We just finished a sermon series called Lampstand from Revelation Chapter 1-3. And from it, we learned why we exist. In John’s vision, John saw Jesus tending to Lampstands which represent churches. So, from this vision of the churches, we can see why we exist as a church. Annapolis First Baptist Church exists to shine brightly for the Glory of Christ.

Also, we saw the kind of church Jesus wants. If we are going to be a church shining brightly for His glory, we must be:

• A church working hard for His glory
• A church patiently enduring for His name
• A discerning church
• A pure church
• A loving church
• A fearless church
• A church faithful to death
• An uncompromising church
• A church that does not tolerate sin. 
• A church rightly connected to Christ. 

To sum it up:
A faithful church.
Faithful to Christ.
Faithful to His Word.
Faithfully witnessing.
Faithful to love like we should.

Today, we are going to ask another question.
As a church, “Why do we do what we do?”
As a Church, what are some of the things we do?
We gather together for worship, we share the Gospel with the lost, we pray, we study the bible together, we minister to people’s needs.
So, we are going to talk about, why we do what we do.

Our topic today will be worship.
As a church, we want to be devoted to God-Honoring, Christ-Exalting Worship.  

Definition of Worship:
Worship is the lifestyle and posture of ascribing ultimate worth to our God our Creator.

The Hebrew word in the Old Testament for worship means to bow down in homage.
As Christians, we should have a lifestyle of humility before God, bowing down to Him. Honoring Him as Our King.

We worship as a response to who God is and what He has done.

Worship is in response to God and His mercy.
He is a merciful God.
The bible lets us know that we are all sinners.
And that sin separates us from a right relationship with God.
And because of our sin, we deserve punishment.
But God in His mercy doesn’t give us what we deserve.
He is merciful.
He gives us the gift of His grace.

The only logical response to God’s mercy and grace is to worship Him by giving our loves in service to Him. We give ourselves to God as living sacrifices.

Worship is also about serving the Lord.
We want to serve Him wholeheartedly.
When you think about worship, you probably think about Sunday Morning.
But true worship is more than a weekly event in the church building.

When you hear the word worship, you probably think about singing.
In our culture today, when we talk about worship, often times we are talking about the music portion of our worship gathering.
We call church music worship music.
We often call the person who leads the music in church, the Worship Leader or Worship Director.
While true worship can involve singing, it is much more than just singing.
Worship is the lifestyle of humbling ourselves before God and giving Him the honor that He deserves because He is God.
It’s about serving Him whole heartedly.
It’s about responding in love to who He is and what He has done.

We were created to worship, and because of that, you will worship something.
There is a temptation to worship money.
We find great value in wealth.
You may worship a relationship and value it above all else.
Some people even worship a sports team.
But God alone is worthy of worship.
In Luke 4:8 Jesus said, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.

Since God alone is worthy of worship, who is our worship for?
It’s for God.

Who are we trying to please in our worship?
God.

Who do we want to honor in our worship?
God.

We do benefit from worship, but Worship is primarily about God.

Sometimes it is easy to forget who our worship is for.
As people, our human nature is to make everything about ourselves.
But, worship is not to please me.
It’s not to please you.
We worship to please God.
We want to honor and exalt Him in our worship.
 God is our focus in worship.

So, because we were made to worship, and God alone is worthy of worship, and our worship is to please Him, let’s be devoted to God-Honoring, Christ-Exalting Worship.
Let's give our lives as living sacrifices to Him in worship.

We are going to look at a few scripture passages to see what we can learn about Worship that is acceptable to God.  

When a Samaritan woman encountered Jesus, she asked Jesus about worship.
She was concerned with the right place of worship.
But Jesus was more interested in how we worship than where we worship.

I hope you will gather in the church with us every time we meet for worship, but this is not the only place to worship.
I hope you are worshipping not only in the church building as we gather together for worship, but in your home, and at your workplace, wherever you go.
In John 4, Jesus shifts His conversation with the Samaritan Women from the place of worship to the correct nature of worship.
The question is no longer, "Where should we worship?" but "How should we worship?"
God seeks worshipers whose worship is empowered by the Holy Spirit and shaped by the truth of His Word.
The location is not what makes worship acceptable; worship offered in spirit and in truth is what matters.

John 4:21-24
Jesus said to her, Woman believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers 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.

We want to be true worshipers, right?
If we are going to be true worshippers, we must worship in Spirit and in truth.  

What does it mean to worship in Spirit and truth?
The Woman was concerned with the place of worship.
Jesus lets her know that true worship was in Jerusalem.
The Jews had a covenantal relationship with God.
God had revealed Himself to the Jews and gave them detailed instructions for worship.
However, things were changing.
Now the Father is seeking people to worship Him in Spirit and in truth.
And because of that, location is no longer a big deal.

God desires to be worshiped in spirt.
That presents a huge problem.
What problem is that?
Apart from Christ, we are all spiritually dead.

Ephesians 2:1
You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked…

Notice what God can do for us in Christ.

Ephesians 2:4
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ- by Grace you have been saved.

We are dead in our trespasses and sin, but God can make us spiritually alive in Christ.
By God’s grace, the dead spirit within me, and in you, is made alive in Christ.

As Christians, we have the Holy Spirit.

Corinthians 16:9
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own.

Because our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, the place of Worship is not of concern anymore. What matters is if we have the Holy Spirit making us alive and teaching us God’s truth in His word. You see, the Holy Spirit empowers our spirit to know the truth.

One of the Holy Spirit’s primary roles is to illuminate our hearts and minds and spirit to the truth of God’s word.
 
Jesus prayed in John 17:17
Sanctify them in the truth, your word is truth.

Let’s look further into the Gospel of John, and we will see repeatedly that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. He helps us understand and apply God’s word to our lives.

John 14:16-17
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

At the moment we are saved, we receive the Holy Spirit.
He is the Helper Jesus has sent us.
And He is the Spirit of truth.

John 14:26
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

The Holy Spirit teachers the truth.
Reminds of truth.

John 15:26
But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

The Holy Spirit will bear witness of Christ.
Christ-honoring worship is about sharing the good news about Christ.

 John 16:13-14
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. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

To worship in Spirit and truth is worship where the Holy Spirit illuminates our spirit, hearts, and minds to God’s word. Our worship is response to who God truly is. We serve Him and honor Him based on truth.

Because we want to worship in Spirit and in truth, our worship should be saturated in scripture.

When we come together for worship, it should be saturated with God’s word.
We want the Word of Christ to dwells in us richly.
We want to come together and teach and admonish each other in all wisdom.
Wisdom is found in God’s Word.
And even the Songs we sing should be saturated in God’s word.
The Apostle Paul talks about singing.
Sing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

The music that we sing as we gather for worship should be saturated with scripture so that we can worship in Spirit and Truth.
We should evaluate the songs we sing based on how much they support biblical truth.
If a song has lyrics that are not true to God’s word, then it’s not a song God would find acceptable in worship.

Because God desires to be worshipped in Spirit and truth, when we gather together for worship, we always want to hear the word of God preached.

In 2 Timothy 4:2, the Apostle Paul is instructing Timothy in how to lead the church He pastored. 

Our worship should be saturated with the Word of God.

As a pastor, my job is to preach the word.
I must preach in season and out of season.
NO matter what the season, if it’s a season where people are hungry for the word, or if it’s a season where people’s hearts are hard and do not want to hear it, I have an obligation to preach the Word.

The Apostle Paul warned of a time in the future where people will not want to hear God’s word. They will find teachers who will tickle their ears.
Tell them what they want to hear, rather than teaching the Word of God.
And that time is now.
All over the United States, churches will meet.
Rather than hearing God’s word, they will hear a message catered to the flesh.
Rather than the true Word of God.

When we come together for worship, we will make sure our worship is saturated with the truth of Scripture.

Worship must be saturated with scripture.
That does not mean it can become simply an intellectual exercise.
It must be from the heart.
We respond to the truths of Scripture, truths about who God is and what He has done with our entire being.

Because of God’s great love for us, the only proper response is to love Him in return with our entire being. Loving God with all our hearts, soul and mind, is to love God with our entire being.

It means our entire being shows affection to God.
Our entire being wants to honor Him.
With our entire being we should lovingly seek to obey Him.
 How can we express our love to Jesus?

Jesus said in John 14:15
If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 

Loving God with our entire being is shown by the way we serve Him. We serve him by doing what He says.
Compare that to the nation of Israel.
 
Isaiah 29:13
And the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men.

God was not being honored in Israel’s worship.
They went to the temple and did religious things.
But they were not worshipping from the heart.
They talked like they honored God.
But their hearts weren’t in it.
Their hearts were far from Him.
The respect they gave wasn’t from the heart.

Let's make sure we express our love to God for who He is and what He has done by loving Him with our entire being.

Worship should also be joyous celebration.
The Psalms are full of songs of joyful celebration in Worship.

Notice the attitude of joyful celebration in these psalms.

Not only should our worship be a joyful celebration, but it should also be with a humble posture. Maybe the right expression of worship at the time is not jumping for joy, sometimes, the right expression is bowing down in humble submission.


Psalm 95:6
Oh come let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!


Not matter if our worship is in joyful celebration, or humbly bowing.
It should always be sacrificial to show how much He is worth.

In the Old Testament, the sacrifices died.
Here in the New Testament, God requires living sacrifices.

There is a problem with living sacrifices.
They can get up off the altar.
And because of that, I have to daily make the sacrifice to offer myself wholly to God in worship.

As a living sacrifice, it is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me.
My life is not my own.
It belongs to Christ.

As a living sacrifice, I must choose to live for Christ.
It effects ever conversation, every interaction, every decision, every transaction, everything belongs to Christ.
And I live to Please Him.
It requires sacrifice, but He is worth it.
He gave His life for me; I will live my life for Him.

Let’s contrast that with the Nation of Israel in Malachi’s day.
In Malachi 1:6-8, God confronted the Priests of Israel because they were dishonoring him in Worship.
They asked how?
How have we dishonored you?
By allowing people to give sacrifices to God that were blind, or broken, or blemished, or sick. Rather than sacrificially giving the best to God in worship.

Our worship shows how much we value God.
The greater the sacrifice in our worship, the more we value God.

How did they worship God in the Old Testament?
With the Sacrificial System.
Did you realize every sacrifice in the Old Testament points to the once and for all sacrifice Jesus made on the cross.
Every detail in the Temple points to Jesus.
In fact, in John, Jesus pointed out a few of those details.
As Jesus was beside the large menorah lampstand, He said, I am the light of the world.
In the temple there is the bread.
Jesus is the bread of life.
And most importantly Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
You could go on with detail and see Jesus in it all.

In worship, we humbly come before God confessing that we are sinners.
And that our sin separates us from a right relationship with God.
But Jesus came to be the once and for all sacrifice.
The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the World.

Listen to how the Apostle Paul describes Jesus in Colossians 1:15-20

Because of who Jesus is and what He has done for us, our worship should be centered on Him. And Philippians 2 we learn that God the Father is glorified in the exaltation of Jesus.

God the Father is glorified in the worship of His Son.

Image for a moment you are in heaven.
No one will be asking...
...What style is the worship going to be?
...How long is this going to last?
...What song are we going to sing?
...Who going to be giving the sermon today
No, with every eye fixed on Jesus, we will say:

Revelation 5:12-13
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing...
...To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!

Let’s be a church where worship honors God and exalts Christ!

Let’s respond in Worship.
Singing praises from the heart.
Sacrifices of praise offered to God.