First Baptist Church
Worship - 2
February 23, 2020
Last week I started my message talking about some of the different reasons we’re come to this building. We come for different reasons. Some are hoping to experience Jesus, some are here for a weekend pick-me-up. Some are here because it’s where the car automatically goes on Sunday mornings.
Some of you are here because you were told you had to be here. You came against your will and maybe even better judgement. Some are here for reasons that don’t really make any sense . . . yet. And there are other reasons as well.
We say on Sunday mornings I’m going to church. It’s what we do when we come to church that brings meaning. We worship! That’s the focus of what we do on Sunday mornings at the church. If we don’t understand the point of worship and even get a clue about how to worship, then when we come here, we’re just opening ourselves to a time of frustration, instead of a time of joy, praise and celebration.
When we come into this building, we have options. We can come here - - and many of us have been down this road - - we can be bitter and angry at the world, including God, for the rough times in our lives. We can come filled with hope and give thanks and praise to God for all of the amazing ways He has blessed us. Still others are here with a lot of ambivalence. You can take it or leave it.
As we look at worship, know that I believe in the promises from God. He’s promised He will never abandon nor never bail out on us. In Hebrews 13, we read
5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” - 13:5
As Moses was giving his final message to the people of Israel, God told him –
6 Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”
7 Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel,
8 It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; He will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. - Deuteronomy 31:6-8
That’s God’s promise to us. I believe it’s an individual and a corporate promise. The same is true about what Jeremiah told us --
11 For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. - Jeremiah 29:11
With promises like these, promises which lead us to better understand God’s plans for you and I, His plans to prosper us, to give us hope and a future, not to harm us - - - His promise to always be with us - - should lead us into worship because we’re thankful, despite our difficult times. Because we know God is for us and if God is for us, frankly that is our greatest asset.
So, what is worship?
Worship is not about us. It is not about what I want or what makes me happy. Worship is about my coming into this building, so I can respond to God’s character and presence in my life. I come here and thank God for who He is.
I look at the characteristics of God . . . one’s that I mentioned last week. God is filled with LOVE, GRACE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, MERCY, COMPASSION and many more of what we might call character traits.
I come here and I thank God and recognize God’s grace in forgiving my sins, for sending Christ to love me and die for me, to say thank you to God for His compassion and never ending love, His promise never to abandon me, I come wanting to thank Him for His acts of mercy, for His creativity, for His power, for so many different ways I have been blessed because of who God is.
The really the difficult part of worship is when life isn’t going the way we believe it should be going. We have an expectation that life will move smoothly. We know there will be bad days, BUT we don’t expect major illnesses, disabilities, surgeries, death, grief, loss of jobs, family relationships issues, friend issues and more to hamper our happiness - - and our ability to worship.
Yet, we come into this place at times filled with that uncertainty, with stress, the ambiguity that comes when life is not hitting on all cylinders. And admittedly, and I’ve been there too - - we struggle with worship. We struggle with saying ‘thank you to God!’ We’re thinking “THANK YOU! Thanks for what?” So, there are times, and it’s so important to admit it, to even claim it, when we’re not feeling it, when we’re depressed, but we’re here. And that’s a good thing.
It’s important, because we just don’t know how God is going to work in our lives. It’s coming and simply being here and open and present before God. It’s walking in and allowing the family of God, the fellowship of the saints to minister to you - - quite possibly way more than any sermon or song may do for you. Yet, it could be that song, or that hug, the prayer, it could be in your giving, or even a word in the message. So, it’s important, even in the difficult seasons of life to be here in this building - - to worship.
We also come here because we recognize how God is present in our lives. Even in those moments when we pull away from God, when we become rebellious, we trust and believe that God is still with us. He’s promised to be with us forever. I may fall away from Him, I may run from Him, I may look the other way, but God promises to never, never abandon me.
To do that He sent His Holy Spirit, so that when Christ ascended to heaven, the Holy Spirit could be with each one of us, all at the same time. It’s something we cannot explain, I take it on faith, and I thank and praise God for being with me and my family, and with you every nano-second of everyday.
You see, when we are worshiping, we realize it’s all about God, and not about us. We seek to give back to God by thanking and praising Him. It comes form passages like Revelation 4:8-11, when the --
8 the 4 living creatures never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."
9 Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever,
10 the 24 elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and worship Him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:
11"You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” - Revelation 4:8-11
Do you get a picture of the heavenly scene. They are praising God because God is WORTHY. This is what worship is about. Worship is our response to God’s worth, we seek to give God the glory and honor and power, because God is the Creator and we are the created. We come into His presence and thank God for who He is.
When you follow the pattern in Revelation, in the very next chapter, in Revelation 5, John wrote . . .
11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.
12 In a loud voice they sang: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!"
13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing:
"To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”
14 The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped. - Revelation 5:11-14
Now, we might think this is a pretty boring scene in heaven. Actually, it excites me. This is how I picture it, if you are a sports fan, picture yourself at your favorite sporting event with your favorite team involved. You leave your home early enough because you know there will be traffic. You double check about 10 times making sure you have your ticket. You get to the stadium and you’re dressed for the game, you’ve got your teams jersey on, your face is painted, you’re excited before you ever walk into the stadium.
You get there and you’re actually sweating because you’re so excited and nervous, all at the same time. You join thousands of other people you don’t know to do one thing - to cheer for your team. When they stand and yell at the officials, you stand and join them. When there is a bad play, you will talk about it. When your team scores, you high 5 one another. By the time the game is over, win or lose, you have been so totally absorbed in the game that if the world crumbled all around you, you would not have known and you would not have cared. You were totally captivated.
That’s how worship should be. We should be so totally engrossed in worshiping that if it took longer than usual, we wouldn’t complain, we wouldn’t be worrying about lunch, we wouldn’t be thinking about last nights adventures, we wouldn’t be thinking about the next week, we would be immersed in God, captivated by God, passionately, fully engaged in worship.
The problem comes in that we aren’t wired that way in church. Because we often talk about Sunday mornings as coming to church. That’s the building. On Sunday mornings we come to a WORSHIP CELEBRATION. We should come expectant. We should expect to meet Jesus, to celebrate Him. We come wanting and willing to have a WORSHIP CELEBRATION.
One major roadblock is that society wants us to worship ourselves. We think about what’s in it for me, am I being entertained. Our attention spans have become shorter and shorter. This is why television programs never keep the same angle on a performer for more than 20 seconds. We become bored with that angle and need the picture to change. When we come to worship, we think the same thing. We consider the fact that worship is about us, not God.
So we walk away saying, “I am not getting fed,” or “those songs just don’t cut it” or “that sermon, ugh!” Yet, that’s not the purpose of worship. I believe we will all be fed by God when we GIVE ourselves to God in worship.
You know that old saying, “it’s better to give than to receive.” It’s especially true in worship. Because when we’ve really given ourselves to God, we will walk out of here having received from God, which feeds us and inspires us and compels us to grow and change and become more Christlike. Then we want to come back the next week and worship again.
Yet, the messages we hear all week on television, in magazines, on the radio, on the Internet, remind us it is about us. So the message we hear for 167 hours per week is
satisfy yourself
you come first
wear the clothes and you will get the right boy or girl
drink the right beverage and you will live the high life
drive the right car and people will think you’re cool
and the list goes on and on.
So on Sunday morning we come to church, we’re a little tired, maybe we’ve felt like we’ve been beaten up a little and we come here wanting the same thing we’ve heard about all week - make me feel good - satisfy me.
We feel like nobody treated us like we were number 1, instead, we were treated like we were at the bottom of the cesspool.
Psalm 100 tells us,
1 Make a joyful shout to the LORD Come before His presence with singing.
4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
5 For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.
But we don’t feel like praising, we just want someone to do something for us.
Remember Swifty’s. That was so nice. Go get gas and tell the attendant how much we want and away we go. It’s nice being served, isn’t it? We come to worship as if we were going to Swifty’s to get gas. We have that ‘what’s in it for me attitude.’
But worship is not about what’s in it for me, and that’s actually why worship is a Spiritual Discipline. Sometimes we have to discipline ourselves spiritually to come here; other times when life is not going as we want it to go, we have to discipline ourselves to come with a sense of thanksgiving and praise for the blessings of God.
Worship is not a passive event; it is an action oriented event in our lives. We cannot come here and just sit and be a grump. We may try to be a grump or have a sour look on our face, but how is that worship, when there is no joy?
Remember, joy comes from within. Joy is a matter of our heart and spirit. Joy comes from the fact that we know without a shadow of a doubt that God is for us. And let me change the next part of that sentence or question . . .
And if God is for us, who can defeat us? NOBODY! The world might beat us up a bit . . . but in the end, we have a God who is over all and in all. He will be with you always.
So, as we come into this place - my greatest dream and hope . . . my expectation is that we would worship God! We would sing, we would greet, we would pray, we would listen . . . and through it all, we would experience the power and the presence of Jesus Christ . . . our Lord and Savior.
Next week . . . we will look at the dynamics of worship . . . what worship really means and how we can prepare for worship . . . and really a hidden secret I believe is in the Bible which might helps us in our pursuit to worship God.
As the ark was being placed in the tent, I want to close with these words from King David from 1 Chronicles 16:23-31. Listen to these words of encouragement --
23 Sing to the Lord, all the earth! Tell of His salvation from day to day.
24 Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples!
25 For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and He is to be feared above all gods.
26 For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens.
27 Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and joy are in His place.
28 Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!
29 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and come before Him! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;
30 tremble before Him, all the earth; yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.
31 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice, and let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!”
