Worship That God Wants - Psalm 100 Part 1
Pastor Larry Sarver
New Life in Christ
1633 SW 34th St. Palm City, FL 34990
561-283-9426 pastorsarver@yahoo.com
www.palmcitynewlife.org
Illustration: Early in our marriage I gave my wife a terrific anniversary gift: a rain gauge. At least I thought it was a great gift. Susan, after all, is a farmer’s daughter and keeps close watch on the weather. I envisioned her delight and nostalgia while tracking our back yard precipitation. I congratulated myself on my creativity.
Guess what? Susan was not impressed: "A rain gauge—for our anniversary?!" The rain gauge is now a family joke, a classic example of a gift enjoyed by the giver but not the receiver.
Are we doing the same in worship of God? Are we giving Him what He truly wants?
Citation: Marshall Shelley, Leadership (Spring 1999), p.3
Tonight I want to speak with you about the worship of God. It is very clear from the Bible that worship is very important to God. What is important to God is also important to God’s children-Christians. We all worship God when we gather but do we worship him in the way that he wants? Are we bringing the gift that God’s heart desires?
The Bible reveals that people’s worship of God can be unacceptable and can be misunderstood. For instance in the story of Cain and Able, God rejected Cain’s offering - his sacrifice of worship as unacceptable because it was given in a careless and thoughtless way. Cain brought an halfhearted offering of worship. Abel’s offering of worship was acceptable because he gave his very best, he gave the "fat portions from the firstborn of the flock." (Genesis 4: 3) Later in Leviticus chapter 10 we see that Nadab and Abihu were struck dead by God for offering tainted worship to God. Again in the book of Malachi God rejects the people’s offering of worship. He is in fact deeply offended saying that the people had shown contempt for him by giving him less than their best in worship. Their worship was so offensive to God that God said they were under a curse. Their finances, their crops, their families etc. were all impacted by unacceptable worship! Just a brief survey of the Bible shows us how important worship is to God, especially that we give him worship that is acceptable and that its pleasing, worship that he wants.
Even when people worship and in acceptable and a pleasing manner there are concerns because often those around them have misunderstood their worship. This was the case for King David who danced before the Lord with all his might. His own wife was offended by his worship and God was offended at her. The same thing was true when the women broke the expensive perfume and washed Jesus feet as an act of extravagant worship. Some people present accused her of going overboard and investing too much into worship, but Jesus was pleased with her. These stories show us how easily we can be ignorant of the kind of worship that God wants.
There are many other examples of worship either being unacceptable or misunderstood in the Bible, but these I have given are sufficient I hope to capture our attention and remind us of how important it is to understand true worship and to worship acceptably. At New Life in Christ I want to know that we are giving God the worship that he wants.
Tonight we will look at Psalm 100 which can help us to begin to understand worshipping God. This Psalm tells us, in part, how we are to worship God and why we are to worship God. In other words this Psalm tells us the kind of worship that God wants. As we go through this Psalm I want you to ask yourself, "Do I worship God for the right reasons and in the right way?", "Am I giving God the worship that he wants?"
Before we begin to look at the specifics of this Psalm I would mention that there are many ways we can worship God. We can worship in giving, obeying, serving others, and even in our hearts. The primary emphasis and way of worship in this Psalm and in most of the Bible is verbal worship or praise. The kind of worship that takes place as we gather together in church and sing to God and what should take place as a priority in our daily prayer life. The Bible refers to this verbal worship as "the fruit of our lips." As it says in Hebrews 13:15 "…let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise - the fruit of our lips that confess his name." I say this to remind you that it is not enough to worship God in our hearts or with our deeds alone. God desires, deserves, and demands the fruit of our lips, that is verbal praise. Does this mean that any verbal expression of song or word of praise to God is acceptable and pleasing to God? Is God receiving the worship that he wants just because we verbalized or sung the correct words? No! Worship that God wants must be accompanied with a right attitude and be done for the right reasons. Psalm 100 will tell us the right attitude to worship God with and the reasons we should worship God so that we can give God the worship that he wants and his pleased with.
Read Psalm 100
I. Worship that God wants is joyful.
It is very clear from the first two verses of this Psalm that attitude is very important to God in worship. For this reason the Psalmist starts off Psalm 100 with a focus on a right attitude during worship. What is that attitude? It is very clear that God expects us to have a joyful and glad heart whenever we come to him to sing praise and worship. That is why verse one says to "shout for joy to the Lord!" Do you know what the Hebrew word that is translated as "shout" means? Well it is very simple the Hebrew word here means to shout. It doesn’t mean to scream, but it does mean that are worship is to be vocal, it is to be public, and expressive. Worship that God wants is joyful and when we are joyful we tend to be vocal. Sometimes because of our inhibitions and traditions and because we lack the recognition of what God has really done for us we tend to be too quiet. Sometimes we want to justify our quietness by saying that our culture is different from the Hebrew culture, or that our personality is different and that we don’t express excitement or overwhelming joy with shouts or in public expression. I am not convinced that this is totally true. As I observe myself and other people I find that shouting for joy is quite common. At sporting events we certainly see and hear a lot of shouting. When a golfer hits a particularly great shot there is usually some kind of outward exuberance. Game show winners are usually very expressive of their joy. It is normal to express joy or gladness publicly, verbally, and expressively. It is not normal to be lacking in exuberance about joyful things.
Illustration: In Nisswa, Minnesota, where they hold the popular Nisswa Turtle Races. Every Wednesday evening in the summer months, the people of Nisswa and the surrounding communities gather at a designated parking lot for the weekly races.
It’s big excitement and big business. Vendors rent turtles; others sell "turtle products." And the fans gather early, placing their chairs and blankets in the best viewing sites. In one recent contest, 435 turtles raced in heats of fifteen over a six-foot-long course.
Bif, the announcer, calls the turtles to their mark, gives them the "Go!" . . . and the crowd goes wild. People stand, jump, and wave their hands in the air, imploring their turtles to be unturtle-like.
The excitement grows and finally reaches a boiling point as the preliminary winners all gather for the championship race.
Amid unrestrained shouts and cheers, the first turtle crosses the finish line, and the winning "trainer" receives five dollars—along with a turtle necklace. What an uncharacteristic frenzy of emotion for the normally reserved folks of Northern Minnesota!
And some people get upset when Christians worship "too expressively" in church on Sunday morning.
Citation: Per Nilsen, Burnsville, Minnesota
It is very clear in the whole Bible that worship that God wants is joyful. Many scriptures contain this same principle of worshipping God joyfully. See Psalm 33:3, 47:1, 66:1, 71:23, 95:1, 98:4-6. Simply put the main emphasis here is not on being loud but on being joyful which automatically leads to a desire to sing or speak exuberantly of God’s greatness and God’s goodness.
Illustration: I want you to imagine that the Miami Dolphins were in the Super Bowl. They are down by three points they are 80 yards away, and there are two seconds left to go in the game. They surprisingly give the ball to the running back and he breaks free, you see him run to the 50, the 40, the 30, 20, 10, touchdown! Now I imagine if everyone was to just sit there quietly and nod their heads and say "that was nice." Wouldn’t you think that something would is wrong with that picture?
Well something is wrong with the picture also of the people of God coming into his Mighty presence in a halfhearted, apathetic way. There is something wrong with the picture when the people that God has saved from hell and blessed abundantly barely sing above a whisper in worship to him. There is something wrong with the picture of the people of God gathering to worship God with hardly a smile upon anyone’s face. There is something wrong with the picture of a church without shouts of joy to the Lord.
I. Worship that God wants is joyful.
Psalm 100 tells us to "shout for joy", "worship the Lord with gladness", "come before him with joyful songs!" These three expressions are nearly synonymous and they all convey the same message: God wants and is delighted when we praise him joyfully. Now I want you to notice that we are instructed to do these things before or to the Lord. And exuberant and joyful atmosphere in worship can still be very displeasing to God if it is not really focused on Him but is merely the result of some charismatic preacher or song leader whipping the crowd into an emotional state.
Illustration: I went to a conference a few years ago which was supposed to focus on worship. At one point at the beginning of a conference without saying a word several drummers began to drum a very strong beat for about 20 to 30 minutes. The people began to get zealous, excited, and exuberant but one wonders whether they were stirred with the joy unto the Lord or stirred by the music itself. We are to be joyful, glad, and shout appropriately but we are to do these things as an act of worship and joy before the Lord, not because men have used techniques to stir people up.
Illustration: A good example of the kind of joy in worship that is pleasing to God was seen here at New Life in Christ on Easter morning when the people spontaneously began to applaud, shout, and worship God with all their hearts without manipulation from the worship leader or the pastor. Although it is good and needed for the worship leader and the other leaders to give encouragement to right worship, we must always be aware of manipulation and keep the focus on God.
I. Worship that God wants is joyful.
Next week we will look at the other two characteristics of the worship that God wants.
