THE SPIRIT OF WORSHIP

THE SPIRIT OF WORSHIP Psalm 122 With grateful acknowledgement of these sources of direction and inspiration: the Holy Spirit; the Word of God; Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline; Ravi Zacharias, Can Man Live Without God?; A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy; Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together May 4, 2003 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introduction One of the most disheartening things about ministry that I have faced over the 30 years I've served, has been having to face all those excuses people give for why they don't attend church services. • My parents forced me to when I was little . . . • It's the only day I have to sleep in . . . • I work nights and it's the only time I have to fish . . . • There are too many hypocrites in the church . . . The temptation to think up sarcastic responses to these excuses gets really strong. But if you had a really good response to someone's excuse, they'd come up with two more. So, you learn not to respond. You just go on home and pray that they will someday find the only right reason there is for going to church: God. It's true, isn't it? Of all the activities we engage in this one we call worship is the most senseless when the motive is anything other than "I love God and I love His people, and I want to be with them when they worship Him." Most Christians do have the proper motivation, I believe. They choose to worship God alongside the rest of the believing community, and they consider it to be an important part of their life in Christ. What is a lot more interesting than hearing the reasons people give for not worshiping is discovering some of the reasons they do. Psalm 122 is a song that is sung by a person who knows his reasons for bringing praise and worship to the Lord. It is an exuberant expression of a worshiper on the way to the Temple to join other worshipers in the worship dynamic. This Psalm is the third in a series of 15 consecutive psalms in your Bible that are known as the Songs of Ascents. These are songs that the Israelites would sing as they made their way up to Jerusalem for worship. One always goes "up" to Jerusalem, and the walking trip can be wearisome, so these psalms were sung to make the trip a little easier. So, they became known as the songs of ascents. But for those who were looking forward to worship, they were more than just ditties to help pass the time on a long climb. They were songs of blessing, encouragement, fun, much like camp songs that kids sing on the bus or walking to and from the campfire experience. Only these found their way into the canonical scripture. Psalm 120 had to do with repentance, the expression of a godly man who was weary of living among lying, wicked people, people who hate peace and love war. The singer of that psalm said "I want out of that environment" and asked the Lord for deliverance. And Psalm 121 is a song of gratitude and trust in the Lord's provision. There the promises of God are heaped up: "He will not let your foot slip…the Lord watches over you…the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm-he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore." In a very real sense, repentance, gratitude and trust are the forerunners of a genuine worship experience. Psalm 122 is the psalm of worship. It is an example of what people of faith everywhere and always do: come together in an assigned place at an assigned time to worship God. Dallas Willard used to be a professor and director of the School of Philosophy at the University of Southern California. He wrote in his book, The Spirit of the Disciplines this description of worship: "In worship we engage ourselves with, dwell upon and express the greatness, beauty and goodness of God through thought and the use of words, rituals and symbols. We do this alone as well as in union with God's people. To worship is to see God as worthy, to ascribe great worth to Him . . . our thoughts and words turn to perception and experience of God, who is then really present to us in some degree of His greatness, beauty and goodness [glory]. This will make for an immediate, dramatic change in our lives." That's a far cry from the way worship is typically described - good music, time for fellowship, entertaining special numbers, stimulating preaching and lots of feel-good stuff. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with the inclusion of these things in corporate worship. But, when they interfere with our unity in worship, our honest attempt to corporately honor God for who He is and our sincere desire to know and serve Him better, then our accoutrements become counter-productive. The author of this psalm is David, and there are some interesting things he had to say about going up to worship at Jerusalem. Worship brings joyous expectation (verses 1-2) "I rejoiced with those who said to me, 'Let's go to the house of the Lord.' Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem." Worship, if it is real worship, is not a forced thing. If it isn't voluntary, it isn't worship. Mandatory activities rarely elicit the kind of joy David wrote about in verse one. Not like the exasperated mom who was having a time with her 5-year old when she was overheard to say during the singing of a hymn, "You will stand there, young man, and you will worship!" I suspect there was a great deal going through the boy's mind, but I'll guarantee it wasn't worship! Did you know that there are more people at worship on Sunday mornings than are at all the football games, golf outings or fishing holes? Worship is the single most popular act in our country on Sunday mornings. But churches, and especially their ministers/pastors, get a little nervous, even upset, when the numbers are down. Then new motivations are introduced which are less than best for attending church worship services: guilt, cajoling, shaming, and so on. We have the record of a sermon preached in 400 AD by one John Chrysostom. The title of the sermon is "The Sixth Instruction" Subtitle: "Address to the Neophytes - A Criticism of Those Who Have Abandoned the Religious Service and Have Gone Off to the Chariot Races and Theatres, and on How Much Care We Must Take of Our Brothers Who Are Negligent." That has to be the longest sermon title in church history! In the sermon Pastor John complained that the congregation was SLIM that Sunday because his crowd had "run off to the Hippodrome, and given up the chance to hear the spiritual discourse." Of course, the scripture itself even provides us with strong counsel to gather with our brothers and sisters in faith for worship: "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing…" (Hebrews 10:25). Without question, though, one who attends corporate worship conscientiously is not only better prepared to worship God in spirit and in truth, but he is also a joyous person. Listen, the best days of your Christian career are marked by a joyous expectation of gathering with other Christians for worship. I want to address the few individuals who are thinking, "I love the Lord, but I honestly don't get that excited about worshiping Him with others. Sometimes I think I could take it or leave it. Should I just not attend Sunday morning Celebration if my motives are poor?" That might well be a very honest and appropriate question for some. (For others it may be a copout.) No, don't stay home. Come to corporate worship. Why? Because, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, but you don't get pumped about corporate gatherings of His people for the purpose of worshiping Him, YOU NEED REVIVAL! Come to worship services seeking God and you will find it. Then, once revived you will be able to say on your way to church services on Sundays, "I rejoiced with those who said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord.'" Worship gives us a satisfying structure for life (verses 3-4) Verses 3-4 : "Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together. That is where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to praise the name of the Lord according to the statute given to Israel." At least three times a year the Hebrews came to Jerusalem-the worship center of the nation. During those gatherings, everything that God said and did was remembered and celebrated. When you went to the feasts in Jerusalem you came in touch with the fundamental spiritual realities of life: God created you, God loves and redeems you, God provides for you, God has a glorious future hope for you. When you gather for corporate assemblies, you encounter reminders of the foundational verities of your faith. You encounter certain rituals, songs and scriptures all designed to bring you living reminders of the great truths about God's love, salvation, providence and hope for you and your family. It is in the assembly that ancient Israel, and we, the new Israel, experience our lives being put back together again after a week of the world scratching and pulling at our faith. We get built up as we bring our worship to God. This is the reason for the imagery of Jerusalem being built up, closely compacted and a place where all the tribes come and "fit together". David gives us an architectural imagery of masonry stones being fitted together perfectly, skillfully to make a city that is worthy to host worship of almighty God. Please don't miss how the New Testament picks up on this beautiful theme. "You [Christians] are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit." (Ephesians 2:19-22) Further, recall the words of Peter - "As you come to him, the living Stone-rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him-you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. . . . you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." (1 Peter 2:4-5, 9) Let me give you two very good reasons for being with the saints for worship on Sunday mornings: you pull your life back together and rebuild it during corporate worship, and you pull the body of Christ together and build it up into a worshiping community again, declaring the praises of Him who called you out of darkness and into His light. I ask you, how do those reasons stack up against the shallow excuses we have all used for not attending - "I need a break!" "I don't get anything out of it" "I failed God, and I feel like such a hypocrite coming to church" "It's just religious tradition" "Church is out of date, dead and boring". Worship is God's good will for us (verse 4c) Let's not miss that important little detail appearing as a trailer on verse 4. "…to praise the name of the Lord according to the statute give to Israel." David drops in this zinger, saying in essence, "not only is what your pastor just said true, but don't forget, God told us He wants us to worship in assembly with one another!" He loves it when we acknowledge Him with thanks and praise. He loves it so much He made it a rule for people of faith. We need a regular time and place to stop and realize all that God has done for us. He knows we need that, and He makes it clear that not only is worship His will for us, it is His good will for us. That is, He who made us knows it's best for us to worship Him. God created us, re-created us in Christ, provides for us, graciously gives us a future of glorious and eternal union with Him and blesses us in the mean time with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). The natural, honest healthy, courteous, logical response to all that is praise to God. When we bring our worship to God, we are acting out of the very core of who we are as created beings. Augustine wrote, "A Christian should be an alleluia from head to foot!" Eugene Peterson has a good word for us, I think, when he writes: "This command to worship is good for us. We often get caught up in sensations. We think that if we don't feel something there can be no authenticity in doing it. But the wisdom of God says something different: that we can act ourselves into a new sway of feeling much more quickly than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting. Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not [just] a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship. When we obey the command to praise God in worship, our deep, essential need to be in relationship with God is nurtured." Let me ask you a provocative question: Who could it be that would very much want you to think you are unworthy, unready or uncomfortable in worship? One clue: it ain't God! C. S. Lewis fictionally depicts the subtle and subversive ways of demonic spirits under the direction of the devil. They are directed to whisper ideas that creep into our minds that seem, at least momentarily, so logical and right. "The church is only a historic, institutional, traditional, man-concocted idea, and going every week is a human invention." "Besides, where you attend is so dead, so boorish." God has a better idea. And His way is good for you. Rather than being dissuaded from worshiping by your feelings, bring them to worship and let Him heal them for you! So, deny the devil's denigrations, bag up your blues, blahs and boredom, gather up your gallons of guilt, box up your bad behaviors and high-tail it to Sunday worship and God will take them all off your hands. Worship keeps our focus centered on God's Word and will (verse 5) The place of worship is the place where "…where the thrones for judgment stand, the thrones of the house of David." (verse 5) That word used for "judgment" means "the decisive word by which God straightens things out and puts things right." That's what happens when we engage in corporate worship-the Word of God is released in a variety of ways to help us "straighten things out and put thing right." When we are first called to worship there is usually a reading or an allusion to the Word of God. As our Praise Teams prepare and offer the songs they have carefully selected, and some they feel led to on the spur of the moment, you'll notice if you take the opportunity that these songs are laden with scripture. The Psalms are always well represented in the choruses and worship songs we sing. As one of the brothers or sisters brings a communion devotion they focus on a passage or two of scripture they feel God wants brought to the body. The same is true when someone offers a testimony or exhortation-the Word is, and should be, always used heavily. There is always a Bible-centered teaching at the heart of the message with practical counsel and direction for our lives. The Word of God makes our prayers articulate, our minds healthy, our hearts encouraged, our lives ordered and our worship genuine. It is important for us to rehearse the truths of God through His revealed scriptures. We need to be refreshed with the judgments of God, reminded of the will of God for our lives and revived in our spirits to serve Him faithfully Monday through Saturday. Once again, Peterson says it well: "There is simply no place where these [expressions of the Word can be done as well as in [corporate] worship. If we stay at home by ourselves and read the Bible, we are going to miss a lot, for our reading will be unconsciously conditioned by our culture, limited by our ignorance, distorted by unnoticed prejudices. In [corporate] worship we are part of 'the large congregation' where all the writers of Scripture address us, where hymn writers use music to express truths that touch us not only in our heads but in our hearts, where the preacher who has just lived through six days of doubt, hurt, faith and blessing with the worshipers speaks the truth of Scripture in the language of the congregation's present experience. We want to hear what God says and what he says to us: worship is the place where our attention is centered on these personal and decisive words of God." Worship results in peace and security (verses 6-9) Even if you're very faithful, corporate worship takes up a relatively small amount of time out of your week. Very few individuals spend more than two percent of their entire week in corporate worship. For most, it's about one percent. But, what that short duration of worship can do for the rest of your week, and the rest of your life, is remarkable. "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: 'May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls, and security within your citadels.' For the sake of my brothers and friends, I will say, 'Peace be within you.' For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your prosperity." (verses 6-9) The first word in this section is "Pray," but it is a more specific term that David uses. He simply says, ask for these things for those who are in Jerusalem-your fellow worshipers. Certainly when we ask God for blessings for others we are praying, but this everyday word that David selected is the common word used to "ask" for help from someone or to "ask" for a drink of water. Worship can never completely satisfy our hunger for God-but it can sufficiently whet our appetites for Him, deepen our desire for Him. Worship helps us to get the big picture, to see that our lives are not about scrambling through the rat race of modern life, sleeping, eating, working, catching a couple hours of television, and so on. We are made for more than trappings and trinkets of this world. We who are redeemed of the Lord know this. We have a foretaste of God's glory in His Holy Spirit living in us. Now our true "needs" are revealed. And they aren't a house in the country, a new boat and a fat portfolio. No, we want, we need, just two basic things: peace and security. Most are familiar with the Hebrew word for peace. It is shalom. This powerful term defies definition. It represents all aspects of wholeness of life that results from God's will being carried out in us. Jesus referred to this kind of completeness when He said, "Whoever is thirsty, let Him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, stream of living water will flow from within him." (John 7:37-38) When Jesus comes into a person's life and resides there by means of the Holy Spirit, that person comes to shalom. "Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:1) This is what Jesus meant when He said, "I am the way, the truth and the life…" (John 14:6) Peace comes to the person who at any level honors God as God. In our worship experience we do just that, and the predictable result is shalom. If you have no peace in your life, let me suggest you start here. Humble yourself before the Lord and worship Him in the company of His people. The other basic need in the life of a Christian is mentioned in verse 6 as well. It is shalvah. This word is literally translated "prosperity". But this prosperity has nothing to do with large bank accounts and opulent lifestyles. This word has a spiritual meaning of security-the relaxed sense of someone who knows that everything is all right because God is alive, involved in human affairs and has our best interests at heart. What leaps to mind when you think of leisure? A hammock swinging under an oak tree over freshly mowed grass, a glass of ice tea and a good book? Shalvah is spiritual leisure when we know that we have turned responsibility for running the universe and our lives over to God, and He is in charge, and all we are called to do is one thing-love Him. Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28) Shalom and Shavlah - they are ours when we seek the Lord and find Him in worship. Concluding exhortation I want to close this message with a series of practical exhortations. We have seen from this text that worship blesses and benefits us in a variety of ways. But the most important thing about worship is that its primary purpose is to honor the Lord. What kind of worship honors God? Worship that is sincere, honest and genuine. Here are a couple of exhortations that I believe will help us honor God in our corporate worship. 1. Come prepared. I'll come straight at this one. When members of the Christian community consistently arrive late, they aren't really coming prepared to worship. When we arrive fresh out of the latest debate with our spouse or on the third stop of a series of Sunday errands, we are not prepared to worship. When it takes 10 minutes of singing to quiet the conversation in the room and 20 minutes before there is a real sense that we are a unified worshiping community, many did not come prepared for worship. Let me recommend a couple of things to help come prepared. Get up earlier and avoid the rush and the tardiness Play a praise music tape in the car on the way, or just sing choruses Pause for just a minute before you leave your car in the lot and pray 2. Inoculate yourself against the anti-worship virus I call "hum-drum-itis". There is a tendency in all of us due to our fallen natures to allow truly important things to slip into inertia and passivity. Let me suggest that when you are hum-drum, it is really hard for the rest of the body of Christ to stir you up to love and good works (Hebrews 10:25), and it is impossible for you to stir anyone else up to love and good works. Romans 12 says, "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord." That is a command, brethren. We have to be vigilant and intentional to war against a lackadaisical spirit. Passivity is not conducive to worship that honors God. I've seen people paint themselves to match the color of their team, shave their team's name into their haircuts, wear silly rubber mascot masks, tattoo the team logo onto their bodies and act like idiots. Ask them why? "It's all part of being a fan!" What spiritual entity have you convinced lately that you are a fan of the almighty God? 3. Avoid "other business" on Sunday mornings. There are always a myriad of details to be worked out to help run ministries, cell groups and administrative operations in the church family. May I suggest that we'd be better off NOT tending to most of these on Sunday mornings? I've watched ministry team members so caught up with talking through a business issue that could easily have waited until a better time while first time visitors walked right by them and sat down without a greeting. Let's not run mini-committee meetings on Sunday mornings. We can do better. I personally find myself easily distracted from the important things on Sunday morning because I allow myself to major in minors. The next time you have some church business to take care of and you find yourself saying "Oh, I can catch so-and-so at church on Sunday morning and bend his ear on the matter," don't do it. Call him now and take care of it. Leave Sunday morning Celebration for worship and edifying behaviors. Let's do as God intended for us to do in our corporate worship opportunities. Let's worship Him with joyous expectation. Let's let Him bring holy structure to our church family and to our personal lives. Let's obey God's will and worship Him in spirit and in truth. Let's give undistracted, focused attention to God's Word in all its expressions. And let's make ourselves available to Him so that He can give us what He wants us to have: peace and security.     [Back to Top]