Worship in Spirit

Psalm 100

INTRO: Good morning church! Please turn in your Bibles to the Book of Psalms and let’s read Psalm 100 together. I will be using the NKJV.

Psalm 100 –
“1. Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!
2. Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.
3. Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
5. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.”[NKJV].

We don't know who the inspired writer was, and we don't know when this particular Psalm was recorded, but it's very beautiful. The Bible teaches that whatever things were written before, are written for our learning, therefore we need to pay attention to the Book of Psalms because they are a part of the Old Testament. Jesus referred to the things written about Him in the law, and the prophets, and in the Psalms.

During His ministry, the Lord revealed His requirements for true worship. You will recall that in John 4, our Lord was having a conversation with a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. One of the subjects they talked about was worship.

In connection with worship, our Lord said John 4:23-24 – “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” Here our Lord reveals some fundamental requirements concerning worship.

First, He said that true worshippers worship the Father. We need to always remember that our worship is directed to God in heaven. Next, He said that true worshippers worship the Father in spirit and in truth. To worship in spirit means to worship with the proper attitude and disposition. To worship in truth means to worship according to God's will as it is revealed in the New Testament.

Worship is directed to the Father, and worship to please God must be in spirit and in truth. The Lord taught that worshiping in spirit and worshiping in truth are equally important. We must not exalt one over the other. Jesus said that they're both essential.

Today, what I would like for us to do is examine two important guidelines from Psalm 100 that will help us worship in spirit. We will look at “in spirit” because it might be a bit harder for us to grasp then “in truth”. In doing so we're not in any way indicating that worshiping in spirit is more important than worshiping in truth, they're both equally important.

From time to time we find we can use reminders of principles that will help us to not only worship in truth, but also to worship in spirit. It's just a matter of being a human being, I guess. When we do the same things over and over again, if we're not careful, they can become commonplace, and we must not allow that to happen in worship.

Each time we come together in worship we participate in the same activities. We need to use some discipline to make sure that we always worship in spirit, that is, with the proper attitude and disposition.

The reason why that's such an important matter is because of what can happen. In the last book of the Old Testament, the Book of Malachi, Malachi wrote about the coming of Elijah. Malachi closed by calling upon the Lord's people to look forward to this event. Jesus said during His ministry, that the prophecy of Elijah’s coming was fulfilled by John the Baptist.

There is a story from a time when many of us were a lot younger about a young couple inviting their preacher for Sunday dinner. While they were in the kitchen preparing the meal, the preacher asked their son what they were having. "Goat," the little boy replied.

"Goat?" replied the preacher, "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes," said the youngster. "I heard Dad say to Mom, 'We might as well have the old goat for dinner today as any other day.

Malachi closed his writing with a message of hope to his people, but he primarily dealt with some of the sins of which they were guilty. One thing that Malachi dealt with was the spirit that some of the Jewish people had begun to manifest in worship. Malachi 1:13 – “You also say, `Oh, what a weariness!' and you sneer at it,'' says the Lord of hosts. "And you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring an offering! Should I accept this from your hand?'' says the Lord.” When people spoke of worship as “a weariness”, were they worshiping in spirit? Certainly not.

They had allowed worship to become “weariness” to them. That in turn affected what they were doing. Some of them were taking blind, lame, and sick animals and offering them to God. Malachi, speaking on behalf of God, said, Offer that animal to your governor — see if he'll be pleased with it. They wouldn't dare do something like that, yet they had no problem presenting that type of animal to God Almighty.

The Book of Malachi shows that a failure to worship in spirit will lead to other failures in worship. They didn't put forth the effort to make sure that they maintained the proper spirit as they were worshiping God.

I. In Verses1-3 "PRAISE" is Emphasized:

A. Let's consider two very important guidelines that will help us to worship in spirit. When we look at the first three statements of Psalm 100 we will notice that praise is emphasized. It plays a role in worship to maintain our desire to worship in spirit.

1. Psalm 100:1 – “Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!” That sounds like praise to me, doesn't it to you?
2. Then is says, “Serve the Lord with gladness…” That's maintaining a proper spirit while worshiping God. I can't help but think about what David wrote in Psalm 122:1 – “I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go into the house of the Lord.''”
3. Next we read, “… Come before His presence with singing.” All of those statements are emphasizing the importance of praise.

B. It's interesting that when we examine the Book of Psalms, we find that others of them begin in the same way.

1. Psalm 95:1 – “Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.” Notice how joy is emphasized. That has to do with maintaining the proper spirit.
2. Psalm 96:1-3 – “1. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord, all the earth. 2. Sing to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. 3. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.”
3. Psalm 98:1 – “Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! For He has done marvelous things; His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory." The Psalms include appeals made to God's people to offer praise to God, - to sing, to make a joyful noise, and to do so with the proper spirit.

C. The Bible teaches us to emphasize praise, but it goes further than that. The Bible teaches us why God deserves our praise. Psalm 100:3 says simply, “Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” I think that's a very good reason to offer praise to God. He deserves our praise because He IS God.

1. Psalm 95 also talks about this. Psalm 95:3-5 – “3. For the Lord is the great God, And the great King above all gods. 4. In His hand are the deep places of the earth; The heights of the hills are His also. 5. The sea is His, for He made it; And His hands formed the dry land.” The Lord, He is God, not just a god with a little g, but He is God with a capital G. God deserves our praise because of who He is.
2. There's another reason revealed to us in Psalm 100:3 concerning why God deserves our praise. “…It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves…” To go along with that, let's look at Psalm 95:6 which reads, “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” These passages help us understand exactly what is involved in worship. The Hebrew word for worship here, (שָׁחָה), (shâchâh), means; bow, bow down, obeisance, reverence. (Strong’s H7812). Worship means to show reverence to, to bow down before.
3. Let's read it again. “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” This is showing reverence is to be paid to God. God deserves our praise. First, because of who He is, He is God. Then also notice that we haven't made ourselves. God has made us.
4. There's a third statement made in Psalm 100:3, another reason why God deserves our praise. “…We are His people and the sheep of His pasture…” Notice the point that the writer is making when he writes, “We are his people and the sheep of his pasture.” Since we are His, we belong to Him, we are in His pasture. That is, He cares for us as the shepherd cares for the sheep. We have access to wonderful blessings.

D. When the writer of Psalm 100 mentioned the fact that we are the sheep of His pasture, it leads us to think about the 23rd Psalm, doesn’t it? I strongly suspect that of all the psalms the 23rd Psalm is known by all who are listening this morning. This is the favorite Psalm of many people and it is one we should spend some time thinking about often, as we go through our lives.

1. David began this Psalm by saying, “The Lord is my shepherd”. That's a key statement. David recognized the Lord as his shepherd. Remember the writer of Psalm 100:3 said, we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. That's a reason why God deserves our praise.
2. Having said that, let's consider some blessings that David mentioned in the 23rd Psalm which are associated with knowing the Lord as our shepherd.

a. Blessing number one is contentment. David said, “I shall not want.”
b. Blessing number two is providential care. “He makes me to lie down in green pastures;”
c. Blessing number three is peace. “He leads me beside the still waters.”
d. Blessing number four is restoration. “He restores my soul;” That means that God will turn back the soul if we will submit to His will.
e. Blessing number five is direction. “He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake.”
f. Blessing number six is courage. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil;” I've wondered if when David wrote that particular part of this psalm, did he reflect back on that occasion when he faced the giant Goliath? There was no fear in David's heart and he won a victory that day. Then he led the children of Israel to win a great victory over the Philistines.
g. Blessing number seven is companionship. “For You are with me;”
h. Blessing number eight is comfort, something we certainly all need from time to time. “Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”
i. Blessing number nine is favor. “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil;”
j. Blessing number ten is abundance. “My cup runs over.” There are times we hear people refer to that particular statement who don't even believe the Bible. When they talk about enjoying a great blessing, they say, my cup is running over. David knew about that blessing. He knew all about abundance.
k. Blessing number eleven is assurance. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life;”
l. Then blessing number twelve is immortality. “And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.”

3. David wrote many beautiful Psalms. They are a joy to read and to study. He wrote about half of the Psalms. Think about all the years that the 23rd Psalm has been in existence, and the comfort that it has brought to so many people. We should be grateful that David wrote it.

E. These principles revealed in the first part of Psalm 100 will help us to worship God in spirit. A lot of emphasis is placed on praise. God deserves our praise, and of course, there are reasons given to us why He deserves our praise. We need to think about those matters.

II. In Verses 4-5 "Thanksgiving" is Emphasized:

A. Let's turn our attention, though, to something else that's addressed in verses 4 and 5 as we talk about guidelines that will help us to worship in spirit. We've already talked about the important role that praise plays in worship. Now let's see the emphasis placed on being thankful in this particular Psalm.

1. Let's look at two statements that are made in Psalm 100:4. The first, “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving”.
2. The second, “Be thankful to Him” These are two appeals made for God's people to approach Him with thankful hearts.

B. Similar appeals are made in other Psalms.

1. Psalm 105:1 says, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples.”
2. Psalm 106:1 says, “Praise the Lord! Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.”
3. Psalm 107:1 says, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” Many times the Book of Psalms teaches us that as we endeavor to worship the Lord, we are to do so with thankful hearts, we give thanks to him. Praise is important, but thanksgiving is also important.

C. Now consider verse 5 of Psalm 100. This verse gives us several statements that show why God deserves our thanks. As we saw the first part of the Psalm emphasizes praise, and the writer shows us why God deserves our praise. Next our attention is turned to thanksgiving, and now we're shown why we need to be thankful.

1. Number one, “For the Lord is good;” Certainly that is an excellent reason to be thankful. Psalm 33:4-5 says. “For the word of the Lord is right, And all His work is done in truth. He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.” and Psalm 34:8, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!”
2. Statement number two says, “His mercy is everlasting”. We've already read several times from other Psalms that His mercy endures forever. Psalm 103:8 says, “The Lord is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.” And then verse 11, “For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;”

a. You probably have all experienced those warm summer nights when you were somewhere where the sky was clear and you could see the vast expanse of stars. I recall those times and wondered at the vastness of our universe and how far those stars are from earth. When you read about the stars, distances are mentioned which we can not even imagine. Suffice it to say it's a long way.
b. “For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;” God’s mercy is everlasting.

3. Then there's a third statement made in verse 5 that teaches us why God deserves our thanks. “His truth endures to all generations.”

D. Today it seems a lot of people have the idea that what they say is truth regardless of the facts. Why I wonder? Because the person thinks it is—and that is subjective.

1. There's an objective way to determine truth. Truth is not subjective, yet a lot of people today think that it is. What's true for you may not be true for me and vice versa. That, I think, is a reflection of one of the problems that we have in our society today.
2. Truth is truth. Truth can be known objectively. God's truth doesn't change from one generation to the next. His truth endures to all generations. That's the reason why God deserves our thanks. He's the source of truth, and His truth endures. It doesn't change. It doesn't go away. It's not replaced by something else.

CONCLUSION:
The principles we looked at from Psalm 100 that have to do with Praise and Thanksgiving will help us to worship in spirit. Jesus said, that acceptable worship, that true worship, must be offered in spirit and in truth. We need to understand “why” we worship God. To worship in spirit means to worship with the proper attitude and disposition.

We need to keep in mind the “why” to help us worship in spirit so that we can avoid the mistakes made by the Jewish people of Malachi's day. They got to the point where they said, Behold what a weariness it is. That's a bad attitude toward worship, isn't it? It became a chore to them. They became jealous of giving their best and even of the giving of their time.

If we have our hearts centered on praising God and offering thanks to him, I'm persuaded that that will go a long way toward helping us worship in spirit.

What about Christian worship? To determine how to worship God, today, we want to go to the New Testament. Let's look at Ephesians 5:19-20, “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,” Praise and thanksgiving are included in Christian worship.

Let's also read Hebrews 13:15, “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”

We should also keep in mind that praising God and being thankful are not limited to worship. They're included in worship, they will help us to worship in spirit, but they're not limited to worship.

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The lesson is yours. Perhaps there is someone in the assembly today with the need to be buried with Christ in baptism. If anyone has this need or desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage them to come forward while we stand and sing.

# ??? Reference Sermon by: Raymond Sieg