The Priority of Worship
Introduction
As we read the passages of our text, did you notice that these verses speak of the fact that God is the sole recipient and object of worship? John also brings out the idea of how that worship is to be offered: “…in spirit and in truth” (John 4: 24b). More often than not, Christians, under the guise of attending church to worship God, often attend church with far less lofty goals and motives. In many cases, it’s more about, “What’s in it for me?” I’m not saying that we shouldn’t expect to come away with something when we worship. We should. But the fact of the matter is that God is the object of real worship. However, if our heart is right, when we focus our worship and attention on Him, we are blessed and edified. But our blessing and edification should be understood to be the “gifts of worship,” not the “goals of worship.”
John MacArthur, pastor of the Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, speaks plainly about the misconceptions concerning worship. He says:
Well, if you go to church for what you can get out of the music, or what you can get out of the sermon, or just to get blessed, you’ve missed the point. The music and the sermon aren’t ends in themselves; they are but stimuli to cause you to worship God. And if you have any thought less than that, you’ve missed the point!1
MacArthur is absolutely right. Too often we come to church to “get blessed” by God, or to fulfill our perceived religious responsibility, rather than to focus our praise, adoration, and attention on the One alone who is worthy of worship.
What is true worship? In a general sense, worship is “…honor paid to a superior being. It means ‘to give homage, honor, reverence, respect, adoration, praise, or glory to a superior being.’”2 Though worship can be directed toward almost anything, only God is truly worthy of it. God’s Word is very clear about this. The NLT drives home this thought as follows: Deuteronomy 10:20-21, “You must fear the Lord your God and worship him and cling to him. Your oaths must be in his name alone. 21 He alone is your God, the only one who is worthy of your praise, the one who has done these mighty miracles that you have seen with your own eyes.”3
Now that we know what worship is, and what it is not; I want to move on to the crux of the message; that being, the priority that should be given to the worship of God. Since the Bible places much importance on the worship, so should God’s people. There are biblical reasons for making worship a high priority in our lives. Look at a few of them with me today.
Theme: God attaches a high priority to worship as noted in the following
I. The Emphasis Of The First Commandment
A. Worship Belongs To God Alone
Exodus 20:2-6, “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3a Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.”
Exodus 34:14, “For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:”
Just as no loving and loyal person would willingly share their mate’s affections with another, neither does God willingly share the affections of His worshippers with false and fictitious gods. God’s name and nature are defined by a holy jealousy (Ex.34: 14), for He alone is worthy of worship and honor. God has said, “I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images” (Isa.42: 8).
One of the greatest definitions of worship ever laid down was laid down by William Temple: “To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.”5
It was A. W. Tozer who said, “We are called to an everlasting preoccupation with God.”6
B. God’s Name Should Be Held In Honor And Awe
Exodus 20:7, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”
My reason for making this next statement is not to be cute, or to be a smart aleck, but to make an elemental point. Listen:
When we use the name of God, we aren’t talking about the peanut farmer down the road. We’re not talking about the person who picks up our trash, nor even our father and mother. Trivialize the names of those people if you will, but don’t trivialize God. Flippantly invoke the name of a mere human being if you must, but do not flippantly invoke the name of God.7
It’s not uncommon these days to hear someone make a rude or unsavory statement, and then tag it with, “by God.” Suffice it to say that such utterance trivializes the name of God, and is an act of irreverence and disrespect. Reverence for God should not be viewed as passé, or an antiquated idea. It’s simply the right thing to do. The very name of God is worthy of respect. One writer notes:
The third commandment was taken so seriously by Israel that at one time the scribes wouldn’t even write the name “Yahweh” (Jehovah) until they had first taken a bath and changed their clothes. Then after they had written it, they would take another bath and change their clothes again.
One pastor draws this conclusion. The rule is fairly simple, if you are talking about God’s character or mentioning Him in a context inconsistent with His character and goodness . . . it is profanity. To attach the name of God or to attach the unique character traits of God such as holiness, mercy, wisdom, grace and more to that which is meaningless or base is an act of disrespect to the Lord.9
What’s the big deal about showing awe and respect for the name of God? It is simply that He alone is worthy.
After the Battle of Agincourt in England, King Henry V had the chaplain read a passage from one of the Psalms. The chaplain read from Psalm 115. As he began, he read from verse 1, “Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name be glory, because of your love and faithfulness.” At the reading of these words, the king dismounted from his stallion. As he did, so all his men climbed down from their mounts. The king fell on his face to the ground and his men followed in like manner. The king of England was acknowledging that God and God alone was the King! Thus shall we all bow in that heavenly court someday. And, we shall cast our crowns at His feet—for He alone is worthy!10
C. We Should Worship God With Our All
Matthew 22:37-38 “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment.”
According to Jesus’ statement above, which is a paraphrase of Deut.6: 5, the whole of one’s life is to be an act of worship to the Lord. This is implied by the command to love the Lord with the “heart,” “soul,” and “mind.” “The expressions mean generally that God is to be loved with all our powers and faculties, and that nothing is to be preferred to him.”11
Jesus concluded that a life lived as an act of worship to the Father was the supreme duty of man. The thought of verse 38 above is akin to that found in Eccl.12: 13, where it says, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”
II. The Establishment Of The Tabernacle
A. It Would Be A Place For The Ark Of The Covenant
Exodus 25:8, 10, 21, “And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. 10 And they shall make an ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breath thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. 21 And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.”
The ark, for the Hebrew, was the representation of the very presence of God. In essence, the Tabernacle would be the focal point of God’s presence. Inherent in true worship is the recognition of and focusing on the presence of God.
Some years ago, a rather intriguing article came to my attention. This article spoke of the possible return of the Ark of the Covenant to Israel. According to the author, there was good evidence that the Ark had been hidden in the mountains of Ethiopia for the last 3,000 years.13 It also alleged that the Ark wound up in Ethiopia, due to the efforts of a man named Menelik, who was supposedly the offspring of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.14
The article also alleged that when Israel airlifted the last 16,000 “Black Jews” from Ethiopia, the Ark came back with them.15
This may be a real possibility, since Israel spent more than $100,000,000 to bring these Ethiopian Jews to Israel.16 At the time, this was more than had been spent on any other returning group of Jews.
Another significant fact is the article’s assertion that: …the Israeli jubilation knew no bounds when these Ethiopians landed in Israel. On national television, Israeli men were seen dancing and singing with little Ethiopians around their necks.17
B. It Would Be A Place Of Communion
Exodus 25:22, “And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.”
Exodus 37:25, “And he made the incense altar of shittim wood: the length of it was a cubit, and the breadth of it a cubit; it was foursquare; and two cubits was the height of it; the horns thereof were of the same.”
God communes with His people in the place of worship. When one needlessly misses worship in God’s house, they are in danger of missing a communiqué from God that might be just what they need. God desires to communicate with His people as the Word of God is preached and taught in the house of God, and as His Holy Spirit is permitted to speak to each heart
There are two means of communication mentioned above. Exodus 25: 22 speaks of the Mercy Seat, upon which the sins of Israel were atoned for once each year. Exodus 37: 25 makes reference to the Altar of Incense, which is symbolic of the prayers of the saints ascending before God continuously. Though forgiveness of sin and the prayers of today’s saints are not practices restricted only to the house of God, they certainly are involved in our worship. The point is that these were means of communion with God.
God places far more value on worship than many of His people.
To give you an idea of the priority that God put on this place of worship, consider that it took seven chapters (a total of 243 verses) for God to discuss all the standards, measurements, and furnishings that were to be a part of the Tabernacle, and it only took thirty-one verses to describe the whole creation of the universe.18
III. The Encampment Around The Tabernacle
Numbers 1:52-54 “And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard, throughout their hosts. 53 But the Levites shall pitch round about the tabernacle of testimony, that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel: and the Levites shall keep the charge of the tabernacle of testimony. 54 And the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so did they.
Numbers 2:1 And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 2:2 Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of their father’s house: far off about the tabernacle of the congregation shall they pitch.”
Two times in these fives verse, we find the words “about the tabernacle” (Numbers1: 53; Numbers2: 2). The point I want to make with that observation is that the tabernacle, and the worship enjoined there, was at the center of the Israelites’ life. John MacArthur has aptly stated that, “Worship is not an addendum to life, it is at life’s core.”2
The centrality of the worship of God in the life of Israel is further born out by the following: Judah, Issachar, and Zebulon camped on the east side of the Tabernacle.
Reuben, Simeon, and Gad camped on the south side of the Tabernacle. Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin camped on the west side of the Tabernacle. Dan, Asher, and Naphtali camped on the north side of the Tabernacle.
I fear that not only is worship no longer at the center of many Christians’ lives, but that what some churches refer to as a “worship service,” is sadly devoid of the presence of God. It is mere formality and dead religiosity.
After attending church one Sunday morning, a little boy knelt at his bedside that night and prayed, “Dear God, we had a good time at church today—but I wish You had been there!”21
IV. The Example Of The Seraphim
Isaiah 6:1-4, “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. 4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.”
Even the angels realize the extreme importance of worship. One writer offers the following comment on this fact: Two wings alone of the six were kept ready for instant flight in God’s service; two veiled their faces as unworthy to look on the holy God, or pry into His secret counsels which they fulfilled (Exo_3:6; Job_4:18; Job_15:15); two covered their feet, or rather the whole of the lower parts of their persons - a practice usual in the presence of Eastern monarchs, in token of reverence (compare Eze_1:11, their bodies).2
MacArthur concurs with this evaluation, and offers this conclusion: “It’s interesting that four of the wings were related to worship, and only two were related to service. Each one of the seraphim covered his face because he couldn’t look upon God’s glory, he covered his feet because of God’s holy presence, and with the remaining two wings he took care of the service. Worship is the priority— even for the angels.”24
V. The Exhortation Of The Psalmist
Psalm 5:7, “But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.”
Psalm 29:2, “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.”
Psalm 96:9, “O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.”
Psalm 99:5, 9, “Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at his footstool; for he is holy. 9 Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his holy hill; for the Lord our God is holy.”
Psalm 132:7, “We will go into his tabernacles: we will worship at his footstool.”
Psalm 138:2, “I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.”
Folks, worship is to be our priority. MacArthur has said that, “Time and eternity are determined by the nature of a person’s worship.”26 Obviously, we can’t spend every waking hour in church. That however, has not been the proposition of this message. True worship issues forth from the heart of man toward a holy, righteous God, and is grounded and based upon the knowledge of the truth of God’s Word. The act of worshipping God can take place anywhere, at anytime. But whoever we are, wherever we are, and whatever the time, worship must be at the core of our life.
John 4:23-24, “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
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1. Dr. John MacArthur, Jr., True Worship, published by Word Of Grace Communications, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412, pg. 1.
2.Ibid, pg. 2.
3. Holy Bible, New Living Translation, Second Edition, copyright 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust, All rights reserved, published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois; pg. 228.
4. Dr. John MacArthur, Jr., True Worship, published by Word Of Grace Communications, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412, pg. 5.
5. Acquired from www.pastorlife.com.
6. Ibid.
7. Rev. Donnie L. Martin.
8. Dennis J. DeHaan, “Respect God’s Name,” a devotion found at http://myweb.ecomplanet.com.
“Treating God With Respect,” © 2000 by Bruce Goettsche, August 13, 2000 La Harpe, IL.
9. Author unknown. Acquired from www.pastorlife.com.
10. AGES Software Rio, WI USA, Version 1.0 © 2001.
11. Dr. John MacArthur, Jr., True Worship, published by Word Of Grace Communications, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412, pg. 6.
12. Robert L. Sumner, Editor, “The Biblical Evangelist,” Vol. 25, No. 8, August 1, 1991; The Ark of the Covenant: Did It Return to Israel from Ethiopia with the “Black Jews?;” pg. 10.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Dr. John MacArthur, Jr., True Worship, published by Word Of Grace Communications, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412, pg. 6.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid, pg. 8.
20. Source unknown. Acquired from www.sermonillustrations.com.
21. Dr. John MacArthur, Jr., True Worship, published by Word Of Grace Communications, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412, pg. 7.
22. Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary as found in e-Sword software.
23. Dr. John MacArthur, Jr., True Worship, published by Word Of Grace Communications, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412, pg. 7.
24. Ibid, pg. 7.
25. Ibid, pg. 8.