Worship Is More Than A Sunday Feeling Series

You Might Be A Healthy Christian If......... (Series)

Worship is More Than A Sunday Feeling.

Isaiah 6:1-8

July 29, 2001 First Baptist Church, Chester, Illinois Mike Fogerson, Speaker

Introduction:

1. The French have a proverb that provides insight for worship.

A. "A good meal ought to begin with hunger."

a. It is hard to enjoy a good meal when your not hungry.

b. When your hungry....ANYTHING tastes good!

B. When we approach worship with a hunger...an appetite to meet God we will always be fulfilled and satisfied.

a. When we come to worship filled up with our own self-sufficiency or full of preoccupied thoughts, we probably won’t experience meaningful worship.

b. Good worship begins with a hunger for God.

2. We are continuing the "You might be a healthy Christian if......" series, with You might be a healthy Christian if...Worship is more than a Sunday feeling.

A. Isaiah 6:1-8

[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. [3] And 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." [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. [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." [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!"

a. Isaiah had a close encounter with God at the temple.(Essence of the Text In A Sentence)

b. Worship is an encounter with God. (Essence of the sermon in a sentence)

B. I hope you allow Sunday worship to change your Monday. (Sermon Objective)

a. Which transition do you need to make for worship to change you? (Probing Question)

b. Let’s look at three transitions that take place when real worship happens.

(Transitional Sentence)

I The first transition that happens is......God shows up. (vv:1-4)

A Isaiah was in the temple, but he wasn’t alone.

a Isaiah was depressed, disappointed, dishearted, dejected over the death of Uzziah. Where did he go? CHURCH!

b The doorposts shook (God’s power) and smoke filled the temple (God’s presence). God showed up!!!

B God showed up for church in 740 B.C.....does He show up in 2001 A.D.? Absolutely!

a Some of us see God as a cosmic Customer Service Manager that shows up when we flick a switch or have a problem.

(IL.) Check approval or a price check at Wal-Mart. Cashier flicks a switch and a CSM shows up....eventually.

b God was the first person here today! (You didn’t see Him when you came in?)

C Albert Thorwaldson finished his famous sculpture of Christ. (Christ’s arms are out stretched and His head is bowed.) He invited a friend over to see the sculpture.

a The friend admired the work, but critiqued "I can’t see the face of Christ."

*To this Albert replied, "If you want to see the face of Christ, you must get on your knees."

b Only when we worship Christ as servants...on bended knees can we see God clearly.

*We should have humility not pride, meekness not arrogance.....

*God shows up when we look up. We see nothing or nobody else when we look up.

T.S.: When we see that God shows up for worship, He brings on the next transition.

II The second transition that happens is.....We Fess Up. (vv:5-7)

A When Isaiah saw the awesomeness of God, he saw how lack he himself was.

a Isaiah says "for I am ruined." ruined: damah (Hebrew)

* He’s saying:"At one time I was okay, acceptable....compared to everybody else I was alright. But now..I have seen God and now I know that NOT okay or acceptable.

b The people that Isaiah compared himself too were not okay either......their losers too!

*Isaiah is confessing his sin. (Unclean lips) He either was harsh with someone or he was silent when sin should have been confronted.

B When we see how great God is, we’ll see how ordinary we are.

a Everyone of us is flawed, sinful, blemished.