Worship God Deserves

The Worship God Deserves

Ps 95:1-11 Pastor Tom Mitchell

Worshiping God is an instinct that's been distorted. As a result, real worship must be learned.

Jonathan Edwards spoke of worship when he said. “Our affections consist of that core part of our being that orients our mind, will, and emotions toward an object. Sin has caused our affections to stray, propelling us to worship relationships, achievement, work-everything but God.”

Biblically speaking, those things we worship other than God are idols. Worship is pulling our affections off our idols and putting them on God. We were created for worship of God not idols. So we need to learn how to give God the worship he deserves.

Ps 95 is a classic on the topic of worship & it tells us much we need to know about worship. It tells us: What is worship? Why should we worship? How can we worship?

WHAT is WORSHIP?

The word worship comes from an Old English word meaning "worth-ship." Worship as a private act, which has two parts; seeing what God is worth and giving him what he's worth. Worship engages every aspect of your being – mind, will, and emotions. In Ps 95 there are three calls:

v1 = We are called to worship with our emotions. It’s emotional language: sing for joy, shout aloud, thanksgiving, exalt with music.

v6 = We are called to worship with our will. It’s the language of submission, volition: come, kneel, bow down.

v8 = We are called to worship with reason or thinking. “Hear his voice. Listen to his voice. Accept what he has to say.” It’s the language of thinking and understanding.

Worship is something that engages your entire being – mind, will, and emotions. So if you go through some kind of ritual and not experience a sense of joy or sorrow or wonder then it’s not worship. Likewise, you can go through a service and experience joy and excitement but if it doesn’t change the fundamental way you live, your character, your life patterns, then it is not worship.

Worship engages the entire being.

Real worship is also about assigning ultimate value. What does that mean? In Ps 95 you will see that all the great experiences stem from something the Psalmist is doing.

In verse 1 & 2 it says: “sing and shout and come before him with singing. Verse 3 “For or because the Lord is great, he’s king, he’s creator. Verse 6 “Come let us bow down in worship and kneel, verse 7 “for he is our God”, not just God, but OUR God, who has entered into a relationship with us. All the emotion, all the worship is coming from something the Psalmist is doing. He is taking an inventory of the greatness of God, and he’s evaluating & assessing them until there is a reaction to his life.

Let me illustrate. A painting was sold at auction by Christie’s in New York for $19,000 in 1998 and was resold to Canadian art dealer Peter Silverman in 2007 for $21,000. The owner began to wonder about it’s true worth so he took it to an art expert to see what it’s worth. The expert examined the painting and discovered a fingerprint near the top of the unsigned picture. He begins to wonder about the painting and he asks another expert to examine it. The other expert examines it and puts it under an infrared analysis and carbon dating shows that the picture is consistent with works done around the late 1400’s.

Now both experts are getting excited because they realize the value of what they are looking at. They realize it is more valuable than all the pieces of art they have ever examined.

And the dating along with the finger print show that is a painting of non other than Leonardo Da Vinci. And according to a NY Post article is now worth more than 100 million.

When the owner realized the true value the picture you he was blown away. He realized that he had not been living in accordance with the value of what he had. When he understand the value of the picture, it changed his life.

The Psalmist is telling us to do exactly what the art expert does. It starts rationally, with thinking and looking at who God is and what God has done. The Psalmist examines and studies God until it dawns on him the incredibly great value of who God is.

What is worship? Worship is seeing what God is worth and ascribing ultimate value to God in such a way that it unifies and transforms your life.

WHY should we WORSHIP?

Because you are already worshipping something! You are already ascribing ultimate value to something. Some people say, “I’m not religious. I don’t really engage in worship.” But that’s not true. Most people have put their hopes in something. They say, “If I had that, then I’d be OK. Then my life will have meaning, fulfillment, & then I’ll be happy.”

What is the deepest desire of your heart? In our culture the big three gods are: money, power, and sex. Other lesser gods are success, popularity, comfort, status, youthfulness, etc.

Many think, If I just have this desire, then I’ll be satisfied & I’ll have meaning, joy, purpose, and fulfillment. Everybody is living for something and whatever that is, orients your life.

The writer, Becky Pippert says: “Whatever controls us is our god. Some seek power and are motivated by power. Some seek acceptance and are motivated by acceptance. But one thing is certain we don’t really control our own lives, we are controlled by the god of our lives.”

Each one has ascribed ultimate value to something and your life is oriented around it.

We, who chose to worship God, can learn to worship God by giving Him ultimate value in our lives. So the final question is how can we worship the way God desires?

HOW can we WORSHIP? Ps 95 tells us help.

1. WE NEED COMMUNITY – Notice the Psalm is in the plural: “Let US sing, Let US shout, Let US come before him, Let US bow down, Let US kneel, WE are the people of his pasture…”

We are called to worship in a community, in a group. Our individual worship is important, but it is to be preparation for corporate worship.

I know this goes against the view of US spirituality where individualism is supreme. The truth is: the more diverse your worshipping community the more you experience God not just through your own eyes and experience but through others eyes and experience. We need the eyes and experience of young and old, rich and poor, healthy and sick, black and white, new believers and seasoned believers. We need community. Second we need truth.

2. WE NEED TRUTH. – How does the Psalmist know that God is the God above all gods, the King, the creator, the shepherd, and our maker? The Psalmist is telling us what he has LEARNED from the prophets and other writers of scripture. He is submitting to the Scriptures as the revelation of who God is.

Many people want to worship a god of their own design. They say, “I don’t like what the Bible says about God here and what it says there. I like this part and that part and I like to put together my own designer God, a god who suites me. It’s a free country you know.” They want a god who will fit into their understanding, a god who will submit to them.

There is a problem with designing your own god. You will end up with a god who will never challenge you, never disagree with you, never disappoint you, and a god you think you can control. But you will end up with a very small god. We need truth and thirdly:

3. WE NEED OBEDIENCE. (95:8-11)

Notice the a couple of words:

First word: “Today”(v8)emphasizes the urgency of the appeal being made. You may not have tomorrow. As Thomas Fuller put it, “ You cannot repent too soon, because you do not know how soon it may be too late.”

The second word is: “heart” (v8) Worship is not merely an external act that you can accomplish by going to a place & doing something. Jesus said in Matt 15:8: "This people honor me with their lips but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me." Worship is first and foremost an experience of the heart. Prayer without heart is valueless. Songs without heart are valueless. Communion and music,prayer and sermons that don't come from the heart are valueless in God's eyes.

Background to verses 8-11: God had guided and protected the Israelites on their way out of Egypt to the Promised Land with the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. He delivered them from slavery in Egypt. He always cared for them by giving them food, and water. But they grumbled and complained and tested and hardened their hearts to Him.

Notice verse 11. “So I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.” God’s anger by itself sounds pretty frightening! I don’t want God to be angry with me. But to have God “declare on oath” His anger, sounds utterly awful! It means that the oath is permanent, final, irrevocable. This group people had crossed the line of no return. At that point, God declare in His anger, “Truly, they shall not enter into My rest.”

To this group of people it meant that they would never enter His rest in the Promised Land.

Whenever I read this psalm, I’m always troubled by the

ending. I want to add a happy ending verse 11. But there’s no

happy ending. God leaves us with the urgent ultimatum: Worship with your heart or else!” It’s, “Real Worship or you will never receive God’s rest. Those are the only options. If you go with the first option, you will enjoy God’s rest, both now and for eternity. If you harden your heart, God promises, “They shall never enter into My rest!”

What is worship?Seeing what God is worth and giving him what he's worth.

Why should we worship? Because you are already worshipping something.

How can we worship? In community, in truth, and in obedience.

What will you do different because of what you have heard?