True Worship

Scripture Text Psalm 95:6-7

Intro: Worship is mentioned 182 times in the bible. Scripture stresses the importance of regular corporate worship, while at the same time recognizing that believers may worship God spontaneously. When was the last time you truly worshiped God?

I. What is “True Worship”? Worship means to show reverence and adoration for a deity.

According to the Bible, true worship is to wholeheartedly respond to all that He is, with all that we are. True worship is a response to God's love and power that comes from a deep gratitude, a transformed identity, and a holy lifestyle. True worship is not limited to a specific time or place, but is expressed in everything we do and say as an acknowledgment of God's priority in our lives. True worship is a matter of the heart or soul that connects us to God and honors Him with our praise and obedience. True worshipers worship God in spirit and in truth, meaning they worship from the soul and according to the truth revealed in Jesus Christ and the Scriptures.                                                                                        a. True worship is bowing down and kneeling in surrender to the Lord our Maker. Psalms 95:6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. It's not so much the physical position as much as the condition of the spirit, & attitude of the mind. Worship in the truest sense takes place only when our full attention is on God, on His beauty, His glory, magnificence, and majesty, His power, splendor, love and compassion. True Worship is not in doing religious things but being in complete awe of God and reverence for all He is! If we are honest this doesn’t happen very often. Even in church or in times of quiet devotion, we get distracted and fail to see God as He truly is. It’s easy to be distracted! Our mind is the real battleground for God and the Devil. Many different ideas and philosophies try to block people from knowing the truth about God and worshiping him the way we should. These false philosophies that divert glory from God and hide the truth are the Devil’s strongholds. To give God and His word first place in our lives, 2 Corinthians 10:5 says We must “cast down arguments [about God] and every high thing [rebellious thoughts] that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” We reject everything that opposes God's will for our lives.

II. Things That Prompt True Worship. True worship is Recognizing who God truly is. Psalms 95:3-5 ³ For the Lord is the great God, And the great King above all gods.⁴ In His hand are the deep places of the earth; The heights of the hills are His also.⁵ The sea is His, for He made it; And His hands formed the dry land.True worship recognizes that God is the  Lord over all the earth and universe. He is the sovereign, supreme, all-powerful God over all so called gods which are only (idols). God made everything including the vast universe of space and He holds it all in place by the power of His word. All things belong to God and are subject to Him!                                                                                            a. True worship recognizes that God made us. Psalms 95:7 (NKJV) For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand. We are not here by accident. We didn't evolve from monkey's or a fish that walked out of the water! We didn't come to earth on a space ship from another planet. We are here by God’s perfect design and He had a plan for each of our lives before we were born. Psalm 139:13-16 (NLT)¹³  You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. ¹⁴  Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. ¹⁵  You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. ¹⁶  You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. When we worship God we draw close to Him and we find His strength, encouragement, and peace and we find direction for our lives. Ps. 23:2a He restores my soul. He restores our weary, tired and empty soul and fills us with His Holy Spirit power to overcome anything. Then He leads us in the paths of righteousness for His name sake. [Ps. 23:3b]              b. True worship includes thanksgiving. Psalm 95:1-2 (NLT) ¹  Come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. ²  Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to him. When was the last time you sang a song from your heart to God acknowledging Him. When was the last time you thanked God for who He is, what He has done for you, what He is doing and what He has prepared for your future. Thank Him for His everlasting, faithful love for you in Christ Jesus.

III. True worship recognizes God we belong to Him. Psalm 95:7 (NLT) 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! We are his own; he feeds and governs us, and his powerful hand protects us. We are part of His flock because of what Christ has done for us. John 10:27-30 (NKJV) ²⁷  My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. ²⁸  And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. ²⁹  My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. ³⁰  I and My Father are one." That means We eternally belong to God and we are under His care. God watches over us and constantly thinks of us Psalm 139:17-18 ¹⁷  How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! ¹⁸  If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You. Psalms 139:7 (NLT) I can never escape from your S pirit! I can never get away from your presence!

Invitation: True worship of God begins by being born again. John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." To be born again comes by confessing your sins to Jesus Christ. The bible says that we have all sinned and fallen short of God's glory. You ask Jesus to forgive you and save you from the penalty of your sins. Then invite Jesus into your life to take charge of you and your daily affairs. Then be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then you can begin to truly worship God and receive His blessings for the rest of your life here on earth and then forever throughout eternity. 

Messages From Easter

Intro: Even though Easter is passed, the message of Easter has not. There are some messages from Easter we need to remember so that we shall never forget Jesus' love for us. May we always give Him all the praise, honor and glory for what He has done. He is worthy!

I. Easter's message of the cross shows there is nothing Jesus wouldn't do for us. John 1:14  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Luke 19:10  for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." Jesus left the glories of heaven and the worship of angels to come to this earth to seek and save that which was lost. That includes you and I. He was treated terribly from birth to death, yet He lived the perfect life in our place as the representative of all mankind. Then He proved there was nothing He wouldn't do for us by giving His life on the Cross of Calvary as a sacrifice for mankind's sin. He suffered more than any man. He was beaten with a whip, mocked, spit on, slapped, His beard plucked out and a crown of thorns pushed down on His forehead. Then He was nailed to a cross by His hands and His feet where He hung for nine hours where He was forsaken by the Father God for the last three hours of His suffering on the cross. There He shed His perfect innocent blood for us as a propitiation for us to appease God's wrath toward us because of our sins. 1 John 2:2 Jesus Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. The message of the cross is Jesus completed everything needed for our salvation when He cried. “It is Finished!” John 19:30

II. Easter's message of the tomb shows us there isn't anywhere Jesus wouldn't go for us. Matthew 27:57-60 ⁵⁷  When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. ⁵⁸  He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. ⁵⁹  And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud ⁶⁰  and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. Jesus went to the tomb for us. Jesus who is God and could not die, became man so that He could experience death and be buried in a new borrowed tomb where His body lay for three days. Jesus in His love for us was willing to die and to be buried in that tomb so that He could experience everything that we do. At the tomb, God opened a sealed place of death, to reveal unmistakable evidence of Jesus raised to new life. The message of the empty tomb is our faith is to rise and trust in Jesus, His death and resurrection. The tomb proves there is nowhere Jesus would not go for us so that He could bring us abundant and eternal life.

III. Easter's message of Christ's resurrection promises nothing can separate us from God. The resurrection of Jesus confirms that God accepted Jesus' sacrifice for sin on the cross and gives us access to a right relationship with Him. When we believe Jesus died for our sins and God raised Jesus from the dead, we become children of God. Ephesians 1:13-14 ¹³  In Jesus you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, ¹⁴  who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. The Spirit sealed us for God and took up residence in us when we were born again and the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our complete salvation when Jesus returns for His church. 1 Cor. 3:16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? Because the Spirit of God lives in us, we can never be separated from God thru all eternity. Romans 8:31-39 (NKJV) ³¹  What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²  He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?³³  Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.³⁴  Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
³⁵  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
³⁶  As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."³⁷  Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.³⁸  For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,³⁹  nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Praise be to the Lamb of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. All glory, praise and honor go to Him! The message of Jesus' resurrection is that the price for the penalty of our sins has been paid and our salvation has been secured forever!

Conclusion: In conclusion, let us continually give Jesus our all as we live for Him in this dark and sinful world. May we ever be the light of the world and salt of the earth as we reflect God's glory into the lives of others through our testimony for Him.

Invitation: Jesus came to this earth to save you from the penalty of your sins. If you have never taken advantage of His salvation for you, right now confess your sins to Jesus and ask Him to forgive you and save you for heaven. Be baptized to show your sincerity!