I hope this series on worship has been helpful over the past month. At least it may have helped put you in the mood for football season! I’ve been pretty upfront about the goal here – to get us out of the armchair, and onto the field – not on Thanksgiving afternoon, necessarily, but in this business of Heaven we call worship – to get us to see ourselves as the players on the field rather than consumers and spectators who consider worship a spectator sport.
So, where do you see yourself in the stadium this morning?
One thing is for sure: God is the audience. Try to picture it. God is in the stands. He has a season ticket, and in millions of locations today, He’s watching to see His team perform.
Millions and millions of people are gathering to worship God, and He’s witnessing all of it. I wonder what that’s like. I wonder what God does and doesn’t like…
I wonder what kind of music God likes best…
I wonder if He goes to the first service, or the 2nd service…
I wonder if He prefers a small gathering, where everyone knows everyone, or if He would rather go to the big church across town…
I wonder if He likes a long, drawn-out service, or one that’s short and to the point…
I wonder if He prefers hearing a song that is old and time-tested, or one that is new…
I wonder if He likes it better in a certain order, or if He likes it to be different each time…
I wonder if He wants it to be full of technology, or plain and simple…
I wonder if He prefers it to be indoors or outdoors…
I wonder, if He wants the saints to be quiet and contemplative, or if He wants us to be loud and responsive…
It’s not a mistake that today is “Thanksgiving Sunday.” This week, as families gather around tables filled with food, we’ll bow our heads and engage in…worship. What could be more appropriate when we surround ourselves with reminders of how good God has been to us? I would imagine that He would at the very least want us to say thanks. So, what does God want that to look like and sound like this Thanksgiving?
I wonder if what God wants is really even what we concern ourselves with sometimes. If it is, then we’ll need to have some idea what He wants. I find myself praying that first God will help us to care about the things that matter the most to Him. So, I wonder. I wonder what God wants. Do you?
There was a woman who asked God this question, sort of. She wondered too, because many years before, the church across town had split from her church, and they had an ongoing open rivalry. Talk about bitter breakups! They were racially divided, culturally divided, theologically divided, geographically divided. They not only didn’t worship together; these 2 groups of people didn’t ever have much to do with each other at all. So, she asked a question. You might paraphrase it, “When it comes to our worship, what does God want?”
And that’s where we are today. I know that’s where we are in some ways, because for years there have been sibling rivalries among churches, tragically referred to as “the worship wars” – what kind of music is best, when should we meet, how long should our time together be, what should the order be, how big should a congregation be – and on and on and on. It has me asking, first of all, have we really been concerned with what matters to God all along? It may seem that I keep talking about this, but the reason is simple: until we make our first concern to be what God wants, nothing about our worship, here together or on our own, is really going to matter.
We’re going to have to swim against the current to have this right priority. So, first of all, are we really concerned with what God wants? (only you can answer that)
And secondly, if that really is our priority, then what does God want?
The story is in Jn 4. And, as Jesus speaks to this Samaritan woman, He mentions something about worship that God wants. She asks Jesus the ongoing question: “You Jews say you have to worship in Jerusalem. We say you should worship here. Who’s right?” Again, what does God want?
Jesus’ response is a keystone concerning worship. In fact, the word Jesus uses in v23 isn’t “here’s what God prefers,” or “what God might like.” He uses a word that most often means He’s pursuing this – God’s seeking it out – it’s important to Him – It’s truly what He’s after.
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. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 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. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
So, for a few weeks now, we have been trying to learn about what it really means to worship in spirit and in truth. Once again, this morning, I want to meander around that by trying to uncover what God wants in our worship. What is He seeking? After all, it’s an essential – His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. I find at least 4 specific contrasts in Scripture, and I think each of these helps us to understand this whole spirit and truth issue. What does God want most?
1. Your Best, Not Your Leftovers
I’m a firm believer in leftovers. I hate waste, so I try to make sure that stuff in the container in the refrigerator gets used before it becomes an alternate life form. But sometimes it’s just not appropriate to serve up leftovers. They aren’t as classy as fixing a meal. They don’t communicate love quite as much. I have to confess to you that I find it easy to offer leftovers in places where I shouldn’t. Maybe you do this too. You get up, get ready, and off you go – to work, school, whatever demands your time for the day. And you spend yourself on things that each take certain amounts of energy – I like to call them “life resource units.” You get so only many each day, and you “spend” them. You may collect a few during the day too, but mostly, you spend them. Kid wakes up on the wrong side of bed and remembers that he has a test – 2 life resource units. Wife tells you you’re an OK guy – that’s a positive 2 life resource units. Dog gets out and runs down the street right before you leave home – 2 life resource units. Car reminds you that it’s needing some repairs soon – 1 life resource unit. Someone nearly runs into you as you drive – 2 life resource units. Project at work gets a new deadline, and you have to stay late – 3 life resource units. So, when the rest of the world has made its withdrawals, it comes time to be with the people who are supposed to be the most important in your life, and what do they get? Leftovers. And they can usually tell that’s what they’re having.
On a larger scale, what’s God getting when it comes to our time spent worshiping Him – here or in private?
In OT days, God had a way of helping His people to give Him their best instead of leftovers. It was called “firstfruits.” There was this rule that the very first of their crops and their livestock belonged to God. It was a way of acknowledging that He was the One who provided it all, and a way to make sure that God wasn’t just getting what was left after the rest was used up. God wanted their best.
Exodus 23:19a
Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God.
Proverbs 3:9 Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops;
In the book of Leviticus, which has all the details about sacrifices and offerings, the phrase “Without defect” occurs 25X. That’s because any time an animal was brought to God for sacrifice, it was supposed to be the best – not one that was inferior to the rest.
Malachi 1:8,10,14
When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?" says the LORD Almighty…10 "Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you," says the LORD Almighty, "and I will accept no offering from your hands…14 "Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king," says the LORD Almighty, "and my name is to be feared among the nations.
Take a look at what you’re serving up to God. Are you spending yourself “weekending” on Saturday night so that Sunday morning you’re scarcely able to see straight? Is your giving at offering time an honest effort to show God He’s your priority, or is it what’s left after everyone else gets their share? And when it’s not here, but just on your own, 168 hours, 7 days a week, what’s God receiving? Is it your firstfruits, or is it that stuff at the bottom of the refrigerator bin of life? He wants your best.
Our thankfulness to God is best expressed when we choose to give Him the firstfruits – our best.
He gave His best, and He wants our best.
2. Your Heart, Not Your Just Your Motions
Ill - A doll came out 9-10 yrs ago called “Mr. Wonderful.” He’s every woman’s dream man. Just press his hand, and he says 1 of 16 wonderful sayings that every woman would love to hear: “You take the remote, as long as I'm with you, I don't care what we watch.” “Why don't we go the mall, didn't you want some shoes?” “You know Honey, why don't you just relax and let me make dinner tonight?” Mr. Wonderful. (By the way, there’s a Mrs. Wonderful doll too.)
I wish at times that God had just made us all with buttons, so that all you have to do is push the right button and we do what we’re supposed to do. Imagine it: People who always said the right thing, thought the right thing, did the right thing; always. If God wanted us to say, “I love you,” all He’d have to do is push the button: “I love You.” If we’re supposed to act unselfishly, He just programs that into us and pushes the button, and we’d always do the right thing. He could do it with worship too. Just push the “worship” button, and out comes perfect worship, every time. Problem is, God doesn’t want us to just go through right motions, or He would have made us that way. He wants something deeper.
Isaiah 29:13
The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.
There’s another time when God describes the emptiness of His people. They had the right worship motions – sorta. The way He says they were coming to listen to Ezekiel speak could easily describe any person who regularly goes through the motions of worship from week to week, but who isn’t there with a heart to worship.
Ezekiel 33:31-32
My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice. With their mouths they express devotion, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice.
Why not? Because their worship isn’t from the heart. God wants worship that comes from our hearts.
Psalm 103:1
Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name.
There’s a reason God didn’t make us all into automatic worshipers with bland, pre-fabricated sayings all built-in. It’s because that’s not what He wants. He wants your praise, your thanks, your prayer, your giving, your singing, to come from your heart. Take a moment to reflect on that today. What’s God getting from you as you worship Him? Is it from your heart, or does it just look good?
3. Your Head, Not Just Your Emotions
Ill - Around the globe today, there are churches where the worship is very “spirited.” July of this year was the celebration of Ramadan – a kind of month-long Mardi Gras celebrated by Muslims. Few groups are as “spirited” as the Shiite Muslims. Once a year, to commemorate the death of the 2nd grandson of Muhammad, the “Ashura,” men and boys cut their scalps and beat their heads with the flat sides of swords to make them bleed. Then they march around in the square in front of a mosque in Karbala while thousands watch and chant. Those radical Muslims who cut off a person’s head or blow up a Humvee while chanting “Ala Akbar!” call it an act of worship - but it’s empty of truth. Why should God want the worship of anyone that’s not based on truth?
Jesus didn’t pull punches with the woman at the well. He told her:
John 4:22
You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
The Samaritans rejected the whole OT except for the first 5 books - so Jesus said to the woman, "You worship what you do not know." Their worship was enthusiastic and maybe from the heart. Their rituals were full of “spirit.” But they didn't worship in "truth." In short, it was wrong.
Worship has to be based on what’s true, not just what’s felt.
Remember, every one of us lives by some system of basic beliefs. They may be true, or not, but you have some basic beliefs that shape who you are – and how you worship. God wants that basic set of beliefs to be true so that your worship is true. Take a look at your thoughts about worship. Do you approach it based on what you know to be true, or by what you feel is appropriate? Sometimes, there’s a big difference.
It comes as no surprise, then, when Paul tells Timothy, (I Tim 4:13) "Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching." When we focus on the reading of Scripture as part of this setting, we're carrying out a Bible command.
The truths of God must be central in our worship. Without it, we have no reason to give thanks, to rejoice, to stand in awe, to pray expectantly, to meet around the Lord’s Table, to celebrate what we have in Jesus.
God wants worship in truth.
4. Your Life, Not Just an Hour
One of the things you’ll hear this time of year is the way that there shouldn’t be just one day to tell God “thank You.” That’s something we ought to do every day. We know better. But we need to constantly reexamine whether or not we’re giving God what He truly wants. Is your worship life to God something that’s meted out to this moment once each week?
Quote - John MacArthur has put a definition of worship together that I find helpful: “worship is all that we are responding to all that He is.” – John MacArthur
The Scriptures use a “language of totality” to describe the way we relate to God. Listen to it in these verses:
1 Thessalonians 5:23
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew 22:37
Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'
Romans 12:1
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.
Worship doesn’t have to be planned, but it does have to somehow be different from everything else, otherwise worship is nothing. But just like real thanksgiving can’t be just something we designate once a year around a table, worship doesn’t mean just this event here. You work hard to “fit church in.” Maybe you get off work and come here after a late shift. And then there’s the Lord’s Supper. Yes, we shouldn’t miss that. But when it’s all said and done, how much have we truly given to God compared to the other 167 hours of the week?
Listen, God doesn’t want us to “fit Him in with life.” He wants our life to fit around Him. He doesn’t want to be another item on a To Do list. He wants to help you write the list. He doesn’t want to be in your planner. He wants to be your planner. He doesn’t want be in your budget. He wants to be the reason you can even have a budget.
Please don’t leave here this morning with the idea that you’ve “put in your hour” so that you keep in good standing with God. God doesn’t want your hour. He wants your life. This hour is an expression of just a small part of that. He really wants your life – the whole thing.
Conclusion:
Everything? All of you. Your mind, your heart, your time, your first, your best, your last,
By the way, there’s something else that God wants too. Jesus spoke about it in
John 14:2-3
In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
Why come again, Jesus? Why bother to get us into Heaven? It seems like we’re costing an awful price. The reason? “…that you may also be where I am.” He wants…you.
I find it easier to give up not just my thanks but my life for Jesus when I think of what He gave up for me. And I find it a lot easier to try to give Him what He wants, when what He wants is…me.
He wants you.
