September 16, 2012
An Audience of One - Fellowship in Worship
- Psalms 34:1-10
- Rev. Scott Shelton
Today’s message is again on worship, An Audience of One. It is how we worship together. Part of worshipping together on this day, is for you to participate – by doing the survey before you, you are giving good feedback to the process of identifying and calling a new Sr. Pastor in the future. So thank you for that part of worship.
Again, today’s message, as worship comes from the Psalms. Let us look at together, Psalm 34:1-10.
Hear the Word of God.
“1 I will extol the Lord at all times;
his praise will always be on my lips.
2 I will glory in the Lord;
let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
3 Glorify the Lord with me;
let us exalt his name together.
4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant;
their faces are never covered with shame.
6 This poor man called, and the Lord heard him;
he saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him,
and he delivers them.
8 Taste and see that the Lord is good;
blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
9 Fear the Lord, you his holy people,
for those who fear him lack nothing.
10 The lions may grow weak and hungry,
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.”
Let us pray – Most Loving God, please speak through Your word, that we learn even more how to worship You.
In this Psalm, David is giving thanks and praise to God who protected him. David was fleeing from Saul, who was out to get him, out to kill him really, because Saul felt David was a threat to Saul as king. David fled and went to Gath. The king of Gath, Achish, was suspicious of David coming there – knowing David’s reputation as a great warrior and great military leader who was an enemy. David, strangely enough pretended to be insane so that the King would not feel threatened.
David’s response is here – he give thanks and praise to the right source – to God for protecting him. David doesn’t just give thanks, he lists several reasons to praise God.
Here they are. He says God will:
- · deliver us from fear (vs. 4),
- · save us out of our troubles, (vs. 6),
- · show us goodness (vs. 8),
- · and provide for our needs (vs. 9). So we praise him.
David says, he will then respond in certain ways to God. We too in worship, can respond in the same ways. We:
- · extol the Lord (praise God above all other things – vs. 1),
- · our souls will boast in the Lord (vs. 2),
- · exalt, or lift high, his name together (vs. 3).
- · We are to glorify his name (vs. 3),
- · call on him (vs. 6),
- · taste and see that the Lord is good (vs. 8),
- · fear the Lord – or show him reverence and great respect (vs. 9).
David says, when we fear the Lord, we lack nothing.
Today, we want to focus in on all we do in worship – together. In verse 3, David says we exalt – or lift high his name – together. Why is that important? Isn’t it enough to worship him when I pray by myself, or when I drive my car listening to music, or during my quiet time or bible study at home? No, that’s not enough. Throughout the Bible, Old and New Testament, God calls his people to worship together and to do the Christian life together.
This is how God’s people were called to be together from the OT to the NT. In 2 Chronicles 29:28 it says, “The whole assembly bowed in worship, while the musicians played and the trumpets sounded.” Psalm 150 says, “Praise God in the sanctuary.” In the book of Acts, it says, “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.” This was the very earliest church just weeks after Jesus had ascended to heaven.
Many of Paul’s letters are written to churches. They are often written in the plural form of the word you. Growing up in Texas, we can clarify that by saying, y’all. The point is Paul encourages churches, the people of the early churches, to worship together, to eat together, to support one another, to stop fighting or gossiping, and to support one another.
At the end of Jesus’ life, he prays for the people. What does he pray? More than anything he prays for unity – for future Christians to be together and unified.
In John 17, he first prays to the Father for his disciples – that they remain together. Then he prays for future believers – like us, sitting here today. In his prayer, he says, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” Wow, Jesus wants the future believers to be together so that the world will see that God the Father sent Jesus the Son and that God loves the people. There is an old hymn which says, “they will know we are Christians by our love, by our love.” May we be unified, together so that people will know God – through us! When guests or visitors come here to worship, we want them to see God in how we worship – not alone, but together.
So, we might ask: How can we be together in worship? We can be together in the essentials and in humbly responding to God’s commands. I’ve listed some essentials that traditional Christianity has agreed upon for centuries. We worship the one true God, known in three persons – Father, Son, and Spirit. We believe that we are sinners, separated from a perfect God by our imperfection and rebellion, called sin. Jesus, being God in the flesh, is the way of salvation, through his sacrifice on the Cross. He was not defeated by death, but rose from the grave and ascended to Heaven. We know these truths through the Bible. The Bible is God’s Word, God’s holy and perfect revelation to us, written by human hands, inspired by the Holy Spirit. We also believe that because of God’s grace and love, we are called to follow Jesus and serve Him. God calls us to be unified as Christians, to be a witness to those who don’t know him yet. The Bible uses terms like ambassadors, his instruments, his vessels, his messengers of grace in the world. God calls us to be together that we might change the world in his name and for his glory. Those are great reasons to worship. And they are great things for us to agree on in worship.
We might find places though where we disagree.
What if we disagree about how the church is run – or how the money is being spent – or the policies of the church? What if we have difference in preference in how we worship? We acknowledge that we have differences and realize that’s ok. God wired us differently to be inspired by different styles of music, different instruments, different songs, how prayer is led, how the preaching and teaching is accomplished. It’s ok to prefer a more classical sound with choir and piano and hymns, it’s ok to prefer a more contemporary sound with guitars, band, and praise songs.
But whenever we come into worship, we need to be ready to worship God; and we need bring our best to him, worshipping the same God, with the same essential beliefs. We need to agree that different worship styles can all glorify God and bring honor and praise to Him. I found one writer who said this, “we can come to worship divided, by doubt, doctrine, or day to day distractions.” We need worship to be united in Christ.
We just spoke of worshipping together, but I’ll tell you, I often worship alone.
Some days, but not every day, at my desk down the hall, in the ZPC office – I will often use Pandora – it’s internet radio on my computer. I will choose my own worship songs and my own worship leaders. I can worship right there at my desk. I will occasionally write out my prayers. When I’m in the church office, I do my Bible devotional reading, or Bible study for church – right at my desk.
But what if that’s all I do? I would miss out on so much more. I would miss out on seeing all of you on a Sunday – and sharing some life with you. I would miss out on singing How Great Thou Art or How Great is Our God – I would miss hearing our choir – or worship leaders - or our talented musicians. I would really miss being with you.
When we worship together me that I’m not in this Christian life alone – I’m in it with you – we believe many of the same things. As we come together in this room, let’s be honest, I know you are not perfect; that makes me feel ok about being a sinner myself. I like worshipping with you to pray and confess my mistakes to God – with you together in this setting. It makes us be together in humility – in relationship. I like looking around and despite our different jobs, our different neighborhoods, our different seasons of life, I like being with you because I know we share those basic essential beliefs – and I need to know that I’m not alone in that.
I don’t pretend that I know most of you intimately because I don’t – but I can really be inspired, encouraged, and uplifted by being with you in the places where we are alike and worship together – we are not alone – we are the body of Christ – each gifted – unique – but all part of the body of Christ - together - all needed in worship.
Jim mentioned a few weeks back how wonderful it is to worship in different places. Just last week, I had a chance to worship with about 40 people in Reynosa, Mexico. During worship we sang, “Dame la Mano” – give me your hand – and we walked in the sanctuary shaking hands, Mexican and American, from different backgrounds, different languages, sharing worship in the same God. We then held hands and sang “Unidos, Unidos” or United, United – that we are united in Christ, and worship together, we celebrate our faith together. It was a little taste of heaven for me – and a reminder that we need each other.
How should we come to worship?
Come in expecting to meet God. I would suggest that each of us should come into worship say a silent prayer early in worship for God to be glorified and to show himself in worship. I know I need to do this. Expect to meet God here. I heard from Pastor and author James McDonald say, “If we don’t meet God in worship, we are basically the Rotary Club with music.”
Come to worship expectantly, and come to worship to offer something.
President John Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
What if we translate that idea to us and the church:
Ask not what God can do for you in worship, ask what you can do for God.
Author Robert Webber says, “Worship is not something you watch, it’s something you do.” Worship is not something you watch, it’s something you do.
Worship is a verb. The Psalms like this one today, are filled with verbs, we are – to sing, to shout to God, to bow down, to clap our hands, to stand in awe, to meditate, to cast down our idols, to worship.
I learned this about my second year at college – I went to a conference called Fun in the Son. A keynote speaker challenged us to come to worship to give, not to get. He said: To give, not to get.
When I went home, I tried this. I was amazed what a difference it made. I started sitting up closer in the sanctuary. I started listening closer the messages, singing louder, praying harder. I started noticing the people around me and thinking about why they were in worship.
Guess what? I grew closer to God in those years. Did I still mess up and need to mature – absolutely. Did I still have days where I didn’t agree with how worship was led, or I did not understand or follow the sermon, sure I did. But I was moving closer to God – as I focused in on Him in worship, and not as much on myself.
Finally,
We are called to be people of worship all week long. What if, when we come together Sundays, we bring in how we’ve been connecting with God this week, or have seen God at work. Some will bring great joy, some will bring sorrow, some will bring anticipation, some will bring anxiety, we each bring our heartfelt needs to God. But we would bring it together with an awareness that God is to meet us there. Louie Giglio says when we bring all of this together, “all of our personal streams of worship are flowing into one surging river. It’s a beautiful mosaic telling an even greater story of who God is and what he’s done.”
We worship God by bringing all of our hearts to God together. We can bring the broken places, the good place, our praise, our prayers, and our struggles. We’re going to bring those things to God now in a tangible way, a simple way, that I hope visualizes us worshipping together.
You know those pieces of paper in your bulletin? Pull those out now. Take your pen and please answer this question:
What do I bring to God today in worship?
It could be anxiety, a prayer request, a praise, a thought, a reflection of scripture, a word you felt God spoke to you, something else on your heart.
Write that down in a word or phrase – don’t put you name on it – God knows – and then hold it. We bring these things together in worship. We’re going to make a chain together - take that piece, wrap it in the person’s next to you, then tape it your two ends together to make a chain. Then do that again all down your row. Then reach across the row – make a chain. On the end of the row, find a person in front or behind to connect. Make one large chain around the room.
Christian author Louie Giglio says, “God is infinitely awesome, intimately approachable.” That’s who we are called to worship. Again, God who is infinitely awesome and intimately approachable. Let’s bring the chain forward and place on the platform as a prayer together to God.
Pray: O Lord, Take these prayers – you know them – you know our hearts – receive them and where your will is –answer them and show us your glory. Please do that for all of us – to be lifted up – together. In Jesus’ name, Amen.