Sermon Central
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Part 4 - Worshipping God Series
Contributed by Pastor Bruce A. Shields on Feb 18, 2005 (message contributor)
Summary: Part 4 - How does God want us to wrship Him and what does He expect from us as His people?
FINDING PURPOSE
Part 4 – Worshipping God
SCRIPTURE READING
† John 4:23, 24
“23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
PRAYER
Today we are going to examine how we are to worship God. We see from the scripture here that Jesus says God is looking for a certain type of worship. Although that type of worship may come in many different forms such as poetry or music especially our prayers, the worship MUST have these two elements; spirit and truth.
One of the areas the church has failed in is establishing what it is that God is looking for from us when we worship.
If God is looking for something specific, then it is our duty to make those details known so that we may worship God in the way He wants us to worship Him.
A few years ago there was a gathering that was supposed to be believers who were going to put on a concert with a few supposedly Christian bands and it was to be a night of music and worshiping God.
I had the opportunity to hear the headlining band, and let me tell you, just because we are Christians, does not mean anything we do in the name of Christ is worship, quite the contrary.
Death metal with screaming and crying like you’ve been set on fire while jumping around on stage dressed in all black with crosses painted on your foreheads is not worshiping God in spirit and truth.
We can say that what we are doing is done in the Lords name, but
Remember, on the last day many will say to Him, Lord, Lord. But they had no relationship with Him. So He did not know them.
Our worship of God must meet His standards. It must be under His conditions if we want Him to seek us as the scripture says.
† In Kingston Ontario, there is a man who is hoping to make a bit of money by auctioning a fish stick he says has a burn mark on it that looks like Jesus.
Fred Whan, who has kept the fish stick in his freezer since burning it at dinner a year ago, decided that it was time to thaw it out so he could sell it on eBay.
A Florida woman recently sold a decade old grilled cheese sandwich with an image of Mary for $28,000 on eBay to a casino.
They build little shrines for these images, and worship them in the name of God.
Does this qualify as worship though?
It’s done in the name of the Lord.
Why wouldn’t it please God then?
Some may say, and do say, that we have no right to judge how anyone worships God.
Different strokes for different folks?
We should just let everyone worship God in their own way, right?
Wrong.
We are to worship in Spirit and Truth. Jesus Says So.
Did these people forget Exodus 20:4?
“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
That pretty much covers everywhere.
5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
Have they forgotten Exodus?
Can you worship God however you want?
How about the fact that it’s a cheese sandwich and a fish stick!
Is this what God’s glory and magnitude has been reduced to in our culture and society?
God has been reduced to a lunch special.
Are we so far off track in this country that we have degraded ourselves to worshipping fish sticks?
Psalm 29:1, 2
“Ascribe to the LORD , O mighty ones,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
2 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
worship the LORD in the splendor of his [a] holiness.”
God create us to worship Him. If we don’t worship Him, we will end up worshiping something else because it is built into us to worship.
Some worship cars, sports, collections, and even other people in our lives.
There are many artifacts that become idols and then are worshipped today in the name of the Lord.
† There is a statue of St. Peter at the Vatican where pilgrims from all over the world travel to touch the foot of the statue for healing. The foot has been worn smooth from the centuries of visitors. This IDOL which has become a focal point of worship was originally a statue of the Pagan God Jupiter which was removed from the Pantheon which was a Pagan temple and it was renamed St. Peter.
