This is another sermon in the series on spiritual success.
Revelation
22:8-9
Whenever
someone—like a preacher, for instance—says put first things first, a natural
response is likely to be what’s the first thing.
As
Christians who happen to be Baptists, we probably have some ideas. Some of us might say “evangelism” is our
number one priority. Go to any
convention or evangelism conference and you’ll hear that our number one
priority is reaching people for Christ. Now, I hope no one denies the importance of
evangelism but not everyone would agree that it’s the first thing we should
think of when we set out to make first things first. Some would say, our priority should be
building churches. Others would say,
fellowship is the most important thing we can do. Still, others would say, we need to focus on
bringing justice to the world, ending poverty and hunger. And, a few might say, our number one priority
must be staying true to orthodoxy.
The
best thinkers in Christian history would say those things are clearly important
but none of them is the first thing.
They would say that the first thing was worship. Does that surprise you? In the mid-seventeenth century, Reformed
theologians met at Westminster to try to prepare a catechism that could be used
to teach Christians the basics of the faith.
The first question of that catechism was, “What is the chief end of
man?” The answer was simple, “Man’s
chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.”
But
what about the Great Commission? Doesn’t
it say evangelism is our top job? Look
at it again. It’s found in Matthew 28:
16 Now the
eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed
them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some
doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority
in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore
and make disciples of all nations[1]
Did
you catch that? They came to where Jesus
was and worshipped him. That’s what
disciples of Jesus do. When Jesus sent
them into the world to make disciples, he was sending them out to make other
worshippers.
But
what is worship? The English word comes
from the same root as our words “worth” and “worthy.” Literally, worship is “worthship.” It means God’s worth is such that he is worthy
of being worshipped. In Revelation 5,
John takes us into the throne room of heaven.
There all sorts of spiritual beings and a group described as the
twenty-four elders are worshiping God.
Listen to how they praise him as Creator.
Then
the twenty-four elders bow down before the One who sits on the throne, and they
worship him who lives forever and ever. They put their crowns down before the
throne and say:
11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
because you made all things.[2]
The
beauty and wonder of creation marks God as worthy of worship. The tune changes, literally, in the next
chapter where Christ (the Lamb) is worthy of worship because of the work of
redemption. Again, John describes the
scene.
Then I looked, and I heard the voices of
many angels around the throne, and the four living creatures, and the elders.
There were thousands and thousands of angels, 12 saying in a loud voice:
“The Lamb who was killed is worthy
to receive power, wealth, wisdom, and
strength,
honor, glory, and praise!”[3]
Some
writers try to distinguish worship and praise.
Worship, they say, focuses on who God is, while praise focuses on what
God does. I think the distinction is
artificial. In the Bible, we know who
God is by what he does.
W.
E. Vine was a scholar who spent much of his career trying to help
non-specialists understand the nuances of Greek words. After reviewing the several verbs, both
Hebrew and Greek, that are translated as “worship” or “praise,” he says:
The worship of God is nowhere
defined in Scripture. A consideration of the [words used to describe worship] shows that
it is not confined to praise; broadly it may be regarded as the direct
acknowledgement to God, of His nature, attributes, ways and claims, whether by
the outgoing of the heart in praise and thanksgiving or by deed done in such
acknowledgment.[4]
Fundamentally,
I believe worship involves the interaction of Revelation, Reflection, and
Response. God’s word reveals some aspect
of God’s character. We reflect on the
meaning and significance of that revelation.
Our reflection prompts our response:
Adoration, praise, and thanksgiving.
Too often that process gets short-circuited. We are distracted by what’s going on outside
the four walls of the church. We allow
something to derail our intention to worship:
the sanctuary temperature, a typo in the bulletin, someone’s new dress
or hair style. As a result, we go away
dissatisfied.
Let’s
look at the causes for this derailment in more detail.
What
Might Keep Us from Making Worship the First Thing?
Egotism
When
I was in seminary, students planning to become pastors were required to take
two courses from the school of music. I
guess they hoped it would help pastors appreciate the musicians later on. Of course, those musicians were required to
take courses in the school of theology just to be fair.
I
don’t remember a lot about the courses, but I do remember the day Dr. Scotty
Grey shared his opinion about soloists and choirs. Generally, he thought no soloist should ever
sing in church. He was willing to make
an exception if the soloist stood behind a screen, out of sight of the
congregation. Choirs were okay but choir
members should sit out in the congregation until it was time for the choir to
sing.
What
he said sounds pretty radical and I wonder if he was just trying to get us to
think or maybe stay awake. In any case,
I know he was trying to get across the point that worship is not about us.
If
you can’t worship because the music is not to your liking, if you can’t worship
because the song leader is too enthusiastic, if you can’t worship because the
sanctuary is too hot or too cold, if you can’t worship because the deacon
didn’t greet you this morning, if you can’t worship because you don’t care for
the flower arrangement, you’ve made the moment of worship about you. Well, it’s not about you. It is about giving God the honor and glory that
are rightfully his.
Work
Sometimes
we neglect worshipping God because we are too busing working for God. Christian service can be a great obstacle to
worship even though Christian service is a good thing to do. In our busyness we can lose sight of the
importance of just appreciating the opportunity to be in God’s presence.
We
are like Martha, exhausting ourselves while missing the opportunity to sit,
like Mary, at the feet of Jesus. A. W.
Tozer put it plainly, “God wants worshipers before workers; indeed the only
acceptable workers are those who have learned the lost art of worship.”
Perhaps
the reason why we sometimes find it so hard to recruit workers for the church
is that they think of the church as the place where they must one more task to
an already packed “to do” list. Perhaps
if they saw church as the venue for encountering the God of grace, they would
be more inclined to respond to that grace with grateful service.
Bad
Theology
Lucy
and her brother Linus were standing at a window watching a downpour. Lucy asked, “What if the world floods?”
Linus
answered, “In Geneses chapter nine, God says he would never again destroy the
world with a flood.”
To
this, Lucy responded, “You’ve taken a great load off my mind.”
Linus
simply said, “Sound theology has a way of doing that.”
Sound
theology—yes. But there’s a lot of
unsound theology out there and some of it is in our churches. That bad theology may keep us from making the
first thing first. Take the story of Dr
Joseph Cooke, a brilliant anthropologist and one-time missionary to Thailand. He had a breakdown and had to return to the
US. Later, he realized his problem was
bad theology. This what he said about
the image of God filling his mind on the mission field.
I invented an impossible God whose
demands of me were so high and his opinion of me so low that there was no way
to live except under his frown. All day long he nagged me. Why don't you
witness more? When will you ever learn self-discipline? Why don't you pray
more? Why don't you witness more? How can you allow yourself to indulge in such
wicked thoughts? Yield! Confess! Work harder!
God was always using his love
against me. He'd show me his nail-pierced hands and say, 'Why aren't you a
better Christian?' I had a God who down underneath considered me to be less
than dirt. Oh, he would make a great show about loving me but I believed the
day-to-day love and acceptance I longed for could only be mine if I let him
crush everything that was really me. When it came down to it there was scarcely
a word or a thought or a feeling or a decision of mine God really liked.
I
don’t know where Cooke got those ideas about God but I’ve heard some preachers who
might have contributed to his thinking.
A few of these preachers were quite well known and made a pretty good
living by making Christians feel bad. I
knew a pastor in Texas who explained why he had stopped going to evangelism
conferences by saying, “I didn’t need the guilt.” None of us does but not everyone has the
courage to stop listening to the preachers who front for the God of perpetual
dissatisfaction.
It’s
hard to worship a God you don’t really like.
We are more inclined to worship when we catch a glimpse of God’s great
grace.
If it’s hard to worship a God you don’t
like, it’s also hard to worship a God you don’t trust. Sometimes
when we face difficulty and trial, we come away wondering if we can ever again
trust God. Remember Psalm 137, where we
get a glimpse of the psalmist’s heart as he wrestles with faith and doubt in
the face of being taken captive to Babylon.
The
psalmist cried:
By the rivers in Babylon we sat and cried
when we remembered Jerusalem.
2 On the poplar trees nearby we hung our harps.
3 Those who captured us asked us to sing;
our enemies wanted happy songs.
They said, “Sing us a song about Jerusalem!”
4 But we cannot sing songs about the Lord
while we are in this foreign country![5]
It
was to Israelites facing the same crisis that Jeremiah wrote his often quoted
words: “ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord. ‘They are plans
for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’” Jeremiah was helping the people learn to
trust God after the disaster. His words
remind us that God has our good in mind.
He is a God we can trust; he is a God we can worship.
Misconceptions
of worship
We
may find it hard to put first things first because we have misconceptions about
worship. Sometimes we have a Hollywood
concept of worship. You’ve seen the
movies. Some saint is in church praying,
often in the early hours of the morning, and suddenly he or she is bathed in
light and hears an unearthly voice speaking to him or her. Maybe you’ve think of Isaiah’s
experience. Remember he said,
In the
year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and lofty throne. The
bottom of his robe filled the temple. Angels were standing above him.
Each had six wings: With two they covered their faces, with two they covered
their feet, and with two they flew. They called to each other and said,
“Holy,
holy, holy is the LORD of Armies!
The
whole earth is filled with his glory.”
Let’s
face it. If you come here on a typical
Sunday morning, that just isn’t going to be your experience. Our music ministry and our worship committee
try hard to create meaningful services, but so far they haven’t produced
anything to match Isaiah’s visit to the temple.
The
truth is some of us are more open to the mystic experiences of the saints, but
most of us are more down to earth. Does that
mean we can’t worship? No.
The
Christian with the calm, unemotional, analytical mind who labors to mine the
meaning of some Biblical declaration about the character of God is as ready to
worship as the believer who sheds tears at the first note of “Amazing
Grace.”
How
do we keep the first thing first?
There’s
no simple answer to that question, but it think I can few things to keep in
mind.
First,
remember God merits our worship. I’ve
been saying that all along but can’t hurt to repeat it. The little prayer we teach children to say
before a meal is a model of worship:
“God is Great, God is Good, Let us thank him for this food.” The character of God inspires our
worship.
While
I was preparing this message I came upon this comment by Robert Morgan on a
Biblical call to worship. It reminds us
to focus on God if we would enrich our worship.
The writer says,
One recent evening when the moon
was full I studied it from my back porch. It seemed as clear and close as the
globe on the lamppost. Finding binoculars, I steadied them against the railing
and magnified the moon. In other words, I focused on it, made it larger in my
eyes, and studied it until I was overwhelmed with its ivory plains and dimly
outlined mountains, with its splotched craters and jagged edges.
What happens when we magnify the
Lord? Just that. We focus on Him, make Him larger in our eyes, and study Him
until overwhelmed with His brightness, His love, His grace, His care, His
power. And when we do that, the next verb comes into play—we rejoice in God our
Savior. Magnifying Christ brings joy to our hearts, joy that levels every
mountain and fills every valley. ‘O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt
his name forever’.[6]
So,
pay attention to the words of the hymns we sing, even if you’ve been singing
the for a lifetime. Ponder the ideas
behind the Scripture we read. Let these
things remind you of God’s character and inspire you to worship.
Second,
remember that worship benefits us.
Worship does a soul good. William
Temple said, “ To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of
God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty
of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose
of God.” Worship—real worship—changes
us. Throughout the Bible, the men and
women who experienced God’s presence were never the same.
Remember
that worship is the fountain from which all other Christian activity flows.
It
prompts our evangelism. It inspires our
service. It shapes our ethics.
Conclusion
Spiritual
success—that sense that our pilgrimage is really going somewhere—begins with
worship. It is the first thing we should
think of when we seek to make first things first.
[1]
The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton : Standard Bible
Society, 2001, S. Mt 28:16-19
[2]
The Holy Bible : New Century Version , Containing the Old and New Testaments.
Dallas, TX : Word Bibles, 1991, S. Re 4:10
[3]
The Holy Bible : New Century Version , Containing the Old and New Testaments.
Dallas, TX : Word Bibles, 1991, S. Re 5:11
[4]Vine,
W. E. ; Unger, Merrill F. ; White, William: Vine's Complete Expository
Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Nashville : T. Nelson, 1996, S.
2:686
[5] The
Holy Bible : New Century Version , Containing the Old and New Testaments.
Dallas, TX : Word Bibles, 1991, S. Ps 137:1
[6]Morgan,
Robert J.: Nelson's Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations, and Quotes.
electronic ed. Nashville : Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000, S. 813
