The Purpose of Worship

— Revelation 5:9-14

sermons index at http://nlife.ca/audio

Andrew Fountain — Feb 20th, 2011

Worship

The Purpose of Worship
Worship involves coming into the Presence of God
Worship is prayer
Worship involves effort
Problems with Worship

1. The Purpose of Worship
- to feel uplifted?
- to prepare our hearts for the message?
- a “spiritual warm-up?”
Those are not bad things, but
- What if I said to Anne: “the reason I talk to you Anne is because it makes me feel uplifted!”
- She might answer: I’m really glad it does, but is that the only reason?
- don’t you do it mainly because you love me?
The main reason for worshipping God is for him!!!!
- End in and of itself—for God
- The purpose is because God himself derives pleasure from our worship

Psalm 149:1-5

Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, and his praise in the assembly of saints.
Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.
Let them praise his name with the dance; let them sing praises to him with the timbrel and harp.
For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he will beautify the humble with salvation.
Let the saints be joyful in glory; let them sing aloud on their beds.

It is hard to imagine that God actually enjoys us worshipping him!
- but he does!

Worship

The Purpose of Worship
Worship involves coming into the Presence of God
Worship is prayer
Worship involves effort
Problems with Worship

Revelation 5:9-14

They were singing a new song:
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals
because you were killed,
and at the cost of your own blood you have purchased for God
persons from every tribe, language, people, and nation.
You have appointed them as a kingdom and priests
to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”
Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels in a circle around the throne, as well as the living creatures and the elders. Their number was ten thousand times ten thousand—thousands times thousands—

Revelation 5:9-14 cont’d

all of whom were singing in a loud voice:
“Worthy is the lamb who was killed
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honour and glory and praise!”
Then I heard every creature—in heaven, on earth, under the earth, in the sea, and all that is in them—singing:
“To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise, honour, glory, and ruling power forever and ever!”
And the four living creatures were saying “Amen,” and the elders threw themselves to the ground and worshiped.

2. Engagement with God, in his presence

Notice that they are in his presence and addressing him
Are we in God’s presence in the same way ??
- we can be, in a very real sense, if we “draw near to him”
  - [“Draw near to me and I will draw near to you”]
- As we come into God’s presence, he comes into ours:
  - Ps 22:3 [But You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel.]
We talk about our hearts being engaged with God
- Have you ever been talking to someone and you sense their mind is elsewhere
- on the phone, pouring your heart out... (here someone else in the background)
Real worship is being engaged and focussed, with no distractions

Worship

The Purpose of Worship
Worship involves coming into the Presence of God
Worship is prayer
Worship involves effort
Problems with Worship

3. What IS worship?

Giving God pleasure is the main purpose of worship, but there is more to it than praising him.
- It is about a relationship
The Psalms are the biggest collection of worship songs in the Bible, so it is worth considering them for a bit
- The Psalms are described as the “Prayers of David” Ps 72:20
I think that the best way of describing it is that we can think of worhip as prayer in song
What is involved in a prayer ??
- Thanking God for what he has done for us
- Praising him
- Telling him how we love him
- confessing our shortcomings to him and asking for forgiveness
- bringing our requests to him
Do we find all those things in the Psalms?
- Ps 51 ?
- Ps 18 ?
- Ps 9 ?
- Ps 22 ?
Most of the Psalms (around ⅔ of them) address God directly
- One of the problems with many of the older hymns, is that few of them directly address God
But ⅓ of the Psalms are not directly addresses to God
- Some of our songs are not (In Christ Alone)
- They are praising God
- They declare truth
- There is a place for it, and we see it even in Revelation
Often in our worship we might start with Songs that declare, and then move into more intimate ones that directely address God.
- (Songs packed full of good theological truth are primarily for our benefit—God already knows it!)
Here is another from Revelation

Revelation 15:3,5

…They sang the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb:
“Great and astounding are your deeds,
Lord God, the All-Powerful!
Just and true are your ways,
King over the nations!
Who will not fear you, O Lord,
and glorify your name, because you alone are holy?
All nations will come and worship before you
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

Worship

The Purpose of Worship
Worship involves coming into the Presence of God
Worship is prayer
Worship involves effort
Problems with Worship

4. Worship involves effort

Not purely an intellectual excercise
If we stand with our arms folded and our lips hardly moving, is it really worship?
We cannot truely be worshipping unless it costs us something
- Rev: cast their crowns before him
- Mary, bottle of precious ointment
The Bible speaks of it as a sacrifice

Jeremiah 33:11

‘the voice of joy and the voice of gladness,
the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride,
the voice of those who will say: “Praise the Lord of hosts,
for the Lord is good, for his mercy endures forever”—
and of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord.

how much energy do you put into worship, or are you just going through the motions?
Jesus complains, in Matt 15:8-9:

Matthew 15:8-9

‘These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

But the best example is from the life of David, one of the best known worshippers of God

2 Samuel 6:14-23

Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod.
So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet.
Now as the ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.
So they brought the ark of the Lord, and set it in its place in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it. Then David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.

2 Samuel 6:14-23 cont’d

And when David had finished offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts.
Then he distributed among all the people, among the whole multitude of Israel, both the women and the men, to everyone a loaf of bread, a piece of meat, and a cake of raisins. So all the people departed, everyone to his house.

2 Samuel 6:14-23 cont’d

Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, “How glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself today in the eyes of the maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!”
So David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me instead of your father and all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel. Therefore I will play music before the Lord.

2 Samuel 6:14-23 cont’d

“And I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight. But as for the maidservants of whom you have spoken, by them I will be held in honour.”
Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.

God never condemned anyone for over-enthusiasm in worshipping him!!!
The problem of being ‘undignified’ in worship.
- Do you worry about what people will think of you if you get too engaged, too emotional?

5. Problems with Worship

engagement, distraction, focus
effort
a cost: what do they think?
(if we are the worship leaders) problem with performance
The problem of being critical of the music, other people

5. Some Solutions

understand what worship is for (from God’s persective)
fight to engage. This is almost always a battle
- Set God in your mind’s eye.
- Picture him, as he really is, right here!
Be conscious that you are addressing him in all the words you use
Come to a decision in your mind about whether you are going to put effort into your worship to please God, or whether you are going to worry about what people think
Don’t be critical: Don’t stand apart from the group who is worshipping, but mentally “join” them as a group, singing your praises.
There is an element of “submission”

Updated on 2011-02-21 by Andrew Fountain