What Is The Purpose Of Worship
Leviticus 10:1-5 Acts 16:16-34 Psalm 100
We are in the second in our sermon series. “What’s Worship Got To Do With It?” Last week Lay Pastor Sandra McLean led us off with a great message, “What Is Worship.” Next week, Pastor Toby will preach on “What Does Worship Do To Us.” and today, I will preaching on “What Is The Purpose Of Worship.”
One of the exciting parts of going on a cruise is to enjoy all that a cruise has to offer. There is food on the hour, every hour. You have your choice of fine dining, or dining on the deck in your shorts and bathing suits. There is an entertainment from comedy to dancing. There are waterslides, pools, and basketball courts. There are tour excursions where you can get off the ship and go shopping, scuba diving, snorkeling , para sailing and sight seeing.
There are people to meet, exercise rooms, and a lot more. Now suppose a person saved his money to go on a four day cruise, and all he did was to stay in his room and eat one of the lunches he had packed in his suit case for each of the four days. Now we can all agree, the brother went on a cruise. I think we can also agree, he didn’t understand the purpose of a cruise. It was to be more than just taking a trip on a ship. When we do not understand the true purpose for something, we miss out on the joy or the benefit that comes with it.
When it comes to worship, worship is not a place we go to and it’s not a description of a service. Worship involves us taking our minds off ourselves and focusing in on God and what God has done. Worshipping God is not something anybody can do for us. It is a simple choice that we make to do it or not do it. Each Sunday, each service, we make a deliberate choice. I will either surrender my heart to God in worship during the service or I will not do it. Sometimes we are tempted to worship God, in our own little way and we say God, you either accept this or leave it.
If you read the Old Testament, God was very specific in how people were to worship him, especially the leaders. There were specific fragrances that were to be a part of worship of God. Moses’ brother Aaron, was the high priest for the nation. He had several sons, but two of them were called Nadab and Abihu and both were priests. We do not know why, but for some reason, they wanted to establish their own rules for worshipping God, and ignored the rules for the kind of incense which was to be offered to God.
Instead of worship being a surrendering of their hearts, it turned into an issue of pride, in that they did not have to do what others were doing. They had something better to offer to God. They could not see they were offering God was their disobedience as worship. As they took this new offering toward the sanctuary, the Lord sent fire and the fire burned them to death there in front of the sanctuary. Their cousins had to come and take away their bodies.
Nadab and Abihu, knew what was expected of them. They had been trained as priests what ingredients to use, what time of time to offer incense, and what steps were necessary to light the fire to assist the people in worshipping God. But they insisted on doing things their own way. They placed themselves above God’s call for us to worship Him.
It cost them their lives because they rejected the idea of a holy God who should be treated with respect and honor. You may think, wow God was rough with them and should have taken things a little easier. But God knew that if the spirit that was in Nadab and Abihu was allowed to spread, it would infect the people as well. The loss of worship for God, would hurt the people.
When we no longer treat God with respect and honor, it is not long before we cease to treat one another with respect and honor. Our lack of worship of God can be seen in the crumbling of our homes and in the destruction and violence in our neighborhoods. People with no respect for God, will not see other people as worthy of they respect. When we lose the sense of awe and incredibleness of God, we begin to think that we are in charge. We are in control and we do not have to answer to others for our actions.
When our worship is truly God centered, it produces a change in our character because at the end of the day, we know we will give an account for our actions.
What do you think is one of the easiest commandments to keep in the Bible? I think one of the easiest commandments has to do with worship. It’s found in Psalm 100. It says, Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Is there anybody here who can make a joyful noise? Let’s see if we can keep this commandment. On the count of three, let’s obey God and make a joyful noise. We make all kinds of noises. We make angry noises, whiny noises, complaining noises, selfish noises, anxious noises, but God says make a joyful noise.
God gave this commandment to everything and to everyone. God didn’t limit it to children, teens or adults. God didn’t limit it to just those who are saved. God didn’t limit it to just those who have everything going in their favor. God said “make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.” For all of us who go around the house singing off key to the Lord, we are simply doing what God told us to do. Now making the joyful noise is just one part. The psalm goes on to say, “Worship the Lord with gladness, come before the Lord with joyful songs, Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us and not we ourselves.”
Every now and then, I will hear people say, I don’t come to church for the singing. I just want to hear the word. Well the original Word, the actual word of God, says, “come before the Lord with joyful singing.” Why is it that the Lord wants to hear the sound of your voice. You know when you love somebody, just the sound of that person’s voice can bring delight to your heart and put a smile on your face. This verse tells me, that God wants to hear the sound of each of our voices in worship. How many of you know that each of our voices has distinct sound. Nobody sings exactly like you. God is listening for your song in the midst of worship. The purpose of worship is to delight the heart of God.
Are we filled with so much pride that we would rather disappoint God, than open our mouths. We can say, ‘well God knows my heart.” Part of us focusing in on God to worship is to cause us to stop thinking so much about ourselves and our own problems. In our New Testament reading, Paul and Silas had gone into the city of Phillippi to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. They ran into a slave woman and set her free from the power of demons in her life. She had been a fortune teller, and when the demons left her, she lost her ability to tell the future. Her owners had Paul and Silas, arrested, stripped, and beaten with rods. Not only were they savagely beaten, they were thrown into the inner cells and had their feet chained. It was obvious, they were in a lot of pain and not going anywhere soon.
About midnight, Silas said to Paul, “Man I wish had never listened to you and come along as your partner. That was the worse decision of my life. Look what following Jesus has gotten me. I’ve never been in so much pain in my life. If I ever get out of this place, you had better not get in my face.” But that’s not what really happened. About midnight, Paul probably said to Silas, “I tell you what, start us of off in that song we sang last week and I’ll join in.” They did and Paul followed with a prayer. They sang another hymn and Silas followed with a prayer. In the midst of one of their darkest moments, they decided to worship God with a joyful noise with gladness in their hearts
Their worship caused an earthquake beneath the prison. The prison door flew open by itself, and everybody’s chains came loose. Two men’s choice to worship God, set a whole prison free, and led to a lot of people getting saved.
True worship takes us above our circumstances and allows God to do things around us, that we could never do on our own. When you are delighting the heart of God, God takes great delight in doing things for you that really makes a difference. True worship will bring out a spirit of gratitude in us. One of the things that rob us so much of the joy that could be ours is that we have a complainer inside of us. We forget that Jesus died on a cross, so that we could quit complaining so much.
Psalm 100 says Enter His gates, with thanksgiving and his courts with praise, Give thanks to Him and praise His name. Sometimes we may wake up hoping that this is going to be a good day for us. If things start out right, we will be happy. If they start out wrong, we say, “oh I got up on the wrong side of the bed.” But when we stop to worship, we realize that God is good to us right now. There is no wrong side of the bed when I think about what God has done for me already. Our worship is weak, when we feed the complainer inside of us rather than the thanker inside of us. What should I thank God for in worship today.
God has given me life. He didn’t have to do it. God has given me a wonderful wife. I don’t deserve all that she does for me. God has given me eyes to see, ears to hear, a mouth to talk, and legs to walk. I never ordered any of these parts. I never paid for them. God has given me the gift of you as a congregation. People who love me, who laugh with me, who share visions with me, who eat with me and who pray for me. I did not earn this congregation while I was in seminary. I am tempted to forget how many pastors would gladly trade places with me if they knew what we have here.
God has given me talents to be a blessing to others. Almost all I know about computers, sound equipment, video equipment, websites, and technology, came from God. I never took a class on any of it. Sometimes when I would get stuck on a problem, at about 3 in the morning God would wake me up, and God would give me the answer to the problem. There is nothing I did to earn this privilege. God gave it to me so that I could make a difference in the lives of others. As I get closer to the close of my ministry, I have the assurance from God, that death is not the end. The same God who is walking with me now, will be walking with me then .
One of the purposes of Worship is to bring out gratitude in us. When I am thankful, I am transformed from being a grouchy complainer to a more generous encourager of others. My choice to enter into worship of God allows the Spirit to transform me into the person God wants me to be. Recognizing that I am in the presence of God changes who I am.
It is God who made us and not we ourselves. It’s the fact that God is our Creator, that makes God worthy of our worship. God didn’t have to give us eyes to see the sunset God created. God didn’t have to give us ears, to hear the music God created. God didn’t have to give us taste buds, to taste the fruits, the vegetables and the wonderful dishes God created. God didn’t have to give us the muscles, the bones, and the brains that make it possible for us to sit in the seats that God has created. God didn’t have to give us skin to feel the warmth of the sunlight or the gentle wind that God created. All good things come from God.
Why do we have a praise team, a praise band, praise dancers, and choirs. They are instruments that God has given us to invite us to worship. They can never make us worship God and no matter how hard they try, they cannot worship God on our behalf. Coming and looking at them, listening to them and even admiring them is no substitute for choosing to enter into the worship of God. It’s like the fellow who went on the cruise and never really left his room. Sure he could tell others he went on a cruise, but he never engaged the cruise experience. It’s not enough to simply come to a church service. Are you engaging in the worship of Almighty God. I don’t care how many people or how few people are in worship, God is listening for the sound of your voice in worship when we all come together.
Some of us are praying for deliverance from behaviors that are destructive to us and to our witness as believers. That deliverance may come from us choosing to worship God in humility not caring what others around you are thinking about you. Hold your hands in surrender to God. Be willing to reach forth your hands to the heavens. Be willing to fall to your knees or willing to cry out if you need to do it. Be open to move of the Spirit in your life. If we are too ashamed to worship Jesus Christ in the church, how on earth will we worship God outside this building. So what if somebody laughs at you. The purpose of worship is to connect us with God.
We think that the invitation to worship somehow is suppose to please us. So we put up barriers to the invitation to worship. I don’t like it when they sing those slow songs. I don’t think they should sing those songs with all that fast music in it. I don’t like it when they keep repeating a song. I like it better when have just one person dancing. I don’t see why the service is as short as it is. I think service is just too long. It’s the complainer in us that keeps us from appreciating God has made us with differences. What do you want to do, kick out everybody from the church who does not agree with your preference for worship?
I realize I need people who agree with my style and who disagree with my style in order for us to be the church that God has called us to be. Part of our problem is that we forget, the call to become disciples of Jesus Christ. The beginning of the invitation to become a disciples, start with these words from Jesus, “if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself.” I think there is for more of a desire” to be pleased” than “to deny” existing in the church today. It weakens our worship. When our worship is weakened, we do not grow in Christ. The final purpose of worship is to make us stronger in our walk with Jesus Christ.
Worship begins with a willingness to deny ourselves, in order for us to enter into the presence of God. There are times when worship is to be joyful and celebrative and there are times when worship is to be a solemn event in which we are to go before the presence of the Lord in complete reverence. We need to learn how to do them both, because we do not know when and how the Lord is going to show up.
One of the great benefits from Jesus dying on the cross and being raised from the dead is that we now have the opportunity to worship directly in the presence God without a priest standing between us and God. We can engage God directly for ourselves. Jesus removes our sin, which erects a wall of separation between us and God. Now that Jesus death on the cross has made it possible for us to worship God, there is no excuse for a believer to reject the invitation to come and worship the Lord.
**Special Thanks To Dr. John Ortberg from Menlo Park Presbyterian Church for some of the concepts I used from Psalm 100 in this message.
What Is The Purpose Of Worship
Leviticus 10:1-5 Acts 16:16-34 Psalm 100
We are in the second in our sermon series. “What’s Worship Got To Do With It?” Last week Lay Pastor Sandra McLean led us off with a great message, “What Is Worship.” Next week, Pastor Toby will preach on “What Does Worship Do To Us.” and today, I will preaching on “What Is The Purpose Of Worship.”
One of the exciting parts of going on a cruise is to enjoy all that a cruise has to offer. There is food on the hour, every hour. You have your choice of fine dining, or dining on the deck in your shorts and bathing suits. There is an entertainment from comedy to dancing. There are waterslides, pools, and basketball courts. There are tour excursions where you can get off the ship and go shopping, scuba diving, snorkeling , para sailing and sight seeing.
A. The Cruise Experience
1. People To Meet, Exercise Room, More
2. Person On 4 Day Cruise- Stay In Room- Packed Lunches
3. We Can Agree he Went—But Didn’t Understand
4. Cruise –More Than Just Getting On Boat
5. Misunderstand Purpose—Miss Joy & Benefits
B. Worship—Not A Place To Go, Not A Description Of Service
1. Worship—Forget Self—Focus On God
2. No On Can Do It For Us
3. Simple Choice We Make
4. Do I Surrender My Heart Or Not
5. Tempted To Do It Our Own Way
C. Old Testament Worship Was Specific
1. Incense, Grain, Fire
2. Moses—Brother Aaron—Priests
3. Sons Nadab & Abihu---Wanted To Change The Rules
4. Instead Of Surrendered Hearts—Pride Came In
5. Better Offering—Really Disobedience
6. Strange Fire—Lord’s Fire Killed Them—Cousins
D. They Knew What Was Expected
1. Trained As Priest, Ingredients, Time To Offer, Fire
2. They Did It Their Way—Placing Themselves Above God
3. Rejected Treating God With Respect & Honor
4. God Was Rough---Nadab & Abihu’s Spirit
5. Lose Respect For God, Lose It For Others
6. See It In Our Homes & Community
E. Importance Of Awe & Incredibleness Of God
1. Lose It—We Are In Control
2. Answer To No One For Our Actions
3. Purpose Of Worship Produce A Change In Our Character
4. At The End Of The Day, We Will Give An Account
F. What Commandment Is The Easiest To Keep
1. Psalm 100 Make A Joyful Noise To The Lord
2. Let’s Keep This Commandment Now
3. Other Noises We Make—Angry, Whiny, Complaining,
Selfish, Anxious Noises
4. God Gave Commandment To Everyone
5. Age, Sex, Race, Saved, Circumstances
6. Okay To Be At Home Singing Off Key
G. Part II Worship The Lord With Gladness
1. Come Before His Presence With Joyful Songs
2. Know That The Lord Is God, It Is Who Made Us & Not We Ourselves.
3. I Didn’t Come For The Singing, I Come For The Word
4. The Word—Come Before His Presence With Joyful Singing
5. Why Does God Want To Hear The Sound Of Your Voice
6. The Voice Of Someone We Love
7. Your Voice Brings Delight To God’s Heart.
H. Pride Would Have Us Disappoint God.
1. It Doesn’t Take That- God Knows My Heart
2. Purpose Of Worship—Take Our Mind Off Ourselves & Problems
3. NT Reading Of Paul & Silas
4. Slave Woman, Demons Cast Out, Jailed, Beaten, Whipped
5. In Great Pain & Distress—Does Silas Complain
6. Paul & Silas Alternate Hymns & Prayers At Midnight
7. Great Earthquake—Set All The Prisoners Free
8. Darkest Moments—Chose To Worship
9. True Worship Allows God To Move Around Us
10. Delight The Heart Of God, & God Will Delight In You
I. True Worship Brings Out A Spirit Of Gratitude
1. We Have A Complainer Inside Us That Robs Us
2. Jesus Died So That We Could Complain A Lot Less
3. Enter His Gates With Thanksgiving & His Courts With Praise. Give Thanks To God And Praise His Name”
4. If Our Day Starts Right—We’re Happy
5. If Our Day Starts Shaky—Got Up On The Wrong Side Of The Bed
6. No Wrong Side When You Think Of God’s Goodness Today
7. Our Worship Weak—We Feed The Complainer
J. Why Should l Be Thankful In Worship Today
God has given me life. He didn’t have to do it. God has given me a wonderful wife. I don’t deserve all that she does for me. God has given me eyes to see, ears to hear, a mouth to talk, and legs to walk. I never ordered any of these parts. I never paid for them. God has given me the gift of you as a congregation. People who love me, who laugh with me, who share visions with me, who eat with me and who pray for me. I did not earn this congregation while I was in seminary. I am tempted to forget how many pastors would gladly trade places with me if they knew what we have here.
God has given me talents to be a blessing to others. Almost all I know about computers, sound equipment, video equipment, websites, and technology, came from God. I never took a class on any of it. Sometimes when I would get stuck on a problem, at about 3 in the morning God would wake me up, and God would give me the answer to the problem. There is nothing I did to earn this privilege. God gave it to me so that I could make a difference in the lives of others. As I get closer to the close of my ministry, I have the assurance from God, that death is not the end. The same God who is walking with me now, will be walking with me then .
1. Worship Brings Out The Gratitude In Us
2. Transform From Grouchy Complainer To Generous Encourager
3. Choice To Enter Worship Allows Spirit’s Transformation
K. God Is Worthy Of Worship As Creator
1. Our Eyes—Sunset Our Ears—Music
2. Our Taste Buds—Food Our Bodies---To Sit
3. Our Skin---Sun Warmth/Gentle Breeze
4. All Good Things Come From God.
L. Why Do We Have Praise Team, Band, Dancers , Choir
1. They Are God’s Instrument To An Invitation To Worship
2. An Invitation To The Party Is not The Party
3. They Can Never Make Us Worship, Nor Worship On Our Behalf
4. Coming, Looking, Listening, Admiring, Not A Substitute
5. Like The Man Who Went On The Cruise,
M. Are You Engaging IN Worship Of Almighty God
1. God Is Listening For The Sound Of Your Voice
2. Praying For Deliverance—The Deliverance Was In Choosing To Worship
3. Worship In Humility, Not Caring About Others,
4. Lifting Your Hands, Stretching Forth To The Heaven, Fall On Knees
5. Be Open To The Move Of The Spirit
N. Worship Not To Please Us—But God
1. The Barriers We Put Up To the Invitation
2. I Don’t Like It When, They Sing The Slow Songs/The Fast Ones
3. I Don’t Like The Hymns, Or The Choruses
4. I Don’t Like It When He Leads/They Lead
5. I Don’t Like It When It’s Many Dancers/One Dance
6. I Don’t Like When The Service Is Too Short/ Too Long
7. I Don’t Care If The Invitation To Worship God Is From Satan Himself
8. God Created Us With Different Styles & Tastes Because He Has A
Variety Of Styles & Tastes
9. Shall We Kick Out Those Whose Style Is Different But They Love Jesus
0. Realize—WE Need Each Other In Different Areas
1. We Are Called To Be Disciples.
2. If Anyone Could Come After Me, Let Him Deny Himself
3. To Much Desire To Be Pleased Than To Deny
4. Worship Is To Make Us Stronger In Our Walk With Jesus Christ.
