Malachi 1:6-14
Worship is… attributing worth to someone or something giving honor
We all worship, what that is, is what is the most important to you. What you use your time, talent and treasure on.
I feel there are two areas in which we can look at the worship of the Lord.
1. Our lives Rom. 12:1-2. 1 Cor 10:31, Col 3:17 How we live our lives reflects the conditions of our hearts
2. The worship service- The importance we place on a worship service and how we respond in a worship service also tells the condition of our hearts.
These next verses in Malachi show us that the Jewish people’s worship (in the temple) was displeasing to the Lord which in turn shows that their heart condition was a mess so when they came to worship it was mess.
How you respond here for an hour a week has everything to do with how you have been living all week.
-If you are broken, you look at the service as a way to be fixed,
-If you are doing well you look at the service as a way to share that and get more.
-If you are full of pride you look at the service as something to criticize.
-If you are thankful you look at the service as a place to use your abilities and resources and give back to God.
-If you are willfully disobeying God you look at the service at something you want to stay away from.
Vrs 6a Honor-high respect. and reverence- a gesture of deep respect in worship
Because we cannot see God many times we don’t give Him the respect that He is due. So he compares Himself to Fathers and Masters
Vrs 6b “despised” this shows hatred or a lack of importance of God
Vrs 7 Under the Mosaic law the were ways the food needed to be prepared before it was offered and they were treating this food as ordinary.
We should come top church preparing ourselves to hear the word and respond in thanks to Jesus. Church service is not just something to do it is something that should be central to our lives and is commanded that we not forsake the gathering.
Vrs 8a Worship cost them something. The attendees and facilitators
1. This is a good practical lesson, does coming out to church on Sunday cost you anything? Does it just fit into your schedule and if it does not work out you just don’t go. Is it a priority? You can see what and who is a priority in peoples lives by what they actually do with their time.
Facilitators
2. Is what is going on in the service just thrown together or well, prayed out and planned out?
Your service is worship, so coming late and unprepared is showing communicating to God it is not important. We have people coming as early as 2 oclock worshipping Jesus as they set up for everyone else to come at 5pm. It cost them something, Jesus is so worth it.
Vrs 8b God’s response is give that to your governor. Even the un-believing world can see that something is not important by how much you put into things.
I believe things should be done the best for the Lord but there is a line that needs to be drawn, we don’t want to train people up to be church consumers. Problem is everyone is a judge on American Idol
There needs to be heart of worship in everything that is done.
When it comes to church worship I believe that there are two mistakes that can be made. Martha and Mary Luke 10:38-42
1. Too concerned with how great it sounds and miss the heart, this is an easy trap because there is no other venue in the world that a musician is using their talents to promote someone other then themselves.
2. Letting anyone do it because they seem like they have a heart for it. Why? Because it is not edifying to the hearers and can distract their worship. “I have a heart to fix your car”
What do you do if someone criticizes your act of worship? Use it as a learning experience, take the true and ignore the untrue be humble.
It is healthy for people who are serving to evaluate what we are doing.
How do we combat those two mistakes? Pray that God will continue to send people that their heart is into worshipping Jesus and they have the skill sets to do it. I have to say I am impressed with the attitudes of all who are involved in the music part of the worship
Vrs 9a Repent stop it and change
Vrs 9b Rhetorical question will God accept worthless worship? No! so repent
Vrs 10 There must be someone who can stand up and say no no stop, that is the job of pastors and leadership in the church. If they don’t stand up and stop the madness the entire body of believers is contaminated.
“In Vain”= “without a cause” we want worship to have a point and we want to create something that shows the worth of Jesus and has a point. If you are going to check off that you came to church, there is a problem.
Some churches should close their doors because they don’t lift up Jesus they lift themselves up and church is a social thing.
Vrs 11- Prophecy- True worship will happen with people who God has worked in their hearts through the saving work of Jesus. GOSPEL
Vrs 12 “profane” –treat as ordinary and contempt (disrespect)
Gives an example…This is how God feels that you hate coming to worship
Vrs 13 “weariness” I don’t wanna go to church, “when I was a kid ill”
Vrs 14 You have it in you to be excited for the Lord because you are excited for other things (surfing, going on vacation etc.) “Deceiver” Don’t be fake it.
So what do we want to accomplish in the worship service?
What is the biblical mandate of a worship service? Acts 2
-Everything we do should lift up the name of Jesus
-Give an opportunity to praise Jesus by singing, contemplating words sung or quiet contemplation while listening to music. (That is what we should be doing when instruments are playing)
Facts about music
Thomas Jefferson while writing the Declaration of Independence played the violin when he had trouble figuring out the wording. and Albert Einstein played violin to figure out math problems
Responses to music are easy to be detected in the human body. Classical music causes the heart beat and pulse rate to relax to the beat of the music. As the body becomes relaxed and alert, the mind is able to concentrate more easily. Furthermore, classical music decreases blood pressure and enhances the ability to learn. Music also affects breathing rate and electrical resistance of the skin. It has been observed to cause the pupils to dilate, increase blood pressure, and increase the heart rate.
King George I of England. King George had problems with memory loss and stress management. He read from 1 Samuel 18 the story of King Saul and recognized that Saul had experienced the same type of problems that he was experiencing. George recognized that Saul overcame his problems by using special music. With this story in mind King George asked George Frederick Handel to write some special music for him that would help him in the same way that music helped Saul. Handel wrote his Water Music (Morning Has Broken) for this purpose.
Napoleon understood the enormous power of music. He summed it up by saying, "Give me control over he who shapes the music of a nation, and I care not who makes the laws" .
Piper Said “the music opens the heart to the true joy of God-centeredness
Music has extreme power and can influence and emotionally move people, therefore it is no surprise that the Bible is filled with musical praise of the Lord.
-Corporate prayer
-Communion & Baptism
-Do these things in unity
-Teach the truths of the Bible, God’s wisdom not man’s we will talk about this next week
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