Two angels were walking through God’s universe, and one was asking the other questions. “What is this for?”, the one asked, pointing to a star.

“That is to give off light and be a sign and a light to the earth.”

“And what is that for?”, he said, pointing to the clouds wrapping around the earth.

“Those are to give rain on the earth, and provide shade and cool.”

Pointing to the ocean, he said, “What is this for?”

“This is to separate the land, to control the weather cycle, to store the billions of sea animals, and to humble man’s heart.”

Finally, the angel pointed to man, and said, “And what is this for.”

The angel responded, “Oh – just one thing: to worship God.”

Man was made to worship God. Adam was made to bring God glory. Since the fall, our race has been like zebras trying to fly or fish trying to walk. We are made to bring glory to God and find our deepest joy in doing so. The greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind.

Last week, we began this series by asking, what are ways we know Christ? We saw five secrets to knowing Him: knowing Him as a Person; knowing Him by His sovereign permission; knowing Him through the Trinity; knowing Him progressively and knowing Him through His analogies in the Word.

Today we take it further. Assuming we understand those five secrets, how do we go about knowing God? Where do we look? What do we do? The first, and greatest answer to the question of how to know God is the answer of worship. We know Christ through worship.

Why worship? Three reasons:

I. You Were Created to Worship God.

“Everyone who is called by My name, Whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.” (Isa 43:7)

This people I have formed for Myself; They shall declare My praise. (Isa 43:21)

II. You Were Saved to Worship God

1 Peter 2:9

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light

Before we are saved we are worshippers, but not of God. We worship what has been created instead of the Creator. But the grand purpose of salvation is not to get you to another location, heaven, as much as it is to get you back to your designed purpose – worship.

III. You Will Spend Eternity Worshipping God.

John 17:24 Rev 4:8

Last week we read in John 17, that it is Jesus’ desire is for His disciples to eventually be before Him beholding His glory. This is what will make heaven the pleasure it will be – worshipping God forever.

“I can safely say, on the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of God, that any man or woman on this earth who is bored and turned off by worship is not ready for heaven.” – A.W. Tozer

Don’t you think it is important to get used to and learn better how to do what you will do forever?

Unfortunately, there is massive confusion today on the topic of worship. One of the greatest errors today is confusing worship with entertainment. Sadly, there are millions around the world today who will enter Christian churches and indulge in entertaining themselves, and walk out feeling that they worshipped – but worship is not entertainment. They are different on nearly every level.

Entertainment is about amusement, worship is about engagement. When you go somewhere to be entertained, you go to suspend your thinking, to think as little as possible, and to be mentally and emotionally massaged by someone else’s movie, or music, or painting. In worship you are engaged as a participant, not merely a spectator.

Entertainment has performers and consumers, worship has only participants. In entertainment, you either entertain your paying customers and those paying, sit passively for their entertainment. Worship has only those who worship, with God as the object, and not merely the audience.

Entertainment is trivial and lighthearted by nature. We don’t take very seriously what entertains us. It is a kind of diversion from the hard realities of life. We get entertained to unwind, to forget. Worship, on the other hand is serious and demanding. We are encountering God, and He deserves our utmost.

Entertainment is immediate and gives instant gratification. No one pays to see a movie with delayed satisfaction. No one goes to a show that will repay you in joy months later. But worship requires cultivation and exercise, and the glory of worship is not always what you got out of it that morning. Entertainment is judged by its popularity and responds to its audience’s tastes, worship is about beauty and is fixed on the nature of God.

Now sadly, many people have turned Sunday morning worship into entertainment, appealing to popular tastes, seeking instant gratification, keeping things lightweight and fun, having professional performers and treating people like spectators and consumers. But when this happens, there is no worship of God taking place, only a worship of self.

There’s a second kind of self-centred confusion about worship. Many people confuse private worship with a kind of inner therapy. Inner therapy is to gain self-confidence, self-love, self-esteem, self-assurance, using various techniques that will relax you, affirm you. But worship of God, as much as it may calm us, console us and comfort us is not about us. It is not about using God to gain personal motivation, or find inner peace, or drive out depression, or reach for my dreams. Worship is an encounter with God, with all the varieties of emotions that brings. And when we go to worship God, even in private, treating it like a kind of therapy for self, an inner massage, we have missed the point entirely. To think of worship as entertainment or as therapy is to turn worship on its head, and make ourselves the centre, and God the servant.

True worship, as we saw last week, is a response to who He is. It is not an innovation, not an act of creativity. It is knowing the person, and responding to Him as He is. Worship requires that you worship the true God, with true motives, in a truly appropriate fashion.

Now let me show you the three spheres, the three arenas in which we worship God, and so come to know Him. If we will take up all three, we will surely come to know Him and love Him.

I. Private Worship

Psalm 119:147-148 I rise before the dawning of the morning, And cry for help; I hope in Your word.

My eyes are awake through the night watches, That I may meditate on Your word.

Daniel 6:10 Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.

Mark 1:35 Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.

Acts 10:9 The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour.

Now you’ll notice that these are not commands, they are examples. But the fact that they are spread out throughout the Bible suggests that God’s people have almost instinctively sensed the need to meet with God alone, regularly. If you read biographies of Christians through the ages, you will see mention of their times alone in private worship. If you read the devotional works of the church, you will see Christians exhorting each other to spend time alone with God.

In fact, I am sure that if we asked most of the Christians in this room, they would tell you that they almost knew without having to be told that once you are a Christian, you want to meet with God alone. You want to talk to Him, thank Him, ask Him. You want to hear from him as well.

Now I want to suggest to you that every Christian must take this privilege of worshipping God alone. What a delightful thing – to be able to appear before God and tell Him things too personal and private to be shared with others. To praise Him and thank Him for the particular way He has worked in your life. To confess your private and secret sins. To ask Him for particular and pressing needs in your life and in that of those you know. It is to re-dedicate your whole being to God afresh everyday. It is your chance to just stop and reflect on what God is teaching you. It is to hear what he is saying to you.

Here is unmatched intimacy. It is to come before your Father and know Him. It is to break bread,

Any relationship that does not involve personal communion and communication between the two people will slowly become distant, cold and even brittle. On the other hand, when we do spend time alone with God, we bring glory to Him, and we find our deepest satisfaction in God.

George Mueller was a Baptist pastor who lived during the 19^th century. He ended up taking care of thousands of orphans, pastoring churches and went on the mission field in his eighties. He wrote a little pamphlet called ‘Soul Nourishment’, which I’ve shared with many of you. This is one of the things he wrote in there:

“I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord…How different, when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is when without spiritual preparation, the service, the trials, and the temptations of the day come upon one”

The most important thing in your Christian life is worship – to love God and to worship God privately. But understand that worshipping God privately is only the start. It flows into the two others, which are in some ways, more important and more significant.

So let me encourage you to take up the example of the ancient Hebrews and the New Testament church. Find time to be with God. Morning is probably best. A lunch break is good. A quiet hour at night is fine. A bit of both is great. Any time is beneficial. Tune out the sounds of the world. Come to God for no other reason than God Himself. Come to know Him and love Him. If you can, open His Word and read. But don’t just read. Think. Meditate. Reflect. You don’t have to do a Bible reading plan to meditate on Scripture. You can meditate on the mental or physical notes you took during the Sunday sermon. You can meditate on Scriptural truth contained in a solid devotional book, or hymnal. I’m not against well-written prayers either – they contain truth and help us respond to God well. Think about God and then respond to truth. That’s worship – appropriate responses to truth about God. Praise Him, thank Him, fear Him, desire Him, trust Him, hope in Him. Confess your wrongs, and rest in his finished work. Present yourself again a living sacrifice. Yield to His will. Purpose to make the changes he has showed you need to be made. Ask for grace for others.

II. Public Worship

Though we will have times to worship God privately, this is by no means the only, or even the main form of seeking God. Communion with God is not a primarily solitary experience. The little tributaries of the private worship of individuals ought to flow into the coursing river of public worship. As God’s people gather for worship, the opportunities to seek God are never better. Here God’s people make an approach to God as a group, and experience music, prayer and Scripture in ways not possible in private worship.

The private worship of a Christian will seldom rise above the level of the public worship in which he participates, for it shapes, chastens, and directs private forms of devotion. In light of that, the Christian who desires the posture of seeking God will flesh that out among a local assembly of believers.

Corporate worship is when believers come together at the appointed time and unite in responding to God’s glory. God cares about this. Exodus devotes 25 chapters to the building of the Tabernacle – the centre of Israelite corporate worship. Leviticus is 27 chapters of instructions on corporate worship. Psalms is a book of 150 hymns to be sung. Once you’re in the New Testament, the emphasis doesn’t end. We see the early church in the book of Acts coming together to worship. We see commands like Hebrews 10:25 to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

But perhaps the strongest evidence for New Testament corporate worship is the fact that God refers to believers (plural) as the Temple of God.

I can give you several biblical reasons why corporate worship is in some ways more significant, and offers more opportunities than private worship:

• Corporate worship is where Christ is especially present. He promises that where two or three are gathered in his name He is there amongst us. Is He with us privately? Yes. But a greater manifestation of Him is to be expected when we come together.
• Corporate worship is where we are authorised to partake of the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper is one of the highlights of knowing and enjoying Christ. The Lord’s Supper is not something I can have in private worship or lifestyle worship.
• Corporate worship is always a maximising of our joy in God. Have you noticed that whenever the psalmists are talking about joy in God, they are almost always calling others to join them in praise. “O Come let us praise the Lord. Magnify the Lord with me.” If you have ever travelled alone, you will know it is not at all the same when you see a beautiful sight and you are there by yourself. You very first inclination when you see beauty is to turn to another and say, “Isn’t that beautiful?” And when they agree with you, the joy is greater than if you had enjoyed it alone. For all the beauties of God we might enjoy in private worship and lifestyle worship, it is only in corporate worship that our joy in God is magnified. Others agree – yes, he is worthy, He is trustworthy, faithful, kind, powerful.
• Public worship is where the promise of greatest edification lies. Think on your own life. Where has the greatest growth happened? Isn’t it usually as a result of the body of Christ?
• Worship commands are almost always addressed to believers in the plural. “Singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord”
• Perfected worship, when we are glorified, will be public worship. Did you ever think that the highlight of our worship, when God sets up His kingdom on the earth, will be when we travel to the new Jerusalem? And what will we do there? We will worship Him as a group! An innumerable group.

So what do we do at corporate worship?

If I can simplify it to its most basic, it is probably this: In public worship, we are presented with truth about God, and we respond to that truth together. When we sing, we are singing truth. By joining our hearts and voices, we are agreeing on the validity of the truth, and on the response. When someone leads in prayer – he represents our desires and gratitude and praise and confessions. Therefore we pray with him, and say Amen, verbally or inwardly. When the truth of God is set forth in the preaching of the Word, we together concentrate on its meaning so as to understand. We respond. Some of that response is immediate – praise, conviction, new understanding. Some of the response will come in your lifestyle. And we may even leave and together respond to the Word – wasn’t that truth precious? Wasn’t that truth just so timely? Isn’t God’s Word always relevant?

This is why unity is so fundamental. The power of corporate worship is to have believers who are likeminded and loving one another together responding with one mind towards the Lord Jesus Christ.

So what can you do?

Well, prepare for worship. If you are busy with private worship and lifestyle worship, you are preparing. In fact, your thoughts will start going towards the Lord’s Day when you can come and respond to God with others. Prepare also by giving some thought as to what you are going to do when you come, what this is about. We recently studied:

Ecclesiastes 5:1 which says, “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God.”

Think about the occasion, its opportunities, its privileges and its responsibilities. In that light, part of preparation is prevention. Do your best to prevent things that will distract on Sunday morning – try to get things ready in advance so that Sunday morning has less stress, especially for families.

And then, when you come, participate. The goal is not to be a spectator, but a member who praises, prays and ponders the Word together. Before coming, pray prayers that God would open your heart, grant your understanding and show you Himself. And then come expectantly, and participate.

III. Perpetual Worship

As much as we treasure our times of private and public worship, they will hardly occupy the majority of our moments. Our lives will ever be dominated by the cycles of eating, studying, working, travelling, cleaning, buying, teaching, and resting. Seeking God does not cease when we rise up from our knees or exit the place where we meet to worship with his church. Instead, we are to learn the habits of doing the ordinary for God’s sake.

1 Corinthians 10:31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Eating and drinking are some of the simplest and most common things we do. Yet the Bible says, do those things, and in fact, all things for the glory of God. In other words, worship God all the time. Let every act of your life be an act of worship.

We know of many other Scriptures which echo this idea of worshipping God in your life, as a lifestyle.

Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

These speak of living towards God and thinking towards God, not just at selected times – but in all of life.

The reason for this is that not only is our God everywhere present, but He dwells within us as believers. Therefore, our worship is not localised. We do not visit God, or go to see God at one place. We get to have the joy of worshipping Him continually because He is with us everywhere we go, whatever we do.

We worship God, not merely by enjoying his presence and offering Him our praises, but also by serving Him. Serving Him requires us to focus, not upon God Himself, but upon the task that we are performing for His glory. That is, a Christian mechanic worships not by trying to sing How Great Thou Art while under the car, but by fixing the car skillfully. A Christian pilot worships God not by holding a prayer meeting in the plane, but by landing it safely. A Christian computer programmer glorifies God not by trying to quote a chapter from memory while programming, but by programming well. See, there were times when Adam walked with the Lord and worshiped privately, but there were other times he tilled the garden, and planted and watered, and cultivated. When his focus was on the material, he was reflecting on His Creator and worshipping Him with his good service.

We studied some of this at camp a few months ago. We worship God perpetually, by consecration and contemplation. All that can be done for God, we do and we do it for Him. We do it for His sake, we do it heartily, and we do it by grace. Our thoughts and observations we have in light of God, with God as the lens through which we view the world.

Private worship, public worship, and perpetual worship. Taken together, these three make up all of our lives. If we seek to worship God in private, with the church, and in all of life, will we not know Him?

God wants to be known. Anyone who diligently seeks Him, by God’s grace will come to know Him. So take up these three spheres, and seek Him, and taste and see that He is good.