have a beat to the music in church?
Did anyone recognize the tune of our last hymn? The hymnal tells who wrote the music: Beethoven. The original words to that tune are not a hymn, but rather a portion of a poem by Friedrich Schiller.
In other words, this was a secular piece of music, refitted with Christian lyrics. Sounds like the problems people have with Christian lyrics being put to “worldly” rhythms, doesn’t it?
The real question becomes, “How do you define ‘worldly’?
When someone complains to me about how the music in some churches is “worldly” I always have to ask them to show me where it says in the Bible that one style of music is more “holy” than another?
I’ve yet to find anyone willing to show me anything in terms of either Scriptural teaching or principle that there is a “Christian” or “Biblical” or “right” style of music.
There is nothing from heaven that gives us the right “form” or style. All music ever penned in the history of the world has flowed through people who are flawed and worldly at times.
1 John 2:15-16 gives us some clues regarding what worldliness is really all about –
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world.
Worldliness lies in the heart, not in the style.
Remember, worship is a heart issue. It’s not the style, but the heart. A person can be just as prideful singing hymns as he or she can playing heavy metal Christian rock.
“Lord, thank You that we’re not spoiled by all that heathenistic rock music – we sing nothing but “real” Christian music. Right from the hymnal, too – not flashed up on a screen. And it’s not the Baptist hymnal, either!”
Or…
“Thanks, Lord, that we’re not like those stick-in-the-mud folks who only sing hymns. Man, how irrelevant they are. They just don’t get it – if it’s not loud like I do it, it’s just not worth it.”
Those are some pretty worldly attitudes, if you ask me – and Jesus had a few harsh words for those who felt they were spiritually superior to others.
I’ve been in churches where they sing only hymns, and I’ve been in churches where the music was loud and raucous. In both scenarios, there were people worshiping with all their heart, and there were people who were there who weren’t worshiping at all. They were just there.
My point here is that worldliness isn’t defined by the style – it’s defined what’s in your heart.
o Why do I need to go to church to worship? Can’t I just worship by myself?
Yes – and I hope you do.
However, Scripture is also very clear that when we gather together as brothers and sisters in Christ, God is honored by that, and it can serve as a help to all of us.
Hebrews 10:25 –
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
This verse isn’t specifically about a worship service, mind you, but it points out the fact that the Christian life is not meant to be lived in isolation, but rather in community. We need each other.
And the worship service can be a huge part of meeting that need. For some, the service is the only connection they have with other members of the family of God.
We: A.W. Tozer: What is worship? Worship is to feel in your heart and express in some appropriate manner a humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe and astonished wonder and overpowering love in the presence of that most ancient Mystery, that Majesty which philosophers call the First Cause, but which we call Our Father Which Are in Heaven. (SermonCentral.com. Steven Samala Grant)
We’re about to close our service by singing “Majesty.”
My hope as we leave is three-fold:
One, that as we sing you’ll find yourself with that delightful sense of admiring awe and astonished power and overpowering love in the presence of God.
Two, that you will find yourself reflecting on the Lord throughout the week, so that when you come here next week, you’ll be even more tuned to worship God.
And three, that God would impress upon your heart that the focus of worship is more important than the form of that worship.
And I think that if those things happen, we’ll really be people who worship in spirit and in truth – just like the Father wants.
Let’s pray.
