Biblical Worship Is...
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ME: Intro - Worship Matters
ME: Intro - Worship Matters
Do you ever wake up on a Sunday morning and have this sense that you have to get up and go to worship again?
I admit that I have.
Those Sunday morning worship services that feel empty, dry, or pointless.
You ever feel that way?
Finding yourself wondering where your joy in worship went?
Or even questioning if coming to worship really matters?
Feeling like you are just fighting against this sense that you are just going through the motions.
If you feel that way,
Let me assure you that you are not alone.
Now do not get me wrong,
Corporate worship is one of the most fulfilling, enjoyable, invigorating, humbling, and transformational things we do.
It is deeply intertwined with the purpose for which we were created,
To glorify God.
It is pointing our hearts collectively toward our Sovereign Lord who is greater than any circumstances,
And more gracious than we could even imagine.
In this incredible act,
The Holy Spirit transforms our lives,
He gives us this fresh connection with God and His faithfulness, His love, and His might!
At times, we are in disbelief that we get to do this, worship God together.
But then,
As I first mentioned,
If we are honest,
There are other times where you feel like you would be so happy to do anything else but come to a corporate worship service.
There may be many legitimate reasons for feeling this way.
But you come,
Because you believe that the joy of corporate worship outweighs the difficult challenges.
So, despite feeling this way at times,
You never really entertain the idea of giving up corporate worship.
Instead, perhaps you want to worship better.
I think we all could agree that we want to worship better.
But better is ambiguous.
Better to one of us may not seem better to another.
So, what is better?
Better in a way we can all agree with would be effective and faithful worship.
So, if we want our worship to be better,
We, together, have to worship more effectively and more faithfully.
As a pastor, I would love to see us worship together better in this way.
But I have to confess,
My hope is more than simply being better worshipers here together on Sunday mornings.
Worship is more than music,
It is more than a spiritual high from a sermon,
It is more than what we do on a Sunday morning.
Worship is about what we love,
It is about what we are living for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Worship is about who we are before God.
There are many practical things that we can apply to our understanding of what biblical worship is,
And next week, Lord willing,
Pastor Ryan is planning on taking what we talk about this morning regarding what biblical worship is,
And he will lead us in understanding what biblical worship does.
But because we cannot start there,
This morning we are going to focus on the way we love and think.
As we explore this, we will be looking at a variety of passages that teach us about what biblical worship is.
This morning, we will seek to understand what biblical worship is from every part of our being.
Our outline will look at:
My Heart
My Head
My Hands
My Character
This morning will be focused on the first two,
Lord willing, next week, Pastor Ryan will walk us through the second two.
In too many churches,
There is a detectable disconnect between the God we worship on Sundays,
And the One we seem to follow throughout the week.
So, as we discuss biblical worship these next two weeks,
We want to make sure we understand what really matters.
Because we want to avoid what I described at the start of our time,
Worship that feels empty, dry, or pointless.
This is not biblical worship.
Bob Kauflin writes;
“Worship matters. It matters to God because he is the one ultimately worthy of all worship. It matters to us because worshiping God is the reason for which we were created…That’s why it’s so important to think carefully about what we do and why we do it.”
WE: My Heart
WE: My Heart
What is the greatest challenge we face as worshippers?
Perhaps you think it is related to which songs we sing,
Or maybe you think it is dependent on what you get out of the sermon,
Or you think the way other members treat you will determine how worship will go in this morning.
It is none of these things.
The greatest challenge for all of us comes from within us.
It is what we bring with us whenever we worship God,
Both personally and corporately.
The greatest challenge is our heart.
It is tragic that so many churches have gotten caught up in what has been branded as worship wars.
If you are unfamiliar with what worship wars means,
It is a reference to the historical reality of conflict existing in churches over style of music,
Selection of songs, and the inclusion or exclusion of certain instruments.
This is what we call worship wars.
But the reality is that the true worship war is taking place inside all of us.
Because the battle inside of us is a battle over what we love most,
Either God or something else.
God is always to be our only object of worship.
The Bible reveals that He is jealous to receive our worship.
And we worship what we love.
So, if we love or serve anything in place of God,
We are participating in what the Bible calls idolatry.
Here is our problem,
We love our idols.
And we love our idols because we believe they will provide for us a joy that only comes from God.
We are fooled into believing that they will satisfy us.
We exalt them as if they are worthy of our worship.
Which is completely incorrect,
Idolatry is nothing but a trap waiting to capture us.
Scripture repeatedly condemns idolatry.
God despises it when we pursue after, serve, or emotionally give ourselves to our idols.
When we fall into the trap of idolatry,
We become enslaved to our idol,
Which eventually ends in our shame.
The foundational teaching of this idolatry comes all the way back at the beginning in Exodus 20:1-5;
And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
Then, near the end of the Bible,
The Apostle John warns us in 1 John 5:21;
Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
Why?
Because not only are they powerless at providing what they promise,
But they end up transforming us into their image.
And our hearts are idol factories.
We produce idols from our hearts that form us into their image that leads to greater love for our idol.
The psalmist expresses this in Psalm 115:8;
Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.
When you hear the word idolatry, what comes to your mind?
Perhaps you picture these primitive tribes in third world countries
Bowing down or dancing around a statue made of wood or stone.
Or maybe you are thinking of Asian nations where Muslims, Sikh’s, Buddhists, and Hindus go to a mosque or a temple and offer incense or chants.
All of these images are true examples of idolatry.
But do you realize that idol worship happens every single day here in America?
In fact, I would argue that the idol worship in America is far more dangerous than the other examples of idolatries I mentioned,
Because the idolatry in America is far more subtle.
The idols here in America are all around us.
They come in many different shapes and sizes.
Do you recognize them?
For some it is material comfort.
Financial security is another.
Or sensual pleasure is common as well.
The idols of reputation, influence, power, prestige, or control are all subtly dangerous idols.
None of us are immune to this,
We can be just like the people described in 2 Kings 17:33;
So they feared the Lord but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.
The way this plays out in our context is,
We come to church on Sunday,
We do all the right things,
We say all the right words,
We sing together,
Maybe even lift our hands,
We listen to the Word,
Maybe even take notes.
But then, throughout the week, we actively serve our own false gods.
We profess to love the Lord,
But in reality, our heart belongs to our idols.
We pursue after our own glory,
Rather than seeking to glorify God.
This is our condition.
Jesus taught this in Mark 7:7-9;
in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!
It is described again in arguably more shocking language in Rom. 1:25-26;
Romans 1:25–26 (ESV)
because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator,
But after Romans 1,
As we have seen in our It Is Well series,
Romans goes on to teach that despite our idolatry,
Slide
God, in His grace, desires to transform our hearts,
From loving our idols to loving Him,
And worshipping Him.
The moment we are saved, our sins are forgiven.
But even as forgiven sinners,
We have deep-rooted patterns of sin that do not die so easily.
As Christians,
Many of us foolishly and pridefully believe that we must serve others with our superior wisdom and discernment.
We “serve” others in this way because we either want them to admire us or because we want to control them.
This reveals the deep rooted idolatry that remains in our hearts.
We have a high opinion of ourselves and we are simply granting everyone else the opportunity to share that same high opinion.
So, we draw attention to our gifts, or our abilities, or our knowledge, or our efforts.
The sad reality is that this doesn’t work.
We find that we never get enough praise to satisfy that hunger,
And instead of being fulfilled, we are fearful, confused, or angry.
Eventually, it will start to feel like what you are living for is just falling apart.
For some of us, it will.
Why does this happen?
Because God, in His grace, desires to transform our hearts,
From loving our idols that destroy to loving Him who redeems,
He allows the pursuit of our idols to lead to the dismantling of our lives,
To teach us about what we love and what we worship.
He takes us on these journeys to sanctify us.
And these journeys are not easy,
In fact, they can feel downright hopeless.
Feeling like a continual downhill,
And when you think you finally hit rock bottom,
You are shocked to find the journey continues deeper and deeper down,
Forcing you to examine your heart.
An examination that shows you have been battling God for His glory,
And you are losing that battle.
In those moments,
You need help.
You may be wishing I would assure you that it’s okay, God is with you,
He is working all things together for your good.
But the reality is,
In those moments,
You need to confess that you feel helpless and hopeless in your own strength.
And when you truly realize that you are helpless and hopeless,
You stop trusting in yourself and start trusting in what Jesus did on the cross for you.
As you meditate on this truth,
The darkness will start to lift,
And you will begin to clearly see how the idols of your heart have been controlling your life.
You may be thinking,
“But Josh, I want God to be exalted in my life, yet everything still seems to be falling apart!”
You may truly feel that way,
That you want God to be exalted in your life.
But if you search your heart and examine your life,
I am certain you will be shocked to see that there is another agenda ruling you.
The love of an idol;
Perhaps it is the admiration of others.
You want God to be exalted, sure,
But you want that in conjunction with the applause of others.
And how often are you really willing to exalt God in your life at the expense of the applause from others?
I mean, if I am being honest,
I want you all to like me,
I have the constant pull in my heart to steal God’s glory for myself.
Because I sin and I love myself rather than loving God.
As Paul says in 2 Tim. 3:2-4;
For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
Perhaps you can relate to that.
Or maybe you relate to one of the other loves Paul lists here.
But let me caution you,
This is not an exhaustive list,
So, just because you do not see something you love here,
Does not mean you are above this.
Being a lover of self leads to death.
And leaving this tension battling in your heart,
Will eventually spillover into some form of destruction in your life.
This destruction is the consequence of your pride.
But even this destruction is a demonstration of God’s gracious kindness.
He uses our sin breakdowns to humble us,
To warn us,
To show us what life is like without Him.
When we are in a relentless pursuit of our own glory,
We eat it up when others mention us,
When we are given recognition,
When we are commended by others for our insight, gifts, or the way we love our spouses.
But the opposite is also true,
We find it offensive when people take issue with anything we do.
We challenge anyone who may question our integrity, intentions, or talents.
Or we do our best to avoid criticism,
Trying to double down our efforts to persuade others that we are both exceptional and humble.
This is people-worship.
It is a prison.
And the Gospel sets us free from this prison.
So, friends, today, I encourage you,
Feel hopeless.
We all are sinners who deserve God’s wrath.
But God, in His great love for you,
Sent His one and only Son,
To die on the cross,
Enduring the punishment you deserve,
To save you.
You cannot save yourself.
If you do not understand that you are a very great sinner,
You will not think you need a very great Savior.
When you seek glory for yourself,
Accolades for you accomplishments,
And recognition for your maturity,
You are not seeking a Savior,
You are seeking an audience.
God uses people in our lives to transform our hearts.
When my wife, Stephanie, stands before Christ to give an account for her life,
I know great is her reward for the encouragement, love, and correction she gives me daily.
Likewise, God has given me many friends, professors, pastors, elders, and mentors who have patiently and lovingly guided me in my journey.
God also uses people who do not even know we exist.
There are many books I have read that God has used as a channel of grace,
Through which the Spirit has transformed my idolatrous heart.
One I am reading right now is titled Imperfect Pastor,
The title just spoke to me,
And as I read it I say, “Hey, that sounds just like me!”
God has used these people,
And He continues to use these people in my life,
To progressively move the Gospel more and more to the center of my heart,
Pushing and shattering all the idols that have been occupying that space along the way.
I pray it would be the same for us all,
That the Gospel would be the central foundation of our hearts.
Part of the Gospel being central in our hearts includes the ever-growing understanding of the pervasive power of idolatry in our hearts.
But the good news of the Gospel is the ever-greater power of Jesus Christ redeems us from it.
As this Gospel continues to become more central,
We learn that we can love Jesus more than we ever thought possible.
And why is this important in a discussion about worship?
Because we all need to understand that biblical worship is not first and foremost about singing, or what we wear, or a service, or music.
Biblical worship is first and foremost about our hearts.
It is about what we love or who we love.
So, we can come to a service,
We can sing a song,
We can pray,
We can eat a piece of bread and a sip of juice,
We can have someone dunk us under water,
And we can do all these things while worshiping something else in our hearts.
I fear that because of this we overlook what the Bible makes clear,
When Jesus says in response to being asked which commandment is the most important in Mark 12:29-30;
Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
It may sound overly simplistic to say that worship is love,
But the fact is that we will genuinely worship whatever we most love.
God wants us to love Him more than our instruments,
More than our songs,
More than our church services,
More than our church buildings,
More than all our stuff,
More than our favorite food,
More than where and how we serve,
More than money,
More than our parents,
More than our spouses,
More than our children,
More than our best friends,
And here is perhaps the hardest one for all of us,
More than our selves.
It does not mean we cannot or should not love other things,
But the reality is that we will not love anything rightly,
If we do not love God most.
Our love will be out of whack,
Because we are hoping in temporary pleasures like a church service,
Or an event, or an activity, or an accomplishment,
To fulfill an eternal longing.
None of these things are worth loving over God.
Slide
Biblical worship is the ultimate priority for the church, the reason humanity was created then redeemed, and the culmination of history.
What do I mean by the culmination of history?
In Revelation 5 the Apostle John hears the culmination of history,
And it is all of creation worshiping God and the Lamb for all eternity.
So, how do you know what you love the most?
Look at your life between when you leave this place and when you arrive next Sunday morning.
What do you enjoy?
What do you spend time doing?
Where does your mind wander during down times?
What are you passionate about?
What do you spend money on?
What do you get angry about when you do not get it?
What makes you feel sad when you are without it?
What do you have that you are afraid of losing?
Your answers to these questions are the signposts that lead directly to either God,
Or the idols you love and worship.
That is why our primary concern during this time of corporate worship on Sunday mornings,
Is not ultimately what songs we sing, what we are wearing, and what technology we are using,
Our primary concern is the state of our hearts.
Isaac Watts, the author of many hymns, once wrote;
“God values not the service of men, if the heart be not in it: The Lord sees and judges the heart; he has no regard to outward forms of worship, if there be no inward adoration, if no devout affection be employed therein. It is therefore a matter of infinite importance, to have the whole heart engaged steadfastly for God.”
Watts said this is a matter of infinite importance,
Is this true for you?
Because it is to God.
Once it starts to become a matter of infinite importance,
Then, we start to have a heart of worship.
Because first and foremost, biblical worship is about my heart.
GOD: My Head
GOD: My Head
Second, biblical worship is about my head.
Pretend for an example,
You and I run into each other at the newly opened Gavin’s Pizza for lunch after church today.
And you start telling me about how much you have enjoyed getting to know my Dad.
You say, “Clarence is a great guy, incredible trombone player,
And he has the cutest cat,
Die-hard Eagles fan,
And an avid water-polo player,
Such a nice guy.”
As you are telling me all this, you would see a confused look on my face,
Because my dad does not know how to play any instruments,
He has no cat,
He is certainly not an Eagles fan,
In fact, his favorite team is their rival, the Cowboys,
And although the thought of my dad playing water polo is entertaining,
I inherited his talent for sinking rather than swimming.
So, despite your kind words,
It would be rather meaningless because it is based on incorrect information.
You could go on and on about how much you appreciate him,
But you do not really know him.
This is the same with us and God.
We worship God in spirit (not in a temple) and in truth.
In John 4:23-24, Jesus says;
John 4:23–24 (ESV)
“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
When Jesus says we worship Him in spirit here in John 4,
He is speaking to the woman at the well,
So, He is saying we worship in spirit in contrast to a specific place.
Meaning, we are not limited to worshiping God in a temple,
Later, Paul makes this clear in 1 Cor. 3:16, when he asks
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
We are the temple now!
How is this possible?
The author of Hebrews explains in Heb. 9:24;
For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
The result of this work the author explains one chapter later in Heb. 10:19-25;
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
We draw near to God with a true heart in full assurance of faith,
We hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering,
We stir up one another to love and good works,
And we do not neglect to meet together.
This is how we worship God in spirit,
It is not limited to a temple,
Just like it is not limited to a church building on a Sunday morning.
That is part of it,
But that is not all of it.
And it is through Christ that we are able to worship God in spirit.
The second part Jesus told the woman in John 4 was that we worship God in truth.
He Himself is truth and the truth will set us free.
Jesus also said in John 16:13, 17:17;
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
In 1 Tim. 2:4, it says...
1 Timothy 2:4 (ESV)
[Christ] desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Rom. 1:18 says,
Romans 1:18 (ESV)
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
So, what could all this mean?
It means the better,
Or more accurately,
We know God,
The more genuine our worship.
When we begin to stray from what is true about God,
We begin to wander into idolatry.
This means it does not matter what we may feel,
There can be no authentic worship of God without a true knowledge of God.
So, where can we find this true knowledge about God?
He has revealed it to us in His Word.
In order to wrap our minds around what the Bible says about God,
We must thoughtfully and intentionally study it.
This where we get the idea of theology and doctrine.
These are not popular water cooler subjects.
But biblical worship is not possible without them.
Think about it,
Theology literally means “the study of God.”
Our concept of who God is forms as a result of our theology.
So, the truth is that you are already a theologian,
The only question is how good of a theologian are you?
To be a good theologian,
Our concept of God must match up with what the Bible says about God.
But if we have a vague, distorted, or opinionated concept of God,
Then we are a bad theologian.
Some people refuse to read theology books, commentaries, or Bible studies,
Because they do not want their understanding of the Bible to be influenced by someone else.
While I understand why we would want to be cautious about what others might say about the Bible,
To outright refuse any and all resources from outside the Bible is like saying,
‘God doesn’t use other people to help me understand His Word better.’
And to be honest, that is a pretty foolish way to think.
I mean, I personally believe I need all the help I can get,
And truth be told, you do too.
Paul seemed to believe the same thing about himself.
In 2 Tim. 4:13, Paul asked Timothy to bring him the books.
C.H. Spurgeon was amazed by this simple request, saying;
“[Paul] is inspired, and yet he wants books! He has seen the Lord, and yet he wants books! He has had wider experience than most men, and yet he wants books! He had been caught up in the third heaven, and had heard things unlawful for a man to utter, yet he wants books! He has written a major part of the New Testament, and yet he wants books!…He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains proves he has no brains of his own.”
If Paul wants books, then I want books too, and so should you.
So, what have you been reading lately?
Are you reading today’s best seller?
Are you reading the newest self-help book?
Are you reading fictional novels?
Are you reading entertainment magazines?
Are you reading biographies?
Are you reading the sports pages?
Are you reading the hottest news stories?
Are you reading social media posts?
Are you reading opinionated bloggers?
If so, you can learn some things from reading these,
But if I am being honest,
They pale in comparison to books that can help us understand God, His works, and His character.
We have books like this, for free, for you, right next door in our library,
Books like The Cross of Christ by John Stott,
Or Knowing God by J.I. Packer,
And many more like it.
Week after week, I see these books sit there in our library being left unread,
While we gobble up okay things that are far less impactful in our worship of God.
And you may be thinking,
“Josh, I am really not a big reader,”
Or, “Those books are just too deep.”
I won’t disagree with you.
But despite your reservations,
I cannot fully express how invaluable these books are at assisting us in wrapping our minds around Scripture.
So, I would encourage you,
Take time to first study God’s Word,
But also take the time to sit under the teaching of these writers God has gifted.
Be challenged by their words as you are challenged by God’s Word.
Doctrine is similar to theology,
The word, doctrine, simply means “what is taught.”
So, doctrine is whatever the Bible teaches on a particular topic.
And this is important,
In Titus 1:9, Paul tells leaders in the church that we...
Titus 1:9 (ESV)
Must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.
This is the second part of what biblical worship is about,
Slide
Worship is a celebration of God, His works, and His character.
Celebrating God, His works, and His character is dependent upon what we know about Him.
The Psalms are full of this.
As Jesus said in the greatest commandment,
We love the Lord with all our heart,
And with all our mind.
But there are some misconceptions out there regarding this pursuit after God with our mind.
Slide
The first misconception is that studying God and what the Bible teaches should not be hard.
The truth is that studying these things is hard.
It is harder than learning a new skill,
And initially seems to pay off less than learning a new skill.
If you want to get to know God,
It is going to take time.
This is hard in our world today because everything is instant and convenient.
So, we want a devotional that is going to change our life,
But it cannot take more than 15 minutes out of our day.
God knows how busy I am,
And He is all-powerful,
So, He should make it work.
This attitude is chronic in all of us,
And it is an unacceptable attitude for us to have if we truly want to glorify God.
Bob Kauflin asks a great question for us to consider;
“Given our small minds, our absolute dependence on revealed truth, and the immensity of God, how can we think there’s an easy path to knowing the God we worship?
We need to put in the work and effort.
Slide
The second misconception is that because worship is singing songs, we know God better through music than words.
I am certain many of us have experienced profound moments with God during musical worship.
There are many OT examples of God’s people moved to joy by a variety of instruments during musical worship.
In those moments, we get this sense of peace,
Or God’s presence feels especially close.
But we must understand the difference between being moved emotionally,
And being transformed spiritually.
Music helps in many ways,
But no music can replace the truths about God.
Music by itself cannot help us to understand God, His works, and His character.
For that we need God’s Word.
Good theology keeps music in its proper place,
Music is a means through which we express worship that is already present in our hearts and our heads through Jesus and His Word.
Slide
The third misconception is that theology and doctrine cause problems.
(Acts 20:29-30; 2 Cor. 11:13; 2 Pet. 2:1)
I often hear people say they are not interested in theology because it only causes division.
I can appreciate why a person might feel that way,
But it raises many questions.
Without theology, the study of God,
How will we clarify who God is?
And who Jesus is?
Do we worship Jesus, the social justice warrior?
Do we worship Jesus, the patriotic champion?
Do we worship Jesus, the radical revolutionary?
Or do we worship Jesus, the Savior of the world?
You see, when we are disinterested in theology,
What we really mean is we just want to worship our own version of Jesus.
Our worship cannot be based on our experiences, opinions, ideas, or preferences.
Jesus has a specific teaching, revealed to us in His Word.
He has theology.
So, we worship the Son of God and Man, our Redeemer, the second member of the Trinity, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, Our Great High Priest, and intercessor.
Now, you may be thinking,
“Josh that is all well and good, but historically, doctrine has divided the church.”
To which I would say that is an oversimplification.
At first glance, yes, Christians have disagreed,
Mostly over what we would describe as secondary doctrines.
When we think about the depth of sin that remains in us,
And the active enemy who is seeking to divide and devour us,
These disagreements should really not be surprising.
Yet, at the same time, divisions have protected the church.
The references on the slide are multiple warnings in the NT against false teachers seeking to infiltrate the church.
Many of the precious doctrines we hold to today became more defined as a separation from heresy.
Now, we have more clarity,
And greater agreement on foundational doctrines within the church.
Doctrine and theology may feel like they make life more complicated.
The reason is because you want to be able to completely grasp God.
If you could, then He would not be God.
When it comes to understanding God,
We must expect our minds to be stretched to their limits.
So, in reality, doctrine and theology make our already complicated lives simpler.
It guards us from hearing a verse out of context and embracing it as accurate,
It pushes us beyond only reading limited selections of our favorite Bible passages,
It helps us to make decisions based on truth rather than our own thoughts or feelings.
It forms our understanding of what we are doing here every Sunday.
It is not doctrine that complicates matters,
It is ignorance of doctrine that complicates matters.
Some say that studying doctrine makes people proud.
If that is the case,
Those people are not studying doctrine well.
Because doctrine starts with knowing that we are limited in our ability to comprehend God.
1 Cor. 2:11-12 illustrates this,
For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.
Whatever we understand about God,
We only understand because the Spirit has illuminated it in our hearts and minds.
The more doctrine we learn,
The more we realize there is to learn.
So, if we become proud because we learned fancy sounding theology terms,
Or because we have memorized more verses than all our friends,
We have completely missed the point of what we claim to know.
This is what Paul warns about in 1 Cor. 8:1-2;
Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.
If you are a good theologian,
You will be increasingly humbled and left in awe by the God you are studying.
Doctrine and theology do not cause problems,
They solve problems.
They inform our minds to capture our hearts,
Desire for God flows from and feeds into a deep and intentional study of God, His works, and His character.
Biblical worship requires both.
If we have sound doctrine but a coldness toward God,
Our personal and corporate worship will be lifeless.
If we display this burning love and passion for God while expressing inaccurate truths about Him,
Our personal and corporate worship is misleading.
Neither option is biblical worship.
So, my prayer is that we would continuously grow in our familiarity with God, His works, and His character.
If we do, I believe we will walk away from our corporate worship more amazed by God than any part of the service.
And we will continue to be amazed by God in our personal worship.
That, my dear friends, would be a very good thing.
Here is where we must pause this morning,
Lord willing, next week, Pastor Ryan will have the opportunity to expand with application focused on my hands and my character.
I pray we would all have the desire to grow in the ways we have talked about this morning.
I pray you have tasted God’s goodness and power,
But are hungry for more.
I pray you would not be content with just worshiping God on Sunday mornings,
But you want to worship God with every area of your being.
Because if you are a Christian,
You will be worshiping God for all eternity!
If this is true for you,
Just know, I am with you on this.
I am seeking to build my biblical worship on the foundation of my heart, my head, my hands, and my character.
I want for all of us to have this deep longing to glorify God with every part of our being.
That is what we are hoping has been communicated with our words,
But also visually this morning.
Biblical worship is not about being up on a platform,
It is not about exalting ourselves,
It is not about the decorations,
It is not about what we wear,
It is not about visually appealing slides.
So, we wanted to clear the stage,
In an effort to hopefully emphasize what biblical worship is.
Because biblical worship requires all of my being,
My heart, head, hands, and character glorifying God.
Pray.