Real Worship

Real Worship

Isa. 6:1-8

Introduction:

I’ve been blessed beyond measure in my life in what God has allowed me to witness and experience over the last 20 years.

As a kid when we went on vacation we would venture all the way off to Eunice, LA…yeah, good times.

My first trip to New Orleans didn’t come for me until the 7th grade for the 1984 World’s Fair…2nd was in 1986 in the 9th grade.

I didn’t even leave the state of LA for the first time until the summer after my sophomore year of high school when I helped my best friend and his family move to MS.

So when God opened the door for me to fly to Salt Lake City for a mission trip to Southern Idaho, it was blown away by my first opportunity to fly and even see the beautiful Northwest, including Snake River Gorge.

Then on that return trip I was able to drive down and see one of the most incredible sights in this great land of ours, the Grand Canyon.

But God wasn’t done because just 2 years later He put me on a plane and set me down in Zimbabwe, Africa where I would spend a summer and really see God’s creation in a new way.

Included on that trip was a trip to Victoria Falls…to this day I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite so magnificent in my life.

And to think that the God who created all of that is the God who fearfully and wonderfully made me.

In times like that I’m drawn to Psalm 8:1, 3-4, 9.

When I stood at the top of Victoria Falls, probably way closer to the edge than I needed to be and was being soaked by the mist…I couldn’t help but worship this great God of ours.

Romans 1:20 reminds us that through creation we see His “invisible qualities” and “divine nature.”

On that day I was worshipping the creator God as a result of witnessing His creation, and being awed by Him.

Honestly, very little compares to real, genuine worship.

This morning I want us to talk about that subject, worship…real worship.

And for that I want us to look at one of the passages that I think best lays out for us what real worship is.

Read Isaiah 6:1-8 and pray.

Background:

Isaiah was a prophet located primarily in the southern Kingdom, known as Judah.

He writes this passage it says at the time of Uzziah’s death.

Uzziah was a contemporary of Jeroboam, who ruled in the northern kingdom of Israel.

Jeroboam ruling from 793-753 BC, Uzziah ruling 792-740…so this is around 740BC when Isaiah received this revelation.

Uzziah was an interesting sort, also known in Azariah in 2 Chronicles, he was known to be a “just” ruler and he extended Judah’s prosperity and territory, going as for as controlling Edom and seizing several Philistine cities during his reign.

At the same time Jeroboam, though having a long rule, but he found a lot of instability due to a high turn over of leaders.

Yet in spite of Uzziah being considered “just” in 2 Chronicles 26 we read of his leprosy that came as a result of his prideful move to enter into the Temple of God and attempt to play the role of priest and bring an incense offering to the Lord.

Scripture says he remained a leper until the day he died, and that is where we pick up Isaiah’s writing this morning.

Isn’t it ironic that the very thing that Uzziah was being punished for, entering into God’s temple for worship, is the very thing that Isaiah speaks of in our passage?

Worship…entering into the temple of God, into His very presence so that real worship can take place.

I can’t think of any better passage of scripture to really define what real worship is for us better than Isaiah 6, and that is what I want us to focus on this morning.

What is real worship?

Before we really dig in I think we need to define worship because I think we have lost sight of what that is.

From Webster’s Dictionary we see it’s etymology as being from the Old English word weorthscipe which means worthiness and respect.

It goes on to define it as:

• Reverence offered a divine being or supernatural power, an act of expressing such reverence

• A form of religious practice with its creed and ritual

• Extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion to an object of esteem

Mike Harland, a Worship Director for Lifeway says worship is “Our response to who God is and what He has done.”

Ed Stetzer, a former church planter and now a seminary Prof at SEBTS as well as a director of Lifeway Research defines worship as “The volitional act of us engaging in speaking forth the worth of God.”