Worship is addressed to God. It isn’t addressed to you and me. So it’s not a matter of being bored with the sermon or not liking the style of the music. When those things become major issues that keep us from worshipping, we need to ask whether we’re focused on God or on ourselves.

Turn with me, please, to John 4:19-25. These verses are part of the larger description of the story of the woman at the well. I will not expound that story today. I simply want to use the passage to bring a few things to your mind.

Since you are here this morning, my assumption is that you came to worship God. While that statement might seem obvious to some, it is possible that someone coerced you into coming. It’s also possible that you came here out of a sense of duty and some vague idea that you ought to be in church on Sunday, but you really haven’t thought much about the concept of worship. Have you ever concerned yourself with the question: Is my worship getting through? Am I connecting? When I leave here, have I truly worshipped God?

Modern people are sometimes inclined to blame worship difficulties on such things as music, mood, and order of service. While these things may play a role in the ultimate outcome, the most important element in any worship service is the condition of the hearts of the people who come before God. As someone has well said, "If your heart is inclined toward God when you walk in the door it will be full of God when you walk out."

My sermon title this morning is called: "Making Sure Our Worship Connects." We will consider various verses on the subject.

We ought to be concerned that when we come to meet God in public worship, we actually accomplish our objective. That is a great part of what we are supposed to do when we gather on Sundays to seek His presence. Yes, there is a sense in which we are always in the presence of God, even when we are alone. But there are times, like on the Lord’s Day, when we gather with special intent to worship Him together. Matthew 18:20 speaks of gathering for a special purpose when it records these words of Jesus: "For where two or three have gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst." Yet gathering together in the name of Jesus can be a waste of time if our minds and hearts are not involved. Jesus said these words in Matthew 15:8: "This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. It is a cold and futile group of people who gather to worship God when their hearts are not involved.

Let me suggest four things you and I can do to help us worship in the right spirit. I suggest that when we come together in public worship we look up, look inside, look around, and look beyond. Allow me to explain what I mean.

Our Modern English word worship comes from the Old English term, worthship. That old word meant "to honor or declare value or worth." When we worship God, we declare, to ourselves and others who are present, God’s extreme worth to us. While unbelievers might not fully understand our time spent in the presence of other Christians, intent on worshipping God when we could be enjoying ourselves out on the Lake or on the golf course on Sunday, we know why we’re here. Others might not comprehend our returning a significant portion of our income to God or understand why we would sing praises to a Deity we can’t see, but we understand it. It’s because God has great worth to us. He is worth all these things and much more.

It follows, then, that when we come together to worship, our hearts need to be oriented upward, toward Him. We need to look up. We need to think about Him. To miss this aspect of worship is fail in it altogether.

When something has worth to us, we go out of our way to take care of it, to be sure we keep it, and to be sure it isn’t damaged. We give it with special attention. We may even brag about it when we have the opportunity.

Consider a man who just bought the car of his dreams. He waxes it. He washes it. He checks the oil and the air in the tires. He is diligent to be sure he never misses a payment so it isn’t repossessed. He faithfully checks off the boxes in the maintenance schedule book whenever he does something to it. He lovingly returns the book to its honored place in the glove compartment. If he parks it in a public parking lot and someone dents it with a car door, he’s angry and insists that the person fix it. He’ll take time off from his job to go to court if necessary to see that the damaged car is fixed. Why does he do all these things? He values his car. To him it has great worth and his treatment of it shows that worth.

You may not like cars, but there is probably something in your life you value very much: Your stamp collection or your house or your shiny new boat or trailer or your stock investments. Whatever it is, you spare no pains to give it the attention necessary to develop it and preserve it. You elevate its worth in your mind above other things.

When we worship God, we extol His great value to us. The word "extol" means that we lift Him up above everything else in importance. We lift Him up in our minds and hearts to the place that is worthy of His great value.

Sadly, some people value their cars and houses more than they value God. It shows in their attitude in public worship. They take pains with their cars or houses. They do little or nothing in preparation to worship the God of Heaven. Worship, to such people is a boring duty, not a joyful experience. If they get excited about anything in the context of worship, it’s the 12:00 hour when it’s over. They want it to be over so they can return to what they really love. "Let’s get out of here and go have some fun!"

Listen to Moses’ worship in Exodus 15:2 as he stood on the far side of the Red Sea after witnessing God’s drowning of the Egyptian army and the salvation of Israel:

"The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will extol Him."

Listen to the Psalmist in Psalm 30:1 after he realized God’s importance in delivering him from his enemies:

"I will extol Thee, O Lord, for Thou hast lifted me up, and hast not let my enemies rejoice over me."

Or Psalm 107:31-32: "Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness, and for His wonders to the sons of men! Let them extol Him also in the congregation of the people, and praise Him at the seat of the elders."

Or Psalm 118:28: "Thou art my God, and I give thanks to Thee; Thou art my God, I extol Thee."

Worship is declaring with our minds and hearts that God has great value to us. It is extolling Him - lifting Him up to His rightful place in our lives.

This part of worship is all for God. There is nothing in it directly for you or me. (Are you listening? Please listen.) I said that this part of worship is all for God. There is nothing in it directly for you and me.

A story is told about Bill Moyers who was a special assistant to President Lyndon Johnson. One day he was asked to pray before a meal in the family quarters of the White House. As Moyers began praying softly, the President interrupted him with, "Speak up, Bill! Speak up!" The former minister from east Texas stopped in mid-sentence and without looking up replied truthfully, "I wasn’t addressing you, Mr. President."

Worship is addressed to God. It isn’t addressed to you and me. So it’s not a matter of being bored with the sermon or not liking the style of the music. When those things become major issues that keep us from worshipping, we need to ask whether we’re focused on God or on ourselves. Over the years I have listened to some complain about various aspects of public worship. They don’t like the style of hymns in the songbook or they don’t like the style of choruses on the wall. People with such objections need to take a careful look at why they’re here. We aren’t here to worship us. We’re here to worship God. Extolling God doesn’t depend upon our liking or disliking a particular style of music. We aren’t here to be entertained by sermons and songs. Yes, there is the matter of edification, but I’m not speaking of that right now. I’m speaking of worship. Worship is for God.

The one who misses this point will leave here empty. Brothers and sisters, when we extol our God, our own musical preferences or sermon preferences or order of worship preferences aren’t the key issue. God’s preferences are the issue. Look up and focus in Him! We are not the spectators, gathered to be entertained. He is the Spectator. We are gathered to worship Him!

To worship God in the right spirit and connect in worship, I say we should look up. Secondly, we should:

In Luke 5, Jesus told Simon Peter to put his net into the deep water. Simon obeyed, but with certain reservations: "Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but at Your bidding I will let down the nets." Not much enthusiasm in Peter’s words. You know what happened next. Luke 5:6 says, "They enclosed a great quantity of fish; and their nets began to break…" In fact, when they began to load the fish into the boat, there were so many that the boat began to sink. Suddenly Peter realized that he was in the presence of not just a man, but the living Christ. He fell down at Jesus’ feet and said, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!"

Realizing the presence of the Living God often makes us aware of our own sinfulness. When Isaiah found himself in the presence of God, he blurted out in horror, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips…" (Isaiah 6:5)

Isaiah, who was no spiritual slouch, recognized that he was not good. He was guilty. He was a sinner. Like Simon Peter, the only appropriate response was to confess his sinfulness. The word "confess" is the Greek compound word, homologeo, taken from homo, the same and logeo, to speak or say. Literally, it means to say the same thing. Confession is agreeing with God. When we confess that we are sinners, we say the same about ourselves that God says.

When the tax collector in Jesus’ parable in Luke 18 came to worship and left justified, it was because he said, "God, be merciful to me, the sinner" in verse 13. He looked inside, saw himself as he really was, and agreed with God that He was a sinner in need of grace.

Just in case some of you hadn’t realized it: God didn’t get any special bargain when you and I decided to come to worship this morning. We are the ones who got the bargain. We are the ones blessed because He allowed us to come into His presence. Reorienting our thinking to reflect this is a key to effective worship.

To worship God in the right spirit and connect in worship, we should look up, look inside, and thirdly:

Jesus tied the worship of God together with our relationship to othrs. For you and me, that’s the people in this room this morning. It’s the guy up front here. It’s the person sitting next to you and across the room. If our attitude toward these people isn’t right, then we will leave this place having failed to connect with God in worship.

You cannot say you’re worshipping God if you hate your brother. John wrote in 1 John 2:9-11: "The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now… the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes."

John speaks here of what we might call "blind hate." If hatred for someone is allowed to grow unchecked, eventually it blinds the hater. They can no longer see what is wrong with their attitude. They are in the dark. It is a dangerous thing. It can be eternally fatal, because John says later in this same letter in 1 John 3:15: "Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."

Jesus made the priority of relationships with our brothers and sisters in worship very clear in Matthew 5:23-24 when He said, "If therefore you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering."

If your attitude toward your brother is wrong, and you wish to worship God, you should not even wait to finish your worship before you go and make it right. You should leave your worship, go to your brother or sister in Christ, and seek reconciliation. Only then do you return and complete your worship. It is that urgent.

To worship God in the right spirit and connect in worship, we should look up, look inside, look around, and finally:

After David sinned with Bathsheba and covered it up for almost a year, he finally confessed his wrong and asked God to restore him. In Psalm 51:12-13, he wrote these words: "Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners will be converted to Thee." Once God restored David, the king knew that the right thing for him to do was to get busy once again serving God. A person reconciled to God and others is a qualified servant, ready to do God’s will.

In Isaiah 6:8 the prophet saw God, saw his own sinfulness, and had his sin removed when the angel placed the burning coal to his lips. The very next thing he said was, "Here am I, send me!" A person reconciled to God others is a qualified servant, ready to do God’s will.

When Saul of Tarsus, confronted personally by Jesus on the road to Damascus, was baptized to wash away his sins, according to Acts 9:20, "Immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’" A person reconciled to God and others is a qualified servant, ready to do God’s will.

When we have looked up to see God in His proper place in our lives, looked inside to see what we really are and confessed our sins, looked around to check our relationship to others, we look beyond in service to God. We are not saved to sit. We are saved to serve.

We correctly call this thing we do here on Sundays a "worship service." But our service doesn’t end here. This is only the beginning.

God didn’t set us right just so we can go to heaven and leave everyone else He loves behind. He wants others to know of Him. A part of the right attitude in worship is our attitude toward His call to serve.

Isaiah said, "Here am I, send me!" May it never be that our attitude once we have been reconciled to God and others becomes "Here am I, but I hope you can find someone else, Lord. I’m just too busy."

I like the way Roland often says it: Service is not "serve us."

A little old man was seen every Sunday morning walking to church. He was deaf, so he couldn’t hear a word of the sermon or the songs sung by the congregation. There was no one around to "sign" for him. A scoffer asked, "Why do you spend your Sundays in that church when you can’t hear a word?" He replied, "I want my neighbors to know which side I’m on!"

Perhaps your worship is already in tune with God and the things I have said add little or nothing to your understanding. If that is so it is wonderful.

But if you find yourself just drifting along, unsure about your worship, I encourage you to remember these four imperatives: Look up, look inside, look around, and look beyond. You’ll soon know that your worship connects.

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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