← ArchiveWorship: What's the big deal? Part 1DateNovember 2, 2014SpeakerDan MoranTextIsaiah 6Passages in this sermonIsaiah 60:00Mark 129:53Mark 12:2810:04John 411:37Acts 13:212:36Romans 1213:47Romans 12:113:51Psalms 10017:11Philippians 422:37Philippians 4:422:431 Corinthians 5:123:56TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00If you brought your Bible, I hope you did turn with me to Isaiah chapter 6. Perhaps the greatest need today for the world is for the New Testament church to understand a clear and biblical understanding what true biblical worship is all about.0:26We need a clear understanding of what true biblical worship is all about. We have, though, however, in the 21st century corporate church, become a body of believers that worships its worship. We have come to the understanding that we feel like that worship is some kind of style,0:53that we think it's a certain brand, a certain type. Oftentimes, we think that worship has nothing to do with anything but music. We talk about, whoa, wasn't the worship great today? Well, which part? You see, the announcements are part of worship. The preaching is part of worship. The taking of tithes and offerings are part of worship. Prayer time, obviously, is part of worship.1:23And yes, music is part of worship. And so when someone says, I sure enjoyed the worship today, I always want to ask the question, which part did you like the most? I'm praying they like the preaching the most. Now, that's just a personal preference, you know. But sometimes we want to label a style. We are to worship in spirit and truth. Throughout this entire series, over the next several weeks, we're going to unpack.1:51It will not be driven by an understanding of some form of style. Someone recently asked me, what style of worship do you like, particularly like, Dan? And I said, I like it all. I like biblical worship. If it's a southern gospel type song, I can stomach that for a little bit and take that. If it's a very high liturgical type worship, I can stomach that and take that for a little bit. I want a worship that's moving us towards focusing on the audience of one,2:18not the greater audience that's in the room. Worship is keeping our mind's attention, setting our mind's attention, and our heart's affection on God. When we worship in spirit and in truth, we get our mind's attention and our heart's affection completely on God. Now, I do think when you're looking at Isaiah chapter 6, it gives us a biblical outline of what our corporate worship2:44as well as our private worship can look like. Isaiah chapter 6, beginning with the first verse. In the care of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple. A seraphim stood above him, each having six wings. With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, with two he flew. And one called out to another, saying, Holy, holy, holy,3:14the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundation of the threshold trembled at the voice of him who called out while the temple was filled with smoke. And then I said, Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I'm a man of unclean lips. I live among people of unclean lips. Mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.3:43And he touched my mouth with it and said, Behold, this has touched your lips and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? Then I said, Isaiah saying, Here am I. Here am I.4:12Send me. Let's pray. Father, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable today, Lord Jesus. Father, we give you all the praise and all the glory and all the honor for what you're about to do in this place. Remove any obstacle standing in the way from us experiencing your love, your grace, your mercy. And God, I pray that we will lock into a clear biblical understanding that worship has no style,4:42but it is indeed a lifestyle. And that we come today, Father, expecting that you do something uniquely special in our lives. Father, we thank you for the musical worship that we've had. We thank you for the time that we gathered around this altar to pray and ask you to do the miraculous in a couple of people's lives and bless a church and God bless missionaries. And Father, we pray for each other to lift each other5:12and strengthen each other. And God, thank you that this church has an understanding what biblical worship is all about. But as a reminder, over the next few weeks, we're going to unpack your word. And Father, I pray that we handle it accurately. I pray, Father, that it is giving us guidance and direction. And I pray that we understand that, Father, and we live by it. And Father, thank you for this wonderful fellowship that we have here today.5:41And we thank you for the uniqueness of it today. And we thank you that there's such a sweet spirit in this place today. And God, we pray you do your work in this place. Again, as I prayed all morning long, Father, I pray that we leave here differently than when we came. And we give you all the praise and all the glory and all the honor. In Jesus' name we pray. And the church indeed said, Amen. Worship is the foundation6:12of the Christian life. Worship is to the Christian life what the mainspring is to the watch. It's what the engine is to the automobile. It is the most essential element of the New Testament believer. Worship cannot be isolated nor can it be regulated nor can it be just, can it be set in a certain spot and time and place. Worship can happen any time, any moment, anywhere, at any time that we want it to worship.6:41We cannot just verbally give thanks and praise to God and expect God to bless us if we don't have a pure heart. We must come boldly before the throne of God. Sometimes we want to rush and get the marching orders from God when we need to see the progression of this. Over the next few weeks I want you to look at what we call the worship cycle or the order of worship and I believe it's found in Isaiah chapter 6 and it's for us to consider today. When the church fails corporately to worship in spirit and truth7:11we usually fail in many other areas as well. Isaiah chapter 6 gives us what we call the worship cycle. Worship is not the high hour on Sunday morning at 10.15. It is a lifestyle. It is a total lifestyle. It is the person who believes in true practice worship. True worship is practiced every day. It's not just something that we show up on Sunday get our worship time in and walk away. Folks, let me tell you something. The true worshiper worships in spirit7:40and in truth. The New Testament word for bowing down is called proskuneo. The word proskuneo means to bow down or one translation says it is to kiss toward. It is to bow down before a holy God. That is what Isaiah says here. I saw the Lord high and lofty. Holy, holy is the Lord of hosts and the whole earth is full of His glory. Let me tell you something, church. When we grasp the understanding that we have in our hands8:09we grasp the understanding that a Christ follower has that we can worship in spirit and truth each and every day we will proskuneo. We will bow down. We will kneel before a holy God. When we talk about worship we're talking about giving something to God not something God gives back to us. Modern Christianity though sometimes thinks that we ought to come to get something. Don't we? We come in boy, I got something today.8:38Well, let me ask you this. What did you give back? You see, if you're going to understand what bowing down before holy God is is that we must proskuneo, we must bow before Him. It is something that we give back to God not something that we get. The blessing is that He gives us marching orders. Amen? To go make disciples of all the nations. Before we unpack the first cycle of worship, I think we need some foundational truth.9:08So keep your Bibles open. Keep your thumb or your finger pointed in this Isaiah chapter 6 passage. But I want us to look that we have some foundational truths. First of all, it is our ultimate priority that we worship. If you are a believer of Jesus Christ in this room, not just a believer in a mental, intellectual ascent, but a believer deep seated into your heart. If you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior,9:37Lord, and if you died today as a believer today and spent all of eternity, we are to worship Him in spirit and in truth. We are called Him. It is the ultimate priority of the believer. Turn with me to Mark chapter 12. Mark chapter 12, beginning with the 28th verse. Matthew, Mark, second book over. Chapter 12 follows chapter 11. You'll get that in a minute. Mark chapter 12, verse 28. One of the scribes came to her10:07arguing and recognizing that He had answered them well. Asked Him, what commandment is the foremost of all? Now I always found that, every time I read that passage, every time I see that, how dare those knuckleheads look at Jesus and ask this question? What's the most important? Jesus answered. The first, the foremost is, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.10:34And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. Now folks, even before we start loving our neighbor, we got to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Amen? Love God with all our heart, with all our mind,11:04with all our strength. I want to ask this question, how's that love in your neighbor's business working for you? How is that love in your neighbor working for you? You see, sometimes we want to get ahead of God. We want to love our neighbors and we don't love God enough. Folks, let me tell you something. It's not how high you jump, it's how hard you walk when you land. We need to love God first. It is the ultimate priority. Second principle, foundation, is God seeks those11:33who worship Him. Turn with me. The Gospel of John, chapter 4. You'll know this one. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, chapter 4. Look at what the Word of God says about that. How God seeks those who worship Him. I've already quoted it a couple of times. Verse 21 through 24. But I want us to go ahead and get down to verse 21. But verse 23 says, but the hour is coming and now is when the true worshiper shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.12:02Such people, the Father seeks to be His worship. God is spirit and those who worship Him must, must worship Him. worship Him in spirit and truth. Church, let me tell you something. It is the ultimate priority of the believer that we worship. God seeks those who worship Him. The third foundational truth is this. Worship is our ministry to God.12:32And you say, now, wow, that's crazy. Acts chapter 13, verse 2. It is our ministry. We only have one minute. You can't do enough for God. You can't. It is our ministry to Him. Say, well, I'm just doing some stuff for God today. What are you doing for God? What can this preacher do for God? No, I can't. There's no way. Our ministry to God is that we focus our mind's attention and our heart's affection on Him.13:02on Him. That is our total ministry to God is that we worship Him. He is the audience of one. I don't know how many people we got in this room today. We got a good number. I praise God for it. I don't know how many we got in this room, but our focus is not on the music. It's not on the musician. It's not on Greg. It's not on Dan. Our focus today as the corporate body believers is the audience of one. King Jesus.13:31King Jesus. So it is the ultimate priority of the believer. God seeks those who worship Him. Ministry is our worship is our ministry to God. And number four, it is a whole life of ministry. Romans chapter 12. Many of you Christ followers that know this verse very well. Romans chapter 12, verse 1. I urge you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual14:00service of worship. This is not a worship service. This is a worship gathering, a spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. A spiritual service of worship. Worship is a whole life doing it for His glory. Letting God reign in our lives14:30is a whole life saying, God, you are in complete control. The first command is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and body. The second is to love your brothers as yourself. Now, time out. And I know somebody said, whew, got me off the hook loving them brothers. Don't have to love them anymore, Justin. I'm just going to stop loving my neighbors. No, if you love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, you will do everything14:59you can for those who need Christ more than you. You will do everything you can to present that message. So the foundation of truth is it's the ultimate priority of believers. God seeks those who worship. He desires, He is a just and a jealous God. He's jealous. He doesn't want anybody getting any more worship than Him. Why? Because He went to Calvary's cross for our sins.15:29He gave His life for us. It is our ministry to Him that we worship Him in spirit and truth both corporately and privately and is a whole life of ministry. God, worship is God reigning in everything and is our worshiping Him without shame. So I want you to look at the message truth printed in your outline today. When you really15:59look at that and contemplate and ponder on those statements, worship is setting our mind's attention and our heart's affection on God. and I know good and well that we're going to be unpacking adoration next week and the next week confession, the lost element of service and then the last of the series is preaching and the invitation and let me tell you something, I can't wait to get to the16:29preaching because I love to preach on preaching. But folks, it's not about the preaching, it's about us focusing our mind's attention and our heart's affection on God. So to enter us in corporately as the body of believers, we need to have some praise and we need to have some thanksgiving. The first cycle of biblical worship corporately as well as privately is that praise and thanksgiving take place. Praise,16:59Praise, if you want to fill some outline in, praise is our expression of our love for God for who He is. It is our expression of our love for God for who He is. Turn back with me to Psalms 100. You'll know this if you've been around church at any length of time. I want you to read along with me. Psalms 100. Listen to what the Word of God says. Shout to the Lord. You can't hardly say that without shouting. I don't know about you but when I read17:29that, even in my quiet time when I read that I always go shout to the Lord. Now, if you were at a ball game and your team came out you would go War Ego Roll Tide I can't even believe I said the second one. Shout to the Lord all the earth17:58the earth serve the Lord with gladness come before Him with joyful singing know that the Lord Himself is God it is He who has made us and not we ourselves we are His people and the sheep of His pasture enter into enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise give thanks to Him and bless His name the Lord is good18:28is good His loving kindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations had a lady come up to me one time she says I just don't like all this real loud music I just don't like it we need to be reverent I went shout to the Lord if it's focused on God and not the performer18:57the performer then it's godly someone asked me what kind of music do you like I said I like it three ways I like it biblical I like it singable and I like it teachable I like it biblical because it needs to match up with scripture and I know some of you folk are like me you like to go way back and grab them old hymns of the faith praise God you know what they're great but let me19:27tell you something some of those old hymns of the faith have no biblical foundation of them they were written by some man who thought they were biblical and then there's some of these real up-tempo contemporary types that do jumping jacks for Jesus but have no biblical foundation for them folks let me tell you something we need to sing songs that are biblical biblical worship songs whether it be a hymn whether it be a praise song in our private time19:56private time as well as in our corporate time shout to the Lord is what we need to be doing in praise amen we need to have songs that are biblical we need to have songs that are singable I don't know about you but there's some songs of yesteryear that I just don't get that guy in mighty space and sky what is that all about folks let me tell you something we need songs that are singable songs that are20:26are teachable if you're not going to the restaurant this afternoon with humming a song or quoting some kind of principle that we gave from biblical teaching today we've missed the mark amen they need to be singable they need to be biblical they need to be teachable so we need to praise as our expression and our love for God for who he's in sometimes praise is loud some my my my my study is down in the basement of our home we built it out and it's my study I have all my books and all my everything's down there that's where my office20:56my office is and it also dubs us the man cave praise the lord yes we watch the little athletic stuff down there too but it's really basically my studies where I write and do my studies and write and all that's where our study is we do counseling all that stuff that's where my office is I spend all my days there that's where I work that's where I work every day I get up every morning go to work every day but every morning I have my quiet time down there and I'm getting before my desk and I'm on my face before they got the Lord and sometimes at21:26at 5 or 530 it's not very quiet in my quiet time because I go back to the biblical model of shouting to the Lord and my wife told me recently she said you know what if you know that the Lord wants you to go back and do that shouting thing let's do that about four or five o'clock in the afternoon would you folks let me tell you something praise is always sometimes loud sometimes it's not praise is our expression our love for God for who he is thanksgiving number two is our21:55is our love and expression for what he has done church let me tell you something the number one thing God did for us if you're a Christ follower in this room he reached down from the halls of heaven and he snatched your wretched soul out of the pits and the grasp of hell when's the last time you thanked him for salvation when's the last time you said God thank you that you saw fit enough22:24enough that you gave me the gift of eternal life praise is our expression our love for God for who he is thanksgiving is our love and expression for what he has done turn with me to Philippians chapter four oh what a great passage Philippians chapter four and listen what the word of God says Philippians chapter four verse four rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice not only did Paul say rejoice in the Lord but he says hey wait a minute I'm going to say it again for a special emphasis22:54emphasis rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice going through the difficult time going through stuff in your life going through surgery going through chemotherapy rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice one thing that I noticed this week as I looked in the eyes of that precious young lady named Ashley she was rejoicing in the Lord that God gave her Thomas she was rejoicing and I wept as I stood at that hospital bed23:24folks when we're going through the deepest moments of our life remember that God is the God of one he is the one and only King Jesus and rejoice that you're walking in that valley of the shadow of death understand that the shadow is nothing more than a shadow you can't have a shadow unless there's light behind it and that light is Jesus so thanksgiving is our love and our expression for what23:53for what he has done go on over to 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 19 or verse 16 rejoice always Paul writing again pray without ceasing in everything give thanks but this is God who will who for or for you in Christ Jesus in Christ Jesus rejoice always and be glad praise is our expression and our love for who he is thanksgiving24:22thanksgiving is our love and expression for what he has done one of my favorite people on the planet he's no longer on this planet he's in heaven his name is Leo Humphreys Leo was the greatest street evangelist I've ever been with in my entire life I've known the Humphrey family for longer than I could even begin to remember24:52remember shortly after I surrendered to ministry I was in El Salvador with Leo Humphreys on the streets preaching the gospel is in the height of the turmoil in El Salvador they were bombing the city on one of our trips Deb and I was there together before Seth came and we were there together and the country was overthrown that's always fun to be in a city and you know you're out of country and you're out of your homeland and you're in a different25:22different land and the country gets overthrown by the communists oh yeah what'd you do last week well I was just over there in El Salvador they just overthrew the country I didn't know what to do and he you know and Leo says oh don't worry about it this happens all the time I said really this is what you've called me to God seriously and Leo Humphrey says oh this is nothing let me tell you about a story one day I was with my friend Arthur Blessed we were dragging the cross across Europe and Arthur Blessed was a weird duck if Leo Humphrey25:52Humphrey was a weird duck Arthur Blessed was the weirdest of ducks they were dragging this cross around the nation around Europe and Leo was with him and they were over in Germany before the wall came down and it was in the eastern block in the western side and they were bootlegging Bibles over to the eastern block the communist side they were taking it over in cars and they were bootlegging them going across the checkpoint Charlie thing and they were going across26:22across the bridge and he said we got to the bridge and we got halfway to it and they stopped us and the guards came and he said man I'm telling you the truck of our car was loaded down it was just full of Bibles and the guard says what have you got it it oh we just got some materials to help people grow and he says wait a minute they start checking all stuff around to get Leo and Arthur out and they get out and they kneel down in front of the car he says oh my goodness this is it we're going to get shot right here we're going to be killed Lord thank you for letting26:52letting me do what I get to do oh my goodness gracious and Arthur said don't worry about it we're going be okay and Arthur says oh my goodness I didn't get to say goodbye to the kids and the grandkids oh my what am I going to do and Arthur said in everything rejoice and give thanks Leo said my faith was about that big at that time he said Arthur how can you give thanks when we're about to lose our life27:21life he said don't worry about it God's in charge about that time the guard walked over and Leo said he grabbed me and Arthur by the back of the neck and he knelt down and he said don't worry I'm a believer too drive on in everything give thanks more month than money in everything give thanks God's27:50God's in charge now you probably need some help financially or with financial planning in everything give thanks praise is our expression to God for what he has done thanksgiving is our love and expression for what he's done praise is our expression for who he is thanksgiving is our expression and our love for what he has done a true worshiper will always28:20will always have an attitude gratitude one final thought and I close whatever we worship we will serve let that sink in for a second whatever we worship we will serve and we will also serve28:49serve whatever we worship let's pray maybe today God has spoken to your heart maybe today the Lord has reached down from the halls of heaven and tugged at your heart today to be a true worshiper going through a tough situation give thanks everything29:19everything smooth sailing right now give thanks whatever is going on in your life today will you worship him in spirit and in truth maybe you're here today and you're looking for a church home we'd love to have you we have a mechanism to plug you in to get you part of this faith family to be moving forward in your29:49your journey if you're a Christ follower if you're not a Christ follower we have an opportunity for trained counselors to sit down and tell you why we're so excited about worshiping the one true God whatever the decision you have in your heart today will you make that commitment this if you're here today and God has spoken to your heart maybe you just need to come and kneel at this altar and say I want to be that worshiper whatever30:18whatever it might be whatever is going on in your life right now I challenge you to come Father God we thank you for what you're about to do in this place Lord we love you we're amazed that you reached down from heaven we're amazed that you reached down from heaven and you snatched us right out of hell and there's some here today Lord Jesus that have truly never invited you into30:48into their life and I pray God right now this was not one of those what you call evangelistic type sermons but Father you say where you're lifted up you'll draw men unto yourself and God I pray we lifted high the banner today we lifted your name today Lord Jesus and I pray Father that you will be you will begin to31:18to draw those who need a touch from you today those that need to be saved need to be saved Lord Jesus we commit that to you right now maybe there's some in this room that need to recommit their life to live for you to be true worshipers today God God we love you thank you for what you're doing in this room do your work and we give you all the glory and all the praise in Jesus name we pray we stand we31:48we sing brother Greg's going to lead us right now you sing along with him this altar is open counselors are here you come toMore sermons on Isaiah →
