What is Worship Part I

Scripture for our sermon is Psalm 96. We'll read

all 13 verses. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song.

Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord.

Bless his name. Tell of his salvation from day

to day. Declare his glory among the nations.

His marvelous works among all the peoples. For

great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.

He is to be feared above all gods. For all the

gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but

the Lord made the heavens Splendor and majesty

are before him strength and beauty are in his

sanctuary Ascribe to the Lord O families of the

peoples ascribe to the Lord glory and strength

Ascribe to the Lord the glory do his name bring

an offering and come into his courts Worship

the Lord in the splendor of holiness. Tremble

before him, all the earth. Say among the nations,

the Lord reigns. Yes, the world is established.

It shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples

with equity. Let the heavens be glad and let

the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar and all that

fills it. Let the field exult and everything

in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest

sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes. For

he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the

world in righteousness and the peoples in faithfulness.

Just a short prayer from Psalm 119. God, till

bountiful with us your servants, that we may

live and keep your word, open our eyes, fill

our hearts, that we may behold and treasure the

wondrous things out of your law. This is our

plea By your grace in Jesus name Amen So today

we take a break from Matthew and we start a series

on worship Let's just get this out of the way

when I say worship I'm talking about a lot of

things a lot of things We can't just think about

singing. We just can't think about Reading our

Bible, we can't think about sacrifice. When we're

talking about worship, we're talking about a

lot of things. And that'll come out as we go

through this for a few weeks. So here's some

questions I hope that we can answer after this

series. Now, these questions aren't in the bulletin.

They are in an article on the website, on our

church website that's called... Can there be

or could there be something wrong with our worship?

There's eight questions. You can go back and

look at it. My suggestion is consider these for

the next few weeks. Here they are. What is worship?

What happens when you worship? Who is worshiped

for? You or God? How important is worship for

the Christian life? Do you worship? Specifically,

do you worship privately, with your family, and

weekly with the church? Question six, does it

matter how you worship? Seven, does God command

you to worship? Does he command you to worship

privately with your family? weekly at church?

And then lastly, how important is it to weekly

worship with the church? So as we start this

series, I'm going to put – I want to load this

up on the front end as much as I possibly can,

because I want to be clear of our purpose of

why we're spending time… looking at this topic.

So I want to help you see the starting point,

the path, and the end. Okay? Why focus on worship?

Number one, worship is the most important thing

you do as a Christian. Now don't, like I said,

don't just assign one thing to that meaning.

Worship is the most important thing you do as

a Christian. I also said at the beginning of

the year that we're going to make this a year

of practical Christianity. Worship is the most

practical thing you can do as a Christian. Now

I know this is a broad statement and you might

feel like you want to disagree with that. That

worship is the most important and the most practical

thing that we do. But as we go through this series,

as we define worship biblically by the help of

God's grace, I think we will grasp a better understanding

of what worship is. And if we do that, I'm pretty

confident that you'll end up agreeing with me

on that statement. That worship is the most important

thing that we do. Spurgeon says in a sermon on

worship, one of the first signs of God's presence

among a people is that they take great interest

in divine worship. And I think that's true. So

why are we focusing on worship? Number one, it's

the most important thing we do as Christians.

But number two, our worship needs reformation.

I'm of the thought that we need some correction

in our understanding and application of true

worship. And the reality is that that's always

the case. And it always will be the case. As

we are still in the battle with flesh. We have

been redeemed from the bondage of sin, but we

have not been fully redeemed from the effects

of it. And as long as we walk through those two

doors in this flesh, on this side of the return

of Christ, there will always need for us to better

understand what the Bible says is worship and

how to do it, what its purpose, and so on and

so forth. As I already mentioned, okay, understanding

what worship is, private, with your family. corporately

or what I might say publicly the what the why

the how as you think about those three things

those three those three places where you can

worship as an individual as a family and corporately

or publicly I might use the word corporate when

I'm referring to what we're doing now or I might

use the word public as to what we're doing now

and I think as time has gone on in church history

which we're part of, as time has gone on, the

priority for those three things have been individual,

family, maybe corporate, and then family. I want

us to approach this series in understanding what's

happening on all three of those levels, but here's

what I think is happening in church history and

even affects us, is that we prioritize the individual

aspect of worship and give less significance

to the practice, or I'm sorry, the worship as

a family and the worship as a church, public

worship. I think we need a bit of realignment

in those three things and I'm not... going to

prioritize those. I'm not going to say one is

higher or greater than the other. All three are

necessary, but I think as the world that we live

in has become more individualistic, right? Where

we are separated and we're connected through

Facebook and text messaging and everything in

our world is trying to serve us as individuals.

And there are some good doctrines of The Reformation

and that we can pull from the scriptures that

express the importance of individual worship,

but sometimes the church will over -apply those

doctrines to the detriment of worship with family

and with the body. So J .C. Rowell says this

regarding the worship of the saints. public and

corporate setting. Just as you may lay it down

as a certainty that where there is no private

prayer, that would be private worship, there

is no grace in a man's heart, so you may lay

it down as the highest probability that where

there is no public worship, there is no Church

of God and no profession of Christianity. And

that's how extremely important it is. As your

pastor, I don't want us to underestimate and

misunderstand the what, the why, and the how

of worship, and how that should affect us individually

and as families and publicly when we come together.

And as we're going through this, if I say something,

Don't just be, is he talking about me? It is

a little church, and I know you all, and I know

myself, and I can see all of our shortcomings

in worship. And it is not a place for us to go,

no, no, no, no, no, and wag our finger. My job

is to feed you. And correct you. And that's what

I hope that we can do as we give ourselves to

this glorious topic, this glorious purpose of

worshipping the triune God, the Father, the Son,

and the Holy Spirit. I might be exaggerating,

and if I am, it's not intentional. But I'm convinced,

because of how important worship is, I'm convinced

that this is the most important thing that I've

ever preached to this church in the last four

years. That's how important I think this is,

and that's how important I think our reformation,

our spiritual reformation and revival of our

worship is needed privately, as families, and

corporately. So what are we gonna do this morning?

Psalm 96. We're gonna look at the most fundamental

level, the basic principles of worship. We got

to know what it is. What's going on. Now Psalm

96 is good because it gives us a look into worship

really regardless of whether we're in the Old

Testament or the New Testament. Even though the

Psalms in the Old Testament. It is written in

such a way where it sort of defies where you

are in redemptive history. Like, if you're a

basketball player, when you shoot a three -pointer

versus a free throw, it's a different shot. There's

some differences, but the basic fundamentals

to do it well are going to be the same. So the

basic fundamentals of worship to worship well,

regardless whether you're in the old covenant

or new covenant, are going to be the same. There's

just some discontinuity on how that's expressed.

And that's what we're going to be looking at

over the next couple weeks. So we're going to

Psalm 96. And let's start by looking at the structure.

Now, if you'd like to mark in your Bibles, here's

some markings you can do. You can sort of bracket

the sections here, and I'll give you the brackets,

the sections, and then their names. This is also

in your bulletin. Verses one through three, that's

a section, that's something you can bracket off,

and then you can name it commands or actions

of worship. Section two, which is verses Four

through six. You can bracket that one. Four through

six. Again, this is in your bulletin, so if you

don't like writing in your Bible, you can do

this in your notes. Section two, verses four

through six, is information or reasons for worship.

Reasons for worship. 7 through 10, which is the

third section, is similar to the first section,

commands, or the acts of worship. And then the

last section, verses 11 through 13, is the same

as the second section, information, or the reasons

for worship. So that's sections. One and two

or one and three are the same. Those are the

commands of worship or the acts of worship For

the second the second section in the fourth section

Those are the information or the reasons for

worship look at maybe you can kind of see that

as you're thinking through this But let's look

at section one to help us understand this Section

one because you might be thinking how did you

come up with this? Like what what's telling you

this well? grammar Grammar is telling me this.

I can look at the verbs and understand the point

of the verse, the point of the sentence. Section

one and section three, the point of the verbs

is to tell you, you must do something. It's commands

or the grammar, it's an imperative verb. It's

telling you not that you should do something

or you can do something, but you must do something.

It's a command. What are the commands in section

1, verse 1 through 3? You're commanded to sing

three times. You're commanded to bless. You're

commanded to tell. And you're commanded to declare.

All imperative verbs. All commands. Not what

you may do, but what you must do. Section 3,

verse 7 through 10, same thing. Very similar.

We get a scribe. three times. You can also think

of it as give, give, give a scribe. Then you

get bring, come, worship, and tremble. Again,

all commanded. Not that you may do it, but that

you must do it. Now, what does section two and

section four tell us? There's no commands in

those two sections. Those two sections are just

giving you information or as we said the reasons

for worship Nowhere in section 2 do you find

and for do you find imperative verbs telling

you what you must do instead? They're conveying

reality Now on your bulletin in the notes you'll

see there's a section at the end that's in the

inside called major takeaways. I have four of

them. They're written down already and I'll tell

you as we get to them. Here's the first one.

And so when I say major takeaway, talk about

something important. These takeaways we're going

to take away and carry throughout this series.

So these are fundamental points for worship.

Number one, the first major takeaway. True worship

doesn't take place in the commands but in the

reality. True worship doesn't take place because

you are told to worship True worship comes from

hearing and believing the truth The command verses

are there to help us express our worship to instruct

our expression of worship look at the verses

in section two, and see what I mean about conveying

truth or the information, the reason for worship.

Okay, verse four. For great is the Lord and greatly

to be praised. And you might go, oh, look, no,

it tells you to... That he ought to be praised

greatly. It's not a command. It's not an imperative

verb. It's just stating a reality. Great is the

Lord, and so he is greatly – he will be praised

greatly. Just like when you enjoy – I'm going

to probably have a couple illustrations on food

today. So that pie is delicious, and it ought

to be – that pie is great, and it ought to be

enjoyed greatly. It's just stating a reality.

It's not telling you to go enjoy it greatly.

It's saying when you enjoy it, you will enjoy

it greatly. Why? Because it is great. So we see

this conveying information. For great is the

Lord and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared

above all gods. He's not telling you to fear

him above all gods. He's saying he is to be feared,

because He is a fearful God. For all the gods

of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord

made the heavens. And so what? Sing to the Lord.

Sing to the Lord. Sing to the Lord. We're going

to have a whole sermon on singing. But let me

just say this. A non -singing Christian is a

biblical contradiction. Sing to the Lord. Sing

to the Lord. Sing to the Lord. The psalmist says

three times. Why? Because great is the Lord and

greatly to be praised. You cannot read the entirety

of the scriptures and not see that one of the

most well -known visible expressions of worship

is singing. So the scriptures are full of this

pattern of revealing information and then telling

us how you Should respond to it showing the reason

for worship and then giving you the instructions

on how you ought to worship The psalmist is setting

this is what the psalmist is doing. This is what

the Bible is doing This is what I should be doing

on us on Sunday mornings This is what you should

be doing and your private worship to your families

and this is this is the beginning of worship

setting God in front of you That's what the psalmist

is doing. He's setting God before you. He's setting

God before you that you might, and here are the

three mechanisms of worship, the three fundamentals,

in order that you might observe, evaluate, and

then express. Let me say this before we dive

into those mechanics. We're going to call them

the mechanics of worship, the fundamentals. Observe,

evaluate, and express. What happens when you

focus on the instruction and not the information?

What happens when you get caught up with the

acts of worship and neglect the reason for worship?

What do you think is happening? You're just doing

work. There's no worship. It's just effort. It's

just putting out effort. And so what happens

is when you do that, when you focus on the command

and not the reason for worship, for the reality,

the truth, the information, who God is, what

He's done, is that Christianity feels more like

putting together a piece of furniture from Ikea.

You're like, I gotta look at this manual, and

I know there's the picture, and I gotta do it

and put it together. And you do it, and there's

no worship? There's no affection? There's no

humiliation and exaltation? You're saying, I

gotta do A, B, C, and D in order to get the end

product. And all that is is hallow, vain worship.

That's all it is. So we'll keep that in mind.

We'll come back to that. The mechanics of worship,

the fundamentals. And like I said, these fundamentals

go from the Old Testament to the New Testament.

There's two roles, two participants in this,

as you would say. It doesn't really work well.

We've got the object being worshipped and the

worshiper. So this definition… also applies to

idol worship. Because worship is worship. It's

just whether or not you're worshiping and valuing,

observing, valuing, and expressing to the right

object. Does that make sense? So this, evaluate

your idolatry here with this definition as well,

with these three things. So there's the object

being worshiped and the worshipper. Number one,

observation. You cannot worship what you do not

observe. You cannot worship what you do not know.

How has God given you the ability to observe?

He's given you senses. He's given you a mind.

And we usually take in the information, the observation

with our senses, whether it be hear, taste, touch,

smell, whatever. Then we process that we evaluate

that information with our minds internally Here's

the second major takeaway This kind of feels

out of place, but you'll see where I'm going

here The entire Bible is about God's objective

or mission to have a people that will worship

him for eternity Like, what's the Bible about?

It's about God gathering a people that will worship

Him for eternity. God wants to be worshipped.

That may seem pretty egotistic. That might seem

pretty self -absorbed. And if you or I had that

attitude, which we do, it is wicked. It is evil.

It is selfish. But why is it not selfish when

God wants and gathers people for him to be worshipped?

And here's sort of sub -point of this major takeaway.

When you worship God, he is actually loving you.

And I don't have time to go into that, but when

you see, observe, and evaluate God rightly and

express that evaluation outwardly… In the ways

of God, He is actually doing something to you,

for your good. He's caring for you, building

you up, solidifying your hope, your peace, your

faith. Now, since God desires to be worshipped,

and we cannot worship what we do not know, here's...

What we have to understand he has made himself

observable Because you cannot worship what you

do not observe what you do not know This leads

us to we're gonna get a little bit a little bit

of deep in the doctrine here and it's okay because

here's what I'm coming to understand The more

practical and the more Holiness you desire, the

more you desire to please God, the more you better

be grounded in the truths and the doctrines that

God has revealed in the scriptures. Your doxology,

your worship, your way of living can only go

as high as what you know. We can't say We're

not gonna be thinking all High -minded with doctrine.

We need to be practical or We can't be so practical.

We we need to know more No, the point is is that

the more you know of God his will and his understanding

the more you walk in his ways practically So

When God makes himself observable he makes himself

observable in two ways The theological language

is the doctrine of revelation, not the book of

revelation, little r, revealing. And he's done

it in two ways, in a general or natural way,

and then in a special way. General or natural

revelation, think of it this way, the natural

world around us, creation. reveals creation reveals

to every eye the reality of a creator so God

has made creation to say hey look at me and The

reality of this demonstrates his character his

goodness his wisdom his power and That revealing

is so convincing That alone is enough evidence

for God to damn an unbeliever to eternal condemnation.

To have eyesight and a mind and observe creation

and to not fall and worship God will damn you

for eternity. That's a tough one. God has made

himself known. Desires to be worshiped and he

has made himself observable. Psalm 19 one says

the heavens declare what? The glory of God and

the sky above proclaims his handiwork revelation

18 or excuse me revelation one Verse 18 for the

wrath of God is revealed from heaven against

all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who

by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

For what can be known about God is plain to them.

To who? Again, who's the subject of the text?

The unrighteous. For what can be known to them

or what can be known about God is plain to them

because God has shown it to them. He is not only

observable, he's made himself. … for his invisible

attributes, namely his eternal power and divine

nature, have been clearly perceived ever since

the creation of the world." So it says they are

without excuse. But general revelation isn't

enough. Or as an old confession of faith says,

these demonstrations, the general revelation

of God in creation… are not sufficient to give

the knowledge of God and His will that is necessary

for salvation. Again, that's a tough one, but

it's the teaching of the scriptures. You can

see that in Romans 1 -21. Look at Romans 1 -21.

For although they knew God, they did not honor

Him as God. They could see… The reality of God

and they even in their suppression they know

that he is there Yet they do not honor him as

God or give thanks to him But they become futile

and their thinking and their foolish hearts were

darkened. What do they end up doing? They end

up worshiping But what do they worship? That

which he created not him the creator They set

their eyes on the object of creation and say

there is great value in creation, therefore I

will worship creation. Same fundamentals, wrong

object. Got it? Okay, then you get special revelation.

God revealing Himself and declaring His will

through speaking directly or indirectly, so we

have the Word of God in order that He may be

known and that those who hear Him might have

life. You know the verse Hebrews 1, long ago,

at many times, in many ways, God spoke to the

fathers. He spoke to there, the fathers by the

prophets. So that would be the fathers of Israel.

But in these last days, he has spoken to us by

his son. In special revelation, God is revealing

himself and declaring his will through speaking

his word. That happened in the Old Testament

to Israel, and that has happened now through

the son. Two covenants. Two groups, two speakers,

one will, one purpose that God would have worshippers.

You remember what Jesus said to the woman at

the well? They were sort of in a back and forth

about true worship. And what did he say to her?

You worship what you do not know. When he says

we, he's talking about the Jew as opposed to

the Samaritans. Who sort of took a bit of took

a bit of the scriptures that mixed it with some

other stuff Had some other ways that they wanted

to worship Jesus said no no no no no we worship

what we know Because we worship what the word

says Special revelation God's Word Special revelation

leads people to right relationship with God bringing

atonement righteousness and holiness But the

fullness and the end of special revelation is

the word made flesh John chapter 1 we have to

John 1 · chapter mention

move on Worship only happens after you have observed

After you have been informed by God. Look at

your bulletin for a second. I don't have—yeah,

I like—just look at your bulletin. I want you

to see something. Do you know what I call this?

An order of worship. Because that's what we do

when we come together, is we worship. Now, I

want you to go home, and I want you to see the

pattern. Information. Action. Information. Action.

Reason to worship. Acts of worship. Reason to

worship. Acts of worship. And where does the

reason or the information come from? The word

read. The word sung. The word prayed. We cannot

worship rightly apart from as Paul tells Timothy

that we are devoted to the public. Reading of

the scriptures because apart from it you worship

what you do not know Which means you don't worship?

Now and finally the top of the bulletin What

does the top of the bulletin say the top of the

order of service say Seeking to set forth Christ

This is the apex God revealed you want to observe

God you must seek Christ You must set your eyes

on him when you wake up 530 in the morning and

you got to get those sleepy bugs out of your

eye you get your cup of coffee and You're like,

I don't know what is wrong with me. Why don't

I worship? Why don't what is this just feels

like a job? What is going on? Are you seeking

Christ? Are you setting Him before you? Are you

going to Him? The Word made flesh. Set Him before

you and observe Him. Don't read the words of

the Scriptures to gain or to know what you ought

to do, but read the words of the Scriptures so

that you might see Him and observe Him. And that's

what we do when we come in. We walk in these

doors, we sit down together, and we look to Christ.

We find Christ because apart from him, we worship

God, none. We think we use John 14 as in Jesus

is the literal and is true, but Jesus is the

way to heaven, the way to God. But I think what

he really wants you to understand is that he's

the only way. to bow to God, to submit to God,

to worship God. Because if you come to the Father

apart from Christ, beware. You come in these

doors week after week apart from Christ, you

are heaping up judgment upon yourself. For I

am the way, the truth, and the life and no one

will come before the Father except through me

and the veil was torn because Christ died and

the veil was open that we might come into the

presence of God and worship not have a party

not feel good about eternally about our eternal

life but to come into the presence and worship

God that is what he has done whether we're at

home at 5 30 in the morning or we're gathering

our rambunctious, beautiful children after supper,

or we come together Sunday by Sunday, Lord's

Day by Lord's Day, we come to seek the presence

of God through Christ. That is our worship. That

is who you are. And everything else Finds itself

out coming out of that growing out of that And

that that'll that'll be what we talk about as

we go through This series So that's the observation

that's the observation You cannot worship what

you do not know, but after observation there

is the evaluation of worth I'm going to set this

up, and then we're going to set it aside. And

I want you to go home, take the bulletin, and

start thinking about the observation and the

evaluation. So let's say you were interested

in the stock market. You wanted to earn some...

Money. You find a stock, a company, you observe

it, you look at all of its characteristics, its

qualities, and then what do you do? You make

an evaluation. Is this worthy, is this company

worthy of my money? And you give it a good evaluation?

What do you do? You let go of something that's

valuable to you. Why? Because you see that the

thing that you have observed and evaluated is

gonna bring you more value. Not because of what

you did, but because of the value in that thing.

This is how we'll close. If you feel, like you

know the acts of worship, you go and you see

the acts of worship. Sing, sing, tell, declare,

ascribe, ascribe, come, bring, and you can say

Bible reading, prayer, gathering with the saints.

If you see them, think about them, and you just

feel burdened by them, the problem is your evaluation.

The problem is that you've actually not set any

value or worth to God. And you look and you know,

because you're here, you know what you ought

to do. You know what a true worshiper looks like

and it's burdensome to you in the same way that

carrying a large weight is. Come to me. all who

labor and are heavy -laden, and I will give you

rest. He'll take it. He'll take your burden.

And His yoke, His burden is light. And when you

feel the relief that Christ gives you when you

taste the forgiveness of sin, when you see how

lovely and glorious the Son of God is, who come

to be sin, who knew no sin, in order that you

might become the righteousness of God. When you

see Him for as He is, when you look to Him and

observe Him and evaluate Him as altogether lovely

and worthy of your life, then those acts that

seemed burdensome become sweet. and joyful. And

you can't wait to crack open your Bible. You

can't wait to let the song fly from your lips.

You can't wait to give up anything and everything

because you see that he is altogether lovely

and worthy of your life. Let's pray. God, would

you help us? Would you take the babbling of a

fool and take it and glorify it and put it into

the hardened hearts? God, would you be glorified

in your showing mercy and grace to us? Find it

as kindness to come to us and crack open our

hearts that have grown cold and apathetic. our

hearts that have looked to just maintain a status.

Show us why you're worthy of worship. Show us

why you're worthy of sacrifice. And show us the

worth as it has been made known in the gospel.

And increase the affection for Christ in the

heart of every hearer now. And may all excuse

flee from them. God, help them to feel the lightness

of your burden and show them the weight of their

work, of their striving in the flesh. God, and

help me to give them Christ. God, help us. Help

us to fulfill our calling and our purpose. We

might worship you. Do you be glory and honor

now and forever. In Jesus' name, amen.