SERMON BRIEF
Date Written: August 2001
Date Preached: August 28, 2001
Church: BBC (PM) Sunday
FOUNDATIONAL ELEMENTS
Series: Let’s Learn from the Past
Title: A First Worship Service
Text: Genesis 4:1-6
ETS: To truly worship God Abel had to realize who God was and then act on that realization.
ESS: For us to truly worship God we must realize who God is and then we must act on that realization.
Objective: I want those who hear this message to understand what worship is about and also how they can truly worship God.
Probing Question: What are the 3 actions we can take to enable us to truly worship God?
1. Have a profound reverence for God
2. Confess our sins to God
3. Place our words into action to fully experience the true worship of God
INTRODUCTION:
I want you to think about something tonight, I want you to think about the past. Think about what has happened to you in the past and what has went on in the past.
For many of us the past is a time we think of often and wish we could go back to. For many of us the past is a time we think of too much and in reality we would rather forget it. And then there are many of us who simply don’t think about the past in any shape, form or fashion.
The past is very seductive, whether good or bad, the past holds a claim on our thoughts and feelings here in the present. Sometimes the past can be a terrible detriment to us in the present because we try to live in the past.
But tonight I want to speak to you about using the past to help us become more productive in the present and in the future. The past holds within it a vast wealth of knowledge and experience, and we are foolish if we do not tap into that resource.
There are events and people that we can look to from the past that can and will have a very positive and uplifting effect on our lives today as we seek to be better servants of the Lord.
Tonight I want us to look to the past to learn about worship. Today we come together on Sunday morning, Sunday night and on Wednesday evening to worship God.
However, do we know for sure that we are giving God all He is due in that time of worship. But that once a week experience of worship is NOT the only time we should be worshipping and praising God.
If we are doing things as God’s word instructs us to do we should be worshipping God every minute of every hour of every day we are alive on this planet.
God is worthy of our continual worship and praise, and to do otherwise we are shortchanging the Creator who has made a way for us to know Him personally and has provided salvation and eternal life for us.
Tonight I want us to go all the way back to where the Bible starts…back to the Genesis of the human race and we need to see what the early worship was like and we need to realize how it relates to us and how it is relevant to us today.
The book of Genesis is a book of many beginnings. In chapter 4 we have a record of humanity’s 1st experience of worship. We find Adam and Eve’s son, Abel, knew how to worship.
Abel put forth acceptable offerings to God, mainly because of Abel’s attitude of the heart. He was doing it for the RIGHT reasons. Abel chose the ‘firstlings’ of his flock and this meant that he gave God the best he had to offer.
I believe that in today’s church that believers need to learn HOW to worship. So tonight I want us to look at some attitudes of the heart that enable us to worship God with a worship that gives God the glory He deserves.
1. We must have a profound reverence for God in the attitude of our heart.
2. We must confess our sins to God, truly seeking to be cleansed of any unrighteousness.
3. Finally, we must make a personal commitment to God.
First, I want us to look at how we must have a profound reverence for God in our worship time.
When we look at tonight’s passage of Scripture (Gen 4:1-6) we find that Abel knew and acknowledged that God was above all, that He was transcendent and holy.
Abel had a primitive concept of God, but he recognized God’s greatness and omnipotent power. Abel had a great respect for God, and by presenting the offering that he did we can come to the conclusion that Abel understood that God DESERVED his worship and praise.
If we could take that and apply it to our lives today we could understand that our worship experience will be greatly enhanced when we bring a profound reverence of God into the worship experience.
When we think about it, there is one distinctive feature that makes the worship experience something WORTH doing, and that is our awe of the presence of the Creator God of the universe with us. To think that God would take time to be with us…is an awesome and wonderful realization.
When we check through the Bible, we can and will discover that worship begins with reverence. Without reverence…there can be no worship.
In the book of Isaiah, chapter 6 we read, “…and one cried to another, and said, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of Him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke…”
We cannot come into a true worship experience unless we first reveal a profound and deep reverence for the God we claim to be worshipping.
But not only must worship begin with a profound reverence for God, but it must also be filled with our confession of the sin that is in our lives.
When we look at our passage tonight, we find that Abel recognized his state, his carnal nature and confessed his sins to God.
To Abel, sin was not some abstract thought or situation that did not involve him, to Abel sin was a personal experience…it was real, and he realized that God could and world forgive Him, but he had to confess that sin.
Abel faced the fact that he was a frail creature subject to rebellion and fallibility. Because he saw himself like this, it caused him to better understand just who God was and thus enabled him to confess his failures to God.
Worship cannot come about when sin is present, so the worshipper must first confess their sin to God before true worship can take place.
If we check throughout Scripture, we will discover that after a person’s profound vision of God, there comes a painful view of themselves. Then they realize what a state they are really in…
Isaiah said, “Woe is me!” [read Is 6:5]
But not only must we have a profound reverence for God and confess our sin before true worship can take place…we must also make a personal commitment to God!
Abel desired to worship God, but that desire led him to action. His desire to worship did not lead to mere words on his part. We see that he brought the choicest animals of his flock as Abel was not content in saying that he worshiped God…he wanted his actions to show it.
Abel’s commitment to God ended up costing him his life, but he continues to be a very positive influence on people even today.
We find the writer of Hebrews telling those of his generation and ultimately Christians throughout the ages that Abel’s faith was great. [read Heb 11:4]
When we worship God, it requires more of us than mere words. True worship of God requires a solid commitment from those doing the worshipping.
Any form of worship will fall short if it involves only an emotional adoration of God and a mere sorrow over sin. True and authentic worship leads us to giving of ourselves to meet God and do what God desires of us. True and authentic worship is revealed in personal dedication to God.
Now I want to ask a very difficult question tonight? Have you evaluated your worship lately? Abel caught a glimpse of the Great Creator God and it revealed to him his inadequacies. Abel gave his best in worship of God, and he back it up with a firm commitment to God.
When we truly desire to worship God our lives will be radically altered because we will allow God to use us and transform us into what HE desires of us.
True worship requires us to have a deep and profound reverence for God and it requires us to confess our sin to God, but those are useless if all our worship is tied up in our words, and there is no action to our worship.
True and authentic worship does NOT only occur here in this bldg on Sunday mornings, or Sunday nights, or even Wednesday nights. True and authentic worship is something that is an ongoing event in the life of a believer.
