The Purpose of Worship

Why worship?  We do it every Sunday or the gathering of the believers.  We enter church.  The music plays.  Pastor comes up for announcement.  Offering and then special number.  Pastor speaks.  Close in prayer, go home.  Sound familiar?  In recent years I have stepped back in service or my high school chapel to watch people.  My heart breaks as I see arms folded.  Hands in pockets.  Lips barely moving as to show, “I’m singing, but I do not want anybody to hear me”.  Talking to neighbors.  Not engaged.  I’m not talking about style of worship.  I’m not talking about a tingly feeling that comes and go’s.  I’m not talking about lights off and the candles lit.  I’m not even talking about the “go to a station, draw a picture and let God know how you feel” moment!

I’m talking about attitude.  Worship IS important, not only in church, but in your personal life!  And that my friend is where we will begin!  Worship starts with you!  There are two kinds of worship, corporate and private.  Corporate Worship is the time that we come together as believers and worship together, just as our brothers and sisters did in the early church.  Once the church began to grow, believers would meet on Sunday’s in the morning to remember the resurrection of Christ.  Songs would be sung and a passage would be read, whether that be from the Old Testament or letters written by the Apostles that were circulating around the region.  Private worship is you and God.  No one around, just you giving thanks for God’s grace and love.  Worship does not only take place in church…it could be at home; in the car on the way to work; a walk in the neighborhood. 

Let’s start from the beginning.  Exodus 20:1-6, “And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.  You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

The purpose of Worship?  I am the Lord your God

Just step back and think about that for a moment.  At this moment God reminds the Hebrews who He is…”I am the Lord your God”.  Here was the God that brought them out of Egypt…their past bondage.  They way God did it was more than just an event, it was miracle after miracle that screamed to a culture, “To whom will you compare ME?”  Today the Jewish celebrate the Passover to remember the freedom giving to their physical bondage.  For us today, as a believer in Christ, we remember our physical bondage and salvation brought to us through Christ.  We remember that God who out of his grace screams to our infirmities…”To whom will you compare ME?”   We worship God because He is LORD who brought us out of our bondage.  Isaiah writes in 44:24-26, “This is what the Lord says- your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the Lord, the Maker of all things, who stretches out the heavens, who spreads out the earth by myself, who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense, who carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers….”  When we realize this and do not take it for granted, worship becomes more than just a song that fills the air.  It becomes a song that screams “Thank you for You faithfulness!  Thank you that I am not who I am from the past!  Thank you for loving me and bringing me out of my bondage!”

The purpose of Worship?  I the Lord your God am a jealous God

I was sitting down at the picnic table early in the morning during our high school retreat.  The fog was coming off the lake and the sun was beginning to shine its warmth on me as I opened the Scriptures to have some time with the Lord.  After a while, in the distance, about 400 yards I saw my eldest daughter run by.  At that moment my heart skipped a beat!  That was my little girl!  It was if I was peeking into her life for that moment without her noticing.  The love I felt for her at that moment began to overwhelm me as I began to quickly remember when I first held her in my arms.  And then in a whisper I heard the Lord say, “That is how I see and love my people…”  Do you blame God being a jealous God?  If I saw my daughter run up to a stranger who was my age and yelled “Daddy! Daddy!” and showered love on him, believe me I would be fuming!!!  Jealousy is even rising as I write this and think about it!  I would be jealous for my daughters love and time.  Why?  Because I put time into the life of my daughter!  I protected and provided for her.  From the time she was born I committed my life to her!  When you look at the history of the Hebrew people up to this time, God created and man sins, separating himself from God on a physical level. God invested himself into the lives of Adam and Eve and their lineage to one day bring salvation, restoring man’s relationship with him. As time continues on, man separates himself from God and an ark is built to save humanity, when He did not need to.  Man is saved, and once again flourishes, yet separates himself from God once again.  God makes a promise with a people that through them salvation would come to all mankind.  Through the ups and downs of history, God stays faithful to his people, word and salvation is brought to mankind through Christ.  The church is born and God sees it through persecution and heresies.  YOU THINK GOD PUT TIME INTO HIS PEOPLE?  You better believe it!  The Lord is jealous for you!  He is jealous for your time!  He is jealous for your worship because he has invested himself into you!   

The purpose of Worship?

Here let me step aside and let David say it….

“Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens.  Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.  When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”  Psalm 8

We worship because God in all of his glory and power gave us hope through Christ.  We worship because He has been faithful even when we do not understand or comprehend. We worship because….

How can one stand with arms crossed? How can one hold the words of worship to barley cross ones lips?  How can one cry on the field after at championship game or yell at the top of their voice to encourage their team, yet show no emotion before God?  How can one get so excited to be in the presence of a superstar, yet cannot feel the same when one stands before God?  I will never understand.  Today I challenge you to see worship as more than just a song or introduction to a sermon.  I challenge you to change the attitude, and worship the living God who has brought you out of your bondage into the promises of His salvation through Christ!

Stay thirsty my friends for the things of the Lord, and worship loud!

His call.  His gift to you.  Your purpose.  Irrevocable.