Why Worship God?
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
…
God Is Above All Gods
God Is Above All Gods
He Is Above All The Created.
He Is Above All The Created.
Man has a tendency to make gods out of just about any and everything.
We worship God because no matter how many gods man “makes up” our Creator is above them in every way.
3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
God is above the angels.
Colossians 2:18 (ESV)
18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind
6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.”
10 Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
God is above man.
9 Will you still say, ‘I am a god,’ in the presence of those who kill you, though you are but a man, and no god, in the hands of those who slay you?
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
25 When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. 26 But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am a man.”
Summary
Summary
Our God is above all gods man could ever invent.
The god of self, money, power, popularity, worldly pleasure, etc…
Our God is worthy of worship because he is far and away greater than any God man turns into a god.
God is also worthy of worship because…
God Is The Creator Of All
God Is The Creator Of All
Everything But Deity Was Created.
Everything But Deity Was Created.
The psalmist writes in Psalm 95:4-5…
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.
Our Creator created everything…
He created the universe.
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
He created it all in six days.
11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
He desired it to be created and it was.
11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”
He has done so as one who is a faithful Creator.
19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
Summary
Summary
The God who created everything and gave each of us breath and life (Acts 17:25) is worthy of our worship.
The one who knew us before we were created, knit us in our mothers womb, and has faithfully watched over us all our lives is worthy of our worship.
The palmist continues to declare why our God is worthy of worship by pointing out that…
God Is The Good Shepherd
God Is The Good Shepherd
He Is Our Shepherd.
He Is Our Shepherd.
Notice what the psalmist writes…
Psalm 95:6–7 (ESV)
6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice
Our Creator is “our Shepherd.”
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He is not like the human shepherds that can fell their sheep.
1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep?
3 You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. 4 The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them.
Ezekiel 34:5–6 (ESV)
5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; 6 they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.
Ezekiel 34:7–8 (ESV)
7 “Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 8 As I live, declares the Lord God, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep,
Ezekiel 34:9–10 (ESV)
9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 10 Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.
Summary
Summary
Our God is worthy of worship because he is the “Good Shepherd” and oversees our souls not leaving it up to imperfect men but his righteousness.
25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Lastly, God is worthy of worship because…
God Is A Jealous God
God Is A Jealous God
A Generation Lost The Promised Land.
A Generation Lost The Promised Land.
The psalmist ends this psalm by pointing out what happens to those that do not find God worthy of worship.
8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”
An entire generation of Jews that left Egypt died in the wilderness and did not see the promise land because they did not find God worthy of their worship.
The consequence of such was wondering “right next to it” without ever entering it.
God alone is worthy of our worship and because he is “so worthy” because he created us, watches over us, and is above us in every way, when we don’t find him worthy God is jealous.
God is so offended, and rightfully so, that his name is Jealous.
14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),
That jealousy and its consuming fire for us (Deuteronomy 4:24) if we are to ignorant, arrogant, and foolish enough not to care for all the reasons our Creator is worthy of our worship, is well deserved.
It we fall into the hands a our vengeful God there is no one to blame but ourselves.
Summary
Summary
Our God is worthy of worship because “nothing else comes close to being worthy” as he is so far beyond anything and everything else.
Far too many generations see his worthiness all around them and arrogantly and foolishly ignore it.
Conclusion
Conclusion
READ Psalm 95…
1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.