This morning we come to the War Room series, and we're in the War Room. We're here this morning to prepare, to gather the information we need to go and to live our lives for the Lord.
This morning, I am excited as we continue in this War Room series. We’re looking this morning at worship. We're looking at how we can worship the Lord with our lives. We are in the middle of this War Room series, a series where we go back to our basic training, examining our game plan to live for Christ.
We have a culture and a world that contradicts the Bible, and we have to come to the War Room to rewrite and to put the plan together. We need to make sure that we don’t go the way that the culture says we should go, but that we stick to the Word of God. When our culture and the world try to contradict and rewrite it, we come to the Word of God. We come to the War Room to put our plan together.
This morning, as we continue in worship, we just lifted our voices up to the Lord. We went through the baptism waters this morning, and for some reason, my pants got soaked. They are nowhere near the baptism, so I don’t know what happened, but they are soaked. If you see that, just say, “You know what? It is all right.” Thank you! I just get so excited about baptism; you have no clue!
So this morning, we look at worship. You know, there’s a story about a young boy. He was sitting in church, very involved in the children's ministry, and he and his parents were very active in the local church. One day, they were just driving down the road, and this little boy looks at his mom and says, “Mom, what’s the highest number that you have ever counted to?”
The mom's like, “I have no clue. What is the largest? I don’t know what the largest is I’ve ever counted to.” She knows that he’s asking because he has a number he’s counting to. So she looks at her 10-year-old son and says, “What’s your answer? What’s the highest you’ve ever counted to?”
He says, “It is 5,372.” She says, “Well, that’s kind of weird that you would end on 372. Why’d you stop there?” He goes, “Because the service at church ended, and so I stopped counting.”
Wow! Because tonight’s a big night. Tonight is a huge night. No, it’s not because Taylor Swift is going to arrive at Legion Stadium to see her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, but tonight is the Super Bowl! We’re there to watch it; we’re going to enjoy it. We’re going to look at this game, and hopefully, the team we’re pulling for wins tonight. I’m not going to say either team, but we know our team did not make it, and my team especially did not make it.
There was an article that came out recently, written by a father. He labeled it “12 Reasons I Don’t Go to Sporting Events Anymore.” He wrote this article and listed everything that’s going on in the world, everything that’s going on in his life, his family’s life.
Here’s what he said:
1. The first reason I no longer do sporting events anymore is every time I went, they asked me for money.
2. The second reason he doesn’t go anymore is because the people sitting in my row didn’t seem very friendly.
3. The third reason is the seats were very hard when I sat down.
4. The fourth is the coach never came over and said hi to me.
5. The fifth was the referees made a decision I did not agree with at all.
6. The sixth is I was sitting with a bunch of hypocrites; they only came to see what others were wearing.
7. The seventh is some games went to overtime, and I was late getting home after the game.
8. The eighth is the band played some songs that I never heard before.
9. The ninth is the games were scheduled on my only day to sleep in and run errands.
10. The tenth is my parents took me to too many games when I was growing up.
11. The eleventh is since I’ve read a book on sports, I feel that I know more than the coaches do anyway.
12. The twelfth is I don’t want to take my children because I want them to choose for themselves what sport they like the best.
Now, it’s pretty funny. That was my first time ever reading that out loud to a group of people. We started off laughing, but as it went on, we stopped laughing as much, didn’t we? Because those same reasons that this guy is writing this article—he’s being silly on purpose—are the same reasons that we tie to the church. They sound familiar, and it gets personal. When it gets personal, we stop laughing. Oh, that’s a little too close to home, isn’t it?
But this morning, we’re going to look at the Word of God. We should leave here joyful and excited. The people who are sitting around us should be excited that we get to hear the Word of God together. We get to worship together. We get to be in the house of the Lord this morning. Amen?
Who cares what happens tonight? I’m sorry, Pastor Paul; I know you’re a Chiefs fan, but who cares about tonight? Tonight and today and every day, 24/7, is about the worship of the holy God, an amazing God. We come here this morning to lift up His name. We come here to draw closer to Him.
Students, we come here this morning to usher in a spirit of worship in our lives every day. Amen?
Here’s my idea this morning. If you have a sermon guide and you’re following along, we have been made to worship. Each one of us has been created to worship a holy God. The question we’re answering this morning is this: Why should we worship?
There are two points for why we should worship. We’re going to look at our key verse this morning, which is verse 1 of Psalm 100. Psalm 100:1 is our key text this morning: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.”
Let me read that again: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.” That is our text this morning. That’s what we’re looking at: we’re here this morning to make a joyful noise.
Look, I can’t sing; you know that, church. My microphone is muted on purpose up here. I can’t sing. My wife did a phenomenal job this morning singing “A Thousand Hallelujahs,” but your pastor can’t sing. But every noise to the Lord is a joyful noise. Praise the Lord! We’re here to make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. All the earth, all creation, everything that God has made is created to worship Him.
So let’s get into it.
**Point number one: Why should we worship God?**
Because we have been created to worship God. That’s why! What do you consider holy and worthy? What in your life takes priority? What’s worthy?
I heard a pastor—I was trying to find the video of it, but I spent many hours looking for it and couldn’t find it—so I’m just going to have to tell you the story myself. Tony Evans was preaching on a Sunday morning, and as he was preaching to his church, he shared in a sermon how he has seen a lot of people in church last Sunday. This was a few weeks ago, and it was kind of cold out across the United States.
He said, “It was cold out this morning, and many of you I saw could come to church last week; it was too cold.” He went on to say, “How many people, though, drove to Cowboy Stadium last Sunday night because they thought their team was worthy enough to be there to come out and support as the playoffs were on the line? You felt like the team was worthy, that you had to go out and support them in hopes that they could win and everything was on the line.”
As he said that, I thought, we go to things that we think are worthy, and we support what we see as worthy in our lives too. We feel like we have to be there, like everyone depends on us, like the world revolves around us. They need us there; they’re not going to win unless we’re there in the seats.
We worship what we see as important. What is worthy? Another way of putting it is like this: What makes you lose sleep? What excites you? Do you get so excited that you lose sleep over the fact that tomorrow morning is like Christmas morning? “I get to be in the house of the Lord! I get to worship the Lord!”
I like to think that’s what my children do every Saturday night. They’re so excited that’s the reason they won’t go to bed, and they get up early. I hope that’s what it is; at least I’m praying that’s what it is.
But what is worthy in your life? You and I were created to worship. Inside of us, we have a desire to worship. So what are we worshiping? What is worthy to us? What has the worth or the value? What’s important? What deserves our respect, our admiration?
When is the last time you got so excited about worshiping God that it took up your whole thought life? Here’s what I love about worship: Worship is not a Sunday morning thing. Worship is not a Monday morning feeling. Worship is not on Tuesday. Worship is not on Wednesday night in the student building. Worship is not on Thursday. Worship is not Friday when the work week is over and the weekend has started. That’s not worship.
Saturday and Saturday night is not worship, but Sunday through Saturday—that’s worship! Because every day we are to worship the holy and living God. We are created inside of us to have this desire, this longing for something higher, something greater than us, and we have a desire to go after it.
Some people think money is the god of all gods. Some people think fortune, job, success, and family are worth it all. But can I tell you? The greatest, the only thing that we should be worshiping is God. Amen?
There’s nothing else—nothing else should be taking over our thought life. Nothing else should be dominating us outside of the thought that we get to worship God. Worship is our DNA, church!
I’m about to throw a lot of scripture at you, so just get prepared because our DNA is made up of worship.
Let me start with Psalm 86:9: “All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name.”
God created us to worship Him. It’s in our DNA. In our DNA as His creation, He’s created us and all the nations to come together and to worship Him.
John 4:23: “The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him.”
Worship!
Psalm 150:6: “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!”
Everything!
Isaiah 43:21: “The people whom I formed for myself will declare my praise.”
You’re getting it! God created us to worship. God created us to worship Him, to praise His name. We have been called and created to worship God.
Jesus is His way. In Luke 19, Jesus is coming in the triumphal entry. He’s coming in, and we’re still about that here in a few weeks. As we celebrate that here in a few weeks, we’re looking this morning at this moment.
For just a moment, go with me on this: Jesus is coming in; He’s riding a colt that’s never been ridden before. As Jesus is coming into town, the Pharisees and Sadducees say, “Can you not calm your people down? Can you not stop them?”
Luke 19:40: Jesus says it like this: “If they don’t praise me, the rocks will cry out to me.” That’s a paraphrase this morning, but Luke 19:40 says, “Even the rocks will cry out to me.”
If we don’t praise Him, His creation will worship Him! Church, that’s why we say we don’t want no rock worshiping in our place! I don’t want anything else to take the place of my worship to God.
If I had a longer period of time to preach this morning, I would show you—I’m going to tell you what it is so you can look it up when you get home. Write it down in your notes. You’ve probably already seen it before, but Lou Giglio does an unbelievable video on this. He has this moment of watching creation worship God.
He talks about how the whales sing. He talks about how that’s worshiping God. He talks about how the stars—which I did not know this until I really didn’t pay attention in science class—make a noise. Everything that God has created makes noise.
It’s this moment of Lou Giglio sharing this moment of every noise, every animal, how it is worshiping God. If you get a chance, look that up.
But church, we have this desire in us to worship Him.
But what is worship? You’re asking, “Scott, what is this worship you’re talking about?” Well, I think the best way to talk about worship is Psalm 100. Psalm 100 is very clear. It lets us walk through it very clearly and tells us what to do.
So let us worship by starting in verse 1. Psalm 100:1: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.”
Make a joyful noise! All the people of the world are called upon to worship and praise Yahweh with worship, with songs, with our voices, with our lives. We’re called to come in and make a joyful noise to the Lord.
Robert Towns Rard says in his commentary that to make a joyful noise translates into the verb that means to shout. We are to come in to worship Him by making a joyful noise—to shout, to praise all that He has done, to rejoice, to praise His name.
Because God has won the victory over our lives! God has done incredible things, and we are not meant to be kept quiet. We are to shout His praises! We are to be joyful!
Did we catch that this morning? Don’t come in the house to worship sad. Don’t come in depressed. Don’t come in with, “I don’t know about this song.”
Everything that we do, we are to make a joyful noise to the Lord! Amen?
It may not be your favorite song; it may not be my favorite song, but guess what? I’m singing because I want to let my God know that He is holy! Every song that we do here is biblically driven and centered. So no matter if I’m on the radio and I’m like, “Oh, it’s not my favorite song,” I’m still going to sing because I want to make a joyful noise to the Lord.
Do you know joyful actually means to smile and be happy? So when we’re here singing on Sunday mornings, we’ve got to be joyful, smiling because we get to praise His name!
And aren’t we glad that we’re in a church that is biblically driven in everything they do? The Word of God is not being replaced; the Word of God is being taught. The Word of God is being sung. We’re praising the holy name, the only name that deserves to be praised and lifted high and mighty.
Then verse 2: This is the part of our worship that we kind of don’t like talking about, but here we go. I’m going to talk about it: “Serve the Lord with gladness; come into His presence with singing.”
We focus on part two of that; we come in singing. But do you know that when we come in with a joyful noise to the Lord, the second thing we’re to do is to serve the Lord?
That serve—there’s a military term. It’s the same kind of—we’ve been enlisted to serve the Lord, our Commander-in-Chief. We have been enlisted to serve Him.
Our worship is us serving God with our life. It’s us saying, “God, this is Your life. God, I’m giving it all to You. I’m serving You.” That serving is so key because when we serve the Lord, it’s putting Him before ourselves.
That’s the key to worship. You and I have to get out of the way and let God be the center of our worship. I can come, and I can bog myself down with a bunch of different things, but the reality is I need to get out of the way, and I need to start serving the Lord.
The way we’re called to serve the Lord is for us to be all in, to serve the One. We have a purpose on this earth, and in our worship, we come to serve Him.
Serving Him is part of our worship. How do we serve? We serve in the church. We serve in the ministry. We serve by teaching. We serve by helping meet the needs of others. We serve by putting others before ourselves. That’s how we serve.
Then we get to verse 3, and it says, “Know that the Lord, He is God. It is He who made us, and we are His. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.”
Another way of putting this is we need to acknowledge and confess God as our Father, as our God. We need to confess Him.
Charles Spurgeon once said, “One famous man said, ‘Man, know yourself.’ And another said, ‘The proper study of mankind is man.’ Not so, says Spurgeon. ‘Man, know your God. The proper study of mankind is God. He who knows God knows himself; that is, he knows himself to be nothing. There is but one God—the same God in the Old Testament as the New Testament, Jehovah, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There is one God.’”
Spurgeon ends with this: “We are His sheep. He leads us, He feeds us, He protects us. He has brought us; He has bought us. He has bought us with His precious blood. Truly, this is the reason we should make a joyful noise unto God.”
We need to cease from robbing God of the honor due to His name. We need to make sure that we are not robbing God of everything that He is due.
The reason you have breath in your lungs today is not because of some doctor. It’s not because of anything you have done, because you had an extra workout yesterday. The reason you have air in your lungs this morning is because God went, “Amen,” and breathed your lungs into your air.
And the reason that an atheist or agnostic person has air in their lungs is not because of anything they’ve done; it’s because God went and breathed air into their lungs. Because as long as there’s still air in our lungs, we’re to worship Him.
As long as an atheist and agnostic person has air in their lungs, there’s still a chance for them to put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And we are to worship our God so that people see there’s something different about us because we are praising the name above all names.
So may we never rob God of His glory. May we never rob God of the worship that is due to His name and due to Him.
Then Psalm 100, verse 4: “Enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and bless His name.”
We are to have thankfulness. We are to have thanksgiving in our hearts. The reason you and I are worshiping—yes, we’re praising the name that’s above every name—yes, we’re doing that, but at the same time, the reason we get to worship Him is we enter into His gates with thankfulness.
As we enter His courts with praise, we get to have the opportunity to worship our God in an intimate, one-on-one relationship. Our God is not a distant God; our God is very near and close to us. Our God loves us.
Our God is not one who is waiting to bring judgment upon us; our God is the one who is ready to share grace, mercy, and love over us. Is He a loving God? Yes! Does He send people to hell? Yes! Does that still make Him loving? Yes, it does!
Our God is great; our God is mighty; our God is holy. And so we enter into His courts; we enter into worship, praising His name.
May the name of God be so special to us that we don’t allow His name to come out in vain. We don’t ever spit His name out or allow ourselves to be in a situation where the name of God is put down, but we allow ourselves to worship His name.
My six-year-old son and I were watching a cartoon or something. I don’t know; it was rated PG. It was something that was okay for him to watch, we thought. One of the characters said, “Oh my gosh,” but didn’t say “gosh.” It was something else.
He said, “Daddy, he took God’s name in vain.” I said, “I know.” He goes, “We’ve got to turn it off, don’t we?” I said, “Yes, we do.” He goes, “Turn it off now! I can’t listen to any more!” I was like, “I love that attitude! I love that!”
May we never allow the name of God to be robbed of the glory and the honor which it deserves. That’s not legalism, church; that is the Word of God.
And here’s the fifth verse, Psalm 100, verse 5: “For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.”
This is the knowledge of God and us surrendering to Him. We cannot be satisfied until all men share and understand the love of God.
We worship God because in God we have unity. In God, He makes everything one. God unifies us. True worship of the true God is the answer. When we worship God, we have worship of the one true loving God.
We have unity in our world where we are divided among humanity. Let me be very clear on this, church: We are one church. As believers, we are to be unified together, worshiping God as one.
We’re to be unified in our worship. Every tongue, every tribe, every nationality, every background, every economic status—and wait for this—every political party! We are all one!
We’re unified together to worship God. Nothing can get in the way of you and I worshiping God because the blood of Jesus has been poured out and washed over each one of us in this room and now to all of Tampa and all of Florida and all the world.
Yes, we want to take the name of Jesus to every tribe and every tongue because we want them to worship God. Amen?
John Piper says, “The reason that missions exist is because worship does not.” We need to be telling others about God and being unified in that because that’s why we’re worshiping God: because He’s holy, He’s great, He’s mighty.
So why should we do Psalm 100? Because we are His. We have been purchased by God through the blood of Jesus Christ, and our response is to worship Him.
You were created with the desire to worship, and true worship of the true God is the reason we worship. Worship is the answer for unity for a divided humanity.
We realize and remember this world is not about us. Since we worship something, we need to examine and explore what we really are worshiping. We must remember that one of the Ten Commandments says, “Do not have any other gods before me.”
So let me ask you this question as we wrap up point number one: What do you consider worthy of your worship? Is it sports? Is it family? Is it job? Is it money?
A.W. Tozer had this famous quote—different people have quoted it throughout the years. Let me just read this A.W. Tozer quote and just realize he said it; I didn’t say it, so don’t get mad at me: “If you will not worship God seven days a week, you do not worship Him one day a week.”
Let’s not fool ourselves. Worship is not a once-a-week event. We can’t expect worship to flow from our lips on the Lord’s Day if we keep it held back in our hearts throughout the week. The waters of worship should not stop flowing from our hearts. Amen?
So how can you and I worship God? That is built into our seven days of our life, church. May we surround ourselves and allow God to worship in everything that we do every day.
**Point number two: Our final point this morning: Why should we worship? Because of what Christ has done for you and me.**
That’s why we should worship Him! That’s why Psalm 100 should be our worship. That’s why we enter with joyful noise. That’s the reason that we serve Him. That is the reason that we give thanks to Him. That’s the reason we enter His courts with praise—because of what Christ has done for you and me.
Worship must be flowing out of our hearts. I know we all know the 18-inch rule, but let me just share it with you anyway. Our worship comes from our heart.
When we talk about the gospel and as we look at that, we always say we have the 18-inch rule problem in our country where we have head knowledge. We know of God, but we don’t know God.
Eighteen inches from your head to your heart—we have to worship God with our heart. We have to worship Him individually and worship Him corporately.
I came across an article; I was looking up different illustrations for today, and this article really got to me. Well, not really the article, but there was a sentence in the article that really got to me that made my mind go crazy.
Here’s the line: “Worship on Sundays is just a little habit people have acquired, but Monday through Saturday, people live a different life.”
Let me read it again: “Worship on Sundays is just a little habit people have acquired. It’s a routine; it’s a ritual. But Monday through Saturday, people live a different life.”
Did you catch that? Worship is just a Sunday habit or a ritual—something they just do out of obligation or routine with no change being made inside.
The article, by the way, was written from this perspective of Satan and what he is saying to American worship and to American Christians. What he says is, “Hey, it’s just a habit they do. I’m not worried about them worshiping on Sundays because I know what happens after they leave here.”
Church, may that not be said of First Baptist Lutz! Hear me this morning, friends: Worship cannot be a habit; it cannot be a routine; it cannot be a ritual. Worship must be our life!
Our life worshiping God—we are worshiping something every hour of the day, every hour of the week. You and I must worship God because of what He has done for you and me.
You’re saying, “Scott, what has He even done for me?”
**Salvation:** 1 Peter 1:3-5: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has called us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for our salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.”
Church, what has God done for you and me? We have been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ! That’s what He’s done for you!
**What else has He done?**
**Depression, anxiety:** 2 Corinthians 12:8-10: “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Church, in the battles, the struggles that you and I go through, we ask, “God, where are You?” God is with us! God has not forsaken us! We worship Him as we go through the battle. We lift our hands up; that’s our war! We’re at war, and we’re winning!
**Our God’s going to win the battle!**
Continuing the theme of battle: 2 Samuel 22:2-4: “The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold, my refuge, my Savior. You save me from violence. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.”
Our God has delivered us! Do you know how much we’ve been saved from our enemies?
Psalm 23: “He says, ‘I prepare a table before my enemies.’” Our Lord is with us! Our Lord is over this! We worship our God because our God has won every battle that we will ever go through! Amen?
We are not alone! Our God is the Creator, and our God has won the battle over everything, and we get to worship Him! He’s won the battle over our sins; He’s won the battle over our addictions. Our God deserves to be worshiped!
Now, looking at all that God has done for us—and there are still numerous more things I could mention—but let’s go back to Psalm 100 again as our band comes up this morning to close us out.
Let’s go back to Psalm 100, and let me read it in completion to you:
“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness; come into His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God. It is He who made us, and we are His. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him; bless His name. For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.”
Church, that’s what we’re here for this morning—to praise His name, to sing a joyful noise to Him, to serve Him, to acknowledge Him, to bring thanksgiving to Him, to praise His name, and to come before our God this morning and have faithfulness to realize that our God is good.
Our God endures forever, and our God—though it may look like the world is winning the battle—can I tell you that our God has already won the battle? It may look like God is losing, but He’s not! Our God is winning!
Our world will say all of these different things to us, but let me tell you: God has not lost control! God will not lose control! And God is over everything and will stay over everything forever!
Our battles have been won! The sin that we have battled with has been won on the cross for you and me! For the struggles we have faced and for the victories we have seen, we come and make a joyful noise to the Lord!
We make a joyful noise!
Joanie Eareckson Tada had a terrible, terrible accident that left her quadriplegic. In spite of her physical limitations, she became an accomplished author and artist. Over 25 years ago, she married her husband, Ken. For her wedding, she had planned to come down the center aisle in her motorized wheelchair.
Just before her grand entrance, she noticed two distressing problems. First, she had rolled over her beautiful gown and made a big grease spot and tore it. Then the flowers in her lap had slipped and had lodged between her leg and the chair. She was filled with disappointment.
Then suddenly, the doors of the auditorium opened up. She saw her husband-to-be. Here was the man who was committing his love and his life to her. Joanie later said, “Once I saw Ken’s face, all I could think about was him. Everything else—the people in the church, the flowers that were sitting a little askew in my lap, the fact that my dress didn’t fall right because I was sitting in a wheelchair, that grease mark on the rip of my gown—all of it paled in comparison.”
She ends with this: “When we see Christ, He will be all that matters to us.”
Church, we may have problems; we may have struggles; we may not have everything go the way we want. But the moment we take our eyes back on God, it’ll change everything for us. It takes the focus off of you and me and puts it on Him.
So what is worthy in your life? Is worshiping God part of your life, or has it slipped into worshiping something else of lesser value?
Help me down front here in just a moment. If you want to put your faith and trust in Jesus, come down here. I’d love to tell you about Jesus. I’d love to tell you how God loved you so much that He put His Son on this earth. Jesus lived on this earth for 33 years and died on the cross for your sins and my sins. God loved us so much that He took on flesh.
I’d love to tell you about Jesus. Or maybe you want to go through the waters of baptism just like these three did this morning. We would love to talk to you more about that.
Or maybe you’re saying, “Hey, Scott, I’m ready to join First Baptist Lutz.” I’m down front. Or if you’re saying, “Hey, I just need prayer this morning, Scott. I am down front this morning. I would love to pray with you. I’d love to talk with you. I’d love just to meet with you this morning.”
The altar is going to be open. We’re going to come here and do business here in just a few moments.
Our response this morning—we’re going to look at here in just a few moments—our response this morning is we’re called to respond in our worship this morning.
George Barna, in his book *Experience God in Worship*, says the main reason millions of people in America go to church every week is not to worship God, but instead to have a pleasing experience.
He goes on and says that most Americans go to church to satisfy or to please themselves, not to honor or please God. Amazingly, few of the people that Barna’s research team interviewed said that worship is something they do primarily for God. Instead, a much larger percentage of those who attend worship services on a regular basis claim they do so for personal benefit and pleasure.
This is something that has got to change in America. It’s got to change in us! We must forget about ourselves and concentrate on Him. He must be the primary focus of our worship.
So what’s our response this morning? I want to ask you to do two things this morning in the next song:
1. Please worship! Worship! Remove whatever else is dominating your thoughts or your life. Come and just worship! These songs are not meant to make you feel better, church; they are to praise God.
2. The second thing: Come and pray. We have prayer cards down here; we have a prayer wall down here. Come write down those prayer requests. Don’t stop! Lay down whatever is dominating your life and stealing your worship, and give it back to God.
Let’s pray.
Lord, thank You for this time this morning. Thank You for allowing us to come here and worship You. God, we pray now that we may leave here transformed and changed. God, thank You for what You’ve done in our lives. May we worship You. May we leave here changed and transformed by You. Thank You, Lord Jesus. Thank You, Lord. May we respond this morning. Amen.
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on Feb 20, 2024
