The Essential Focus Of Worship - [Psalm 95:6-7]

It's good to be able to be with you again this morning and the Lord has continued to to bless us with life and breath and all things. And those all things include not only the material and physical things that we can see and feel and touch but the the invisible things of of God that come to us through the the spiritual blessings that come through us to us through our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And how God not only has forgiven us our sins but but has forgotten all that would have come our way as far as the judgment and the and the wrath of God that was abiding upon us. But God in his mercy spared us has called out a people to himself.

And we're we're privileged to be able to gather again in this place the first day of the week. And what a great way to begin the week with the people of God who have have a desire to come before the Lord and to be taught and helped and encouraged and and just to open the book and to see what God would have for us this morning.

And of course it would be it would not be right for us to to come to the word of God and not ask the Lord's blessings and well ask the Lord to teach us. So let's pray together our Father in heaven. We come before you once again.

And what a privilege it is. And we don't come lightly. We come as the word of God instructs us to come in the fear of the Lord. We come oh God to with the desire to ask you to please remember us once again you have been faithful just on so many occasions.

And the songwriter points us in the right direction to count our many blessings and to name them one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord has done. And Lord as we even think of those words it it doesn't surprise us because that's who you are that's who you promise to be to us a great God our heavenly Father who loves us Lord our our great Savior who not only saves but keeps.

And one of the way that you keep us and one of the ways that you direct us is through your word and it is sure it is settled forever. And it is to be the lamp unto our feet and the light unto our path.

And we pray today that it might be profitable for our souls this morning to have spent this time these brief minutes considering a subject that is important for us it's important to you and it ought to be important to us.

So stir our hearts we pray convict us challenge us mold us shape us and make us. And as the psalmist wrote search us oh God and know our hearts Lord. And try us and know our ways and our thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in us and lead us in the way everlasting.

We pray in Jesus name amen. As as a people of God it is um it is first and foremost important for us always to remember that all that we are and all that we have and all that we will become and anything that takes place in our lives is to be attributed to our great God and Savior.

God's Saving Work and the Call to Worship

The the psalmist said that our God is great and he does wondrous things. And when we look at our lives it is it is truly amazing when we think of and I'm speaking to those here this morning who can say that God has saved me.

I'm a Christian I know that that I have been changed. I know that I've been forgiven. I know that something has happened in my life. And one of the Puritans said it this way he said Christianity is being manipulated now.

That is not a bad way that he put that but he says basically with religion we manipulate God we fashion a God that we want and we we we are the ones who formulate a definition and give God this false God the attributes that we want him to have because he will then cater to us um and we will be pleased with this God.

So we fashion God and we make this God of our imagination. And basically the writer was saying no when it comes to Christianity it's not something that we do when it's not something that we formulate it's not something that originates with us Christianity and being saved and salvation is a work of God and it is something that God does to us.

And and basically we are the ones who are the clay upon the wheel and God is the potter and he manipulates us. And I'm not saying that in a negative way but we are controlled by God. We are influenced by God we are worked on by God.

God is doing something to us. And if he didn't of course we would be lost. If he didn't we'd be helpless and hopeless and graceless. And and it would be a horrible state that we we would be in yesterday at our gathering I I looked at Psalm 40 verse 2 very briefly.

But God brought us up out of an horrible pit and out of the miry clay and God set our feet upon a rock and God establishes our goings. And that's what Christianity is. God doing something to us for us to help us to bring us out of this place where we had no footing whatsoever at all our feet were slipping into hell.

The scriptures say we were and it is God who keeps our feet from slipping even into the realm of death and of course into destruction. And he does that through his mercy and through his grace through Jesus Christ.

And yet when we are saved we are not left alone thank God for that. Because if if it was Christianity was something that was handed to us and kind of wound up it would be gone in a in a moment because because uh of our inclinations.

But Christianity is something where God works upon us and God gives us certain desires. And one of the desires that God puts in the hearts of his people is to worship him. And this week I have been um kind of blown away if that's the right word or I've been really just uh super challenged.

I've been examining even my my own life in the area of worship. And what you're going to get this morning is just a smattering and I apologize ahead of time it's a smattering of my thoughts. Um what I would like for us to be able to do when we're done with this class is to think do I do I have a proper um idea of what worship is.

Do I worship God when I come to this place when I come to this building and we gather together have I ever worshiped God. I mean how much of the time when when I go to the house of God and I just say that as this place where we come as it's the old testament way of saying to when they gather together come to the house of God to worship before the Lord.

What is it that I do. What is it that I'm thinking about. What is it that goes through my mind as people are walking about as Charlie gets up there and picks up the guitar and plays it and and um and we're opening up the paper to sing.

What is it that. It's all about. What are my motives. What are our motives. And I'm definitely lumping myself in because there are times believe it or not. Um if it hasn't happened you already as a believer one day you're going to be reading the word of God and you're going to be saying to yourself I don't do this or I don't do this very well we have things that might have been taught us on our own maybe we read a scripture and we just misinterpreted it.

Or we might have heard a message or we may have had past historical churches or teachings that we are coming out of. And there's there's some baggage there still things that haven't been dealt with and we don't do things properly.

And we as believers do we not want to honor the Lord in all that we do. I would say everybody I see some heads nodding. We do want to to do things rightly and properly before the Lord. And of course it would be uh in this area also and what what area is more important when we think of when we come to uh this building when we come to Bethlehem Bible as the the church gathering together what do we even I mean do we put it even in the bulletin.

I'm just saying that I know other churches have uh what we call it this um morning worship sunday 10 15 morning worship service. That's what it says. Now if it's a morning worship service it would certainly be great if we understood what worship is and we know the right motives and the expectations behind it.

And what what it is what is it that worship is all about. Because um it's possible it is absolutely possible. And it is probable that many of the folks that walk in these doors and sit in these chairs and leave afterwards don't really worship.

And I'm not saying it's you um and it might be just a part of our time. But let's consider what this means to worship in psalm 95 in verse 6. Oh come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord our God our maker.

Let's take a look there psalm 95 one of one of my favorite ones not only to to remember when it comes to worship but also um in the past with the believers that I had gathered with at other churches that was a that was a psalm that was put to song and we used to sing that.

And how many know that one. Anybody. Okay I mean I probably know my own recognition to it. If I tried to sing it it would uh it might be a little different than the one you know. But um psalm 95 in verse um six did I say yes five and six.

No five six and seven is the two verses that we sang when we used to sing it in for our services. Psalm 95 verse 6. Oh come let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker. Verse 7.

For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. And how important it is for us to understand our position how important it is for us to to consider what this word worship means.

It is the Greek word proskuneo. The word pros means to or towards. It's a motion towards and the middle part of that of that word has to do and has the idea of a dog. And you might think well where does where does that go.

But the idea of worship is to kiss or to kiss towards in humility. And it's like a dog who is licking the master's hand. It's a it's the rightful position of that dog that animal towards the master that it understands and it comes to the master and appreciates and gives homage.

That's the idea it's it's to crouch before to prostrate oneself in homage it means to do reverence to or to adore. Now when we gather together that's the idea of gathering. When we worship the Lord it is this coming before the Lord humbly.

It is this. And I always think of proskuneo. It always reminds me I see the nay in the middle it almost spelled like our word knee. That's how I used to remember the definition to kneel down. Not not that that's what that don't don't take it as technically what that word means as far as the I just remember that's my little thing that I have in my mind that I can remember what that word in the Greek means.

But isn't that what the psalmist said come let us worship and bow down. Let us just strut around and clap our hands and and and lift our chests up high. No it says let us kneel let us bow down and let us kneel before the Lord our maker.

And for this purpose because he is our God and we are his people. Sadly in the churches today and I came out of this um in the in the past in the the churches that I was involved in we we we have someone who is evangelized someone who is converted someone who comes to Christ.

And one of the first things the church wants to do is to teach them to work and to teach them to witness to w's work and witness before we teach them to worship God. And I think it's so important that if you're involved in discipling other people the first and priority in the life of that person is to teach them to adore God to love God to appreciate God to express their love for God to um to teach them as you're discipling when you're teaching them to pray you know the posture of prayer and the attitude of prayer and what it what it means to to come and to bow before the Lord now um you'll remember a little while ago I can't remember the the gentleman that came to speak a couple years back and he taught out of this uh out of the old testament and he talked about we sing that song we bow down and you remember he's what he said he says no we don't.

We're we got our we're we're singing with our papers here we bow down and we worship you. Of course we're not doing it as far as the prostration physically but can we in our hearts in our minds and with our very souls before God bow down.

Certainly we can and we ought to. Uh we're not lifted up in pride when we sing a song like that that would not be worship. So the idea of of of worshiping is this idea of getting low being humble. And in that in this psalm in particular I mean he does go from the times.

And there are times when you shout for joy oh come let us sing verse one unto the Lord let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. And you have this you have this a ringing cry in this loud voice type of music where there's praise to the Lord.

But then there's also times when we need to be still and know that he is God. We need to be quiet. We need we need um we need just to stop the activity of life and to bow before the Lord. And basically when we're worshiping too it doesn't necessarily mean we're there to thanking God although it's part of it for what he has done.

Uh for us that's true that enters into worship or or thanking God for the things the blessings that have come our way that I've already spoken of. But when it comes to worship everything is focused upon God and God alone it is it is the focus on he being our God.

That's what it says in verse 7. For he is our God we have a relationship with him. Yes we are his people the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. But the focus is him and and it is not us.

Worship as Ascribing Worth and Glory to God

Now let me um let me tell you let me share with you how sometimes the pendulum swings the wrong way. There are two extremes that people can go to in their worship and these two extremes should be avoided.

One uh one is is that worship on one hand is not to be a dead cold experience. It is not to be um it's not to be a funeral that we are are attending here. I mean I'll touch on that it's not to be dead but it also is not to be a jovial light experience either because we're coming when we come to worship we're worshiping God.

And we've heard so much I don't know if maybe this is Sunday school is kind of born out of the Dr. Raymond series too where there was all this attention upon the attributes and the and the wonder the the omnipotence of the omnipotence of the Lord is being all powerful in his omnipresence.

And didn't that phrase just strike you when when he says that we've never done anything in private I mean that is just stuck stuck with me. We've never had a private conversation in our life. Why. Because our God has been there and he's heard every word and he knows all about what we do.

Even in secret. When we think it's in secret not only is on the presence of his omniscience God knowing everything about us. And innocent. Amazing to think that God knows everything our God our Savior knows everything about us and yet he still loves us quite amazing all powerful he can he can meet every opponent that comes to destroy or to cast us down.

The Lord is for us who can be against us. How about the love of God. The amazing love. Oh the deep deep love of Jesus vast unmeasured boundless free. And in one of the things that keeps us from entering into a proper a proper mode or of worship is that we can allow things to to enter into our memory.

And we know things. But it is it isn't that those things grip us as they ought to. I don't know if this happens to you but sometimes you're just driving down the road and you might just sing a song and of course you within you know quietly or out loud or you might think of a verse you might be at your sitting at the at work or at home.

And all of a sudden the truth of God grips you and it's almost like you're you're unaware of the world that you're living in and it's you and the Lord. And it's that sweet time and you just offer up a sacrifice of praise and you just worship God.

Because I can remember one time walking to my car in a Walmart parking lot and I was thinking of that hymn oh the deep deep love of Jesus vast unmeasured boundless free. And when I got to the phrase rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me.

And I just thought of of that marvelous love that God has toward me a sinner. And even though I as a as a child of God upset my father with my thoughts the things that I do in the in my the things that I don't do in my life.

And and how ungrateful I am at times. And how cold I can be at times and how apathetic I can be to the to the cares all around me. And yet I can confess my sins and he's faithful and just forgive me my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness.

And I cannot be separated from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus my Lord. And all this John wrote what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. And and those thoughts just sweep over you and and all you can do is but adore the Lord.

But somehow in some way there's a disconnect when we come to services and I'm again not blanketing this. I am not trying to beat anybody over the head. I want to challenge us. Don't we want to honor the Lord and everything we do.

And it would be a dishonor for us to gather together and say that we're conducting a worship service and either not worship or either worship improperly or it be very fleeting and very superficial. My desire is not to do these extremes not the cold and not the light.

The first extreme I mean as again is not this cold dead experience. We are not sitting here when we gather this morning in in a cemetery we are sitting as I said in the house of the Living God. And I hope you understand what I mean when I when I say that that it was the the house of God the place of worship the place where God would meet with his people.

And when we meet together we are not gathered to celebrate death and defeat. No it's just the opposite. We gather in Jesus Christ's name to celebrate him to celebrate his death and his burial and his resurrection upon our on our behalf.

And we thank him for the new life that he's given to us. And more importantly again we are focusing our attention upon the Lord himself. We are giving him the worth that is due to his name. And the old English word was worth worth ship and I don't know how it got changed but it got changed to worship but it meant worth worth going to God.

God is is worthy of our praise. God is worthy of of our adoration. He's worthy of our love. And when we and we gather that is the idea of worship. It is to give God the glory that is due to his name. The psalmist says to to give it is it is as the psalmist said in our Psalm 95 if you're if you're still open there.

Psalm 95 verse 3. For the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods in there. As far as the part of worship the psalmist is ascribing greatness to God not to us not to our abilities not to our knowledge not to what we have obtained.

And it's the focus comes off of us and the focus goes to the Lord. So the first essential part of of Nate of worship here is Psalm 95 verse 3 to ascribe greatness to the Lord in Psalm you can hold your place there in Psalm 95.

Look back in Psalm 29 if you would Psalm 29 in verse 2. I'll start in verse 1 just so we get the flow of it given to the Lord. Oh ye mighty given to the Lord. Glory and strength. Give unto the Lord. The glory due unto his name.

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. I want you to see a word that is repeated over and over again. Give unto the Lord. Verse 1. Give unto the Lord. Verse 2. Do we understand and we need to that worship is something that is manward to God word.

It is something that we give unto the Lord in worshipping is something it is it is that one way focus towards him not what is commonplace today maybe even in our own minds and thoughts. And certainly when it comes to the teaching of of pleasure-seeking people who go to church or in the needs type the felt needs type services that are conducted in churches where the whole idea is when I go to church I want to get something out of it.

When I go to church the focus is going to be me. What can I get. How can I be helped. How what what can I receive. What blessing can I get. And I'm not saying that we're not blessed. And I'm not saying that we're not helped and not taught.

But if that is our focus it's an incorrect focus and motive. Worship is God word in here you see the psalmist says he says given to the Lord verse 2 the glory that is due to his name. Render God's name glorious.

That's what this this the idea of worship is not only to ascribe greatness as we saw in 9 psalm 93 but but to render God's name glorious not BBC's name glorious or the church's name glorious. Or or our name glorious.

You know the psalm does the the hymn does not go. Oh worship mankind he is so met majestic here below you know he is so great on him honor bestow or whatever I mean just made it up. It is a worship the king all glorious above and gratefully sing his power and his love.

It's it's it's towards the Lord. And I'm afraid that and I myself am guilty of sitting in one of these seats going through a service and thinking improperly about worship not worshipping as I ought to.

I'm thinking and maybe you have thought to why is so-and-so wearing that today serious I mean and and maybe that's something that needs to be dealt with in some other way. But the focus in the in the attention is not to be on because that that is for me right.

I mean I don't like that. Or that is unpleasing to me. And I mean I'm here for me right. Or where in the world did they ever get that song from. I mean come on in in in the in the tune that that is being played to that song granted.

We as a church are not perfect. We as elders understand that it's not but the the music that we sing is not catered nor picked for you and for me the music that we sing the songs that we sing we are seeing them what unto the Lord.

And yes we may not have picked the best song and we work at that. We may not have picked the best tune. But the whole idea is you can take at least a portion maybe of that song and you can offer it as a sacrifice of praise unto the Lord and render his name glorious even in that song.

Maybe I'll touch a little bit more on that later. I'm kind of went off a little bit of my notes. Go back to Psalm 95. Not only in Psalm 95 verse 3 we do ascribe greatness or worth. That's what it means for the Lord is a great God and a great king above the Lord.

When we say that God is is great we're ascribing that greatness that worth unto the Lord. Not only in Psalm 29 verse 2 or we to render God's name glorious but also in verse 3 when it comes to worshiping Psalm 95 in verse 6 when it comes to worshiping the Lord it involves humility because it says oh come let us worship and bow down.

Let us kneel before the Lord our maker. And even if we don't physically kneel down and even if we don't physically bow sometimes even when we sing we bow down. Sometimes I will just bow my head a little bit you know we bow just just just so that we enter into the into the proper position and take our place.

Just like I said proskuneo the Greek word meaning for to kiss or to kiss towards or like the dog licking the master's hand is a is a simple illustration of that we as God's special people bow down before the Lord and to kiss the son to kiss his hand so to speak to to render homage to the Lord to adore the Lord.

And we can't do that if we've let the pendulum swing the other way and we are cold and we are out of touch and we are thinking about the afternoon meal. We're thinking we're thinking our mind is not even engaged when it comes to coming into the into the building to be thinking about.

This is a worship service and I need to worship the Lord and I need to to offer myself before the Lord and lift up my heart and lift up my soul to the God who is the God of all gods the king of all kings the Lord of all Lords.

And and he is my wonderful Savior. He is my great God and King. I love these verses. I'll read them for you. Psalm 86 verse 10 through tell 10 to 10 through 12. For thou art great and doest wondrous things.

Thou art God alone. Teach me thy way O Lord. I will walk in thy truth unite my heart to fear thy name. I will praise thee O Lord my God with all of my heart and I will glorify thy name forevermore. Our God is great and he does wondrous things and he and he alone is God.

Hannah if you'll remember in the Old Testament when she was so vexed and troubled because she did not have a son and she so desired to have a child and and eventually I think it was Penina or Penina who was the other wife that was just bugging her and egging her because she did not have a child and God to open the womb and gave gave her precious little Samuel and you'll remember in her her offering to the Lord.

What she said was there is none holy as the Lord. There is none beside thee neither is there any rock like our God that those were that that was her testimony and she knew that it was God that had done what he had done for her in her life to vindicate her and to step in on her behalf.

And she attributed and ascribed greatness to the Lord and the singularity and the uniqueness of God and God alone. I mean when it comes when it when it comes I mean we don't. Don't you just get grieved when you hear of the false gods that people worship today.

And you may I'm not talking about just totem poles and you know but but there are even those we even hear of folks that we have that have witnessed this when they travel to foreign countries and see the millions and millions of gods the millions of gods like in in India and all of the statues and the friends that I've had that have all gone over there over all the years.

They have been so depressed when they go many times and so heartbroken to to see that just like I would imagine the Apostle Paul in Acts 17 Mars Hill and he says remember his indictment of those people.

He says you ignorantly worship. That's what he said ignorant worship. They did not even know there was an ignorance of God and and that's what. And that's what kind of troubles me and stirs me when it comes to even us today don't we want to honor the Lord and worship properly.

I mean it is possible to offer strange fire before the Lord like the sons of Aaron and Ahab and Abihu who disobeyed God and offered that that incense that strange fire before the Lord and God smoked them dead.

It is it is possible to worship vainly. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 15 in verse 9 when he's talking of the Pharisees the religious leaders he said in vain you do worship me teaching for doctrine the commandments of men.

He said you you come up with your own scheme you come up with your own plan. You come up with your own doctrine. And he says it's it's false doctrine. And then you take this and you apply it to your lives and the lives of those who you are supposedly leading spiritually.

And you know what it is. It's empty worship. It's useless worship. It's vain worship. So there can be ignorant worship worship. There can be vain worship. And there can be improper worship like the strange fire of Nahab and Abihu.

And we don't want. We don't want to be those that walk in that step. We want to walk the other way. We want to worship properly. And so that's why we look at this study this morning. And like I was saying the the pendulum can swing that way to where it is deadness and coldness.

And what we need to do is when we meet we need to understand that we're not like I said earlier sitting in a cemetery but we are coming together not as losers who have been defeated but through Jesus Christ our Lord we are more than conquerors.

The scripture tells us worship is to be directed towards the Lord and like I said sadly too much it's either not engaged improperly or truly we think we we think that we're supposed to do something but and we and we incorporate these things.

And maybe we're just thinking improperly. Maybe it might be that we're just punching the clock. We're doing our duty. We're supposed to come. I mean I'm supposed to go to church and I go and then I go home.

But I really don't know what it's all about you ever. I mean I don't know if I just think this way sometimes. But do you ever just kind of like think about why you do what you do. I mean in any way and for anything.

And examine our hearts and examine our lives. And I think it's good for us just to look at this to worship in a proper way. We're not meeting here as I said because we serve a God who is dead he is alive forevermore.

The Lord Jesus Christ is able to completely save us because he ever lives to intercede for us. His priestly office and work on our behalf will never end because he has an everlasting priesthood. He alone sits at the right hand of the father.

The earth is his footstool. Every nation every president every king governor mayor or town official is under Christ's rule. As Jesus speaks men move. All of creation was formed by his spoken word and he keeps it by his mighty power.

He will his will is performed in heaven and upon earth. The Sun rises in the morning the stars hang in the sky at night the rain waters the earth the air surrounds the globe the fish in the sea are fed and the lives of men are sustained all because of the power and the ability of our great Savior Jesus Christ.

So we're not in a morgue brethren not in a morgue this morning. Not the songs that that we sing. And when we sing them here's how practically how it works out. We open the hymn book and we have the hymn or worship the king.

Maybe. And it's not. And we open it up and it's the monotone. No heart no passion no entering into the to the words. No no thinking about the words we're singing. You're just sitting there and I understand.

Sometimes we're tired and I understand. I mean I can feel that today. I mean I don't know if you know it but it's neat for you to understand as far as you know Mike and those who teach will will share things about themselves.

When there's disconnections in my words and mispronunciations. I'm tired. It's just a fact. It's just a fact. So you know. Sorry just put up with it. Please forgive me. But it's um it is. It is not when we open the hymn book.

Oh worship the king glorious above and gratefully seeing oh wait what's the next him. Oh yeah crown him with many crowns the Lord upon his throne. You know. And you know I and we kid and it is funny. But you know when we examine ourselves sometimes it's not funny because and I know for myself I have sang songs and not even thought about the words.

Not. I mean it just went right by. It's kind of like that dough zone you get in when you drive. Have you ever done that drive home from work. You pull in the driveway and you don't know how you did the last three miles.

You know it's kind of kind of scary. You know your mind was someplace else. And think about it of all the places and all of the earth that we could possibly go to to the house of the Living God for a worship service.

Brethren let's not let our minds and our hearts wander. Let's let's think about what we're doing and when it comes and when it comes to worship let me just give you some practical tips. Because I don't know how far I'll be able to get this morning.

But think about this. When it comes to worshiping we need to be prepared. We need to be prepared and preparing before and during and after worship. And what do I mean by that preparing for worship service and for coming together to gather together to worship the Lord to me begins on Saturday and Saturday evening we and particularly if you have children young children you know parents can line up where the clothes are the socks and the shoes and maybe line out what they're gonna have.

And even be prepared to make sure that there's going to be a breakfast there. And dad there's gas in the car because you know what it is. It's like you get up in the morning and you can't find the toast and you can't find the clothes.