(This Sermon was preached as a result of me observing and hearing what I called “Worship Wars”. Churches are wrestling with the various tensions and traditions as it pertains to worship. The enemy will use various issues and customs to create wars around worship. Warren Wiersbe refers to this tension as the Battle Ground of Worship. This sermon seeks to place worship in the biblical context that is seen from this story.)
In Brooklyn, New York there stands the Plymouth Church, a one hundred-sixty four year old Congregational Church. It is a National Landmark acknowledged by the Historical Society of the USA. The Plymouth Church became known because it selected a young man by the name of Henry Ward Beecher who served over forty years as the Pastor. Beecher was poetic, powerful, political, and persuasive as a preacher. He also was an abolitionist; he purchased the chains of John Brown and brought them to the pulpit as a reminder of the plight of slaves. He led his church to purchase the freedom of slaves, one notable slave was a girl named “Tiny”. Beecher came from a respected family; Lyman Beecher was his father, the distinguished Lecture Series at Yale bears his name (Lyman Beecher Lecture Series). His sister was Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. His brothers and sisters were talented and successful in their own efforts. The Plymouth Church would be packed Sunday after Sunday to hear and see the great Henry Ward Beecher. Because of a demanding schedule, Beecher would not always be at the church, so his brother who was well trained and gifted, and was his trusted Assistant would preach. When Thomas would assume the Chair where his brother would normally sit, some would immediately head for the door. It was not that Thomas was not a good preacher, he just was not Henry. On one occasion as some began to move, Thomas went to the podium with this announcement, “For those who came today to worship my brother Henry Ward Beecher I am sure you will be leaving. But for those who came to worship God, please stand with me and sing the hymn, How Great Thou Art!
We must not forget why we come to church. It is about the worship of God!! It is about having our spiritual tank filled so that we can make it through the week!! It is about having the appropriate spiritual inflation in our wheels of faith and hoping that we do not have a flat tire as we pursue our faith. Worship has always revolved around the power and presence of God; never should worship be wrapped around any human personality. And perhaps our deficits may well be we allow personalities, traditions, customs, days, and denominational labels to have more authority over us and our worship, rather than worship having authority over them.
The central motivation for worship must be and should be that we come to worship God, a God who is True, Tried, and Triumphant. In John 4:23 we read, Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. That text declares that the Father seeks, desires true worshippers. And you can only be a true worshipper when you worship out of truth and realness.
This text today is truly a model text to teach us about worship, in the Latin this passage could be identified as a locus classicus (an illustration of a work that is well known). This text is a familiar (well known story in the life of Isaiah, but it is equally a great illustration of worship). The Prophet Isaiah records his encounter, his experience with God in the House of God. You can have a God experience and encounter with God anywhere, but you definitely should have a God experience and encounter in God’s House.
This text suggests four basic principles about worship.
I. Isaiah Saw Something (vs.1)
In order to really see God in worship, one may need to be aware of some barriers
.
You can’t allow others to get in your way of seeing Him. The actions, the attitudes, the personalities, the activity, the ignorance, and idiosyncrasies of others can cause you to miss God.
You also may need to get out of the way so you can see God. We so often bring baggage, burdens, hurdles, hurts, issues, and injuries that block us from experiencing God in a personal and powerful way.
A. He Saw God’s Glory.
God is in charge.
God is in control.
Regardless of what may be going on, He has not abdicated His throne.
That is one of the virtues of worship, you see God a the Sovereign God.
B. He Saw God’s Greatness.
In worship one should get a sense that our God is Greater and Stronger than any foe or force.
He saw God lifted:
High
His train filled the Temple.
(Think about the train of a bride – think about what King Uzziah’s train must have been like as King. But when he saw God’s train – it was greater!
II. Isaiah Heard Something (vs. 2-3)
In worship you want to hear something divine and righteous, not just human chatter, not the latest gossip, not what’s going on here and there. Not the junk and jive of the neighborhood.
A. He Heard Angels (Heavenly) Praises.
Somebody ought to really be heavenly praising God in worship.
If God has not done anything supernatural, super spectacular – there is still reasons for praise. You can praise Him for His:
Faithfulness
Forgiveness
Fellowship
Angels’ praises were ministering to the heart of God.
What really pleases God is praise that is real
B. He Heard Worship from the Angels. (Holy…)
That worship that He heard:
Lifted Him.
Worship ought to lift you, not put you down.
Worship ought to sharpen you, not dull you.
Worship ought to inspire you, not insult you.
Worship ought to draw you closer, not drive you further away.
Worship should minister to you, not make you miserable.
Liberated Him.
Worship ought to help you become free not place you in bondage.
Worship should help loosen the shackles of the past.
III. Isaiah Felt Something (vs. 5-6)
When I speak of feeling, I am not limiting that to emotion. But worship can not revolve around your feelings (emotions), worship must be centered upon your faith in God, not how you feel. People who work do not feel like going to work every day, but they go. Parents who have children do not feel about them the same each day especially when they do wrong, but you love and you do for them any way. People who are married or in a committed relationship do not feel about that person the same all the time. There are tensions and arguments, disappointments, and disgust, but you still are committed. Isaiah felt something perhaps he had not, or he felt it differently then he ever had.
In worship it is important to see the throne, but it is important to experience the altar of God. The throne is about His power, but the altar is about His provision.
At the Throne you experience conviction.
Your guilt, your sins, your short-comings.
At the Altar you experience cleansing.
His forgiveness, His acceptance, His long-suffering.
A worship that convicts but does not cleanse is incomplete.
Worship renews, refreshes, and reassures us of something better.
A. He experienced his own unworthiness.
B. He experienced God’s unwillingness to leave him unworthy.
God loves us like we are, but when we meet Him He loves us too much to leave us like He found us.
Worship helps us to see our own faults and failures, but we discover a power who can handle them, and cover them.
When you see something, hear something, feel something. (this last precept is a natural flow.)
IV. Isaiah Did Something (vs. 8)
How can you really worship and leave not being challenged to become – to do.
A. He Surrendered
Not that kind of surrender that says, if you can’t find nobody else, if they won’t then I am available.
This surrender says I’ll go; it does not wait to see what others will do.
Surrender because of who God is!
It was a surrender of:
Gladness – joy – peace – passion – purpose – perseverance.
He was willing to surrender himself to God.
It was a surrender to serve.
His testimony was:
I am yours Lord – Everything I have –Everything I got.
Isaiah’s words were perhaps the words of the hymn:
I’ll go, if the Lord wants somebody, here am I send me…
It may be thru' the shadows dim, Or o'er the stormy sea,
I take my cross and follow Him, Wherever He leadeth me.
Wherever He leads I'll go, Wherever He leads I'll go,
I'll follow my Christ who loves me so, Wherever He leads I'll go.
My heart, my life, my all I bring To Christ who loves me so;
he is my Master, Lord, and King, Wherever He leads I'll go.
Wherever He leads I'll go, Wherever He leads I'll go,
I'll follow my Christ who loves me so, Wherever He leads I'll go.
