The Heart of Worship

7/4/10 Sermon by Minister Michael Johnson

The Heart of Worship

Psalm 148

When I was growing up my family and I went to church every Sunday. My family would get up in the morning and prepare for the day by showering and getting dressed. My mom would iron our clothes and my dad would keep my brothers and me moving along. We would get to church and I would sing and listen to the sermon, but I did not understand the importance of my role during a worship service. I went because my parents told me I needed to go. I was told by my Sunday school teachers and by the pastor that it was important to go to church, but why? It was pretty obvious that I was there to worship God, but why not do this at home? Why did I need to go to church? What was the church service all about and what did all the parts of the service mean? Many people, children and adults alike, have had these questions. Let’s explore some of the answers together.

The first and most important point is that worship is entirely focused on the Lord. The passage for today, Psalm 148, repeats over and over again that all aspects of creation must praise the Lord. The psalmist emphasizes all God’s angels, sun, moon, shiny stars, ocean, snow, clouds, mountains, and animals must worship the Lord. Obviously the land, sun, water, and animals cannot praise God in the same way that humans can, but Psalm 148 states, “Let them praise the name of the LORD, for he gave the command and they came into existence.” Creation itself is a demonstration of the glory of God. The fact that the sun comes up every morning is evidence of God’s majesty.

Next the psalmist talks about people worshipping the Lord and states, “you kings of the earth and all you nations, you princes and all you leaders on the earth, you young men and young women, you elderly, along with you children! Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his majesty extends over the earth and sky.” When it comes to people it does not matter if you are man or woman, young or old, rich or poor, we’re all to be involved in worshipping Him!

A Sunday service that moves from its central calling of worshipping the Lord is no longer a God-centered service. Therefore, it’s important that we always think about what we do here together so that it’s Jesus’ Name that is lifted up and not mine or yours. With praise to God as our base for worship lets look at the different parts that make up the worship service. Hey kids, I want you to keep the bulletin close by because I am going to ask you to look at it from time to time during the sermon. Does everybody have one?

Kids, take a look at the bulletin in the Sunday worship section, how many prayers do you see listed? This can be tricky because some do not have the word prayer in it. (Pause to let them look) Have you counted them yet? If we look closely there are at least five prayers during the worship service. (Pause again) Do you see all five? There is the silent prayer at the beginning, the prayer after the responsive reading, the Lord’s Prayer, the prayer after the sermon, and the benediction. This seems like a lot of praying doesn’t it? A prayer is a conversation with God. It is time to speak with our Lord and present him with praise, concern, thanks, and glory. In the worship service prayer is important because it centers us on God.

The silent prayer at the beginning of our worship service is a time to prepare our hearts to receive what the Lord will speak to us during the service. Why is preparation so important? It’s like rinsing off dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. You prepare the dish in a way that it can be made clean. In the same way we may spend time in silent prayer confessing our sin to the Lord, giving our worries over to Him, and thanking Him for what He has done for us during the week.

The second prayer comes after the responsive reading. The leader of the worship service that day has an opportunity to lift up praises, concerns, and thanksgiving to the Lord. This prayer leads us into the Lord’s Prayer. Christ tells us to pray the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6:7-13 because it separates us from the sinners of the world. Christ tells us not to pray in babbling words that do not make sense, but to be meaningful in our prayers. We don’t need to pray using as many words as possible or to make our prayer sound important because God knows what we need before we even ask. Our prayers are important because God sees all of us as important not because we use a lot of words or big words. In the worship service we pray the Lord’s prayer because it is a prayer that offers praise to God, asks Him to meet our needs, to forgive our sin, and to protect us from the enemy. It is intentional and very clear.

We also have the benediction at the end of the service. Kids, you can see this listed at the bottom of the bulletin. This is the hidden prayer I was talking about. This is a prayer of blessing over the congregation. One kind of benediction says, “Go now in peace remembering who you are in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.” This is a prayer of blessing that the congregation would remember who they are as sons and daughters of God. It is also claiming peace over the congregation in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is brought together, as are all prayers, with Amen, which means, “let it be so”.

Another aspect of praising the Lord is music. Kids, how many of you like to sing? I know I do. I don’t think any of you can say no to that because I see big smiles on all your faces whenever you all sing in front of the church. I know I always have a smile when you sing! Why do you think you like to sing? I hope the answer is that it is because it is fun. Singing and playing instruments is a lot of fun when we offer it to the Lord. In the Bible music is a big part of worshipping the Lord. Many of the Psalms are actually intended to be songs. Psalm 100:2 states, “Worship the LORD with joy! Enter his presence with joyful singing!” The picture of music in the Bible is joyful and exciting. Imagine if we sang like this during the worship service (spoken very plainly and with no enthusiasm) “Praise the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me praise His Holy Name”. That wouldn’t be very much fun. On the flip side do you think the Lord wants to hear us sing like that? I don’t think he does. Instead we sing (cheerfully and with excitement) “Praise the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me praise His Holy Name”! The music we sing must be rooted in Scripture.

Scripture is in every aspect of the worship service. Kids you might think of Sunday school. Would it feel like Sunday school if you were not learning about the Bible? Of course it wouldn’t. You learn about the Bible in Sunday School and how it relates to your lives. Kids, and of course parents are welcome also, take a look at the bulletin. Do you see where it says responsive reading? This is where the whole congregation reads Scripture together. In the same way that we all sing praise and pray to God as group so also we read scripture together as a group. It helps to demonstrate the unity of the church in worship to God through the reading of Scripture. We also spend time reading Scripture before the sermon is given. This helps us all to know what the sermon will be about. Reading Scripture always a special event as we affirm the Lord in our worship. Therefore, all aspects of the worship service must be rooted in Scripture.

The sermon must be based in Scripture. We come to church to worship the Lord and the sermon helps us understand Him better. The sermon is a time when we learn more about God. It is a time when the pastor gets to share what the Lord is saying to us in the Bible. It is important to pay attention to the sermon and ask questions about things you don’t understand. Think of the sermon like your Sunday school class. Your Sunday school teacher helps you learn about God. During the sermon the pastor is doing the same thing. Everybody has the opportunity to learn from the pastor while the sermon is being given.

This leads us to fellowship. Kids, would you say that you like to be alone when you are at church or to be with others? I think most of you like to be with other because I see all of you running around with each other during lunch! The worship service has to do with the whole church and all of us are involved in praising the Lord, listening, and helping each other. Worshipping is not about “me”, but is about “we”. If a child has a question it is on anyone to help with an answer. Fellowship can be singing together, praying with each other, helping others in times of need, and even the announcements. The announcements help us to know what is going on in the life of the church. They help us to know about church happenings during the week. This helps us with our worship outside of the Sunday church service. I won’t deny the individual aspect of worship, but worship includes a sense of community because we were created to have relationships with others. We like to be around other people because that is how God created us. When we have friends or family who are happy we can be happy with them. When we know that others are hurt we can pray for them. This is all worship done in fellowship with one another. There are two particular acts of worship that require the community of believers in Christ and are key parts of worshipping God. These are the Sacraments.

Kids, if you are looking at your bulletin you won’t see anything about the sacraments. This is because we don’t celebrate them every week, but can any of you name the sacraments? (Pause) They are the Lord’s Supper and Baptism. The Lord’s Supper and Baptism are two very important parts of the worship service because they are physical things we do to demonstrate a spiritual change. Kids you might think of a time when your mom gave you a delicious dessert in your lunchbox. Then at lunchtime when you got to the point that you were going to eat your dessert you noticed a friend without any dessert. So you shared your dessert with your friend. This probably made you feel good inside. In fact, it made you want to do it again sometime. You did something physical, which was sharing your dessert, and it changed the way you felt inside, which was the feeling of wanting to share again. The sacraments are similar. We receive the blessing of Christ on our lives as Christians. We are renewed and cleansed when we share in the Lord’s Supper.

Baptism is also a physical sign of an inward change. When someone is baptized they may not look different on the outside. Maybe just a little wet because in the case of babies they have had water sprinkled on them or in the case of adults they may have been fully dunked in water. But the real change happens on the inside. They are now considered to be part of the covenant community with God.

So let me summarize what we have talked about in this sermon. We have discussed the role of music in the worship service, the importance of Scripture, the sermon, prayer, the Sacraments, which are the Lord’s Supper and baptism, and fellowship. All these things make up the worship service, but no worship service is true unless it has the one thing that binds it all together. Does anyone remember what it is? (Pause) It is praise to the Lord. If a worship service does not praise the one, true Lord and Savior of us all who is Jesus Christ then the worship service is meaningless. Carrying this truth even further not must Christ be the center of our worship service, but also our lives. Kids you might think of a time when you were praying really hard for the Lord to help you out on a test in school. That is praise to the Lord because you are focusing on your need for the Lord to help you. Then when you did well on the test did you thank Him? When we have something to be glad about thanking the Lord is also praise! We can praise God in good and bad times. We can praise God because He never leaves our side. I want to end this sermon with the first five verses of one of my favorite Psalms. It is Psalm 103:1-5 and it states, “Praise the LORD, O my soul! With all that is within me, praise his holy name! Praise the LORD, O my soul! Do not forget all his kind deeds! He is the one who forgives all your sins who heals all your diseases, who delivers your life from the Pit, who crowns you with his loyal love and compassion, who satisfies your life with good things, so your youth is renewed like an eagle’s.”

Let’s pray.