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You Are Invited...To Worship
Psalm 95
Skip Heitzig

Psalm 95 (NKJV™)
1 Oh come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
3 For the LORD is the great God, And the great King above all gods.
4 In His hand are the deep places of the earth; The heights of the hills are His also.
5 The sea is His, for He made it; And His hands formed the dry land.
6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
7 For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice:
8 "Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, As in the day of trial in the wilderness,
9 When your fathers tested Me; They tried Me, though they saw My work.
10 For forty years I was grieved with that generation, And said, 'It is a people who go astray in their hearts, And they do not know My ways.'
11 So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest.'"

New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Worship: Life with Passion and Purpose

For the next several weeks, we take a fresh look at worship. In every book of the Bible and in every generation, people worshiped God. Worship also seems to be one of the chief activities of heaven. What does it mean to worship, and how can worship become a way of life that is both appropriate and fulfilling?

Worship: Life with Passion and Purpose is a comprehensive look at the role of worship in the lives of believers. In the series, Pastor Skip Heitzig looks at examples of several people in the Bible who understood what it is to worship God. These people realized that worship is not just singing, but a lifestyle. God created us to worship Him and certain qualities will be evident in your life if you are a true worshiper. As we study the lives of worshipers in Scripture, we can understand what true worship is--and use it as a template to follow in our own lives.

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Outline

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  1. The Meaning of Worship - What Does it Imply?

  2. The Motives for Worship - Why Should it be Done?

    1. Because of Who He Is

    2. Because of Who We Are

  3. The Modes of Worship - How Should it be Accomplished?

    1. With Our Peers

    2. With Our Lips

    3. With our Bodies

    4. With Our Lives

Questions for Discussion:
  1. How closely does your worship resemble the biblical description of worship?  Assessing all your activities and interests in life, is it accurate to say you worship God?  (Does your life seem to revolve around you or does your life revolve around God and His interest?)

  2. Why is it appropriate to worship even when life comes crashing down on you (through disease, loss, financial crisis, a stressful day with the kids, setbacks at work, etc.)?

  3. How does corporate worship change your perspective?

Transcript

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Would you open your Bibles to Psalm 95? I think that what I experienced the last couple weeks while I was in Amsterdam was a little bit like heaven. Try to imagine this: ten thousand plus evangelists and Christian workers from 209 different countries and territories, different languages, different cultures, all together worshiping the same God. Speaking about the same life-transforming gospel and what was great is during the times of praise and worship a lot of people recognized the tune but all joining in anthem in their languages worshiping God. It reminded me of Revelation 5 that says, "To Jesus in heaven we'll be saying for You were slain, You have redeemed us to God out of every tribe, out of every tongue, people, and nation." And it says the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands. So it was a preview in that worship setting of what heaven is going to be like.

I was emailed a little quip by a friend of mine about another meeting of religious leaders where people got together in the same building and suddenly somebody rushed in and said that there was a fire and that everybody was trapped and that they ought to try to get out. The Methodists gathered in a corner and discussed the social and ecological significance of fire. The Baptists cried, 'Where's the water?' The Quakers quietly praised God for the blessings that fire brings. The Lutherans posted a fire notice on the door. The Catholics began a bingo game to cover the damage. The Jews declared a fire feast. The Congregationalists shouted, 'Every man for himself!' The Fundamentalists proclaimed, 'It's the vengeance of God!' The Episcopalians formed a procession and marched in protest against the fire. The Christian Scientists concluded there really was no such thing as fire. The Unitarians proclaimed the fire had no power over them. The Presbyterians appointed a chairperson to appoint a committee to look into the matter and submit a written report about fire. And the Pentecostals said, 'It's the Holy Spirit!'

Now in that little quip that's not to say that everyone in that room was a genuine believer anymore than to presume everyone in this room is a genuine worshiper or a genuine believer. But the point is every worship system, religious system, in the world has a different way of viewing God. Many are wrong; some are right. And even within the pale of Orthodox Christianity there are different ways, different styles, of not only looking at things but of worship. For instance, some like formal worship. Others like it informal. Some like it very liturgical and planned; others like it very loose. Some have the idea that a pipe organ is the only instrument God ever anoints and others will opt for the electric guitar.

I have worshiped in a variety of settings from dirt floors in India and the Philippines and Africa and other parts of Asia to the great cathedrals of Europe. I have discovered that it matters much less how one worships and it matters more that one worships. That it's true worship--it's from the heart. It's based on certain biblical truths and that we enter into true, authentic worship. Now I've had you turn to Psalm 95 because this will be our starting point in a series that we begin this morning on worship. It's a great starting point because it's an invitation.

The psalmist says, "Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the Lord is the great God, and the great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places of the earth; the heights of the hills are His also. The sea is His, for He made it; and His hands formed the dry land. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice: "Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, when your fathers tested Me; they tried Me, though they saw My work. For forty years I was grieved with that generation, and said, 'It is a people who go astray in their hearts, and they do not know My ways.' So I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest.'"

On the back of your bulletin every week we publish what we call our "Purpose Statement". The reason we exist, not only as this church, but as we see it, why Christians exist period. They're summed up in three words: Upreach, Inreach, and Outreach. And we believe it's always in that order. That first and foremost is our connectedness to the Living God--that's Upreach. Based upon that relationship, everything else follows: Inreach and Outreach. It's easy to understand that if you really know God, you'll love Him. And if you love Him, you're going to love His kids: that's Inreach. And if you love God, you're going to love the world that He died for: that's Outreach--a concern for the lost.

In the evangelical world, there's a lot of emphasis on evangelism and discipleship. In fact, most Christian bookstores are stocked with a lot of information about Inreach and Outreach. Primarily how to reach the lost--that's good. How to disciple other people, grow them up in the faith--imperative. How to have a good, solid marriage; how to have a Christian budget; a Christian diet, etcetera, etcetera. All good things, however, there seems to be very precious little written about worship. Very few seminars on worship. And that's why A.W. Tozer said, "Worship is the missing jewel of the evangelical church." One person said that we have become a generation of people who worship our work, work at our play, and we play at our worship. And we know the tendency, do we not, that our worship lifestyle can grow stale. Very easy to do that. You can just sort of become a yawn session, 'Yeah, ok. Let's get on with the real stuff of the service.' But worship is the imperative and this morning, as we look a little closer at Psalm 95, there are three things we should look at from this psalm. First, what does worship mean? The meaning of worship. Second, why do we do it? What's the motivation? We need the right motivation; otherwise, it will be a sloppy kind of a job or we'll only do it when we feel like it. And then third, what are the modes of worship? How should it be accomplished?

First of all, we want to look at the meaning of worship and if you look at verse six we find the only use of the word in the psalm is the invitation: "Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker." I think we need to probe the question, what worship is, because as I see it the term has been corrupted over time. Most people that I've found see worship as an event; an activity. You know, we come Sunday morning and have a worship service. But we all know it's true, you can sit in a worship service and have little, if anything, to do with real worship. It's very possible to put your mind in neutral and not even be engaged heavenward. So it's not just an event. Charles Spurgeon said, "I believe a very large majority of churchgoers are merely unthinking, slumbering worshipers of an unknown God." Ouch. It's not just an activity; it's not just an event. It's far more.

Nor is worship simply an emotion or a feeling that we work up. And the reason I say that is because some of us still believe that we haven't truly worshiped until we've sort of worked ourselves onto a level emotionally and psychologically--almost a swoon. 'Oh yeah, now that was worship!' It may involve our feeling and it ought to, but not necessarily. Now I'd like to give us what I consider a biblical definition of worship. And I've got to tell you it's not easy to do that. To describe and to define something as grand and as deep as worship is sort of like asking a young couple in love to define in words what's going on between them. It's tough to do. But basically, worship means to declare worth. That's what it means basically. I make a statement about the value of something or someone else--that's worship, literally. It comes from the Old English word 'worthspis': to declare worth. It became shortened to worthship and now to worship. To declare value or worth.

Let me give you the definition in four parts. First of all, according to the Bible, worship is a response to God. It's our response to God. The Bible says in 1 John 4, "We love Him because He first loved us." He acted first; we respond to His act. That's worship. We love Him because He first loved us. So worship first of all, is a response. Second part of the definition. Worship is the proper response to God. In Romans 12 when Paul says we ought to give our bodies over as living sacrifices to the Lord, he says, "This is your reasonable service." This is the smartest, wisest response you could ever make. So it's a response to God; it's the proper response to God. Third part of the definition: it's a response to God from the heart. From the core; from the center of our being. The Bible tells us Jesus said to the woman at the well of Samaria that the Father is seeking people who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. So it's the proper response to God that comes from the core of our being--our hearts. Here's the fourth part: worship is the proper response to God from the core of our being, our hearts, whereby we place God above everyone and everything else in life. Once again: it's the response from the core of our being whereby we place God above everything and everyone else in life.

It's not that we just declare that God is worthy; but He is supremely worthy. Jesus said, "The first and greatest commandment is that you must love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind, and all of your strength." This is what it means. We must, if we're to worship God, place God above hobbies, entertainment, education, boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives, and children. For Jesus said, "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. He who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me." So we see, then, worship isn't just an act, an activity, once a week under the guise 'worship service.' It is not just a feeling that we would conjure up. It is a lifestyle of adoration where we declare quite appropriately that God is above everything else in my life. And everyone else.

And that's why Tozer was right when he said, "Worship is the missing jewel of the evangelical church." Because more and more, we're losing the whole reason that we gather together as a group of people. While I was traveling, I took my computer and I was getting email and a friend of mine in the church wired me an article that he found online from religiontoday.com. And the researcher found this: there's a pastor in Little Rock, Arkansas who held recently a Who Wants to be a Millionaire game at church. This is Sunday morning worship. Two winners took home a thousand dollars each when they answered the biblical questions correctly. Another church sent visitors gift baskets filled with fresh bread and fruit or offers them gift certificates to local restaurants. One church in Texas concludes the Sunday services in time for Dallas Cowboys football games. And those games are shown on the big screen outside the church. And in some parts of the country, that is an alternate religious experience for some. One pastor in Bryant, Texas, pays people ten dollars each if they'll come to church on his bus. All of this under the title 'worship with us.'

When biblical worship is the appropriate response from the core of my being where I am willing, voluntarily, to place God above everything and everyone else in my personal life. That brings us to part two here in Psalm 95. Why do we do that? What is the reason that I render God my worship? And there are probably a lot of reasons we can come up with, but the best two are found in Psalm 95. We worship God because of Who God is and because of who we are. There is a relationship there of us to Him that demands our worship. And it is steadfast--it's fixed--it never changes. I see worship and praise differently. In other words, praise is more episodic; it is the response to an episode, an act of God or a provision of God. God does something for us so we render praise to Him. But that changes. Sometimes God blesses you; sometimes God withholds that for a period of time. But worship should go on regardless of the provision. It's not based on what God does; it's based on Who God is and who we are in response to Him.

I'll show you what I mean. First of all because of Who God is. Look back at verse one and notice the descriptions of God in Psalm 95. Verse one, He's called the Lord. And then notice He's called the Rock of our salvation. In verse three, God is designated the great God, the great King above all gods. Verses four and five describe God as the Creator of everything on earth: the high places, the deep places, they're all His. Verse six, it's personal. He says, He is our Maker, our God. And then verses 8-11 describe God as the God of history. The One who took the Jews out of the bondage of Egypt and brought them through the wilderness and gave them their own land. And all of those descriptions make God very valuable to us. He's of great worth; He's of great value. So we declare His worth above all else.

Now it's not stated in Psalm 95 but we further worship God the Son, Jesus Christ because of His redemption on the cross. That He bought us and made us in union with His Father. In fact, the very center of worship from the cross forward throughout all of eternity will be the cross of Christ. I already quoted the verse to you in Revelation 5, it's a preview of heaven when we're all going to say together, "For You were slain," we say that to Jesus, "And have redeemed us to God by Your blood." Out of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. The cross becomes the center. We worship God and God alone.

I heard a story from several generations ago. When the communists were over running Russia and Stalin was in power and it seems that an elderly woman was in a Russian Orthodox Church. She walked to the front of the church where there was an old cross of Jesus; He was hanging on the cross. She bent down to kiss the scarred feet of the Savior and as she did, a Russian soldier approached her and using the common term for grandmother he said, 'Babushka, are you willing to bend and kiss the feet of Stalin like you've kissed the feet of Christ?' And she said, 'Yes. If he gets crucified for me.' Only Christ was crucified for us; only He redeemed us. And so He alone gets our worship. Because of Who God is we worship Him.

So looking over these descriptions of God in Psalm 95, what other being in history could you say these things about? Our God, the Creator, the God of all history, the Rock of our salvation? Only the Lord God, the One True Living God. You couldn't say these things about George Washington or Napoleon or Mozart or Elvis. Or Uncle Bob. But only God and that is why the first commandment God gave to the children of Israel is, "I am the Lord your God and you will have no other god besides Me." God wants no competition in worship because there is no competition in real life. There's not five gods floating around out there, you take your pick. There's only one true God. He is of supreme worth--of supreme value. The true and one Living God.

By the way, that's why the Bible says, and I make no apology for it, that our God is a jealous God. Have you ever read that verse? God is a jealous God. A lot of us Christians don't like to underline that or mention that; we get a little bit fidgety when we talk about God, after all, as being jealous. I think it's a wonderful thing. That's part of true love. Any husband and wife ought to know that. If a husband is in love with his wife, he's not going to want to share her with anybody in the neighborhood. And if anyone tries to come onto her, he better get jealous. That's part of that love dynamic that they have. And even so, we're called the bride of Christ which means we exist for Him alone. We worship and adore Him alone. Remember John in the book of Revelation when at one point the angel gives him further revelation and it says that John bowed down to worship the angel. And the angel rebuked John, admonished him at least, and said, "See that you do this not. I am your fellow servant. Worship God."

So God didn't want angels worshiped. God doesn't want Mary worshiped. God doesn't want Martin Luther worshiped or John Calvin worshiped or any pastor worshiped or any movement worshiped. He alone is to be the exclusive object of our worship because of Who He is. Now there's a second part of this in verse seven: because of who we are. Look at it a little more carefully: "For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand." Do you get the relationship? If He's the Creator, then I'm the creation. If He's the Lord, I'm the servant. If He is the Great Shepherd then I am the sheep--I follow Him. It is that relationship of who I am and who He is that demands my worship. It's the natural response. Ownership is implied here; ruler ship is implied here.

There's a great little story I heard years ago about the little boy that made the gingerbread man. He was all into this thing and he made the gingerbread man, put little candies for eyes and mouth and fashioned it just so; it was his creation. He put it in the oven, baked it, brought it out and was so proud of it. Until the gingerbread man suddenly sprung to life and ran out of the kitchen and ran down the street. The little boy hightailed it after the gingerbread man. After all, he made it. The gingerbread man took off faster than the little boy could run and he was lost. Two days he spent looking for his creation. Finally, as he walked by a bakery he looked in the window, to his left, right in front, was his gingerbread man--he had made it. But it had a little sign on it: five cents. He stormed into the shop and demanded that the shopkeeper give him what was rightfully his. After all, he was the one who made it. The shop owner said, 'Young man, if you want that gingerbread man, it will cost you a nickel.' 'But you don't understand, it's mine. I made it.' 'I don't care what you did. It's in my shop; it'll cost you a nickel.' The little boy reached into his pocket, took out a nickel, paid the man, took the gingerbread man home, laid it on the counter--smashed it. No, I'm just kidding. But he had a good long talk with it and basically he said to him, 'Now you are mine. First of all, because I made you. But now you are mine because I bought you.' And isn't that what the Lord Jesus has done to us? He made us and all of us like sheep have gone astray. We've gone our own way, but then He came and paid the ultimate price on the cross. And He owns us. We've given our lives to Him and He can rightfully say, 'I made you and I redeemed you and you're Mine.'

And because of who He is and because of who we are in relationship to who He is, the natural response would be one of a lifestyle of adoration--of worship. Did you notice in verse 7 that we are called 'sheep'? We are the sheep of His hand. And depending on what you know about sheep, you are greatly comforted or highly insulted. Because sheep, though they're cuddly and wonderful and soft, they're really dumb. And they need to be led. They just can't manage on their own because they'll go the wrong way. But I look at this and instead of being insulted, I'm elated. Like David who said, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." David, being a shepherd, knew that the quality of life of any sheep depends on the kind of shepherd you have. And it was like he was bragging, 'Hey, look who my Shepherd is! It's the Lord--He's my Shepherd! I'm His sheep; He's taking care of me.' And the response was worship.

Have you ever known an animal owner who doesn't really take care of their pets? In fact, you think after awhile, 'They really don't deserve animals.' They walk the thing once a year, bathe the thing every four years, whether they need it or not. There are animals living within the fur of this creature, bird's nests are there. But then maybe some of you have known, on the other end of the spectrum, the professional pet-owner. They've got the pedigree certificate on the wall, puts the dog in dog shows, designer sweaters on in the wintertime for the dog, personalized dog house with a refrigerator, the name written over the door: Phydeau. Now we may look at that and think it's crazy, way overboard. But question: if you were a dog and you could decide who you want to live with, who would it be? The guy that goes overboard. Well listen, the Lord God, Maker of heaven and earth, is your Shepherd. He'll take good care of you. He will perfect that which concerns you. He'll pay meticulous care for your needs.

And that relationship of who He is and who we are demands worship. So to sum it up, we're His creature; He's the Creator, what's natural? Worship! He's the sovereign Lord; we are the subjects. What's natural? Worship! He's the Great Shepherd of the sheep; we are the sheep. What's natural? Worship. It's the natural, proper response from our heart whereby we place God above everyone and everything else in our lives. And anything short of that is not true, biblical worship. Because of who God is and who we are.

By the way, when we do come for worship, whether it's in private, quiet times or in a corporate assembly like this, it's for Him. It's not really for us. The reason we gather isn't so that we can get our burdens lifted and experience peace, though we do, we should, that's the result, but that's secondary. Primarily, it's for Him. So often we think, 'Well, I'm the audience.' No you're not--He's the audience. Dr. D. James Kennedy wrote, "Most people think of the church as a drama with the minister as the chief actor, God as the prompter, and the laity as the critic. What is actually the case is that the congregation is the chief actor, the minister is the prompter, and God is the critic."

So when we leave today, our question heavenward should be: God how'd I do? You were watching. I was either worshiping You in spirit and in truth or I was not. That's why I love the song that we sang at the end, "I'm Coming Back to the Heart of Worship..." Because it's all about You. It's all about You, Jesus. We should never think of worship as, 'Well, I liked the worship today.' So? 'I really didn't like the worship today.' So? It's not up to us to grade on a scale of one to ten. 'I give it a six--good beat, easy to dance to.' It's not about you. It's your turn to render praise, glory, adoration back to Him. Because of who He is, because of who we are, that's why we do it.

Third and finally, we want to look briefly at the modes of worship as outlined in this psalm. How should we do it? We know what it is; we know why we ought to do it, now how do we go about worshiping? There are several ways to do it that will take the bulk of the next few weeks. But there are four ways given here in Psalm 95 that describe to us modes of worship. Number one, we do it with others. With our peers--Christian brothers and sisters, the family. Notice it says, "Let us" --plural pronoun. "Let us worship, Let us sing, Let us shout." Now here's the context of the 95th psalm. It is a call to public worship. Corporate worship. Three times a year, probably most of you know, the Jews were commanded to leave their homes, wherever they lived in Israel, and make a pilgrimage up to Jerusalem--three feasts they attended. Put this picture in your mind: dad would wake up his kids, his wife, they'd have everything packed, they'd put the backpack on, take an animal if they were to ride on it or walk on the footpath out from their home. They would suddenly be met by a couple neighbors, and then soon they would be part of a river of pilgrims--thousands of people leaving their homes, their villages in route to Jerusalem. As they would go they would be reciting Scripture, they would be singing songs, and it would be encouraging to the max. It would reaffirm one's personal faith in God. 'Look at all these other people doing the same thing; worshiping God!' And therein lies the value of corporate worship: we get together on Sunday and Wednesdays in small groups, but we get together with other people who believe in God and love God, love Jesus and put Him first and we see them all rendering praise to God. And it encourages us. That's why it's perfectly appropriate when you worship to keep your eyes open. Close them if you want to but I don't always like to tune everybody out--I'm with them. It's their presence that inspires me to trust in Him more.

Every now and then I'll meet somebody who will give me the rap about organized religion: 'I don't really believe in organized religion. I don't think you really have to attend church to worship God. I like to just go out and find a tree and look at a rock and talk to God. Just me and God. You know, we're like this!' You are wrong. Not that you can't go out under a tree and talk to God--you can. But you need other people. For the Bible says that we should never forsake the assembly of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but we should do it more and more as we see the day of Christ approaching. We need it and it's good for us. Remember when Jesus taught the 'Our Father'? He didn't say, 'And when you pray say, 'My Father, Who art in Heaven... give me this day my daily bread.' You know why? Because Jesus came to take words I, me, and mine out of our vocabulary and replace them with we, ours, and us. We're all part of this great peer group called the body of Christ. So we worship with others.

Second, we worship with our lips. Look at verse one: "Let us sing... let us shout joyfully". I don't think you can do that without lips. How do you shout joyfully? Of course God reads your thoughts but here's the encouragement to sing and to shout joyfully. Aren't you glad it doesn't say, 'Let us sing perfectly to the Lord'? Make sure you're in just the right pitch and harmony? But it says, "Make a joyful noise". Now we can do that--all of us can do that. The question is not do you have a voice. The question is do you have a song in your heart. A lot of people do not worship, they do not sing, because they have no song inside. Let us shout joyfully to the Lord. Joyfully. Have you noticed how many bars have happy hour? Why isn't the church happy hour? We have a song to sing about! We have a purpose to sing for! In fact, one of the greatest ways to get you out of discouragement is to worship corporally--to sing, to shout joyfully. I know what you're thinking. Some of you might think, 'But I don't feel like it.' Do it anyway. You will find a lifting of the spirit that comes by the act of obedience. It's because of who You are--You're worthy, You're valuable. I declare that, I sing about that and your spirits will get lifted. Let us sing. Let us shout joyfully.

I want to share a little article with you I found in the Detroit Free Press. It's called "Remedy for a Prune Face." I'm not implying anything by it; just an article that I think speaks to this: "Ladies, do you want to stay young? Then join a church choir. For women who sing stay younger looking. A singer's cheek muscles are so well developed by exercise that her face will not wrinkle as soon as the non-singers will." Now that's not the motivation to sing. Anything to stay younger--I'm going to start singing! But just to use that as an illustration. It's obvious that God made us this way. We're created to worship as it says in Proverbs: "A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance."

Third, we are to worship with our bodies. And we'll just brush over this briefly but look at verse six: "Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker." The Bible talks about several ways in using our physical bodies to demonstrate that we love God. It's one thing to worship from the heart; it's another thing to express that openly. And the Bible has a lot to say about that. In fact, rising of hands in 1 Timothy 2:8, etcetera. Now many churches allow for only one physical expression in worship and that is sitting and looking in one direction. If you raise your hands, you're a little bit too kooky. If you kneel down, you're a little bit too formal. When the Bible says we can kneel down, that's an act of adoration and submission. We can bow before the Lord, we can stand in His presence when it's appropriate, we can lift our hands--that's appropriate.

And finally, we do it with our lives. Verses 7 through 11 talks about the nation of Israel who did not obey the voice of God. There they were, going to the feast, singing joyfully, making a joyful noise, but they didn't live in obedience to God Monday through Friday. They just attended the Sabbath services but it didn't change their lives. Someone said this, "It's not how high you jump, it's how straight you walk once you hit the ground." So you can have a great time of worship but how do you live Monday? Tuesday with your wife, with your kids, at work? You see, when the world can look at us and see the thief who doesn't steal anymore, the liar who is now honest, the adulterer who is now pure, the change that has come over our lives, they can say, 'They have been connected to God. They have encountered the Living God--they're changed.' Does it ever amaze you that we Christians--the community--that talks so much about transformation, we exhibit so little of it? Could it be that it really has been a true connection with God where we are placing everyone else and everything else below the adoration of God? George Smith said, "There are five Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and fifth, the Christian. And most people will never read the first four." But we know they read us, don't they?

So how about it? If we know that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess one day, all of history's marching toward that event, why would we not now want to voluntarily worship, bow, surrender, submit, connect, as a lifestyle? Not an event, not just a feeling--but a lifestyle.




Additional Messages in this Series

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Date Title   Watch Listen Notes Share Save Buy
8/18/2000
completed
resume  
Why Are You Here?
Matthew 21:12-17
Skip Heitzig
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When you go to a doctor's office you are typically asked, "So, what brings you here?" The answers may range from having a sore throat to something far more serious.  The same is true of coming to church.  Don't be so naive as to think everyone comes for the right reasons.  While Jesus was in the Jerusalem Temple one Passover, he encountered four different groups of folks who were there for four different reasons.  He dealt with each crowd accordingly.
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8/27/2000
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Worship - True or False?
John 4:20-24
Skip Heitzig
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The world is full of worshippers. It's a God-given propensity to want to worship. At the same time it could accurately be said to many who claim to be worshippers, "You worship what you do not know" (John 4:22), but what is the worship that God desires? Does God consider all worship to be true worship? In Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well we get insight into what is true worship and what is false.
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9/3/2000
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Lift Up Your Voice - Part 1
Psalm 47
Skip Heitzig
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Somehow, a large number of churchgoers have bought into the idea that "singing in church is for singers." Wrong! Singing is for believers! The question is not, "Do you have a voice?" but rather, "Do you have a song?" Singing is a part of history – spiritually, culturally and socially. It is a prominent part of a Christian's worship experience and will occupy an important place in our future. So clear your throat, arch your back (if you can), and get in practice...for eternity!
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9/10/2000
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Lift Up Your Voice - Part 2
Ephesians 5:19
Skip Heitzig
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Songs are everywhere. In almost every culture and country, music and singing leave their mark. Singing is also a main component of worship. Every time we gather, we spend a good portion of our time singing the truth we believe. But what makes our singing so different and unique from just a folk song or an anthem? Is the music and singing a time-filler for late-corners or merely a Christianized form of entertainment? Or, is it something much deeper and significant?
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9/17/2000
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Abraham - Worship On Display
Genesis 18:1-33; 22:1-24
Skip Heitzig
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To study about worship is one thing; to observe it is yet another. There is nothing like worshippers in Scripture to inspire our relationship to God in worship.  When we glimpse at their lives and see their worship displayed, we can understand what kind of worship is acceptable to God. Three different "worship cameos" in the life of Abraham show us what is involved in true worship.
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9/24/2000
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When God Let Down the Ladder
Genesis 28:10-22
Skip Heitzig
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Jacob was a fugitive running away from the trouble he created. God ran after him, showing him that what he thought was a dead-end street was actually a new beginning. It's a classic case of God lavishing His grace on an undeserving creature. The creature (Jacob) in turn properly responded by worshipping the One who ' stooped to show such love.
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10/1/2000
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Bowing Before the Battle Begins
Joshua 5:13-15
Skip Heitzig
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Following the plan of God for lives is the best and most exciting way to live.  It's an adventure.  But it's not without its difficulties.  In fact it can sometimes seem like a battlefield.  The problem l see is that too many of God's soldiers are beat and burned out!  How can we keep our heads above the water of adversity and conflict?  By a life of worship! Let Joshua show you how!
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10/8/2000
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Worship From an Ash Heap
Job 1:6-22
Skip Heitzig
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Worship is easy when life is good, when the cupboards are full, when we and everyone around us is healthy. Anyone can pull that off! It's no big deal. But songs sung in the dark nights of affliction and loss can only come from God. Is your worship conditional? Do you respond well to God only when God performs well for you? The example of Job compels us to move to a deeper level of worship - the worship of a broken heart!
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10/15/2000
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A Worship That Transforms
Isaiah 6:1-8
Skip Heitzig
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What good is worship if it doesn't change us? If week after week we leave the assembly of worshipping saints exactly the same way we came in, then why do it? Of course, the primary reason we worship is simply because God is worth it. But if we've really been in contact with the living God, there ought to be the evidence of changed lives. The change will be visible in our serving Him.
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10/22/2000
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The Lavish Worship of an Overflowing Heart
John 12:1-8
Skip Heitzig
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When you're really grateful to God for something he's done, how do you show it?  Do you ever really show it at all? Do you shoot up a quick "Thanks, God," or do you justify your non-response with an excuse like, "Well, God knows I'm thankful"? Are you worried about how people would react if you became "too spiritual" or "too excited" about god? Mary of Bethany is a prime example of an adoring worshipper who lavished her love on Christ.
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10/29/2000
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Worship: Welcome to Your Future
Revelation 19:1-10
Skip Heitzig
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What will heaven be like? Among things it will be a place of worship. You might say that heaven will be the culmination of all our worship experiences. Seeing God face to face, having our salvation completed, knowing God has righted every wrong and is firmly in control of everything and everyone will evoke a lively response of great joy and praise. In this final study on worship we peek ahead into the worship service of the future!
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There are 11 additional messages in this series.
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