Spiritual Disciplines: Worship
July 25, 2021
We all have different views of what worship should and should not be. We all have our likes and dislikes. We have our ideas, thoughts, and feelings of what makes for a good worship and what leads to a not so good worship experience. Some come with expectancy and excitement, for others, it’s like getting to go to a painful appointment.
Lots of people come to worship with a less than attitude. Let me give you a couple of quick stories.
* In the 1700's a ships captain returned home after 3 years at sea, and kissed his wife at the docks. He was convicted of profaning the Sabbath “by lewd and unseemly behavior.” His punishment was spending several hours in the stocks.
In the 1600's, a man in Scotland was arrested for smiling on Sunday. The famous pastor, Jonathan Edwards resolved to never tell a funny story in his sermons. The first train to run on Sunday was met in Glasgow by an enraged group of clergymen who told the passengers they had just purchased a ticket to Hell.
Erwin Lutzer wrote about a pastor during the time of the Puritans who lived in an area with a lot of ice and snow. He decided it would be faster to skate to worship. After the service, the deacons called an emergency meeting to decide whether it was right for a pastor to skate to church on a Sunday. After the meeting they told him, “You can skate to church on Sundays, as long as you don’t enjoy it.”
Is that kind of our attitude as well? We come here not believing we’re to really enjoy this experience. In some ways, I’ve never thought about the fact that you might actually enjoy my messages. Hopefully they help you in your journey.
As we’ve been talking about worship for the past couple of weeks, worship is not about what we can do for you . . . but it’s about what you can do for God. Not that God needs anything from us, but it’s about our desire to give thanks to God.
Listen to these words from King David, from 1 Chronicles 16. To be honest, we don’t expect this from an OT book like this, but there are some great images of worship in this chapter and elsewhere in 1 Chronicles. David wrote –
8 Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon His name; make known His deeds among the peoples!
9 Sing to him, sing praises to Him; tell of all His wondrous works!
10 Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!
11 Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His presence continually!
12 Remember the wondrous works that He has done, His miracles and the judgments He uttered - 1 Chronicles 16:8-12
This is a call for us to come before God and worship Him. David tells us to give thanks to God!
To call upon His name
To make His deeds known
Praise God through song.
Tell of His great works
Glory / revel in His holy name
Seek the Lord with rejoicing
Seek the Lord and His strength
Always seek His presence
Again remember His great works
Remember His miracles and even His judgments
That’s a great way to worship. When you come here, when you watch on FB, come to God . . . do the work of drawing nearer and nearer to God. Don’t wait for God to show up . . . because God is already wherever you are. He’s there waiting for you to open the door to Him. He wants to come in and be with you.
So, come, be ready to give thanks and praise Him and sing out to Him, giving back the blessings He’s already given to you.
As I was thinking about worship, I wanted to tell you why we do worship the way we do it. Whether you agree with the order or not, there really is a method to my madness. So, I want you to understand the progression and flow.
The purpose of the prelude is to prepare you for worship. Yes, most of you are talking and catching up with your neighbors. I get it, but in reality the prelude represents the final moments before we hit the floor running. For me, it’s kind of like the national anthem before a sporting event. It’s the last moment to get pumped up and ready for the game. Not that worship is a game, but that’s the prelude. It’s like the guy used to say in boxing matches . . . “Let’s get ready to rumble.” We simply say . . . Let’s get ready to worship!!
After the prelude, I welcome you and we do announcements - - - and most people know I don’t like announcements. I believe they always disrupt the flow. Different churches have them at different times, but they always stop the flow. But we need them and we do them as quickly as possible. They simply give information about what’s going on, as quickly as possible.
Then we sing! George is always intentional about how he chooses songs for worship. He wants to start out louder and faster and become more reflective, a little slower as we move towards prayer. The purpose of the singing is to offer praise and honor to God. It’s to thank God for who He is in our lives.
He tries to pick a healthy mix of contemporary and traditional music, and he does a great job at it. Again, we’re not here to rate the music, but to use the music as a means of worshiping God.
Think about it = = = before Jesus’ death and resurrection, the primary act of worship was to offer an animal sacrifice. Since Jesus became the sacrificial Lamb, He became the perfect offering from God -- to take away the sin of the world. In Hebrews 13, the author of Hebrews reminds us one of our primary responses in worship is offering a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to God. He wrote -
15 Through Him (Jesus) then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. - Hebrews 13:15-16
Offer God a sacrifice of praise. I like that image of worship being a sacrifice. We could be somewhere else right now, but we’ve chosen to worship God. We offer God ourselves in this moment of worship - - and we seek to do good and share what we have, which comes in our heart and spirit as we give back to God.
41 Psalms command us to sing to the Lord. Singing has a way of touching not just the mental aspect, but the emotional and spirit side of our beings. As we allow ourselves to become absorbed in worship. We worship in song as we express our love and thanks to God in a way words alone cannot express.
We can also praise God through our actions or posture, which might include raising holy hands, kneeling, bowing down. Praise could include sharing your story with others of what God has done in your life. Unfortunately we don’t always do these because we are afraid of what other people will think of us. We become more concerned with what others think as opposed to what God thinks is true worship.
I know I can certainly get that way. I can become inhibited, which is really why I like watching worship and feeling and sensing the spirit in different ways.
The pastoral prayer is a public prayer for the church and individuals. I try to offer ourselves to God, to give thanks for His presence and grace, to seek His power and hope as we serve Him and one another. To ask for prayers for some individuals who have a need that week or in the coming week. I try to keep it more personal in my requests. There are times when I ask God more to forgive us and bless us. To help us turn more towards Him, then following the ways of the world. I try to allow what’s happened that week to dictate the nature of my prayer. Most of the time, I don’t write anything down. I attempt to let the Spirit lead me. I don’t like to use lofty words, as I believe the prayer is a way to give thanks for who we are and who we are yet to become. My hope is also that you would hear something in the prayer that draws you closer to God or even draws you to God.
We don’t do the formal offering as we used to. And there are times when I don’t say much, except in the pastor prayer about the offering. But the offering, the money we send in or put in the gold boxes is to build the kingdom of God. Yes, it pays the bills, but more than that, we help missionaries locally and internationally to change the world. We give back to God because it’s a privilege. Yes, I believe we are called to give to the church! I firmly believe that our giving often shows where our heart is. But that’s for another day. Our giving is a way to say thank you to God for His blessings. We give God as a way to bless others. I will be talking about giving in a couple of weeks as it relates to spiritual disciplines.
The Bible tells us to worship, to sing, to pray and to give, and some might say, well, where does it say to preach? Paul gives us help with that as well.
In 2 Timothy 4:1-2, Paul tells us - -
1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
One chapter earlier, Paul wrote ---
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. - 2 Timothy 3:16-17
The call from God is to preach His Word, at all times. Be ready to proclaim the good news. Use God’s Word to teach, train, rebuke, correct. To help others to experience the power of God’s Word. My greatest desire is to help us to grow and become more Christlike.
Unlike Jonathon Edwards, I think humor adds to the message. I don’t add humor, just to be funny, but hopefully it helps to make a point. And humor must be tasteful and not take away from the message.
I believe we are a biblically illiterate world. We don’t know the Word as well as we should and many people rely on their pastors to preach and share the Bible that week. I believe it is my responsibility to give you the best possible message I can each week. It’s really like a final exam every Sunday.
James gives us sobering words when he said ---
3 Not many of you should become teachers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. - James 3:1
I really do take that passage very seriously. I never, never want to lead anyone astray with my preaching or teaching. We may disagree on a passage, but hopefully, you will always know I did my best to interpret the passage in a manner which honors God.
Finally, we come to the last song. That’s really a song of reflection. A song of decision. Did you accept Jesus? Do you need prayer? Do you want to join the church? Some people don’t want to come forward and that’s fine. I’ve met with people in my office or separately at times.
George and I try to coordinate the message and the final song so that it flows from what I was talking about. It’s your time to reflect on the message and more than that, the entire worship.
Even the final prayer and postlude are to lead you into reflection and then into the world to serve and honor Christ with the way you live your life.
While worship is primarily about what we offer God, we also come together to encourage one another in the Lord. Hebrews 10 tells us ---
24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. - Hebrews 10:24-25
We are to encourage one another, not give up meeting, but make this an important part of who we are. The word STIR UP, literally means to PROVOKE or INCITE. It means we are to get stir the pot in a good way to get people to love and serve one another - - and not neglect coming together for worship.
In the times that we live in, some are worshiping at home, because they feel more comfortable, maybe safer. There is nothing better than to worship with other people. You can sense the love and joy, the passion and the power when people are together in community.
One final thought . . . when we come together to worship, it’s like a burning coal joined with several other coals. The more there are the hotter they burn. The coals feed off the heat of each other. The same is true for a candle. Watch the video. When you have one candle, it shines a small light, but what happens when multiple candles come together? They shine brighter. The same is true for us, when we come together our coals burn hotter, the candles burn brighter, the fire of the Holy Spirit, comes together in one place it burns brightly, and it pleases God when his people come together, and His power and presence becomes tangible.
* Via Brian Bill sermon - Sunday Is The Son's Day - May 24, 2021
