Object of Worship
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Transcript
Greeting:
Greeting:
Good evening everyone
Welcome visitors
Come back and be with us Wednesday as we pick back up in Hebrews
Lesson Text:
Lesson Text:
Psalm 95:6-7
Opening:
Opening:
Tonight I want us to spend some time looking at exactly what we are doing here tonight...
What we do each time we come together on the first day of the week…
Worship...
Gathering together to worship God...
When I am traveling I always enjoy looking for places of worship…
Church buildings as I drive down the road and I always like to look at their signs...
See maybe what quotes or verses or whatever they may have on their signs...
Coming home from the beach a few weeks ago Dad and I passed a “church” building on the way back
But this one cracked us up because it had on its sign “movie night”...
Now I am not judging because I don’t know the context, we didn’t get to see if it was in substitute of worship or what…
And maybe I misread it, maybe it was on a week night and just a fellowship idea they had...
Maybe it was something they were doing just for fun, maybe it was totally ok and acceptable in the eyes of God...
But it got me to thinking about how many people today have the idea of worship backwards...
We see it as a time of fun and games...
A time of entertainment, a time to laugh cut up, a social club and setting...
I have often told this story before when talking about this subject, but I had a friend one time when I was little invite me to Bible study and when I asked him what they did for class the answer was dodgeball…
Many people today have confused the object of our worship...
When we gather together, as the church, an assembly of Christians, why are we here?
Many today make it about ourselves...
Many deem worship as “successful” if they get something out of it, or unsuccessful if they don’t leave feeling empowered in some way...
Many feel its a time of fun, games, laughter…
And moreover many may look at how we worship here as the Lord’s church and say that its boring...
It’s not entertaining enough, it doesn’t grab attention like some other groups do...
We worship God in too boring of a way…
So tonight, what I want us to do is spend some time in God’s word together and see what Scripture tells us concerning the object of our worship...
Before I get any further I don’t want anyone to misunderstand me tonight...
Am I saying that there isn’t edification, encouragement, learning, all sorts of good things that come out of worship?
No...
Am I saying that we don’t grow or become strengthened by being here?
No...
If you were here this morning is tressed the importance of not neglecting the church for those very reasons…
Hebrews tells us about the edification and love and stirring up that assembling with the church provokes…
But what I am saying is that Scripture teaches us very clearly what the object of our worship is...
It isn’t me and it isn’t you...
It is very simply, God…
Lesson:
Lesson:
Turn with me to our lesson text tonight…
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 will hear His voice:
We find here form the Psalmist the correct object of our worship, God…
We find the attitude of our worship...
We find the focus placed on God...
The one and true living God...
That is who we worship and that is all we are to worship when we gather together...
We see this command in the New Testament for us as well!
24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
John writes to us instructing us as to who we worship or who the object of our worship is...
And again we find the answer…
God...
We must worship Him, in Spirit and in truth...
Again we find the correct object, God...
We find the correct attitude, in Spirit...
And we find the foundation on which our worship should be done, the Truth...
God has set forth through his inspired word the parameters in which we are to worship...
When we get outside of that, or change that, then something is wrong...
We don’t get to insert what we want or what we think when God has already established it…
When we think about this word worship in general what does it mean?
Websters describes worship as, “Honor or reverence to a divine being”
The Greek word means “kissing toward one in reverence.”
In the New Testament we see Christians worship in order to show reverence and honor directly unto God the Father...
We see worship being done to God, in Spirit and in truth.
That is what true worship looks like for us as Christians...
We have established God is the object, the correct biblical object of our worship…
But tonight for discussion sake..
What I want us to look at is a few objects that worship is not...
First the object of our worship is not ourselves...
Our worship to God is not some form of self help for me…
Again can we benefit from worship absolutely, but our object of worship is not on ourselves…
We are here gathered together to worship God, not to seek out self help, self improvement, etc…
Nor is it some sort of entertainment…
We are not coming here to worship God to be entertained…
We are not here to be entertained to laugh joke cut up….
We look around the world today and we see all sorts of things that are being offered to make worship “enjoyable”…
We see the incorporation of musical instruments, food and drink, the idea of dressing appropriately thrown out the window, we could go on and on…
But the fact of the matter is we are not here to seek out some sort of entertainment…
Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!
Tremble before Him, all the earth.
The church today I am afraid has lost the reverent fear we are to have when we come before God…
Again going back to that idea of what the very word itself means, to kiss towards someone…
To come trembled bowed down before the almighty God to worship Him…
Jeff did a great job of talking about this when I was out in one of his sermons about prayer I thought…
How relaxed we have become in our prayer to God, how we have lost that respect and reverence for Him when we come before God…
I think the same is true today for worship…
And I think that is why so many denominations see growth and huge crowds because they seek out and are provided with some sort of entertainment…
Worship is sacred, worship is holy, worship is something that should be done correctly…
Maybe some seek out the idea that worship is a form of self expression…
Maybe specifically for those who take part in worship…
Preachers, teachers, song leaders, etc…
People who would rather show out and show off their ability than do it for the right reasons…
How can we worship correctly when we are more concerned with delivering a perfect performance?
That is not what worship is…
I don’t preach so that everyone can say wow you are so good, you speak so well, etc…
I appreciate the compliments, but I am not preaching to seek out the satisfaction and praise of men, I preach to glorify and honor God..
The same mindset that we can find from Paul…
For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.
When we gather together to worship, we aren’t worshipping to seek approval from man, but rather from God.
Our object of worship is not ourselves…
Point number two tonight…
The object of worship is not our fellow man…
I say this with all the love in the world, but I hope you are not here tonight to worship because of me or because of any other person here tonight…
Many people today get so consumed with and place so much emphasis on their “preacher” or their “pastor”…
That is not who you are here to worship or to follow after or to give glory to…
Again that is God…not man.
It doesn’t matter how great a preacher you are, how great a teacher you are, no man is worthy of worship…
I see the following some of the t preachers have, some of the names we think of throughout time that individuals have followed after…
We need to be careful we never fall into the trap of following after man rather than God…
Even the apostles knew that they were unworthy of worship…
They knew the correct object of worship…
Look in Acts 10…
We find Peter coming to meet Cornelius here and notice what happens…
As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I myself am also a man.”
Peter tells him, “Get up.”
He says I myself too am also a man, Cornelius I am just like you, I am just a man…
I am not worthy of worship..
If there ad been any man worthy of worship wouldn’t you think it had been the apostles?
Peter, Paul, any of those men?
Yet we see time and time again them getting people to understand don't worship me, worship God…
Paul had a somewhat similar problem in Corinth..
For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?
Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
There we’re Christian’s there hat were deeming who was better than who based on who baptized them…
Paul he says are you no carnal?
Are you not thinking like just a man, are you forgetting what you should know?
Paul says God gave the increase…
We might plant the seed, we might water the seed, but we aren’t worthy of the glory or honor that comes from it, thats God…
Some may view the object of worship being other men in terms of it being a social club…
They convene great bodies of people to vote on what and who leads in worship…
Just recently I am sure you all saw the news with the Southern Baptist Convention I believe it was…
They passed a rule saying no women could preach in their “churches”…
I agree with the teaching, women’s role in the church is clear in the NT, that is a whole other lesson of course…
But from that what made me scratch my head is that they had to assemble a convention and then “vote” on what they deemed right or wrong…
Again who are we to dictate what God has already put in place…
We can’t change our worship or how we worship or who we worship because man decides it..
We cant add to or take away whatever parts we want or we deem better or worthy…
This is exactly what the Pharisees tried to do really…
And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”
The Pharisees worshiped in vain why?
Because they taught doctrine from the commandments of man…
They took what man thought, what they said was right, and said this is our doctrine…
Today many have various creeds, rule books, conventions, etc…
They have all these writings that they say is their “doctrine”..
Brothers and sisters the only doctrine I need is right here…
God’s word is perfect, it’s divinely inspired, why in the world would I think man could come up with something better than what has already been written?
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
If we want to know how we can be complete, thoroughly equipped, we need to look no further than God’s word…
It’s perfect, its complete, and it’s everything we need…
Pint number three tonight, I know we touched on this at the beginning but I want to finish here tonight…
The object of our worship is not ourselves, its not another man, its not the preacher teacher, etc…
It’s not any other God or idol or spirit…
The object of our worship is God…
You know why he is deserving of our worship and all those other things we just mentioned are not?
Becasue only God is Holy…
Only God is divine…
Only God is perfect…
Therefore, only He is perfect…
Exalt the Lord our God,
And worship at His footstool—
He is holy.
Moses and Aaron were among His priests,
And Samuel was among those who called upon His name;
They called upon the Lord, and He answered them.
He spoke to them in the cloudy pillar;
They kept His testimonies and the ordinance He gave them.
You answered them, O Lord our God;
You were to them God-Who-Forgives,
Though You took vengeance on their deeds.
Exalt the Lord our God,
And worship at His holy hill;
For the Lord our God is holy.
God is holy…
Man is not holy, preachers aren’t holy, idols, other false Gods, none of them are Holy except God…
He is the one and true living God, the creator of all…
I love the scene painted for us in Revelation…
the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying:
“You are worthy, O Lord,
To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And by Your will they exist and were created.”
We worship God because He is worthy…
He created all things, we exist because of Him, He is God…
I know I have said this a lot but I think we have the same problem with heaven as we do worship…
Is heaven going to be great because there is no pain or sorrow, absolutely…
Is heaven going to be enjoyable and beautiful and perfect, absolutely…
But the real joy of heaven, the real reason we should long to be there, isn’t for ourselves, but because we get to be with God…
We get to forever worship Him, forever praise Him, forever be in His presence…
That is the same exact idea with worship…
God is the object of our worship because no one else is worthy…
Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”
Jesus when tempted by the devil, set the record straight didn’t He?
He said the object of our worship is God, God and God alone is who we shall serve…
No other God is worthy…
Though many may think there is a false God, many may believe there is another way there isn’t…
The question for us is will we be willing to worship Him?
Will we worship God at all costs?
Will we be afraid to stand up and say the truth?
I wanna end tonight by looking back at what should be a familiar story…
Daniel 3….
We find the story of three men…
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abindigo…
Remember what happened with them?
King Nebuchadnezzar had issued a decree for all to fall down and worship a massive golden statue when the music played…
But these three men what did they do?
They refused, the refused for the object of their worship to be anything or anyone else other than the one true living God…
With their refusal it enraged the King, made him mad to the point he had the three thrown into the fiery furnace…
A furnace set 7 times hotter than normal…
Set so hot that it killed the guards who threw them inside…
Of course we know they lived, becasue of God…
They were found walking around in the fire, the come out, their hair and clothing even unsigned by the flames…
They didn’t even smell like smoke…
And because of this, because of their faith, because of their refusal for the object of their worship to be anyone or anything other than God what happened?
Read with me Daniel 3:28…
Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, who sent His Angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him, and they have frustrated the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they should not serve nor worship any god except their own God!
Blessed be the God of Shadrach Meshach and Abindigo…
The king would go on to pass another decree protecting all of God’s people because of what he saw God do…
Tonight as we close I want you think about this, if nothing else from this lesson stands out o you, I hope this does…
Never be afraid or ashamed to worship the one true God…
You never know what message that will sen, what life that will change, how many people you might thr to God just by being bold in your faith…
The object of our worship matters, the object of our worship is important…
The object of our worship is God…
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Tonight as we bring this lesson to a close I hope that its helped in some way…
I hope that it maybe realigns our perspective on who we worship and how we should worship God…
I hope that we don't ever forget the object of our worship is important…
We worship a God who gave us the very best…
He gave us His So, His perfect Son…
All so that we could have the hope of heaven one day…
Isn’t it only fair we try to give our best back to God in return?
Tonight maybe someone here isn’t a Christian…
Maybe tonight you’ve never became a child of God…
You know you have sin in your life, you know that you are not a Christian, I would encourage you to make that change tonight…
Like we said this morning there is a better life to live, a life for Christ…
Follow the plan lad our in scripture for us…
Hear believe repent confess and be baptized…
Tonight maybe you are a Christian already…
Have you forgotten what God means to you?
Have you forgotten how important our worship is to Him?
Maybe we have forsaken the assembly, maybe we have lost sight of the value and importance of worship…
Or maybe we just have drifted away from God in some way…
Let’s come back home tonight…
We touched on it briefly earlier, but heaven is far to beautiful a place to miss out…
It is too perfect to miss and not be there…
Don’t miss out on an eternity spent with God…
If anyone has a need come and join us tonight as we stand and sing…
