Worship as It Was Meant to Be, pt. 3

When God’s people worship as they are supposed to, there are several things that happen which can be observed.

God is glorified.

This is the most important element of worship.

We need to recognize His glory and offer Him praise.

Leviticus 10:3 ESV

3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’ ” And Aaron held his peace.

God wants to be set apart and glorified by His people. Worship does this.

Psalm 50:23 ESV

23 The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!”

If this were all we could accomplish in worshiping correctly, it would be enough. But there is more that can go on.

When we worship Him the way He wants, believers are purified.

When we enter into appropriate worship with our God, we realize we cannot come into His presence unclean.

Psalm 24:4 ESV

4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.

If we are to worship as individuals, we must come to Him pure. If we are to worship God as a church, our church must be pure as well.

Worship demands purity.

As Christians who want to worship God, we need to recognize our own personal sinfulness. We need to try to get away from it. The closer we are to God, the more we recognize the sin in our life and the more willing we are to try and get rid of it.

The sanctity of a church or individual is the key to the quality of his worship.

It is also the key to our own holiness. We will never attain the holiness status which God has, however - just because we can’t attain it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive for it.

We think of this process when we come to the Lord’s Supper (self-examination and cleansing). The early church observed the Lord’s Supper a lot more than we do. Some of the churches did it daily. Think about how they would come to the table and examine their lives and get rid of what was between not only them and God, but also each other. Maybe this is the reason the early church saw such miraculous things happen. We asked this question before,

Are we the ones getting in the way of allowing God to do amazing and incredible things through us and the church?

Another part of true worship is the church is edified.

The saints are built up and transformed. How we worship will not only effect the way you worship individually, but it will effect individuals within the church as well.

If your worship is acceptable, your church will be strengthened through it. If it isn’t, the church will be weakened.

When we look at Acts we can see how God blessed the church because of their worship. This church was dynamic. They were attractive.

“Edification does not mean we feel better; it means we live better.”

As we come together to worship, we become stronger as a congregation and as individuals. As a result, a transformation takes place

2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV

18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

This verse resembles what happened to Moses when he was in intimate relationship with God.

Exodus 33:11 ESV

11 Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

Moses had the most intimate worship with God, face to face. God even allowed His glory to pass in front of Moses. When this happened, Moses’ face shone. It frightened the Israelites when they saw it. Moses was changed when this happened.

All worship has this kind of transforming effect.

When we truly worship God, it will have a transforming effect on us and we will never be the same again.

Here is a very hard reality that churches need to be facing.

If the corporate worship of a church leaves people unchanged, then the church isn’t really worshiping.

If what goes on in the church doesn’t want us to follow God more fully and have greater obedience toward Him, it isn’t worship.

Worship should always result in some form of transformation.

The church will be edified through this.

Finally, in true worship, the lost are evangelized.

The true worship of a church or individual will have more impact on a lost soul than most sermons.

As we’ve gone through this study, we have seen that worship is the great purpose of the redemptive plan.

Our lives should be bent around worshiping God in such a way that people see our love for Him and want to be a part of it. When we truly love God and express that through our worship, it can’t help but have an effect on those around us. I want you to think about how you look when you are worshiping God. While you inner being may be showing something to God, what does your outer show?

Example - choir when it sings

Does what you are showing through your worship of God bring people to want to know Him? Does your worship of God express the change He has made in your life?

What do people see?

Jesus made worship an issue of evangelism. When Jesus was talking about the importance of true worship, it wasn’t given to the Pharisees or other religious leaders. It wasn’t even delivered to the crowds of worshipers on the Temple mount in Jerusalem. Jesus was speaking in Samaria, speaking to an unbeliever. He was speaking to the Samaritan woman who wasn’t a faithful follower of the Old Testament Judaism.

When you think about all the issues Jesus could have pointed out with her, the one He chose was worship. Think about what Jesus was able to do in their very brief conversation that is laid out in scripture.

He is able to convince her He is the Messiah.

He teaches her the way of acceptable worship.

He leads her to salvation.

His starting point was what she brought up which was troubling her the most,

What was the proper way to worship?

He took her from there, addressed what she needed to hear and then lead her to faith. She believed, was forgiven, and became a true worshiper of God.

When was the last time you lead someone to the Lord in the manner?

When was the last time you invited someone to service?

Why don’t we?

If our worship it supposed to truly be transforming, if it is supposed to show our love for Christ, then why aren’t we bringing people to attend something we say is so important to our everyday lives. We talk to each other about how important worship is to us to help us , but why don’t we invite people to attend with us.

One of the essential parts of salvation is having people to worship our God who provided salvation for us because He is worthy.

MacArthur shares the story of a Jewish woman who had went to the synagogue for help with her marriage, but was told they wouldn’t do anything until she was caught up on her dues which could only be paid during a service. As she was approaching the synagogue she got caught up in the crowd which was attending his church, and she entered there. She ended up returning for the next three weeks and was baptized. She spoke with him and said she really didn’t remember much about the sermons, but was caught up in the joy, peace and love that was not only expressed to each other, but towards God as well.

When we offer acceptable worship to God, people are going to come to know Christ through it.

People will see the transformation that has happened in our lives. They will see how we not only love each other, but also how we express our love to our Heavenly Father.

If someone were to sit beside you during worship who isn’t a Christian what would they see? How would they see the love you demonstrate to your Father? Some seriously hard questions you need to ask yourself and a question we need to ask ourselves as a church.

Please understand, I’m not asking you to put on a show. If that what worship is to you, then you are not worshiping correctly. Anything you express during a worship service should be an outflowing of love, honor and worship that you have for our Father. If you are doing it to impress others, you are wrong.

However, you do need to feel free enough to be able to worship our Father in a correct manner.

With all the technology we have today to get the Word out to people today, we see very little of worship taking place the way it was intended.

The following is a poem from a Puritan worshiper

GLORIOUS GOD

It is the flame of my life to worship thee,

the crown and glory of my soul to adore thee,

heavenly pleasure to approach thee.

Give me power by thy Spirit to help me worship now,

that I may forget the world,

be brought into fullness of life,

be refreshed, comforted, blessed.

Give me knowledge of they goodness

that I might not be over-awed by they greatness;

Give me Jesus, Son of Man, Son of God,

that I might not be terrified,

but be drawn near with filial love,

with holy boldness;

He is my mediator, brother, interpreter,

branch, daysman, Lamb;

him I glorify,

in him I am set on high.

Crowns to give I have none,

but what thou hast given I return,

content to feel that everything is mine when it is thine,

and the more fully mine when I have yielded it to thee.

Let me live wholly to my Saviour,

free from distractions,

from carking (distressful) care,

from hindrances to the pursuit of the narrow way.

I am pardoned through the blood of Jesus -

give me a new sense of it,

continue to pardon me by it,

may I come every day to the fountain,

and every day be washed anew,

that I may worship thee always in spirit and truth.