Since this convention began, we’ve been reflecting on our theme: United in Worship of God. It is very clear from the messages that have been proclaimed since Wednesday night that the whole subject and concept of the Worship of God is one that can truly occupy our deepest thoughts and our most diligent study during this entire year.

You may ask, is it possible to worship someone or something other than God? Of course! In fact, everyone worships something, because God created us to be worshippers. It’s hard-wired into us, it’s part of what it means to be a human being made in God’s image. If we refuse to worship God, then we will be driven to find something else to worship. And so it’s not a matter of whether we worship, but what we worship. As Paul writes:

" . . . although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles . . . They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised." - Romans 1:21-25 NIV

Now, in our increasingly secular society, we don’t see people literally bowing down before idols. Most of our neighbors don’t have a little statue of Buddha or Zeus on the mantelpiece. Instead, our society tends to worship other things - money. Success. Physical beauty. Sex. Health and fitness. Safety and security. Recreation. Whatever we organize our lives around; whatever we put first; whatever we seek above all else; that’s what we worship. Fundamentally, we are by nature worshippers of self, seeking after our own welfare and happiness as greatest good in life. And so the God-given drive to worship is perverted; it is turned in on itself and becomes the urge to make oneself a little god, to place oneself at the center of the universe.

Therefore, my goal this evening isn’t really to stimulate you to worship. You are already worshipping, whether the object of your devotion is God or something else. But my goal is to help you worship the only One who is truly worthy of being worshipped- and that Jesus Christ. God alone is supremely worthy of our praise, and our love, and our devotion, and our service; both because of who He is, and because of what He has done. When we reflect on who God is, based on his self-revelation to us, it will have a profound influence on how we worship him.

All you have to do is read your bible from Genesis to revelation will get an idea of the human response to God’s revelation of himself. Isaiah 6:1-5 - gives us a description of Isaiah’s encounter with God even in vision. He said, "In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord seated on the throne, high and lifted up and his train filled the temple…….." and what was his response?

 "then I said, woe is me! For I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean people, for mine eyes have seen the Lord of Host."

Capturing the vision of the Isaiah the hymnwriter wrote that beautiful hymn:

The Lord himself declares in Isaiah 40:21- "Have ye not known, have ye not heard? Hath it not be told to you from the beginning….."

I am amazed at the way we sometimes approach the Great God of Heaven as if he is some cosmic bellhop waiting to do our bidding.

We must never allow our worship of God to degenerate into something about us. It’s all about him and Him alone. In my humble opinion, I believe there is just too much showbiz entertainment passing off as worship. Too much emphasis on what we can get from God rather than on what we should render unto Him in a spirit of humble gratitude and thankfulness for having redeemed with his precious blood. And then there are those who are so bent on making God consumer friendly that they fail to talk about His Holiness and his justice, his immutability, his transcendence. Unfortunately there are too many attempts to cast our great God into an image of our own making.

I pray that God would give us an experience like Isaiah, or like Joshua, like John on the isle of Patmos. It would make a difference in the songs we sing, the sermons we preach, the prayers we pray, and every thing that goes into a worship service. For instance, I am sometimes amused by some of the comments we make in worship that do not reflect the reality of God’s nature and his attributes. We know that God possesses, omnipotence, which means he is all powerful. He possesses omniscience which means he is all knowledgeable and he possesses omnipresence which means he has no spatial limits, He’s everywhere at the same time.

If were to take His omnipresence and incorporate our knowledge of that Divine attribute into our worship experience, we would no longer be talking about invoking the presence of God in our midst or inviting God’s presence among us. The fact is God’s presence is here even as his presence is the bar room or the prostitute chamber at this very moment. 

"whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven thou art there; If I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall lead me"   

So, is not a question of inviting God in our midst it’s all about yearning for that awareness of His presence. And once you have that awareness it will profoundly impact your worship church and in life.

That brings us to unity aspect of our worship. Our theme says: United in Worship of God. When have an understanding of God’s revelation of Himself as outlined in scripture, nature and ultimately in Jesus Christ, we can be united in lifting up our hearts and voices in praise and adoration as we worship His Holy name. There should be uniformity among us when it comes to the purpose and focus of our worship but there need not be uniformity in form and style. The Bible speaks about the principle of unity in diversity. Our Creator God the one who made us is quite aware that all of us don’t have the same emotional/psychological makeup. He understands that we don’t all come from the same cultural or sociological background. He knows that some of us are more expressive than others; that we respond differently to certain songs or even messages. He is a God big enough to accept the diverse make up of his children. The question is whether are big enough to accept others who have a different orientation than we do? Now I know there are those of you who think I’m knocking the more conservative members of the church who prefer a more subdued form of worship style. Don’t be too sure about that. I may be knocking you.

For you see we ought be very careful that we don’t judge another person’s experience with God by their worship style. I know the bible says: clap your hands, all ye people, shout unto God with the voice of triumph.(Psa. 47:1) Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. (psalm 100). But it also says in Psalm 46:10 Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 23-He leadeth beside the still waters, he restoreth my soul.

Be very careful about judging who has the Holy Spirit and who don’t. Sometimes the Holy Spirit manifest himself in the lives of men and women as a mighty rushing wind. Other times He comes in the form of a small still voice. There is room in the body of Christ for all of us. Therefore we should be united even in the diversity of our worship styles without condemning one another

Quite frankly I don’t believe God is concern about some of these little differences we get worked up over. And this is not say that we can do anything we want in context worship. This is no license to bring every kind of fad we see or hear out in the world into the church. The apostle John tells us we must test the spirits to see whether they are from God (1john 4:1).

I am talking about what our Savior shared with the woman at the well of Samaria. "’Sir’, the woman said, 

"I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.’ Jesus declared, ’Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. . . A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.’" - John 4:19-24 (NIV)

What does this mean? It means that God doesn’t care about where you worship, or what kind of building you worship in, or what you’re wearing especially if that’s the best you have. And God isn’t fooled by outward appearances. You may appear to be devout, and sincere, and pious. You may sing the songs, and stand up and shout and lift up Holy hands. You may be a Sabbath School teacher, or serve on the worship team, or serve as Deacon and Deaconess. But if your religion is only external, if you’re just going through the motions, if you are not worshiping God from your heart, then it doesn’t accomplish anything. It’s empty. It’s worthless. God isn’t interested in that kind of pseudo-worship; he only wants the real thing. Listen to what the Lord says through the prophet Isaiah:

"These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." - Isaiah 29:13 (NIV) "will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other Gods whom ye know not and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, we are delivered to do all these abominations? (Jer. 7:9-10).

Sounds like the 21^st Century Bahamian Christian community doesn’t it. We know how to engage in what we call worship on the weekends and then during the week we go about our own business without regard to God.
That’s not what God wants. The only kind of worshipers God has any use for are those who worship him from the heart, in spirit and in truth. If God doesn’t have your heart, then nothing else you do in church matters. If you’re singing praise songs, but your heart is cold or lukewarm, then you’re not worshiping. You’re just singing a song. Do you know what I call that? Spiritual lip-synching. Spiritual lip-synching. It looks real, it sounds real. But it’s not real.

God wants your heart that is what he is concerned about. And there is nothing more certain to block your ability to worship from the heart than unconfessed, unrepented-of sin. It is useless to try to worship God when your heart is hardened against him. Nothing will change - no matter how long you pray, or read; no matter how many worship CD’s you listen to - nothing will change until you repent and confess your sins to God.

You can’t worship from the heart if you’re not obeying from the heart. So if you get here on Sabbath morning, and the music starts, and you feel "blocked," you just can’t get started, then ask yourself, ask God, "Is there something I need to confess? Is there something I need to get right between me and God?" And then do it. Pray. Ask God’s forgiveness. Determine that as soon as possible, you will do whatever you need to do to make it right.

Sometimes the problem that impedes you from worshipping God is something that needs to be addressed between you and someone else in the congregation. If that’s the case, then you need to get it right before you can worship. If you come in here, and sit down, and look over in the next row and see someone you’re having a conflict with, and your heart fills up with anger and bitterness, then you are not going to be able to worship. If you realize that there’s an unresolved issue between you and another member of the Church, don’t wait. Approach them before the service, or during the greeting time, and say, "Can we talk? I need to ask your forgiveness for something," or "I think I may have done something to offend you," or "You may not realize it, but something you said offended me." You should do it even if you have to miss part of the service, because otherwise your worship will be ineffective. Reconciliation is a prerequisite for authentic worship. Listen to Jesus:

"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift." - Matthew 5:23-24 (NIV)

Finally, you may be unable to worship God in spirit and truth because something else, or someone else, has first place in your heart. And if that’s the case, you won’t be able to worship God, because there’s only room in your heart for one "first". That first place has to be occupied by Him.

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." - Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)

Worship is treasuring the will of God so highly that we will give everything we have in exchange to follow it. It’s an attitude that says, "Whatever it takes for me to know and experience God, I will do." Now this is where the truth part comes in when it comes to worship. Because some of the things the Lord may tell us about ourselves can be hard. Some of the things he requires us to do involves sacrifice and discipline, pain but we don’t mind because we love Him with all "our heart and with all your soul and with all our mind and strength.’" (Mark 12:30) That’s worship: valuing something so highly that you give everything you have for it.

Finally, why worship? There are several reasons: God commands and invites us to worship, and our worship blesses and pleases Him. Worship encourages us and lifts our spirits. But the reason I want to focus on this evening is that worship is a transforming activity. I’m not talking about just coming to church, or singing the songs, or sitting through the sermon. That may leave you completely unchanged. But true worship, authentic worship, worship that comes from the heart, worship in spirit and truth - that kind of worship is transforming. It changes us, because it is a law of human nature that we become like that which we worship; we become like that which we value the most. Those who worship Jesus Christ will become like Jesus Christ. If you are regularly turning your heart toward Christ in worship, you will over time be conformed to his character, his values, his wisdom, and his power.

"And we, who with unveiled faces all [contemplate] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with every-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." - 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV)

". . . we know that when He appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure." - 1 John 3:2-3 (NIV)

The more we contemplate the person and works of Christ, the more we lift him up and exalt him, the more we sing his praises and testify to his work in our life, the more we will become like him. It’s that simple. Do you want to be like Christ? Do you want to have his peace, and joy, and wisdom, and power? Do you want to know God the Father like He did? Then worship.

As we gather under the theme United in Worship of God we want redirect our members and our nation to truly worship the living God. It is more than just an act that occurs on Sabbath and Sunday mornings, it is a lifestyle, a daily experience obedience and sacrifice to him in service.

You see, worship is attributing ultimate worth to something - whether it’s an object, or a person, or even an idea. Worship is valuing one thing above all else. It’s literally "worth-ship". So when we sing praises to God, we are worshipping, because we are proclaiming that He has the greatest possible worth; that His value is above that of gold, or silver, or jewels, or houses, or land. We are testifying that His power exceeds that of every king, President, or dictator in history; that the glory of his holiness outshines the billions of suns in every galaxy. When we worship God, we are saying that nothing compares to Him. He is above all, He is greater than all. Everything in creation pales to insignificance next to the sovereign Lord of the universe.

"You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." - Revelation 4:11 (NIV)

"In a loud voice they sang: ’Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!’" - Revelation 5:12 (NIV)