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Worship is a command, it’s NOT optional!
Psalm 96Are you like me? Maybe it’s that I’m a child of the sixties? I suspect it has more to do with my depravity. But when someone tells me “You have to do this!” a little voice inside of me says, “Oh, really?” I had one of those moments last Monday. Now I hope some of you don’t lose total confidence in the pastoral office because of my honesty, but you know they do say, “Confession is good for the soul.”
Monday I had to pick up a refill for a prescription that I’ve been taking for acid reflux for almost a decade. The Pharmacy was a bit crowded and I’d already waited about ten minutes. I’d seen the pharmacist come over and explain each prescription to the customer, which I thought was a bit odd. Remember, I’ve been taking this med for years. It’s not new. So I paid for it and signed the release. I thought it was weird that the clerk kept my script at the back of the counter. But I was done, so I reached over, grabbed it, and headed towards the door. And she tries to stop me, telling me that the pharmacist needs to explain the prescription to me and I say, “I know the drill,” continuing out the door. Now please hear me, I really do not do this stuff on purpose – instinct is the only word I can use to describe it. As I’m headed to the door, she yells, “Sir, the pharmacist has to talk to you – it’s the law!!” As I continue out the door, I simply respond, “Have a nice day!” Fortunately, Burlington’s finest didn’t cart me off in silver bracelets. Could you see the headline on the evening news, “Local pastor gets orange suit. Refuses to talk to pharmacist!”
Why is it that when someone says “you have to do ________,” many of us say in our hearts, “Oh, really?” Now there are some dumb laws and I think this is probably one of them, but God doesn’t have any dumb laws. Yet, even with His commands, because we are rebels by nature, we find ourselves saying, “Oh, really?”
This morning I want to talk about something you probably already know yet we don’t really think about – Worship is a command. It’s NOT optional, particularly for the believer, though someday “every knee shall bow.” Thomas à Kempis, said, “Instant obedience is the only kind of obedience there is; delayed obedience is disobedience. Whoever strives to withdraw from obedience, withdraws from Grace.”
Our sole purpose as servants of the King of Kings is to do whatever God has told us to do. Somehow, though, we’ve made worship something God never intended it to be. We’ve made it optional. When it comes to worship, we act like it is McDonalds. If we want the Big Mac, we’ll get a Big Mac, maybe today though we want a McChicken. Some of this is because we’re sinners and rebels. Then, some of it is because we have so many choices and options in this culture, and we’ve made worship just another option.
Worship is also more than just filling a chair. When I joined the Wellness Center, I joked that I didn’t realize that I actually had to go to get in shape. Often, we have that approach toward worship. We act as if attendance is sufficient, engaging is optional. We come but our minds are wandering, thinking about something else. With technology some are even texting or writing notes or whispering to a friend. We’ve forgotten that we’re not just in church; we’ve gathered together in the presence of the Almighty – the God who loves us so much that He gave His only Son to die for us.
Surely, we’re not so spiritually dull that we can’t focus for an hour or so with other believers in praising Him! When we really realize we are coming before the majestic God of the universe, Who has created everything and has done amazing things in our lives, we can’t help but break out into adoration. Worship is a command. It’s an act of grateful obedience to our awesome God. It’s not something we attend or watch. Worship is something we do. That’s what we find in Psalm 96, worship in action (p. 426). Psalm 96 contains several commands about congregational worship. This morning let me suggest Four Worshipful Acts of Obedience in Psalm 96.1. Singing is an obedient act of worship, vss. 1-2a. “Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise His name.” We’re commanded to sing to the Lord three different times. When something’s repeated in triplicate, it’s done to get our attention, much like the “Holy, Holy, Holy” of Isaiah 6.
Singing out in worship to God began at Creation. Job 38:7 says, “the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy.” God created His creation to sing. There’s been singing from the beginning and there’ll be even more singing at the end of the age. Revelation 15:3 records the song of the Lamb, “Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages.” This world was created with a symphony of joyful praise and all creation will break into song when Jesus returns. You and I are to sing to the Lord in the meantime, as we wait for His appearing. Yet sadly there are believers, who during a congregational song, just stand there, mouths tightly shut – as if worship of God was optional. God commands us to sing. That’s because…
a) God has given us a new song. We’re to sing a “new song” to the Lord. This word can mean something that’s brand new or it can mean, “delightful, precious and exquisite.” When something is new it’s fresh.
I love old hymns of the faith like How Great Thou Art or And Can It Be or Amazing Grace. I cut my teeth on them. I wonder though if some of us like to sing the old songs so much because we’re stuck in the past. That’s where we stopped growing in our Christian walk. Our faith is what we did, not what we are. It’s “used to” Christianity. I used to teach Sunday school…I used to work in the nursery…I used to witness…I used to be excited about my faith. But none of us has arrived spiritually, not until we get Home. Our faith is to be living and growing. We’re to be experiencing fresh insights from the Lord. God wants us to see Him working in our lives today, not just talking about yesterday. While I love singing songs I already know, I love it when we learn new ones too. New songs are essential to meet the ever varying manifestations of God’s multi-faceted character.
This expression “new song” occurs several times in the Book of Psalms, indicating that fresh outbursts of rejoicing and reverence are important to God and helpful to us. Can you imagine what would happen if newscasts only reported last month’s stories instead of what’s happening today? It wouldn’t be very interesting, would it? Some are still reading “old news” in their spiritual lives. It’s been so long since we’ve experienced something fresh from the Lord that we’re just living on the fumes of what we used to have in our relationship with Christ. Martin Luther said, “Christ is now as fresh unto me as if He had shed His blood but this very hour.”
When we walk with Him daily and experience new ways of encountering Him, we can’t help but break out in joyful praise and new songs. Close your eyes and listen to Revelation 14:1-3, “Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on MountZion, and with Him 144,000 who had His name and His Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne…” We’re to sing to the Lord a new song. Then…
b) God has given us a needed song. The last part of vs. 1 says, “all the earth sing.” The whole world is to break out into song, exalting God for Who He is and what He has done. Psalm 91 is a missionary hymn. This call to sing wasn’t just for Israel; it was intended for the whole earth.
Got a minute? (Pause for a minute.) In that minute 25 people went into eternity. That’s 1500 an hour. How many went screaming into a Christless eternity out of that 25? Our message is a needed song for a lost, Hell bound world. God wants us to get fired up and get involved in what He’s doing around the world. God commands us to sing in worship to Him.2. Witnessing is an obedient act of worship, vs. 2b-3. “Proclaim His salvation day after day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples.” This is the second command of worship. God commands us to extend His Kingdom. We’re to proclaim His salvation. We’re also told when to do it, day after day. We’ve even told where to do it, among the nations. Our message is the gospel, our method is to share the Good News, and our mandate is to take it to all peoples – everyone! We start singing with an upwards look to God, then witness with an outwards message of the good news to people everywhere.
The only message that you and I really have today is that Jesus saves. Our friends and family members need to hear from you and me what salvation is all about. Last week 29 coal miners were trapped in a mine explosion in Northwest China. Rescue attempts were made to rescue them but none survived. They all perished. Aren’t you thankful that Jesus has provided a way out for you? Instead of being trapped in a black cave of sin, Jesus gave His very life in order to rescue you from certain destruction.
Because of what we’ve received, we’re commanded to proclaim His salvation to those around us. When you fall in love with the Lord Jesus, which is one of the benefits of corporate worship, you want to tell everyone. When your life is full of His presence, you can’t help but share the Good News. I’m personally challenged to speak boldly to others about Jesus. Each day I look for an opportunity to share the gospel with someone.
Friend, do you ask God to give you opportunities to share the Gospel with someone…at least each week? Have you ever shared the Gospel? How can we say that someone is our friend or that we care about them, when we’ve never shared with them that they can know that they’re forgiven and on their way to Heaven…and not going to Hell?
We’re commanded! We have a mandate as believers is to make sure this gospel message is not just shared with people we know, but that it goes out to “the nations” and “all peoples.” God has called us to be “world Christians” that focus and pray for world evangelization. Just as the nation of Israel was to think beyond its borders, so too, we need to think beyond our ethnocentric parameters to see an entire world that needs Jesus. Our Lord clarified this mandate when He said, “Go and make disciples of all nations…”
It’s been exciting to see our church take this mandate more and more seriously. Our Monday night Men’s’ Bible study is focusing on how to reach the lost around us. We also want to partner with missionaries around the globe. Those from every nation and tribe and village will one day be in Heaven. Wouldn’t it be exciting if some of them came up to us and said, “Thank you for supporting the Mumfords or the Otts or the Phipps. I’m in heaven today because your church worshipped God and had a world vision?” Don’t we want to have a part in helping them get there?3. Praising is an obedient act of worship, vss. 4-9. Some years ago I attended a meeting and former Congressman, Dan Rostenkowski, was the featured speaker. After he was introduced, the crowd gave him a standing ovation. I stood but I sure had a hard time standing. You may recall that in 1994 Rostenkowski was indicted on corruption charges in the House Post Office scandal. Charges against him included keeping "ghost" employees on his payroll, using Congressional funds to buy gifts such as chairs and ashtrays for friends, and trading in officially purchased stamps for cash at the House post office. In 1996 he pleaded guilty to reduced charges of mail fraud. He was fined and was sentenced to 17 months in prison. In December of 2000 he was pardoned by President Clinton. I just didn’t feel that someone who’d gone to jail for embezzling taxpayer’s money deserved applause, much less a standing ovation. There have been other times when I’ve participated in a standing ovation but I didn’t feel that the person or group being applauded really deserved that honor. Our world loves parties, it loves ticker tape parades. We saw on Tuesday night as Barack Obama won the presidency and over a hundred thousand people in Chicago celebrated his victory with him.
This next portion of Psalm 96 is about a celebration. As we sing in worship, as we witness to a lost world and look for ways to extend His Kingdom, we’re drawn into this third command. We’re commanded to praise Him for His greatness, His awesomeness. Look again at vss. 4-9.
In ten years President Obama will be old news. While some of us still remember President Reagan, Stormin’ Norman Schwarzkopf and the ticker tape parade after our victory in Desert Storm, today it’s history…old news. But our God is not some historical footnote. He’s not some tribal god or a passing political leader. Interestingly, the word for “gods” here literally means “good for nothing” or even more specifically, “nothings.” The “gods” of the nations are really nonentities, but not our God. He’s the eternal King over all the nations, over all of creation, the whole universe. And He is most worthy of our praise. While some people worship idols, only the Creator God is worthy of praise.
We humans like to praise people, whether it’s a rock star, a celebrity or even the President. We love to applaud the attributes of other human beings. Psalm 96 returns us to what truly has significance. Only God is awesome and most worthy of praise. He’s to be feared and honored above everyone and everything else. Verse 5 tells us that He has no rivals because He’s the creator. As such, we should worship Him with all that we have.
In verse 6 four attributes are personified as if they were attendants surrounding the throne, “splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and glory are in His sanctuary.” Have you ever seen some of the ugly idols from other cultures? Many of them are gruesome. But not so with the One Who causes things to exist where there was nothing before. God is not horrid but is instead beautiful, arrayed in splendor, clothed with majesty, and armed with power and glory that is brighter than the sun.
The psalmist has renewed urgency in proclaiming the Lord in verses 7-9. Three times in a row he challenges us to “ascribe,” or give, to the Lord what is due His name. Because we recognize His greatness, majesty and strength, we will want to honor Him. It’s noteworthy that while “the nations” are called to worship the Lord, it’s the “families” of the nations that are singled out to ascribe glory and strength to the Lord. God has ordained the family unit as a special and unique creation of His. As parents, we must do all that we can to make sure our families are honoring God through our behavior, worship, interaction, giving and servanthood.
The last part of verse 8 gives us a practical way to do that. When this psalm was written people would take offerings to the Temple. This specific word refers to “thank offerings,” or those things that people would give out of gratitude to the Lord for all that He has done. The word “offering” is used hundreds of times in our Bibles! We’re to “ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and come into His courts.” How can we do that? How can we bring an offering to the Lord today.
a) We can offer our bodies. Romans 12:1-2 tells us to offer our bodies to the Lord. When we surrender fully to Him, we will worship Him through the offering of our lives.
b) We can offer a verbal sacrifice of praise. When we adore God with music, Hebrews 13:15 says that we are offering a sacrifice of praise.
c) We can offer a financial gift. We worship God as we give back to Him a portion of the financial resources He’s entrusted to us. We bring our tithes and offerings because we have a deep need to express something important to God, our gratitude. Malachi 3 teaches that when we hold back in our giving, we end up robbing God and missing out on His blessings.
When we surrender our lives to Him, when we offer a sacrifice of praise, when we give generously financially, we’re declaring that He is worthy! Verse 9 teaches that we worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness through our offerings. When we tremble before Him, we will want to give all that we can to Him. Why? Because He deserves it and it’s an act of obedience. Praising Him is an act of obedient worship.4. Preparing for the Lord’s return is an obedient act of worship, vss. 10-13. In his book, The Road to Armageddon, Charles Swindoll shares about the days that he worked his way through college in a large machine shop. One of his co-workers was a man named Tex. Now working in a plant like that meant that his time was governed by the shrill blowing of a huge whistle. It would blow to tell him when to start work and another time to remind him when it was time for lunch, and again at the end of the day to inform all employees that it was QUITTIN' TIME. Swindoll noticed that Tex was always ready to go home before anyone else. He would always have his lunch box and coat handy and was out the door at the end of the day before any one else. One day he asked him about this and Tex replied, "Sonny, let me tell you something. I STAY ready, to keep from GETTIN' ready. I STAY ready for quittin' time." That’s the way God wants us to live, always ready for the time when, not a whistle but a trumpet will blow to signal it’s quittin' time on earth. C.S. Lewis said, “It is the second coming of Christ that is the medicine our condition especially needs. The great thing is to be found at one's post as a child of God, living each day as though it were our last, but planning as though our world might last a hundred years.”
As we sing and exalt His name, we’ll eagerly look for ways to extend His kingdom. This, then, motivates us to witness and express His greatness. Our last worship command is found in verses 10-13. Here we read of the reign of the Lord and His coming judgment. In fact, as C.S. Lewis points out, this psalm looks upon divine judgment as an occasion for rejoicing.
Verse 10, “Say among the nations, ‘The LORD reigns.’ The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity.” When He returns, Jesus will not come as Savior but as Judge. His coming Kingdom will be unlike anything this world has ever known.
a) It will be a government of absolute sovereignty, “the Lord reigns.” God’s ideal form of government is not democratic or republican. It’s not a government of the people, by the people, or even for the people. It’s an absolute monarchy with all power concentrated in the capable hands of His dear Son, King Jesus!
b) It will be a government of absolute security, “The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved.” There will be no more wars, rebellions, crime syndicates or even an underworld. The foundations of society in the millennial kingdom will be so secure that nothing will be able to challenge them. Satan will be bound, the saints will reign with King Jesus and sinners will be unable to express their wickedness.
c) It will be a government of absolute sanctity, “He will judge the peoples with equity.” No more scandal. No more bribes or corruption in the legal process. This is a holy, righteous judge.
In verses 11-12 we see that the whole creation, when pondering God’s rule, breaks out into joyful praise. The heavens will rejoice, the earth will be glad, the sea will resound, the fields will be jubilant, and all the trees of the forest will sing for joy.
When Adam sinned, creation went out of kilter but when, Jesus, the second Adam returns, all of creation will be delivered from bondage. Romans 8:20-22, “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice…and will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”
The last stanza gives us great hope that Jesus is coming again. When He does, He will judge the world in righteousness and people in truth. He’ll dispense justice, vindicate believers and will establish truth forever. His kingdom will have no end. In the mean time we are called to wait and worship. We’re also to tell others about the glorious gospel before it’s too late. Jude 14-15, “See the Lord is coming…to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly for all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” We also must determine to be ready ourselves so that we do not shrink away in shame when He suddenly appears.
Jesus is coming again. You can be certain of that. He promised He would and He always keeps His promises. That should have obvious implications on the way we sing, on the way we witness, the way that we praise and the way that we prepare.5. Obedience in worship is a product of love. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15). God doesn’t want us to obey in worship because we fear Him. He doesn’t want us to just go through the motions. Worship is an act of obedience but God wants us to obey because we love him.
It's like this. A woman was married to a man who was very demanding. She had a list of things that he’d written down that he wanted her to do every day. Breakfast had to be at a certain time; she had to make him a certain type of lunch; dinner had to be ready at a certain time. On certain days she was to do the wash and on other specific days she was to clean the house. If she didn't do all that he had listed out for her, he’d really let her have it. One day though this demanding husband died and some time later she remarried. This time she married a man who truly loved her and he was so thoughtful and giving. Their honeymoon seemed to be endless; they were so deeply in love. One day as she was cleaning out some boxes, she found that list of demands from her first husband. And as she went over the list, she found that in her new marriage she was doing everything on the list. But now it wasn’t drudgery, it was a joy. Why? Because now she did it all out of love. The same is true for us. God does not want our obedience or worship to be drudgery or an obligation. He wants us to worship Him from our hearts, out of gratitude because we love Him.Conclusion: Today is the day to obey God and worship Him. One father lamented about the problems he had getting his son to clean his room. The son would always agree to tidy up, but then wouldn't follow through. After high school the young man joined the Marine Corps. When he came home on his first leave after basic training, his father asked him what he’d learned in the service. “Dad,” he said. “I learned what ‘now’ means.”
Remember the movie, Forrest Gump? Forrest’s army sergeant shouts at him, “Gump, what is your sole purpose in this army?” And Forrest Gump's answer? “To do whatever you told me, Drill Sergeant.” Our sole purpose as children of God, as servants of the King of Kings is “To do whatever God has told us to do.” God wants us to live in worshipful obedience…will we?
Action Steps: As we wrap up this morning let me share some practical action steps of obedience to help you flesh this out in your life this coming week.
1. Read a Psalm every day for the rest of the year. This alone will help increase your passion for worship. You might even want to read them out loud or sing them if you’re able.
2. Listen to worship music every day. I want to encourage you to incorporate praise songs and Christian music into your lifestyle. Some of you listen to other kinds of music or talk radio. Try to listen to a Christian station or play a CD that draws you into worship
3. Pray for 5 unsaved neighbors or friends for 5 days a week. Pick a different one to pray for each day. As we’ve discovered in this psalm, singing leads to witnessing. When we praise Him, we want to proclaim Him. As you pray, look for opportunities to either demonstrate care for them or to somehow share with them.
4. Pray for our missionaries on a regular basis. You’ll find them on our web page and we periodically include their letters in the bulletins.
5. Get ready for Jesus to come back. If you don’t have a relationship with Jesus yet, you need to ask Him to rescue you from your sins. If you’re a believer, make sure you’re walking with Him, and that there’s nothing going on that would cause you to be embarrassed if He came back this afternoon.
Obedience means that we’re prepared for His soon return! Worship is a command! It’s not optional. Let’s determine to obey!!
