Worship God
Notes
Transcript
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Introduction
Introduction
Big Idea: Worship God for there is no one like him
Song lyrics vs. listening for the beat (all songs SAY something)
Talk about nostalgia and sharing songs with our kids
Our lives are like songs praising someone or something (they say something)
What should the song of our lives be about?
The 96 psalm is a song that answers that question.
Worship God
Worship God
Oh sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth!
Singing as a form of worship
What is worship?
Worship is rightly and gladly acknowledging God as he deserves.
Acknowledging=declaring the inherent worth of something. Worship is not helping God or adding to him.
Rightly=believing and responding to biblically true things about who God is. So to honor God as tolerating some evil thing is not worship.
Imagine someone who related to me based upon a faulty belief that I am good at basketball. Image someone relating to Lebron James based upon a faulty belief that he was bad at basketball.
Gladly=the affections of the heart are stirred up in response to these truths. You cannot worship God begrudgingly or by going through the motions
Let’s say you go to your child’s recital. The entire time you are bored, checking Facebook, doing other things. Your kid asks you how you liked it afterward and you say it was great. Should your kid believe you? No. You do not really find worth in the performance because you did not find joy in it.
Worship that is joyless, emotionless, going through the motions is not worship because it does not rightly acknowledge who God is. Joyless worship declares that God is boring. God is not worship.
Why do we sing? We are to express in action the affection for the truth of who God is. One such expression is song. We sing about that which we love.
For example, consider the response of characters in movies after meeting their soul mate.
For example, consider the songs of patriots for their country. Song is an expression of love for something.
Why new songs are needed
Oh sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth!
Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!
Psalm
Psalm 96.1
Because God is infinite and inexhaustible, an infinite amount of songs are fitting to describe and celebrate who he is.
If you hate new songs, it is because you have too small a view of God
What the psalmist is going to do in this psalm is describe some reasons for worshipping God. Let’s look at them.
Worship God because of his saving works
Worship God because of his saving works
Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!
God deserves worship for saving his people
For saving his people from Egypt
Worship God because of all his works
For saving David from his enemies
For saving his people from Assyria and Babylon
God’s greatest saving work was the cross
He saved his people from their sins
Worship
That’s why Christian worship must be centered on the work of Jesus. We must magnify God for his work of salvation. Christ-less worship songs are deficient for rightly expressing worship to God for what he has done. True Christian worship focuses on all that God has done for us through Christ.
Worship God because he is greater than other gods
Worship God because he is greater than other gods
For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
he is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
Psalm
For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
he is to be feared above all gods.
Psalm 96.
God should be feared about all other gods.
Fear=honor. No other god deserves to be feared. Only the one true God.
The God we are speaking about of course is the one true God, the triune God, the God who is Father, Son, and Spirit.
For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
psalm 96.
Because other gods are worthless
Other gods are powerless to save and powerless to satisfy.
Because God is the only creator
The one true God is not powerless. He has total power. He created the universe!
Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
Because God is full of glory, power, and beauty
Other gods lack the glory and strength and beauty the true God has. God is infinitely glorious.
Allah lacks the beauty and glory of the true God. The gods of the hindus lack this beauty and glory. Naturalism lacks the beauty and glory of the true God.
Worship God, all people
Worship God, all people
Psalm 96.7
Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering, and come into his courts!
Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth!
Worship as ascribing to God his true qualities
We do not add to God or help him in anyway with worship.
Worship is about ascribing to God what he already has.
All people are called to worship God
God is creating worshippers for himself from among all nations. Even here in the Old Testament we see that God had a vision for worship that went beyond the nation of Israel.
Missions exists because worship doesn’t. The whole motivation for taking the gospel to the ends of the earth should be primarily for the reason that there are people in foreign tongues who are not yet praise God for all that he has done for us in Christ. Jesus deserves the praise of every language and tongue.
There are people in our city who are not rightly and gladly acknowledging Christ as he deserves. Let this drive our evangelistic efforts.
All people are to tremble before God. Why?
Worship God as judge of the earth
Worship God as judge of the earth
Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!
Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.”
Worship God as King
psalm 96.10
Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!
Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.”
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
let the field exult, and everything in it!
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
before the Lord, for he comes,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness,
and the peoples in his faithfulness.
Worship God as King
Worship God as King
Who sustains the world. God is a King who’s realm is completely and totally secure. Nations come and go but this King’s reign is permanent.
Who will judge all people fairly. God does not play favorites with justice. He will be completely and totally just. He is a good judge and a good King.
Notice who responds in praise to the reality that God is a good judge and king?
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
let the field exult, and everything in it!
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
All creation rejoices
The heavens, earth, sea, field, forest and all that is in them
God created creation to sing. Not that there is a literal song, but the universe declares the greatness of God. The song of the universe is that God is amazing.
But, notice, there is something that the creation is longing for as it displays God’s glory.
before the Lord, for he comes,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness,
and the peoples in his faithfulness.
The sea
The field
the forest
Creation longs for sin to be undone by the Great Judge
The universe is not as it should be. Not all glorify God rightly. But God will judge the world and all of its people and right every wrong.
Creation waits for this. It has been negatively affected by our sin and longs for the restoration of all things.
Here is why we tremble. God will judge us. God will bring his swift and terrible justice down on us.
Consider the events of 9/11. The world longed for justice against Osama Bin Laden. How did the world respond when justice was finally served against him? Celebration.
Creation is like that and every human being is like a terrorist on the run. Creation will rejoice when justice is served on the rebellious human race.
The process started at the cross. God began undoing everything our sin had done when Christ died and rose from the dead. He will bring it to completion on the last day when Jesus returns.
Consider the events of 9/11. The world longed for justice against Osama Bin Laden. How did the world respond when justice was finally served against him? Celebration.
Creation is like that and every human being is like a terrorist on the run. Creation will rejoice when justice is served on the rebellious human race.
But creation no longer longs for justice against me. It’s already been dealt out at the cross.
Communion
Communion
On the night that he was betrayed
Communion as worship
Response
Believer
Is your life a song to the greatness of Jesus? Or is it a song to the greatness of someone or something else?
Do you struggle with sharing Jesus with others? The root problem then is a lack of worship.
What does your life sing
Nonbeliever
God sent his Son to make worshippers out of blasphemers
You have not worshipped God as he deserves so you deserve his justice
God sent his Son to make worshippers out of blasphemers
But G