Divinely Revealed Worship

Introduction:

We must always maintain a balance between obedience and an understanding and pursuit of God’s purposes. Israel of old forgot or ignored God’s purposes and stressed obedience to God. In their obedience, they were ignorant of God’s purposes. The same problem was evident during the days of Jesus. (Pharisees) While we must always be concerned with obedience – we must always keep God’s purposes in mind that are behind the commands.

I. God’s goal for His children.

A.       What God wants for His children is what we hope for our children.

1.        Loving parents teach their children to obey them.

2.        Taught obedience for their own good/protection.

B.       Spiritually, we are God’s children.

1.        In our spiritual immaturity, God stresses obedience.  He teaches us to obey because He loves us.

2.        God has stressed HOW He expects to be worshipped.  NT reveals this.

3.        Eph. 5:19 – Christians sang praises; 1 Corinthians 16 – Christians gave money; 1 Corinthians 14:15 – Christians prayed; 1 Corinthians 11 – Christians partook of the LS; Acts 20 – Christians listened to preaching.

II. The Simplicity is Amazing.

A.       Christian worship can occur among any people, in any culture, in any circumstance, in any geographical location.

B.       We are often blind to simplicity.

1.        Doing the “right things” in the “right way” is declared to be all-important.

2.        Praising God in genuine faith with a godly heart is rarely considered of major importance & significance.

C.       We many be more like the Israelites of Isaiah 1 than we realize.

1.        Must not turn worship into just acts worship/requirements to be fulfilled.

2.        Worship is meaningful interaction and participation with God and bro/sis in Christ.

III. We must work to become more mature and increasingly grasp God’s purposes.

A.       The more we mature, the more we understand His purposes.

1.        There is a purpose behind God’s divinely revealed plan of worship.

B.       When we mature spiritually, worship will not be entertainment based.

1.        Eph. 5:18-21 – worship is a whole person response to God.  Here, self is nowhere on the radar screen. It’s all about God. It’s all about lifting up others.

C.       Worship is not about us…it is about God.

Conclusion:

A.       Worship is for God and God alone.  It’s about Him and not us.

B.       We may be blessed, comforted, encouraged, and edified as we worship, but all that is secondary.

C.       When we leave here, our concern must be for God:

D.       How is your life? Do you need to respond to God today?