SUSTAINING WORSHIP (part 3 of 3)

PREPARING TO WORSHIP?
John 4:20-24

INTRODUCTION
A. True worshippers worship God “in spirit and truth”. True worshippers today are saved scripturally baptized people who are members of a true New Testament church.
B. While “truth”, that is church membership is a necessity to be a “true worshipper”, it does not mean that all church members worship.
C. God’s people must prepare to worship if they are going to worship.
D. Worship is not coming to church. Many come to church and never worship. It is sad that many of God’s people never truly worship God. There are some church members that show up Sunday mornings thinking they are going to worship God, but in reality all they are doing is assembling themselves together—which is good and biblical—but it is not worship.
1. Remember that worship is coming into the presence of God acknowledging who He is and accepting whom we are.
2. When we do this we do not go into the presence of God singing and shouting but on our faces, humble and lowly, thankful that He allows us to breath each breath, thankful that He loved us enough—in spite of our sins—to send Jesus to the death of the cross.
a. Some examples of those who worshipped, Exodus 4:31; 12:27; 34:8, 1 Chronicles 29:20, 2 Chronicles 29:28-30* (They sang, praised God, they worshipped God—when they worshipped God what did they do? They bowed their faces in humblnesss) Nehemiah 8:6, Nehemiah 9:3 (confessed and worshipped) Matthew 2:11 (fell down)Matthew 8:2 (if thou wilt—a plea) Matthew 9:18 (pleading for his daughter) Matthew 12:25 (Lord help me) Matthew 28:19 (They held Him (Jesus) by His feet)
3. They whom worshipped God came into the presence of God with a humble spirit. We see them confessing, repenting, making pleas and thanking. There is one similarity with all who worshipped God, REVERENCE.
E. Who is God? Get a response and discuss God in creation, salvation, adoption, justification, and glorification
F. This is the God whom we worship. He is worthy of all glory, honor, and reverence.
G. If we are going camping, hunting, fishing, etc—what must we do before we go?
1. We must prepare ourselves. We must equip ourselves with all necessities needed.
2. Sometimes this is quiet painstaking, but we don’t mind.
H. If we are going to worship God we must prepare ourselves.
PREPARING TO WORSHIP
1. Let us take the thought of preparing to worship God with the idea of preparing to worship God in the worship services of the church.
2. True worshippers can worship God anywhere. You do not have to be in church to worship God. This statement does not, however, teach that God’s people do not have to come to church. On your deer stand, in your office, in your recliner, etc—at any given moment God’s people can worship Him.
a. Keep in mind that when this happens it is not just something out of the blue or spontaneous, were we say “hey I think I will worship God”.
b. Something, prayer, Bible study, confession and repentance of a sin, something causes us to acknowledge God for who He is in light of who we are.
A. When do we begin to prepare to worship in our Sunday morning worship services?
1. At the latest we should begin to prepare to worship God when we awake Sunday morning.
a. But how many wake up Sunday morning with God on their mind?
b. How many wake up and say today I will go to God’s house and worship Him.
c. How many wake up with great anticipation of communing with God—listening to the preaching and teaching of His word that it might bring us close unto Him?
d. How many wake up saying “I hope the preacher has prepared something from God’s Word just for me today?—I need to make some changes in my life—I need to see God this morning that I might remember His greatness and realize that He has blessed me.
e. How many wake up and pray for the worship services? For the pastor? For the lessons and message? for the people? For decisions to be made?
f. How many wake up and say “today someone is going to get saved, come for baptism, church membership, or just get their hearts right with God?
g. If is stopped giving an invitation the church would vacate the pulpit—but it is okay for the church to use the invitation as a time of getting ready to go and planning out their day—it is okay for the church not to expect anyone to move but the preacher cannot stop giving the invitation.
-The invitation is when many come to the point of worshipping God
2. Instead of preparing to worship God when we awake we begin to dread the old Sunday morning routine.
a. After we convince ourselves to get up an go to church we start our rituals, getting dressed, wondering who will be at church and who wont, putting on our smiles—that kills some Baptists to do, and finally we go to church to worship God.
B. Sadly many times we arrive at God’s house Sunday mornings having not prepared to worship God.
1. When we arrive at God’s house we fellowship—this is good—it is good to fellowship with God’s people.
2. But there must be a time when we focus on what we have assembled to do.
3. There must be a time when we erase all thoughts of those things that do not pertain to God and worship.
4. There must come a time when we give ourselves unto the superintending of Holy Spirit.
a. To use the songs, lessons, prayers, and message, to bring me to a place where I can worship God.
b. But this cannot happen if we are allowing our minds to be consumed with other things—our minds hinder us from allowing God to speak to our spirits.
C. When do you prepare to worship if you show up at the worship service unprepared?
1. When do we get God and worshipping Him on our minds?
2. When we focus our mind on God and worship we begin to walk in the spirit, we give our minds to God that in our spirit we might worship Him.
3. Many times we go completely through the worship service thinking about other things.
D. The worship service is designed to bring people to a decision.
1. Prayer, devotion, SS lesson, songs of praise, prayer, message, invitation
a. Pastor is the worship leader—He is responsible for directing the worship service that it might be effective.
2. The song director should have the pastor’s entire message that he might look over it, pray over it, and select the songs for the worship service.
a. How about specials? Pray about singing a special—pray that God would lead you to sing a song that would aid in the worship service, a song that would enhance the message.
b. The song director has a privilege during his part of the service that the pastor doesn’t—he brings an element of fellowship, a laugh with congregation—not in that he tells jokes out of context but softens the congregation—it is good to laugh with your brothers and sisters in Christ.
3. When it is time for the message the pastor should stand up and proclaim God’s Word.
a. This point of the worship service is a time of sharing God’s Word and allowing it to cause us to reflect on our lives.
b. We have prayed, sang with joy, now it is time for us to allow God’s Word to reveal to us who God is and whom we are—along with our spiritual condition.
-I would rather listen to the song leader tell me something funny about the
preacher rather than the Holy Spirit use God’s Word to show me my sin.
4. When we arrive at the invitation it is decision time—you don’t have to wait until the invitation to make a decision but the invitation is an opportunity for decisions to be made public, such as salvation, baptism, church membership, apologies to the church
5. All parts of the worship service brought us unto this place of decision.
6. If we are not prepared to worship we may miss an opportunity to make a much needed decision in our spiritual life.
7. The worship service is a spiritual service for a spiritual people—it takes more than physical attendance.
Summary: When do we prepare for the worship service? We need to prepare before we arrive at God’s house. Prayers should have been offered and hearts set on God and what He might reveal unto me today.