Why We Worship
Notes
Transcript
Learning what worship is begins to open our hearts and minds to How God wants us to live. The question is why? With all that we have going on why should worshiping God take the most important spot in our lives. If you are anything like me you need some type sales pitch for anything I make a priority in my life. When I was getting fat and was struggling to get up the stairs without my knees screaming at me my friend across the street was trying to convince me to go to the gym. He told me about the fact that we would go together and we would have a great time. He told me about how after just a little bit we would start feeling better and that my knees would not hurt so bad. He sold me on the fact that the gym would be good for me. Turns out that it was good for me and that I did have a good time getting healthier. Today I am going to give you a sales pitch. Here is why I am going to give you this pitch. I believe that the church has lost its right to speak in the world. We have lost the right because we do not live what we believe. People read our Bible and they do no see us living that life. I believe that many believers are missing out on the fulfillment in life. I believe that you are missing out on an opportunity to lay treasures for yourself where moth and rust cannot destroy. Today we will be in Psalm 95. In this scripture this morning we will see three reasons why we worship. First, we worship because of Who He Is. Second, we worship because of Who we are. Third, we worship because of what they need.
We worship because of Who He Is.
We worship because of Who He Is.
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.
Who is God to you? Can I tell you who God is to me? God is the one who provided me a beautiful wife and 4 amazing children. God is the one who filled my lungs as I slept last night with no ability to do so on my own. God is the one who looked down from His throne and said that I was worth the sacrifice of His only Son just so He could fellowship with me. God is the one who set in motion history so I could know Him in the present. Who is God to you? The fact is that if you have a view of God that is accurate the better question is Why would you not worship? We often times lose focus of things and take things for granted. We get comfortable and we lose sight of how precious things are to us.
A story is told of a man who loved old books. He met an acquaintance who had just thrown away a Bible that had been stored in the attic of his ancestral home for generations. "I couldn't read it," the friend explained. "Somebody named Guten-something had printed it." "Not Gutenberg!" the book lover exclaimed in horror. "That Bible was one of the first books ever printed. Why, a copy just sold for over two million dollars!" His friend was unimpressed. "Mine wouldn't have brought a dollar. Some fellow named Martin Luther had scribbled all over it in German."
This seems crazy but it happens all the time. Here are a list of some things that have sold at yard sales.
1. The old man and the sea signed by Hemmingway- sold for $2.00 and is worth an estimated $30,000.
2. Velvet underground record- Sold for .75c at a sidewalk sale and sold later for $25,000.
We often times become so accustom to things that they lose their value. Think about the most important relationships in your life. If you are anything like me they tend to be the relationships you take the most for granted. Sometimes it is good to remind ourselves of how great they are. Today I want to challenge you to remember Who God Is. Who Is He to you? The fact is that our God is not just another little g god out there who has not kept up with His promises. God keeps His Word, has grace on us, looks on us with mercy. We must maintain our image of Who God is in our lives and not grow comfortable with His presence in our lives. The scriptures are full of scriptures that remind us of the greatness of our God.
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,
6 There is none like you, O Lord; you are great, and your name is great in might.
25 For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and he is to be feared above all gods.
2 For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth.
4 to him who alone does great wonders, for his steadfast love endures forever;
19 great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man, rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds.
We worship because of how Great our God is. The fact is that we worship an awesome and powerful God who the earth and all of its wisest men and women cannot comprehend or understand. When is the last time you put yourself in perspective compared to God? When is the last time you appreciated the fact that the creator of all the universes out there wants a personal relationship with you? We worship because of Who He Is. We also worship because of who we are.
We worship because of who we are
We worship because of who we are
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,
Notice the description of us in this passage. We are the people of His pasture we are the sheep of His hand. Why does the Bible describe us like sheep? Over and over in scripture we are described as sheep. The first reason we are described like sheep we are helpless.
36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
I have never been a farmer and have never raised anything other than a dog or the kids I have. I do have friends though that are in the beef industry and some in the hay industry. When you ask these farmers about sheep the answer is the same. Sheep are animals that require a large amount of human intervention. Sheep are susceptible to a number of parasites and diseases and require close attention to ensure they are given medications when they start to show symptoms. Because of their frailty if intervention is not given they will perish. Sheep need assistance birthing their young, they are the target of many predators and because of that they require a constant protector. We are the same our flesh is weak and we have an enemy prowling seeking those he may devour. They also describe sheep as flighty. Sheep for the most part are cowardly and easily spooked.
12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.
Humans are flighty too. We have our moments of courage, but more often than not, we run with a herd mentality. When one of us is afraid, it doesn’t take much to spread that fear into the flock. Rumors of war, hints of an economic recession, worries about a pandemic… We get spooked very easily and many times we don’t even know why we’re running.
Sheep though are loyal too.
4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
Sheep recognize their masters voice and they follow and trust that voice. The farmer I talked to told me about the sheep his family raised. It was his chore to feed the sheep. He spent every day feeding the sheep twice daily. The sheep heard his voice and they listened to that voice. The rest of his family frequented the barn but the sheep did not react to their voices. Sheep are loyal. We are loyal too and when we find our Master we stay with Him that is why it is so important that we ensure we are following the correct master.
Sheep are happiest when they are with their shepherd.
14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,
We are happiest when we are with our master. We worship our God because of who we are. We are dependent on Our God. We worship because in spite of all the frailty of mankind, in spite of our failures, in spite of our weakness, Our God seeks us! Our God wants a relationship with us. We must maintain sight of who we are in comparison to God. You may stack up pretty well compared to others around you and you may stack up well compared to all people on earth. Fact is that you do not come close to God. Mankind is weak and we are nothing.
4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
17 What is man, that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him,
18 “But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built!
17 All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
Our God is Great and we are not. We worship because we maintain a perspective of who we are and Who He Is. We worship because of Who He is, we worship because of who we are, but we also worship because of what they need.
We worship because of what they need.
We worship because of what they need.
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.”
I did not deserve the salvation of my God. He gave it to me anyway. Understanding what God did for me allows me to see the need of the world. When I lived in my sin I did not see the need for a savior. I was living the way I wanted to and I believed everything was perfect in life. The fact though is that I was in danger constantly, I was dying and being fed lies. The urgency of my situation did not make sense until someone showed me the love of Jesus and displayed a life that was different. It was not until I saw someone who was not a slave to their sins and did not need the same things that I needed in order to find any happiness or joy. They were happy because of something that was inside of them. It was foreign to me. It did not make any sense. They though saw me and understood my condition. They understood that I needed to follow the voice of God and I needed rescue. I did not realize I needed rescue everything felt like it was fine.
On August 30, 2005 Coast Guard Lieutenant Iain McConnell was ordered to fly his H46 helicopter to New Orleans and to keep it flying around the clock for what would turn out to be a heroic rescue effort. None of his crew were prepared for what they were about to see. The entire city of New Orleans was under water. On their first three missions that day they saved 89 people, three dogs and two cats. On the fourth mission, despite twelve different flights to New Orleans, he and his crew were able to save no one. None! They all refused to board the helicopter. Instead they told the Coast Guard to bring them food and water. Yet they were warned that this was extremely dangerous. The waters were not going to go away soon. Sadly, many of those people perished because of their refusal to be rescued
The world around us does not realize they need rescue. Living a life of Worship will allow them to see their need for rescue. It does not come in the form of memory verses or cute Instagram posts. It comes in the form of loving our enemies. It does not come in the form of a trendy tik tok or a fancy sermon. It happens when you show love to those who cannot understand love or show love. We live worship because of what the world around us needs, and because they cannot see their need.
4 In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”
13 Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?
1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.
1 Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes.
21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
7 Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways.
Mankind is lost in their sin, unable to see the death that is coming for them. If the church lives in our old lives then the world will not be changed by us the way God intended it to be. Don’t worry though because if you will not live a life of worship so others can see the light God will not stop reaching out to the world.
40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
If you choose not to live a life of worship that is a choice you can make this morning. You can walk out of here having recieved rescue and not return that to the others dying around you. You can walk out of here and not respond to the spirit of God calling you into a relationship with Him. These are all choices that you can make this morning. Believers I am asking you to rearrange your lives, make God the number one priority. Ask for forgiveness this morning, seek the face of God and seek to show Him to the World. If you are in here this morning and you have not given your life to God and you have not seen the dangers of your sin. I am begging you this morning to fix that, not only for yourself but for the others in your life that need rescue. You are here this morning for a reason, you are listening to the stream for a reason. God knows who is listening this morning and He has you listening for a purpose.
