February 10am, 2002 Why worship?
Psalm 115
By Ronald E. George
Jr. at the Fayetteville Baptist Church
Worship Series
Number 1
What is worship? Worship
is giving ourselves to someone or something in adoration and devotion. Someone
is worthy of our selves. What we
worship is what we think of more than anything else.
It is what we want more than anything else.
What will we give ourselves to? Will
we worship the Lord? Why should we?
A wife remarked to her
husband after the church service: "Did you see the hat Mrs. Jones was
wearing?" "No,"
said her husband, "I didn't." "Did
you see the new dress Mrs. Smith had on?" she asked.
"I'm afraid I didn't," said her husband.
To this his wife replied: "Well a fat lot of good it
does YOU to go to church!" Many
come to church, but will you worship?
What do you worship? A two inch long discolored eyetooth is reverenced by
400 million Buddhists as the most sacred object on earth.
The tooth is supposed to have been reclaimed from Buddha's funeral pyre
in 543 B. C. and was brought to Ceylon 800 years later.
Today the tooth sets upon a golden lotus in the glorious temple of the
tooth in Kandy, Ceylon. It is
surrounded by rubies and tons of flowers. Each year a hundred thousand
faithful Buddhists come from many countries to gaze at the sacred tooth.
They bring gifts of gold, silver and jewels to place within the temple.
Some choose to question the worship of an unseen
God. Why should you worship
something or someone you don’t know is even there? The unbeliever looks for the God of the believers because He
can’t be seen. He isn’t a
statue that has been carved out of wood or an image that has been crafted by the
hands of men. The unbelievers look
for the one, true living God but He can’t be seen, since he dwells in the
heavens and in the hearts of those who have invited Him to enter into their
lives. The images that people
create to worship are meaningless creations of the hands of men.
They can’t hear, see, speak, walk, talk, smell, or touch because they
aren’t. God said I am what
I want to be. He is the only true,
living God.
Scripture Text:
Psalm 115:1 (KJS) Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name
give glory, for thy mercy, [and] for thy truth's sake. 2 Wherefore should the
heathen say, Where [is] now their God? 3 But our God [is] in the heavens: he
hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. 4 Their idols [are] silver and gold, the
work of men's hands. 5 They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they,
but they see not:
6 They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:
7 They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not:
neither speak they through their throat. 8 They that make them are like unto
them; [so is] every one that trusteth in them. 9 O Israel, trust thou in the
LORD: he [is] their help and their shield. 10 O house of Aaron, trust in the
LORD: he [is] their help and their shield.
11 Ye that fear the LORD, trust in the LORD: he [is] their help and their
shield.
12 The LORD hath been mindful of us: he will bless [us]; he will bless the
house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron. 13 He will bless them that
fear the LORD, [both] small and great. 14
The LORD shall increase you more and more, you and your children. 15 Ye [are]
blessed of the LORD, which made heaven and earth.16 The heaven, [even] the
heavens, [are] the LORD'S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.
17 The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence. 18
But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the
LORD.
Why should we worship the God who
dwells in the heavens?
1.
God deserves to be worshipped for His love, mercy, and truth’s
sake. Love and care are the
defining characteristics of the one true, living God.
Great is the Lord: this
is the basis for worship. He has
done whatsoever He wanted. He
wanted to love you and me. He has
given the earth to us to live on and to know Him the creator.
We should worship Him and give ourselves to Him, because
2.
God desires to be worshipped.
He invites us to come to
worship Him throughout our lives. We can come to worship each time as we have been given
opportunity by God to gather. We
can worship Him daily in our devotional times.
We can worship Him by gathering together in our homes in prayer and daily
devotion. God is looking for people
who will worship Him in spirit and truth.
John 4:23 (KJS) But the hour cometh, and now is, when the
true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father
seeketh such to worship him.
24 God [is]
a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship [him] in spirit and in truth.
3.
God directs us to worship Him. God is to be worshipped,
because He is. All other gods are
idols: We can worship no other for
there is no other The Lord will come to judge the earth:
This is why we worship. Worship
brings us to the place we were created for.
By worship we fulfill our destiny. We
are complete in Him and His worship. Without
worship you will always feel a void in your life.
God will complete you.
Rev. 4:11
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast
created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
Hideyoshi, a Japanese warlord who
ruled over Japan in the late 1500s, commissioned a colossal statue of Buddha for
a shrine in Kyoto. It took 50,000 men five years to build, but the work had
scarcely been completed when the earthquake of 1596 brought the roof of the
shrine crashing down and wrecked the statue.
In a rage Hideyoski shot an arrow at the fallen colossus. "I put you
here at great expense," he shouted, "and you can't even look after
your own temple."
4. God
descended to be worshipped. He
walked and talked with us. He lived
with us. He became one of us.
He gave His life for us. The
One who made the heavens and earth. He
didn’t have to but He chose to. We
don’t have to worship Him. We
don’t worship Him. But we can.
God doesn’t want you to come to church.
He wants you to come to worship Him.
He descended from heaven so that we could ascend with Him.
We can know Him and worship Him now and forever if we will realize who He
really is. He came to be known, now
we come to worship for Him to know us.
. 17 The dead praise not the
LORD, neither any that go down into silence. 18 But we will bless the LORD from
this time forth and for evermore. Praise the LORD.
Will you worship and praise the Lord? Will
you give you lives to Him in devotion?
Ted Malone,
whose radio show came on early in the morning, told of the Idaho shepherd who
wrote: "Will you, on your
broadcast, strike the note 'A'? I'm
a sheepherder way out here on a ranch, far away from a piano.
The only comfort I have is my old violin.
It's all out of tune. Would
you strike 'A' so that I might get in tune?"
Malone
honored the request. Later he
received a "thank you" note from the distant shepherd saying,
"Now I'm in tune."
One of
the purposes and responsibilities of personal and public worship is to enable
the aspirant to keep tuned to the Great Shepherd. One of the joys of the
Christian life is to help others recapture the missing note!