RETHINK WORSHIP Part 3 Hebrews 13:15-16
Today we are coming to week
3 in our study on Worship 3 Key thoughts
#1 Worship is not a religious thing it is a human thing!
A)Everyone is a worshipper
It is not like a person becomes a follower of Jesus and starts to worship
B)People worship all sorts
of things As soon as we start to value and appreciate something form of
#2
Worship is a lifestyle!
A)Worship isnt about
singing or musical styles
B)Worship is about your
heart and how you live your life.
1)What we do here at Church
we call worship is only ONE expression of what should be the heartbeat of our lives.
C)When
we struggle with musical styles Hymns vs Praise songs
1)Or When we are not in the
mood it is an indication really not living a life that says God I want to
glorify you.
D)Focus is on me My mood
My taste my needs and not Him
1)We have got to learn to
get self off the throne and God on the throne in our lives.
Worship is a lifestyle!- Manner of Life! It is a perspective that affects the way we live!
#3
You become like whatever it is you worship!
A)That last point is what
makes this series of studies so relevant
B)Best thing for us is to
become more like Jesus
Now
have you ever had this thought about worship or struggle about worship in this
way.
A)Why does God want to be
Praised? Isnt it sort of Vain of God that He demands that we worship Him?
B)Some people have this
picture of God as being Insecure. Egocentric
He has to be the center of attention
Is God Vain?
C) Webster
defined Vanity as being excessively proud of oneself or one's qualities or
possessions.
1)Vanity is a distorted sense of ones self worth.
D)Listen: God does not have a distorted view of Himself
1)He is the creator and sustainer of the Universe
2)He is Sovereign Does what ..When .. How
3)Omnipotent All powerful
4)Omniscient All Knowing
5)Omnipresent Everyone at once
E)It is in Him we live and move and have are being!
It
is silly for us to become Vain become Vain thinking the world revolves around
us.
A)It does
revolve around God!
B)It is stupid
for us to get all high and mighty about our gifts and talents resources and
abilities
1)The Bible
tells us James 1:17
Every good
gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of
lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
C)Every gift
talent ability we have comes from God
So why should we
get all puffed up about it!
1)Romans 12:3 Dont think of yourself more highly than you ought to
think.
The
Lords Chief desire of us is that we Love Him!
A)Jesus said in Mark 12:30
This is the first and great commandment
And you shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your
mind, and with all your strength.
B)His
command is that we love Him not tell Him how wonderful He is 10 times
a day.
1)However True heart felt
Praise and worship is one of the ways that we can express our love to Him
C)Early in his Christian
walk C.S. Lewis struggled with this same thought - All of the commands in the
Psalms to Praise God
Lewis
said: It seemed to picture God as craving for our worship like a vain woman
craves for attention and compliments.
But
the most obvious fact about praisewhether of God or anythingstrangely escaped
me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I
had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise
. I think we delight to praise what we enjoy
because the praise
not
merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed
consummation.
Lewis
Reflections on the Psalms (pp. 94-95),
We
give Praise to a woman for her beauty or for a great meal that she made Praise for how good it was
A)We give Praise for Heroic
action
B)If a group of fire fighters rush into a burning building
and pull out 10 pp.
1)We are there on the scene
they come out we applaud and cheer not just the outcome but the heros!
C)We naturally give praise
for worthy acts.
D)It is not predicated upon
our mood or what is going on in my our lives good or bad.
1)The Heroic act demands a
response to not respond is to say it is not worthy of a response
E)Worship = Worth-ship!
Could
there be a more Heroic act worth of Praise then God sending His son to
rescued doomed man
A)There is an obligation to
Praise God because of Who He is He is worthy
B)And His actions our worthy
Praise and Worship
are ways to express our
delight in who He is
1)And to express our
appreciation for what He has done.
C)1st study: Worship involves Wonder. The
Throne!
2nd
Study Worship involves Reverence. Balance between Gods
immanence and His transcendence
Immanence He is near
Transcendence He is
Superior He is holy
Worship
happens quite naturally when we get God in View Hearts filled with Wonder and
Reverence
A)But that isnt always easy
to do Life is full of Distractions.
B)Problems
Responsibilities Pressures
1)All of which can Distract
us from really seeing God
C)So today we want to look
at how worship involves an act of the Will.
V.
15 Therefore by Him or through Him Lets us
A)Speaks of a decision an
action a choice on our parts
B)Before
we break this down consider the first mention of the word worship in the Bible
Genesis 22:5
Abe travels to Mt Moriah
with his son and some servants and says to the servants stay here with the
Donkey the lad and I are going to go YONDER and worship!
Bonanza Hoss little Joe
YONDER
Question:
What did Abe mean when he said that they were going to worship?
A)Was he saying they were
going to go up on the MT and break out a guitar and start singing ? NO !
B)No worship in the OT was
more often than not associated with the offering of a Sacrifice.
C)IN this case in the life
of Abe it meant Sacrificing his Son Isaac God said go
Abraham
goes to offer His son Isaac to the Lord.
A)Weird request test
Abrahams heart not so much for God because God knew His heart
B)But for Abraham to see
where His heart was at.
C)Abe is ready to follow
thru believing that if God had him actually go thru with it He would bring
Isaac back to life Promised Child
The
worship that is being described here is that of Complete submission and
surrender to God on the part of Abe.
A)That is why in the first
study we started with the scene around the throne because Worship is about
getting self off the throne and getting God on it
B)That involves an Act of
the will I have to be willing to align my life with Gods plan
1)He is not going to force
that/ but He does require it.
C) That act of the will is
going to be motivated by my understanding of who God is and what He has done
Here
in the book of Hebrews the Writer is building a case for How Jesus was that
final sacrifice
A)He was the best Sacrifice
He was offered up once for all and Once and for all.
B)Other words No longer a
need for animal sacrifices
C)But there is another form
of sacrifice that is appropriate RD V. 15-16
15 Therefore by
Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit
of our lips, giving thanks to His name. 16 But do not forget to do good and to
share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
The
Sacrifice that we now offer to God is two fold.
1st Sacrifice of praise {First commandment Love
2nd Sacrifice of
our lives { 2nd Love your neighbor
Praise from our lips and
Praise from our lives
Now
what comes to mind when you hear the word Sacrifice?
A)I think for many of us it
has a negative connotation
B)Something I have to do
that I would rather not do
1)Your grandma and grandpa
are coming for visit you have to sleep in your little bros room
C)Ok I will sacrifice if I
have to
We often
think of Sacrifice as being put out!
A)I will go there and do
that give to this
because it is necessary
that I make a sacrifice
B)That is not the way that
God wants us to look at Worship
C)God wearied of Israels
sacrificing in that way.
Isaiah 1:11-14
11 "To
what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?" Says the Lord.
"I have
had enough of burnt offerings of rams
And the fat of
fed cattle.
I do not
delight in the blood of bulls,
Or of lambs or
goats.
12 "When
you come to appear before Me,
Who has
required this from your hand,
To trample My
courts?
13 Bring no
more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the
Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies
I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.
14 Your New
Moons and your appointed feasts
My soul hates;
They are a trouble to Me,
I am weary of
bearing them.
Amos 5:21-23
21 "I
hate, I despise your feast days,
And I do not
savor your sacred assemblies.
22 Though you
offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them,
Nor will I
regard your fattened peace offerings.
23 Take away
from Me the noise of your songs,
For I will not
hear the melody of your stringed instruments.
Now
why would God say that- He prescribed the way that He was to be worshipped
& approached
A)Why would He say that he
was tired of it and even say he hated it?
B)I think Jesus summed it up
Matthew 15:8-9
Matthew 15:8-9
"These
people draw near to Me with their mouth,
And
honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. In vain they worship
Me.
C)He was more interested in
their hearts than he was their ritual.
1)Their hearts were far
and full of iniquity they were just going thru the motions.
We can be guilty of the same
thing During worship we sing I love you
Lord thinking I wonder what time the game is
on today.
You are holy Lord and oh there is so
and so I need to connect with them after service today
Mighty to save Why is that
light flickering the stage plants are crooked who choose these
paint colors
Some
of us view a Church service the way that we evaluate a movie
A)You go to a movie theater
what are you concerned about?
B)You are concerned about
where you are going to sit! Who is going to sit by
you
1)Hopefully no noisy little
kids
C)When
watching a movie you are being entertained You dont participate
1)You are a spectator just
sit and watch
Again that is
how some pp approach Church
When
I go to the movies I pick the movie the theater doesnt pick it for me.
A)And when the movie is over
we walk about of the theater asking one simple
question what did U think?
B)And the way that we
critique a movie isnt based on some guidance
principles or redeeming value
1)No it is purely based on
my own personal preferences!
C)How many of us
do the same thing here?
God
looks at Sacrifice a whole different way.
A)Better to use the word
offering!
B)Make an offer on a house
I see the value in it.
C)Proposal of marriage is an
offering making an offer of love and commitment because I am in love
D)Peace offering Say I am
sorry
C)Offer to help because I
care { I see the value in the project.
Offering is born out
a heart that sees the worth and value of the thing that you are offering
yourself to.
A)Born out of a heart of
love that cares that wants peace.
C)When we offer up an
offering of praise we are saying God you are valuable to me I love you
1)My relationship to you is
worth everything to me!
Wrap
this up by noticing 4 things about this exhortation:
A) #1
Come to God through Jesus! 15 Therefore by
Him let us come
How are we accepted ?
Welcome Approach. Thru Jesus
#2 Come
Continually - let
us continually offer the sacrifice
A)"In systems like Judaism sacrifices were offered at
set times, but for Christians praise goes up all the time.
B)Since
a loving God is working out his purposes all the time, there are no
circumstances in which praise should not be offered
1 Thessalonians 5:18 In everything give thanks; for this is
the will of God in Christ Jesus
for you.
Not predicated on how I am feeling or
what is happening in my life.
We
have so much to be thankful for
Cross
Every gift is from him
See a friend who has gone
off the deep end Except for the grace of God there go I
Our need is to slow down and
reflect a little
#3
Offer Praise which is the fruit of our lips!
A) John 15:8
By this My
Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
B)Such a simple way to
please God Praise from our lips being fruitful.
C)Gods goal is fruit Praise
is fruitful
Language of Hell grumbling
and complaining
Language of heaven Praise
This
again involves an act of the will Involve my heart soul mind and strength
A)Choice to focus on Him
not the circumstance or surroundings.
B)If
the circumstance or surroundings are bad I need to pray talk to God.
1)But I also need to Focus
on what is Good!
C)I long to be a part of a
community of believers that just wants to SEE and SERVE God.
1 Peter 2:5-6, 9-10 We are
called a Holy and Royal priesthood whose
role is to , to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
And to proclaim
the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
#4
But we dont just praise God with our lips We also praise God with our lives
V. 16
16 But do not
forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
We are Priest
and there is a vertical dimension to our priestly calling lifting up praise
to God
A)And but ther is also a
Horizontal aspect to it as well
B)Doing
Good Practical service giving of our lives as an offering to
others.
1)Time, energy, resources,{ Sharing Romans 15:26
James 1:27
Pure and
undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows
in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
James 2:15-17
If a brother
or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and
filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the
body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have
works, is dead.
Praise
of life & Sacrifice of Service.
A)Ideas Serve a meal to
soldiers on Dec 7th
Angel tree
B)Salt and light Community
service
C)PRC / Birth Choice
D)After School program 10
different community service things we are involved as a Church
1)Serve
Listen
it is not one or the other it is both
A)Not I am not into the singing thing but I will serve!
B)Or I dont have the time
to serve but I will sing
C)It is the Loving God with
our whole person Fullfilling those two commandments
D)Love God with My whole
heart Sing with sincerety my heart and soul
1)My mind Intellectual
think about what it is I am singing
E)My strength Energy not
half way
And I am going to look for
way to Serve and to Share
AMEN
Mary
vs Martha