How to Approach Worship?
Psalm 95:1-7
There’s the story of a young rabbi who found a serious problem in his new congregation. During the service, half the congregation stood for the prayers and half remained seated. Each side shouted at the other, insisting theirs was the true tradition. Nothing the rabbi said or did moved toward solving the impasse, Finally in desperation, the young rabbi sought out the synagogue’s 99 year-old founding rabbi. He visited him in the nursing home and poured out his troubles. “So tell me,” he pleaded, “was it the tradition of the congregation to stand during the prayers?” “No.” answered the old rabbi. “Then it was the tradition to sit during the prayers?” “No.” answered the old rabbi.” “No? Well what we have is complete chaos! Half the people stand and shout and the other half sit and scream!” “Ay…” said Rabbi, “that was the tradition!”
How are you supposed to worship? Perhaps no question sparks more controversy across American than that question. And what we find is that the answer is often based on your previous experience and your culture and generation. Regardless, we find that there are two things which contribute to answering that question. The first is how you understand worship and the second is how you approach worship. We’re going to look at both this morning.
In our Scripture this morning, we find that there are four characteristics. First, worship is collective. Three times in verses 1 and 2 we read, “…Let us…” While worship is individual during the week, the psalmist states that worship on the Sabbath is meant to be congregational when the people of God come together as one to worship the Almighty. Second, worship is God centered. Say it with me, “Worship is not about me.” Again. Worship is not about us and getting our needs met. That’s radically different than what most believers think when they come to worship. It’s a time when we set aside all the thoughts and activity of our lives which focus on us and instead focus all of ourselves on God. Verses 3-4 say, “For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.” It’s a time when we are reminded how great God is. John Piper, the Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN, writes, “Our joy (in worship) shows the supremacy of God’s value.”
Third, worship is vocal. Our Psalm today calls us to shout aloud, sing for joy and extol the Lord with music and song. Many times, that’s a far cry from the worship we experience in church. One man observed this after attending church the first time as a Christian: "I was 53 years old when I found out there was a God. The shock and wonder of that discovery has never worn off in the more than 20 years since. But I’ve had another shock in my life, almost as great as the first. In fact, it happened the very next Sunday…"I’d never been to church in my life, and I remember how eagerly I awaited that first Sunday. I’d just had a glimpse of God Almighty – me, an alcoholic, a drug addict, rich, lonely, and miserable – and already I was beginning to know what it really was. And now, on Sunday….I went to church, and of course you know what I found; bowed heads, long faces, and funeral whispers…..At first, I was sure this was just one isolated experience. But, as time went on, and I attended other churches in various parts of the country, I made a bewildering discovery. These long-faced listless people were present in every congregation. How could they come into God’s presence Sunday after Sunday without breathing in the joy that danced in the very air?" Too often we think of worship as quiet and solemn. We may worship God in our heart or even sing quietly, but God is longing for us to sing to Him with all of our hearts and even shout His praises.
Fourth, worship is vibrant and vigorous. The Psalmist tells us our worship is means to be filled with joyful praise, grateful hearts and much exuberance. The terms employed here describe activity we’re more likely to see at an LSU or Saints football game than in a church sanctuary. Our Scripture calls us to “Shout for joy!” as we praise God with great exuberance.
If this is what worship is meant to be, then how are we to approach worship? First, worship begins with a right relationship with God. David in Psalm 24 says we are to come to God in worship “with “cleans hands and a pure heart.” What we do or how we live is important so much so that the Hebrew people understood worship not as just what happened in the temple but as all of life given to God in worship. What we do, our conduct and our conversation is our worship and it impacts how we worship corporately. If we come into this house and say one thing but then leave and go do another, our relationship is not right with God. Our hands and our heart must be clean and pure before the Lord including the lives we lead.
Second is the right focus. Through the people’s 70 year exile in Babylon, the Israelites had fasted regularly in the 5th month. They ask if they should continue this practice. God answers: “Say to all the people of the land and the priests, When you fasted and mourned in the 5th month and in the 7th, for these 70 years, was it for me that you fasted?” Zechariah 7:4-5 In other words, “Is it really for me that you are pursuing in worship? Is it really for me that you are singing? Is it really for me that you are praying? Is it really for me that you are here? We live in a self-centered world. We are taught that it’s all about us: our needs, our desires and our wants. And when we come to worship, we often fall into the trap of thinking that’s it’s about us. That’s why so many argue about what type of music or what type of worship service they want when the real question needs to be: what type of worship does God want from us. It is too easy to focus on ourselves even when we come to worship. Worship is not about us. It’s about God and God alone, We come to praise God. That’s the right motive to bring to worship. Worship is when we come through our voices, our hearts and our actions to tell God of His worth, that only He is worthy to be worshipped.
Third is the right motives. Sometimes our motives are pure as gold on the outside. We may even be completely convinced that they are spotless, yet when we strip it down and dig a little deeper, there are ulterior motives tucked away in the darkness, under our junk, behind our brokenness. Have you ever stopped to examine your motives when you come to worship? Why do you go through all the hassle to get up early, get showered and dressed, get the kids fed and everyone out the door on time and then the stress of running late? Why do you come to worship? As humans, it is impossible for all of our motives to be completely pure. We struggle with pride, we feel the need to control, we have our own agendas, insecurities and suspicions, our own likes and dislikes and all of it gets tangled up in what we offer up to the Lord, even with the greatest sincerity. But with God’s help we can answer that question. Psalm 139:22-23 in the Message Translation says, “Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about; See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong— then guide me on the road to eternal life.” We need to check our motives and God can help us do that. Worship is first and foremost a function of the heart. We can sing until we’re blue in the face, we can shout until the rafters shake, but if it is not done with the right motives, it is not worship which is acceptable to God. Many people come before God with mixed motives. They come to sing God’s praise but what they really come for is themselves: our question, our problems, and our needs. When we make worship more about ourselves than about God, it’s not really worship. It is self-centeredness. We need to make sure that when we come to God to worship, we come with the right motives.
Fourth is a heart full of praise. Psalm 22:3 tells is that God inhabits the praises of His people. When we gather to sing God’s praise, God shows up. But for God to show up, you’ve got to come with a heart full of praise that is so overflowing that it’s about to burst. Take the analogy when you had some overwhelming good news, whether it be getting a job or a promotion or that you were pregnant, you could barely wait to get in the presence of your loved one and share the good news. In fact, when you did it about burst out of you. That’s the way it should be when we come to worship. We can’t wait to get into God’s presence because our thankfulness and joy is so great that if we don’t get it out, we’re going to burst at the seems.
Yet it is too easy to come to worship letting the circumstance of our lives dictate the attitude and spirit we bring to worship. In Psalm 22:7-10, there is a reference to the gates of heaven being lifted up or swept away. Many Biblical scholars believe David is speaking prophetically of the time when the Ark of the Covenant would be carried into the Temple by Solomon and the gates of the Temple would literally be swept away by the glory of the Lord. God desires that the gates, that is, the barriers and the burdens we bring with us to worship and which keep us from praising God and focusing entirely on Him would be swept away in worship and praise and the result is that his great glory can enter our life once again and we can commune with Him.
Fifth is reverence and awe. It is important to remember that we are worshipping a Holy God, the Creator of the Universe and the Forgiver of our Sins. In Exodus 3, when the Lord called Moses through a burning bush, Moses was reminded that he was standing on Holy Ground in God’s presence. In response, he removed his dirty sandals as a sign of reverence and awe. When the ancient Hebrews entered the temple in Jerusalem, they would often walk into a ceremonial bath called a mikvah to clean themselves spiritually of sin before they tread on Holy Ground. When you come into this building for worship, you are standing on Holy Ground and that should impact not only how you approach it but also what you do. Pastor Joseph Garlington tells the story of speaking at Promise Keepers Conference. As they were worshipping and singing God’s praise, he noticed the man standing next to Him had slipped off his shoes and with raised hands was worshiping our Holy God. In that moment when he had been so consumed with his message running through his mind, he had forgotten that he too was standing on Holy Ground. When we come to this place and enter the Holy, it should impact how you approach God and how you worship God. We need to enter this place with awe and reverence because it is the House of God and we are standing in His presence, majesty and holiness. We are on Holy Ground.
Sixth is a longing Spirit. When you come to worship, are you coming out of obligation or because you long to be in the presence of God. Josh Miller writes, “I came home one weekend and found my father cooking. The reunion was nice and the food was good. However, as hard as we tried….we could not find the right Tupperware lid to the container my father had placed the leftovers in. Finally, we gave up and placed a lid which was too large on top and just placed the container in the fridge. Then my mother came home, discovered what we had done and within 30 seconds found the lid. My father and I laughed over the whole event and sat in amazement how my mom could find the lid so quickly when the two of us took a lot of time to find it but to no avail. And then he writes, “I believe that sometimes our worship is like Tupperware. We come into church or our private time with the Lord and we kinda just throw everything together and whether we truly worshiped or not, we get finished, throw the lid on and we leave and say we’ve worshiped. What matters to us is that we did it and got it over with. Don’t you think that God deserves more than that?” True worshipers long for God and to be in His presence. It’s like two lovers in a long distance relationship. Their days are filled with thoughts of one another. They talk of the phone, text and email back and forth but their true longing is to be in the presence of each other. In fact, every moment is lived to fulfill that desire, hunger and thirst to be together again. And that’s exactly the way it should be when we come to worship God. We come with a longing and hunger within us that even though we have spoken during the week, sensed his presence through the Holy Spirit and read His word, we just can’t wait to be in His presence once again and to feel His love and joy as He inhabits our praises. Did you come today with your Spirit thirsty? Did you long to be in Jesus’ presence?
How you approach worship will determine not only the nature of your worship but also your experience of it as well. Amen.
