From Worship to Missions

Psalm 96 is a missionary Psalm. We could easily call it a great commission in the Old Testament. It flows with great ease to the reader. It begins with God commanding the entire earth to worship Him. It ends with the coming of the Lord to earth with reward for those who worshipped Him and judgment for those who did not.

It’s easily divided into three sections that all begin with a word that is repeated three times “Sing, sing, sing” (1-2), “Give, give, give” (7-8) and “Let, let, let” (11-12).

Those three sections are going to be our points this morning. However, we’re going to start with the last section “Let, let, let” (11-12).

The Return of Christ (11-13). That’s what the “let, let, let” refers to.

Let the heavens rejoice & the earth be glad

Let the sea roar

Let the field be joyful & all the tress of the wood rejoice

The Bible teaches that creation is suffering because of the curse. Creation is eager to be released from the effects of the curse (Rom 8:22 groaning and travailing).

When Christ returns the curse is released and we have a new heavens and a new earth. We often think of the return of Christ in a negative way. But as believers Scripture encourages us with the return of Christ.

This Psalms throbs with the return of Christ. When Christ returns everything sin has corrupted Christ will correct. This Psalm teaches that.

No more storms, tornadoes, hurricanes.

No one lost at sea, no earthquakes, forest fires.

Creation will be calm and filled with tranquility.

I want you to look closely at verse 13. He cometh to judge the earth.

He’s coming to judge every single person in the world. There’s a wonderful side to that.

Redeemed folks from every culture, country and century will unite together in eternal worship of the King of Kings.

That’s what God is doing. That’s where history is moving. That’s the end. This Psalm moves in the same direction as history. God’s gathering together a people who will worship and serve Him forever.

Here’s a question for all of us. What direction is my life moving? Am I busy doing what God is going to ultimately do?

Missions is doing what God is doing. A life on missions is generated from that perspective. It comes from saying “I’m going to give my life doing what God is doing. I’m going in the direction that God is moving history toward.”

The return of Christ should be a great motivator for missions.

Missions begins with worship (1-6). We move to the first section of the Psalm “Sing, sing, sing”.

People love to be exhilarated. We love excitement. That’s why we:

Watch football games

Ride roller coasters

Hunt

Fish (and let them go!)

Go to concerts

Watch fireworks

God is in the business of thrilling people. He’s been doing from the beginning.

Job 38:7 says when the angels saw God create the stars they shouted for joy. Imagine being an angel. You’re in heaven with God staring out into a black expanse. A darkness indescribable. Then God starts turning on the lights. The darkness explodes with planets, stars, constellations, comets. Light is everywhere. There are balls of fire floating through the universe, billions of stars.

The angels saw that and they shouted! God thrilled them with creation!

What’s more amazing than creation? Salvation. We weren’t there at creation we were there when God saved us. We ought to shout louder than the angels!!

We’re to sing a new song. It’s new in the sense that it describes a new work, the work of salvation in my life.

Look at verse 3. God is telling the Jewish people to worship their God in the midst of a people who do not. Declare His glory among the heathen. Tell them about His wonderful works!

Tell them you were slaves. Tell them how God had mercy on you. Tell them about the blood of the Lamb. Tell them about the Red Sea. Tell them how He is greater than all other gods. Tell them of His honor and majesty and strength and beauty (6).

Look at verse 5. Tell them they worship a false god. Don’t be afraid to walk into a foreign land and tell the people there that the god they worship is no god at all.

By the way, I think this is a great outline for the types of songs we ought to sing at church: Songs that speak of the greatness, honor, majesty, strength, and beauty of our Lord. And songs that declare the He alone can save.

But don’t miss the context here. This isn’t about singing in private. He said they were to do this among the heathen. I’m not talking melody and lyrics at this point. Our lives should be a song of redemption. There’s a lot of joy in this Psalm. There should be a lot of joy in the believer’s life.

We should be excited about being saved. How are we going to get people to join the choir if we’re not even singing in it? What is heaven but a mass choir singing praises to the One who redeemed them?

Without worship there will be no missions. If you’re not willing to sing for Him I doubt that you will be willing to be sent by Him.

Missions is the result of worship. When you love God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength you will tell people. You will tell lost people.

If we only sing our songs to one another our songs are not redemptive. They may be of redemption but they’re not redemptive. Redemptive means acting to save someone from evil. Songs of redemption can only be redemptive if they are sung to people who are not redeemed.

A life of worship is redemptive.

We must give ourselves to missions (7-10).

We see that in the second section of the Psalm. Verses 7-8 remind us to give, give, give.

The word means to ascribe, recognize. The idea is to recognize and give God what He deserves. I want you to notice something easily misses. The Lord begins speaking directly to heathen people groups here. He’s not speaking to the Jewish people in this section. He’s speaking to the kindred’s of the earth, the heathen, the Gentiles.

Who are the heathen? My mom used to call me one when I acted up.

Heathens are Gentiles. We’re Gentiles. Look at what we get to do in verse 9, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. What a blessing!

Most of us are from a European background. That means 0ur ancestors were worshipping Zeus. They were polytheistic. Someone got on a boat, crossed the ocean and told our ancestors about Jesus. A missionary did that! Now we worship the true God in beauty and truth! Someone gave their self to missions.

Now look at verse 10. This command is given to converted heathens (us). We are to say among the heathen nations “The Lord reigneth…He shall judge the people righteously!”

That’s our command. Tell the world to forsake their gods and come to Christ!

What is God’s ultimate plan?

Redeem a people from every nation

Remove sin

Remove suffering

Remove all sorrow

What is missions?

Gathering of souls from every nation through the proclamation of the gospel. That’s what we’re supposed to be about. That’s what we’re to give ourselves to.

We have a missional Savior. He gave Himself so that we can be saved.

He left glory.

He endured suffering.

He gave His life.

You can’t be serious about God and not serious about missions. Missions is what God is doing.

Let me ask you a question. What best describes your life right now?

On phone, on couch, on a boat, on a drunk, on mission?

The question isn’t are you called to missions. The question is where are you called to do missions. Some folks get to stay home, others get sent away. All are called.

Our lives and our churches can easily drift away from our ultimate call. We have to be diligent to keep ourselves and our churches focused on what God is doing in the world.

Never forget this: There is a joy in missions. It’s not awful. It’s not something to dread. It’s not like getting jury duty or drafted. It’s joyous. What greater privilege than proclaiming the gospel to the nations? What makes heaven rejoice is what should make us rejoice!

There isn’t rejoicing in heaven when you:

Get high score on Candy Crush

Catch a record bass

Save 60 % at the mall

Hit a homerun

Get ten likes on instagram.

There is rejoicing in heaven when a sinner gets saved! Joy comes to the believer, joy comes to the church when we get on mission with God.

Missions is God’s plan and my responsibility.