Church Essentials: Part Three
True Worship - Acts 2:41-42
Essential to the life and growth of any church is corporate worship. We are told that the church "continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers". Corporate worship is a significant indicator of the true spiritual condition of a congregation. But what exactly should corporate worship look like? In Putting an End to Worship Wars, Elmer Towns asked the questions: What do you do in worship? How do you worship? What motivates you to worship? and What are the results of worship? From the responses he identified six worship styles in America: Evangelistic - winning the lost; Expositional - teaching the word; Renewal - excitement, revival, 'touching God'; Body-life - fellowship, relationships and small groups; Liturgical - serving & glorifying God through liturgy and Congregational - worship expressed by the laity. While these may be styles of worship they do not answer the question of what corporate worship is and what it should look like. In order to answer these questions we must look at what worship is not and then what worship is.
I What worship is not...
A Worship is not to be done for entertainment.
1 According to the Encarta Dictionary, there are three definitions to entertainment:
a the art of keeping people entertained - the various ways of amusing people, especially by performing for them
b enjoyment - the amount of pleasure or amusement somebody gets from something
c performance or exhibition - something that is produced or performed for an audience.
2 If we define entertainment as enjoyment, true worship can be entertaining.
a Psalm 122:1 "I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go into the house of the Lord.'”
b Psalm 27:6 "I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord."
3 If something that is "entertaining" is done "for entertainment" then there is a problem. If we attend a "worship service" to "be entertained" than is a problem. If we design or pattern our corporate worship after the world in order to entertain an audience or to draw a crowd there is a problem.
4 Romans 12:2 tells us that we are not to "copy the behavior and customs of this world" (NLT)
5 Galatians 1:10 "For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant[a] of Christ." (ESV)
6 Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “When the church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it. It is then that the world is made to listen to her message, though it may hate it at first.” - copied
7 Worship is not to be a spectator event it is to be an interactive event where all in attendance participate. If we think worship is watching and listening to others worship, we are mistaken.
8 Someone has said "The sacredness of true worship must not be sacrificed on altars of entertainment-oriented quartets, choirs, and other entertainment groups."
9 The style of worship is not what is right or wrong. it isn't what is right or wrong, but the heart and purpose of the one using it. It isn't the modern or traditional style in worship that makes worship God-focused or self-focused, but the one doing the worshipping. In fact those who claim traditional is the only accepted style do not themselves worship in the traditional style of the first century. What is now considered modern such as hand-clapping, raising hands, jubilant singing, and what are called "praise songs" are actually from other centuries before us. In fact, the so-called "modern" praise songs that have become very popular are really much closer in style to the singing of the first century than the so-called "traditional" four-part harmony which was introduced in the 1600's. - adapted from J. Guy
10 John 4:24 "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
B Worship is not about what you get out of it
1 There is an erroneous idea today that the main reason we attend worship is to "get something out of the service"
2 Worship is not about "getting our needs met." Not about a performance from the pastor and singer and choir and musicians. Not in the least. We are in church to give. Not to get
3 If your main concern in coming to church or in attending a worship service is to meet your needs, you will inevitably be disappointed. The value of your participation in worship is found not in what you get out of but in what you put into it.
4 2 Samuel 24:24 "... I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.”
5 If you judge your worship but what you get out of it then you’re judging the wrong thing!
C Worship is not about you
1 Galatians 1:10 "Do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a servant of Christ." Worship is God-centered not man-centered.
2 Worship's focus is on God not others and especially not us.
3 The concept that it is all about us is seen in the comments of the wife of a popular TV preacher when she said to the audience, "I just want to encourage every one of us to realize when we obey God, we're not doing it for God—I mean, that's one way to look at it—we're doing it for ourselves, because God takes pleasure when we're happy. That's the thing that gives Him the greatest joy. So, I want you to know this morning: Just do good for your own self. Do good because God wants you to be happy. When you come to church, when you worship Him, you're not doing it for God really. You're doing it for yourself, because that's what makes God happy. Amen?" - Copied from http://www.christianity.com
4 The problem with making worship about your experience is that it turns worship into a subjective, consumer oriented activity. Worship leaders become performers whose task is to create an emotionally pleasant experience for the audience. Church attendees become spectators who judge the quality of worship by the style of music, the design of the stage and their own emotional response. - copied
5 To do so is to be guilty of selfish worship.
6 Romans 1:25 tells us that man is quite adept at changing "the truth of God into a lie, and worshipping and serving the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever..."
7 Adam Dooley, of Red Bank Baptist Church in Chattanooga, said that:
• We make statements that are saturated with self as if worship is all about us:
• “Why can’t we sing more of the songs that I like?”
• “I don’t think the preacher should talk about this or that!”
• “I can’t believe so-and-so didn’t talk to me today!”
• “No one ever notices what I do in the church.”
8 ...The above attitudes make us idle judges of activity rather than active participants in adoration toward a holy God.
D Corporate worship does not have to look like it did in the 1600′s, the 1850′s, the 1960′s or any other era in the church's history. But we need to understand what true worship is and make that our focus.
II What worship is...
A Ephesians 2:19-22 "Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."
B 1 Peter 2:5 "you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."
C Worship is showing reverence to God
1 The Greek word proskyneo and its Hebrew equivalent shachac - are translated in our English bibles as "worship". Both of these terms refer to a posture of submission and thus an acknowledgment of God's sovereignty. They express an attitude of submission, awe, respect and reverential fear.
2 Hebrews 12:28-29 "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve ( latreúō - worship) God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire."
3 It seems that there is no fear of God in the world and a lack of godly fear in the church.
4 Acts 2:42-43 "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles."
5 Consider also the situation of Ananias & Sapphira in Acts 5. The result was that the church learned that God was to be feared and that we are not to take lightly the things of God.
6 Acts 5:11 "And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these thing."
7 Vine says, “Reverential fear of God is a controlling motive of the life in matters spiritual and moral. Not a fear of God’s righteous retribution but a wholesome dread of displeasing Him. A fear which banishes the terror that shrinks from His presence and which influences the disposition and attitude of one whose circumstances are guided by trust in God, through the indwelling Spirit of God.”
D Worship is about praising God
1 Hebrews 13:15 “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.”
2 Praise - (verb): 1. To express approval and commendation of; applaud, eulogize. 2. To express adoration of; glorify (God, etc). (noun): 1.Commendation expressed, as of a person for his virtues, or concerning meritorious actions; utterance of approval; honor given; also, applause. 2. Thanksgiving for blessings conferred; laudation to God; worship expressed in song. - copied
3 The deepest level of worship is praising God in spite of pain, thanking God during a trial, trusting Him when tempted, surrendering while suffering, and loving Him when He seems distant.”
4 Acts 2:46-47 " So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved."
5 I don't praise God because I feel like it, I praise Him because He said to, because it's good for me, because when I do He does great things. Can you imagine being in a war, you see the enemy pouring over the ridges. Your first response is: "Aaugh!" Your sergeant comes to you and says, "Don't worry son. Put your rifle down and use this rocket launcher." "But sergeant, I don't feel like it." "Use it son, it works." "But sergeant, you don't understand. I'm afraid. I'm hurting. I'm unhappy. I'm depressed. My wife yelled at me." "Don't give me excuses, private. Use the rocket launcher." Isn't that a little bit like what happens in church? Some people, you'd swear by watching them that life is always good to them. Because they make a decision not to let their circumstances or their feelings determine their behavior. Others, if they've had a bad week - they stop using their rocket launcher; they stop praising God. - copied
E Worship is about bringing glory to God
1 Our chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
2 Revelation 4:11 "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created”.
3 1 Peter 4:11 "That God in all things may be glorified.
4 To glorify God is to extol His attributes—His holiness, faithfulness, mercy, grace, love, majesty, sovereignty, power, and omniscience, to name a few—rehearsing them over and over in our minds and telling others about the singular nature of the salvation only He offers.
5 Whether as a church or as individuals, Glorifying God is to listen to Him and obey Him in every area of our lives. We need to make sure that we and the church are operating the way God wants in all things if we are going to glorify Him in anything.
6 Romans 12:1 "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service."
