TEXT: EPHESIANS 5:19-21
TITLE: “QUESTIONS CONCERNING WORSHIP”
(Majority of material taken from Bob Russel’s When God Build A Church)
INTRODUCTION: A. I read this little piece not too long ago. I don’t know the author but its message is
worth heeding:
A man went to church with an angel as his guide. Every seat in the church was
filled. But there was something strange about the service. The organist moved her
fingers over the keys, but no music came from its pipes. The choir rose to sing. Their
lips moved, but no sound was to be heard. The preacher stepped to the pulpit to read
the Scriptures, but the man observing with the angel could not even hear the rustle of
pages. Then the Lord’s Prayer was recited by the entire congregations, but not a
single syllable was audible. The preacher went again to the pulpit, and the man could
tell he had started his sermon as he gestured here and there to make his various points,
but the man heard nothing.
Turning to the angel, the man said, “I don’t understand. What does this mean? I
see that a service is being held, but I hear nothing.” The angel replied, “You heard
nothing because there is nothing to be heard, at least not by heaven’s ears. They’re
just going through the motions. Nothing they are doing has any meaning for them.
Worship without heart is not worship at all.”
B. Remember that worship is a declaration of the “worth-ship” of God
1. It’s a response to all that God is and all that He has done, what He is doing, and
what He will do.
2. God is worthy of our praise and adoration
3. Gene Mims, Kingdom Principles for Church Growth, “The purpose of worship is to
come before the Lord in obedience to praise Him, to hear from Him, to confess to
Him, and to commit our lives to Him. Every worship service is to be an encounter
with the Lord, transcending our feelings, desires, and even our abilities to
perform.”
C. Remember also that worship should affect how we live our everyday life
1. It’s not just something that happens one day a week but every day.
2. A woman entered an ice cream store in the Kansas City Plaza. After making her
selection, she turned and found herself face to face with Paul Newman. He was in
town filing the move Mr. and Mrs. Bridge. Newman’s blue eyes caused her knees
to buckle. She managed to pay for her cone, then left the shop, her heart pounding.
When she gained her composure, she realized she didn’t have her cone. She
started back into the store to get it and met Paul Newman coming back out. He
asked, “Are you looking for your ice-cream cone?” She nodded, unable to speak.
With a twinkle in his eye, he said, “You put it in your purse with your change.”
--When was the last time our worship brought us into the presence of God and
quickened our pulse and affected our lives?
I. CONSISTENCY IN SCRIPTURE
--As we look at worship from a biblical standpoint, we see two ingredients that always seem to be present:
A. A sense of awe
1. When I was 11 years old, I went with my parents to Chicago, IL for my Aunt Pat’s wedding. The
hotel where we stayed had a restaurant. We were eating dinner in there one night when Muhammad
Ali came in with his family. I couldn’t believe it! There sat one of the most famous people in the
world just a few tables away.
My dad and mom said that I should go talk to him. Yeah, right! They told me that since he was
from Louisville, KY and we were from Elizabethtown, KY (just south of Louisville) that he would
be glad to talk to me and give me an autograph.
Very sheepishly I approached his table. He very graciously waved me closer. I just handed him
the paper and pen and he autographed it for me. (It was the envelope from the invitation to the
wedding). He asked me questions, talked to me for several minutes, said he knew several people in
my hometown, and was just a very congenial person to be around. He even shook my hand. They
were the biggest hands I had seen so far in my short life. His hand swallowed min.
I didn’t take his graciousness to mean that I would be on a first-name basis with him. I stood
there in awe and respect of this world-famous person and still remember the encounter as one of the
most awesome and fear-inducing experiences in my lifetime.
2. I tell that story because when the Bible describes any face-to-face encounter between man and God
(even with an angel, one of God’s messengers), the first reaction experienced was fear and
reverence; a deep sense of awe, respect, and even dread at the though of being in the presence of
someone so holy and powerful.
a. When we come into the presence of the King of kings and Lord of lords, our appropriate
response is one of wonderment and reverence.
b. Isa, 6:1-5 – “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. 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. 3And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD
Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and
thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 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."
B. A sense of joy
1. Awe and reverence in the presence of God doesn’t rule out a sense of gladness.
2. Biblical worship is characterized by an overwhelming sense of joy in the hearts of God’s people.
a. The early church was filled with a sense of awe – Acts 2:43a – “43Everyone was filled with awe…”
b. But they were also filled with a sense of joy
--Acts 2:46-47a – “46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke
bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying
the favor of all the people.”
c. Their hearts were glad because the God of the universe had visited them in the form of Jesus
Christ.
d. They weren’t worshipping a terrifying, unpredictable force that would destroy them at a whim but
a faithful, personal God of grace who loved them and had saved them through His Son Jesus
Christ.
e. They had an eternal purpose for living!
f. They understood the words of Ps. 100: “1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. 2 Worship the
LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. 3 Know that the LORD is God. It is he
who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with
thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. 5 For the LORD is
good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”
II. CONCERNING MUSICAL STYLES
A. The focus of authentic worship is not on musical styles.
1. It’s on God
2. It’s doing what bring glory, honor, and pleasure to Him
3. Are you convinced that an all-hymns format is more worshipful than any other format?
--Then you’ve missed the point
4. Do you think that an all-contemporary song service is more worshipful than any other format?
--Then you’ve missed the point
B. Music is a vehicle.
1. It’s something that gets you to where you’re going.
2. No format is more biblical or worshipful than any other as long as its goal is glory, honor, and
pleasure to God
C. However, we also have to remember that one of the by-products of worship is evangelism.
-- God is certainly honored and is certainly pleased when people want a relationship with Him through
His Son Jesus Christ (so much so that Jesus tells us that all of heaven celebrates when a lost soul is
saved
1. If we’re trying to draw people into a close encounter with Jesus Christ, then we need to consider the
culture in which we live.
a. By culture, I mean our congregation as well as the society around us.
b. If we focus solely on a style of music that reaches our congregation, we may be severely limiting
our opportunities for evangelism.
c. Why do I say that?
(1). Only because our congregation may not be a good reflection of the culture around us.
(2). What I mean by that is this: Most of us have been Christians for quite a long time (32 years
for me)
--I would hope that those of us with a lot of years of serving Christ would reflect His image
and not the image of the culture around us.
d. However, if we’re going to attempt to reach our culture with the message of the gospel, we need
to consider how best to translate the old, old story into something they can understand and relate
to.
2. Let’s imagine that our congregation decides to recruit and fund a missionary to minister to a people
group in a foreign country that no one has reached as of yet.
--What would we expect him to do?
a. We would expect that missionary to find some way to relate the message of the Bible in a way that
was relevent to the people who lived there.
b. We would expect that missionary to learn the language of the people we expected him to work with.
c. We would expect that missionary to translate the Bible into the language of the people he’s
working with.
d. We would expect that the missionary wouldn’t change the message but we wouldn’t expect the
missionary to expect these foreign people to know the words to Amazing Grace and How Great
Thou Art
3. The Bible is very clear that we are missionaries within the culture in which we live.
a. Should we change the message?
--God forbid!
b. Should we translate the message of the gospel into a method that the people that live around us can
understand and relate to?
(1). Absolutely!
(2). Paul said that he became all things to all men so that he might save some.
4. Therefore, the question about musical styles should really be about what is effective in reaching and
teaching our culture about the gospel.
a. If jazz is the way to reach our community, we need to start singing the blues.
b. If country music is the key to reaching our community, I say we bring out the steel guitar and
fiddle and learn to two-step
c. If classical music is the key to reaching our community, then let’s bring out the orchestra and play
those famous composers.
d. If polka music is they key to reaching our community, you know what I’d do? I’d move to another
community.
5. Seriously, we need to ask ourselves: Am I more concerned with my musical preferences than I am
about reaching the lost?
D. As we saw this morning, Jesus teaches us about balance in our worship.
1. If the majority of the congregation is older, we need to keep hymns in our worship format.
--However, we should include a few new songs to reach the large number of younger families that
live in our area.
2. I personally prefer what is called a “blended” worship service: including the great hymns as well as
some of the scripture songs and worship choruses.
3. Remember: the goal of what we’re doing when we’re gathered together is to worship God and Him
alone.
E. There are good reasons why we should sing both:
--In fact, our text tonight mentions quite a variety of music
1. Why sing contemporary songs?
a. God is honored by variety and freshness
(1). If you don’t think God loves variety, just look at His creation.
(2). There are different kinds of flowers and trees; different kinds of lakes and mountains;
different kinds of animals and insects; even different kinds of people
(3). Why we call it the “uni-verse” – it’s diversified in content but unified in gloryfying the
Creator.
b. God commanded us to sing a new song
(1). Six times in Psalms and twice in Revelation we see the phrase “a new song”
(2). We’re told that in heaven we will sing new songs. I
--If you don’t like new songs, you won’t like heaven very much.
c. Many people – including young people and new Christian – relate better to the new songs.
(1). If the only songs we sing are songs that the older people like, then how do we expect to
inspire the younger people?
(2). We need to remember: It’s not about us.
--It’s about glorifying God, inspiring worshipers, and reaching the lost with the gospel.
2. Why sing the old hymns?
a. Many of the ancient hymns are full of doctrine
(1). Songs that have withstood hundreds of years of time usually do so because their lyrics have
somehow connected with people
(2). They teach us some deep truths about scripture
b. The hymns keep us tied to other Christian – past and present
(1). Young people need to learn hymns so can understand and identify with the older generation
of Christian around them.
(2). Hymns are a music form that we share we Christians of all ages and all churches
(3). There are so many new songs that we could never learn them all.
--But hymns unite us with each other across all generations and geographical locations
c. Hymns are familiar to many of our guests
(1). Even if they have spent relatively little time in church, most people have heard “Amazing
Grace” and “Just As I Am.”
(2). They’re familiar with many of the Christmas songs like “Away In a Manger,” “Joy To The
World,” and “Silent Night.”
(3). There are nominal Christians who grew up attending church and singing the old songs but
have drifted away and now are seeking to come back.
--When they come back to church, they probably won’t know the new songs, but they will
know the old hymns and might even sing along.
F. Final thoughts on musical styles:
1. It will always be a challenge to keep a good balance of music styles.
2. It’s true that people are more likely to be inspired by music they like.
3. While we strive to use styles that help people worship, we need to remember that that every song
might not be for us.
4. Our goal and purpose is worship, not entertainment.
5. We should strive to glorify and serve God in all that we do.
III. CONSIDERING SUPPOSITIONS
--suppositions are expectations
**. Is there anything that people should expect from a worship service?
**I believe that the Bible teaches us that there are some things that should be expected from a corporate
worship service.
***Based on Isaiah’s visit to the divine throne room that I mentioned earlier, here are four scriptural
expectations from worship:
A. A sense of God’s presence
1. When we gather for worship, we should expect to sense the awesome presence of God
2. Is. 6:1 – “I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the
temple.”
3. Worship needs to convey a deep respect for the holiness, the majesty, the joy, the power of the
Almighty God in our midst
B. A conviction of our sinfulness
1. When we gather for worship, we should experience a conviction of our own sinfulness.
2. Is. 6:5 – “Woe to me! 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.”
3. The closer we get to God, the more we’re aware of our own sinfulness.
--The brighter the light, the more the wrinkles and the warts show.
4. Paul Eshelman, the man responsible for distributing millions of copies of the Jesus film
around the world, tells about the time that the film was shown at a refugee camp in
Mozambique, on the southeast coast of Africa. Although most of the people had never heard the
gospel, they fell in love with Jesus through the film. When he was arrested, beaten and led away
to be crucified, they began to weep and wail, and many rushed toward the screen. Their cries and
the dust they stirred made it impossible to finish the film, so the projector was turned off. For
more than thirty minutes, the townspeople were on their knees weeping and confessing their sins.
Each of the film crew members and counselors relayed how they would try to approach one
of the villagers to pray with them, but the Spirit of God was so real that the counselors themselves
were falling to their knees, confessing their own sins and glorifying God. One
counselor told Eshelman, “that no one could do anything but confess sins.”
5. When you experience the presence of God, you can’t help but recognize your own sinful state.
C. A joyful reminder of God’s grace
1. When we come together for worship, we should also receive a cleansing of sin and release from
guilt.
2. Is. 6:6-7 – “Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken
with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your
lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’”
3 Corporate worship should motivate us to repent of sin, but it must not stop there.
4. We should leave rejoicing in that knowledge that if we have submitted ourselves to Christ, the
words of 1 Jn. 1:7 applies to us: “the blood of Jesus…purifies us from all sin.”
5. Going back to the events that happened in Mozambique with the Jesus film, Eshelman said
that eventually, after more than thirty minutes, the film crew turned the movie back on so the people
could know the end of the story. You know the end. It doesn’t end in death on a cross, but in the
resurrection of Jesus Christ.
When the townspeople saw how the story ended, Eshelman said, “The crowd exploded as if a
dam had burst. Everyone began cheering and dancing and hugging one another and jumping up
and down.” When the invitation was given for people to accept Christ, nearly everyone in the
crowd wanted to respond! The following Sunday, five hundred new believers showed up at the
forty-member church in the refugee camp!
6. When we experience the presence of God in worship, we should leave rejoicing.
--We have recognized our sinful state but we have also been reminded of God’s grace.
D. The inspiration to be obedient and serve
1. When we gather for worship, experience the presence of God in our midst, recognize our
sinfulness, get reminded of the grace of God, we should be inspired to be obedient to God’s call
on our life and serve Him.
2. Is. 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 I am. Send me!’”
3. Instead of an instinct to criticize, the worshiper should leave with an incentive to share the truth
with the lost and to minister to the hurting.
4. Many old church buildings had signs and bulletin boards with a very fitting statement: “Enter to
Worship – Depart to Serve”
5. When someone comes to church seeking God, he should leave a different creature because he has
been in the presence of God.
6. Peter Marshall once prayed before the U.S. Senate: “Lord, we thank you that we can come to you
just as we are. But remind us that we dare not leave as we came.”
CONCLUSION: A. A.W. Tozer: “Christian churches have come to the dangerous time predicted long ago. It
is a time when we can pat one another on the back, congratulate ourselves and join in
glad refrain. “We are rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing!” It
certainly is true that hardly anything is missing from our churches these days except the
most important thing. We are missing the genuine and sacred offering of ourselves, and
our worship to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. My own loyalties and
responsibilities are and always will be with the strongly evangelical, Bible believing,
Christ honoring churches. We have been surging forward. We are building great
churches and large congregations. We are boasting about high standards and we are
talking alot about revival. But I have a question and it is not just rhetoric: What has
happened to our worship ?”
B. Who or what are you worshiping this evening?
