iWorship
Part 2: Who iWorship
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.”
-Hebrews 13:15
Icebreaker: Did you that our view of God determine our approach to Him? I’ve got some copies of some kids’ letters to God here this morning and I think that you’ll find pretty humorous and actually pretty fitting to how we approach God, by the way that we think of Him:
Dear God,
I bet it’s very hard for you love all of everybody in the whole world. There are only 4 people in our family and I could never do it.
Dear God,
Are you really invisible or is it just a trick?
Dear God,
Please put another holiday between Christmas and Easter. There’s nothing good going on right now.
Dear God,
Maybe Cain and Able would not kill each other so much if they had their own rooms. It works for my brother.
Dear God,
I would like to know why all the things you said are in red. (I’ve wondered the same thing.)
Dear God,
Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don’t you just keep the ones you’ve got now. (I go for that, how about you?)
Dear God,
Who draws the lines around the countries?
Dear God,
I read the Bible. What does begat mean? Nobody will tell me. (Me neither kid, me neither.)
-Hey, how we approach God depends on how we see Him. And how we worship God is dependent on how we see Him. One of the people who wrote the Bible grapples with this issue of approaching God is worship. Specifically, the author of Hebrews talks about praising God with our lives.
† Our word “worship,” comes from the Old English word “worthship.”
-And the fact is, we all worship something.
Scripture: Heb. 13:8-15
“8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them. 10We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat. 11The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.15Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.”
-So the writer of Hebrews approaches this whole issue of praise by talking about sacrifice. Kind of a different way to think about things, huh? Now, remember in the Old Testament, the ancient practice of the Hebrew people was to bring what for sacrifice? Animals. Each Jewish family would bring the best animal they had from their flock and give it to the priest to be offered as a sacrifice to God to atone for their sins. So flash forward to the New Testament, and the writer of Hebrews is telling us that our praise to God is a sacrifice that pleases Him. Why is that?
-Well, because there are 4 things, when the priest brought a sacrifice to God, which happened that we can relate right to our praise. So let’s start there:
When you praise:
1. You engage the enemy in spiritual warfare.
Main Point: Now, you may not have even considered this truth before, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Praise is a sacrifice because by it, we engage the enemy in spiritual warfare. You see, when the high priest went in to the Holy of Holies for the children of Israel, he was coming in for an atonement of the sin for the whole congregation.
2. You enter into the “throne room” of God.
Main Point: When the high priest went into the Holy of Holies, he came literally into the very presence of God Himself. When we praise God, the Hebrew writer would be saying, “why we give a sacrifice of praise, we are literally walking into the very presence, the very throne room of God Himself. The Bible says that God inhabits the praise of His people. You want God to show up in your life? Start praising Him and see what happens.
3. You confess the truth in a world of lies.
Main point: The high priest went into the Holy of Holies to come before God to confess the sin of a very corrupt society. And that’s where truth was shared. That’s where honesty and repentance was brought forth. And when we bring praise to God, that’s exactly what happens to us As I shared with you last week, when Isaiah saw God on the throne, his first response was what? “Woe is me, I’m undone, I’m unclean and live among unclean people.” Isaiah realized his sinfulness when he cam into the holiness and the presence of God. So do we.
4. You connect with all of Heaven’s resources.
Main Point: When the priest came into the Holy of Holies, everything that was available from God was given to the priest. And when we come in and make a sacrifice of praise, ther is a spritiual connection that happens. And all the resources of God become ours. That’s why the Hebrew writer spoke aobut the fact that w ebring before Him a sacrifice of praise.
-So, in the Old Testament, the sacrifices were animals. Ancient Jews gave the best they had.
Old Testament Sacrifice = Animals
Guess what the sacrifice was in the New Testament? The sacrifice was Jesus. God gave the best He had.
New Testament Sacrifice = Jesus.
-He deserves our worship. He deserves the sacrifice of our praise. Why?
Why Jesus Deserves Our Worship:
1. Jesus fulfilled the law of God.
-Here’s the law of God in a nutshell: “Man is sinful and there must be a sacrifice to atone for the sin of Man.” In the Old Testament, it was the animal sacrifice that did this. But then Jesus cam along and He was the ultimate sacrifice. That’s why John the Baptist, when he saw Jesus for the first time, told the people around him, “Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world.” What he was saying, “This will be the ultimate sacrifice. He will be the one who will die for our sins.” Now that’s very significant because if you haven’t noticed, no one brought in the finest animal of their herd this morning and sacrificed it. There’s no hoops we had to jump through to get God to forgive us. We don’t need to. The sacrifice is done. Everything that we could ever do for our salvation is already done. When Jesus dies on the cross, there was no more need of a high priest. There was no need for any more sacrifices from Man. None of that was needed. When Jesus died for our sins, all that was done away with. There was a new order established for the forgivness of our sins.
-So ok, why did the Hebrew writer talk about a sacrifice of praise? Don’t miss this: How do we sacrifice to God? I mean, what do we really have to offer? When we come to church we son’t offer an animal. I don’t come from somewhere back in a room and take an animal for all of us and slay the animal. I don’t do that because I don’t need to. Jesus did that. So what kind of sacrifice can we bring? Well, assuming no one brought their favorite sheep with them this morning, we came with just…ourselves, right?
-What kind of sacrifice can we offer when we come to church? The sacrifice of our praise. When we all come together to offer our praise to God, this place comes alive. God shows up! Notice something: this has NOTHING to do with the way we think things should be done. In some churches, some people like the music one way and another group likes it another way. Some people love to clap during the music and some think it’s a mortal sin. And you know what happens when a congregation allows that to pervade their church services? Nothing. Nothing happens. Lives aren’t changed. People aren’t saved. God doesn’t show up. How could He? He can’t be pleased with a half-hearted sacrifice, when we have discord because of the way we think things ought to be.
-Now, listen, Millville Avenue. This is going to be important for us going into the future. We cannot let our personal preferences hinder us from praising God. You might say, “I don’t like that new stuff! I don’t like that old stuff! I think we ought to have less singing! I think we ought to have more singing! And yadda, yadda, yadda.” Listen: how can you offer a sacrifice of praise when you’re not willing to sacrifice your preferences? Think about it. If you’re not willing to sacrifice how you think things ought to be, then any time things aren’t exactly 100% the way you like them, you’re going to hinder the movement of God in your life and in the service. Because you’re just gonna check out. “Welp! I didn’t like that aspect of the service, so I think I’ll sit here and stew about for the next 45 minutes.”
2. Jesus removed the barrier to God.
-The high priest went into the Holy of Holies and there was a veil that was between the high preist and the people. There was a separation. We know what happened when Jesus died for our sins. That veil was ripped from top to bottom. Jesus literal removed the barrier between us and God. There are no longer any curtains; there are no longer any veils. We don’t need to go to a high preist. We don’t have to go to the senior pastor. You don’t have to come up to me and say, “Oh I’ve got this special need and I know that God only hears you, Stephen. Will you please pray for me?” “Why yes, my child, I’ll pray for you on your behalf.” You don’t have to do that. We’re all priests now. Every one of us can come into His presence and have an audience with God. And every one of us can offer up a sacrifice of praise.
3. Jesus provided for intimacy with God.
-Jesus allows us to now be intimate with God. Because of Jesus, we don’t have to just know about God…we can know God. Do you know Him? Or do you just know about Him? You know, this is one of the reasons I actually have come to love a lot of the newer praise songs we sing. I used to be like, “Boo, new praise songs! Hooray old hymns,” because I thought I was somehow upholding some standard of holiness by doing so. But you know? Many of the new songs are written as songs to sing to God, not just about God. And that’s a great thing. Don’t get me wrong, I love the old hymns, too. But I don’t know if you’ve noticed this about them, but many of them are written for the singer to sing about God, but not to Him. Seriously. Flip through your hymnbook sometime and just read the lyrics of a lot of those old songs we hold dear. Count how many actually sing praises to God. Count how many actually encourage the singer to offer a sacrifice of praise to God through the song and how many just have the singer sing about God. There’s a big difference. Both are good, but some are better others.
**Possible P.M. extension**
-So, what does is our sacrifice of praise supposed to look like? Hebrews 13:15 gives us 3 instructions for praise:
1. Continual
-Not just at a set time, but at all times, even in the tough times. I lve that passage in 1 Thessalonians that says, “Always be joyful.” And then it goes on and says, “Whatever happens, keep thanking God.”
-Our praise is to be continual to Him. That means no matter if you have good days or bad days. For some of you, that means when you get up in the morning, yhou non-morning people like me, you’ve just got to turnth shower on, stick your head under the water and say, “I may feel bad, but God is good.” You may laught, but I do it every morning. I’m not a morning person. So when I get in the shower the first words out of my mouth are, “Jesus, I love you. Help me today.” It may be mumbled and very quiet, but God hears. We’ve got to praise regardless of how you feel.
-You see, the thing is, when you’ve leaned how to praise God when you don’t feel like it, pretty soon, you start feeling like it. Isn’t that true? Havn’et we all learned that you do right and then you feel good, and not to wait until you fel good before you do right? Listen, let’s be honest. If some you wait to praise God until you feel like it, it’ll be Christmas before you do it. So we praise God continually.
2. Sacrificial
-Our praise should be done as an act of the will, not just becaue I feel like it. We should do it because it’s right. It’s the simply the right thing to do. I love the passage from Habakkuk that says:
Scripture: Habakkuk 3:17-19
“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. 19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights. For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.”
-Can you honestly say that your praise is like that? So it should be continual praise. It should be sacrificial praise. David said, “I will not offer God anything that cost me nothing.” (2 Sam. 24:24)
3. Audible
-Do you know that as long as you have the ability to make sound, you cannot praise God silently? Look at what it says, “We should praise Him with the fruit of our lips.” In the Hebrew that means singing, that means praying, that means shouting, that means confession. In other words, we have to do something audibly when we praise God. Have you ever run into these “secret service Christians?” “Oh yeah, I’m in love with God but I don’t feel comfortable showing it. People might think I’m weird.” Well you are weird, dude. Because God thinks it’s weird that you refuse to praise Him.
Conclusion/Invitation
-To close today, I want you ask yourself some personal questions about the priority of worship in your life:
The Priority of Worship:
† Is it central in your life?
† Do you have personal time with God?
† Is it central to the life of your family?
† Are you praying with your kids?
† Are you talking to them about God?
† Are you worshipping God together?
-How do we come to this service and bring a true sacrifice of praise? When worship becomes our #1 priority. So let’s come to Millville on Sundays with our sacrifices of praise. Let’s be ready to sing. Let’s check our personal preferences at the door. Let’s enter His courts with thanksgiving and praise. Amen?
-Let’s stand.
“Father, thank your for your goodness. May Millville be a church of owrhisp and a church of praise. May we always lift up your name above every other name and above every one of our preferences. May we cone into your gates with thanksgiving and praise on our lips. And my people, as they come to Millville, sense that this is a congregation who loves worship God spirit and in truth. Amen.
