Worship Series

April 7, 2002

 

 

Get Your Focus In Worship Right

(Part I)

 

 

• Ernest F. Scott (The Nature of the Early Church; 1941; page 94-95)

"If the mind of our times is growing dull to the meaning of Christianity the reason may be largely this, that in or worship there is so little of that fire, that active manifestation of the Spirit, which was present in the Early Church and which belongs to the intrinsic nature of our religion."

• Ernest F. Scott (IBED; page 70)

         

"It is through worship that man becomes conscious of God, that he brings his own life into relation with the Divine Life. The power which urges him to acts of practical obedience is communicated by the approach to God in worship."

• Richard Foster (Celebration of Discipline)

"To worship is to touch reality."

• (Insight) You will never be able to make any sense out of what we call reality until you learn to touch of the reality of His Divine presence.

 

READ:

          Psalm 9:1      I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonders.

          Psalm 111:1           Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart, In the company of the upright and in the assembly.

o        This hymn is about "corporate worship" (church).

o        The Psalmist is encouraging himself, and everyone else, to praise the Lord for his righteousness, power, justice and truth.

Psalm 119:2,10,145

            John 4:23-24

                   But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.

                   God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

o        The Father is "seeking" worshipers.

o        He is seeking those who will worship Him with their whole heart.

o        Those that do, will know the joy and the power of His presence in their lives!

What’s Your Focus……What’s Your Motive in Worship?

What I see on an average Sunday here at ECWC:

• Some of us come with a sense of expectancy…..we are going to meet with God.

• Some people enter into worship: singing, clapping their hands, raising their hands.

• Some folks just stand or sit through the worship times…….they don’t appear to be entering in at all.

                   - Some don’t enter into the singing because they don’t like to hear the sound of their own voice.

                   - Some just get blessed by hearing and seeing others entering into worship.

• There are others who simply look bored………"When will this ever get over with?"

• And there are some who don’t enter in because they don’t have a clue to what is going on. Our style of worship is totally foreign to anything they have ever known.

Wherever you find yourself on this list……….we are glad you are hear! You enter into worship, God will honor it, and we won’t criticize or judge you.

 

The Focus should be "Jesus" not you and me.

The Geo-centric Theory

• Ptolemy: Born in Macedonia, (a region in Greece) he was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, and philosopher at Alexandria. Alexandria was the cultural learning center of the world in that day.

• He lived from about 367 - 283 BC. He ruled Egypt as her king from 306 BC to 285 BC. Ptolemy was the founder of the Macedonia dynasty in Egypt. Most of us have never heard of him, but we have all have all heard of his most famous descendant.

• Cleopatra, she was the last of his line.

• Ptolemy believed that the earth was the fixed center of the universe. And that the sun, the moon, and all the stars were in orbit around the earth.

• The Geo-centric Theory was universally accepted as fact for hundreds and hundreds of years.

• It wasn’t until men like Isaac Newton, a born again believer, began to challenge and disprove Ptolemy’s theory.

• Today we know that the earth is not the center of things……..the sun is. In fact, we know that our sun isn’t even the center. Our sun is only a medium sized star and there are an infinite number of solar systems in the universe. We don’t even know which side of the "Milky Way" our solar system is on.

• Here Is The Point: While the scientific community has disproved and discarded the Geo-centric Theory, the Church still needs to do that!

 

Jesus Is The Center:

• Colossians 1:15-18 (READ)

• Worship & Praise was never intended for you and me.

• Worship & Praise is not to be man centered, but God centered.

• We must repent for making ourselves the focus of worship: what we can get out of it…….what feels comfortable to us……and did it minister to "our" needs and wants! That’s nothing more than selfishness! And then we wonder why God doesn’t honor and bless it.

Ministering To The Lord In Worship:

• Worship begins when our hearts begin to overflow before Him.

• We are not talking about emotionalism. The issue is heart attitude.

• Our worship then, is not based upon our feelings, our circumstances, or our present situation.

• We worship God……we worship Jesus for Who He is and what He has done. He alone is worthy of all our worship and praise.

• We don’t worship God to get things from Him, we worship Him because He is worthy!

• (Listen Church) If God never blesses you with another blessing, if He never answers another prayer for you, it should be more than enough to know that your sins are forgiven and that your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

• When you know that down in your heart, you will be able to worship and praise God no matter what you are facing or going through.

• God’s heart is for us, through worship, to come into communion with Him. And, it is only in His presence that we find "fullness of joy" (Psalm 16:11).

• It is here that we begin to discover the joy of "ministering to the Lord".

• Ministry to the Lord unlocks the flow of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in our corporate worship.

Next time:    (Part II)     Ministering To The Lord

 

It All Starts With The Right Focus.

• If you have had a "self-centered" approach to worship……repent and ask the Lord to forgive you.

• Commit your heart to Jesus

• Make a decision, "I’m going to begin to step outside of my comfort zone and worship the Lord….in spirit and in truth."