1How To Worship GodLuke 4:1-13

I have learned that you are in one of the safest places in the world right now. Someone has made these observations: $ Avoid riding in automobiles because they are responsible for 20 percent of all fatal

accidents.$ Do not stay home because 17 percent of all accidents occur in the home.$ Avoid walking on streets or sidewalks because 14 percent of all accidents occur to

pedestrians.$ Avoid traveling by air, rail, or water because 16 percent of all accidents involve these

forms of transportation.$ Of the remaining 33 percent, 32 percent of all deaths occur in hospitals. Above all else,

avoid hospitalsYou will be pleased to learn that only .001 percent of all deaths occur in worship services in church, and these are usually related to previous physical disorders. Therefore, logic tells us that the safest place for you to be at any given point in time is at church! Bible study is safe, too. The percentage of deaths during Bible study is even less.

In Luke, chapter 4, Jesus, is talking to Satan when Satan tries to tempt Him out in the desert. In that exchange, in Verse 4, Jesus, quoting the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 6:13, said: “You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.” (Luke 4:8 NLT) So, what was He talking about and what did worship look like in the time of Jesus and in the early Christian church after the resurrection?

Did you realize that you didn’t come to church today? Nowhere in the Bible does it talk about “going to church.” We are the church. And we come together not to “do church,” but to worship God and give thanks to Him for the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. We come together to show our love and thanksgiving for the forgiveness that He offers and for the promise of life forever that can be ours through our faith in what Jesus Christ did on the cross. In the New Testament, there were no church buildings. So people did not “go to church.” They met together in people’s homes and celebrated God’s love and shared together in a meal and the breaking of the bread. They helped and supported each other, but they never “went to church.” When the New Testament writers spoke of the church or the churches, they were talking about the gatherings of Christians in a particular area.

In Acts 2, we see a brief picture of what they did together: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 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, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:42-47 NIV)

I read an article by Kevin Long, who played four seasons with the Tennessee Titans. He wrote that when he played at Florida State University, his college coach Bobby Bowden inspired the team with parables. Long recounted a favorite story: Bowden was playing college baseball, and he had never hit a home run. Finally he hit one down the right-field line, into the corner. He rounds first and looks to the third base coach. He turned at second, was halfway to third and the coach was still waving him on. He got to home and hit the plate. He had his first home run, he was so excited and everybody was giving him high fives. Then the pitcher took the ball, threw it to the first baseman, and the umpire called him out. Coach Bowden said, “If you don't take care of first base, it doesn't matter what you do. If you don't honor the Lord first, it doesn't matter what else you do.”

I read about a man named James Kelley of Washington, D.C. He is one of a small group at his local church who are enthusiastic Episcopalians, but who do not believe in God. Said Kelley, “We all love the incense, the stained-glass windows, the organ music, the vestments and all of that. It's drama. It's aesthetics. It's the ritual. That's neat stuff. I don't want to give all that up just because I don't believe in God.” A similar situation played out at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in San Antonio a few years ago. A college professor, who is an avowed atheist, joined that church. A member of that Presbytery filed charges against the pastor for allowing the professor to join without professing his faith in Jesus Christ. After all, the first question for new members is: “Who is your Lord and Savior?”

So, let me first establish what worship is not. It is not a fulfilment of your “Christian Duty.” Just coming to worship is not enough, faith and trust are required. After all, how can you worship God if you don’t believe in Him? And in that same vein, worship is generally not a situation where a non-believer will be suddenly struck by the truth of God’s Word and become a believer. Sure it happens now and then, but it is not the norm. The non-believer is much more likely to come to faith in a small group Bible study. or by seeing you live your faith in a meaningful way. By the way, I would love to see a small group week day study going on here at the church or someone’s home on a regular basis.

Neither is worship a time when we come together to see who else is here – or not here. Worship is something that should take place between you and God and the presence or absence of others should not affect that in any way. For the same reason, worship is not a time to come and see what others are wearing or to get the latest gossip on other members or regular worshipers. Nor is it a place to come to show off your latest car, suit, dress, etc.

Writer and preacher, Luis Palau says, “Beware of the mind-set in looking to see if the church will meet your needs. ... When my family is ready to leave for church, we take certain expectations about what we want to receive and leave them at home with our dog. Consequently, everything we do receive is a blessing.” You see, when you worship God you are giving to Him – and anything you do receive is truly a blessing. The great preacher of a century ago, Charles Haddon Spurgeon made the observation, “I believe a very large majority of churchgoers are merely unthinking, slumbering worshipers of an unknown God.” May that never be said of any of you!Douglas J. Brouwer has written, “Worship is not, and never has been, something people attend in

order to be entertained or fed. Worship can be entertaining. Worship can be richly nourishing. I have pleasant memories of worship being both of those things to me. But those are not the reasons God calls us to worship.” So let’s look at what worship is.

Worship, basically, is to praise God and stand in awe before Him. The Bible is full of statements that tell us this. In 1 Chronicles, we read, “Give to the Lord the glory he deserves! Bring your offering and come into his presence. Worship the Lord in all his holy splendor.” (1 Chronicles 16:29 NLT) The first two of the Ten Commandments make it very clear that God is above all others and it is He alone whom we are to worship: “You must not have any other god but me. You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I am the Lord your God.” (Exodus 20:3-5a NLT) From that time on, God’s people have discovered that He meant what He said in those commandments. When they turned away from Him and began to worship idols, they paid a heavy price.

The Psalms are filled with songs of worship. For instance we read, “Honor the Lord for the glory of his name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.” (Psalm 29:2 NLT) And again, “Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the flock under his care. If only you would listen to his voice today!” (Psalms 95:6-7 NLT)

You see, there we get a hint about one part of worship. “If only you would listen to his voice today!” When we come to worship, we come expecting a wonderful sermon and if we don’t get moved by that message or it doesn’t speak to us in a particular way that we expect, we leave feeling let down or maybe even cheated. The Psalmist, I believe is saying, that we must listen for God’s voice as we worship. And one time He may speak to us through the message and another time through the music and another time through the silence that takes place somewhere in the middle of the service. This points out that worship is not something we come to “experience” as we would a concert. It is something we come to participate in, to be a part of. And if we get nothing out of it, we have to ask ourselves, was I participating? Was I expecting to meet God here today? Did I give Him the full extent of my worship?

The Scriptures, you see, give us lots of information about how to worship God. The Psalmist says, “O God, we meditate on your unfailing love as we worship in your Temple.” (Psalm 48:9 NLT) You have come today to His Temple. But ask yourself, “Have I come meditating on, thinking about, living in the promise of His unfailing love?” “Am I confident that He loves me so very much?” When we come to the realization that God loves us so much that He would send His Son to die for us, we must fall down in worship before Him. He must become the object of all of our worship. When we realize that He loves us that much, we can only say with the Psalmist, “Thank you, Lord.”

There, you see, is another of the reasons we come together to worship and praise God – because we are thankful for what He has done for us. If we want to experience God at worship, we must come with a thankful heart. The Psalmist says, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.” (Psalm 100:4 NIV) When we think of all the gifts He has given us, we cannot help but praise Him! And even when one person comes to

the gathering feeling they don’t have much for which to be thankful, they experience others who are thankful and that gives them hope.

Now I said a moment ago that if we come expecting to be fed we are here for the wrong reason. But I want to make a further point about that. When we come to the gathering of believers to worship God, we do come to learn more about Him so you can praise Him in more ways. But sitting idly by and waiting to be hit with a lightening bolt of truth is not the way to learn from the message. It is important to listen intently, to take notes (that’s why I put that outline page in the bulletin) and to meditate on what is being said. I put most of the scriptures I use on the outline so you can read and re-read them and meditate on what God may be saying to you through those Bible verses. The Bible says, “By your words I can see where I’m going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path.” (Psalm 119:105 Msg.)

But we must beware that we don’t appreciate the message for the wrong reason. Too often, we approach the hearing of the message as a learning experience. Tim Keller points out that “Merely learning a truth about God is education, not worship.” Worship that is pinned only on whether a message resonates with you is not true worship. Your job in hearing the message is to affirm what is said and to praise God for what He is giving you. It is to glorify God for His word and the words He has given the speaker. It is to meditate on what is said and seek God’s guidance and wisdom in learning how to apply it to your life. It is to praise Him for the power that is His Holy Word and how it can give you the power to live a joyful and victorious life.

Another aspect of worship is the prayer time. When we spend time together in corporate prayer, I may be doing most of the talking, but we are to be praying together. That means it is important for you to listen intently to what I say and affirm it with God in your own thoughts and prayers. In other words, when I pray for something or someone, you might be praying then also, saying silently, something like, “Yes, Lord, I lift that person up, too and ask for your healing.” Or, “O Lord, help me see how I might take Your word to others this week.” Once again, prayer is worship. In prayer we glorify God and thank Him for His many gifts.

Another thing we do when we celebrate together is show our love for God by supporting His work and supporting our brothers and sisters in the faith. I read about a missionary who started a church in Africa years ago. As the people began to respond to the Gospel message and place their faith in Christ, they began to form a gathering of people who would come together to worship God. As the group grew and became more knowledgeable, the missionary finally decided it was time to start turning over portions of the worship service to the locals. The first thing he had them do was handle the offering. When it came to that time in the service they took charge. But they didn’t sit quietly in their seats and glumly pass a plate along in silence. They got up and danced their way to the front and truly celebrated the opportunity to give to the work of the church and the support of those in need. If any of you want to celebrate your giving of your tithes and offerings in that way, you have my permission to do so. There will be an extra offering plate on the communion table for that purpose.

If you look at the top of the page on your bulletin, you will notice that it says, “Worship Celebration.” That’s what we are here for – to celebrate your love of God. When we come into the gathering of saints to give worship to God we are to come in a celebrative mood. We come

rejoicing and praising God for all the wonderful things He has done. All we do in this time together should be an act of worship. Whether it is greeting others in the name of Christ or singing the songs/hymns or listening to hear God’s word in the prayers or the message, we are expected to do so in celebration and in awe before God.

James Packer has written, to worship God is to recognize his worth or worthiness; to look God-ward, and to acknowledge in all appropriate ways the value of what we see. The Bible calls this activity "glorifying God" or "giving glory to God," and views it as the ultimate end, and from one point of view, the whole duty of man (Ps. 29:2; 96:6; 1 Cor. 10:31).

Scripture views the glorifying of God as a sixfold activity:$ praising God for all that he is and all his achievements; $ thanking him for his gifts and his goodness to us; $ asking him to meet our own and others' needs; $ offering him our gifts, our service, and ourselves; $ learning of him from his word, read and preached, and obeying his voice; $ telling others of his worth, both by public confession and testimony to what he has done

for us.

Thus we might say that the basic formulas of worship are these: "Lord, you are wonderful"; "Thank you, Lord"; "Please Lord"; "Take this, Lord"; "Yes, Lord"; "Listen everybody!"

This then is worship in its largest sense: petition as well as praise, preaching as well as prayer, hearing as well as speaking, actions as well as words, obeying as well as offering, loving people as well as loving God. However, the primary acts of worship are those which focus on God directly -- and we must not imagine that work for God in the world is a substitute for direct fellowship with him in praise and prayer and devotion.

The Bible says, “O Lord, I will honor and praise your name, for you are my God. You do such wonderful things! You planned them long ago, and now you have accomplished them.” (Isaiah 25:1NLT) The Life Application Bible, commenting on this passage, says, “Isaiah exalted and praised God because he realized that God completes his plans as promised. God also fulfills his promises to you. Think of the prayers he has answered, and praise him for his goodness and faithfulness.” May your worship experience be enriched as you put these thoughts into practice today and in the coming weeks.

Prayer:O Lord God, we give you the glory and the praise for You are indeed an awesome God. Your power and majesty are beyond our comprehension. Yet we know that when we need Your help, You are there and will carry us through even the most difficult situations. So hold us close and help us expand our worship as we attempt to show our love and thanksgiving to You. In Jesus Name. Amen.