True Worship

Well, good morning to all of you. Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus.

At the beginning of Brother Steve's messages, he said he needed a little bit of time to settle the butterflies. And not just the other week, Brother John asked us to pray for him. He was going to be speaking up at Penn State and wanted our prayers, I guess, for the same reason.

And I got to thinking, if Brother John needs that, needs to have his that he's after the hundreds of messages that he has preached and still has to get the butterflies settled, why, boy, I'm in trouble because on that. So anyway, yeah, I guess that's just the way we're made to especially thinking of speaking from God's word and speaking about these wonderful spiritual things.

Brother Ethsel, why are you here this morning?

To want to worship God with you. Okay.

Brother Irvin, why are you here this morning?

To worship God with close leaders.

Okay. Brother Brandon?

To have the gentlemen pray for Christ. Pray for us. Okay. Dallas? Worship God. Worship God?

Yeah, that's what I want to look at is worship. But when did you start to worship, Ethsel?

Did you just start to worship since you got here? No. No? But it's different. It's different? It's different than you just worshiping or not. Really? Yeah. Okay.

All right.

Brandon, when did you start to worship?

Early this morning.

All right. Did any of you worship throughout the night?

Do you think you can be worshiping while you're sleeping?

Should there be any end to our worship?

Also wanted to say thank you to Colin for that song that he's saying, "Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." And we'll look at that a little bit later here. What comes to your mind when you think of worship?

Give God what belongs to you. You give to God what belongs to him. Okay.

What you demonstrate as the number one priority in your life. Okay.

Sad to say, sometimes there's some different things that come to our mind whenever we think of worship.

It could be my wife. It could be my husband. It could be a boyfriend or a girlfriend. It could be my work. It could be a lot of different activities that I engage in that I worship. I believe every person on this earth has an insatiable desire to worship something or someone. It's a God-given quality we all have. And I don't think we can get around it. We may say now, "I don't worship anything. I don't even worship God. I don't worship anything at all." Oh, yes, you do.

Yeah, I'm afraid you do. Before the fall of man and sin entered the scene, man worshiped the Creator. But sin changed all of that. Now there is no end to what men and women worship.

And that includes themselves. That includes the heavens. That includes each other. When you think especially of the sports world, some of those people are worshiped. We can even worship our houses, our cars, our businesses. We can worship the creation.

I said earlier that they worship the Creator. But today, we can worship creation. We can worship the devil. And we can worship systems, thinking more of religious systems.

The Greek word or the Greek meaning for worship is to kiss, like a dog licking his master's hand. To fawn, F-A-W-N. I'm not sure if I can describe what that's like. If you fawn before someone, you just really put yourself at their liking or whatever.

Or to fawn or crouch, to prostrate one's self, do reverence to, adore. And I'm just challenging myself and all of you to pay close attention to these meanings.

The Hebrew meaning for worship is to depress, prostrate in homage to royalty or God, bow down, crouch, fall down flat, make to stoop.

We see that in scripture with those meanings there of the Hebrew meaning. And I have to think of in Revelation era, the Apostle John, whenever the angel was telling him all these things, and what did he do? He fell on his face before this angel to worship him. But what did the angel say? Oh, no. No, don't do that. Please get up. I want you to worship Christ and God himself.

But that is the and just to throw this out a little bit, I really appreciate the fact that we kneel for prayer here.

There's a lot of congregations that are not doing that anymore. They stand for prayer. And I'm not going to be judgmental here. But to me, it only makes sense whenever you're going to come into the presence of God himself, of Christ, that we prostrate ourselves before him. Before him.

And none of these definitions here talk anything about lifting up hands. Now, there is a scripture that talks about lifting up holy hands to God. But when it comes to worship, I don't see that anywhere. It's all bowing down before our maker, before God himself.

Before God himself. So just a sideline there. Please, that's not desert that practice of kneeling before our God as a congregation, as a group.

The dictionary itself says, "Great admiration or devotion."

The old English word

and I don't know if I can say it as maybe an English person would, worth Skype, I guess. I don't know if there's any English-speaking people here as far as the old as we hear of the people from England speaking. But it's the idea of worthiness, literally worthyship. And that there this part right here has the idea of worthy or worth. Of worth. That word, the last one there is SCIPE, which is ship, which means quality or condition. Quality or condition. So the practical question is, what is it worth?

What is it worth? Is it of any lasting is it of any lasting value? Will it be there in eternity? Will it stand the test of time? Speaking of our worship.

Of our worship. Just a crude example. The heavens, when we think of the heavens, we think of something that is sure. It's a sure thing. You go out at night, especially, and you'll always see the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper and Orion and I don't know what all's out there.

But just all of those wonderful things, always there.

The sun has been rising and setting every day for 6,000 years. It seems to have stood the test of time. It's lasting. But what does the scripture say about the heavens?

They shall pass away. They shall pass away with great fervent heat in 2 Peter. We'll probably get to that in our Sunday school time.

And if you don't mind, I might just read that because we think of the heavens, something that we look at that is sure and steadfast, and we almost come to the conclusion that it won't pass away. But it's going to, verse 7 of 2 Peter 3. But the heavens and the earth, which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But beloved, do not forget this one thing that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promises, some count slackness, but his long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and live.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat, both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

So if you're struggling with this idea of worship, I would say continually ask yourself the question, what is it worth? What is its value? Will it stand the test of time?

I mentioned that a lot of people worship men. What does the Bible say we are?

Dust. Genesis 3:19 tells us that. Would anyone here that would give a lot of money for some dust? Anybody interested in some dust?

Why not?

You ladies, you're pretty familiar with dust. What do you do with it?

Do you store it up so that you can set it out here alongside the road and in a roadside stand and, hey, we got some dust here?

We wipe it away, don't we? Because it's worthless. Its value is less than nothing. And yet, we worship dust when we worship ourselves or others. And that amazes me.

Wow. Worship is supposed to be a wonderful, beautiful experience. But oh, how we take away its beauty and delight by our petty little ideas of how we should worship.

Some would say you cannot worship in a house.

You must have a special building where all things are in place and so on. You know what I'm talking about. And I'm talking and also, you've got to be lifting up your hands. If you really are truly worshiping God, you will be lifting up your hands.

And I don't want to totally do away with that, but I'm just but you have to, in order to really, truly worship, you got to speak in tongues. Or you have to have all types of instruments to really get the tempo going and really get people into worship.

And also, some people think for this worship to be the right thing, you have to have the right church structure.

Matthew 15:7-9. Hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy about you saying, this is Jesus speaking, these people draw near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me and in vain. They worship me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

So yeah, some people say you've got to have that right structure. It's got to be done just so, so, so, so.

Now, back to that song. Psalm 29:2 says, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. What's the key word?

Holiness.

But do you know what beauty means?

It means decoration or splendor.

Decoration?

Again, I think you ladies like to decorate.

Nothing wrong with that to a certain extent.

So we need to worship the Lord in the decoration of holiness. So what brings holiness in our worship?

What are some things that make worship beautiful? What are some of those decorations? Tell me.

Honesty.

Any more?

Purity.

Some of those will add to my list.

What goes along with repentance?

Confession. Confession.

What else?

Cleansing from sin. Cleansing from sin.

Unselfishness. Unselfishness.

Lowliness. Lowliness?

What did we start out with this morning?

Singing. Singing.

What else did we do?

Prayer. Prayer.

Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving?

What else was happening today?

What did Ben do? Teach. Teach? Is that what you

is there anything different between teaching and preaching?

I'll put preaching on here also.

Passion? Passion?

Trust. Trust? Okay.

What will happen after the service?

What's that called? Tell us. Okay.

Love. Love?

My, my, what a decoration.

What a decoration.

All of those that are listed there, do you have to be here to use them?

Is there any maybe fellowship, but I don't know. Is there any that you has to be here in a public meeting or whatever that in order to experience that? Well, all of them are relational. Yeah. But as far as you can, you don't have to necessarily be in this type of a setting to use them. I mean, you can use them with other people or I mean, you can fellowship with wherever it is with Christ.

But yeah, you're right. They are definitely relational. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. And our entire life has got to be one of continual worship to our, of course, our Lord.

Thinking of this holiness, a good example is King Saul. And I don't think I'll take the time to turn to that account. But he put on an air of holiness. But he kept part of the world.

He told Samuel, oh, I've performed the commandment of the Lord. I think that's how he said it. Maybe we should turn to it. I'm sorry. 1 Samuel 15.

Hardly know where to start there. But of course, we know that you know what Samuel said to him whenever he found out about that he didn't utterly, completely destroy the Amalekites. And Samuel said, oh, my goodness, what's that I hear? I hear something.

Verse 18, now the Lord sent you on a mission and said, go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed. Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the spoil and do evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said to Samuel, but I have obeyed the voice of the Lord and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me and brought back Agag, king of Amalek. I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.

But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed to sacrifice to the Lord, your God, in Gilgal. Samuel said, has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams. And then you go down to verse 25. Verse 24, Saul seems to make somewhat of a repentance. Then Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may do what?

Worship the Lord.

But Samuel said, I will not return with you for you have rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.

That word holiness is a sacred place or thing, a consecrated thing, a dedicated thing, and a hallowed thing.

And Saul did not get a hold of that. And I'm looking at myself. How many times do I think that I can worship my way? I'll just keep a little bit of something that I like.

Well, how then do we worship in the beauty of holiness? What did Jesus tell the woman at the well? They that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Now, I don't know if it makes any difference, but in the Bible, that word spirit sometimes is a large S and sometimes it's a small S. And when Jesus says this to her, it's a small S. And I'm not quite sure how to look at that, but I think of that spirit that he's referring to as that which drives you.

The spirit, the thing that drives you, that makes you go. We talk about a spirited horse.

Of course, that spirit needs to be brought under control. And it's the same way with us, but some of us have maybe a little stronger spirit than others. But it's that which drives you. Unless your spirit is controlled by Christ, you will never worship in the beauty of holiness.

You will not do it. It can't be done outside of that.

Truth and spirit and truth to be honest. Someone mentioned that. It's the first thing we have there. Honesty. Honesty. So yeah, that's how we worship. You know, I'm so happy that my worship does not depend on where I'm at.

I'm so glad for that. I'm glad I can worship God in my vehicle. I can worship God in bed. I can worship God at the thinking of it in bed. You know, sometimes maybe some of us older ones get awake a little oftener than others.

And what do you do when you get awake? What are you thinking?

To me, it's a wonderful opportunity to set my mind on Christ and on God. And I happen to think about, you know, if you have a you're embedding and at nights, a lot of times we have thunderstorms in the evening at night. And they wake you up, of course. A lot of times they do. But do you worship God when you think of his mighty power and his control over the heavens and all of those wonderful things?

We can worship him at the table, at someone's house, working on an appliance, out in the field, putting tires on, baking, cleaning, washing dishes. And then we can also worship while wiping dirty faces and hands and feet.

And we can worship in prison.

Now, I don't think there's anybody here that's in prison, but I don't think we're able to go at this point, but a lot of the brethren have been going into the local prison. And you think, boy, what a place to worship. Probably it's one of the best places to worship there can be in prison.

And while we can worship also while we're among worldly folk.

Yes. To me, worship is simply keeping my focus on our Lord in the midst of whatever I am doing. In the midst of whatever I am doing. But from this account of King Saul, be assured this morning that your worship will be in vain if there is hidden sin in your life. You will not, it will not work.

Now, I want to go to the Old Testament and look at, to me, one of the most beautiful acts of worship in the Bible. Anybody have any idea what that is?

Turn to Genesis 18. I'll give the background.

I'm going to take the time to read these verses.

Genesis 8, excuse me, Genesis 18. Then the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre. And as he was sitting in the tent door, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day.

So he lifted his eyes and looked and behold, three men were standing by him. And when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the ground and said, "My Lord, if I have now found favor in your sight, do not pass on by your servant. Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree. And I will bring a morsel of bread that you may refresh your hearts and that you may pass by in as much as you have come to your servant." They said, "Do as you said." So Abraham hurried into the tent and Sarah said, "I'm sorry," hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, "Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal needed and make cakes."

And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it. Now, it's interesting that Abraham there at first said, "I want to give you a little morsel of bread." Well, he went out and killed the calf and I don't know what all and had his wife make this wonderful bread. Anyway.

Yeah, so Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it. So he took butter and milk and the calf, which he had prepared, and set it before them, and he stood by them under the tree as they ate. Then they said to him, "Where is Sarah, your wife?" So he said, "Here in the tent."

And he said, "I will certainly return to you according to the time of life. And behold, Sarah, your wife, shall have a son." Sarah was listening in the tent door, which was behind him. Now, Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age, and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Therefore, Sarah laughed within herself, saying, "After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also?" And the Lord said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh?" Saying, "Shall I surely bear a child since I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time, I will return to you according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son."

But Sarah denied it, saying, "I did not laugh," for she was afraid. And he said, "No, but you did laugh."

Now, let's go to the birth, Genesis 21, 1 to 7.

And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the set time with which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac. Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old and as God commanded him. Now, Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, "God has made me laugh, and all who hear me will laugh with me." She also said, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children?

For I have born him a son in his old age."

So what's the name Isaac mean? Laughter.

Now, I want to read the account of one of the most beautiful acts of worship in the Bible. One of them, Genesis 22, 1 to 19. Now, it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, "Abraham." And he said, "Here I am." Then he said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and Isaac, his son, and he split the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

Then on the third day, Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey, the lad, and I will go yonder and worship." Worship?

Worship?

And we'll come back to you. So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son, and he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham, his father, and said, "My father." And he said, "Here I am, my son." Then he said, "Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering." So the two of them went together. Then they came to the place of which God had told him, and Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order, and he bound Isaac, his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

And this next verse is unbelievable. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham," and he said, "Here I am." And he said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place, "The Lord will provide," as it is said to this day, "In the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided."

Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven and said, "By myself, I have sworn," and says the Lord, "because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, blessing, I will bless you, and multiplying, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sea which is on the seashore, and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed, all nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice." So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose and went together to Beersheba, and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.

What a beautiful example. But what really made that such a worshipful experience there?

Abraham's willingness to do what?

Sacrifice. Sacrifice.

Obedience goes along with that.

Sacrifice what?

That thing. The lesser for the greater. The lesser for the greater. And the most wonderful thing that he possessed, I don't know how to say that. Yeah, and I don't think we can really grasp the full impact of this account.

Down through the years of Abraham's life, God had been promising him that he would be the father of many nations. And the years march on, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 years. And sure enough, he has a son.

I don't know if I could last that long, 100 years waiting for this promise that God said, "I will surely give you a son." You know, after a number of years, God says, "Give him back to me. I want him back." We know the Bible is true, and it says, "Abraham rose up early and went in explicit obedience to God to offer his son, the very son through whom those nations would exist that God had promised."

And I'm saying this morning, until every one of us is willing

to lay the most precious thing,

the most precious thing or person to us on the altar of sacrifice, we may as well save our breath in trying to worship the Lord.

Yes, we are going to have to sacrifice our own desires and ambitions and yield them to Christ.

Husbands, maybe the Lord is telling you to do a certain thing or go to a certain place, but your wife may not be too sure about that. But if you know that the Lord explicitly has told you to do this, if you refuse to obey the Lord and put your wife's desires ahead of God, your worship will be in vain.

Young people, think seriously about your life. Is there anything you would not sacrifice to have a worshiping experience with Christ? Is there anything?

If you truly want to experience this wonderful thing of worshiping Christ or God, you have got to be willing to sacrifice. True worship demands sacrifice. Sacrifice. Hebrews, Hebrews 13,

15 and 16 says, "Therefore, by him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to him, but do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased." What word is at the beginning of that verse, and what's at the end?

Well, of verse 15 and 16. It's not totally the beginning, but not quite totally the end. But what word is it?

Sacrifice. Sacrifice.

I believe we all know Romans 12:1. Let's say it together. "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service."

Those of you who are believers and Christians here this morning, I want you to understand that God will put you to the test.

If you say that I'm worshiping God, that I'm a worshiper of God, that's wonderful. But I'm going to find out whether you really are a worshiper of God, and he will put you to the test. Are you able to come in worship of our great Lord with a clean slate? Are you willing to sacrifice your best for his best?

If you go back to the account there in Genesis about Abraham, verses 17 and 18 brings that out about Abraham.

The best thing he had was his son, and he was willing to sacrifice him because he knew that what was beyond that was something better, was God's best. May God help us to worship him in spirit and in truth.

John Piper gave a summary of those verses there in, what did I just read there, in Hebrews 13. And I give this to you in closing. The inner essence of worship is to know God truly and then respond from the heart to that knowledge by valuing God, treasuring God, prizing God, enjoying God, being satisfied with God above all earthly things. And then that deep, restful, joyful satisfaction in God overflows in demonstrable acts of praise from the lips and demonstrable acts of love in serving others for the sake of Christ.

Are there any responses to.