Intro

·         Talk about worship this morning. Ask the question “what is worship?” “How does God want to be worshipped?”

·         Start at the end and then go back to beginning and work our way back to the answer.

o    Big topic to take on, as you’ll see, because if we’re going to talk about worship, we have to understand the full extent of worship as the bible defines it. We’re going to see that this encompasses every area and every moment of our lives, and to ask the question “what is worship?” is effectively the same as asking “what is a Christian?” (to ask “how do I worship?” is to ask “how do I be a Christian?”). We aren’t even going to scratch the surface of exploring Christian Worship, and there are a thousand things I would love to talk with you about this morning that we won’t even get to.

o    And though we’ll be focusing in the book of Hebrews this morning, we’re going to read a ton of Scripture from all over the Old & New Testaments, because we want to know: “what does the whole of Scripture say to us about worship?” So I’m going to throw a lot of Scripture at you this morning and we won’t be able to go super deep into any one thing, but we’re taking more of a high-level look this morning at worship and address some things that I think will be helpful for us right now at Kaleo Church.

·         Broaden our definition of “worship”.

o    Example phone call “Hey, wanna come over and worship?”

What am I inviting you to do?

§  Sing!

§  Christian language, our own special word for sing.

o    Scripture does talk about singing as worship, but what’s interesting, more frequently uses word to describe things like bowing down or laying down. In fact, Scripture refers to a lot of things as worship. Here’s quick list, from Genesis to Revelation, of actions Scripture calls worship:

§  Listening, turning your heart, fall to the ground, respond to prophecy, giving thanks, burning sacrifices, building altars, separating from uncleanliness, lifting up hands, confessing, tearing clothes & shaving head, eating, feasting, making boasts, placing trust, exalting, making & performing vows, seeking, pursuing, grabbing feet, fasting, praying, following the law, presenting your body as a living sacrifice, declaring God’s presence, bowing, declaring God’s greatness, saying Amen and Hallelujah.

·         (Grabbing feet during a worship service? Sounds like yoga!)

§  God calls us to worship Him and praise Him in song. He also calls us to worship Him in numerous other ways.

·         The reason we’re going to start here, with defining this word, is that it’s important to understand how God tells us He wants to be worshipped. Knowing this will prevent us from having wrong expectations of what singing and Sunday mornings are all about. Sunday morning worship gatherings are a crucial and necessary piece of the life of the worshipper, but they are just that: a piece of our lives. Sunday mornings are a specific expression flowing out of an entire life of worship to our God.

·         So we will be talking about singing today and we will talk about Sunday mornings and the role of the worship gathering in our lives, but we need to understand these things in light of the larger call on us to worship God in the whole of our lives within Christian community.

§  Start with a working definition: Worship = a continuous outpouring of all I am in light of some god.

§  Everybody worships, all the time

·         Romans 1: Sin is not from a lack of knowledge of the truth, but from willful disobedience to God.

·         All people have exchanged the truth of God for a lie because our hearts long for sinful pleasures:

o    Verse 24: “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of the hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”

·         In this God is telling us that our sin is an issue of worship; we don’t stop worshipping when we sin—our worship changes direction. Paul writes that we either worship UP to the true God, or we worship DOWN to ourselves, or something of creation: things that are created rather than the Creator.

·         We are all worshippers, whether we profess to be a Christian or not. The question is not do we worship, but what do we worship.

§  So we see in this that our worship needs a Savior! If we sin because we choose to worship creation rather than creator, our worship needs saving! We are created in the image of God to worship Him, but because our hearts love sinful pleasures we worship the creature instead of creator. We need a savior to purify our worship and re-point it in the right direction!

§  This morning we’re going to be reading Hebrews 9, which shows us the answer to this problem of misdirected worship. Open up your bibles… We’re not going to pick this chapter apart verse by verse, but we’re going to take a look at his main argument, which, briefly, is this:

·         The Old Testament law told the Jews what their worship of God should look like. The problem was that the sacrificial system with its priests and the temple, etc, wasn’t sufficient for saving the people and making their worship right.

·         So Jesus came, and in His perfect, sinless life and sacrificial death on the cross, brought in a new system that was better than the old one, and made a way—not only for us to be saved—but for our worship to be made right once and for all, for all time.

§  So we’re going to read through it, with a few pauses along the way to talk about what we’re reading. It’s a bit long, so don’t get hung up on too many of the details, we just want to grasp his main argument here. I’m going to stop along the way to explain what he’s talking about.

Read Hebrews 9

·         [9:1] Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. [2] For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. [3] Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, [4] having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. [5] Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

o    So there’s a tent, and the first section is called the Holy place, and there’s some stuff in there. Behind a second curtain is a second place, called the Most Holy place, and there’s some more stuff in there. So we’ve got the picture, and he says, don’t worry about the stuff in there, that’s not the point right now.

·          [6] These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, [7] but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people.

o    The priests go into the Holy place all the time, and do various acts of worship. But only one person, the High Priest, goes into the Most Holy Place, and he’s only allowed in there once a year. And he has to take blood with him to enter in the Most Holy Place, which is where God’s glory lives, to pay for his sins and the sins of the people. Remember the blood, its important!

·         [8] By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing [9] (which is symbolic for the present age). (kind of a confusing sentence) According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, [10] but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.

o    So the priests worship God by giving gifts and making sacrifices, but these acts of worship aren’t good enough to perfectly redeem the worshippers. They’re temporary solutions: washings, food and drink rules until a new time comes when things will be reformed or changed. Here’s the good part!

·         [11] But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) [12] he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

o    The old system is insufficient, so Christ comes, and He’s a High Priest, only He’s the Ultimate High Priest, and He enters the Most Holy Place (meaning God’s presence, not just the part of the tent) and He didn’t need blood of a goat or animal, He entered using His own blood, and since He was God in the flesh, His blood secured our redemption and salvation forever! Awesome!! … Let’s keep going!

·         [15] Therefore He (Christ) is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. [16] For where a will (meaning a legal document that says who gets what when someone dies) is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. [17] For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. [18] Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. [19] For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, [20] saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” [21] And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. [22] Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

o    Blood is required for the forgiveness of sin. Sin is a breaking of God’s commands, and Romans 6:16 tells us that sin leads to death. When we sin, something or someone needs to die to pay the penalty for the breaking of God’s Law. In the old covenant, the priests offered the blood of animals to pay the debt of theirs and the people’s sin. Jesus offered His own death so that those who are called can receive the inheritance that God has promised to His people. Verse 23:

·         [23] Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. [24] For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. [25] Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, [26] for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. [27] And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, [28] so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

o    So what Christ did was analogous to what the priests did, except the High Priest entering the Most Holy Place in the tent was only a shadow or metaphor of what Christ did when He entered heaven, went before God, and offered His own blood to pay for our sins! And His blood, unlike the blood of animals, is sufficient to cover all sins of all people for all time! And soon He’s coming back for a second time so save those who are waiting for him.

Jesus the Mediator of our Worship

·         So there’s the answer to our question today about worship: Jesus is the mediator of our worship. The One who makes us pure once and for all by entering into God’s presence by the means of His own bloodshed on the cross, putting away sin once and for all. So in Christ, we are no longer like those in Romans 1 who exchange the truth about God for a lie and worship the Creature rather than Creator. We now can worship the Creator, offering pleasing sacrifices and offerings to the praise of His glory.

·         So now let’s go back to our original questions: “What is Worship? How are we called to Worship?”

·         If we take a look throughout Scripture for all the times the word worship is used, we’ll see two ways the Scriptures speak of worship: those times when the word is used to describe an ongoing life of worship (a continuous outpouring) and those times when it describes a specific action in a specific place at a specific time. We’re pretty familiar with the idea of doing acts of Worship, so let’s start by looking at continuous Worship in our whole lives.

Worship as Life

·         Worship is a Continuous Outpouring (serving, obeying, following, honoring)

o    Here are several instances in Scripture that we’ll just quickly skip through, showing worship as continuous:

·         We worship by pursuing, seeking and going after God.

·         Jeremiah 8:2 God said that the bones of the deceased Jews who had worshipped the Sun and Moon instead of God would be dug up and spread across the ground “before the sun and moon which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshipped.”

·         If we love something and worship it, we will pursue it.

·         We worship by following God’s law.

·         In Acts 18, Paul was falsely accused by the Jews who said “This man in persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.”

·         Obeying the law is not a one-time act; it’s something that is done continuously, from day to day, over our whole lives. If every Saturday you steal a car, but today on Sunday you say “I obey the law because today I haven’t broken it,” we’d say you’re lying, that you don’t obey the law, because your we understand obedience to the law to be continuous.

·         We worship by offering our bodies as living sacrifices.

·         Romans 12:1 – “…present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

o    Again, presenting our bodies as living sacrifices is continuous, ongoing worship.

o    These are just a few examples that specifically use the word “worship”. We would find many more if we looked for examples of worship that don’t necessarily use the word. Jesus throughout the Gospels tells people “follow me.” He’s calling them to a life of worship through following Him and being with Him. He doesn’t say “It’s Sunday, follow me for an hour.” It’s “leave your family, leave your job, leave your home and follow me forever.”

o    This is an important point, because our worship is responsive. It always begins with a call. Christ first says to us: “Follow me.”

·         Romans 5:8 “…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Christ made a way for us to come to faith in Him before we had come to Him.

·         We’re going to talk abut this more when we get to discussing acts of worship in a minute, specifically in song. The songs sung in Scripture are frequently in response to a specific thing that God has done. God saves Israel from Egypt by parting the Red Sea. God’s people are thirsty and He leads them to a well. God leads David and Israel to victory in battle. God blesses Mary to become the mother of the Messiah, Christ himself.

·         Christ is necessary for our right worship of God.

o    I’m going to really drive this point home this morning! Without Christ we would not come to faith, we would not have our sins paid for, we would not offer sufficient sacrifice or pleasing worship to our God.

o    Our attempts to worship God without Jesus are hopeless.

·         In Mark 7, the Pharisees are challenging Jesus’ disciples for not washing their hands before they ate. The Jews had many rules about washing and eating, and they were laws intended to worship God, but because the Pharisees loved their laws more than they loved God, their washing was worthless as worship.

·         [4] …and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) [5] And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”  [6] And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; [7] in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

o    John 14:6 - Jesus says “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

·         God doesn’t desire sacrifices of praise, He doesn’t desire acts of worship in themselves, He wants our hearts and our loyalty and our love. He doesn’t want songs on Sunday mornings; He wants lives devoted to Him as continuous out pourers of praise.

Psalm 51:

o    [16] For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

o    [17] The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; God doesn’t even want our songs if we are in opposition to him:

o    [22] Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. [23] Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.

·         Without Christ our attempts to worship Him are hopeless.

·         Romans 3 – [10] as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; [11] no one understands; no one seeks for God. [12] All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” [13] “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.”

o    [21] But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— [22] the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

·         Our attempts at righteousness are filthy disgusting rags to our perfect and Holy God. Jesus says “follow me.” “Take up your cross and come with me.” “Lay down your lives and pick up true life.” “Worship me continuously, with your whole selves, don’t offer me your worthless trinkets.” “Follow me, and I will be your God, and you will glorify me, and I will give you the desires of your hearts.”

Worship as Act

·         Worship as Life informs our worship acts.

o    We see them as part of a larger story of our lives

·         No compartmentalized faith/worship.

·         Sundays – a primary time for expressing our worship in tangible ways!

o    Why gather?

·         Hebrews 10:24-25 “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.”

·         Ephesians 5 – [19]” …addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, [20] giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, [21] submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

·         When God calls us to Himself, he brings us into His people, He adopts us into His family, the Body of the church: 1 Co 12:12 “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”

·         Christians are part of a community and we gather regularly to be with our community. In the book of Acts, the believers gathered together every day to worship together. It’s for our own good to be with others. “It is not good for man to be alone.”

·         God calls us to Him not only for our own good, but also to praise Him. Psalm 106:47 “Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.”

·         So we hear this truth and we acknowledge that it is true and good, but we’re fallen people. To be honest, we don’t always want to be part of a community and we don’t always want to gather with others.

·         What to do if we don’t feel like coming

·          Come anyways. We know that God wants us to gather with the Body, we know that He wants us to praise Him and spend time in His Word, and when we don’t want to come it’s because we don’t want to be obedient! Our hearts in those moments are closed to God and we’re worshipping something else: sleep, individualism, errands (practical needs above spiritual health), divisiveness, selfishness, whatever.

o    Hebrews 10:25 - We just read, don’t neglect to meet together, but encourage one another. When we don’t want to gather with the saints we are worshipping idols and we need the encouragement of the Body even more than the times when we want to come.

·         Let others speak into your life. Who has permission to make you come when you don’t want to? Are you willing to give someone that permission, to notice when you’re not here on Sunday and call you and not buy into your excuses reasons for why you didn’t come? Who has permission to do that? We need brothers and sisters who love us enough to not let us continue in patterns that are no good for us and dishonor God.

·         When you don’t feel like gathering, pray. Pray, pray, pray. David wrote in his Psalm, the 143^rd, “Hear my prayer, O Lord; give ear to my pleas for mercy! In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness!”

o    When we gather, what do we do? What are the worship activities we engage in?

·         Singing, praying, preaching, listening, serving, giving, communion, fellowship.

o    Wish we could talk about all these things this morning. We’re going to focus this morning on singing. It’s something Christians do, we do it every week, but we rarely talk about it; about why we do it, what it’s for, how you’re supposed to do it; we sort of take it for granted that we all understand perfectly what’s up with singing!

o    So why do Christians sing? The only thing we spend more time doing on Sundays than singing is preaching the word. Why do we sing? Why do we give it so much emphasis in our gatherings?

o    4 reasons why Christians sing:

·         Scripture commands it.

·         Ephesians 5:19 - Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.

·         Jeremiah 31:7 - For thus says the Lord: “Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, ‘O Lord, save your people, the remnant of Israel.’

o    Isaiah 42:10 “Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth”

o    The Psalms are littered with commands to sing to God: 9, 30, 33, 47, 66, 68, 96, 98, 105, 135, 147, 149, to name a few!

·         Jesus sang.

o    Matthew 26 - Jesus is having the last supper with His disciples and He’s just instituted communion, telling His disciples to eat and drink in remembrance of Him; verse 30 “And when they had sung a hymn, they went out”.

o    To be a Christian is to be imitators of Christ: Ephesians 5:1 “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.” Jesus sang, so we sing.

·         God’s people have always sung.

o    We’re going to look at this in more detail in a minute, when we look at the different kinds of worship songs.

o    The bible records the songs of God’s people as early as the time of Moses, who in Exodus 15 led God’s people in a song after God delivered them from the Egyptians by parting the Red Sea.

o    What’s the longest book in the bible? Psalms! What are the Psalms? Songs!

§  Scripture is filled with dozens of different kinds of documents: histories, genealogies, prayers, prophecies, apologetics, laws, visions, letters, exhortations, songs and more. The longest book in the canon of Scripture is a book comprised entirely of songs, not to mention the other songs sprinkled throughout the other books of the bible that God’s people sing at various times.

·         All Creation sings

o    Psalm 96 - [11] Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; [12] let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy [13] before the Lord.

o    Psalm 98:8  - Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together

o    Psalm 69:34 - Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them.

o    Isaiah prophecies in 55:12 “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”

o    Not only does creation praise to God, but creation reveals and declares to all mankind God’s power and divine nature:

§  Romans 1:20 – “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”

·         The point is this: our God is a God who sings, and singing is important to Him. It’s important for His glory and it’s important for our own good, such that He commands us to sing to Him.

·         We live in a very “efficient” world, and singing is often perceived as having little “real value” in life. But we are created imago dei, in God’s image, designed to worship our Creator through song, and to dismiss that as trivial or optional or unnecessary, or a bit silly and dramatic, is to tell God that He is trivial and silly and dramatic, and that we know a better way for us to live than what He commands of us.

·         I’m spending some time explaining this to you all because I know there are some who have this view, that singing is frivolous, and I think especially some of us men are guilty of that. We live in a time when it’s cool to like UFC, but not very cool to like singing. But our God is a God who loves song, and our culture doesn’t read their bibles and doesn’t know who they are and who their Creator is. If you come late on Sundays because you know it doesn’t matter if you miss the singing because the sermon is what you’re coming for anyways, you don’t know our God.

·         Sing to the Lord a new song, sing his praise from the ends of the earth!

o    So what do Christians sing about? What songs should we sing, what should our focus be, what should we express, should it be emotional? Should it be thoughtful? What should we feel, what should we experience? What does Scripture teach us about how to sing and what to sing about?

·         Three primary types of songs that God’s people sing in Scripture:

·         Responsive songs – songs in response to a specific act of God:

o    Exodus 15:1 - God has just saved Israel from the Egyptians, He parted the Red Sea, crushed the Egyptian army, and brought His people into freedom.

o    [15:1] Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying,

o     “I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. [2] The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him. [3] The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is his name.

o    [4] “Pharaoh's chariots and his host he cast into the sea and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea. [5] The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone…

o    and on and on

o    Awesome song! Compare to “Shine Jesus Shine”!

o    2 Samuel 22 - Israel and King David have been fighting with the Philistines, and God gives Israel victory in the war. So David sings this song:

§  The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, [3] my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior; you save me from violence.

§  [4] I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.

o    How many have heard this song: “I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from my enemies…” How much more significant this song was as David sung it and God had literally and truly delivered him from enemies of war who wanted to kill him and destroy his country!

o    This is true of our worship today. Our songs of worship are infused with great significance when we are singing in response to God’s work in our lives. Which means that if we’re not aware of God’s work in our lives, if we’re not inviting God to work in our lives or if we’re not seeking his hand in our affairs daily; our songs will not be songs of response, and will lack meaning. We’ll be singing “so shall I be saved from my enemies” but not having any enemies! How can we be thankful to God for saving us from enemies if we have none?

·         Declarative Songs – songs declaring something about God’s nature: other times in Scripture, God’s people sing songs to him simply declaring who he is.

o    Psalm 33 – [1] Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright. [2] Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings! [3] Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts. [4] For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. [5] He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

o    Many Christians I’ve talked to, and I know some of you here today, struggle with songs that are primarily Declarative, because you have a harder time connecting emotionally with them, so you dislike them.

o    The truth is songs that declare God’s character are so good for us. It’s so good to remember who God is in the midst of our lives. Scripture is full of times when God tells His people to remember Him, remember His faithfulness and remember His love. Life is hard, life can be crappy, sin is painful and unavoidable in this life, and the only thing that gives us hope is the goodness and love of our God. The answer is not in ourselves, but in God. When we enter the Most Holy Place into God’s presence, we are covered not in our own righteousness, but Christ’s. We are escorted into God’s presence only with Christ at our side.

§  When we are suffering, to remember God’s nature is to have hope.  When we are reminded in song about God’s faithfulness to provide for His people, we are encouraged! When we are reminded in song of God’s forgiveness, we are reassured and relieved! When we are reminded of God’s strength and sovereign rule over everything, we are put at peace.

o    After we’ve laid our petition, our request, our needs, in front of our Heavenly Father, the thing we need most is not to continue gazing at our need, but to lift our eyes to look at the face of our God. To lay our needs at His feet and then let go and give God praise shows such a trust in His faithfulness to answer! What a testimony that is when we have great distress and we bring it before our Father and then sing His praises, declaring His faithfulness!

o    So if you struggle when we do songs that are primarily declarative, remember that we are declaring God’s good nature for His glory and for our own good.

·         Songs that express the singer’s heart.

·         Ephesians 5:19 once again: singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart

·         Jonathan Edwards wrote - “The duty of singing praises to God seems to be given wholly to excite and express religious affections. There is no other reason why we should express ourselves to God in verse rather than in prose and with music, except that these things have a tendency to move our affections.”

·         The beautiful thing about our God is that He doesn’t ask of us that we become Zen Buddhists who suppress all emotion in favor of “perfect stillness”. Our God feels emotions, Jesus felt emotions, and as image bearers, we feel emotions. The Psalms are a collection of 150 songs, and they express the full range of emotions that we experience as human beings. We have permission from our Father to feel things and express these feelings to Him.

·         If the Christian faith were only about thinking right thoughts about God and giving intellectual assertion to the truth of the Gospel, God would not command us to gather and to sing to Him.

·         John Piper wrote in his book “When I Don’t Desire God,” “God is glorified in His people by the way we experience Him, not merely by the way we think about Him. Indeed the devil thinks more true thoughts about God in one day than a saint does in a lifetime, and God is not honored by it. The problem with the devil is not his theology, but his desires.”

·         This takes us all the way back to where we started, when we saw that Scripture tells us that everyone worships, it’s just a question of what we worship. Romans 1 tells us that it’s not from a lack of knowledge that we disbelieve God, but that we suppress the truth willingly because we want to give in to our desires.

·         Christians feel deeply and they should experience emotion when worshipping God amongst his gathered people.

·         God asks for all of our selves:

·         Mark 12:30 “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”

·         1 Corinthians 14:15 - What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also. I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.

·         If you find that you don’t connect emotionally with God very often, you are not loving the Lord your God with all your heart. Pray for the Spirit to soften your heart and sanctify you in emotive worship. You need Jesus to save your worship.

·         If you find that you are very emotional and get impatient declaring the true doctrines of God’s grace, you are not loving the Lord your God with all your mind. Pray for the Spirit to write the words of Truth on your mind and sanctify you in truthful worship. You need Jesus to save your worship.

·         We all need Jesus to save us and our worship.

Jesus the Object, the High Priest and the Sacrificial Offering

·         We cannot worship God as we ought without Christ. We need Him not only to save us from our sin and justify us before God the Father so that we can spend eternity in heaven, but we need Christ daily and weekly to worship God as He deserves. No one but the High Priest can enter the Most Holy Place and no other blood but Jesus’ is sufficient to pay for sin.

·         There’s so much more I’d love to talk to you about—we’ve barely scratched the surface. We haven’t talked about musical styles, and how working a job can be worship, and how serving can be worship, and how evangelism is God worship with unbelievers watching and listening in! But my desire for this morning is to speak about the glory of Jesus, the mediator of our worship; to remind us of our dependence on Him. To praise Him for being a sufficient sacrifice that would allow us to enter the Most Holy Place, the presence of the Glory of our God, clothed not in our own righteousness, but His. We get to be in the presence of the God who created the whole universe and who even loves little, insignificant us with His whole heart and being because of Jesus Christ! Amen!!!

·         Jesus made the way for our worship to be right and pleasing to our God by living a perfect life of worship directed up to the Father, obeying God fully and never once sinning. By obediently going to the cross where He was murdered, shedding His blood as the perfect lamb of sacrifice which atoned for sin once and for all, being buried for three days and then rising on the third day, triumphant and glorified, not even death being able to defeat him. This is the good news of our Lord, this is the Gospel, and it is the power of God to save.

·         One of the ways we worship God every week is by taking communion and remembering the necessity of Christ’s sacrifice. The old system of sacrificing goats and lambs was insufficient to save. Jesus told His disciples just before He was arrested to take bread and break it in remembrance of Him, His body broken for us. He told them to take wine and remember His blood that established a new covenant promise, the blood with which He entered the Most Holy Place into the presence of His Father.

·         After we take communion and worship God by giving money for the work of His kingdom to express our thankfulness for His provision and our trust in His continuing provision, you can place your offering in the small wooden boxes on the tables when you come up, then we’re going to sing, and let’s sing loudly, let’s let our hearts and our minds delight in our God and proclaim the truth of His nature and deeds, giving thanks to Christ for setting us free.

·         Let’s pray.