Why and How We Worship God

And this is part two of a two-part series on worship God made us to worship He made us to be glory giving creatures Beings that actually thrive when we're rejoicing and giving glory to something or to someone of greatness It's in our design. It's how we're made and I think we see this innate Design and this desire to give glory in our everyday common loves that we we talk about With co-workers and friends and family and I think especially of the love of sports and the love of good story so it's postseason now for the Major League Baseball and Many of you remember very fondly that exactly ten years ago. The Cubs were pursuing the World Series Okay, they were favored to win but in the World Series they found themselves down three games to one which meant if they lost a single game they lost the whole thing and they had to win three to claim the title and

through exciting culmination and climax of each game building on one other and a game seven with the lead going back and forth a Rain delay in the ninth inning extra innings They finally captured the title now my boys who were barely alive back then which is to say one of them was alive and then The other one wasn't Simon and Toby. They they love to watch the full game replays with with their grandpa my dad whenever we go and visit them because my dad's a big Cubs fan and he has all seven of those games and

They've seen these games multiple times and yet there's still that thrill When you see the ball sailing over the ivy fence And you want to talk about it with one or you want to celebrate you want to say wasn't that amazing play? Wasn't that awesome? That's giving glory and we love to do that or similarly with stories if you see a great movie a Good story well told you tell others about it. You should see it. It was awesome. It was amazing That's giving glory or a story that our family loves and cherishes is the lion the witch in the wardrobe and the whole chronicles of Narnia series and now our son Elisha is just old enough that we can start reading them all the way through again This will be our fourth time to read them all the way through and the older kids They all sit in they've heard it before but they want to hear it again.

Why because the story is glorious and They also love watching Elisha begin to love what they love and That's how glory works. It's contagious. You want to pass it on you want to share it with others and when we worship It's like we're watching the highlight reel of God's amazing deeds what he's done in in the Bible and in salvation history But also what he's done in their own lives and we rejoice Look what God has done and what it tells us about who he is. We say Lord we worship you We just tell him why he's awesome and it feels good to do that It feels right like we're made to do this or likewise worship is is Telling and retelling and hearing again the story of all stories

It's what we're made for we're made to worship. So this morning we're gonna answer in a little more detail the question Why do we worship God and then we'll talk a little bit about how do we worship God? How do we do that? So first why do we worship God what our psalm today? We heard the refrain at the beginning in the end. It's like the great Worship refrain of the people of Israel give thanks to the Lord For he is good and his love endures forever So we worship God because of his goodness and for his love that never ends these two reasons Or why we worship the Lord So worship God because of his goodness look now at chapter 19 there in Revelation After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven crying out hallelujah salvation and glory and power belong to our God for

His judgments are true and just For he has judged the great prostitutes who corrupted the earth with her immorality and Because he has avenged on her the blood of his servants and once more they cried out Hallelujah, and the smoke from her goes up forever and ever So here we have the scene of the worship of heaven and heaven is rejoicing over God's goodness and his goodness especially as it is in Contrast over and against the evil and the wickedness of the world that now at the end of the story of all history He has finally judged and put away and said no more And so because he's done that no more to wickedness no more to evil No more to all sources of evil in my kingdom Heaven is saying Hallelujah, we praise God because he is good the total opposite of evil and he has triumphed over evil Which is the total opposite of good?

So this image of the woman the prostitute we meet her in earlier chapters in Revelation She's sometimes called Babylon the great Which was a symbol? Not just for the city Babylon, but for all worldliness and for the world Not the good world that God created and that he loved the Bible will talk about the world in two ways You got to look at the context to know is it? the world that he loves and that he gave himself to die for or is it the world in this sense, which is the whole Kingdom of darkness and evil that is set up against and in contrast to God's kingdom So here the prostitute Babylon is that world the kingdom of darkness and it says in verse 2

He's judged her Because she corrupted the earth with her immorality and the word here is sexual immorality and of course It means all of the the degradation of sexual immorality that is in the world and has been from from the fall Forward but sexual immorality in the Old Testament prophetic literature often was a symbol for idolatry so sexual unfaithfulness was actually more about worshipfully worship being unfaithfulness when people were led astray to worship false gods and Worship other things besides the true God and so heaven is rejoicing They're saying finally at last all temptation all Drawing away from the one true God everything in that world of darkness that led us away from the true worship Into false worship and idolatry that source of evil and wickedness is gone praise the Lord and now all that is left is the pure and undefiled worship of the Only and true and living God and so heavens rejoicing

It's God's goodness Triumphing at last and finally over the wickedness in the world We also read that they're rejoicing because he's avenged on her on on the world, right? The blood of his servants. This is referring to the martyrs those that were killed because of their faith in Jesus and

If you know the story of the history of the church, we rejoice in the story of the martyrs We lift them up and honor them forgiving the ultimate sacrifice And so you might wonder Does God care that they gave their life does does he care that something unjust happened to them here? We see the answer. Yes, we rejoice in their sacrifice. Yes, we rejoice in their love But the Lord still registers and will hold account the injustice that was done to them. It was wrong To kill and to torture them and now that wrongness and that injustice is coming to account and so this is Primarily about the martyrs, but we can read in it and understand it as a symbol for everything unjust and unfair all unjust suffering

And so if you've been mistreated in your life If you've suffered abuse of any kind If you've suffered unjustly perhaps even at the hands of someone who was close to you who who was supposed to take care of you and If you've ever wondered

Does God know about that? Does God care about that Your answer is right here. Yes Yes, he does He does care and he does know and on that day. You also will say his judgments are just and true He's finally set the record straight. He's evened the score. He has brought justice

To be fully revealed It also means he's not forgotten you and what you've gone through Sometimes in this life you will feel that that God is unfair Sometimes it feels that way But on that day You will no longer question. You will know God is fair. He is just and he will judge all unjust Suffering and those who are the cause of it

And so we rejoice in God who out of his goodness judges every heart every motive every action every thought He judges them perfectly Isn't isn't that wonderful to think about We can't do that. You and I can't even come close For one where we're limited in what we know we don't know all things God knows all things He knows the secret things. He knows the hidden things. He knows the motives of the heart He perceives right to the core. You can't fool him That's not true of you and me But even if you and I didn't know all things we would still not judge perfectly because of our sinfulness Every judgment that we would render what we think about this what we think about that will be tainted by our own selfishness And our own sinfulness, but God is not tainted by these things. So hold your opinions and your judgments loosely and And worship God

whose judgment alone is just and true and just rest in that truth and Look forward to the day when you will worship with all of heaven and say Hallelujah, and now we finally see it. We knew it was there all along But now we see your just and your true judgments being revealed. It's gonna feel so good and Again this is all a function of his goodness Because he's good He never does evil all of his actions towards us are good and so he hates and Judges with perfect justice all evil So we worship God for his goodness

We worship him also For his love that never ends look now at verse 6 then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude like the roar of many waters and Like the sound of mighty peals of thunder crying out Hallelujah for the Lord our God the Almighty reigns Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready It was granted her to be clothed with fine linen bright and pure which stands for the righteous deeds of the Saints Then the angel said to me write this down blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb So in the middle of this hymn This heavenly hymn, we're told that another reason that we worship right for the marriage of the Lamb has come Another reason that we worship is to glory in the story of love

Between the Lamb and his bride and of course the Lamb is Jesus and his bride is the church So here at the end of the Bible, you see it's a love story At the beginning of the Bible we also find a love story in Genesis chapter 2 here we have Adam

and After chapter 1 where there's this litany of it is good. It is good. It is good. It is good It is very good in chapter 2. We bump into the first not good It is not good That man should be alone So God causes all the app the animals to come before Adam and he names him But really what he's looking for is a companion Someone his equal someone suitable that he could have true fellowship with but among the animals he finds none And so God causes Adam to fall into a deep sleep and from his side Draws forth Eve the woman and when Adam awakes, he looks at his wife And he says at last bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh and So Jesus who is called the second Adam He too was alone He alone was righteous before God. He alone could have relationship with God his father of all humans

Who had ever lived or ever would live? Jesus alone lived a perfect life and could have a pure and undefiled connection with his father in heaven But he was the only one he was alone in that and God said it is not good for Jesus the second Adam to be alone in righteousness with me and So God caused his son to sleep a deep sleep The deep sleep of death upon the cross and recall that it was after he gave up his breath That the spear pierced his side and from his side came water and blood from his side came the church his bride The water stands for baptism and the Eucharist stands or the blood stands for Eucharist and this stands for the church In the deep sleep of his death the second Adam brings forth

The church his bride And when he awakes on the resurrection morning and he looks out on his disciples he says at last I'm not alone anymore You're with me Bone of my bones flesh of my flesh and I will never be me apart from you ever again

it's a love story and Jesus is the hero and It's a story we'll never get tired of hearing or telling or glorying in so worship God Because of his love for his bride the church worship God because you by simply believing in Jesus Can be a part of that love story It means that his love is for you whether you're married in this life or unmarried Whether you're happily married in this life or unhappily married you can participate and be a part of that marriage Which is the only true marriage?

So when earthly loves fail you Remember his love is perfect. He will never let go and he will never let you down and That love is for you each one of you in this sanctuary It's a love story We worship God for his goodness. We worship him for his love. That's the why Let's talk a little bit about the how how do we worship God? We have some clues here in in our text. So look at verse 1 and 3 and 6 In the middle of one the great multitude. What are they doing? They're crying out

Look at verse 3 once more They cried out and in verse 6 in the middle like the sound of mighty peals of thunder all of heaven was crying out So, how do we worship God with our voice? the voice of the great multitude described as the roar of many waters or the described as the mighty thunder or Some early manuscripts have the roar of NASCAR engines when they're going full throttle In some early Greek manuscripts. Yeah One of the great marvels of the human body is the voice one of the great marvels of human culture is music and song and Something powerful happens when you open your mouth and you sing and something powerful happens when we do it all together The resurrection we love to worship in song

And to lift our voice, but it's not only our voice look now at verse 4 and The 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God who is seated on the throne What did they do? They fell down That's something you do with your body

So we worship God with our voice which technically is part of our body yes but we also worship God with our body and Here at resurrection. We love to worship with our whole body to move and sway to the music to dance to clap our hands to lift up our hands and I recognize that some of you are more comfortable with this than others of you

and last week We had a pretty powerful Sunday of musical worship and as I looked out I noticed some of you engaging with the fullness of your body that that was Unusual it was more than usual But I also noticed some of you holding back

Hesitant and It may be for some of you. You were just new here and you're wondering what is going on? That makes me a little uncomfortable But it also could be that You're feeling insecure self-conscious Can I join in how do I join in? It's a little bit like the feeling at weddings when the dance gets going on the on the dance floor And there's some people who hold back and they're unsure and they're insecure That's me I Don't like that part at weddings When I became a priest and started doing a lot more weddings at first I was nervous, but then I realized no

No one expects the priest to get out and bust a move on the dance floor Nobody probably wants that either So I'm usually happy to just sit there and and just enjoy the revelry and be a priest So Some of you might feel like that here on a Sunday morning in worship, but it begins to be more expressive and you wonder Can I join in? How? So I want to help you know how can you join in. I'd like to give you just some small, easy ways to do that. So the neat thing about the body and the emotions is that when our emotions or our internal life is a little bit shut down, when we move our body, our body can lead the way. It can unlock the emotion and the experience. And so the body can wake up the soul. Yes, sometimes you're having an experience in worship and out of the overflow of that experience you express yourself fully in your body.

Sometimes that's how it goes. But do you know it can actually go the other way too. Sometimes you're shut down. Sometimes you're not feeling anything in particular or you're a little bit closed off. But if you choose to move your body and to engage your body, then you might find that the emotions and the experience in your soul begins to open up and wake up. This is why many of us love to pray with our bodies by making the sign of the cross. It's why many of us love to kneel at confession because we think, how could I be confessing sin and the things that keep me from God to Almighty God and not be on my knees? And I know it's optional, but friends, if you are able physically to kneel during confession, do it. Because if you don't, I'm going to judge you. No, it's true. And I get, I get angry. I look

out and I get angry and I'm thinking, why is, why is he not on his knees? So don't do that to me. Cause then I have to confess in the middle of the confession. It's like, I'm sorry, Lord, I'm judging. I don't want to be a legalist. I don't, I'm sorry. You know, and then sometimes later, Oh yeah, he had knee surgery last week. That did happen once. I was like, why is Nate Eisman not kneeling? And then later it's like, Oh yeah, he had knee surgery. I'm sorry. So I don't want to be legalistic about this. I don't want to be legalistic. By the way, if you've never done this on your own with the door closed and nobody watching, if you've never gone totally flat prostrate on your face before God, try it this week and just stay there for three minutes saying you are God and I'm not, I humble myself before you.

And even if you're not feeling particularly humble before you do that, try it and see what happens. But back to our corporate worship, what is the invitation? The invitation is to sing, to sing loud. Even if you're not a great singer, sing loud. Anyway, what is the invitation? It's to clap your hands. If you clap on beat, that's great. If you don't know how to clap on beat, sometimes when we end a song, you'll hear people clapping like this. You might wonder, are they, are they applauding the musicians? Is this, is this a performance? No, this is a worship service. They're actually clapping their hands because the Psalms tell us to do that. Clap your hands and shout for joy for the Lord of all the earth. The Psalms also tell us to lift our hands. And so if you've never done this before, engage your body, maybe one hand, maybe both hands. And if that's too much, just go here.

Most people see that, just the medium way. It still counts. And if even that is too much, just go right here. I'm serious though. Palms outstretched as if there's something awesome, holy, and a little bit mysterious right in front of you because there is. And there's a world of difference between this and this. Don't worship with your hands in your pockets. Again, I'm going to judge you and then I have to confess. Don't do that to me. Engage your body. One last thing about why we worship.

It builds faith. And in the same way that sometimes if, if our inner life is a little bit shut down, we can lead our way with the body and wake up the soul, so too when we worship we sometimes don't feel very full of faith, do we? But if we choose to worship as an act of the will, then the experience of faith, which is to say the feeling of trust in God, sometimes follows when we choose to worship. The very act of declaring truth increases faith. Earlier we sang, remember that our God never fails, never fails us. Remember that His name makes a way, makes a way. When you say that, even if you don't feel that, sometimes you end up feeling that. So worship, even if you're not feeling it. I was just talking to a man recently who's in a season of transformation and healing and he told me this all started one day when I was in prayer in my house and I was in a season of

depression, despondency and unbelief. I didn't want to pray. And somebody had handed me a written prayer and everything was in me resisting this prayer. But I knew that I needed to pray this prayer out loud. And so these are his words. I felt like giving these words life and reality by speaking them out loud was the difference between sin keeping me captive and Jesus' power setting me free. And here was the prayer that he prayed that somebody had given to him. In the powerful name of Jesus, I command all forces of evil to immediately stop all oppression. Leave my presence and not return. Lord God, please fill me and this place with your Holy Spirit. Send your angels to protect me. I dedicate myself to you, Lord Jesus. And he said at first, I just read it and it was hard to read. But then I kept reading it and then I kept reading it and I read it more and more and got more bold in my reading.

And as I did, my heart opened and God began to change my life. And that moment then led to now a season of healing and transformation. So declaring the truth through worship dismantles the lies. Dismantling the lies increases faith and the increase of faith leads to hope. And what's hope? Hope is joy for all the good things yet to come. Because by faith now we see it. God's going to be faithful to his promises. And don't we need hope? So if you are in depression or despair or your faith feels small, what do you do? Worship. How do you worship? With your voice and with your body. What if you don't feel like singing? What if you don't feel like moving your body? Do it anyway and see what happens. Remember the gospel reading. The two sons. Which of the sons did the will of the Father? The one who didn't feel like it at first but made the choice and went.

Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great. Amen.