Don’t miss the first installment of this series: On Worship 1. If you would like to listen to this sermon or other past sermons, you can find them at cfctaylor.com/resources.
Finally, I want to express how very grateful I am for Tim Keller, John Piper, David Platt, and Doug Wilson who’s books, studies, sermons, and blogs regarding worship have been so helpful and from many of which I borrowed liberally while preparing these sermons.
As we open God’s word this morning, let us pray that He would open our hearts, and as we read His word, let us ask Him to read our hearts. Let us pray to this end.
Heavenly Father we ask that you would search us and know us this morning. Lay us bear before your word that we would refuse to hide behind our fears or our sins or our assumptions or our pride. Teach us. Teach us God what we cannot learn ourselves namely what it is to worship you acceptably. We ask these things in the precious name of Jesus our redeemer. Amen.
Our first text this morning is where we left off last week, Romans 12:1-2. While you are going there, let me tell you about a simple exercise I would encourage you to do as you listen. I know not everyone is fond of taking notes and thats ok, I don’t usually take notes either, but what I have been trying to do is to come away from each sermon with at least two points to share—two tweets or two facebook statuses related to or inspired by the sermon. I look at that as not only motivating me to pay close attention, but to be conscious about sharing what I am hearing with others be it online or in person or whatever. So I encourage you this morning to listen and try and take away at least two things to share with someone. If you do use twitter or facebook you can use the hashtag #cfctaylor.
Romans 12:1-2. This is the word of the Lord…
Again this week the sermon is about worship. Last week we explored what it is to worship, that everyone worships, not just Christians, and how as individuals we are to worship properly by which I mean ascribing to God ultimate value and worth in such a way that energizes and engages your entire being. This of course means that worship is not just what we do on Sunday mornings. True worship is something that must happens on Monday mornings as well.
Before you were dismissed, I left you with a charge. Which was this: In your homes, schools, at your jobs, in your dealings with your neighbors, live and sing and love so as to proclaim to the world that God is the inexhaustible fountain of every blessing, supremely valuable, and eternally worthy of all worship.
This wasn’t just a charade or a good suggestion. If you think about it, all I really said was, “Act like a Christian.” Or “Obey God.” Nothing more than a basic responsibility of all believers.
I want you to be conscious this morning about how you lived up to that responsibility over the past week. If you didn’t do well, you may be feeling a bit discouraged or even guilty or shamed. Don’t. Don’t bear that burden. Let it go to grace. This is why you, Christian, need the Gospel even this morning. Because you couldn’t and cannot pass the test. You can’t even get a single answer correct, but be of good cheer because Jesus has come, not just to give you some information or even the right answers. No, Jesus has come to take the test in your place and He has passed perfectly.
As long as we are on this side of eternity, our worship will indeed be feeble and flawed. It will be marred by failure and imperfections. But again I say, be of good cheer because Jesus has come to do in and through you, what you cannot.
When He ascended to the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit to lead you and guide you into all truth, and this includes teaching you and me and us, how to worship. Don’t be disillusioned with perfectionism. We will fail, but He will not. At the end of this sermon, I will charge you again this morning, so be prepared to accept it.
This week we will be focusing on why it is vitally important that we gather together and what all our gathering together has to do with worship. In other words, everything we do here on the Lord’s day is intentional and has a purpose that is related to worship.
The fact of the matter is that we live in a country and culture and at a time when an embarrassingly low percentage of self-professing “Christians” gather weekly. Even if we were to grant that the number was 50 percent (which is a whole 10 points higher than the most optimistic estimates), this is still completely unacceptable when it comes to Biblical standards.
You may wonder why choosing to not gather together is Biblically unacceptable and sinful and yet so prevalent in America and in Taylor and even among our small congregation? The answer is worship. Worship is the central reason that gathering together weekly is so absolutely important.
Now let me remind you what I mean by worship lest you assume I am saying that our singing is the central reason we gather together. Worship is not just the singing before the sermon. Like I said last week, our word “worship” comes from the old english word, “worth-ship” which literally means an acknowledgment of worth. I shared with you Pastor Tim Keller’s definition of worship because it is such a wonderful summary. He says, “Worship is the act of ascribing ultimate value to something in a way that energizes and engages your entire being.”
I heard an interesting illustration in a sermon this past week. The sermon was about Christians and sports and the illustration basically culminated with a question something like this, if someone totally unfamiliar with our western culture, who only spoke another language were to come and observe your life for a few weeks, what would this observer assume was the most important thing in your life?
Worship is the act of ascribing ultimate value to something in a way that energizes and engages your entire being. So that thing in your life that you ascribe ultimate value to, that energizes and engages your entire being, that thing is what you worship. Now that has big implications on what goes on when we gather together.
If I were to take one pound of sugar and I were to put a little pinch of sand in the sugar and shake it up, I would still have one pound of sugar. You might notice the sand a little but we would still essentially have one pound of sugar. But if I were to take that sand and mix it with that sugar, no body is putting two scoops of that in their coffee. Why? Because it isn’t a bowl of sugar any more!
When we gather together what are we? Are we a bowl of sugar with a pinch of sand, or are we some confusing mixture that no body wants to taste? Now the answer to this is important because we are talking about our gathering together—our collective worship. Our worship is what sets the Church apart from a country club or a home owner’s association.
Let’s go to Psalm 95. Over the centuries this psalm has apparently been one of the primary places the church has looked to inform our worship. It really tells us virtually everything we need to know about worship.
Psalm 95. This is the Word of the Lord…
This psalm communicates that in order for us worship well, we must have a few different elements. We talked last week about two of those elements, Spirit and Truth. Spirit being how we worship and truth being who we worship.
We can genuinely worship, being completely devoted yet if what we are worshipping is not God, our genuineness and our spiritual experience is nothing more and nothing less than idolatry. And on the other hand, if we say all the right words and go through all the right motions towards the right God, but don’t experience His beauty and splendor and we walk away unchanged or unmoved, that isn’t true worship either. There must be Spirit and Truth. But to worship well, there is even more to it than that.
To worship well, we must also have community.
Oh come, let us sing… Let us come into His presence… Let us make a joyful noise… Let us worship and bow down; let us kneel… He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand…
Now obviously we are to worship as individuals. Someone, driving alone in the car, overwhelmed by God’s goodness singing 10,000 Reasons or How He Loves at the top of their lungs, they’re worshipping, no doubt. But I submit to you that individual worship is really preparation, more than anything else, for when we come together corporately.
Hebrews 10:24-25a, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another…”
Psalm 105:1, “Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon His name; make known His deeds among the peoples!”
Psalm 107:32, “Let them extol Him in the congregation of the people, and praise Him in the assembly of the elders.”
Psalm 149:1, “Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, His Praise in the Assembly of the godly!”
These scriptures (and there are plenty more just like it) amount not only to expectations of regular gathering of God’s people to worship Him but these are also to be understood as commands for it.
And yet this isn’t all the Bible has to say about the importance and even necessity of community in order to worship well. It also tells us by way of teaching that we are a body, and everybody knows that a body functions better when it is joined together.
Further, the Bible also calls us a family and there is no question, families function better when all the members are present. When you deal with divorce or even death, there are inherent challenges and obstacles that must be overcome that otherwise would not be issues at all if all members were present.
The Bible tells us we’re a body and a family and together is always better than alone. But more specifically, what is the reason for this? There may be more, but we are going to only talk about one of the specific reasons we need community in order to worship well.
Why is community necessary in order to worship well? Because no one individual can extract someones full personality or nature. In other words, it takes a community in order to experience someone fully. No doubt you have experienced this with your circle of friends. You can spend all day with one friend, but when you are joined by a few other friends, something about the interaction fundamentally changes.
But there is even a more clear picture of what I’m talking about. Think of a husband named Jack and his wife named Loraine. They are very happily married. There is a beautiful relationship here, complete honesty and transparency. They serve one another and love one another well. They are each faithful and devoted to the other. Every day they are learning and experiencing more of each other. They can simply look at each other from across a crowded room and know exactly what the other is thinking. “Want to get out of here?” or “Come save me from this conversation.” They know each other’s stories and each other’s secrets. Of course they argue, but they are never bitter and they make love often. A prime example of a Biblical marriage.
Then one day Jack and Loraine become pregnant and they have a daughter. Now Jack begins to feel entirely new affections for Loraine as he experiences a side of her that He couldn’t have ever known before. He now enjoys his sweet bride as the mother of his child. Seeing her love and care for his precious daughter evokes an experience of affection for her beyond what he could have ever imagined was even possible. All because He is seeing and feeling and knowing a part of this woman’s nature that was impossible with just the two of them. The same when Loraine sees Jack tenderly caring for her little baby girl. Watching him hold her, you can almost reach out and touch the affection you see in Loraine’s eyes for her husband.
Now, if this is true of us as finite humans in our relationships that are mere shadows of something greater, how much more must this be true in our relationship with our infinite God? As Christians, we are to grow in the knowledge of Christ. We are to be looking to Him. In order to worship our God who is Father and Son, who supplies Wrath and Mercy, who is Love and Justice, we need one another like Jack and Loraine and their baby girl need one another. To know the beauty of father, mother, and child, we need family. We need community.
The more accurate and full picture of God we desire, the more we should want to worship in community. And the more diverse the community, the better. If we only ever or even mainly gather with people who are no different than us, young like us, old like us, single like us, married like us, with kids like us, without kids like us, baptist like us, charismatic like us, reformed like us, we will fail to see an accurate picture of God, because we will erroneously assume, God is just like us. And I know you well enough, and I certainly know myself well enough to know that assuming God is just like me or just like you is an awfully dangerous thing to assume.
If you tend toward individualism and isolation or if you demand your way or the highway, it is because at the end of the day, what you really want is to be worshipped. When you assume God is just like you, or that you don’t need anyone else, you are all but saying, “I want to be worshipped.”
Now most of us would never say that. But what do the observers of your life see? Our mouths may never utter those words, “Worship me!” but does your life scream it?
Do you demand your way? Do you assume that you cannot ever be wrong? Do you try and stay purposefully ignorant when it comes to things the Bible teaches because you don’t want to have to be accountable to something you may not agree with or be comfortable with? Perhaps you would never dream of showing up 20 minutes late to the movies or to work or to school, but for some reason you are not really bothered by being late on Sunday mornings. What does your life communicate?
We need community in order to worship well. We cannot just drop in here and there, wander in consistently late and assume that it does not matter. If you are under the impression that your indifference isn’t hurting anyone else, you couldn’t be more wrong. We need you and you need us.
And yet our aim must be more than just plurality. The more diverse the worshipping community the better—the more accurate picture of God you will see. True worship bridges the gap, it connects the dots. It bridges the gap between the Samaritan and the Jew, between cultures and race, between even time and space (c.f. Hebrews 12:22-23). Worship unites God’s people from all times, in all of their diversity around the centrality of who He is and what He’s done.
Listen to the words from the beginning of Hebrews 12, as the author has just recounted to us our heritage of faithful men and women and their faithful acts and he says this, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…”
Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. We need each other’s witness, each other’s perspective. We need each other’s stories and each other’s encouragement and each others rebuke. We need each other if we are to worship well.
Spirit, Truth, Community, and finally the fourth element that is necessary in order to worship well, Gospel-Sabbath Rest.
This is what the last part of Psalm 95 is talking about—Gospel-Sabbath Rest. We know this because the author of Hebrews offers us the inspired commentary of this very psalm. He quotes this part of the psalm in chapter 3 and then goes on in chapter 4 to explain. We will pick up the text in 4:8 and read through verse 11…
Strive to enter that rest—God’s rest. We aren’t talking about some tract of land in the middle east. We aren’t even just talking about taking Sundays off. Look at verse 16 of chapter 4. “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
This rest—God’s rest for us, is called Grace. It’s name is Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus. Gospel-Sabbath Rest is resting from our self-justifying excuses; resting from our self-righteous explanations and resting in His all sufficient grace that justifies and makes righteous. This rest frees us from fear of our own fate and assures us that in light of eternity, it doesn’t matter what may happen to me so long as He is mine and I am His.
Are you looking to Him this morning? Have you seen what He has done for you and what His work now demands from you? Jesus didn’t come and erase the chalkboard of our lives only to have you scribble all over it again. No, He came to make us altogether new! If you are a Christian this morning you are completely immune from the damning effects of sin and death and the devil. Completely immune from the condemnation of your scribbles.
Yes you are afflicted but you are not crushed. Yes you are perplexed but you are not driven to despair. Yes you are persecuted but you are not forsaken. You are struck down but you are not destroyed. Why? Because He has you and He will never lose you.
This life is a battle. Your life is a battle, and to worship is to wage war. And war means conflict and an enemy. The devil’s strategy has been the same from the beginning, to convince you through seduction and deception and persecution that something or someone else other than God is supremely worthy of your worship.
But to supremely love something must mean we hate anything that would threaten that love. To see something as supremely valuable and worthy of all devotion must mean we violently guard, at all cost, against anything that would try and seduce and deceive us and steal that devotion. To love God must mean we hate any other thing that would take His rightful place as the object of our worship.
And so finally this morning, we return to where we started, to Paul’s exhortation to the Romans, and to his exhortation to us this morning. We will read from 12:1-13, this is the word of the Lord…
Did you hear that? Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord… Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. This isn’t merely a Christian duty, this is our Christian liberty—it is our worship!
Our gathering for coffee and donuts, is part of our worship. Our being here on time or not, tells us about our worship. How you give your tithes and offerings, faithfully and cheerfully or sporadically and hesitantly tells you (and us) about your worship. Whether you give grudgingly or generously, tells you about who you are worshipping.
When we pass the peace (which is what the early church called their 3-minute meet and greet) and when we give the announcements, these aren’t just awkward breaks between the songs and the sermon. We are giving you the opportunity to commune and to bless and to encourage one another for a few short minutes, which isn’t enough time and so we give the announcements which highlight opportunities for you and express the need for you to commune with one another beyond our short time here on Sunday mornings. These have something to do with your worship.
When we come to the Lord’s Table and to His Word, these very much are worship. They don’t belong in a separate category from the singing or any other part of what we do here on Sundays. Everything we do when we gather together is worship and it is momentous and it is important that you see it that way for your worship’s sake and for ours.
Please Stand.
Again this week, I am going to pray for us, and then together we are going to raise our hands and lift our hearts as we sing the Doxology, and then I am going to charge you and bless you. After that you will be dismissed and at that point if you have any questions, or would like the elders to pray for you, you are invited to please come forward.
Before we pray, let me again give this reminder. When it is time to say amen, it is time, not just for the one speaking, but for all who have heard and agree, to thunder amen, so be ready. Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the privilege and honor we have been given to worship you. We so easily and often take it for granted or look at it as something we must do rather than something we desire to do. As we run the race that is our life, we ask that you would strengthen the weary and discouraged and likewise strengthen those who, in prideful striving have become fragile and bitter. This morning we gather here as many members bringing only the gifts you’ve given us, would you remind us once again what those are and where they have come from. We confess that it is our desire to worship you rightly and if we want that, how much more must you want that for us and for Yourself?! So teach us. Lead us. We ask these things in the glorious name of Jesus. Amen.
The Charge Is This:
If you were one of the unlucky ones who happened to be late this morning, I want to assure you, there is no condemnation for you here. There is only grace. Grace for sin. Grace for failures. Grace for laziness and indifference. Grace for business and intolerance. His Grace is what we all need, and it is all that we need.
You will be late again to church. You will fail at hospitality or showing honor. You will have days like gardens that are overrun with sin like weeds. Only let your lives with all of the thorny imperfections and dry, brittle weaknesses be the raw material that is set on fire by your consuming God. This too is your witness. So Christian, let your fire be seen this week, as your short life here burns with grace.
Benediction:
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.