Nehemiah 8:1-8
Have We Worshipped Yet?
The title of the message is a question that needs to be answered:
Have we worshipped God yet?
In a church service…
All of the people sit in the same building for the same amount of
time.
Most all of the people stare in the same direction.
The same songs are played on the same instruments for all to sing.
Most are reading from the same kind of Bible and are listening to
the same words being preached.
However, not everyone is worshipping.
How is that possible? Notice some truths.
I. We need a definition.
A. How do you define worship?
1. To some, worship is going to church.
2. That is not worship.
a. Granted, churches are built for worship, but just
being in a church does not give us worship.
b. I would go a step further and say that if we do not
worship God in church, we probably will not worship
Him anywhere; but still, just being in a church
service does not mean we have worshipped.
B. What is worship?
1. Worship is when we sacrifice ourselves to glorify God.
2. There are some words that we need to understand to
help comprehend worship.
a. Worship is to ADORE God.
(1) "O Come Let Us Adore Thee"
(2) Not a Scriptural term but a true understanding of
the meaning of worship.
(3) To adore means to hold in the highest esteem, to
treasure the most, to appreciate the most, to
respect the most.
b. Worship is to EXALT God.
(1) That’s where the notion of bowing before God
came from.
(2) As we lower ourselves, we can be exalting our
God.
James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the
Lord, and he shall lift you up.
1Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves therefore under the
mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due
time:
c. Worship is to PRAISE God. With our mouth and actions,
to speak up for God.
3. A good example of worship is what many do with sports.
a. Some are strongly loyal to their team, even claiming
victories by faith.
b. Some speak out for their team daily, often several
times throughout the day.
c. They will dress for their team to show their loyalty
and support.
d. Some will attend many—some even all—of the games,
making whatever sacrifices are necessary to do so.
e. Some spend large sums of money and time to watch,
promote, and to be around the game.
f. All of this is how they treasure their team,
appreciate the game, and hold the sport in highest
regard.
g. That is worship.
h. That is not to say that all sports participation is
worship.
(1) It is not.
(2) But what a lot of people do is.
4. We can also see how to worship in other activities.
a. We can be that way about shopping, eating, hunting,
fishing, vacationing, a movie series, chocolate, our
jobs or careers, or any one of a thousand things.
b. Indeed, people today probably worship as much if not
more than any previous generation has ever done.
(1) We think about those who built altars and
colosseums to their gods.
(2) We do all of that—and more—just not to Jehovah
or Jesus.
c. Christians need that kind of zeal in their worship for
God.
C. As Christians, we need to remember two things:.
1. That is the kind of zeal we give to God.
2. That is not the kind of zeal we give to anything else.
Ex 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
a. Thou shalt not exalt anything or anyone more than Me.
b. Thou shalt not praise anything or anyone more than Me.
c. Thou shalt not promote anything or anyone more than
Me.
d. Thou shalt not treasure anything or anyone more than Me.
D. Have we worshipped God yet?
1. Have we adored Him?
2. Have we praised Him?
3. Have we exalted and promoted Him?
4. If not, we wasted our hour because we have not worshipped
Him yet.
II. We need to know that not all worship is acceptable.
A. God not only wants to be the most exalted One in our lives,
He wants to be exalted correctly.
Mark 7:7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
1. "Vain" worship means it doesn’t count.
2. It was worthless worship.
B. The Bible is clear that there is acceptable and non-acceptable
worship you can render to the Lord.
1. Cain’s worship was unacceptable.
Gen 4:3 And in process of time it came to pass,
that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an
offering unto the LORD.
4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings
of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD
had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not
respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his
countenance fell.
6 And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou
wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?
and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the
door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou
shalt rule over him.
a. God flatly rejected Cain’s worship.
b. Why? It violated the principals of worship.
2. For God to be worshipped:
a. God and God along must be exalted and glorified.
Is 42:8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my
glory will I not give to another, neither my
praise to graven images.
(1) Worship is not about exalting any person.
(2) This is somewhat tricky because we want to sing
and to preach to exalt God, but in singing and
preaching, we draw attention to ourselves.
(3) That is not what we want to do.
(a) Whenever someone leaves saying, "That person
can sing" or "That person can preach," we
missed it.
(b) If what we do does not set our attention on
God, we did not worship Him.
b. God must be obeyed.
(1) One can hardly be glorifying God while disobeying
Him.
(2) David found that out while moving the Ark of the
Covenant from Gibeah.
(3) He wanted to bring it to Jerusalem but did not
move it correctly.
(a) He had 30,000 chosen men with him.
(b) Built a brand new cart to carry the Ark on.
(c) But when it started to fall, Uzzah put his
hand up to steady it and God killed him.
(4) Interestingly, God does not give a lot of
commands on how to worship Him. Mainly just
that….
(a) He be worshipped.
(b) He be glorified while are humbled.
c. Worship must be in faith.
Hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel offered unto God a
more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he
obtained witness that he was righteous, God
testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead
yet speaketh.
(1) Everything that we do in relation to God must be
by faith.
(2) To worship by faith means we believe in what God
has said even if we cannot prove it.
3. Today, are we in obedience? Are we glorifying God and God
alone? Are we living in faith and obedience despite what
we see? If not, we have not worshipped God yet.
C. A lot of people are trying to re-invent worship today.
1. It is none of my business what other churches do; however,
it is my ministry to warn you and to keep you from going
astray.
2. I fear some have substituted their view of worship for
Bible worship.
a. Man has no more right to create his own worship
service than he does to write his own Bible.
b. When we change the emphasis of worship from God to
man, we cease to worship God.
(1) We must be careful that we keep our worship
service focused on correctly worshipping God.
(2) Worship is not for the lost or the carnal.
(3) Worship is not for the Christian’s pleasure or
entertainment.
c. Worship is not about what we FEEL but about what we
SACRIFICE OF OURSELVES.
d. If the goal is for…
(1) the preacher to teach us…
(2) the music to move us…
(3) the beat to awaken us…
(4) Then who got exalted, us or God?
III. God has given us an example of a worship service in the Bible.
A. Granted, this is Old Testament not New Testament, but the
setting for our worship service comes directly from the
Bible.
1. \\#Neh 8:1\\ The people gathered.
2. \\#Neh 8:1-3\\ The Bible was the focus.
3. \\#Neh 8:4\\ The preacher stood on a pulpit of wood, made
for the purpose of proclaiming God’s Word.
4. \\#Neh 8:5, 3\\ The Bible was read.
5. \\#Neh 8:8\\ After reading the Bible, time was given to
making the sense of it understood.
B. I do not know that this is the only kind of worship service
that pleases God; however, it does seem to be the pattern
that the New Testament church followed as well.
IV. Let me close with some cautions:
A. Worship is not passive.
1. Worship is our sacrifice to exalt God.
2. You cannot be around worship and call it worship.
3. You must lower yourself to exalt Him.
B. A worship service without the Bible is a service with no
Guide.
1. Don’t say you are relying on the Holy Spirit for He
does not come to honor Himself.
2. The Holy Spirit will always glorify the Father and the Son
and to do that, He will use the Word.
3. That is the only place we have to go for truth.
C. Praise but don’t just praise. Praise is an important aspect
of worship, but God said we are to preach.
Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all
the world, and preach the gospel to every
creature.
1Corinthians 1:21 For after that in the wisdom
of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to
save them that believe.
D. Don’t be in a rush or have your mind cluttered when you are
supposed to be worshipping.
1. Worship is about getting into His presence not getting out
of church.
2. Put the flesh out and let the Holy Spirit come in.
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