WHAT IS WORSHIP?
(All of my sermons use illustrations found at www.sermoncentral.com And all Scripture is NIV unless otherwise noted)
This morning we are missing all the other Elders of the church, I am the only one here. They are all attending worship at our sister church in Shenendoah, and will be spending some time with the leaders there, to gather information and help with the future plans for our church. So this morning I would like to talk to you about WORSHIP.
So many times churches have arguments and problems when it comes to WORSHIP, because they get stuck in the thinking that WORSHIP is really all about music. That a church needs either Hymns or Praise choruses. This thinking has caused many a problem.
I heard about this pastor. He was raising money for a new sanctuary. He told his congregation one Sunday morning "If anybody will give $1000, you can pick out three hymns." A little old lady in the back raised up her hand and said "Pastor, I’ll do it." He was so excited. He said "Thank you so much. Go ahead and pick out three hymns." She looked over the congregation and said "All right. I’ll take him, him and him!"
Why does the difference in music style cause so many problems anyway?
An old farmer went to the city one weekend and attended the big city church. He came home and his wife asked him how it was. "Well," said the farmer, "It was good. They did something different, however. They sang praise choruses instead of hymns." "Praise choruses," said his wife, "What are those?" "Oh, they’re okay. They’re sort of like hymns, only different," said the farmer. "Well, what’s the difference?" asked his wife. The farmer said, "Well it’s like this - If I were to say to you: ’Martha, the cows are in the corn,’ well, that would be a hymn. If, on the other hand, I were to say to you: ’Martha Martha, Martha, Oh, Martha, MARTHA, MARTHA, the cows, the big cows, the brown cows, the black cows, the white cows,
the black and white cows, the COWS, COWS, COWS are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the corn, the CORN, CORN, CORN’ -
Then, if I were to repeat the whole thing two or three times, well that would be a praise chorus."
(and now, the rebuttal...)
A young, new Christian went to his local church usually, but one weekend attended a small town church. He came home and his wife asked him how it was. "Well," said the young man, "It was good. They did something different, however. They sang hymns instead of regular songs." "Hymns," said his wife, "What are those?" "Oh, they’re okay. They’re sort of like regular songs, only different," said the young man. "Well, what’s the difference?" asked his wife. The young man said, "Well it’s like this - If I were to say to you, ’Martha, the cows are in the corn,’ well that would be a regular song. If, on the other hand, I were to say to you:
Oh Martha, dear Martha, hear thou my cry Inclinest thine ear to the words of my mouth. Turn thou thy whole wondrous ear by and by To the righteous, inimitable, glorious truth. For the way of the animals who can explain There in their heads is no shadow of sense, Hearkenest they in God’s sun or his rain Unless from the mild, tempting corn they are fenced. Yea those cows in glad bovine, rebellious delight, Have broke free their shackles, their warm pens eschewed. Then goaded by minions of darkness and night They all my mild Chilliwack sweet corn have chewed. So look to that bright shining day by and by, Where all foul corruptions of earth are reborn.
Where no vicious animal makes my soul cry And I no longer see those foul cows in the corn. "Then, if I were to do only verses one, three and four and do a key
change on the last verse, well, that would be a hymn."
BUT THE TRUTH is simply this; musical styles have little to nothing to do with WORSHIP. If you have your Bible turn with me to the Gospel of John, chapter 4
Here we will see what Jesus says about WORSHIP ands learn from here what it means to WORSHIP.
John 4:21-24 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet 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. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
PRAYER
There are 4 things in this small passage of scripture that truly can answer the question what is WORSHIP? This morning, I don’t want to take a lot of time explaining what Worship is or is not, rather let us simply look at what Jesus says about WORSHIP and understand the simple concepts.
I. WORSHIP CAN BE DONE ANYWHERE AT ANYTIME
Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem
Worship is not something we do only on Sunday morning, it is to be done ALL the time. The Bible dictionary defines worship as: direct acknowledgment of God, His nature, attributes, ways and claims, whether by the outgoing of the heart in praise and thanksgiving, or by deed done in such acknowledgment. So the purpose of our worship is to glorify, honor, praise, exalt and please God.
Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that a time is coming when they will Worship the Father, neither here or there. He eludes to the fact that we will worship God everywhere, not in a certain city, or a certain place, but EVERYWHERE!
Too many people think that worship is done for an hour on Sunday morning and then it ends. But we should acknowledge God in our lives through worship on a n everyday basis. Speaking of His divine nature, His power and strength, and His promises to us. We can do this through prayer, evangelism and also in deeds. Simply reaching out to the lost, serving a lost world in the name of Jesus Christ is worship.
It is not done in a building once a week. A place where we serve our time and then God lets us off the hook. And just because we go to the building every Sunday does not mean that we are on God’s side.
The story is told of a man who was on his way to attend a costume ball one Sunday evening. He was wearing a red suit with a tail and a skintight mask with horns. He looked like Satan, or rather the false but widely accepted picture of the devil. As he hurried along, he was caught in a sudden rainstorm, so he sought shelter is a church where the service was just ending. When he ran into the building, he shocked the members, who thought he was the real thing. A
flash of lightning and a clap of thunder added to the illusion. The congregation panicked and rushed for the rear exits. The intruder thought the church had been struck with lightning and was on fire, so he raced after them. Everyone got out except one elderly lady. Turning in fear, she stretched out her hands and pleaded for mercy, “Oh devil, please don’t hurt me. I know I’ve been a member of this church for 30 years, but I’ve really been on your side all the time!”
The church is not tied down to a location or a time, I here people say where is your church, or what time is church. Church as defined in the New Testament never means the building or house of assembly, because church buildings were built long AFTER the apostolic age. It means an organized body, whose unity does not depend on its being met together in one place; not an assemblage of atoms, but members in their several places united to the One Head, Christ, and forming one organic living whole. Therefore, worship is to be done EVERYWHERE and ALL THE TIME.
II. WORSHIP INVOLVES A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
Jesus shows us that we cannot worship what we do not know. So many young people worship stars, whether Hollywood stars or sports figures. And then somewhere down the road the real character of the person the are falsely worshiping comes out. We can not worship the thing. Or people we really don’t know. I have seen people who worship and envy the people in life that have money, and then they get lucky hit the lottery, inherit a bunch of money and they are miserable, they had no idea that money does not solve problems, it just brings another set of problems.
In order to worship Jesus, you must KNOW him, that is in an intimate way, a way that helps you both understand and recognize him, then you will want to worship Him. So many people come to the church building at a specific time to “worship” someone they really have not taken the time to understand and love.
No one here would just marry someone they met today, they want to KNOW the person, they want to spend time with the person, understand them, be comfortable with them. We MUST spend time with Jesus on a regular basis if we are to Worship Him. When we come to know God in an intimate manner then we find it easy to worship Him because we know what He is and what He has done.
Acts 17:24-25 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.
Know and understand God and then you can Worship Him.
III. WORSHIP IS DONE IN SPIRIT
Worship of God is to be done in Spirit and in truth,
23 Yet 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. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
To Worship God “in Spirit” means with reverence, attentiveness and having the right purpose of honoring God, while understanding what we are doing.
The writer of Hebrews tells us Heb 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,
To worship God acceptably we must worship with reverence and awe, and that comes from a mind and heart that are prepared for worship, a mind and heart that are focused only on God and not the world around them. We should not rush or hurry to worship, we should not arrive late but should always plan to be there early enough so we can be in a worshipful attitude and spirit. Our mind must be ready, attentive, and alert. We must control our thoughts during periods of worship throughout the week and especially when we gather together to worship Him on Sunday morning. We cannot come on Sunday and allow our minds to wander to other things. We should never be wishing that the worship service would hurry up and be over so we can get to the restaurant early and not have to stand in line. In fact we should be of the frame of mind that we are disappointed to see worship service end.
Remember school, slouching over, sleeping, playing around, squirming, unnecessary talk and passing notes could get us into trouble. WHY, would we come to spend time with God and do the same things? Worship that is not sincere, from the heart, done in Spirit is vain, useless and unacceptable before God. Worship with reverence, done in spirit is not having a long face, folded hands, or a put on look of seriousness. It is a time of offering thanks, adoration, love, praying, singing praises to God, feeding on His Word and proclaiming Christ to a lost world.
Worship is not for our entertainment!
There is a very misconceived idea out there today that the main reason we attend worship service is “to get something out of the service,” rather than going here to give worship to our God. This is a selfish motive on our part and is not worship done in Spirit. This is the reason people cannot be satisfied with the worship service when their emphasis is not on the proper object of worship, GOD. It is not about how entertained we are, but about what we offer to our God and creator. Our pleasure crazy society gives little thought to finding favor with God in their worship. Our worship is to bring God honor and glory and not to entertain people. It is as if we have come to the building on Sunday as a spectator and the truth is that God is the spectator, not us. Worship is to be God -centered not man-centered. When people seek and “emotional high” from worship and don’t get it, they are disappointed and start blaming the songs we sing, the way the preacher preaches, the communion service, etc. . . .. The world wants their worship to be more entertaining and thus they fail to worship God in spirit.
IV. WORSHIP IS DONE IN TRUTH
We are also told by Jesus himself that true worship is done in truth. Since god’s Word is truth, we must worship Him according to his Word.
There is no room for broad-mindedness in a chemical laboratory. Water is composed of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. The slightest deviation from the formula – not allowed.
There is nor room for broad-mindedness when it comes to music. The skilled director will not permit his first violin to play even so much as 1/2 note off from what is written in the music.
There is no room for broad-mindedness in the mathematics classroom. Neither geometry, calculus, nor trigonometry allows any variation from exact accuracy, even for old time’s sake. The solution of the problem is either right or it is wrong (there is no tolerance).
There is no room for broad-mindedness in biology. If they are investigating a theory and – if one result out of a thousand is different from the rest – it will invalidate an entire theory.
There is no room for broad-mindedness on the athletic field. The game is to be played according to the rules with no favors shown for "charity’s sake."
There is no room for broad-mindedness in the garage. The mechanic says the piston rings have to fit the cylinder walls within one thousandth’s of an inch – and that’s the way it has to be. And there is NO Broad-mindedness when it comes to worship and God, it must be done in Truth, not our variation of the truth.
God has specified in the Bible the acceptable way He is to be worshiped. He is not to be worshiped according to the evil and vain imaginations and devices of men. Whatever is not commanded in scripture in our worship to God is forbidden of we are to worship god in truth. God is not obligated to accept our worship just because we offer it to Him. We dare not substitute what we want for what God has commanded if we want to please Him and go to heaven. There are many that think that it really does not matter what we believe or don’t as long as we are sincere and we are following what we have been taught. I am here this morning to tell you they are wrong. If you believe the wrong things, you might as well not believe in anything, because it will do you NO GOOD! It is like telling God we will worship Him the way we choose and we don’t really care what He has to say about it. In that case every man becomes his own authority thereby eliminating the authority of God, The Bible.
So many times I see people who mean well, who want to worship God in truth, but their lives are so busy that they do not give God the time He deserves and it reminds me of Satan’s agenda.
Satan called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his devils, he said, “We can’t keep Christians from going to church. We can’t keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can’t keep them from forming an intimate, abiding relationship with Jesus. Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken. So, let them go to their churches, let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they can’t gain that relationship with Jesus. This is what I want you to do. Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!”
“How shall we do this?” shouted the devils. “Keep them busy in the nonessentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds. Tempt them to spend, spend, spend and borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6 to 7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children.
As their family fragments, soon, their home will offer no escape from the pressures of work! Over stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice. Entice them to play the radio or CD player whenever they drive. To keep the TV, VCR, DVD, PC, Game Boy, and their X-Boxes going constantly in their home. See to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly. This will jam minds and break that union with Christ.
Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, catalogs, sweepstakes and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services and false hopes.
Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines so their husbands will believe that external beauty is what’s important and they’ll become dissatisfied with their wives. That will fragment those families quickly!
Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation, exhausted, disquieted and unprepared for the coming week. Don’t let them go out in nature to reflect on God’s wonders. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts and movies instead.
Keep them busy, busy, busy! And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled conscience and unsettled emotions. Go ahead, let them be involved in soul winning; but crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Jesus.
Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause. It will work! It will work!
It was quite a convention. The devils went eagerly to their assignments, causing Christians everywhere to get busy and be more rushed than ever before. I guess the question is: Has Satan been successful at his scheme?
INVITATION
