Psalm 95: Worthy of Worship

Introduction

Song: How Great Thou Art

We gather to worship - through music, prayers, and studying the Bible. Every time we gather, we’re collectively saying, “God, you are more important than everything.”

5 when I started playing piano - been a part of my life ever since. Don’t know why it stuck - opened up some amazing opportunities. Most amazing opportunity has been using the gifts and talents God has given me to lead corporate worship.

Worship gathering - Odd… We pray together, Sing together, and Listen together - you sit for 45 minutes and listen to the same person talk every week. That’s odd! Why? God is worthy.

a musical people - a singing people. ODD - What other organization gets together on a weekly basis and spends about half of their time singing together? Honest: kind of weird!

Psalms - Over and over a call to worship - to gather in the presence of God - to sing, to pray, etc. The Book of Psalms - Israel’s songbook.

Psalm 95 - 3 reasons why we gather to worship.

God is worthy of our celebration.

Psalm 95 - Reminder that what we do together engages the whole person and is driving your beliefs down into your life. Corporate worship is enjoyable. It’s powerful. It’s engaging, but it’s also a discipline. Corporate worship helps us take what we believe and put it way down into the core of who we are.

Worship is ascribing ultimate value to God by giving Him your whole mind, heart, and will. When we worship together, we’re saying to God together, “We know who you are, we know what you’ve done, and we’re giving you our all.”

Let “us” sing or “shout joyfully” - Pl. pronoun - we do it together. Corporate worship is not a spectator event! You’ve come to participate with hundreds of others in this room of ascribing worth to the God of all creation.

We worship God to celebrate who He is and what He has done.

He is the ROCK of our salvation. (Exodus 17:1-7) The people had seen salvation from a rock.

We celebrate with thankful hearts. Look at what God has done in your life!

We celebrate that we belong to Him. Passage points us to the greatness of OUR God (vs. 7). We are His sheep. You belong to the creator - through faith - you are His child. Hard to be bored in worship when you recognize who God is and who you are because of God’s grace!

We engage our hearts when we worship. Emotionally loaded words - Joyful noise (2x), bow down, kneel. Our faith not based on our emotions (I didn’t feel...), but our faith stirs emotions. Music is emotional and God is worthy of your emotions. Jesus is more worthy of your emotions than your favorite football team. Our hearts need to be stirred by God (not emotionalism - we’re after more than a feeling - but we want our emotions set on God)

We engage our minds when we worship. Good to engage emotions - but worship engages more than emotions. Worship engages the intellect. Singing reinforces biblical truth. (Memorized theology) That God loves, His grace is amazing, He died for me and His blood has washed away my sins. Prayer declares that we KNOW we are dependent on Him. Preaching engages our brains as we think about what God says and how we need to respond.

Three Challenges:

Bring your brain to worship. Don’t just let the words come across your lips. Think while you sing - what truth are you celebrating as you sing? Don’t check out of the message. Listen actively. What is God saying to you? How do you need to respond to what He is saying to you? You’ve made the commitment to be here, why not make the most of the time that you have committed to being here? What can you do to better engage during the time that you are here? Get in your seat EARLY! Notes? Where do you sit? Put your device on DND?

Bring your heart to worship. As you sing, thank God! As you sing, rejoice! Let your posture demonstrate that you are engaged in expressing your devotion to God through your worship. EXPECT God to be at work. Emotionless worship = worship that fails to understand the who you were and who you are now.

Bring your mouth to worship. As you sing you are declaring truth. You are testifying to everyone in this room, “This is what I believe.” Or, an encouraging word when you pull up on campus. “Glad you’re here.” Or, in a LCG, “How can I pray for you.” Your words reflect what you believe about God and His ability to transform lives. Your words on Sunday morning have a profound affect on those in this room who might not have a relationship with Jesus.

God is worthy of our surrender.

“Let us worship and bow down.” Again - plural pronoun.

Bible full of stories of people bowing down before God. Moses at burning bush, Joshua when he met the commander of the Lord’s army. Isaiah when he saw God high and lifted up. Peter when Jesus was in the boat with him and told him to put the net on the other side. John in Revelation when in the presence of Jesus.

In Bible, people bowed when keenly aware of God’s presence. Sacredness of this moment - gathered to worship the King of kings with the real awareness that He is present among His people. We don’t believe in a God who is dead, or who is far away - BUT a God who is alive, who is near, and we can experience Him.

The posture of worship: bowing down in humble surrender. We’re here to honor God, hear God, and obey God. That’s it! This passage is a call to engage God with our heart, our mind, and our will.

Why bow down? God is a great God, a great King above all gods. He is our shepherd.

The goal of worship is not:

To enjoy the service. Worship is not man-centered. It’s God-centered. We’re blessed to have technology, gifted musicians, etc. But, we don’t need these things because the goal is not a service for you to enjoy but an encounter with God. What we need for an encounter with God: God’s Word, the Spirit’s work, and worshippers with pliable hearts.

To evaluate the service. You’re going to walk away evaluating today. I am too. Was the service too long? Did I hear my favorite song? Was the preacher on point? Did I feel the presence of God this morning? Were my kids ministered to?

The goal of worship is not your satisfaction. It’s God’s satisfaction.

God is present to enjoy us. We’ve gathered to bring pleasure to God, not to please ourselves.

God is present to evaluate us. This morning, He is evaluating your heart. Where do you stand before Him? As He evaluates, He’s revealing to you areas where you need to evaluate yourself - where you need to do business - calling you to surrender to Him.

God is present to call us to obey. Glorify God NOT just by your presence in this room, but your obedience to His voice. “I’m here. I’ve done my part.” That’s not surrender. That’s checking in, like some of us call our parents once a week. God desires more than a check-in.

Have you come to bow down? To lay your life before Him? Or, have you gathered to critique?

God is worthy of every moment.

You listening to God is more important than you singing to God.

Passage shifts from a call to worship to an abrupt warning.

“Remember your past and how Israel has hardened their hearts in the past. Don’t do it again!”

Ex. 17- People complain because they have no water.

All the people wanted was REST. Wandering in a wilderness. No place to call home. Searching for water. They complain. Instead of thinking about what God had done and given them, they focused on what it seemed like God was not giving them.

Moses: “What should I do with these people?” Struck rock and water came out - Place named Massah and Meribah as a reminder of their complaining about what they didn’t have instead of trusting God for their provisions.

Num. 20 - a similar incident. History repeats itself. This time, Moses wasn’t supposed to strike the rock - simply speak to it. Yet, in frustration, he struck it.

Instead of choosing to bow down - we often choose to complain about what God isn’t doing in our lives, when we don’t get our way, etc. Or, in our frustration, we choose to ignore what God has told us to do.

Israel wanted rest, but it didn’t seem like God was giving them rest. So they complained. They didn’t worship, and as a result they didn’t enter God’s rest.

The Psalmist doesn’t want us to repeat the mistake of the Hebrews. “Don’t complain. Give God your now - Worship Him now - even if life isn’t giving you what you want.”

Worship is intended to soften your heart. Your heart is prone to hardness - to disbelieve God, to complain, etc. Worship reminds you that God can be trusted.

Interesting - Hebrews 3:7-11 quotes Psalm 95:7-11 verbatim and then: “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” (Hebrews 3:13)

God is worth you giving Him this moment. “Today… listen… Don’t put it off… Trust God now.”

God is worth you giving Him every moment. What starts here continues. This morning - an encouraging site - God’s people together, humbled before Him, saying, “Yes, to His will.” What if we encouraged each other daily to worship? What if we encouraged each other daily to bow down before God? What if you called, texted, etc. and just encouraged people in their walk with the Lord?

Today: if you hear His voice - do not harden your hearts. Hebrews 4 - Hebrews missed rest - but for you promise of entering rest still stands.

The King of the universe offers you rest - Let this truth soften your heart - This great God gives you an invitation to find rest - peace - in a relationship with Jesus. He is worthy of your worship because He is the King of the universe who humbled Himself to the point of death on a cross for your sins. He is the King because He rose from the grave for your salvation! Talk about greatness! Unbeliever, give your life to Him!

Believer: complainer or worshipper? Evaluator or evaluated? Going through religious motions or passionately devoted? Discourager or encourager? This morning: invitation to be a devoted, passionate worshipper. Repent and worship.