TEXT: Deuteronomy 6:1-15
“Why Worship?”
All across the globe this morning, people have gathered together in buildings like this one. Some arrive in formal clothes; others arrive in more casual attire. Some arrive in Lincoln Continentals; others arrive in Yugo’s or Gremlins. Some meet in a Crystal Cathedral; others meet in a house or underground. Some attend large churches; others attend gatherings with just a few people present. Some arrive ready to minister & pray with people; others arrive desperate to hear from God & receive prayer. Some come to church packing their Thompson Chain Reference Bible & Greek Inter-linear Bible; others arrive with the Gideon’s Bible they stole 6 years ago from a hotel.
No matter what the circumstances or methods of their arrival, they have all assembled for one purpose: to worship God. You mean they didn’t come to hear the dynamic praise & worship? They didn’t come to hear clever sermons? They didn’t come to fellowship with one another & make vital business contacts? NO! Whatever their ulterior motive, they should all be assembled with one purpose: to worship the Almighty God.
TEXT: Isaiah 6:1-4
You might say, “Wait a minute, God made certain angels who only worship God all day?” I would like to add that they not only worship God all day, but for all eternity. For some people, it is hard to imagine a life like that. If you ask people what they think heaven will be like, many might respond that time will be spent sitting on clouds, strumming harps & sitting at somebody’s feet. When you ask those same people what hell will be like, those people will tell you that it will be a non-stop party. America, the devil has sold you a lie! Even if for all eternity, all I did was sit at the feet of Jesus… I can tell you that I would rather chose that, than to burn in the fires of hell that cannot be quenched. In hell, there will be no water to stop the burning, there will be no end to the pain, anguish, torment that people will endure there.
Some ask, why would we want to worship a God that sends people to hell? Simple, God doesn’t send anyone to hell. The sin in the person’s life & the fact that they rejected Christ, puts them in the same category as the rebellious angels, for which hell was originally made. All humanity was designed to spend eternity with God & to worship Him. Why should we worship God?
1. We have the capacity to worship. God created our bodies to be able to worship. God gave us tongues & voice boxes to be able to speak & sing praise to God. Our bodies are designed for worship. Too many times, we use our bodies for things that are anything but worship to God. Humanity has filled this planet with wickedness, unrighteousness, filthiness, & godless acts of depravity.
We have the capacity to worship God, but we use that to worship others & ourselves. We use our words to speak evil to others, betray one another, & sin against each other & God. We use our beautiful voices to sing love songs to other gods.
God gave us not only the capacity to worship him in our language, but also about a hundred other ones as well. There was a time when I was going through a very difficult spiritual struggle. I was being utterly selfish with God, but I wanted His help. I just didn’t want to do what He told me in order to get His help. So I went to Trinity Assembly of God in Cedar Hill, Texas. In that service, the pastor asked those who needed prayer to stand in the aisles, so people could pray for them. I closed my eyes, lifted my hands & started to pray quietly to myself. I felt a hand on my shoulder and I could hear a man begin to pray for me. He didn’t know what was going on in my life, so he prayed in tongues. When I heard him speak, I was completely amazed. He kept saying, “Yashon, Baruch HaShem Adonai. Baruch HaShem Yeshua HaMashiach.” For those of you who don’t know, that is Hebrew, of which I know some. God told me through that stranger, “Jason, forget your problems. I am your answer. Jason, Bless the Name of the Lord. Bless the Name of Jesus the Messiah.” Tears streamed down my face, because that day God spoke to me audibly through that man. And I knew that no one could take that away. For whatever reason, God chose to speak to me in a way that only I could understand him. After the man was done praying for me, I turned to him & asked, “Did you know what you were saying to me?” He was shocked & said, “No, I was just praying in tongues. Do you know what I said?” I told him that he had been speaking Hebrew & that God had told me exactly what I needed to hear. We have the capacity to hear, understand & take part in worship to God.
2. We also have the creativity to worship God. God has implanted humanity with such an unbelievable amount of creativity that it is really staggering. We have designed musical instruments around our human limitations. We created the kazoo, the bagpipes, the banjo, the guitar, the trumpet, and the slide whistle. Why? For entertainment purposes? God has given us this creativity to worship Him.
God gave some the gift of writing poetry. The gift to put into words some of the most beautiful things that we experience. If you like nature poetry, I don’t think anyone can describe the beauty of a flower like William Wordsworth. His gift & talent was phenomenal. Unfortunately, in his creativity, you read that he would tend to worship the creation more than the Creator himself.
God gave some the gift of writing some of the most beautiful melodies & orchestrated music the world has ever heard. Others, God has given the talent of writing words to music. There are a lot of great praise & worship songs out there, but nothing sings as good as when you sing the Word of God. When you let the Word of God get down deep in your heart through singing it, you realize how powerful it is.
We have the capacity; we have the creativity.
3. We have the craving to worship God. The great mathematician Pascal was the first one to coin the phrase, that every person has a hole in their heart that only God can fill.
There was once a dynamic football player that was on the fast road to professional success. He was very outspoken. He was the best at the position he played. He had plenty of money, a great wife. But during his career, he felt that there was something missing. So, he turned to other women & began living a very promiscuous lifestyle. And his wife left him. He turned to drugs to hide his pain & disappointment with his life. And he realized that drugs weren’t the answer. But then he remembered that he had never won a Super Bowl. So, he worked very hard at keeping his team motivated. He thought to himself, “If we can just win that Super Bowl, I will finally be a success & I know I’ll feel good about myself.” And at the end of the season, they were the Super Bowl champions. They got their expensive rings, had wild parties, more drugs, more women… but he still was empty. So he thought, I need another Super Bowl win & that will do it. Another season goes by, & his team won the Super Bowl again. But he still felt empty & all alone. He had a whole in his heart that couldn’t be filled with women, drugs, Super Bowl rings or even a Mercedes Benz gold-plated golf cart that he rode in before & after practice.
One day, when he was on top of the world, by the world’s standards, he was really in the deepest pit he had ever known. He drove his sports car off a bridge to try & kill himself. Thankfully, word got to a man by the name of T.D. Jakes to come meet with this football player. And as a result of that meeting, Deion Sanders became a disciple of Jesus Christ. Deion has told his story everywhere he could to show others the way to Christ.
Every person has a God-shaped hole in their hearts. They try to fill it with pleasure, promotions, people, prosperity, or popularity. We are creatures created to worship. But we look to basketball players & movie stars. We bow down in front of our computers, TVs, luxury cars, or cell-phones. The world fills the whole in their hearts with anything but God. But nothing, nothing, nothing will fill that hole except Jesus Christ.
The opening scripture we read in Deuteronomy 6 is called the Shema, simply meaning “Hear or listen.” In closing, I want to read it to you again in a little different rendering.
“Hear, O Church, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. Blessed is His glorious name whose kingdom is forever & ever. Love the Lord with all your heart, with all your life & with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be written on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home & when you walk along the road, when you lie down at night & when you get up in the morning. Tie them as reminders on your hands & bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses & on your gates.”
I want you to hear the heart of this prayer: “Blessed, praised & glorified, exalted, extolled & honored, magnified & lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed is He, whose glory transcends & is beyond all blessings & hymns, praises & songs which are uttered in the world; and say, Amen.”
Why do you worship? Why should you worship? God is so awesome that words cannot describe the reasons why. I look back on the wreck that was my life before I allowed God to be in charge. I thank God that “He saved me, He cleansed me, he turned my life around. He set my feet up on the solid ground. Can you believe what the Lord has done in me?” That’s why I worship him. Jesus has made all the difference in my life. And He will make the same difference in the lives of everyone He comes in contact with.
