Worshiping Together

Today I would like tell you a story. This is a story of three young men their names were Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. These young men served the one true God. Even when they were taken from their homes and forced into service of a foreign king they still managed to keep their faith strong. They also managed to greatly impress the king and they were promoted to prefects. Through all of this Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah never stopped trusting in their God.

One day the king decided that everyone in the kingdom should love him and worship him alone. As the object of worship the king built a statue of himself that was over 100 feet high and he commanded everyone to worship it, effectively they were worshiping him. Now these three prefects said that they could not worship the statue, they could only worship their God. There were certain people from the region that came forward and denounced them, telling the king these men would not worship the statue and the king was furious. He sent for them and questioned them about worshiping the statue. They told the king they could not worship the statue they could only worship the one true God. So what did the king do? He threw Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah into a fiery furnace, a furnace so hot the guards who where tasked with throwing them in died from the heat.

You probably all now recognize this story. The names Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were changed by the king Nebuchadnezzar to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The former were their Hebrew names, the latter their Babylonian names. We probably all know how this story ends, God rescuing them from the furnace and Nebuchadnezzar recognizing the one true God.

But that’s not the point I would like to draw from the story today, the point is here we can see two types of worship that are in direct contrast. We see the king, Nebuchadnezzar, who is only concerned with self worship and the three Hebrews Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah who are focused on worship of The One True God, even if this means death.

This is the contrast of worship that can be seen in the Christian community today. See we are sold this lie that worship is about us. Listen to Christian radio and the majority of songs are about me, about changing me, about loving me, about dying for me. The problem is this is not what worship was intended for worship is intended for so much more.

The story of worship – Who What When Why How

I. How we worship

a. Not important many different styles

II. Who we worship

a. God of Creation – Receiver (Rev. 4:11)

i. God is;

a. Loving (John 3:16)

b. Providing

i. Genesis 2 – give for us to use

ii. Matthew 6:26 - birds

c. Consistent (Hebrews 6:17-18)

i. In the same way, when God desired to show even more clearly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it by an oath, 18 so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God would prove false, we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us

d. Just

i. (OT punishment cycle) (“If I never corrected you, how would you know that I love you.”)

e. Righteous

i. (Curtain in the temple)

b. The Church – Giver

i. two or more are gathered Matthew 18.20

ii. Every instance of worship in group

1. singular herod 2:8, devil 4:9

2. or to kneel down

iii. Psalm 100 – make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth

Community of believers Eucharist

III. Why we worship

a. What we were created for

i. (Rev. 4:11) Ps 100:3 “Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.”

b. To honor God

c. To bring us closer to God

The one thing we can give that God desires

IV. When

a. We should always be in a state of worship

(Rev. 4:8)

“Desire not to live but to praise his name; let all your thoughts, words, and works tend to his glory.’ ‘Let your soul be filled with so entire a love to Him that you may love nothing but for his sake.’ ’Have a pure intention of heart, a steadfast regard to his glory in all you actions.’ For then, and not till then, is that ‘mind in us, which was also in Christ Jesus,’ when in every motion of our heart, in every word of our tongue, in every work of our hands, we ‘pursue nothing but in relation to him, and in subordination to his plea sure;’ when we too neither think, nor speak, nor act, to fulfill ‘our own will, but the will of Him that sent us;’ when, ‘whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do,’ we do it all ‘to the glory of God.” John Wesley

V. What

a. When living creatures give honor and glory to God (Rev. 4:9)

b. When we come together as a community to give glory to God!

c. When we come together as a community to serve others!

d. Worship is giving ourselves to God by giving ourselves to each other!

Worship is not about what God can do for me, it is not about me being fulfilled, or me being changed. Those things happen through the work of the Holy Sprit. We come into this building, we go out to serve other not for ourselves but for the glory of God. We come here and we go in order to worship God.

We are called to be like Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, with our worship focused on God, not like Nebuchadnezzar only desiring to worship ourselves. We must focus our worship on heaven and not here on earth.

So the question is who do you worship and is your worship strong enough to draw others into the community of God? Let us pray.