What Does Your Worship Convey?

Well, I pray you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family. I heard testimony that some of you shared your Thanksgiving meal time with church family and what a wonderful expression of love. That sends a message and God honors that.

I saw many text responses back and forth wishing everyone a blessed Thanksgiving and God honors that type of uplifting encouragement among the family of God. And one wrote this in a text, “I am most thankful for you, I love this church!”

This response was motivated by the expressions of texts the individual received that conveyed a message to the individual about you, your love for that person, your care for others, and your love for God’s people.

There are surface messages and subliminal messages that are communicated to us each day. And, there are times our surface message and subliminal messages do not align.

Ill. Let’s assume you had anywhere from 15-40 people at your home for Thanksgiving. In order to feed that many people and meet the expectations of Thanksgiving, many of you spend countless hours cleaning your homes, going to two or three grocery stores to find all the ingredients to make your dishes and many of you could have spent two full days cooking. You have served the meal, you have made sure everyone has a drink, you have prepared the deserts and slipping dishes into the sink to wash and clean up. You have either washed dishes, or used throw away plates and carried out trash, picked up all the solo cups, wiped the rings off the tables and counters, you have put all the food away in the refrigerator. About the time you get everything put away as host or hostess you sit down for what is 10 minutes. Guess what happens next? Its always the young people that can eat like horses and have the metabolism to go with it I will add. One breaks out, I am hungry again. Now you as host or hostess, may say, “hold on a second, I will be glad to get it all back out.” But, if you watch their facial expressions very keenly, what are their real thoughts.” “we just finished eating, can’t you wait a few minutes longer?”

Every aspect of our lives are that way. We say one thing on the surface, but our other modes of communication speak louder with a different message.

The title of my message this morning is “What Does Your Worship Convey?.” And I simply ask you this question. Does your worship convey the message you want it to convey? Does your worship communicate what you believe the Lord wants to see in your worship?

Let’s get your mental juices flowing.

Reflect upon your actions yesterday around 5:30-6:00 pm watching the Iron Bowl. What was your demeanor? What was your countenance? Did you root for your team with exuberance? Did you lean forward on the couch into the TV? Did you jump up and down on any given play? Were you the one that the neighbors up and down the block knew you were watching the game due to all the yelling going on?

Do you understand where I am going with this? How is your passion when it comes to worshiping your Savior? What do you convey to your family, fellow members or guests when it comes to worshipping our Savior?

This morning we study Psalm 100.

Turn in your Bibles as we study this beautiful Psalm. Today, let’s all be challenged to send the right message about our relationship with Jesus. Amen?

Psalm 100:1-5

Psalm 100:1–5 NKJV

1 Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! 2 Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. 3 Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. 4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. 5 For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.

Prayer

Message

About 3-4 weeks ago, my cousin, Mike Phillips came and visited home for the week and he came to our services. He is a Pastor in Farmersville, TX. He commented on that day to several of you that day he attended some words like this, “God is getting ready to do something here. The fact you received the land next door is no accident. The warmth and spirit of your people are amazing.” I’m editing his words but they were something on that order to several of our members that morning.

In other words, He voiced a great reality that happens all over churches every Sunday. In all types of churches, small churches, large churches, rural churches, urban churches, multicultural churches, contemporary churches, traditional churches and the list goes ; we all conveys multiple messages to everyone every time we walk through those doors and more importantly, we send a message to the Lord about us.

Our aim this morning is to define and to determine the type message we want to convey about Our Jesus in our worship. Who is with me today to say “I want to convey the right type of message about my relationship with Jesus?” If you can make that statement this morning, “I want to convey the right message about Jesus”, raise your hands. Amen!

Firstly, lets’ think in three’s for a moment.

There are three individuals that we communicate to about Jesus when we worship.

1) We say something to others

2) We communicate something about ourselves

3) we communicate to the Lord.

If we concern ourselves this morning with what we are communicating to Jesus we will get it right within our own being and with others. Amen?

We want to discuss worship today from three vantage points:

The Motivation in our Worship

The Manner in which we Worship

The Message we want to convey in our Worship

Today’s psalm, psalm 100 is a hymn. Specifically it is a descriptive hymn of praise to God. Psalm 100 is a part of the royal psalms that declare God as King. They affirm God’s deity. Envision a group of worshipers as you saw demonstrated this morning by our choir walking into the sanctuary of the temple singing this praise song of thanksgiving and then following with a thanksgiving sacrifice.

Leviticus 7:12–15 “12 If he offers it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer, with the sacrifice of thanksgiving, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, unleavened wafers anointed with oil, or cakes of blended flour mixed with oil. 13 Besides the cakes, as his offering he shall offer leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offering. 14 And from it he shall offer one cake from each offering as a heave offering to the Lord. It shall belong to the priest who sprinkles the blood of the peace offering. 15 ‘The flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day it is offered. He shall not leave any of it until morning.”

Part of the service the worshippers would share in a meal and part of the meal would be the meat from the sacrifice.

Psalm 107:21–22 “21 Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men! 22 Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, And declare His works with rejoicing.”

This is the climate by which this psalm was sung. This was not an ascent psalm but the one they sang at the entrance of the sanctuary.

The Motivation in our Worship

Let’s look at motivation from two perspectives.

How our motivation is expressed and,

Who will motivate and instill that motivation in us.

Within these 5 verses we learn how we should praise the Lord in our Thanksgiving and why. The heart of the psalm is the fact that God is Lord and there is no other God. Amen.

Firstly we learn that our worship should be a motivated expression toward God.

Make

The first command word in us reflecting a motivated attitude is the word “make”.

Psalm 100:1 “1 Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!”

Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words רוּעַ

רוּעַ rûaʿ 45× [H] to raise a battle cry; sound a trumpet blast; shout in triumph or exaltation [7321]

We think of the word exuberance. I reminded our Choir yesterday via text that when they enter the sanctuary singing that they show exuberance in their singing.

As we think about rua or to make a joyful shout to the Lord. Think about our actions in other venues.

Isn't it interesting we are willing to wait for hours, standing in line, to catch a glimpse of some earthly monarch or celebrity? I think of the modern day craze of Swifties, the Taylor Swift craze. People can respond with awe, passing out, shouting, crying, jumping up and down, posters to draw attention and the list goes on. People dress up for the encounter.

Are you exuberant in your worship? Do you exhibit a motivated spirit to the Lord? Did you come anticipating a movement of the Lord?

Notice the psalmist stated a “joyful shout” to the Lord.

I heard a shout yesterday morning from Jane. She was changing the scene of the home from taking down Thanksgiving to decorating for Christmas as I was working in my office. She saw a lizard in her decorations and she screamed. In other words, she made a pronounced shout change of mood or attitude because a lizard had invaded her presence.

Is there something different about you because you desire the presence of the Lord in your time here today? Have you called out to Him and invited Him to experience Him in a fresh way today?

and then it says to “make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!

Do you realize for those of you that think you have no gift in winning others to Christ that you have the easiest, shortest and most precise way of evangelizing the lost?

Responding in daily life with a hearty “Amen”, or a hearty “praise the Lord.” You can respond to something positive that happened to you in the day with others around and say, “Amen”, and dearly beloved the Lord uses that to speak volumes. Those simple words convey the greatest confidence we can bestow in our lives to the God we serve.

Secondly our motivation communicates when we:

Psalm 100:2 “2 Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.”

Serve

“serve the Lord with gladness.”

The word serve in the Hebrew means when we work, when we commit daily responsibilities, do it with gladness. Attitude is everything. We communicate so much to everyone around us and to our Lord with our attitudes.

Ill. Debbie Downer on SNL (Rachel Dratch). There was a scene where the SNL cast are playing a scene of having breakfast with the Disney Cast and there is such excitement and every statement Debbie Downer makes just puts rain on the parade of everyone’s attitudes.

Serve with gladness

Gladness

The Abridged Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew-English Lexicon of the Old Testament (שִׂמְחָה)

n.f. joy, gladness e.g. in festivity; joy of heart, cf. (of inward joy); = gaiety, pleasure.

Attitude affects our altitude.

Say that with me please, attitude affects our altitude.

And do you know that the overall topic we discuss can be both taught and caught.

If you work on your attitude, you can bring up the whole atmosphere around you.

A text we all have heard and has picked all of us from the depths time and again is from Paul, I remind you writing from prison.

Firstly, verse 8 is a way in getting our minds right.

Philippians 4:8–9 “8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. 9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.”

Verse 9 is the way we brighten others around us.

Dearly beloved, Christians are the light of the world but listen to me,

write this down:

Christians are the dimmer switch to brighten the rooms about us.

Come

V. 2b “come before His presence with singing.”

bo in the Hebrew means to enter, to lead into, enter into a realm if you will.

The idea of come is beyond just the mere entrance of a room, but there is a preparation of entering into a different realm.

Deuteronomy 12:11–12 “11 then there will be the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the Lord. 12 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you.”

This Lord’s house is a place conducive to worship. In Deuteronomy, the Lord designated a place, the Ark of the Covenant, the Temple, later we know there was the synagogue and today we are part of the church age where we gather at the local church. Furthermore, the Lord called for some preparation for worship as spelled out in these verses I just read. And notice in verse 12, they rejoiced before the Lord.

You get out of your time in worship as to what you put into worship. Let me ask you without responding but thinking about the question:

Are you singing out? By the way, I hear “I can’t hold a tune in a bucket.” I have never heard bad singing in church. “Make a joyful noise.”

Did you bring an offering? Did you bring your Bible so that you can follow?

Our church envelopes in Baptist life you checked off on your envelope those things and for good reason.

Dearly beloved, an outing is better if you think about the venue, note where its located and get there on time. If you dress for the occasion and think about a special night with various activities to make the night special. And so goes the church.

This morning you came on a date with Jesus. How did you prepare for the date?

I believe the little things I mention time and again will affect the big things in your worship. Let me just share my routine for worship. I lay out and iron my clothes and know what I am going to wear for Sunday. I write out my offering and place in my Bible. Today for example, I got my swimsuit, my shirt for the baptistry, water shoes, etc. I could go on, but those things prepared keep me from allowing Satan to make my life miserable on Sunday mornings by using those small details to frustrate me for worship. I listen to either the Message, or Enlighten, or WLWI Gospel radio on Sunday morning. All of those measures are measures I take that if I put a great deal into my preparation, I will get a great deal out if I’ve planned for a time with the Lord. How about you? Have you truly come into His presence this morning?

Worship is an act of preparing and coming into His presence. The old argument that I can worship the Lord everywhere and it is not necessary that I come to church to worship. Let’s very closely at the verse around the infamous text, “do not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.”

Hebrews 10:24–25 NKJV

24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

There is a stirring we gain from each other. That stirring comes about in so many fashions. Stirring can happen in both positive and negative ways.

Your distractions can distract others.

Let’s consider that we watched Billy Graham lead in a crusade when he was in Spain Park in New York. Let’s assume we were at home watching or listening on the radio and the Holy Spirit moved in our hearts while listening. Do you think there would be a measurable response the same as if you were literally in the stadium and the Lord moved in your heart and 100’s of people got out of their seat and went down to the podium where Billy Graham was calling for an invitation? Do you think the stirring of others to respond with a decision might motivate you to get up and respond to the invitation?

Let me ask you another question. Do you believe we would be as affected by the Asbury Revival that lasted for two weeks on campus back in February by somewhat attempting to catch the flames by watching YouTube’s , or reading about it as much as we would had we been in that auditorium and firsthand saw for ourselves the moving of the Lord among all of those college students?

We catch the winds of worship from each other as we catch the wind of the Holy Spirit at work with each other.

In the first two verses these commands are executed in a causative manner.

The Lord is mentioned as either Lord, His, God, He, referring to the Lord 15 times. If you and I focus on ourselves, our world, our abilities, our difficulties, our struggles, our headaches in this world we can not manufacture within our own being the ability to be joyous to the Lord in Worship. Our eyes must be stayed on Him and focusing on His goodness, His might, His righteousness, His care and love for us. Jesus is perfect and when we focus on His perfection in our lives we can’t help but be joy filled. Amen.

The Manner in Which We Worship

Psalm 100:4 “4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.”

Enter

Realize an important truth here.

How we enter here will have everything to do with how we leave here.

Now let me make a disclaimer here. I will say there have been times I have come to church with my lips poked out and the Lord had me leave in a quite different manner. Amen!

I do not believe that I can ever encounter a time that I was not better off for coming to church and worshipping than staying home. I always get something out of my time here.

What the Bible is saying here is that our entrance will affect our whole attitude for our time here.

“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving.”

As you prepare to come here each time practice counting your blessings before you come.

Reciting that beautiful hymn is a wonderful practice.

Count Your Blessings Lyrics

When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed, When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, Count your many blessings, name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Refrain: Count your blessings, name them one by one; Count your blessings, see what God hath done; Count your blessings, name them one by one; Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.

Psalm 116:17–19 “17 I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, And will call upon the name of the Lord. 18 I will pay my vows to the Lord Now in the presence of all His people, 19 In the courts of the Lord’s house, In the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!”

I do not want to revisit the aspect of giving we discovered last week but our giving back to God in our expression of Thanksgiving becomes ignited when we think of how much He has given to us. He gave His all for you and for me. How could we not be expressive in our thanksgiving for what He did for you and me?

“and into His courts with praise.”

Do you remember the OJ Simpson Criminal murder trial?

O.J. Simpson trial, criminal trial of former college and professional football star O.J. Simpson, who was acquitted in 1995 of the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. It was one of the most notorious criminal trials in American history.

My point is not whether OJ was guilty or innocent. My point is that he faced a life-death verdict. Do you remember how he responded when the verdict was given? There are all types of responses of a murder trial when the defendant is found innocent. The overarching attitude of most murder trials for a defendant is thankfulness that its over and they are innocent.

Peter said in Acts 2:38 “38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Acts 4:12 “12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.””

Dearly beloved the reason we can worship and put our praise on is that we were in a kangaroo court, we were found guilty on all charges of sin. There was a mistrial because Jesus went up to the Judge and stated He would serve our guilty verdict by going to the cross on our behalf and paying the ransom for our sins. Oh lets’ praise the Lord dear church this morning and every time we come into His presence. Amen.

The Message We Want to Convey in our Worship

Look at me with Verse 3 and then verse 5.

Psalm 100:3 “3 Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.”

Know

Yada means that we perceive who God is, we get acquainted with Him and we know Him intimately. The same things that make us more thankful for each other is the same aspects of being more thankful for God.

The same word that Joseph did not know Mary until she conceived and birthed the Lord Jesus.

He had not entered into intimacy with Mary as Husband and wife until Jesus was born.

The message I want to convey is that I love the Lord and I want to know Him better and better with each passing day. How can we know Him better? Read about Him. Understand His ways. Learn more about His nature. Understand His goodness and His righteousness and His love and care for me. The many names of God help us understand who God is.

Adonai-Lord or Master. He is responsible for us and in control of our affairs.

Elohim-God which refers to His might and strength. His omnipotence.

Yahweh- I Am Who I AM-signifying His self-existent, eternal nature. The more we know Him the more we fall in love with Him.

The other way we know someone is communicating with them. We pray to the Lord.

The psalmist even help us to understand why we want to know the Lord. He tells us He is God.

“It is He who made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.”

God made you for a purpose. You were not created to live aimlessly without purpose. If it was not us that made us, then we are to live under the guidance of the Lord. He has a plan for you.

His plan is and always has been that you belong to Him. He wants a relationship with you. He desires to take care of you and help you define your purpose in life. He wants to be a part in you being all that you can be in Him.

When our lives align with His will for our lives and allow Him to fulfill that shepherd role in our lives, we are thankful dearly beloved because we live in the green pastures of His presence and abiding grace in our lives. Amen.