Are You Prepared to Worship?

1. Introduction.

Exodus 19:10–11 NKJV

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.

PRAYER.

A. Bruce, Colin, and I were having a discussion about worship, and it was a handicap match because they were both ganging up on me. Just kidding! They were telling if we did this or that more people would be engaged in worship, and my answer was, listen carefully, that it did not matter what you did within the service, worship would not intensify.

To worship on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, you must prepare to worship. Worship has nothing to do with what is sung or with what is preached. Worship has to do with you and whether or not you are prepared to worship.

B. Make no mistake about it. When you and I come through those doors, we are coming to worship, and if you are saved, you are to worship God in church with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

C. Worship, however, does not happen by chance. Really, there is nothing you can do within the confines of the service to generate worship. If what God Almighty has done for you is not enough motivation for you to worship Him, what makes you think what we sing or how we sing is going to make you worship.

In the Book of Exodus in Chapter 19, God tells Moses to prepare the people to worship.

If you read those verses I just read carefully, there were several things Moses told the people to do if they wanted to meet God in worship.

The people had to spend two days consecrating themselves, or two days preparing to meet God in worship on the third day. This is very important.

The people had to wash their clothes. They had to be clean. The dirt of the world had to be removed.

There were boundaries established. Dear friend, not everything is acceptable in the guise of worship.

There was an order to worship. When the trumpet sounded, the people were to come to the mountain. They could not come in late.

Because the people were prepared to worship, the Lord met them at Mount Sinai.

If you think you can just show up and worship, you are wrong. If you are someone who says the services need more energy, more pep, more excitement for you to worship, you are wrong. It is you that is the problem because you are not prepared to worship. God is worthy of worship regardless of what we sing or what I preach.

What we are going to do is take Ex. 19 along with the New Testament and tell you how you are to prepare to worship.

2. You must EXAMINE yourself.

Exodus 19:10 NKJV

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes.

2 Corinthians 13:5 NKJV

Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.

To worship, you must consecrate and examine yourself, not Mrs. Geraldine or Marty Richardson. You need to examine and consecrate yourself.

A. Consecration.

For two days, Israel had to consecrate itself.

Consecration in the Bible means a willing, full dedication of your life, heart, and everything you have to Him. It means to set yourself apart for Him and His purposes.

Now, how many of you, who struggle with worshipping God in church service, did that this week. I am going to tell you if you did not, you are not going to be able to worship this morning. Paul and Silas did not have Casting Crowns singing for them in that prison cell, yet they were worshipping like a mug. They were worshipping so much that there was an earthquake and an entire family was saved.

To worship, you have to make a conscious effort to set yourself apart for Him, and that must happen days before service.

B. Examination.

In 2 Corinthians, Paul says that we are to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith. The last part of the verse we read says unless indeed you are disqualified.

Examination/consecration are prerequisites for worship. If you think you are going to just waltz inn here at 10:05, even though service starts at 10, and start worshipping, you are wrong because you are not prepared. You must consecrate yourself. You must examine yourself.

Consecrating yourself and examining yourself means you are surrendering yourself and your plans to God. Now, let me ask you a serious question, and I am not picking on anyone; I am just making a point.

If you are late to every service, are you really surrendering yourself to God and His plans?

If you do not examine and consecrate yourself, it will not matter what I preach, and it will not matter what Colin sings. Yes, you may get emotional, but worship is not based upon emotions. Worship is based upon God being God.

Worship for you will only happen, if during the week, you consecrate and examine yourself.

3. You must be OBEDIENT to God’s Word.

Exodus 19:12–13 NKJV

You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, ‘Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow; whether man or beast, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come near the mountain.”

If Israel disregarded God’s Word, they would not have been able to worship because they would have been stoned or shot with an arrow. How important is obeying God’s Word to worship?

I understand why some people want to believe that the song service determines worship, or that Sunday School determines worship, or the sermon, but dear friend, it is not those things that make worship possible.

Obedience to God’s Word makes worship possible.

I want you to look at our daily Bible reading statistics. Consistently less than 50% of those who attend Sunday School regularly read their Bibles on a daily basis. Let me ask you a question.

Is that a sign of disregarding God’s Word?

God’s Word, God’s commands, prepares you to worship.

Seriously, I want you to think about this.

I make it easy for you to study God’s Word daily. I send out devotionals, videos, blogs. I usually send out Scripture outlines by the middle of the week giving you Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to prepare for Sunday’s service to be ready to worship.

Do you even look at those? I am just talking about glancing. Well, I am going to tell you this. I am doing my part in preparing you to worship. The responsibility falls upon you if you are not ready to worship.

I am telling God takes His Word seriously, and if you think you can worship outside of God’s Word being an integral part of that worship, you are wrong.

Here is what Jesus said.

John 14:15 NKJV

“If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

Do you know where the commands of Jesus are found? In His Word.

Here is what John said.

1 John 5:2–3 NKJV

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

We show our love of God by keeping the things that are written in His Word, and John says reading about those commandments in the Word of God should not be a burden to you. Now, you can complain about worship all you want, but before you do, ask yourself how much time are you spending in God’s Word.

4. You must CONFESS your sins and REPENT.

1 John 1:7–10 NKJV

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

I do not want to throw anyone under the bus, but the same ones who say services are boring never take the time to confess their sins and never repent of them because they keep committing the same sin or sins.

Exodus 19:12–14 NKJV

You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, ‘Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow; whether man or beast, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come near the mountain.” So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes.

Moses tells the people before they could worship at Mount Sinai they had to be cleaned. They had to wash off the dirt of the world. In the same sense, do you make sure you are clean when you come through those doors? That does not mean your clothes and your body. That means being clean from sin.

If Israel had to be clean, do you not think that you to be clean from sin too? If you have sin in your life, you cannot worship.

Let me ask you another serious question.

Is there anyone who would claim that you have gone all week without sinning? If you are married, I know you have not gone all week without sinning. Did you confess those sins and repent of them before you came through the door? Do you expect to worship this morning with sin in your life? Well, you cannot.

Let me just say this.

Confessing does not mean saying “Lord, forgive me of my sins.”

Confessing means to own a particular sin by saying what God says about that sin and repenting, turning from it, and guess where you find what God says about a particular sin? IN THE B-I-B-L-E.

I don’t even have time to talk about you expecting to worship if you are holding a grudge against a brother or sister, but I will let Jesus tell you.

Matthew 5:23–24 NKJV

Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Is it possible that you find church boring because you are holding a grudge against someone in the fellowship and will not take care of it in the manner the Bible prescribes? Do you think you can worship if you are holding that grudge? You might think you can, but you cannot.

Now, if you are a Christian and do not prepare to worship by doing the things I outlined this morning, it would not matter if Big Daddy Weave was leading singing or if Billy Graham was preaching. You would still not worship, and after the excitement of Big Daddy Weave wore off, you would get bored listening to Billy Graham.

God wants us to worship, but He wants us to be prepared to worship.

Let me just add this briefly.

5. To worship, you must be SAVED.

I want you to listen carefully. Do I have everyone’s attention?

Quite frankly, the reason why many do not worship in church is because they are lost. Listen to what Jesus says.

Matthew 7:13–14 NKJV

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Matthew 7:21–23 NKJV

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

If you are lost this morning, you have no clue what worship is, and what you do is associate worship with some emotional experience. You are like those Israelites in Exodus Chapter 19. You are about to cross a boundary that will mean your death.

John 3:16 NKJV

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 14:6 NKJV

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

To experience true worship, you must be saved.

How are you saved?

Admit that you are a sinner. (Romans 3:23)

Admit that you need a Savior. (Luke 23:40-43)

Believe that Jesus is the Christ. (Romans 10:8-11)

Publicly confess what you believe. (Romans 10:11)

Listen. Anyone can be saved. It does not matter what you have done in the past. Nothing in your past can prevent you from being saved. Jesus Christ took care of your past, present, and future on the Cross. He is just waiting on you to believe what He did paid for your sins.

Will you do that today?

If you are saved and know that you are truly not worshipping, will you:

Examine yourself

Be obedient and committed to God’s Word

Confess your sins and repent.