Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

Often, we decide what we should do based on one simple word (in English) : “Need”

For example … you may decide to give money to someone you know because you found out that they are in financial “need” … and you want to help them

or … you spend the entire day cleaning your house … why? … because your house “needs” to be cleaned

It is normal for us to want to make an impact on both the people and the environments of our lives

We feel a sense of satisfaction when the house is clean because we can see the change that has taken place … the impact our actions had on the house

We feel a sense of satisfaction when we help someone out because we can see the financial and emotional impact it has on them

And we often choose to do the things that we think will have the most impact on either our environments or the people in our lives

We often evaluate the cause and effect relationship … because it’s great to know that what I am doing is going to affect something else in a good way

But when it comes to worship … are we waiting for that same need to arise?

Are we waiting for the Lord to tell us that he needs us to worship Him … that he needs our help in some way … that if we will take the time to worship him today he will be impacted?

Worship often goes against the logic … especially when we can’t see the need to worship

God is not desperate for our worship …

God is constantly receiving worship …

So if God does not need my worship … and if he’s already being worshipped by the Heavenly hosts …

Why would I need to make worship a top priority of my life?

… Because God delights in receiving your worship

I. Psalm 104

The first 30 verses of Psalm 104 focus on God’s attributes and his mighty deeds

The psalmist is thinking upon the Lord and his greatness … thinking through what he knows about the Lord and about the Lord’s works in this world

The application of the Psalm is very simple … it is in vs. 1 and vs. 35 : “Bless the Lord”

The psalmist seeks to encourage us to bless and praise the Lord because of how great the Lord is

Now, often in the Psalms … we find phrases that include “my action” and “God’s response” … like “I called to you” (my action) … “and you answered me” (God’s response)

And so it’s easy to pull out an application like … “When I’m in trouble, I need to call on the Lord”

But Psalm 104 doesn’t have that …

Rather come up we simply have a description of the Lord … and a call to worship Him

But there is no cause and effect in this Psalm … there no “my action” and “God’s response”

Why is this?

… Because:

Our worship should not be motivated by the desire to get help

// We don’t want to be those who only worship when there’s a problem going on in their lives … and forget to worship when things are going well

Our worship should not be motivated by the desire to help God

God doesn’t need our help … he has everything that he needs … he does not benefit from the worship that we give him

Our worship should be motivated by the fact that God is worthy and deserves our worship

The reason the Lord is already surrounded by worshippers in heaven … is because he is worthy of the worship of all his creation

He receives worship from the Heavenly hosts he created … and he desires to receive worship from you and me

In fact, he desires your worship so greatly that he sent his son to die on the cross in your place that you would have access to enter his presence and worship him

II.

Why Does God Want Us to Worship Him?

Think back to when you were in school … think of your middle school days … and think of your history class … and your history teacher ...

Remember how your teacher would ask a lot of questions during the class?

“Who remembers what year the Panama Canal was completed?”

“When did Japan open its borders to the rest of the world?”

“Who was the 4th president of the United States?”

“When was Shuri Castle first built?”

Now… why was your teacher asking you all those questions?

I’m sure you know it wasn’t because your teacher couldn’t remember the answer … (most of the time)

Rather, your teacher was looking for a response from your class …

And those of you who teach know that a responsive class is a fun class … and it is a class that can continue learning

In the first message in this series, we asked the question, “What is worship?”

And the answer we found is that “Worship is our response to God … to who he is … to what he has said … and to what he has done”

God loves it when we respond to him … he delights in our worship … and as Psalm 104:34 says, he is pleased when we meditate/think upon him

But why is it that God loves to receive our worship?

… Because he loves to respond to us, as well

Worship involves our personal relationships with Jesus … we can’t worship the Lord without a relationship with him …

It’s like trying to call someone when you don’t have their phone number, LINE, facebook, instagram, whatsapp, or any other connection with them

But here’s what is awesome

As you and I respond to the Lord in worship … he is pleased … he is filled with joy … he delights in our worship

And then … he responds to us … whether by speaking to us … or by filling us with peace … or by giving us joy … or by answering our prayer … or whatever else it may be … God responds to us after we respond to him … and we end up receiving a spiritual blessing

When we worship the Lord … it opens the door for the Lord to do an even greater work in our hearts and lives …

And while we sometimes don’t see the “need” to worship … each one of us “needs” to worship the Lord more … because we each need more of him in our lives

So what is involved in our choosing to worship the Lord?

We’ve mentioned before that worship involves sacrifice … and that we must sacrifice if we are going to worship the Lord whole-heartedly

III.

What Sacrifices Are Involved in Worship?

Ourselves

God desires for us to give him our body, mind and will … to give ourselves completely to him for his purposes

Praise

Words are important in any relationship …

There was a season when all my friends wanted to do when they got together was watch movies … that’s fine … but for me it’s rather boring … relationships need some sort of conversation for them to grow … (that’s why I’d rather play cards than watch movies)

The same is true in our relationship with God … words are an important part … and in our worship, words can be prayer … they can be praise

God takes our words seriously … and he desires for our words to be used to worship him

He desires that we worship him with our words continually … from a sincere heart … lest we become hypocrites

Our words are so important to God that he even accepts our sincere praise as though it were an expensive sacrifice

Prayer

Just as God desires for us to praise him with our words … he delights in hearing our prayers

We mentioned this last week, but … the golden altar of incense in the temple/tabernacle represented the prayers of God’s people

The picture is constant prayers going up to the Lord just as the smoke of the incense continually rises to the sky

The altar was golden … not brass like the altar for sacrifices … because our prayers are made holy in Jesus Christ … and God treats our prayers with great importance

It has been said, “When you pray, it is better for your heart to be without words than your words to be without heart.”

God doesn’t want empty prayers … he desires for us to worship him with the prayers of our hearts

Service and Giving

We don’t do good works to gain God’s approval … or give our money to gain God’s blessing

But serving and giving are also ways we can worship the Lord … and he is delighted when we serve and give unto him

But we need to be careful … we need to be sure that our attitudes are right … that what we do for the Lord is coming from our hearts as an act of worship

God delights in your generosity … whether it is giving to someone in need or putting your tithe in the offering box here at the church … God is delighted when you give

But when we give out of obligation or guilt rather than worship … we lose our joy … and we miss out on the opportunity to worship in our giving

Giving should come from our hearts as a recognition of God’s grace and constant provision to us

The same is true of serving …

When we serve out of obligation … just like with giving … we lose our joy and miss out on the opportunity to worship him as we serve

But God delights when we serve him faithfully … with a worshipful heart and attitude … serving him primarily as we serve those around us

A broken heart

The Lord desires for us to worship him with hearts that are broken … hearts that recognize our failings and come to the Lord in repentance

It is impossible to worship the Lord when our hearts are hard … because hard hearts lead to rebellion against him

But it is possible to look “Christian” … to look religious … and yet have a hard heart

Think of the Pharisees … they had a religious routine … they had a religious lifestyle … they were known as being “spiritual” … yet their hearts were so hard that they rejected God’s son

We need to be careful we don’t fall into the same trap … careful that we don’t become content with a religious routine … lest our hearts become hardened toward the Lord

What does a hard heart look like?

An unwillingness to admit and confess our own sins

A bitter spirit toward another believer