The Desire For Worship

Introduction

That song just made the case for everything that I’m going to present to you in the next few minutes. Worship in the twenty-first century. It’s either completely optional or subject to my own interpretation. We live in the age of serving God in our own way or not at all. And we live in an age of uncommitted brethren. Now Daniel said last Sunday night that sometimes I’m a little soft. Now he didn’t say that in so many words, but I was reading between the lines. And that’s not a soft statement, Daniel, to say that we live in an age of uncommitted brethren. People who know truth, but are less than thrilled about opportunities to worship. Maybe if we knew an apocalypse was only ours away.

Nightmare of nightmares. The internet would become inaccessible. You realize there were some serious solar flares over 150 years ago that if they happened today would totally render our electronic stuff inoperable for a good long time. Well, I didn’t even know that. We’ve been lucky. But what if we knew the end of our lives was imminent? And it could well be. Let me tell you what’s happened to us in regard to worship. We have succumbed to the drunken stupor of our world. That we are somehow immortal. Even though we’re not. Prince and Muhammad Ali testify that we’re not. Recent popularity deaths. We’re not immortal. And we’re not completely independent. So, though sometimes we think we are, and completely in control. Or that we need little beyond ourselves.

And because of this drunken stupor, as I’ve called it, worship interferes with what we would rather do. Now, let me just say. Oh, he’s guilt tripping us here. That might be a result of this lesson, but that’s not its major intention. If the result of what I’m saying today is that you feel a twinge of guilt, or maybe even something stronger than that might be a good thing.

But I had greater goals than that in mind. I was talking to a preacher friend of mine very recently about a sermon that he had preached on worship. He thought it had gone really well. He liked the sermon. He liked the delivery of the message. And the attendance on Sunday night was as bad or worse than it’s ever been. Felt like a failure. It didn’t work.

And I think one of the reasons for that is that mere guilting often doesn’t work. And if it works, it works only for a time. Perhaps a different approach. Because people aren’t listening. They absolutely refuse to change from doing what they’ve always done. This lesson may require some change. A lot of the lessons that I preach, like the one tonight, may require some change. That’s what this gospel message is all about. And if we’re not signed on to that, signed on to the possibility of that, we’re probably missing the boat completely spiritually. This message is going to require change. And so that may be the result of what I’m presenting this morning. And so you need to embrace the possibility of that. So I want to try a little bit different approach this morning than you could lose your soul.

Though you could, well, lose your soul. I mean, those words that Jesus spoke to the church, people in Christ, the church at Laodicea, when he said, Because you are lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth. Those words have to mean something. But there are those in Christ that could ultimately be lost or separated from Jesus eternally, and that was a serious matter in those letters to the seven churches. Five of them experienced serious problems in their relationship to the Lord. Okay, so yes, there is that possibility.

But wouldn’t it be better if we could approach the subject of worship? Simply being thrilled with the prospect of it. Anticipating it. And if you were listening to what Tim was saying at the Lord’s Supper, there are a lot of reasons why we should respond like this. Because of what God has done. All was shut up in disobedience, Paul says in Romans chapter 11, but he showed mercy upon us all. The reason that any of us are here today is because God has shown mercy upon us. We didn’t deserve this. We shouldn’t be allowed to do this on the basis of our goodness.

We’re here because of the mercy of God, and that alone ought to produce this result. I think we’d be more successful in our preaching about attendance. If we could create the want.

Response sometimes. I just don’t want to. If that’s the way you think, if you even acknowledge that to yourself, I can work with that. I can work with that. The bottom line is you cannot serve God in mammon. Matthew chapter 6 and verse 24. Hold to the one, despise the other, as Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount. You’ve got to make a choice. And yes, the mammon, our world, our material world is beckoning us. It causes that drunken stupor I spoke of earlier. It’s drawing us in continually. We’re going to have to fight that desire to serve mammon to serve the world.

As Paul would write to the Corinthians, as he talked about the development of a spiritual mind and a spiritual perspective about things, as he said, we, the apostles, we have the mind of Christ. He says, but the problem is in Corinth right now is that you brethren are fleshly. You’re carnal. And you need to become spiritual. He hadn’t given up on them. We see that in chapter 1 and throughout the entire message of 1 Corinthians. But their present status is too worldly to appreciate spiritual things. And so you’ve heard that every sermon about worship has probably quoted Psalm 122 and verse 1. And of course, David was talking about going to the temple, the place of worship under the old covenant, but he said, I was glad when they said to me, Let us go to the house of the Lord.

Okay, now if we could put that in our modern worship, as the Lord’s people, we don’t have to come to this place to come into his presence. But this is what we do together corporately. I was glad when we assembled as the house of the Lord, is probably the way to say it in our time. We’re the Lord’s house, we’re the Lord’s building, we’re his people. We’re assembling together in a corporate way. I was glad when someone said, it’s time to go to worship with the Lord’s people. Now, was that the way you looked at it this morning? And again, if you feel guilt about that, my point is not simply to produce that result, but to get you where David was. I was glad. I look forward to this.

So let me talk about some red flags here in the introduction of this lesson. These are warning signs. You’re going to have to do some work here. If you look at such opportunities as an infringement on your time. And hey, mine’s in big letters there for a reason. You only have time because God’s given it to you. You’re simply stewards of time. God has given you this life. He sustains your very life and breath. So we might need to look at things a little bit differently if we see worship as infringing on my time. Red flag. There’s really other things I’d rather be doing. And again, if you can admit that to yourself, we can work with that. We can work on that. Don’t deny that’s so if it is.

And that’s how exactly how some of the Lord’s people think. I would rather be doing something else, or, and it’s because number one and number two is true, that, okay, I’ll show up, at least on some kind of a consistent basis, at least enough so that the elders don’t call me. Tony doesn’t call me. I’m not disappointing to my family, and certainly I don’t get withdrawn from. Who wants that kind of stigma? And so I’ll do just enough to keep somebody from saying you need to do better. Red flag. Another red flag is you’re actually in the building, you’re a worn body in the pew, but there’s not much going on in your mind. And that’s really what worship is all about is what’s going on in here in your mind.

Not just what’s happening with your lips. And you can sing songs and your mind be a million miles from what you’re singing. You’re just not engaged for whatever reason. And I realize there’s some physiological factors that can sometimes interfere with the kind of worship we would want to render. That’s something totally different. Some people are here, even though they may not get as much out of it this week as they got out of it three weeks ago when they felt a whole lot better. But I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about where you’re generally not engaged. And I’ll tell you, I can perceive that. I can’t always judge that successfully because I don’t know people’s hearts, but I can see a lot from this vantage point.

And I can see when weak after week people just they’re unengaged with me for whatever reason. Look, it’s not my fault. If you’re asleep two minutes in, you didn’t even give me a shot at this. You got that glazed overlook, and I’m just getting started. But before I get to the nuts and bolts of this, let me say something about our assemblies themselves. Our assemblies need to be edifying, and we need to give attention to and give it some serious thought. How can we produce the best possible truthful that is following the scriptures? And yet that which builds up. What is the things that we can do the best? And we give a lot of attention to how our assemblies work because we want them to be edifying to people.

And I think associated with that, yes, our services need to be spirited. Whatever that means in regard to those who are leading that fits with their personalities, you know, I’m a little off the charts in regard to enthusiasm, but I do that because this message deserves it. The way we participate, and those of you who lead singing, I know it’s not easy, but I harp on this a lot. We’ve got to keep the tempo up. We can’t sound like spiritual death when we sing. We don’t sound like we’re glad to be here. We sound like we’re dying. So I tell young song leaders, keep it a little too fast. I’d rather go a little too fast than a funeral turge here. But even when we’ve done this, even when we have provided to the best of our ability, understanding our limitations and weaknesses, an edifying spirited assembly.

1. God Is Praiseworthy

It’s still going to boil down the way you look at it. And the benefit you either perceive or don’t perceive about what’s taking place here. And I tell you, if we’re looking at this completely from a carnal perspective, if we’re looking at this from an entertainment perspective, I’m not that good. If you want to look at this simply as an entertainment thing, then it’s not going to appeal to you. This has to do with a spiritual way of seeing things, and that’s what I want to talk to you about briefly this morning as I talk about how important worship is. And here’s the first point God is praiseworthy. And the real benefit, this is point number one. I want you to get this as a standalone point.

What happens when God’s people worship is that he is rightfully exalted, and I am humbled. And that’s a good thing. I want you to look with me to the Psalms. Psalm 138, we’re going to look at this very briefly. We’re going to look at two Psalms very briefly here. Psalm 138. I will give thanks to thee with all of my heart, the psalmist says, I will sing praises to you before the gods. I will bow down before your holy temple. I will give thanks. And that’s where worship begins with a heart of thanksgiving. He emphasizes that several times. God, you’ve helped me on the day I called. You answered me. You made me bold with strength in my soul. They will sing of the ways of the Lord, verse 5.

Great is the glory of the Lord. For though the Lord is exalted, yet he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar. There is no comfort for the haughty here. Not a comforting thing at all. And in trouble, we need him. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me. The Lord will accomplish verse 8 what concerns me. And the point I would make about that is that everything, one of the reasons why God is deserving of praise, is that everything is ultimately going to fit around God’s will and purposes. And it’s either going to fit into that or it’s going to be destroyed. God will accomplish his purposes, and we need to be on board with his will.

God is exalted and man is humbled. And part of our problem is perhaps that we don’t spend enough time outdoors. I call this David’s outdoor shepherd psalm because how majestic is thy glory. As he looks into the heavens, and what he’s impressed with, man, God’s big and I’m small. We need to come to that conclusion. How majestic, her, how excellent is your name in all the earth. And he says, when I consider what all’s going on in the universe, and I say, you’re focused on me? Little on me, little on nothing me? What is man? That thou art mindful of him. The fact that God is intimately concerned about you in the midst of all this creation, that he attends to you. We are the pinnacle of his creation.

He has set his love on us. He has shown his mercy to us.

That’s why he is praiseworthy and deserving of our praise. And so as we talk about creating a desire for worship, know first of all that one of the great benefits of worship is that God is exalted to his proper place, that I’m humbled to my proper place. Let me tell you what else happens when we come here. And this flows out of the first point.

2. I Get My Focus Off of Me

I get my focus off of me. And in our culture of it’s all about me, and everything is focused on me. Have you seen the way people drive?

It’s all about them. I’ve talked about narcissism before as a term you didn’t even hear 15 to 20 years ago. But now we live in a narcissistic culture. Where most people, their whole lives, all their circumstances, the way they approach their days, it is all about them. I’ll tell you what Sundays do for us, and times when I meet with the Lord’s people. It’s beneficial. It takes the focus off me and puts it where it’s more rightfully deserved. And I’ll tell you what else happens when we worship. The greatest realities that are entertained by our minds. And you know what? As much as I love sports, I’m not generally pointed in that direction by watching a sporting event, and certainly not by watching a drama.

3. The Greatest Realities Entertained by Our Minds

Rarely are the greater realities encouraged. Like the spiritual realm.

Our adversary, the devil, heaven and hell. Our ultimate destination is going to be one of those two places. The angels. Judgment. The soul. In fact, I think a lot of people go most of their lives without even thinking about the fact that they are a spiritual being and have a spiritual destiny, that we have a soul. And so what happens when we come here? We start thinking about the great realities that are. I want to tell you what. This is the great reality. This is the way things are. What this message is telling us. And we need to ponder that. I’ll tell you, when we come for worship, our minds are helped. Your mind is elevated. Your mind is focused on the ultimate things that are.

4. This Is What You Were Made For

Every time we come to those songs that we were singing, the thoughts that we were expressing with our lips, those are the greatest realities. And let me tell you, as we sing those thoughts, I mean, I don’t know how we got on Isostelese triangles this morning at breakfast. I think I caused that. That was part of our discussion. We start talking about stuff like that. But the kind of things we’ve sung with our lips, the kind of things that I’m saying right now, have to do with why God made us in the first place. We’re realizing the purpose of creation when we blend our voices together in praise and worship and we dedicate our minds to spiritual thoughts from God’s word. This is what you were made for.

We weren’t made to be LeBron James and the greatest athlete on the planet, as that’s the pinnacle of everything. Oh, I know that we all have abilities and talents that we can use in the world to get by and to make a living. He’s doing pretty good, I think. But that’s that’s not the overriding purpose of your existence. This is. And if you don’t get this right, all of that, whatever it is that we accomplish out in the world, it is secondary to this. It is supposed to facilitate us doing this. You know what they’ve been studying recently? In fact, when I heard this on a news show recently, I perked up, so I gotta listen to this. You know what people have discovered? You know what studies have been done?

That singing is good for you. Physiologically, emotionally, singing in groups. It’s a good thing. It will extend your life. There are certain medical things that happen that we talk about, like endorphins and oxytocin, things that are released into your system that make you feel better, that alleviate anxiety. There are people that are joining singing groups because they’ve discovered that it’s good for your health. I wonder why it’s like that. God made us that way. You know what studies also have found, and this is really interesting. You don’t even have to be a good singer to get the benefit. Isn’t that good?

Isn’t it great if you’re not a good singer that the good singers drown you out? And you still get a benefit. And in heaven, we’re all going to sing perfectly. Isn’t that going to be amazing?

This is what we were made to do. No wonder it has a benefit. Do you feel better when we sing? I’ve talked about this before. Sometimes I’ll sit down on the pew and I don’t feel really good, and we’ll sing a few songs. I’m ready to go preach. I feel better. We shouldn’t be surprised that it’s actually good for us to sing. Somebody looked at this from an evolutionary. Music evolved as a tool of social living. And that the pleasure that comes from singing together is our evolutionary reward for coming together corporately instead of hiding alone every cave dweller for him or herself. And the only reason why I’m quoting that is I like that last phrase. Every cave dweller for him or herself. You know, in the evolutionary mind, well, we needed this social connectedness.

5. I Owe You Something

No, from God’s viewpoint, we needed this. It’s not every cave dweller for him or herself or every suburban dweller for him or herself. We need this. Concert. What is concert? That’s the blending of instrument sometimes into a melodic, pleasing tone. This is what puts us in concert with the purpose of our being. And again, as I go back to points number one and two, as most of this is about God and his worthiness, there’s another aspect of this. And something we need to think about. This isn’t just what I owe God. You’re not just making a decision about, okay, am I going to render to God what he deserves or not? There’s another aspect of worship that involves our relationship to each other. That’s something that we miss in Hebrews 10 25, and we’re always not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, and everybody’s feeling guilty if they’re not doing that, if they’re actually forsaking assemblies.

It says not forsaking the assemblies. But you know what those passages are really talking about more than anything else is the purpose of those assemblies are to stimulate and encourage one another unto love and good deeds. As you see the day, the greater reality is being pondered, the day drawing near. He says in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 25. Yes, primarily I am here to give God what is due because he is so deserving. He’s done so much for me. He elevates my life. He gives me hope and glory ultimately. But I owe you something. You’ll create a desire for worship when first and foremost it’s about God, but secondly, before you’re considering yourself, I owe you something. This whole business about whether we should attend services or not is really determined by those two things.

6. What Are We Going to Be Doing in Heaven

I’m a member of the Decor Prairie Church of Christ. And what that means is I have a responsibility to you. And you have a responsibility to me. We can’t get around that. It’s not just about, again, the whole world’s about me and how I feel and what I want to do and the other activities I want to engage in. Again, we need to be redeemed from that. I come here because of you. And there’s this. What are we going to be doing in heaven? You read the book of Revelation, particularly, chapters 4 and 7. And you see people around God’s throne praising. And you know what? Nobody had to be coerced. Or forced. And that’s why I don’t know that this approach really works, just to make people feel guilty.

There’s nobody in Revelation 4 and said, well, I guess we have to be here. You don’t see any of that. People want to be in the presence of the ultimate being. And again, you have to see this with spiritual eyes. You have to have the right kind of perspective. You have to see God for who He really is. What we’re doing here is just a minuscule taste. And not even on the same level of what’s going to be enjoyed in glory. I found this quote I like this. Without worship, we go about miserably. Whether you perceive it or not. Some people don’t perceive it. But without worship, we go about miserably. Found this across. I think it’s pretty good. Worship. Waiting upon the Lord, offering our lives as a living sacrifice, resting in his presence, singing unto him, humble ourselves before him, intimacy with God, pleasing him.

A little blurry, but that’s what it says. Only in the act of praise and worship, C.S. Lewis said, can a person learn to believe in the goodness and greatness of God. And again, here are things that are not being promoted by society in general in the circumstances in your day-to-day lives. But these assemblies, this time together is promoting this reflection on the goodness and greatness of God. Worship changes the worshiper into the image of the one worshiped. How many ways can we extol the amazing benefits of worship? Are we seeing it, or is it still just an infringement on my time? One final quote. If someone doesn’t have much use for praising Him now, it’s foolish to think that they’re ready for heaven. And I’ll tell you, that’s another reason why our assemblies are so important.

Conclusion

Because every week, every time we get together, it is about preparing ourselves for heaven. And we need to be ready. Because we know not the day nor the hour when the Son of Man will come. Don’t delay in getting ready. Can we assist someone in this audience to become a Christian? To finally get in concert with the purpose of your being. The reason why you’re here. To serve the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Can we help you in doing that? Do you need to respond today? Perhaps you’re a Christian who just needs the encouragement, the prayers, the concerns of your brothers and sisters. We’re here to provide that too. If you need to respond to this invitation psalm, let’s stand and sing together.