Worship Archives - Page 7 of 11

The Nations Will Worship God

October 11, 2015 in Bible - OT - Psalms, Eschatology, Meditations, Postmillennialism, Singing Psalms, Worship

1Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth!
2 Sing out the honor of His name;
         Make His praise glorious.
3 Say to God,
         “How awesome are Your works!
         Through the greatness of Your power
         Your enemies shall submit themselves to You.
4 All the earth shall worship You
         And sing praises to You;
         They shall sing praises to Your name.”  Selah

Psalm 66:1-4

When we look toward the future, what do we expect? For the last 100 years, the predominant Christian view of the future has been unduly pessimistic. It is believed that we are living in the last generation before Christ’s bodily return, that the world is destined to get worse and worse prior to His return, and that there is nothing Christians can, or even should, do to reverse this trend. After all, to reverse the trend would be to postpone the imminent return of our Lord.

So how does this pessimistic view of the future mesh with David’s view in the psalm before us today? It is the exact opposite. Notice that David describes his anticipation for the future like this:

Through the greatness of Your power, [O Lord,]Your enemies shall submit themselves to You.
All the earth shall worship You
And sing praises to You;
They shall sing praises to Your name.”

In light of the power of God, David sees the future full of the worship of God, full of the knowledge of God, full of the praise of God. All the earth shall worship, all shall sing praises, even God’s enemies shall submit themselves to Him. Why? Because God is Almighty, because He is the Exalted Lord.

So if God is the Exalted Lord and He is going to exalt His Name in all the earth in the course of human history, what is our calling here and now? Well listen again to David’s exhortations.

Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth!
Sing out the honor of His name; Make His praise glorious.
Say to God, “How awesome are Your works!

Because God is going to exalt His Name in all the earth, David summons the nations in the here and now to do just that – exalt God now! Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth! David calls upon all nations to worship and serve the Lord; to join him as he praises God’s might and power.

It is this same summons that we issue every Lord’s Day. As we come into God’s presence and sing His praises, we are invoking the nations to come and to join us: smell the fragrant aroma, behold the goodness of God, come see the glory of our King and join us in praising Him. And this praise, which starts here each Lord’s Day, is to makes its way out of here into our homes and communities during the week so that folks can’t help but declare – how good and how pleasant it must be to know the Lord!

This morning, then, as we enter the presence of the Lord let us consider the exhortations that David gives us:

· We are to sing – not mumble

· We are to sing joyfully – not morosely

· We are to sing loudly – not silently

· We are to sing beautifully – not obnoxiously

And so let us fill this building with the praise of God – but let us begin by seeking His forgiveness for failing to live now in light of the glorious future that He has promised – let us kneel and confess our pessimism and doubt to Him.

Is Worship a Fancy or a Feeling?

August 30, 2015 in Bible - OT - Psalms, Meditations, Sanctification, Singing Psalms, Worship

Psalm 33:1–3 (NKJV)

Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous! For praise from the upright is beautiful. Praise the LORD with the harp; Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of joy.

One of the great lessons of life is Solomon’s adage, “All hard work brings a profit but mere talk leads only to poverty” (Prov. 14:23). It is easy to talk about achieving something; but actually to achieve that thing requires determination and hard work. As the editors of the Geneva Bible wrote: “All things are difficult that are excellent and fair.”

Consider the skilled musician. I don’t play an instrument – although I love music. Often I close my eyes while listening to Archangelo Corelli’s Concerti Grossi and imagine myself playing the violin. I imagine how proficient I would be. But my imaginings are just that. I’m not a skilled musician because I have not invested the time and energy into learning that would be necessary to be one.

The same principle applies to the skilled athlete. While native talent is an important starting point, the one who truly succeeds in a sport is the one who practices, who pushes himself so that he may acquire increasing skill and proficiency. I might imagine myself hitting 100 free throws in a row; but each time I’m on the court I’m lucky to hit seven out of ten. Why? Because I don’t practice.

This principle applies in most every area of life, including relationships. Consider a solid marriage. Marriages start with the swearing of an oath; they continue as a couple learns to love and sacrifice and forgive. Successful marriages – marriages in which spouses learn to communicate well, forgive well, make love well, and parent well – require hard work, practice, and persistence. They don’t just happen. The love that makes marriages work is elbow-grease love.

This same principle applies in worship. Much has been written and said regarding the “worship wars” in the modern church. What should be the nature of our worship? Many, in an attempt to be seeker sensitive, have striven to make worship easier; to use music that makes visitors comfortable; to limit the amount of theological depth in lyrics to make songs more digestible. If you haven’t figured it out yet, we have not jumped on that bandwagon. We haven’t accommodated ourselves to this musical trend. We sing psalms and hymns; we try to sing in harmony; we use printed books. This proves very challenging for many who visit our congregation; and I can certainly symphathize with the challenge. Perhaps it has been challenging for you.

But here’s the question: should we expect the worship of God to come easily? Skill in music comes only with practice; skill in sports comes only with practice; skill in marriage comes only with practice; should we expect anything different of worship? The idea that worship should just come naturally when we’ve lived lives alienated from God is absurd. When God rescues us He does not immediately make us skilled worshipers; rather, He so touches our hearts so that we, for the first time, desire to become skilled worshipers.

Is worship difficult for you? Is it challenging for you to learn to sing the psalms and hymns? Challenging to learn to sing in harmony? Challenging to understand what those lyrics mean at times? Then keep working at it. Remember, all things are difficult which are excellent and fair.

So reminded that we are often lazy in our pursuit of the Almighty and that we treat His worship less seriously than the acquisition of musical, physical, or relational skill, let us confess our slothfulness to the Lord. And as you are able, let us kneel as we do so.

Abounding with Thanksgiving

August 17, 2015 in Bible - NT - Colossians, Heart, Meditations, Thankfulness, Worship

6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Colossians 2:6-7

Last week we learned that not only is our walk with Christ to be conducted by faith but it is to be conducted by faith in a specific person. Faith in itself is no virtue. For faith to be virtuous it must join one to the Christ revealed in Sacred Scripture; for trust in any other is not virtue but idolatry.

Today I want to develop at more length Paul’s admonition that we are to be abounding in the faith with thanksgiving. To abound, we said, is to overflow, to know no limits. Imagine a glass full to the brim with water on your kitchen table. When you bump the table what comes out of the glass? Water. Bump the table really hard and what comes out? Water. Why does water come out of the glass each time? Because that’s what is in the glass.

So too with thankfulness. We are to be abounding in the faith with thankfulness. Thankfulness is to fill our lives. If we were to picture one another as drinking glasses, the beverage swirling in the glass is to be thankfulness. And when we are abounding in the faith with thankfulness and someone comes along and bumps our table, bumps our life, if our glass is full of thankfulness, what will come out? This isn’t rocket science is it? If our hearts are full of thankfulness then when we get bumped thankfulness will come out.

So you were driving down the road and the little old lady in front of you was driving excruciatingly slow – what came out? You faced challenges at work – what came out? Your son or daughter disobeyed – what came out? Your mom or dad disciplined you – what came out? You found out you have a serious illness – what came out? The Supreme Court of the United States made another vile ruling – what came out? Bump, bump, bump. Paul writes to the Thessalonians, “in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thes 5:18). Notice Paul’s qualifier – in everything give thanks. In prosperity, in adversity; in sickness, in health; in peace, in war. Give thanks in everything. How is this possible? Only if our hearts, only if our glass, is full of thanksgiving before our table is bumped. And our hearts will only be full of thanksgiving if we meditate deeply on the character and works of God – God who created us, God who redeemed us, God who has placed us at this time in history and who so numbers the hairs of our head that not one falls to the ground apart from His Fatherly care. When we meditate on these things, our hearts will be filled with thankfulness and we will be enabled to give thanks in everything for the wisdom of our Heavenly Father – not just when it appears wise to us but when it is in fact wise, namely, always. Of all people, Paul insists, we should be the most thankful, the most joyful, the most riotously happy for we serve the God who rules and governs all things.

But instead of being known for exuberant bubbly thankfulness, we are often known for our restrictions, our uptightness, our angst, our frustration, our grumbling. Paul calls us to something different – he calls us to thankfulness. So where are you?

Reminded that rather than abound in thanksgiving we often complain and grumble, let us kneel and confess that we are an unthankful people.

So Walk in Christ

August 10, 2015 in Bible - NT - Colossians, Creeds, Meditations, Thankfulness, Worship

Here in Colossians 2 Paul begins to deliver a series of exhortations to the Colossians. Our fathers in Colosse were being tempted to move away from the message that their pastor Epaphras was preaching in favor of some new teaching that was tickling their ears. Hence, Paul urges them to continue in Christ even as they began in Him.

In other words, he warns them lest they move away from the Gospel they originally heard: the good news that though we were dead in transgressions and sins, estranged from God because of our rebellion, God Himself took on human flesh and dwelt among us; He sent His only Son to rescue us from our sin and slavery and to restore us to fellowship with Himself; Jesus lived for us, suffered for us, died for us, was buried for us, rose again from the dead on the third day for us, ascended into heaven for us, and has sent His Spirit to give us faith, make us more holy, and assure us of our own resurrection. This is the message you heard – now, Paul says, cling to it tenaciously.

Notice that Paul calls us to be faithful to the faith as it was handed down in the churches, to (in his words to Titus) hold firmly to the traditions which we have been taught. Like Jude, Paul wants us to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

One of our practices as a congregation is to recite one of the ecumenical creeds together every Lord’s Day – in a moment we will be reciting the Nicene Creed. Why do this? So that by memorizing and corporately confessing these confessions of Christ, we be rooted and built up in Him. Each Lord’s Day, we grow in our knowledge of Him – where did He come from? He was eternally begotten of the Father before all worlds. Who is He? He is God of God, light of light, very God of very God. Is he a creature? No, for he is begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father. What has he done? Through Him all things were made, who for us men and our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made man; and was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried, the third day He rose again from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father from whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

This, brothers and sisters, is the Christ we worship. The very one who is worthy of all glory, laud, and honor. The very one who created all things and to whom it is right and fitting to give praise. And it is in this One that we are to be rooted and grounded and in whom we are to grow.

And note that Paul insists that it is not enough to recite this faith, not enough to know who Jesus is and what he has done; he commands us to be abounding in the faith with thanksgiving. To abound is to overflow, to know no limits. The words we recite or sing each Lord’s Day should come from hearts that are in the full flood of thanksgiving – thanks for rocks and trees and good friends and green grass and fresh honey and butter and flashlights and honorable men and lovely women and cheese and forgiveness and resurrection.

And so, coming into His presence, let us kneel and confess that we have failed to appreciate fully His glory and to honor His name by rejoicing in the faith as we have been taught.

The Sin of Idolatry

April 19, 2015 in Bible - NT - 1 Corinthians, Easter, Meditations, Ten Commandments, Worship

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 (NKJV)

9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

We find ourselves in Eastertide, the time of year that we celebrate the way the resurrection of Jesus has transformed the world. The entire cosmos has been changed, shaken at its very core. And because the world has been changed, we can be changed. Hope has arrived: forgiveness has been achieved and new life has entered into the world. And God promises that forgiveness and new life to everyone who turns from his sin and trusts in Jesus’ death and resurrection.

In our text, Paul catalogues a number of sins from which God in Christ has determined to free His people. Today we consider the sin of idolatry. In Romans Chapter 1, the Apostle Paul declares that because of our fallen nature all human beings worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator. In other words, we are prone to idolatry, to the worship of false gods rather than the Living God. Though we all know the Living God deep in our hearts and consciences, we suppress that knowledge, refusing to glorify God as God.

In modern America we like to think that idolatry is a distant problem – it conjures up in our minds images of primitives bowing before graven images. But idolatry is far more pervasive than we like to think. Because human beings are religious creatures, we always worship something. As Bob Dylan sang, “You gotta serve somebody. It may be the devil or it may be the Lord but you gotta serve somebody.”

An idol, therefore, is anything that we place above the Living God in our affections. The first and second commandments demand that God be first in our affections. Idolatry is the inverting of our priorities and placing the Living God lower on the scale or repudiating Him altogether. Our idol may be something relatively good like our reputation or our family or our career or our country; it may also be something intrinsically evil like a false god or a perverse behavior. Regardless, any time the Living God is not first in our list of allegiances, then we are guilty of idolatry.

So how does idolatry manifest itself? Idolatry reveals itself in our desires and actions. Whose approval do you want most? Whom do you strive to please above all others? Whom do you most fear disappointing? Whose precepts and commandments are supreme for you? What makes you really upset? For whose honor are you most concerned? These questions help get to the heart of the issue: we are to fear the Lord and serve Him come what may. We are to seek His glory above all – more than our own, more than another’s, and exclusive of any other deity.

Reminded, therefore, of our calling to place the Living God first in our affections, to turn from the worship of idols to the Living God, let us confess that we have often placed other things before Him. And as you are able, let us kneel as we confess our sins to the Lord.

Are you listening?

February 8, 2015 in Bible - NT - Luke, Judgment, King Jesus, Meditations, Word of God, Worship

Luke 8:18 (NKJV)

18 Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him.”

Did you bring your ears with you to worship today? I know, of course, that unless you have a physical abnormality, you did of course show up with those two floppy things on the side of your head. But did you bring your ears with you to worship today?

Jesus consistently ends his parables with these words: He who has ears to hear, let him hear.One of the things that characterizes us as human beings – characterizes our interactions with one another and even with God – is that we can “hear” and yet “not hear.” We hear the words of our spouse; we hear the criticism of our employer; we hear the corrections of our parents; we hear the very words of God – but when that crucial question comes our way, “Are you listening to me?” we often have to confess, “No, I’m not.”

In our passage today, Jesus warns us to take heed how we hear, how we listen to His Word. If we hear the right way, increased blessings will come our way; if we hear the wrong way, even what we seem to have will be taken away. Hence, it is not enough simply to walk our ears into the sanctuary; we must take heed how we hear.

So how are you listening? How have you been listening? Are you taking heed how you hear? Are you coming to worship week by week expecting to hear the very voice of God? Expecting God to correct you? To comfort you? To challenge you? To sanctify you? Do you petition God to help you understand more of Him, more of His word, more of His world?

Or are you coming to worship just because? Just because your parents make you? Just because that’s what good people do? Just because it’s beneficial for your kids? Do you find yourself bored, disinterested, expecting only to hear the voice of a man and not the very words of God? “And when will that guy stop preaching,” you say to yourself, “so that I can start talking to my friends? So that I can get home and rest? So that I can listen to my music, watch my movie, play my game?” Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him.

Reminded of our need to bring our ears with us to worship and that we often leave them behind, let us confess our sin to the Lord and petition Him to pour out His Spirit upon us, that He might give us ears to hear. And, since we are confessing our sins, as you are able, let us kneel in humility before our Lord.

Why Kneel in Worship?

January 11, 2015 in Bible - NT - Revelation, Bible - OT - 1 Kings, Bible - OT - Psalms, Ecclesiology, Liturgy, Meditations, Rome, Tradition, Worship

1 Kings 8:54 (NKJV)

54 And so it was, when Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and supplication to the LORD, that he arose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven.

In its public worship, every church has traditions. Whether it is a tradition of spontaneity or a tradition of regularity, traditions are unavoidable. They are an inescapable part of human life. It is important, therefore, that we regularly evaluate our traditions to make sure that they reflect and not undermine biblical principles.

Among the traditions we have as a congregation, one of them is kneeling when we confess our sins. In just a moment I will invite you to kneel with me as we confess our sins to God. Many people, visitors especially, find this practice uncomfortable or objectionable – in fact, many have refused to return and worship here because we kneel during our service. The preaching is fine; the music is acceptable; the fellowship seems sweet – but why do you kneel?

This question often causes me to scratch my head and wonder what in the world is happening in the church today. What is it about kneeling that bothers us? Some say it reminds them too much of Roman Catholic worship. But, of course, if we were to reject whatever the Roman church practices, then we’d have to eliminate Scripture reading, prayer, and public singing as well. So I’m not sure that’s the real issue. I think the real issue is deeper.

Kneeling is an act of humility; it is to bow before another and acknowledge that that other is greater than I, more important than I, and hence worthy of my respect and honor or even my adoration. It is also sometimes a visible expression of wrongdoing, a plea for mercy as it were. Hence, there are times when kneeling is inappropriate. Mordecai refused to kneel before Haman; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego refused to kneel before Nebuchadnezzar’s statue; God reserved 7,000 in Israel who would not kneel to Baal. There are times when kneeling is compromise and sin.

But there are other times when kneeling is glorious: all Israel bowed the knee to King David; a leper kneeled before Jesus begging to be healed; a man kneels before his beloved and asks for her hand in marriage. In such situations, how can one do anything but kneel? So what about worship? We have entered into the presence of Almighty God, the Creator of Heaven and earth, the High and Holy One – the One whose glory fills heaven and earth; the One whose power governs all that occurs; the One whose love compelled Him to send His only-begotten Son to rescue His people from sin and Satan and death – how could we imagine that to kneel before this One is unfitting or inappropriate? Uncomfortable at first? Maybe. But profoundly wise and biblical.

So in our passage today, we see that Solomon – the Son of David, the King of Israel, and the wisest of men – kneeled before God to make supplication and prayer. And Psalm 95 summons us, O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our God our Maker! And note that this isn’t a summons to private but to public kneeling – O come, let us kneel – let all of us together bow before God for He is worthy! And so the four living creatures and the 24 elders in the book of Revelation fall down before the Lamband they sing a new song saying, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!

So this morning, as we consider that we have entered into the presence of Almighty God, let us kneel and confess our sin to the Lord.

What is it to have a god?

October 30, 2014 in Faith, Justification, Quotations, Reformation, Ten Commandments, Worship

In honor of Reformation Week, here is a great quotation from Martin Luther’s Large Catechism:

The First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods.” That is, you shall regard me alone as your God. What does this mean, and how is it to be understood? What is it to have a god? What is God?

Answer: A god is that to which we look for all good and in which we find refuge in every time of need. To have a god is nothing else than to trust and believe him with our whole heart. As I have often said, the truth and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol. If your faith and trust are right, then your God is the true God. On the other hand, if your trust is false and wrong, then you have not the true God. For these two belong together, faith and God. That to which your heart clings and entrusts itself is, I say, really your God.

Add to Perseverance Godliness

October 20, 2014 in Bible - NT - 2 Peter, Bible - NT - Matthew, Bible - NT - Titus, Bible - OT - Psalms, Ecclesiology, Meditations, Sanctification, Singing Psalms, Worship

2 Peter 1:5–9 (NKJV)

5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

Thus far in Peter’s exhortation we have learned to employ all diligence as we add to our faith virtue, to our virtue knowledge, to our knowledge self-control, and to our self-control perseverance. Today we consider Peter’s admonition to add to our perseverance godliness.

Webster defines godliness as “the quality or state of being spiritually pure or virtuous; devoutness, piety, sanctity.” We might define it more simply as the quality or state of becoming more like God – reflecting the moral character of God in our lives.

Jesus instructs us in the Sermon on the Mount that we are to be perfect even as our Heavenly Father is perfect. We are to become like our Lord – an observation we will consider at length in the sermon this morning. To be godly, therefore, is to enjoy the sum of all virtues – it is the goal of our sanctification: becoming like God. We persevere not for perseverance sake but that we might reflect the character of God.

Godliness is often set in opposition to worldliness – becoming increasingly like the world. Paul reminds us in Titus 2:11–12:

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,

God’s grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age. This is one of God’s purposes in salvation. So how do we grow in godliness? As with all graces, we grow in godliness only by the grace and mercy of God. As Paul said, it is the grace of God that teaches us to be godly in this present age. Peter likewise reminds us God’s divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. God is the One who teaches us to be more like Him; He holds us by the hand and shapes us into His image.

One of the primary means God uses to cultivate godliness in our lives is worship. We worship God and as we worship Him we become more like Him, we become godly. Worship fixes our eyes on the Lord and shapes the trajectory of our lives. Just like driving – where you fix your gaze determines where you go.

This is one reason God has given us an extensive collection of psalms in the biblical canon – psalms that we can sing so that we become more like God; psalms that we can imitate as we compose new songs to the praise and worship of the Lord. We are to grow in godliness and God has given us the psalms to help accomplish this.

So how intentional have you been to memorize the psalms, to sing them in times of temptation and struggle, and to use them as you labor against the Evil One? One of the reasons we have psalm sings as a congregation is to enable us to fight more effectively. We don’t sing the psalms just so we can sound pretty or edgy or manly – we sing the psalms so that we can become more godly.

So reminded of our calling to become more like God by worshiping Him, let us confess that we have often taken our eyes off the Lord and drifted toward worldliness. Let us kneel as we confess together.