Worship Sermon
July 21 2002
Central Christian Church
St. Petersburg, Fl 33711
Isaiah 6: 1-9, John 4:1-21,
Genesis 22:5, Rm. 12:1-2, Rev 19:5-6
1. The Sermon topic today is worship. The questions for us to answer today are: what is worship? What does it look like in the Christian’s life? How many styles of worship are there?
Worship- in the Hebrew shachah - (shaw-chah) the word literally meant to bow down before God, prostrate and that is consistent with one of the Greek words proskuneo- (pros-koo-neh-o) denoting the worthiness of the individual to be worshipped. Not just a physical bowing down like a performer would take at the end of a recital, but more we have a posture that is face down reflecting a recognition that God is Lord and Master. It has this connotation about it that our lives do not belong to us, but they belong to God. and although proskuneo is the most common translation found in the NT for worship occurring some 71 times another word I like to describe this act of worshipping God is found in Romans 12:1 and in 10 other NT passages. The word is Latreia (lat- ri- ah) it describes worshipping God by the Spirit of God, using the Spirit of God to do it. Through service to God-that includes sacrifice for others. Those literally are the ones who are worshipping Him .
2. I believe what the words mean when combined is that we worship God, bow down to God, through the humility that is in our hearts when we live obedient sacrificial lives that glorify Him.
TRANSITION
3. However, I believe there is one major problem that STOPS us from being the kind of worshippers, about which Jesus and the Bible speak!
4. The problem is:
5. It is these bodies we live in. You see because we live in the flesh, because we are actually trapped in these bodies of death, because the flesh battles against the spirit, we struggle to be true worshippers. We struggle in these bodies, but the fact remains and must be dealt with is that we live in these bodies.
6. I like you when I am hungry I want to eat and when thirsty, I want something to drink. When my heartburn kicks in I want an antacid to take away the pain. Now I have to admit, I did not eat one antacid last week but remember Stan is on vacation!
7. But because we live in the body we become influenced by externalities. Because we live in the flesh and have to satisfy our flesh to live. Before too long our flesh and its desires becomes our ruler. We actually begin to believe that because our flesh is satisfied by what we like and that is pleasing, therefore we should always get what we like because it feels right for us.
8. Satisfying the desires of our flesh- (what we like and want) turns into a habit and a way of life very quickly. Before long we grow up with our flesh as our ruler and as Christians soon we start to believe that church should be like Burger King and we “can have it our way.”
9. We develop these taste & preferences of what we want, what satisfies us and what we like. Before too very long as we continue to satisfy the flesh-life becomes all about me.
10. So it is our flesh that STOPS us from being true worshippers!
11. As I look at the instruments over here, I see drums, guitars, keyboard and piano. They are externalities certainly they are not Jesus. But because I have developed certain likes and dislikes over the past 50 years in this process of satisfying my flesh, I may love the piano or the organ, but hate the drums and guitar.
12. Worse yet I may love the drummer, but dislike the music leader.
13. The problem is if my focus is on externalities, if my focus is on the drums or the guitar, the worship leader, the preacher’s tie or his clothes, I can actually miss Jesus. I can actually be in the presence of God and not even know it.
14. If my primary focus is to have it my way, I am living in the flesh and I am not in the spirit.
15. I cannot be a true worshipper, the kind the Father seeks.
16. If you will open your Bibles to John Chapter 4: (in verses 4-21) P. 1052 you can read for yourself the encounter between Jesus and the woman at the well. She was there with Jesus, but look at the things on which she focused.
17. I want you to know also, that Jesus knew she was trapped in her flesh, just like He knows that we are trapped in ours, but He loves her enough to show her a better way.
18. v6 Jacob’s well was there, it was a great well archaeologist say it was 200’ deep. The water was cool, clean, clear and pure but it was just the same an externality, it was a thing like a guitar or a pipe organ, it wasn’t Jesus.
19. V9 The Samaritan woman is quick to notice that Jesus is a man and on top of that a Jewish man and Jewish men just did not speak to women especially Samaritan women in that culture. This single fact alone could have caused this woman to turn away and she tragically would have missed Jesus.
20. All she had to do is stay stuck in the traditions of the day and walk away from a man who was part of a religion who despised her and her type.
21. I love v10 &11 because I think it sums up my point Jesus says, John 4:10, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
22. His point, do not miss the truth of who I am, just because I am not presented the way YOU think I should be!
23. However, the Samaritan woman is so much like us that before she responds to this very spiritual comment she has to let Jesus know that not only is this well deep. But, you do not have anything to draw water with.
24. Even though she begins to recognize that this man Jesus is different and she says, “I can see that you are a prophet,” she still by her very condition of living in the flesh wants to focus on something other than true worship, she wants Jesus to know that the place of worship is very important. Do you see how difficult it is for us to enter into the spiritual realm because all we can see is the things that surround us!
25. Jesus essentially tells her that one does not have to be in the temple to worship or on a particular mountain and the way the Jews do religion is going to change. You will not worship on the mountain or in the temple.
26. My paraphrase: People, places and things are physical, worship is to be spiritual.
27. Jesus says in v 23, "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.
28. I can tell you what He does not say: 1. He does say that true worshippers will use the KJV. 2. He does not say a time has come when you will you worship with a hymnal, piano and organ or you worship with choruses, a keyboard and drums.
29. What He does say is:
30. John 4:24 "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
31. What “in the world” does it mean to worship God in spirit and in truth?
32. What it means to worship God in spirit and in truth is to recognize that worship is not dependent on any externality, not a pipe organ, not a piano, not a guitar or a drum set. Not a worship style-because frankly, there is only one style of worship and that is a style of bowing down in obedience and sacrifice to our God.
33. To be a true worshipper of God we need to set aside the preferences and desires of our flesh- of what we want. We must not focus on our likes or our dislikes, but we must focus on Christ and others.
Oswald Chambers wrote this in My Utmost for His Highest
To fulfill God’s perfect design for me requires my total surrender—complete abandonment of myself to Him. Whenever I only want things for myself, the relationship is distorted. And I will suffer great humiliation once I come to acknowledge and understand that I have not really been concerned about realizing Jesus Christ Himself, but only concerned with knowing what He has done for me.
My goal is God Himself, not joy nor peace,
Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God.
Am I measuring my life by this standard or by something less?
34. We can become so focused on externalities and on things that we feed the flesh and then the flesh ends up winning the battle against the Spirit. If we live satisfying our flesh, what we want then our entire focus is not on God, where it should be, but on us and the things we like.
35. If you can picture this battle within us as a fight between two German shepherds one representing the desires of what we want and the other representing our spiritual life of truth, sacrifice and obedience.
36. The German shepherd who will win this battle to the death will be the one we feed.
37. Some of us really feed on externalities especially in America.
38. Big Business has made absolute fortunes off of us Americans, studying what our taste and preferences are and then providing those goods and services for our consumption.
39. I was reminded recently of the fellow who was involved in a very serious automobile accident and as the HP approached him, he was lamenting “oh my Mercedes, my Mercedes.” The FHP asked the victim, “he said sir are you ok?” The man cried out, “ How is my car, my car?” The FHP said, “sir your car is totaled, however, I would not be overly concerned about my car if I were you, because your arm is lying in the middle of the road.” “Oh no,” the man said; my Rolex, my Rolex.”
40. We live in these bodies and we must overcome our flesh and its desires if we will be the kind of worshippers that the Father seeks.
41. Jesus is the source of the living water, the only water that truly satisfies. Crystal clear, cold and pure well water is a good thing, but it is not Christ.
42. Hymnals, choruses, drums all good things, but if they get in our way, if they are our focus- we can miss Jesus!
43. So our first principle today is: To be the kind of worshipper the Father seeks means we must crucify the flesh and our desires, simply so our flesh does not get in our way or anybody else’s way and cause them or us to miss seeing Jesus.
44. We get another picture of worship from our main text today in Isaiah 6. (p.680)
45. Isa 6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
46. Isa 6:2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.
47. Isa 6:3 And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."
48. Isa 6:4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
49. Isa 6:5 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
50. Isa 6:6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
51. Isa 6:7 With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."
52. Isa 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
Isa 6:9 He said, "Go and tell this people: "’Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.
Now if you are looking for a worship experience Look at Isaiah’s!
If we forget what God expects from our worship well we can open our Bibles anytime to this passage!
In vv 1-4 Isaiah was aware of:
1. The awe of God’s presence (Proskuneo) pro-skoo-neh oh
2.The conviction of sin v5
3 A reminder of God’s Grace vv6&7
4. The acknowledgement of hearing God’s voice v8
5. The inspiration to serve (Latreia)- lat-ri-ah v8
6. The Act of serving [Going or doing]
53. Our second principle of worship- taken from this passage. Is asking the right question and that is: “God, what do you want from me?”
54. Our third principle is: To have value to God our worship must involve sacrifice.
55. If you remember the story of Abraham and Isaac from Genesis chapter 22, then you remember God said to Abraham, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love to Mount Moriah and sacrifice him there as a burnt offering.
56. So they get to the mountain that God shows them and Isaac has the wood to burn him up on his back, while Abraham carried the fire and the knife.
57. and as they start up the mountain Abraham says to the servants, "Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go yonder; and we will worship and return to you."
58. We need to understand that Abraham was not going to a place to sing a few verses of Amazing Grace, or listen to the drums, keyboard and guitars while he sang a few peppy verses of a chorus.
59. He was not going into an assembly to evaluate the preaching or the music according to his likes or dislikes.
60. Abraham was going to sacrifice his son, by killing him and burning him up on the altar and Isaac was carrying the wood.
61. We need to understand that there is only one style of worship and that is Abraham’s style and Isaiah’s style a life of sacrifice that is what God demands.
62. There can be any style of praise, it could be hymns, it could be psalms, it could be choruses with many externalities like pipe organs, pianos or guitars involved. But there is only one style of worship that has value to God and that is the style that takes us you and me out of the process.
63. People say ok “fine” but I just do not like loud music. I understand loud hurts the ears! After all they are made of flesh and if it is too loud the flesh wants it quiet.
64. I understand that for some hymns or choruses may be more conducive for you to enjoy corporate worship.
65. And I want you to know that our worship team recognizes that too and they work very hard to make your corporate worship meaningful to you.
66. That is why we have two distinct services now. One that we call traditional and one that we call contemporary.
67. Yet, I am concerned for us who do not like it loud or like it our way because I read in Revelation 19 that John tells us in heaven there will be a great multitude saying, "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God and they are going to be very loud about it.
68. And in vv5-6 the first time we get a glimpse of the Hallelujah Choir Rev 19:5 And a voice came from the throne, saying, "Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great."
69. Rev 19:6 And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude and as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.
70. So if you do not like the voice of a great multitude or the ear shattering sound of roaring water, coupled with mighty peals of thunder, well I just don’t think in heaven there will be another service or another church down the street where we will be able to attend. (Just a thought)
71. If we try to worship God with an attitude that it is all about us, we find ourselves coming to assembly focused on music, or instruments, or the preacher. We come into assembly conformed to the world- with a consumer like attitude and sometimes it seems as if the church has become like Olympic judges and we rate the event.
72. Today you may give this sermon a 6 and the music well a 9. Not bad for the day you had a 7.5 overall worship experience.
73. Or you may not like it at all and if it happens too often, then you will just go someplace else to assemble where you like it more.
74. And yet the scripture are clear- it is God who places us in the local fellowship not us (1 Cor. 12:18-20)
75. I guess the question is how do we become the kind of worshipper’s the Father seeks?
76. How can we all have and love the same worship style regardless of music or preaching?
77. There is only one way it can happen!
78. And God has shown us that way. I believe He answers that for us in Rm 12:1-2. (p. 1123)
79. Rom 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.
80. Rom 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
81. The Question for us is: As Christians have we really died to ourselves, to what we like or believe we have to have to be happy. Have we actually joined Jesus in death of self when we went in that Baptismal pool or have we breathed new life into the old man? Which German shepherd are we feeding?
82. If we want to worship God in Spirit and in truth we need to make our bodies living holy sacrifices and stop conforming to the pattern of the Olympic judges. Can we change our minds today about what it means to worship God? If we can it comes with a promise.
83. A promise that we will know God’s good and perfect will?
84. We are going to sing a song of invitation and if you want to begin a life of worship, the first step is to give your present life up and give it to Jesus.
85. If you have not yet received Him as your Master, to whom you will bow down, if you have not yet become His slave you can do so today. Just meet me in the aisle.
86. If you have a decision to make you can come down this aisle and make it. Maybe you have been so focused on people, places or things that you have missed Jesus and He wants you to be a true worshipper-well you can come up front and pray on this altar to be true worshipper.
