Why Do We Do What We Do?
Why Do We Worship God Each Week?
Psalms 100 1-5 & John 4:19-24
This week in our Why do We Do What We Do series, we are talking about Why do we spend time worshipping God each week? I shared that title with someone this week and they said to me well the answer to that one is easy. He said that was pretty simple because we love God. And that is about as basic as you can get. If we love God then we will want to worship Him. If you have your Bibles with you today I want you to look up these two passages with me.
The first one is found in Psalms 100 1-5: 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.
Now let’s go over to the New Testament and see what John has to say to us. Look at John 4:19-24: 19"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." 21Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
I think before we can answer the question of why do we worship each week, we must answer the question What is Worship?
Worship is to open our hearts to the love of God
When we worship we declaring God’s worth as we find in Revelation: 5 12-14 12In a loud voice they sang: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!" 13Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!" 14The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped.
Worship is as natural for man as it is for him to breathe.
Worship is to Christian what as engine to a car.
It is an absolutely crucial and it is the center part of a Christian life
Worship is an act of honoring God because of his great worth to be honored.
I’ve always liked hearing oxymorons, or self-contradicting phrases. The word itself comes from “oxus” which means sharp and “moros” which means dull. Here are some of my favorites: Jumbo shrimp; Freezer burn; White chocolate; Plastic silverware; Airline food; Sanitary landfill; Truthful tabloids; and Professional wrestling
And, here’s another self-contradictory phrase: boring worship. That reminds me of the little boy who asked his mother if she could remember the highest number she ever counted to. The mother didn’t know so she asked him about his highest number. He answered, “5,372.” The mother was puzzled and asked him why he stopped at that particular one. The boy responded, “Well…church was over.”
In various surveys, when people are asked why they don’t go to church, they often reply that church is just too boring. I recognize that sometimes a church service can seem dull, especially to a non-Christian, I want to suggest this morning that true worship is anything but boring. The very essence of what worship is does not allow us to be bored. When we come before the majestic God of the universe, who has created everything and has done amazing things in our lives, we can’t help but break out into adoration.
So why do we come to worship together each week? The first reason is that we are to Glorify and Exalt Him. True worship is the heartfelt acceptance of God and all His power and glory in the things we do. To truly worship God, we must know Him. In a nutshell, worship is to glorify and exalt God; to show our loyalty and admiration to our Heavenly Father!
One characteristic of the churches that are experiencing dynamic growth is that they offer God exalting worship. Irwin Lutzer believes in the importance of worship and put it this way, “If we haven’t learned to be worshipers, it doesn’t really matter how well we do anything else”. The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever – or simply put to worship God! In Revelation 4:11 we read, 11"You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."
We ought to be excited and thankful for what God is going to do… Like the story of a little boy,…He was just a little fellow. His mother died when he was just a small child. His father, in trying to be both mom and dad, had planned a picnic. The little boy had never been on a picnic, so they made their plans, fixed the lunch, and packed the car. Then it was time to go to bed, for the picnic was the next day. He just could not sleep. He tossed and he turned, but the excitement got to him. Finally, he got out of bed, ran into the room where his father had already fallen asleep, and shook him. His father woke up and saw his son. He said to him, "What are you doing up? What’s the matter?" …The boy said, "I can’t sleep." …The father asked, "Why can’t you sleep?" …In answering, the boy said, "Daddy, I’m excited about tomorrow." …His father replied, "Well, Son, I’m sure you are, and it’s going to be a great day, but it won’t be great if we don’t get some sleep. So why don’t you just run down the hall, get back in bed, and get a good night’s rest." …So the boy trudged off down the hall to his room and got in bed. Before long, sleep came--to the father, that is. It was not long thereafter that back was the little boy. He was pushing and shoving his father, and his father opened his eyes. Harsh words almost blurted out until he saw the expression on the boy’s face. The father asked, "What’s the matter now?" …The boy said, "Daddy, I just want to thank you for tomorrow”. When we exalt God then we need to come to him as a child would and worship Him for everything that He has ever done, the big and the small.
2. We come to worship God because Worship is a source of power!
In the New Testament church, worship was a mighty source of power for the life and growth of the individual Christian and for the church as a whole. When they met together they were strengthened and encouraged, their lives were refined, they had a clear sense of identity and purpose and they became better equipped to serve their Lord. This is true even today. When we meet to worship together we find strength in worship, we know our purpose and hopefully we are becoming better equipped to serve the Lord.
Worship was a main factor in helping to make the church the power-filled, growing movement that it was. Worship must be a factor that must be present if the church is to live and grow today as it should. And if Christians are to find the quality of life which Jesus wants for them, then we need to spend time in worship not only individually but together as a church.
Worship is when we can walk away from a service NOT saying…”Oh, that was a nice music or a nice special…” or “That was a great sermon.” But when you walk away saying, “Wow, what a great God!” Unfortunately churches worship in a way that get people to respond like the little girl when she was saying her bedtime prayers she said…
“Dear God, we had a good time at church today - but I wish You had been there…”
For us to find a source of power when we come to worship, we must bring with us several things:
We must have an open HEART -
It is taking off the mask, letting God see what is in your heart (He can anyway). When you come with an open heart you are not pretending, you’re not being a hypocrite, you’re not putting on a show - you are simply coming to worship, to praise and thank Him
We must have a focus on the Holy Spirit.
It is taking a focus off of our personal agendas- and saying what can I give to God? It is to willingly submit to God’s desires and not your own. To submit your life to live by God’s Spirit that it would be Him alone that’s what should be seen.
We need to come to church with a real hunger and thirst -
Jesus said in Matthew - blessed are those who hunger and thirst for they will be filled… and He told the Samaritan women, whoever drinks the water He gives will be filled. When you approach worship you should come wanting God’s presence, seeking God’s presence and hungering for God’s presence.
We need to bring a true hope -
I think that we should come to worship with a hope for a future that God is going to give us. But we also need to come with the hope that God has answers, that you can find strength in Him. Because if you come to worship with and open heart, a Holy Spirit focus and a hunger, I can assure you that you will leave with a true hope in Christ!
When we come to worship in this way and bring these four things then there will always be a powerful moving of God’s Spirit and His presence that will equip and enable the church to move mountains. And the church that worships in Spirit and Truth has a powerful attraction. It strips away the things that block the eyes and heart. It strips away personal agendas; it strips away false pretenses and the masks you wear and it holds Jesus up.
It becomes real and genuine. People see it, they know it, they feel it with all that they are (heart, mind and soul) and they walk away with a God sized hope, a soul hunger that is both filled and craving and a heart that knows that God cares. True biblical worship so satisfies our total personality that we don’t have to shop around for man-made substitutes.
And family… that makes for a powerful church.
It is a heartbreak that thousands of Christians experience little, if any, growth through their worship experience, and that some of the churches generate very little power through worship. Calvin Coolidge was right when he said, “It is only when men begin to worship that they being to grow.”
3. Thirdly we worship Him on Sundays because we are created to worship Him!
Our choice is not whether we will worship but whom we will worship. God will not share our worship with anyone else or anything else. When Satan tempted Jesus - Matt 4:9-10 9"All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me." 10Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ’Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’"
This illustrates an important principle. Whatever we worship, we will end up serving. Worship is the ultimate decision. Just knowing that God can be worshipped provides an incredible opportunity for each of us. But also knowing that God takes note of our worship is hard to comprehend.
I was reminded of this fact recently by the fellow who was involved in a very serious automobile accident and as the KHP approached him, he was lamenting “oh my Mercedes, my Mercedes.” The KHP asked the victim, “He said sir are you ok?” The man cried out, “How is my car, my car?” The KHP said, “Sir your car is totaled, however, I would not be too 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.” We have to be careful what we worship don’t we.
Anyone who has ever used a computer spell checker has seen some of the crazy recommendations a spell checker will make for what seems to be common words that, for some reason, were not included in the checker’s dictionary. A minister was writing a column focusing on the need to lift up the name of Jesus in the marketplace. When he had finished typing the words into his word processor, he ran a spell check. The program stopped at the word "Jesus" with the comment, "Does not exist." This prompted a later column in which the minister reminded his readers "Jesus does not exist in anybody’s vocabulary, including a spell-checker’s, until you intentionally insert it." Yes we are created to worship God, but when we come to church we have to be intentional in our worship to Him.
Friends, we are called to worship. To worship is to get away from focusing on ourselves and to focus on Him. Worship is concentrating on how good He is, not just what He has done for us. As we continue through this sermon series, why we do what we do on Sunday mornings, we need to admit we probably don’t worship God as we should. We enjoy the singing, the music, the preaching, and the company. But it’s never about us; it’s not about pleasing us, or making us happy. Worship should not be about thinking of ourselves. Worship is placing Him first in our lives, in the good and bad times. Worship is making Him #1 in your finances, in your pleasure and leisure times, in your intimate times, in your jobs, in your families, in your quiet times, in your running around times. He is worth your 100%. Anything less is an insult to God, filled with love and compassion, grace and mercy, not treating us as our sins deserve. When we worship are we exalting and honoring God? When we are worshipping do you find the source of power and when we worship do we realize that we are created to worship Him?
