Three Keys of Worship

The Fall Festival season is almost here, isn't it? Are you excited yet? Kids always look at me and go, yeah, we're ready. We're ready. Yes, where is it? Can we go? The Fall Festival season begins tomorrow evening at sunset, Feast of Trumpets. Pretty amazing, isn't it? And during the upcoming Holy Days, we're going to be meeting for special convocation twice on this upcoming Monday for Trumpets, and then the following week for Atonement, and then, of course, Feast of Tabernacles, Eighth Day. And, of course, we're doing this in obedience to God's command together together in Holy Convocation. That's a commanded worship of our Father and Jesus Christ. And, of course, his weekly Sabbath is also a Holy Convocation, which we are also commanded to gather together in worship and honor of God. And so we do these things. It's part of our worship of God. Those are rather formal, more formal and public ways of worshiping God when we gather together in such fashion.

But today I want to address our worship of God as something that we must be doing every day.

We need to be careful giving the idea into our heads that we only worship on the Sabbath or on the Holy Days. And I doubt if any of us think that way, but we can slide into a way of thinking and maybe make sure our children understand as well. And so thinking about worship, I put in my mind that what is worship all about? We talk about worshiping God. We have beautiful hymns. Many scriptures talk about worshiping God. And what I've learned through the years, sometimes when words are used a lot, they can begin to lose meaning in our minds anyway. We may think we know what a word means, and maybe there's an aspect of it we've neglected or something that needs to be focused upon again. So it seems prudent to me to remind ourselves of what true worship means. What does true worship entail? And that's important because we don't want to forget how we are to worship our Father and His Son. It's very important that we worship God as He commands. So partly in fun here, but also partly serious, I want to begin by asking us a rhetorical question. So don't go answering this out loud. Okay, that's what rhetorical means. Keep it in part of what it means. Keep it in here.

So let me ask you this. If you and I were to evaluate ourselves on how well we think we worship God, what grade would we receive? What grade would you give yourself? What grade would I give myself? Would we give ourselves an A for excellence? Maybe we would give ourselves more modest B. Okay. And maybe some of us feel that we really only deserve an average C because we know we have something to work on. Of course, I don't want to think about any of us feeling like we deserve a D or an F in worship of God. I don't want to think that's a possibility for us. Now I asked this question about our quality of worship because worshiping God is not something we should be neglecting, but it's something that we can't slide into. It's something we can get kind of fuzzy and not so clear on. And that's because we get busy. We're physical beings. We're easily distracted with the busyness of life, things we've got to take care of. We have routines, lots of distractions, some electronics, some not-electronic, and of course we have something called sin that distracts us from our worship. It can cause us to neglect our worship of God. But before we would grade ourselves too harshly or maybe too leniently in our worship of God, how we think we're doing, I think we need to understand what true worship of God entails. And so we're going to talk a bit about that. Now, a typical English dictionary will define worship this way. This one comes from the learnersdictionary.com. Worship is, they define it simply a way to show respect and love for God or for a God, especially by praying, having religious services, and so on and so forth. Well, it's a very broad definition, and as far as it goes, it gets us at a good starting point to show respect and love for God. But as the called of God, I hope we all know and know that we know that we must be guided by the authoritative source for all matters spiritual and all matters pertaining to eternal life and salvation, and that is the Bible. That is the Bible. So my purpose today is to have us consider God's definition of worship, primarily by being reminded of three keys of worship. And that is the title of my sermon today, three keys of worship. These three keys provide us a means for better understanding, better evaluating, and improving our daily worship of God. And so again, the title is Three Keys of Worship. The first key is reverence, and in parentheses I put beside this in my head, reverence or bow the heart. Bow the heart. According to Unger's Bible dictionary, the Hebrew word most often translated in the Hebrew for worship is the word shaka. And if you're interested, it says H-A-C-H-A-H and strong 7812. Strong 7812-H 7812. Shaka, the Hebrew word, it literally means to bow down, literally, at physical movement. That would mean to prostrate oneself. Typically in ancient times, especially, that was a way to show honor to people and to show honor to gods or the god. People would bow down their knees and they'd bend over, hands in front of them, and their foreheads would actually touch the ground. They'd go all the way down to the ground as a way of bowing down. Now, following prostrate upon the ground, today there's also kneeling is another way we can show bowing down. And, of course, just simply bowing the head, putting your face towards the ground like we do in opening and closing prayers. Those physical movements today are outward signs of humility and submission as part of our worship of God. That's part of our physical expression of reverence towards God. Let's look over in Job, chapter 1, verse 20 through 21, as we build now our understanding of this first key. Over in Job, chapter 1, verse 20 and 21, we find an example of this posture and worship.

Job, at this part of the narrative, has just learned of his terrible, devastating losses. He's practically lost everything, and including he's learned of the deaths of seven of his children. And yet, in Job 1, 20 through 21, we see that he was still able to humbly revere and show his reverence to God and worship God. Job 1, verse 20, then Job arose after receiving this terrible news. He arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head, signs of mourning. And then he fell to the ground and worshiped. He fell to the ground and worshiped. And he said, Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

And so, in this physical state, he's on the ground. I'm sure he's forehead on the ground at that point. And he still is able to praise God. He's still blessing God's name, revering God's name. Very moving scene. Now, let's look over in Psalm 95. Psalm 95, verses 6 through 7.

Many places we find in Psalms, there is a calling. Many of the Psalms began with a call upon God's people to worship God. And we see that here in Psalm 95, verses 6 through 7.

Psalm 95, verse 6. O come, let us worship and bow down. Worship and bowing down are tied together. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand, combining worship with the bowing down and kneeling and homage before God. Also, let's look at Nehemiah chapter 8, verse 1. Examples of bowing down before God in worship.

Yeah, wrong place. Nehemiah chapter 8, verse 1. Here we can read of the people of God's reverence for God, and for His law, too. When Ezra read God's law, he came across the scroll, and Nehemiah asked Ezra to read the people of God's name. So let's read Nehemiah 8, verse 1. Now all the people gathered together as one man, one body, in the open square that was in front of the water gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded Israel.

Now to verse 5 through 6. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people, up on a platform, it seems. And when he opened it, all the people stood up. They stood up in reverence to God's word being read. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. Then all the people answered, Amen, Amen, while lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. So they're standing, apparently. They didn't go back down in their knees. They stand and with their faces towards the ground. Now we see similar outward expressions of reverence and worship in the New Testament. And you could be turning with me to Matthew 28. But in the New Testament, the word used for worship, most often used for worship in the New Testament, is the Greek word proscunio. I'm doing a terrible thing as a minister. I'm telling you to turn somewhere, and then I keep talking, so you've got to take notes at the same time. So that's not fair of me, is it? I'll let you go ahead and turn to Matthew 28 first, and then I'll read the definition. That would be more kind, and it gives me a break to drink water.

So we're going to look at an example here in 28, just a minute, of the same behavior in the New Testament. But in the New Testament, the word worship is often used from this Greek word proscunio. The Greek word is spelled p-r-o-s-k-y-n-e-o. It is strong as G4352. Like its Hebrew counterpart, it means to fall down and or to worship as well. It is most often used specifically in the New Testament of people worshiping God or Jesus Christ. That's when you most often will find this word. And so in Matthew 28 verse 9, we have this example. We find Christ being worship in just this manner. And here in verse 9, we find that Mary and other women with her have just left Jesus's empty tomb. And you can imagine they're still marveling over the words of the angel that reported to them. And here reading, well, I said verse 9. Yeah, verse 8. I'll just give you a summary of that. And then verse 9 is where I want us to read. And as they went to tell the other disciples, behold, Jesus met them and he said, rejoice. And so they came, and their way of rejoicing, it seems, they came and they held him by the feet and worshiped him. They didn't, it doesn't say they kneeled down, but obviously they must have fallen down rather immediately and hugged his feet and clung to his feet. Immediate response of reverence. And could you imagine what was running through their minds? It must have just been spontaneous reaction all at once. They held him by his feet and worshiped him. Over in Luke 18, we have a very interesting example. Over in Luke 18, we find the contrasting example of worship, the worship of the Pharisee versus the worship of a very humble man, a contrite man, a tax collector. In Luke 18, verses 10 through 14, a very powerful parable that I'm sure we remember. First, Luke 18 verse 10, two men went up to the temple to pray. Christ is telling this story. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. Tax collectors aren't very popular people. For some reason, they're just doing their job, but it's not a popular position. It was despised in ancient days. Verse 11, the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. I love that emphasis. He prayed with himself. And he said, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. That's my emphasis, maybe not his. I don't know. And then he continues on, praying with himself. Verse 12, he says, I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. Yes, I am emphasizing the I, but again, in all fairness, it says he's praying to himself. Yeah. And then we have the contrast. And the tax collector, standing far off, does it sound like he's standing where everybody can see him or he's standing a distance away, where he's not noticed so much? And the tax collector standing far off with not so much as raised his eyes to heaven, but he beat his breath, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That's it. That's all he said. And then Jesus tells us, I tell you by his authority, Jesus says, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, rather than the Pharisee. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Very powerful and memorable lesson for us about, I think, part of what we see here, of course, is the right sort of worship, the right sort of worship that is honored by God. That type of worship requires sincere humility, contrite-ness, repentance, and obviously true reverence of God.

So we've looked at these examples. And so if we'd ever have wondered why, when praying and worshiping God, we bow or we kneel down on our knees, even though it's hard to get on our knees sometimes, and it's harder to get up as we get older, or why we may prostrate ourselves, put our face actually on the ground before God in prayer. If we've ever have wondered why, if your kids have ever wondered why, now you know it's in Scripture. It's what people do when they worship God. It's what people do when they worship God. But what if you can't get down on your knees anymore? What if you try to put your forehead on the ground? You know you wouldn't get back up without help.

Well, obviously, or maybe not so obviously, when worshiping God, what matters most is what's in our hearts. Are our hearts bowing before God? Are our knees, are our hearts, as it were, face down on the ground before God? So my point is, though worship may be an outward expression of reverence to God—the bowing, the head, kneeling, falling down prostrate before God—we need to remember far more worth to God is the sincere motivation behind the action of the worshipper's heart. What's in the heart? What's our attitude? What is our relationship with God in our heart, in our mind?

Now, we know this is not a new idea. This is not something new. Over in John chapter 4, and a very interesting narrative here of Jesus when he was talking with the Samaritan woman by the well. Very interesting. I love that part to read and think about.

John 4 and in his conversation Jesus had with the Samaritan woman, Jesus underscored or emphasized that those who worship God will worship God in spirit and in truth. That's what he says. Let's read it. John 4, 21 through 24, actually. John 4, 21. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, he said, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain where she was at—Someria—nor in Jerusalem where the temple is, where the Jews worship, he says, neither you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. That time is coming. You worship what you do not know. Of course, we could say she didn't know it yet.

But he says we know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. Verse 23, But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. Now John's record here, in his recording of what Jesus said, Jesus used the word, as recorded as using the word worship, or proscunio, the word I gave you early, proscunio. He uses it eight times directly in speaking with the woman here. And that helps to emphasize his point that true worship has got to be sincere and reverent worship. It must come from within the heart, and it must be of a spiritual manner. It must be motivated by truth and sincerity and this desire of humble subjection, to be humble before God. It requires repentance. It requires being faithful. And, of course, the point ties in very well with what we just read in the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee, and of course other scriptures as well. For example, Isaiah 29 verse 13. It's nothing new. It's in the Old Testament. Isaiah 29 verse 13. We see it there. Isaiah was inspired to declare this. Therefore the Lord said, Isaiah 29 13, Inasmuch as these people draw near me with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the commandment of men. So Isaiah is inspired of God to condemn what we might say a rather false worship. They were saying the right things. They were moving their lips the right way. We can imagine they were making sacrifices. They were putting their heads on the ground and all this. But the point is, God knows what's in people's hearts, just as he knows what's in all our hearts. He sees through any outward show of reverence, any physical actions we might take as an aspect of our reverence and worship of God. People may be fooled by pretenses of reverence towards God.

But the warning message is that, and it's good for us to know this, that God is never fooled. God knows our sincerity. He knows how much we are striving to revere Him and honor Him and love Him. He knows our hearts. He knows all hearts.

Let's see what's said here in Isaiah 57 as well. Isaiah 57, 15. Now, sometimes we may wonder, well, does it matter how I worship God? Yes, it does.

Formally especially, you know, we have our traditions, we have our practices. But in private, God is certainly looking at your heart and where we can be just ourselves with God. Isaiah 57, 15.

For thus says the high and lofty one, who inhabits eternity, I love that, he inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place, and with him who has a contrite and humble spirit. To revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite once. Contrite means you're repentant, you're brokenhearted, and you're wanting to be right with God, and you're turning to Him. And so, God says, He hears the prayers of those who are sincerely repentant of their sin, who sincerely revere Him, and in doing the best they know how with His help to worship Him. And so, as we draw near the end of this key's discussion, the point is, in our worship, we must be sincerely reverent to God. That requires worshiping Him in spirit and truth, being humble, repentant, both in heart and mind, and minding our actions, our treatment of reverence towards God and how we treat people. We must bow before Him, for God seek His mercy and forgiveness. And why? Well, we know why, because only the Father and Jesus Christ make salvation available to us. And so, the first key is reverence, bow the heart.

The second key of worship, serve and obey God. Or, bend the will. It's interesting, Scripture reveals that serving God is intricately related to worship. You cannot separate the two. You can't separate the two. We talk a lot about serving, don't we? You can't separate serving from worshiping God. Let's look at this. Mounts' dictionary, for example, he states that serving God and worshiping God overlap significantly. They overlap significantly. Let's turn to Deuteronomy 6.13. Deuteronomy 6.13, we see this interconnection, this intricately related connection between worship and service. And once you begin to think about it, you see it just popping up everywhere you turn in Scripture. Deuteronomy 6.13, it reads, it reads, You shall fear the Lord your God and serve him. You shall fear the Lord your God and serve him, and shall take oaths in his name. And so we see this idea of fearing God. That's another word that can be used for worship. It's the Hebrew word yare, y-a-r-e. I don't remember Strong's number off the top of my head, but it's y-a-r-e. And it's the idea of, again, of bowing down before God. It's that idea of fear before God, that fear that is referenced in awe before God. And if you hold your place here, because we're going to come back to Deuteronomy, hold your place here and flip to Matthew chapter 4 verse 10. And you see the connection quite clearly when the same scripture, Jesus refers to the same scripture, Deuteronomy 6.13. He quotes that in his rebuke of Peter. Peter had tried to discourage Jesus from sacrificing himself. Peter loved Christ, and we know he didn't fully know what he was saying.

But my point is here, it's interesting to note how the Greek version of this Hebrew scripture here that Christ is quoting, it makes the same connection between worshiping and serving God. Here in Matthew 4.10, Jesus said, away with you Satan, speaking to Peter. For it is written, quoting, Jesus said, you shall worship the Lord your God, in him only you shall serve.

Very obvious connection. Worshiping God and serving God go together.

But now, because we all have inquiring minds, what exactly does serving God mean?

Because I've heard people say different things. Oh, I serve God by what? Some people serve God by keeping Christmas, some serve God, and that's probably not a real good example. Some people serve God by fighting an enemy. And maybe doing other things that may not quite be scriptural. Is that exactly, do we get to decide for ourselves what serving God means? Yes, to a degree, but no. The answer is, God defines for us how we are to serve him. Let's turn some other scriptures and we'll find a connection between, it tells us that to worship God, one must serve God, and to serve God means we have to obey God. That's a connection. Worship equals serve equals obey.

I don't know if that's too simplistic of an equation, but it's pretty basic, isn't it? Worship equals to serve God, it equals to obey God. In this aspect of worship, we can see in Deuteronomy 30, verses 15 through 18. In Deuteronomy 30, verses 15 through 18, I hope you kept your place nearby. You can find it faster.

Of course, here we should recognize this part of Deuteronomy. This is the place where, before the children of Israel are crossing into the Promised Land, God through Moses is admonishing the children of Israel to choose life or to choose death. Choose to obey God or choose to disobey God. And, of course, God wants everyone to choose life. He wants everyone to choose obedience to Him. So, Deuteronomy 30, verses 15 through 18, See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and be blessed. And the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. And so, do we see here the clear interconnection God Himself makes of worshiping and serving and obeying Him. Now, centuries later, let's be turning to 2 Chronicles, chapter 7. 2 Chronicles, chapter 7, verses 17 through 20.

God places the same choice in admonition before Solomon, before King Solomon. 2 Chronicles 7, verses 17 through 20. 2 Chronicles 7, yeah, 17 through 20. Here, God is speaking directly to Solomon in a vision by night. God, again, is making His own equation here, he might say, very clear. He says to Solomon, As for you, if you walk before me as your father David walked, as your father David walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep my statutes and my judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, you shall not fail to have a man as ruler in Israel. Verse 19. But if you turn away and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, then I will uproot them from my land which I have given them. And this house which I have sanctified for my name I will cast out of my sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. Again, the equation, worship, serve, obey me. Worship, serve, obey me. Now, the Bible records, we know, that neither Israel nor Judah remain true to God. Both turn from worshiping God. Both turn from serving and obeying his commandments. And we can read about that. It's in pieces here over in Isaiah chapter 1. Let's look at Isaiah chapter 1. Here in Isaiah, and of course, during the Holy Days, the fall Holy Days, we spend a lot of time in Isaiah. In Isaiah 1, we find some of God's complaints, condemnations against Judah. God condemned Judah for doing what he told them not to do. He condemned Judah for turning in rebellion against him. But we should notice that where the rebellion was rooted. God says their rebellion was rooted in their hearts. Their rebellion was rooted in their hearts. Their rebellion was against his way of love and mercy, we might say. They did not worship God in spirit and in truth. Let's look at Isaiah 1 verse 4. A last sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel. They have turned away backward. They walked in the absolute wrong direction. Now over in verse 11, notice how God faults them for what he calls is their meaningless worship, their meaningless sacrifices towards him. It seems what they are doing, he says here, God says it's devoid of true reverence. It's devoid of true repentance from sin. Verse 11, God says to them, to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? Says the Lord. I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required this from your hand to trample my courts? You almost get the idea of bringing all this livestock into the temple to make all these sacrifices. And it's not from the heart. They are doing it physically, but there is no real heart, spirit, and truth behind it. Verse 13, bring no more futile sacrifices. They are futile. Incense is an abomination to me. The new moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure iniquity in the sacred meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feast my soul hates. They are a trouble for me. I am weary of bearing them.

And it's amazing. Their worship, worshiping apparently the way they thought was pleasing, is actually disgusting to God. And their wickedness, he says, he cannot bear. Then, with verse 15, God explains a little more that he rejects their futile worship because of their hearts. It's their hearts that are wrong.

Their hearts are in the wrong place. They lack love and they lack mercy. Verse 15, God says to them, when you spread out your hands, worship, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Not necessarily the blood of their physical sacrifices, but the blood of how they're treating each other, not treating each other with love and mercy. Wash yourselves, he says. Make yourselves clean. They can do this. There's a way. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease. Stop to do evil. Stop doing it. Learn to do good. Can you hear God begging them? Seek justice. Rebuke the oppressor. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow.

The people were worshiping their own appetites and their own lust instead of obeying and loving God. They're doing the physical things and they thought that was sufficient. But they weren't loving their neighbor.

And hence, they could not be loving God either. And it's all by His law. His commandments tell them. His commandments tell us how. Let's turn now to Isaiah 58. There's more. Of course, there's a lot throughout here. I'm just picking up a few poignant comments here. There are many. Over in Isaiah 58 verses 13 through 14, we find more of God's complaints against Judah. Here, he makes it even more specific. Isaiah 58, 13 through 14.

God says, If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, they are violating a Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words. Even their words weren't about God on the Sabbath. He says, If you stop doing these things, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth. And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken. This is the words of God. And so, of course, all these scriptures, these admonitions are lessons for us. They're words for us to hear. God wants us to hear these things, too, as part of our worship, to be very careful in how we revere God and serve and obey Him, how we keep the Sabbath and holy days as part of it. But again, we're also talking about our daily worship of God. And so, again and again, we're seeing to worship God means to serve Him, to obey Him. Obviously, if we're serving God and obeying Him, we're going to keep His commandments. Part of our services to God is how we love our neighbor, what we do for others. That's part of our worship of God. And I say that because we don't want to get weary of doing good. We're warned about that in the New Testament. Serving is part of worshiping God. We're tempted at times to not do one more thing, I know, because we get weary. That's what we're told. We will, but at the same time, we're encouraged not to. If we give up serving, and we have to serve with wisdom, and we have to serve according to what we know we can do, and how much we can bear in time, and all that, I get it. But our hearts, be careful of ever letting our hearts get weary with serving, then stopping. Because then, it's quite possible we're damaging our worship of God. And that's something we don't want to turn away from God with. In worshiping, serving that way is a sacrifice. Let's look at Mark 12, verse 33, back to the New Testament. There's something here that kind of helps to tie it together. It's actually the words of a scribe. Jesus evaluated his comments, you might say, and Jesus said, you're wise. You've said the right thing. Over in Mark 33, verse 34, Jesus is responding to the scribe's description of how to love God.

Here's what the scribe said about how we love God. He's summarizing in great detail what we've been looking at in the third key. The scribe has said, we love God by serving and obeying God from the heart. Verse 33, and so he said, and to love God, to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength that the loved one's neighbor as oneself is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. See, that's what Judah and Israel hadn't done. Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, you, you are not far from the kingdom of God. You got it. You got it, kid. And if we're thinking like this, we got it too. We're not far from the kingdom of God. Very encouraging to remember obeying God's commandments is a means of worshiping God, revering God, serving God. So the second key, serve and obey God. If the emphasis is on bend the will. The third key, praise God. That's it. Praise God. Worship of God must include praise. And praise is our expression, a profound, even exuberant, I love that word, don't you? Exuberant gratitude to God. Praise, did you know praise is considered a sacrifice? Let's look at Hebrews 13 verse 15. Hebrews 13 verse 15.

Hebrews 13, 15.

The writer of Hebrews says, here says, therefore by him, by him, by God, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.

So the sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of our lips. Hebrews 13 verse 15.

And so this tells us, this informs us, our prayers should always include expressions of thankfulness to God. And of course we do that. We're thanking our Father. And the concept here, it's thankfulness to God the Father in Christ's name, in Christ's name by authority of Christ.

Now perhaps you knew this, I didn't. You might have known this, but in the book of Psalms, the word praise appears 152 times. You probably knew that. 152 times. That's more than any other book in the entire Bible. More than the, I'm thinking it's more than the Bible entirely, there alone, in the book of Psalms. Let's look at a few Psalms. We are commanded to praise God. Psalm 29. You know, in our formal worship services here, we sing a lot, don't we? Why do we do that? Well, we do that because it's part of the command of God to worship Him. And of course, I'm sure we all sing hymns of praise and gratefulness to God privately, too. Psalm 29.2, this is a command. Give unto the Lord the glory, do his name. Glory is another word for praise. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. So we connect the idea of giving praise or glory to God with worship. Going forward, Psalm 96. Psalm 96 verses 8 through 9.

Psalm 96 verse 8 through 9. Again, a command. Give to the Lord the glory, do his name. Bring an offering and come into his courts. O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Tremble before him all the earth. While we're on the earth, that includes us. That means we're trembling. That means we're supposed to be revering God, revering, worshiping, serving, praising. It's all together. Psalm 99 verses 5. Psalm 99 verse 5. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstool. He is holy. Same chapter, same psalm, verse 9. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy hill for his throne, his government, his kingdom. For the Lord our God is holy, where he has set up his place of worship. So anyway, again and again, God's people here. God's people here right now. We're exhorted, aren't we? We're exhorted to praise God. It is a vital part of worship.

It's a vital part of worship.

Second Chronicles 29. Let's look how this kind of all comes together. Again, this gives us an idea of why we meet formally. Second Chronicles 29 verses 28 through 30.

We have recorded for us here, 2 Chronicles 29, the worship service.

That's one way of looking at it. 2 Chronicles chapter 29 verses 28 through 30.

This occurred back in the reign of King Hezekiah. King Hezekiah had not even reigned for one month. Within a month after taking over the rulership from his father, King Ahaz, his father, King Ahaz, had become a rather evil king. He'd set up false idols in the temple and put other stuff in there. The scripture calls it rubbish.

There's items of false worship. Good word to call it, rubbish. So after Hezekiah becomes king, he ordered the Levites to clean the temple, to sanctify it, and then they gathered as soon as they were ready to do this major celebration, this major worship service.

And that's what we read about here in verse 28 through 30. And we find here, describe just how integral praise is to worship of God then. Verse 28, so all the assembly worshiped, the singer sang, and the trumpeter sounded, and all this continued until the burnt offering was finished. So while they're singing and playing music, there's also the physical sacrifice going on. Verse 29, and when they had finished offering, the king and all who were present with him bowed and worshiped.

There's their physical reverence part. And moreover, King Hezekiah and the leaders commanded the Levites to sing praise to the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the Seer. And so they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshiped. Worship, serving, praying, obeying. It's all there. It's all there. And again and again throughout God's scriptures, we are told to praise God, to glorify His name, to express our most profound and reverent thanks to our Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.

And it should be our most eager pleasure to praise God, to thank God for being God, to thank God for His infinite mercy towards us. And how can we as individuals praise God, though? We've seen a lot about formal worship. How about individually? Let's turn over to Psalm 138. Talking about praising God, we're inevitably going to find ourselves in the book of Psalms. But in Psalm 138, let's look at a Psalm of David as a model. Jesus Christ presented us a model prayer. We can often see Psalms. We can call Psalms prayers. They come across as prayers. If we look at Psalm 138, we'll read this, and I want to point out how it too can become a model for us of how you and I can worship God with praise.

And so let's look here. It's called Psalm 138, a Psalm of David. Very likely David wrote this himself. Well, just going to read through it, and I'll stop at times and draw out some points here for our attention. And so David begins. He speaks directly to God right away.

He says, I will praise you, God, with my whole heart. Before the gods, I will sing praises to you. I will worship toward your holy temple and praise your name. There it is together. For your loving kindness and your truth, for you have magnified your word above all your name. Let's stop there. What is he doing here? Well, David is speaking directly to God, just as we would make a prayer directly to God. So is David doing this as a prayer.

And it's also though a hymn of exuberant praise. He is full of joy. He's full of joy. He declares that God is God. There is no other. That's something we can praise God about. He is God. And then towards the end of verse 2, he boldly declares that he worships and praises God.

Why? Because of his loving kindness and his truth. In other words, God is loving. He is merciful. He is true. True here means he is faithful in keeping his word. If God says he's going to do something, he's going to do it.

He is faithful. Absolutely faithful. And so that line, for you have magnified your word above all your name, it's kind of hard to understand in the New King James. What it's saying is it's saying that God does not put who he is above what he has said. I find that interesting. God does not put who he is above what he has said. What God has said comes first. He's not some false god or human being that's going to say something and then take it back. If God says he's going to do something, it will be done because that's who God is. And so then after David says, I'm going to praise you, God, for your faithfulness, all you've done for me, what happens in the rest of the psalm is a list.

It's really a list. He's praising God to begin with, being loving, kind, and faithful, and then he shows us how that is so in the rest of the psalm. He's showing how God has been faithful to him. Perfect model for us. We need to explain to God how we see that he has been faithful to us and why we praise him for being so faithful, so loving, so kind.

Verse 3, David said, In the day when I cried out, you answered me, and made me bold with strength in my soul. So God proved his faithfulness to David. He answered his prayer, just like he answers our prayers. Verse 4 and 5 actually are prophetic.

David says, All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O Lord, when they hear the words of your mouth, yes, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord.

This is prophetic. He says, All kings will come to praise God and sing of his ways, just as David is doing now. These verses we recognize are a prophecy of the coming kingdom of God. David was thinking about the kingdom of God.

Verse 6. This is incredibly encouraging, too. Though the Lord is on high, yet he regards the lowly. Sometimes we feel pretty lowly, don't we? Though God is on high, he regards the lowly. But the proud he knows from afar.

Even though God is lofty, he pays close attention to the lowly and humble and spirit. But those who are arrogant are cut off, it seems, from a relationship with him.

Verse 7 and 8. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me. It makes me think of Psalm 23. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me. You will stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand will save me. The Lord will perfect. Sometimes it says, the Lord will complete or fulfill that which concerns me. Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the works of your hands. And so, verse 7 through 8, David is expressing to God his gratefulness because he totally trusts God. Totally is confident in God.

He's confident that God will save him from his enemies, whatever and whoever they might be.

And he's absolutely confident that God will fulfill or complete God's reason for his existence.

God is going to fulfill our reason for existence, too, if we stay worshipful of him, doing what he says. This is a tremendous psalm. It begins with a praise to God and a listing of thankfulness for David. This is why I'm thankful to you because this is how you have treated me. This is how you've kept your word with me. And, of course, this is just one example for us to follow. There's many more throughout Scripture. So that's the third key. Praise God. Now, these three keys, and I'm sure somebody else could come up with three other keys, but these are pretty good, I think.

I didn't come up with them by myself. I'm not that smart. They're coming from Scripture. I've shown you these are in Scripture. These are not my keys. These are God's keys. He's making them very clear to us in Scripture. When we apply these keys into our lives and we couple it with God's Word and His Holy Spirit to work with us in our hearts and minds, we will be worshiping God in a way that pleases Him. We will be worshiping God in a way that's very invigorating and very beneficial to us spiritually. Worship won't become a chore to us. Worship won't be boring.

Worship won't be empty. Each key is vital to our worship of God. And I want to stress that to you. Each of these three keys is vital to our worship in God. What would happen if we didn't use one of these three keys? What would happen if we didn't use one of these keys? Let's think about it.

Worship without reverence. Can you imagine trying to do that?

Worship without reverence would be a worship that is hollow, a worship that is for show only.

Without reverence for God as one's creator, sustainer, deliverer, and friend. We've got a hymn like that, don't we? Without reverence for God, then why would one be worshiping except for form or except to be seen by others, which is really not a good reason to be worshiping?

It'd be a worship without with form, without that meaningful substance we've heard a lot about, without purpose. So I have to ask myself, and we should ask ourselves, do we worship God with reverence? Do we worship God with reverence? Worship without serving, obeying God? Or would that be like? Worship without serving, obeying God would be a worship that is, oh, so comfortable. Oh, it's easy. Oh, it's so leisurely. I don't have to do anything. There would be no need to repent. Wow, that'd be nice. Would it? Hope you don't think that. It wouldn't be nice not to repent. There would be no need to repent, no need to sacrifice ourselves, no need for guilt. Frankly, I don't see a need for God in that case. Such a worship, such a worship without serving, obeying God would be pointless, to be unfulfilling. It would be absolutely meaningless. Do we worship God with service and obedience? What about the praise?

Worship without praise seems nearly impossible to phantom. Again, I can't quite see it. Not expressing gratitude to God for anything? Could you imagine that? I really can't.

Not thanking God for one's very existence, nor for his wondrous creation, for friends, for family, not for answered prayer, not for hope or love or compassion from others, not even thanking God for victory over death. What would be the point of such a worship? What a sterile and joyless worship that would be. How empty the heart without the giving of praise and gratitude to God. Do we worship God with heartfelt praise?

I say worship without any one of these three keys would be a stilted and empty worship, which neither God nor anyone would be truly happy or satisfied.

But when we seek God and ask for his help in worshiping him with greater reverence, service, obedience, and praise, when we ask God for helping us to worship him, then we can know that God is faithful to answer us. If we don't feel our worship is quite grade A yet, we know what to do. Ask God to help us worship him better. In fact, we should always be asking God to help us worship him better. That's something we should all be doing. And so, brethren, we are blessed to understand how to worship our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, his Son.

But have you ever wondered? You know, it's all about worshiping God. That's what I've been talking about. And I'm going to read here in a little bit from the Book of Revelation 15 about worship in the future.

It is truly blessed to understand how to worship our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

I hope what I've been able to do today is to focus our thoughts on worship and what it's about, what it can be about. But have you ever wondered what it'll be like to worship Christ at his return? I thought my mind went that way because the trumpets are coming.

Have you ever thought about what it'll be like to worship Christ at his return?

How about after that twinkling of an eye? Remember when we're changed from mortal to immortal and we meet Christ in the clouds? You ever thought about what you will do? I think it's okay to imagine it a little bit. Have you ever thought about what you might do? Me? I don't know. Well, maybe I'll hug his feet. Maybe I'll hug Christ's feet. But I think he's going to have to have really big feet because I have a feeling there's going to be untold numbers of newly made mortal beings trying to hug his feet at the same time. I'm sure he can manage that. And I wonder, maybe I'll leap and whirl around. Maybe a little dance. David did. David leaped and whirled and danced as they brought the Ark of the Lord into Jerusalem. This is bigger than that. Maybe I'll leap and whirl. Maybe hoop it up all at once. I don't know. Maybe I'll turn on my new glorious glow, crank it up on high, be a brilliant light. Maybe I'll just burst bright and joyful, kind of like a Spirit-being bottle rocket or something. I don't know. How do you express your joy? Spirit-being, you can do, I'm guessing, quite a bit.

What might you do when Christ returns? When Jesus Christ returns?

Let's look at Revelation 15.24. You know, I have fun thinking about this. But I do know there's one thing we will do when Christ returns. Revelation 15 verses 2 through 4. When Jesus Christ returns, we've met Him in the heavens, His kingdom is being established.

All this is going on on earth and we're in the sky. We will worship our Father and His Son. We will worship God our Father and Christ His Son, and we're going to sing to them a beautiful hymn of praise.

Revelation 15.24. And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire. And those who had the victory over the beast, over His image, and over His mark, over the number of His name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God, they sing the song of Moses, the sermon of God, and the song of the Lamb. I don't know the tune, and neither do you, but here are the words. Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the Saints, Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy, for all nations shall come and worship before you, for your judgments have been manifested. So, brethren, let us worship God now, and let us worship God forever. And may God hasten that day of Christ's return.