The Attitudes Of Worship

We continue this morning with our mini-series on the topic of worship. Last Sunday, we studied Psalm 135 and saw God’s revelation for worship. God revealed Himself to us, and our healthy response is deep reverence for God.

We saw that God is good in His choice and care for us, and that He is great in his creation and control of all. We concluded that if you come to church in response to anything other than to God’s goodness and God’s greatness, you’ve come to church. But if you’ve come to church in response to God’s goodness and to His greatness, you’ve come to worship. There’s a huge difference between coming to church and coming to worship.

We worship God, first of all, because of who God is, His nature, character and power. To take off on Ben Patterson’s quote about prayer, "The best thing about prayer is God," I would say, "The best thing about worship is God." In our worship of God, we grow to know, not just information, but in relationship to, our Creator.

God created us to worship Him, and when we don’t worship God, we don’t cease to worship. We simply worship someone or something else. And worshipping anything or anyone other than our Creator distorts our perspectives and values in life.

If we worship possessions, we measure the value of a person based on how much he or she owns. If we worship our work, we measure the value of a person based on his or her abilities. If we worship ourselves, we measure the value of another based on our perception of ourselves.

In America, instead of worshipping the Creator, many worship money, prestige, celebrities, power and self. In other countries, instead of worshipping the Creator, many worship what are created, such as spirits, ancestors, parents, animals, and man-made statues or images. In so doing, we wrongly increase the worth of created objects and decrease the honor of the Creator.

Maybe the term "worship" is new to you, but all of us have been worshipping someone or something all of our life. To worship is to revere, to honor or to value ultimately someone or something.

This morning we will learn the three attitudes needed to worship our Creator and to restore a right relationship with God. Let me read Isaiah 6:1-8 for us.

Since we will be looking at the attitudes of worship, let me define what attitudes are. Attitudes are the habits of thinking that eventually direct our words and actions. If we have a positive attitude, we are in the habit of thinking positively, and our words and actions will show this optimism.

There are three necessary attitudes of worship exhibited in the eight verses from this morning’s text. Let’s look together.

The first attitude of worship is the lordship of God. We see this in verses 1-4.

You need to know that Isaiah served as a prophet of God for sometime before he saw this vision from God. I believe the reason why Isaiah didn’t see God’s majesty and glory before this time was because Isaiah wrongly placed his confidence and allegiance in King Uzziah’s reign. But now the human king is dead.

Let me give you some background. King Uzziah ruled Judah with great prosperity and victory for 52 years. He began his reign humbly and earnestly seeking God, but as time went on, King Uzziah became prideful. His arrogance led to a final act of disregard for God’s order. And God struck Uzziah with leprosy, ending his reign. You can read about this in 2 Chronicles 26.

Now, I can identify with Isaiah’s misplaced trust. Even though I’ve placed my trust in Jesus Christ to be my Savior and Lord for 15 years, I find my trust placed in my own abilities, in books, in the people I know, in technology and in medical advances.

The problem with putting our trust in things or people is that we become blind to God’s majesty, glory, power, wisdom and resources that are infinitely more valuable and pure. And when we don’t see God as He is, we won’t worship Him as He deserves.

In order to worship God as He deserves, we need to possess the attitude of the lordship of God. Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money (or materialism).

The one who controls our thoughts, emotions, actions and our time is our lord and the one we worship. If God is not the Lord of all, He is not the Lord at all.

Who controls your time? Do television programs control your time? Does sleep control your time? Do hobbies control your time? Do your fears control your time? Ephesians 5:15 says, "Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity...."