You Are Invited...to Worship - Psalm 95

God wants no competition in worship because there is no competition in real life. There's not five gods floating around out there.

You take your pick. There's only one true God. He is of supreme worth, of supreme value. The true and one living God. Jesus paid the ultimate price to save you from your own sins and from death.

Because of that, he deserves your worship and devotion. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzel, Skip shares his top teaching from the 2000s explaining why worship is so meaningful and beneficial to your life. But first, we want to invite you to be a part of an unforgettable journey to Israel. Going to Israel is a unique experience, but by far the most life-changing part of it is the spiritual aspect. That's why I'm excited to announce our next trip there in 2022. You'll have the opportunity to worship and study God's word in some of the most significant biblical sites in the country.

Find out more at inspirationcruises.com slash C-A-B-Q. Thanks, Skip. Now, we're in Psalm 95 as we dive into our study with Skip Heitzel. Worship isn't just an act, an activity once a week under the guy's worship service.

It is not just a feeling that we would conjure up. It is a lifestyle of adoration where we declare quite appropriately that God is above everything else in my life and everyone else. And that's why Tozer was right when he said worship is the missing jewel of the evangelical church. Because more and more, we're losing the whole reason that we gather together as a group of people. While I was traveling, I took my computer and I was getting email and a friend of mine in the church wired me an article that he found online from religiontoday.com.

And the researcher found this. There's a pastor in Little Rock, Arkansas who held recently a Who Wants to Be a Millionaire game at church. This is Sunday morning worship.

Two winners took home $1,000 each when they answered the biblical questions correctly. Another church sent visitors gift baskets filled with fresh bread and fruit or offers them gift certificates to local restaurants. One church in Texas concludes the Sunday services in time for Dallas Cowboys football games. And those games are shown on the big screen outside the church. And in some parts of the country that is an alternate religious experience for some.

One pastor in Bryan, Texas pays people $10 each if they'll come to church on his bus. All of this under the title worship with us. When biblical worship is the appropriate response from the core of my being where I am willing voluntarily to place God above everything and everyone else in my personal life. That brings us to part two here in Psalm 95 and that's why do we do that? What is the reason that I render God my worship? There's probably a lot of reasons we could come up with but the best two are found in Psalm 95. We worship God because of who God is and because of who we are. There is a relationship there of us to him that demands our worship.

And it is steadfast, it's fixed, it never changes. I see worship and praise differently. In other words, praise is more episodal. It is the response to an episode, an act of God or a provision of God. And God does something for us so we render praise to him.

But that changes. Sometimes God blesses you, sometimes God withholds that for a period of time. But worship should go on regardless of the provision or the act. It's not based on what God does, it's based on who God is and who we are in response to him.

I'll show you what I mean. First of all, because who God is. Look back at verse one and notice the descriptions of God in Psalm 95. Verse one, he's called the Lord and then notice he's called the rock of our salvation. In verse three, God is designated the great God, the great king above all gods. Verse four and five describe God as the creator of everything on earth.

The high places, the deep places, they're all his. Verse six, it's personal, he says he's our maker. Verse seven, our God. And then verses eight through eleven describes God as the God of history.

The one who took the Jews out of the bondage of Egypt and brought them through the wilderness and gave them their own land. And all of those descriptions make God very valuable to us. He's of great worth.

He's of great value so we declare his worth above all else. Now it's not stated in Psalm 95 but we further worship God the Son, Jesus Christ. Because of his redemption on the cross that he bought us and made us in union with his father. In fact, the very center of worship from this time or from the cross forward throughout all of eternity will be the cross of Christ. I already quoted the verse to you in Revelation 5, it's a preview of heaven. When we're all going to say together, for you were slain, we say that to Jesus. And have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe, tongue, people and nation. The cross becomes the center.

We worship God and God alone. I heard a story from several generations ago actually when the communists were overrunning Russia. Stalin was in power and it seems that an elderly woman was in a church, a Russian Orthodox church. She walked to the front of the church where there was an old cross of Jesus. He was hanging on the cross and she bent down to kiss the scarred feet of the Savior.

And as she did, a Russian soldier approached her and using the common term for grandmother, he said, Babushka, are you willing to bend and kiss the feet of Stalin like you've kissed the feet of Christ? And she said, yes, if he gets crucified for me. Only Christ was crucified for us. Only he redeemed us and so he alone gets our worship. Because of who God is, we worship him. So looking over these descriptions of God in Psalm 95, what other being in history could you say these things about? Our God, the Creator, the God of all history, the rock of our salvation.

Only the Lord God, the one true living God. You couldn't say these things about George Washington or Napoleon or Mozart or Elvis or Uncle Bob, but only God. And that is why the first commandment God gave to the children of Israel is, I am the Lord your God and you will have no other God besides me.

God wants no competition in worship because there is no competition in real life. There's not five gods floating around out there, you take your pick. There's only one true God.

He is of supreme worth, of supreme value. The true and one living God. By the way, that's why the Bible says, and I make no apology for it, that our God is a jealous God. Have you ever read that verse? God is a jealous God. A lot of us Christians don't like to underline that or mention that, we get a little bit fidgety when we talk about God, after all, as being jealous.

I think it's a wonderful thing. It's part of true love. Any husband and wife ought to know that. If a husband is in love with his wife, he's not going to want to share her with anybody in the neighborhood. And if anyone tries to come on to her, he better get jealous.

That's part of that love dynamic that they have. And even so, we're called the bride of Christ, which means we exist for him alone. We worship and adore him alone. Remember John in the book of Revelation when at one point the angel gives him further revelation, and it says that John bowed down to worship the angel. And the angel rebuked John, admonished him at least, and said, See that you do this not.

I am your fellow servant. Worship God. So God didn't want angels worshiped. God doesn't want Mary worshiped.

God doesn't want Martin Luther worshiped, or John Calvin worshiped, or any pastor worshiped, or any movement worshiped. He alone is to be the exclusive object of our worship because of who he is. Now there's a second part of this in verse 7 because of who we are.

Look at it a little more carefully. For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. You get the relationship? If he's the creator, then I'm the creation. If he's the Lord, I'm the servant. If he is the great shepherd, then I am the sheep. I follow him. It is that relationship of who I am and who he is that demands my worship. It's the natural response. Ownership is implied here.

Rulership is implied here. There's a great little story I've heard years ago about the little boy that made the gingerbread man. He was all into this thing and he made the gingerbread man put little candies for eyes and mouth and fashioned it just so.

It was his creation, put it in the oven, baked it, brought it out, was so proud of it. Until the gingerbread man suddenly sprung to life and ran out of the kitchen and ran down the street. The little boy hightailed it after the gingerbread man, after all he made it. The little gingerbread man took off faster than the little boy could run and he was lost. Two days he spent looking for his creation. Finally, as he walked by a bakery, he looked in the window.

To his left, right in front, was his gingerbread man. He had made it, but had a little sign on it. Five cents. Well, he stormed into the shop and demanded that the shopkeeper give him what was rightfully his. After all, he was the one who made it. The shop owner said, young man, if you want that gingerbread man, it will cost you a nickel. Five cents, that's what's posted.

Oh, but you don't understand. It's mine. I made it.

I don't care what you did. It's in my shop. It will cost you a nickel. The little boy reached into his pocket, took out a nickel, paid the man, took the gingerbread man home, laid it on the counter, smashed it.

No, I'm just kidding. But he had a good long talk with it. And basically he said to him, now you are mine, first of all because I made you, but now you are mine because I bought you. And isn't that what the Lord Jesus has done to us? He made us, and all of us like sheep have gone astray.

We've gone our own way. But then he came and paid the ultimate price on the cross. And he owns us. We've given our lives to him. And he can rightfully say, I made you, and I redeemed you, and you're mine.

And because of who he is, and because of who we are in relationship to who he is, the natural response would be one of a lifestyle of adoration, of worship. Now did you notice in verse 7 that we are called sheep? We are the sheep of his hand. And depending on what you know about sheep, you are greatly comforted or highly insulted. Because sheep, though they're cuddly and wonderful and soft, they're really dumb. They need to be led.

They just can't manage on their own because they'll go the wrong way. But I look at this, instead of being insulted, I'm elated. Like David who said, the Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want. David, being a shepherd, knew that the quality of life of any sheep depends on the kind of shepherd you have. And it was like he was bragging, hey, look who my shepherd is. It's the Lord. He's my shepherd. I'm his sheep. He's taking care of me.

And the response was worship. Have you ever known an animal owner who doesn't really take care of their pets? In fact, you think after a while, they really don't deserve animals. They walk the thing once a year, bathe the thing every four years, whether they need it or not. There's animals living within the fur of this creature.

Birds' nests are there. But then, maybe some of you have known on the other end of the spectrum, the professional pet owner. Got the pedigree certificate on the wall, puts the dog in dog shows, designer sweaters on in the wintertime for the dog, personalized doghouse with the refrigerator, the name written over the door, Fido. But it's P-H-Y-D-E-A-U, you know, Fido.

We may look at that and think, oh, that's crazy. That's way overboard. But question, if you were a dog and you could decide who you want to live with, who would it be? The guy that goes overboard. Well, listen, the Lord God, maker of heaven and earth, is your shepherd. He'll take good care of you. He will perfect that which concerns you.

He'll pay meticulous care for your needs. And that relationship of who he is and who we are demands worship. So to sum it up, we're his creature.

He's the creator. What's natural? Worship. He's the sovereign Lord.

We are the subjects. What's natural? Worship. He's the great shepherd of the sheep. We are the sheep.

What's natural? Worship. It's the natural proper response from our heart whereby we place God above everyone and everything else in our lives. And anything short of that is not true biblical worship because of who God is and who we are. By the way, when we do come for worship, whether it's in private quiet times or in a corporate assembly like this, it's for him. It's not really for us.

The reason we gather isn't so that we can get our burdens lifted and experience peace, though we do, we should. That's the result. But that's secondary. Primarily, it's for him. So often we think, well, I'm the audience.

No, you're not. He's the audience. Dr. D. James Kennedy wrote, Most people think of the church as a drama with the minister as the chief actor. God is the prompter and the laity is the critic. What is actually the case is that the congregation is the chief actor. The minister is the prompter and God is the critic. So when we leave today, our question heavenward should be, God, how did I do?

You were watching. I was either worshiping you in spirit and truth or I was not. That's why I love the song that we sang at the end. I'm coming back to the heart of worship because it's all about you. It's all about you, Jesus. We should never think of worship as, well, I like the worship today.

So, I really didn't like the worship today. So, it's not up to us to grade. It's a scale of one to ten. I'll give it a six. Good beat.

Easy to dance to. It's not about you. It's your turn to render praise, glory, adoration back to him. Because of who he is, because of who we are, that's why we do it. Third, and finally, we want to look briefly at the modes of worship as outlined in this psalm. How should we do it? We know what it is.

We know why we ought to do it. Now, how do we go about worshiping? There are several ways to do it.

That will take the bulk of the next few weeks. But there are four ways given here in Psalm 95 that describe to us modes of worship. Number one, we do it with others, with our peers, Christian brothers and sisters, the family. Notice it says, let us, plural pronoun, let us worship, let us sing, let us shout. Now, here's the context of the 95th Psalm.

It is a call to public worship, corporate worship. Three times a year, probably most of you know, the Jews were commanded to leave their homes, wherever they lived in Israel, and make a pilgrimage up to Jerusalem. Three feasts they attended.

Put this picture in your mind. Dad would wake up his kids, his wife, they'd have everything packed, they'd put the backpack on, take an animal if they were to ride on it, or they'd walk, they'd take the footpath out from their home. They would suddenly be met by a couple neighbors. And then soon, they would be part of a river of pilgrims, thousands of people, leaving their homes, their villages, en route to Jerusalem, as they would go. They would be reciting scripture, they would be singing songs, and it would be encouraging to the max. It would reaffirm one's personal faith in God. Look at all these other people doing the same thing, worshiping God. And therein lies the value of corporate worship. Is that we get together on Sunday and Wednesdays in small groups, we get together with other people who believe in God and love God, love Jesus, and put him first, and we see them all rendering praise to God. And it encourages us. That's why it's perfectly appropriate, when you worship, to keep your eyes open.

Close them if you want to, but I don't always like to tune everybody out. I'm with them. It's their presence that inspires me to trust in him more. Every now and then I'll meet somebody who will give me the rap about organized religion. Well, I don't really believe in organized religion. I don't think you really have to attend church to worship God. I like to just go out and find a tree and look at a rock and talk to God, just me and God. You know, we're like this.

You are wrong. Not that you can't go out under a tree and talk to God, you can, but you need other people. For the Bible says that we should never forsake the assembly of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but we should do it more and more as we see the day of Christ approaching.

We need it, and it's good for us. By the way, remember when Jesus taught the Our Father? He didn't say, And when you pray, say, My Father, who art in heaven, give me this day my daily bread.

You know why? Because Jesus came to take words like I, me, and mine out of our vocabulary and replace them with we, ours, and us. We're all part of this great peer group called the body of Christ. So, we worship with others. Second, we worship with our lips. Look at verse 1. Let us sing, and then further on, let us shout joyfully.

I don't think you can do that without lips. How do you shout joyfully? Of course, God reads your thoughts, but here is the encouragement to sing and to shout joyfully. Aren't you glad it doesn't say, Let us sing perfectly to the Lord? Make sure you're in just the right pitch and harmony. But it says, Make a joyful noise. Now, we can do that.

All of us can do that. The question is not, Do you have a voice? The question is, Do you have a song in your heart? A lot of people do not worship. They do not sing because they have no song inside. Let us shout joyfully to the Lord. Joyfully. Have you noticed how many bars have happy hour?

Why isn't the church happy hour? We have a song to sing about. We have a purpose to sing for. In fact, one of the greatest ways to get you out of discouragement is to worship corporately, to sing, to shout joyfully. I know what you're thinking. Some of you might think, But I don't feel like it. Do it anyway.

You will find a lifting of the Spirit that comes by the act of obedience. Yeah, but God, it's because of who you are. You're worthy.

You're valuable. I declare that. I sing about that. And your spirits will get lifted. Let us sing.

Let us shout joyfully. I want to share a little article with you I found in the Detroit Free Press. It's called Remedy for a Prune Face. I'm not implying anything by it.

Just an article that I think speaks of this. Quote, Ladies, do you want to stay young? Then join a church choir. For women who sing, stay younger looking. A singer's cheek muscles are so well developed by exercise that her face will not wrinkle as soon as the non-singer's will. Now, that's not the motivation to sing.

Oh, for anything to stay younger, I'm going to start singing. But just to use that as an illustration, it's obvious that God made us this way. We're created to worship.

As it says in Proverbs, a merry heart makes a cheerful countenance. That's Skip Heitig with a message from the series Worship, Life with Passion and Purpose. Right now, we want to share about a resource that gives you incredible insight into what's going on in the Middle East and why it matters for you. New York Times bestselling author, Joel Rosenberg, is now based in Jerusalem, and he's releasing the new nonfiction book, Enemies and Allies.

I've traveled with Joel to Middle East cities to meet with kings and crown princes. We sat together on the east lawn of the White House for the signing of the historic Abraham Accords, and I previewed his new book, Enemies and Allies. I can tell you it contains never-before-published quotes from behind closed-door meetings with some of the most powerful and mysterious leaders in the Middle East. You will want to read this book. Enemies and Allies by Joel Rosenberg includes insights and analysis from the author's conversations with some of the most controversial leaders in the world.

This is the first book of its kind. Almost nobody's ever had that chance to not just meet one of these major leaders, but to meet almost all of them, and then to get to tell the story in first-person language, come with me into the palace, into the motorcade, and come meet the most interesting, consequential, and controversial leaders in the entire Middle East. Enemies and Allies by Joel Rosenberg includes insights and analysis from the author's conversations with some of the most controversial leaders in the world. We'll send you a hardcover copy of Enemies and Allies as thanks for your gift of $35 or more.

To give, visit connectwithskipp.com or call 800-922-1888. Tune in tomorrow as Skip Heitzig shares his top teaching from the 2010s, explaining what God envisioned when He charged shepherds to serve His people. You will have in Scripture shepherds that are put in a good light because of their care. Sheep, on the other hand, in the Bible are not always put in the greatest of light. Isaiah 53, all we like sheep have gone astray. We've all gone our own way.

In fact, the only time sheep are placed in favorable light is when they're placed under the good supervision of a good shepherd. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross. Cast all burdens on His word, make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.