Worship series Part 1

An Argument For Worship Series

Exodus 3:7 Then the LORD told him, "I have certainly seen the oppression of My people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering.

Exodus 3:8 So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey—the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live.

Exodus 3:9 Look! The cry of the people of Israel has reached Me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them.

Exodus 3:10 Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead My people Israel out of Egypt."

Exodus 3:11 But Moses protested to God, "Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?"

Exodus 3:12 God answered, "I will be with you. And this is your sign that I am the One who has sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain."

INTRODUCTION

What is worship? Have you ever tried to define the word? It’s really not as easy as one might think.

• Some equate worship with music. In fact, when a worship leader, during a service, says, "Let’s just take some time now to worship," it really means, "Get ready! It’s time to sing."

• For others, worship is an emotional experience. Worship is the intensely personal feeling we enjoy when we enter into the presence of God

Isa 6:1 It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of His robe filled the Temple.

Isa 6:2 Attending Him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.

Isa 6:3 They were calling out to each other, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Heaven's Armies! The whole earth is filled with His glory!"

Isa 6:4 Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke.

In fact, (in the minds of many people) if we haven’t experienced it at this level, we haven’t worshipped.

• Still, there are believers who would seek to equate worship with an attitude of reverence.

The Random House Dictionary defines worship as "the reverent honor given to a deity."

Certainly, however we choose to define the word, it should include these elements. Here’s how some Christian writers define it. Worship is...

• "the activity of glorifying God in His presence with our voices and hearts" (Wayne Grudem, New Testament Scholar).

• "the total adoring response of man to the One Eternal God, self-revealed in time" (Evelyn Underhill, author).

• "the submission of all of our nature to God"(William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1942-44).

• "the believer’s response of all that he is- mind, emotions, will and body- to what God is and says and does" (Warren Wiersbe, Pastor and author).

It is a difficult task to come up with a definition for worship. The challenge is to make it broad enough to encompass the many thoughts related to it, yet narrow enough that the word itself doesn’t become meaningless.

While it may be difficult to precisely define "worship," there is one thing that all Christians agree on.

The people of God are called to worship God. Notice, in the my text, that God was leading His people out of captivity so that they might worship Him.

Exodus 3:12 God answered, "I will be with you. And this is your sign that I am the One who has sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain."

So my question is this:, "why worship? Why not call out His people for service or evangelism?

What is there about worship that is so central to our relationship with God that nothing else makes sense apart from it?"

I. Worship is our purpose.

God brought His people out of Egypt that He might bring them in, into His presence, to stand before His face!

Israel was a nation formed for worship, to praise together the name of the Most High!

Psa 47:1 For the choir director: A psalm of the descendants of Korah. Come, everyone! Clap your hands! Shout to God with joyful praise!

Psa 47:2 For the LORD Most High is awesome. He is the great King of all the earth.

When we trace the history of the Jews we learn that they were only somewhat faithful to this calling.

Often, instead of worshiping God in a unified, holy assembly, they turned aside to serving idols.

So, God scattered the people in exile. Look what Stephen said

Act 7:41 So they made an idol shaped like a calf, and they sacrificed to it and celebrated over this thing they had made.

Act 7:42 Then God turned away from them and abandoned them to serve the stars of heaven as their gods! In the book of the prophets it is written, 'Was it to Me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings during those forty years in the wilderness, Israel?

Act 7:43 No, you carried your pagan gods—the shrine of Molech, the star of your god Rephan, and the images you made to worship them. So I will send you into exile as far away as Babylon.'

Still, God promised that His purpose for His people would be fulfilled. Some day He would assemble a group of people from every nation to worship Him before the throne.

Haggai 2:7 I will shake all the nations, and the treasures of all the nations will be brought to this Temple. I will fill this place with glory, says the LORD of Heaven's Armies.

That’s why the Great Commission is for us to make disciples of all nations.

Matt 28:19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

In fact, we know that it will be fulfilled because there will be people from every tribe, nation and language in heaven.

Rev 7:9 After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands.

Rev 7:10 And they were shouting with a great roar, "Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!"

Have you ever considered that the primary motivation for taking the Gospel to the ends of the world is so that the worship of God might increase?

If we’re not as enthusiastic as we should be for evangelism, perhaps it’s because we’re not worshipping God as we ought.

II. Worship is our pattern.

When God called the nation of Israel out of Egypt, it was not for a one-time worship event.

God established festivals in which the whole nation would gather before Him three times a year.

These included the Feast of Unleavened Bread celebrated in the spring, the Feast of Harvest celebrated in the summer, and the Feast of Ingathering celebrated in the fall

These festivals were to be a "celebration to God."

Matthew Henry explains what was meant by this. "[Israel was]to present themselves before God, looking towards the place where God’s honor dwelt, and to pay their homage to him as their great Lord, from and under whom they held all their enjoyments."

These were worship services!

The practice of the early church was no different. They met, as we do, on the first day of the week to worship God together

Act 20:7 On the first day of the week, we gathered with the local believers to share in the Lord's Supper. Paul was preaching to them, and since he was leaving the next day, he kept talking until midnight.

Worship is the normal and routine expression of believers who are developing a deeper, more personal relationship with the living God.

What does this say for those who do not attend worship? I’ll leave it to you to draw your own conclusions.

But listen to this please: People excuses about shopping:

"Why I Don’t Go Shopping: (1) Whenever I do, people ask for money; (2) I shopped all day and only three people said anything to me; (3) The air conditioning is set too low; (4) Often I have to be there for hours; (5) Hey, You don’t have to go shopping to be a consumer; (6) My parents forced me to go when I was little; (7) Sorry, I have to take my kid to church."

III. Worship is our privilege.

It is almost unexplainable to me that we have the opportunity to enter into the very presence of the Holy God of the Universe as we worship Him.

Not everyone has such access to the throne! This privilege is granted to believers only; those who, through the blood of Christ, have seen the wall that separated us from God destroyed

Eph 2:14 For Christ Himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in His own body on the cross, He broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.

Eph 2:15 He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in Himself one new people from the two groups.

Eph 2:16 Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of His death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.

Eph 2:17 He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from Him, and peace to the Jews who were near.

Eph 2:18 Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.

This means that we enjoy a unique relationship with God where...(1) We are in Him (see 1 John 5:20); (2) He is in us (see John 14:23); (3) He seeks our worship (see John 4:23). Those who do not possess this kind of relationship with God do not have this kind of access to Him (see Psalm 5:4).

Illustration: When President Lincoln was elected to the White House there were many people who wanted to get time with him to talk about their special causes. It was not uncommon to find long lines of men and women hoping to get just a few short minutes with the man in the Oval Office. One day, as the people were waiting patiently for the chance to talk with the President for even a few moments, a young boy came into the waiting room, pushed through the crowd, passed through the security and into President Lincoln’s office. One of the hopefuls, who had been waiting in line for hourss was outraged and said to no one in particular, "what gives that young man the right to visit the President while we wait?" A fellow standing beside the man looked at him as if he had just asked the dumbest question of all time and said, "that’s Todd Lincoln, the President’s son! He doesn’t need an invitation."

The Bible tells us that those who receive Christ are children of God (see John 1:12) and that our Heavenly Father’s door is always open. What a great privilege we have to, bask in His glory!

IV. Worship is our proof. What we worship determines what we value. It influences us to the point that our pursuits are generally oriented toward the thing(s) we worship. For example, when I was a little boy, I wanted to be a professional baseball player. But not just any professional baseball player. I wanted to be a Pittsburgh Pirate because I grew up about 25 miles northwest of the city. My dad bought me a Pirate hat that I wore all the time. When I was drafted onto my little league team, I was overjoyed to learn that I was going to play on the Cranberry Pirates. I collected baseball cards like a lot of little kids in the late 60’s and early 70’s. The only ones that meant something to me were those players from my favorite team. I even listened to the radio with my father when their games were broadcasted and could name the starting lineup. I even tried to catch the ball the way Roberto Clemente did and hit the way Willie Stargell did. If you spent any amount of time with me back then, it would not have taken you very long to realize that I loved the Pittsburgh Pirates. Application: There is a principle taught in the Scriptures that is fundamental to many areas of life. It is found in Matthew 7:15-20. It says that the fruit that a person produces reveals much about the kind of person he or she is. Let’s look at it together (read Matthew 7:15-20). Christians reveal much about their own spiritual identity when they worship God. As we give Him first place in our lives, we are professing our allegiance to Him above anything or anyone else. We are declaring that we love Him first and foremost and that we want to please Him above all others.

Conclusion: You can tell a lot about a person by what he or she worships. James Michener, writing in his book, "The Source," tells the story of a man named Urbaal, who was a farmer living about 2200 B.C. He worshiped two gods, one a god of death, the other a goddess of fertility. One day, the temple priests tell Urbaal to bring his young son to the temple for sacrifice, if he wants good crops. Urbaal obeys, and on the appointed day drags his wife and boy to the scene of the boy’s “religious execution” by fire to the god of death. After the sacrifice of Urbaal’s boy (and several boys), the priests announce that one of the fathers will spend next week in the temple, with a new temple prostitute. Urbaal’s wife is stunned as she notices a desire written more intensely across his face than she had seen before, and she is overwhelmed to see him eagerly lunge forward when his name is called. The ceremony over, she walks out of the temple with her head swimming, concluding that “if he worshipped different gods, he would have been a different man.” When we worship the God of the Scriptures, He makes us different.