Worship by Design

One of the core values that Christians live by is that everything was created for worship. God created all things to reflect something of his glory. This is why we find so much joy in observing the beauty we see in the world. The beach or the mountains, the stars and the forest are all tapestries of God’s creation worshipping.

Psalm 19:1–2 ESV

1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.

When we see this and delight in it, in a strange way, we are sharing in creation’s joy in worshipping God.

When we see this in a strange way we share in creation’s joy over worshipping the creator.

The verse comes to mind where Jesus was entering Jerusalem on a donkey on Palm Sunday. All of his followers are praising him with great joy:

Luke 19:37–39 ESV

37 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.”

Luke

Luke 19:39–40 ESV

39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

Luke 19:

Creation was designed for worship. Here’s what I want you to see, we are the pinnacle of God’s creation on this earth. Humanity was made in the image of God. First and foremost, we were created for worship. Here the in the south, there are churches on every street corner. Often times this desire for worship is misdirected and corrupted because of our fallen nature. But, the inner desire to worship something is still there. We are all familar with Christianity, Islam, Buddhism But I bet you’ll be surprised to find out that there are an estimated 4,200 different religions in the world.

Humans were created to worship. But, this brings up the question, “How should we worship?” What Paul brings up in this text is that in the same way that all of creation was designed for worship as we see how it reflects the intelligence, power, and beauty of God; our design for worship is based in God’s design in creation, or God’s creative order. That particular design for worship shows up in God’s creation of men and women as different sexes.

We were created to worship. This fact comes out in the world. But, Christians uniquely were redeemed to worship.

I know that this will sound strange to the extremely relativistic and liberal culture that we currently have in the United States, but gender is not a cultural. It is the creation of God. It is not fluid or changing. It is a hard wired part of God’s creation mandate.

Matthew 19:4 ESV

4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,

The reason that this is important is that God desires the differences that God designed into male and female to be reflected as Christians worship God in public worship.

I. God design for men in public worship:

As we have looked at in detail when we studied the Epistle of Ephesians, God has created man to be the gender of leadership. And with that comes the responsibility of leadership and care for those that God has entrusted them with particularly his family.

Ephesians 5:22–23 ESV

22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.

Ephesians 5:25 ESV

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

In the institution of marriage, God’s creative design shows that the husband is to lead and care for his wife and children. And, his wife is to respect his leadership and support him. As everything that is successful requires leadership and this is God’s design for it in the home.

The second God ordained institution behind the home is the church. So it is not surprising that God placed a leadership responsibility upon the men in the church. In v.8, Paul points to 3 areas in which men should be diligent about leading in public worship.

A. God designed men to lead in prayer. (v.8)

Let’s look at v.8

1 Timothy 2:8 ESV

8 I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling;

Notice first of all that he directs this to men. Not to the whole church or to women or children. He actually says that “in every place that men should pray.” So this is not just a command to the church their in Ephesus, but a command for every church in that day and every church in our day. In leading in prayer, they are leading in the spiritual worship and communion with God in the church.

Paul goes on to describe aspects of their leadership in prayer:

“lifting up holy hands” (v.8a)

This is something that we do typically now when we are singing in worship. But, the Bible describes lifting up your hands with palms toward the sky as a posture for prayer. They Bible describes all kinds of positions of prayer such as bowing, kneeling or laying prostrate before God. I was taught to clasp my hands together as I bowed. That’s still the way that we teach or children. I don’t know of any place in Scripture that that position is taught, but it was adopted very early in the early Christian church. Slaves or prisoners would have their hands bound in front of them at the wrist. Early Christians took on this posture before God to show submission to God.

But in the OT, we often see prayer to God with lifted hands. It describes a prayer of Moses in .

Exodus 9:28–29 ESV

28 Plead with the Lord, for there has been enough of God’s thunder and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.” 29 Moses said to him, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the Lord. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the Lord’s.

Listen to David’s prayer in

Psalm 28:2 ESV

2 Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary.

I think that it is a beautiful posture for prayer. It’s the same position that a small child will take when they want their parent to hold them. *All of my children at some point when through a phase where they would lift up their hands toward me or Misty and say, “Hold You!” When they want us to pick them up. It is a posture that shows we desire God and we need God.

I don’t think that it is required that men lead prayer in worship in that posture. However, we should try it a bit. However, it is imperative that since God called men to lead the church, that men lead the church to God, that men lead the church to commune with God. We must lead the church to cry out to God for help. Oh, that God would see us with our hands raised to him crying, “Hold You!” Men must lead our church and our families to the throne room often.

B. God designed men to lead in purity. (v.8)

Notice that he said describes the kind of hands that men should be lifting up. We should be lifting up “holy” hands.

That teaches us first that if we are going to be leading spiritually, we must first be true believers with the positional holiness that we have in Christ.

It also teaches us that we should be men of God that are striving daily to live in practical holiness. It’s not enough to be saved, but we were saved from sin so that we could be separated from sin.

Listen to Paul in

2 Corinthians 7:1 ESV

1 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

Hebrews 12:1 ESV

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

Hebrews 12:14 ESV

14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

The holiness that we see the Lord through is Christ’s holiness. But, it is Christ’s holiness that we are to be appropriating in our lives.

Philippians 2:12–13 ESV

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

*Striving for holiness is what it looks like to work out salvation.

It’s easy to make our holiness relative. I can look at someone else and think that I’m doing OK. But, God hasn’t called us to be like other people. He’s called us to be like himself.

1 Peter 1:16 ESV

16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

1 Peter 1:

In his book “The Pursuit of Holiness,” Jerry Bridges points to a common excuse that men use for falling back into out sinful habits and routines. This is one of the most impactful paragraphs that I’ve ever read on the subject.

In his book “The Pursuit of Holiness,” Jerry Bridges points to a common excuse that men use for falling back into out sinful habits and routines. , I failed. I lost the battle. It’s not defeat, it’s disobedience.

“It is time for us Christians to face up to our responsibility for holiness. Too often we say we are “defeated” by this or that sin. No, we are not defeated; we are simply disobedient! It might be well if we stopped using the terms “victory” and “defeat” to describe our progress in holiness. Rather we should use the terms “obedience” and “disobedience.” When I say I am defeated by some sin, I am unconsciously slipping out from under my responsibility. I am saying something outside of me has defeated me. But when I say I am disobedient, that places the responsibility for my sin squarely on me. We may, in fact, be defeated, but the reason we are defeated is because we have chosen to disobey. We have chosen to entertain lustful thoughts, or to harbor resentment, or to shade the truth a little. We need to brace ourselves up, and to realize that we are responsible for our thoughts, attitudes, and actions. We need to reckon on the fact that we died to sin’s reign, that it no longer has any dominion over us, that God has united us with the risen Christ in all His power, and has given us the Holy Spirit to work in us. Only as we accept our responsibility and appropriate God’s provisions will we make any progress in our pursuit of holiness.” (The Pursuit of Holiness, chapter 8, Bridges)

Holiness is about our obedience.

God desires obedience, not sacrifice.

C. God designed men to lead in unity. (v.8)

If there are two axiom about men and women that we are aware of it is that, “Women like to gossip and men like to fight.” Men like to fight because they like to have power and dominance. They like to have their way. That causes conflict.

That should be different in the church shouldn’t it. It should be, but it is not. When I mention a church business meeting to you, it conjures up the image in many of your minds of some wing dinger of a fight that went on at some time.

*That type of animostiy and conflict should not exist among the people of God. Here’s why, Jeremy Taylor said it best years ago, “Anger is a perfect alienation of the mind from prayer.”

Sinful anger destroys communion. Peter even refers to the fact that anger at your wife impedes your prayer life.

1 Peter 3:7 ESV

7 Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

It’s really hard to pray when things aren’t right at home. It’s really hard to pray when you are angry at someone at church. Church, we can’t afford for our prayer to be impeded. We need God’s power too much for our pride and arrogance which causes conflict to get in the way.

1 Timothy 2:8 ESV

8 I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling;

1 Tim. 3:8

1 Tim.

How are doing men?

With leadership? - Home, church, ministry?

With holiness? Porn, language, attitudes?

With unity? Someone you need to get things right with?

May we be a church where me lift up holy hands and commune with the Almighty!

II. God’s design for women in public worship:

God tells women:

A. Dress in a way that directs attention to God’s beauty. (vv. 9-10)

B. Learn in a way that directs attention to God’s order. (vv. 11-15)