11/17/13 Design For Life

CREATED TO WORSHIP GOD

    We have been talking about worship for a few weeks.  Worship is commonly connected with singing.  We have said that, even if you are not a good singer, do your best and enter in to giving God glory and honor.  I saw a cartoon one time on that theme.
    An usher, talking to a man in the pew: “Sir, you have been recommended for our remedial singing class that meets in the church basement after the service.”
Cartoonist Mary Chambers in Leadership, Vol. 9, no. 2.
    We don’t have a remedial singing class, so sing out for Jesus.
    We have also been talking about the fact that worship, a church service, is not a spectator sport.  We have no such thing as Spectator Spirituality.
    A comment made by Katie Wiebe in the Christian Leader:  Whenever I attend yet another church spectator event, I am reminded of A. W. Tozer’s disdain and despair for “that strange thing--the program,” for “conventional religious chatter,” for our wholesale “pursuit of happiness, rather than holiness,” for our bondage to the conscience of people rather than bondage to God.
Katie Wiebe in the Christian Leader (January 1987). Christianity Today, Vol. 32, no. 15.
    As we have been saying, worship is declaring worth of God.  Worth-ship.  We pursue God as we lift Him higher.  Worship is about HIM.
    Today I want to share several quick points about worship.  They come from an article in the Fire Bible on the topic of worship.  They are very practical.
    The goal of this short series is that we will have a greater understanding of what worship is and that we will be people who genuinely worship God.  Again, it’s not about me, it all about God.
    In the Old Testament, as God revealed Himself and the nation of Israel worshiped God, the key feature of O.T. worship was the system of sacrifice.  These sacrifices pointed forward to the time when Jesus would come. Since Christ’s sacrifice on the cross completely fulfilled this system, there is no longer any need for the shedding of blood as part of Christian worship.
Hebrews 9:11-14 NKJV
11 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
    Through the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, communion, the church continually celebrates in memory of Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice.
1 Corinthians 11:26 NKJV
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes.
    Praising God is necessary in Christian worship. Praise was an important element in Israel’s worship of God, as well as in the early church.
    They praised God even when everything was going wrong.
Acts 16:25 NKJV
25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
    One important way to praise God is by singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.  The New Testament church was a singing community.  Never did they consider or practice singing as a form of entertainment disguised as worship. They were careful not to view music as the primary means of worship.  They did not allow it to take the place of true worship.  Music as a part of worship certainly can inspire and move our hearts to offer up true worship.
    At the time of Jesus’ birth, the entire heavenly multitude burst into praise.
Luke 2:13-14 NKJV
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: 14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
    Prayer is another important part of worship.  The leaders of the New Testament church prayed continually after Jesus was lifted up into heaven. Prayer was a regular part of Christian worship.
Acts 1:14 NKJV
14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 NKJV
17 pray without ceasing
    Confession of sin.  God had established the Day of Atonement for the Israelites as a time for national confession of their offenses against God. In his prayer at the temple dedication, Solomon recognized the importance of confession.
    When Jesus gave his followers an example of how to pray (often referred to as the Lord’s Prayer), he taught them to ask for forgiveness of sins. James instructs believers to confess their sins to each other.
    Worship also includes public reading of God’s Word and preaching of its truth.
    We saw an example of this when we pointed out that Ezra read the Law to the people for a week, as they stood there and heard God’s Word.
    Scripture reading became a regular part of the synagogue worship on the Sabbath.  When the early church gathered for worship, they also heard God’s Word, along with teaching, preaching and practical challenges based on the truth of the Word.
    Whenever God’s people assembled in the courts of the Lord (i.e., places of worship), they were instructed to bring tithes (i.e., a tenth of one’s income or produce) and offerings.
Malachi 3:10 NKJV
10 “ Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.”
    Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians about gathering funds:
1 Corinthians 16:2 NKJV
2 On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.
    This is an example of how true worship of God must be planned for, especially in presenting our tithes and offerings to God.
    One unique element of Christian worship is the role of the Holy Spirit and His various expressions given through Christ’s followers.  God has given spiritual gifts to be a part of worshiping God.  The most important principle of all was that any exercise of the gifts of the Holy Spirit during worship had to strengthen and help the whole congregation.
1 Corinthians 12:7 NKJV
7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all:
    We have said that the purpose of worship is to declare God’s worth, value, to exalt Him.  But, it is not all one way.  When we worship and enter God’s presence, there are many blessings, many by-products that make our lives better.  A quick look at a list of some of them when real worship takes place.  God responds with many blessings. He promises:
to be with them and to have close personal interaction with them
to guide and surround them with his glory
to shower them with blessings, especially peace
to give them overflowing joy
to answer their prayers when offered in sincere faith
to give them a fresh infilling of his Holy Spirit and boldness to live for Christ and tell others about Him
to work among them in special and obvious ways through the Holy Spirit
to guide them into all truth through the Holy Spirit
to purify, develop and set them apart for his purposes through the power and instruction of his Word and the Holy Spirit
to comfort, encourage and strengthen them
to expose the reality of sin, righteousness and judgment
to spiritually save people whose sinfulness is revealed to them (and they respond in faith) during a worship service

What have you learned about worship in the past few weeks?
How has applying these truths impacted your life?

O Come All Ye Faithful
Joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him,
Born the King of Angels;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.