sermon 24th Jan 2010

Worship: glorying in God’s holy name
Often said evangelism is the first priority for the church, but it is not for at least 3 reasons 1. Duty to neighbour not to God, duty to God must come first.2 we are all witnesses to the gospel but evangelism is also a spiritual gift, not all have that gift, but all Christians are worshippers. 3 Evangelism is a temporary activity which will end when the Lord Jesus returns to claim us for eternity, but our worship will continue throughout eternity
Worship is the Church’s preeminent duty, we need to give it our attention!
What is worship however? Of course the whole of our life is worship, serving God with all our being, so how do we define it? Best definition is ps 105:3 to worship is to glory in God’s holy name” God’s name is his revealed character, it is holy because it is unique, set apart from and above all other names. When we see the holiness of God’s great name we see the reason for glorlying in it, reveling in it. We are to join with all the creatures in pronouncing him worthy of our praise because he is creator and redeemer (rev 5: 9-14), because of who God is, it is appropriate to worship at his throne.
True worship according to scripture has four main characteristics
Biblical worship
True worship is biblical worship that is a response to biblical revelation, Paul in Athens, mars hill found the altar where they worshipped to an unknown God to cover all the bases, he was going to tell them who that was. One of the truths of that story is they could never worship an unknown God, if you don’t know him you cannot worship him.
So Christian worship is defined as a response to revelation, so the reading and preaching of the word is central to a worship service, it is the word of God that leads us to the worship of God for it is hear we learn about God, the reformation brought the word back to the centre of worship, it is good for us to read together in church, when this happens it is like Cornelius when he received Peter into his home, “Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.
This Spirit of receptivity is a necessary condition of hearing the word of God, so much depends on how readers and preachers approach their task.
It is a great privilege to be involved in any aspect of the service, to lead in prayer, to speak to the children, to read and especially to preach, if worship is response to the word of God, the preacher must impel the people to the truth and worship will flow from the truth.
Psalm 95 for example, a call to the people to praise him, but it contains an abrupt change of mood, a call to sing for joy and shout out loud, but also in v6 the mood changes, we are to bow down and kneel before the Lord, why? Because he is our God and we are under his care, to sing for joy because he is a great God, but to bow down because he is our God, we need to sing for joy but also kneel before him in quiet. Not simply fortissimo, but piano and even pianissimo. Quiet as well as loud!

Congregational worship True worship is when God’s people are together, some say they worship easier on their own and there is a place for private worship, even in the psalms, but the psalmist focuses on corporate worship. Praise O servants of the Lord, sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the saints. In the NT, let us not give up the habit of meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the Day approaching (Heb10:25)
The worship, which is pleasing to God, is when his people are together offering it! This means participation! The reformers got it, priest at the high altar celebrated the medieval mass and the lay people spectators, the reformers brought the action into the body of the Kirk, to ensure the people were not spectators but participators. Also the mass was in Latin, the reformers insisted on the common language of the people! So everyone is involved.
Our worship should clearly express the international and intercultural character of the body of Christ. Paul was conscious of the tensions between Jews and gentiles, in ch 15 of Romans he prayed for a spirit of unity, so they could join together in the common worship of God, with one heart and moth they might glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are all different, but in Christ we are one, we have different preferences, different views, but when we worship we worship the risen son of God and as long as we sing to him with words that are biblical and true it matters not the tune! Focus on the words you sing, if you don’t mean them with all your heart, the sacrifice of praise you bring before God is nothing more than a rotting corpse and the Lord doesn’t want it.
Spiritual worship True worship is spiritual worship, scripture tells us that worship is not simply about the correct forms, rituals or ceremonies, we need to see and hear the criticism from the bible of religion. No book is more scathing of empty religion than the bible, not Marx, not even Richard dawkins.
The prophets of 7th and 8th century bc were outspoken in their criticism of the formalism and hypocrisy of Israelite worship, Jesus applied their critique to the Pharisees of his day, they honour me with their lips but their hearts are far from me (is 29, Mark 7:6), This rings to clear to me and my life of worship today, and probably some of you too, too much of our worship s ritual without reality, form without power, fun without fear, religion without God. Malcolm muggeridge, “one of the greatest defences against God’s work in the world has been organized religion; churches have often provided a refuge for fugitives from God, his voice lost in the clutter of the service, his purpose obscured in the creeds and dogmas, when the voice begins “dearly beloved or with the earnest open face, God can be relied to nick off”
We need to say something about music in worship at this point. It can be a wonderful vehicle for praise but can also provoke him to cry away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps (Amos 5:23)
Every generation has gifted musicians who have brought their talent to God, from the Jewish praise that was enriched with singing and various instruments (Ps 150), so it is in the Christian tradition from the organ, brass and strings to drums and guitar of today, I have no intention of passing judgment between classical and contemporary for different styles appeal to different temperaments and cultures. What is essential is however the biblical content of the hymns and songs, for if it is not there it is too easy to descend into “babbling” which Jesus condemned in the sermon on the mount (battalogia), battalogia seems to mean any speech in which the mouth is engaged but the mind is not.
Striking that we are to offer spiritual worship, there is such hunger for spirituality in the west, the New age movement with it’s bizarre assortment of diverse beliefs, picks from everywhere, but sows that this world on it’s own cannot satisfy the human spirit, people are searching for a transcendent reality everywhere.
This quest for transcendence is a challenge to us and to the quality of our public worship. Does it offer that which people are craving, the element of mystery, the sense of awe and wonder, the immanence of God? Truth is probably not often, too often the truth is we do not know how to worship, we have little sense of the greatness and glory of God, we do not bow down before him in awe, our tendency is to be cocky, flippant and proud. We do not take our time to prepare for worship, participants and leaders, and too often we miss out because our hearts are not right, neither are our heads. No wonder people seeking God pass us by if we are more concerned about the time, or chatting to our pal or getting through the next part of the service, and that may be as much my fault as yours.
What is needed then? 1. Faithful reading and preaching of the word of God, so his living voice is heard by his people. 2 reverence and expectance when we come to the Lord’s table we really meet with him, so we may feed on him in our hearts by faith. 3 we need a sincere offering of praise and prayer that God’s people like Jacob can say “surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware of it”, unbelievers present will fall down and worship God, exclaiming “God is really among you”
Basically it is a great tragedy that many of our contemporaries seeking God, seeking to fulfill their craving spirits turn to drugs, sex, yoga, cults, mysticism, the new age, science fiction, anything except the Church, it is a damning indictment on us, our worship services should always experience the transcendent God, a close encounter with the living God is possible for us all, in this place if we take time to prepare and expect to meet with him.
Moral Worship The kind of worship that is pleasing to God has one more characteristic, true worship is moral worship, our words must be backed up by our actions, Samuel to Saul, to obey is better than sacrifice, to heed is better than the fat of rams. God was scathing through Isaiah, he took no joy in their sacrifices, their assemblies were an abomination to him, he would not even listen to his prayers, for their hands were full of blood, if they would stop doing wrong, seek justice and encourage the oppressed they would be forgiven (Isaiah 1), it was this mixture of religion and wrongdoing and injustice that God could not abide. Worship without holiness was hateful to him.
Conclusion Best place to finish this sermon is in Romans ch 12, at the beginning where Paul describes the Christian life as the spiritual act of worship! For 11 chapters the apostle unfolds “the mercies of God” and now in view of God’s great mercy, which by grace we have all received, Paul appeals to all the members of God’s church across the world to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God, this physical offering is our “spiritual” act of worship!
The word he uses is Logikos, which can either mean reasonable, it is logical in response to God’s mercy or rational, that is intelligent, the offering of a heart and mind, spiritual not ceremonial
Paul is clearly thinking of worship to not simply about what we do in this place, but worship is how we live our live at home, in the workplace with our friends and family, everything is to be worship, and if we do not worship in all the places we find ourselves, we limp, when God calls us to bow down and soar with him!