In a Dry and Weary Land

Opening Prayer

Let’s open with prayer. If you have a prayer concern, just offer it up out loud in this space. It can be a situation, a need, a family member or friend. When I sense we are finished I will close out our prayer.

O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Introduction

What is worship? From the beginning worship has always been the highest value of the Vineyard. It’s the core of our DNA. Vineyard began as a worship renewal movement.  People longing for a more authentic experience of their relationship with God. Vineyard became the leader in new contemporary worship scene. Vineyard Music not only had God as the subject, but it was sung to him. 

When I say “worship” what most easily comes to mind?  Probably singing for most people. But worship isn’t only singing. The Hebrew word for worship means to bow down toward something. It’s what we bow our lives toward. What we magnify as most beautiful and worthy. So in worship we offer our whole selves to God. That might be in corporate or private singing. Reading and meditating on scripture. Observing the Lord’s Supper.

But it can also be through ways that seems less religious. It can be at any time we offer ourselves to God for his glory. We can do it while we make our family a meal, while we are at work or school, or helping a neighbor out. We can offer ourselves to God in authentic worship in multiple ways.

Does worship matter?

I want to talk about essential practices that help shape us to be Christlike.

Is worship essential to our lives? I started questioning the purpose of worship pretty early in my walk. It was often presented as a duty. To my young mind it seemed very egotistical of God to require my worship. Was he like Ramses in Nacho Libre that needed someone to tell him he’s number one while getting a rub down?  I thought God didn’t need anything, so why did he need my worship?

It took a long time to come to the realization that worship wasn’t for God’s benefit but mine. I need to worship! Worship meets us at the point of our deepest needs and longings. So worship, like other spiritual habits, is a gift from God for my benefit!

This morning we heard Psalm 63, written by King David as he reflected back on a time when God seemed very far away. David is running for his life again, dying of thirst in the middle of the Judean wilderness. But he’s not running from Saul. This is much later, after he had become king over a united Israel. His kingdom, he thought, was secure. God was with him! But then is oldest son, Absolom, leads an uprising against David, making David have to flee Jerusalem, and Absolom proclaims himself king in his place. And now he is bent on murdering his own father. I can’t imagine the despair David feels in this moment. I think it is likely that David is asking, “Where is God?” “Why does he seem far off?” “Has he abandoned me?” “Does God know what’s happening?” But as these moments of crippling fear and doubt seem to be overwhelming him, how does David meet it? I think he had already discovered an essential practice of our faith. He worships. He writes a song!

Do you ever have time when God seems distant? Have you ever felt abandoned by God? These are normal human experiences, even for those who have commited their life to serve God. The question is, what will you do about it? Will you give in to the despair, or will you rise above it in worship?

What makes worship an essential practice of the Christian life?

Worship is an act of allegiance

“God, you are my God” Right off the bat we see that Worship is a act of allegiance. In worship we say that, no matter what assails us, no matter how bad things get, we will not forsake our God. He is our God, and he alone can save us, and will save us.

Through worship we say ‘no’ to false idols. We say ‘no’ to the lure of the enemy to choose the easy path. We say ‘no’ to our flesh to give in to sinful cravings. In worship we set our hearts on God alone and pledge our allegiance to the Lamb.

Worship acknowledges a need in me that I can’t fill

“my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you” Next we see that Worship acknowledges that there is a need in me that I am incapable of filling. In worship I express my dependence. I am not self-sufficient. I am not an independent entity. My life, my livelihood, depends utterly on God. And that’s a very good thing, because left to my own devices I would mess everything us for sure.

We are all worshippers, and this is reflected by what we seek after. What we crave. We have a hole in our heart, and we seek something to fill it - relationships, money, sex, drugs, rock n roll. In worship we acknowledge that we can’t fill the God-sized hole inside us. Worship is our heart turning in humble trust to the only one who can fulfill and complete us. What do you crave?

Real presence

“I have looked upon you in the sanctuary” Sanctuary is the Hebrew word, Kodesh - lit. holy place. Worship draws us into God’s real presence. The idea is of entering into the holy of holies where God’s glory dwells. This was a place previously reserved only for the high priest, and only once a year, yet is now open to all through Jesus.

Something the church has historically believed is that when we enter the sanctuary, we leave normal time and space, and enter sacred time and space. That’s why they put so much work in cathedrals and abbeys of old - they wanted to communicate to worshippers that this is holy ground. It’s not holy bc God lives here like he lived in the Temple. It’s holy bc this is the place God meets with us as we gather in his name. He promised his very real presence. Some authors have said that in the gathering of the saints in worship the air becomes “thin”, meaning the barrier between this world and the next is at its thinnest.

But its not just the public gathering - although I believe they offer a unique way to be present to God - but also our private worship. David said, “I think of you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night.” Thinking about God kept David up at night! Our worship must overflow into the other six days of the week, if what we are doing is truly worship. How can we enter into the very presence of God and leave unchanged?

Whole person

“my lips will praise you. I will lift up my hands and call on your name. My mouth praises you with joyful lips” Worship demands a whole-person response. I love how the Hebrews worshipped, and how many in non-Western world still do. It’s a whole-body affair. They sing, they shout, they clap, they dance, they laugh, they kneel, they jump, they bow. In fact, most of the Hebrews words associated with worship actually involve some sort of action with the body.

Authentic worship takes God out of merely the intellectual realm and helps us worship him with our whole selves - mind, emotions, and body.

Hope

“those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth” Worship gives us hope amid oppressive problems. Think about some of the things we’ve witnessed just in the last 2-3 years.

Heartbreak in Afghanistan

Covid-19 pandemic

Racial division and riots

Political division and riots

Volcanic eruption in Hawaii

Typhoons, hurricanes, major flooding, wildfires

FEMA declared 311 disasters in the US in 2020 alone. And to top it all off - murder hornets have invaded the states! And this says nothing about the problems we’ve all faced individually.

It is easy to get overwhelmed by problems. In times of despair I don’t need to express loving feelings to God. I can’t sing “Jesus is my boyfriend” songs. What I need to be reminded of who God is. I need to be reminded of his power and might and faithfulness. By enlarging our view of God, all else begins to shrink.

Worship shapes

“my soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me” Finally, Worship shapes our lives around God. Cling means “to adhere to”. In worship we are formed around the person of God, taking more and more of his shape.

This is an important truth about worship. Whatever you worship is what you’ll become. Listen closely to Psalm 115.

“Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; they make no sound in their throats. Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them.” (Psalm 115:4–8, NRSV)

You become what you worship. Whatever you bow your life to. If you worship…you become…:

money - greedy

power - corrupt

sex - pervert

popularity - compromised

We become what we worship. Worship form us. It directs us away from being formed around the idols of the world and instead forms us around God and his story. And here is the promise of worship; as we cling to God in worship, he also grasps hold of us.

Communion

The question in my mind is not ‘does worship matter’ but ‘can you thrive without it’?

Join me in the kingdom prayer Jesus taught us...

The Lord’s Prayer

Words of Institution