How Shall We Worship

Introduction

When’s the last time you did something for somebody else? I guess it hadn’t been that long. If it has been, then that’s a whole nother sermon topic. We do stuff for other people all the time, don’t we? That’s the way it should be. And I imagine that much of what we do, even for others, we give little thought to, because they may be routine things. But then there’s those exceptions. The exception to the norm where we do something for others that we give a lot of thought to. And we want to make sure that we do our best and do it right.

Number one is what we’re doing is significant and important. It’s not a routine event. It’s not something trivial or minuscule. It rises to that level that demands or it ought to demand our special attention. And it’s being done for someone that means something to us. Maybe means a lot to us. And when those two thoughts converge, that I’m doing something for someone who means so much to me, and what I am doing is highly significant. Then I pause and I give much thought to what I’m doing. And I want to make sure that I’m doing it not just right, but I’m doing it to the best of my ability. Those two thoughts converge when we worship God. Worshiping Godves one who means so much to me.

And so it’s worthy of our attention. Will you turn with me to the one hundredth Psalm? And I’d like for us to talk about worship this morning. And we’re going to do so by looking and analyzing the 100th Psalm. As you turn over there, you might put your finger or a bookmark there because we’ll be going to other places, but we’re always going to come back to the 100th Psalm. And it stands to reason that we’re in the Psalms. In fact, I want to offer two pieces of advice to you that if you want to learn about worship, if you want to learn negatively about worship, what not to do and what’s not pleasing to God, you might want to go to the prophets. Specifically go to Malachi and read what displeases God about worship.

But if you want to go to a section of Scripture that has a lot to say about proper worship, of how God wants to be worshipped, then spend some time in the Psalms. Because the Psalms weren’t just a collection of psalms or songs that were used in worship.

The right kind of worship. And worship is something, as we’ve already established, I hopefully, hopefully, in your mind, worship is something deserving of our pause.

Worship takes place so frequently for me as it should that I might not do enough pausing and contemplating. That’s often the case with things we do with great frequency, isn’t it? Please don’t misunderstand my illustrations. I don’t mean to trivialize worship. That’s the opposite of what we’re trying to do in this lesson. But I want to talk to you in this illustration about things that we do frequently, and because we do them frequently, we give very little thought to them and use that as a negative, please understand, illustration of our point. Think about something that you do with great frequency that you give little or no thought to. Maybe brushing your teeth. When’s the last time you really thought about brushing your teeth? You do it with regularity, I hope.

And it’s important, or you wouldn’t do it. But when’s the last time you really thought about how you brushed your teeth? Another thing that we do, and this one’s maybe scarier, is our drive to work. Or our drive to a frequent location. Has this ever happened to you as it has to me? I hope I’m not the only one. You get where you’re going and you think, I don’t remember driving here. I don’t remember paying attention to the traffic lights. I don’t remember turn signals. I don’t remember. I know all of that had to happen. I’m here safely. And there’s no flashing blue and red lights behind me. So I know I did all of those things correctly, but I do them with such frequency that I gave very little thought to them.

Has that ever happened to you with worship?

You ever gotten home after lunch on a Sunday afternoon and thought I don’t remember one song we sang today. I don’t remember what we prayed about. I don’t remember what the Bible class or the sermon was about. I was there, in body at least. But like the frequency of brushing my teeth and driving to work, I just went through the motions, and it was so automatic that I really wasn’t there. The psalms will help. Psalm one hundred focuses our mind whereas it ought to be focused on worship and on the source and the object of our worship. Look with me as we read the one hundredth Psalm together. Make a joyful shout to the Lord all you lands. Serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with singing.

Know that the Lord, He is God. It is He who made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to him and bless his name. For the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all generations. The psalmist tells us, if we’ll listen, how we should worship. And it’s something we need to think about. And it is something, please hear me, it is something we need to think about every time we worship. Get in the routine of not just scurrying around the house and getting breakfast ready and the dishes put away and your clothes and the clothes of your family members all aligned properly so that you can be here and not just in greeting and shaking hands and hugs or right now fist bumps and elbows and coming and finding your seed and all of those things, but spend some time, make some time to think about worship, to think about what we’re about to engage in and think about what we are engaged in.

1. Worship Is Active, Not Passive

And maybe to help you with that is just read a psalm before we worship. Let’s think about the one hundredth Psalm and ask and answer the question, how shall we worship? The psalmist told us, if we’ll but listen, the first thing he tells us that I’ve observed is that he says that worship properly offered, worship is active, not passive. Look at the words again. Let’s notice a few of the words. Are you still in the one hundredth Psalm? Verse one, he says, make a joyful shout to the Lord. Verse two, serve the Lord with gladness. Verse three, know that the Lord He is God, and verse four, enter into his gates with thanksgiving. Every beginning of that statement of worship, the explanation of worship in this one hundredth psalm, and by the way, it’s not just limited here.

Every beginning word is an action word. Make, serve, know, enter. Worship properly offered is an activity. And it’s an activity that I must be actively participating in. I don’t have a better setup for how we sit and what we do. But I do see the intrinsic difficulties with the way we’re postured right now. You are sitting in your seats staring at a stage with lights glaring down for lack of a better word, a performer. That feels familiar, doesn’t it? Because you’ve done it many times. You’ve done it at every sporting event you’ve ever gone to. You sit in the stands and you look out onto the field at the participants. You go to a play or to a musical or a movie theater back when we did those.

And you sit in your seat and you look at the stage and you watch the performers. And if you did that right, you did so passively and quietly, except for the appropriate times of applause. We do that at home, probably far too often at home, don’t we? When we sit in our comfortable chair and turn on the television and watch blankly at that screen to be entertained, and we, if there’s ever been an epitome of passivity, it’s watching television. And so we’re trained to sit and watch. Passively. And there’s the danger for the way your posture is this morning, whether you’re here or you’re watching on a screen at home. It feels familiar, doesn’t it? And it feels passive. But if it is, we’re doing it wrong.

Worship is an activity and a participatory activity. Look at one example. Hold your finger there. It’s Psalm 100 or put your bookmark there and go to the New Testament to the book of Ephesians. We won’t talk about all of the acts of worship. A couple will suffice. Look in Ephesians chapter 5 and talking about our singing. In Ephesians 5, verse 19, you probably know this verse by heart. Ephesians 5 verse 19. Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Speaking to one another.

Now it’s largely a participation and an activity of the heart and mind. Oh, it does involve the voice at times. But it’s largely a participation of the heart and the mind that is to be engaged. And we would argue this this morning, if it is not, it ceases to be worship. Someone may be worshiping in this building today. But if your heart and your mind is not engaged, it’s not you who is worshiping God. Because no matter how perfect the song service is, no matter how appropriately timed are the words of the one leading us in the remembrance of Jesus’ death and suffering. No matter how adequate the sermon is, you are not worshiping unless you’re actively engaged, because if the Bible teaches us anything, it’s that no one can worship God for you.

It’s to be active.

2. Worship Is to Be Joyful

Worship is to be active, make, serve, know, enter, he says, and worship, you can’t miss this point, really, can you, reading the one hundredth Psalm. Worship is to be joyful. Look at the expressions again. One hundredth Psalm verse 1, make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands. Serve, verse 2, serve the Lord with gladness, and come before His presence with singing. Now to that third one, singing, it is certainly possible, and we do it, don’t we, to express our sorrow and our mourning through song? But more commonly, we express our joy and adulation through music and through psalm. New Testament, James says, if any of you cheerful, let him sing. And so worship is to be an active participation event, and it is to be a joyful one.

It now becomes self-examination time. Is that how I worship? How do I view worship? Do I view it simply as a duty, an obligation, some burden that has been placed upon me that I have to fulfill, some box that I need to check? Or have I gotten to the level of spiritual maturity? To the level of spirituality where I can truly see that worship is an opportunity and a privilege. That God has because of my faith and my understanding and my appreciation of my God and the sacrifice of His Son, that I am grateful that God has given me an outlet. Let’s illustrate that. You ever wanted to do something for somebody else? Maybe give them a gift because you love that person so much, or maybe that person’s done something for you, and you need some kind of way to repay or to show your appreciation.

And in some casual conversation, they let something out about something they like. And the light bulb goes off, and you go, there it is. That’s what I can do for them. That’s what I’ll get them.

Maybe all of the above. And you just gave me away by telling me. That’s worship. If properly viewed and properly exercised, it’s not something, okay, God, I hope you’re happy. I’m doing this. But as I grow in my love, my appreciation, my respect, my gratitude toward God, I am longing for some way to show him. And I open up the 100th Psalm, I open up the New Testament, and I realize God has told me. And I say, thank you for giving me this outlet of praise. We talked about Malachi. Look over in Malachi chapter 1. I don’t want to spend too much time on the negative. The Psalms again give us the wonderful positive illustrations and instructions of how to worship. But let’s just look briefly at the negative aspect of that.

In Malachi’s day, Malachi, you know, is that last prophet of the Old Testament. In fact, if you have trouble finding him, there’s your hint. He’s the last prophet, the last book of the Old Testament. And it’s after the children of Israel have been led away into captivity. And if you studied their history, you know the primary, it’s not the only one, but one of the primary sins that caused them to be taken away into captivity was idolatry. They were worshiping other gods. And so the brutality of this captivity was to teach them the lesson. And they learned that lesson. As far as we can tell from the pages of history, Israel never again engaged in any broad scale sense, at least, in idolatry. But they said other problems.

They were worshiping the right God in Malachi’s day, in the right place at the temple, and in a way with the right elements. But there still existed a problem. Malachi 1 in verse 12, it says, speaking of the name of God, it says in Malachi 1, verse 12, but you profane it in that you say, the table of the Lord is defiled, and its fruit, its food is contemptible. You also say, Oh, what a weariness. And you sneer at it, says the Lord of hosts. And you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick, thus you bring an offering. And should I accept this at your hand? says the Lord. Do you see the progression? The digression of the heart. Oh, what a weariness it is.

Speaking of the worship to God. And where does that lead? That leads to the next stage of not really worshiping God, even in the overt ways the right way. Because they were bringing the lame and the stolen and the blind. They were supposed to offer up their best. Why weren’t they offering up their best? Because they viewed it as a weariness, as a drudgery, as a burden. You want to offer your best to somebody. Start with your attitude toward that somebody. Joyful. Make a joyful shout into the Lord. You remember Psalm 122, verse 1 says, I was glad when they said, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Again, self-examination. How do I feel about worship? How am I engaging in worship? The third point that we can learn from Psalm 100, can we go back there with me?

3. Worship Is to Be Knowledgeable, Not Ignorantly

Is that worship is to be, yes, active, not passive, joyful, not dreary. And it’s to be knowledgeable, not ignorantly. Notice the language there in Psalm 100. Focus in upon verse 3. Know that the Lord, he is God. It is He who made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. In a very short Psalm about worship, one whole verse is devoted to knowledge. No. Worship. Our second point established this, I hope. Worship is to involve emotion. But an emotion that springs out of knowledge. Why are we joyful? Why are we shouting and singing? Because we know. Knowledge relates to worship in at least two broad categories. Number one is knowledge should spring, or worship should spring out of the knowledge.

We worship because we know that he is God and that he made us and that we’re the sheep of his pasture. And so worship springs out of that knowledge. But then worship takes on real meaning when it is offered in knowledge. You cannot worship God accidentally. You remember in Acts chapter 17 when Paul came into the city of Athens and we might say stumbled upon an altar with an inscription. In this city flooded with idolatry. It seems that they had an idol or a shrine for every false God there was. They maybe took pride in that. Maybe that’s what the chamber of commerce touted as the reason to visit Athens. Whatever God you worship, we’ve got you covered. Come on down. And just in case they miss somebody, strange as it sounds to our ears, they had an inscription to the unknown God.

And Paul says in Acts 17, verse 23, as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. And Paul says, therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing, him I proclaim to you. And Paul goes on to explain that that expression, you worship without knowing, was really offered tongue in cheek, because you can’t worship God without knowing him. They weren’t really worshiping God who they didn’t know. And so Paul is really paraphrasing here. Paul is really saying, let me introduce you to the God that you don’t know. The God that you should know and should worship. The psalmist said, know, that he made us, and not we ourselves. And we are the sheep of his pasture.

In our world that is so pervaded by politics and so many times in the negative sense, the term sheep has taken on such a negative connotation. Sheep is the idea of people who just go along with anything. They just do what they’re told. They don’t think.

4. Worship Is to the Lord, Not to Self

Doesn’t mean that we’re just ignorant lemmings that are just following along. When the Bible speaks of sheep, it speaks of those who are lovingly under a shepherd’s care. If only the psalmist had told us something about that. Like Psalm 23 of what it means to be the sheep of his pasture. And by the way, if we know that, we’ll participate in worship and do so joyfully, won’t we? Lastly, worship properly offered is going to be to the Lord, not to self. And this kind of goes with our first point that it being active and not passive, and that this isn’t just some spectator sport that we’re engaged in. And remember our illustration from that idea of the posture that we take in worship and that maybe lends us to this idea of it being a spectator sport.

What do we demand as spectators? We demand entertainment. If the teams on the field aren’t playing up to our standard, we’ll get up and leave.

It’s really all about me and entertaining me. But not worship. Because remember, worship isn’t a spectator sport. Worship is not about me. Psalm 100 again. Verse one, make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands. No, verse 2, serve the Lord. And come before His presence with singing. I must constantly remind myself who worship is about. And it’s not me, because He made me and not myself. And so it’s not about doing things that entertain me and keep my attention and make me even feel good. It’s about worshiping God. And about bowing the knee, the body, heart, and mind before his glorious throne. Come before the Lord. Come to His presence and worship Him. Remember, you’re doing this for God. It is of vital importance, and it’s being offered to someone that you think so highly of.

Conclusion

And so let’s give thought to our worship. That we’re worshiping Him in spirit and in truth, and we’re seeking to please God, not self. There may be many ways in which we can worship God. Our very obedience to God could be seen through the lens of worship. And really, worship to God, properly offered is offered by those who are in a fellowship relationship with Him. So the first step in thinking about worship is thinking about your relationship to God. And that’s what this period of our worship is all about. Is thinking about your relationship with God. Are you truly bowing before Him? You can’t without worshiping Him, without obeying Him, and without obeying the gospel. So we’re going to sing this song of invitation as a way of encouragement that if you need to make your life right with God, then why not obey that gospel?

Why not do those things that the New Testament tells you you need to do to find reconciliation to your Father? If you’ve done that, but you’ve wandered away in whatever way, then why not come to Him and worship Him today? Can we help you in any way? If so, let it be known right now, as together we stand and as we sing.