Worship With The Understanding
Lessons From 1 Corinthians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Theme: Lessons From 1 Corinthians
Hope: With this lesson to grasp the importance of worshiping by not just going through the motions but by way of a complete understanding of expectation.
I know of no Christian that doesn’t understand, at least intellectually, the importance of worship when it comes to our relationship with God.
Those in the Lord’s church know we must worship the Lord our God and serve only him.
10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ”
Those in the Lord’s church usually understand we must worship God according to his pattern laid out for us.
We must worship in song with our hearts as the instrument not mechanical instruments.
We must worship in the memorial feast each first day of the week and we must eat the unleavened bread and drink the fruit of the vine.
One of the things, however, I have learned over the years and even upon reflection know I participated in, was doing each act of worship by simply going through the motions.
By that I mean singing without actually understanding what I’m singing.
Partaking of the Lord’s Supper by simply eating the bread and drinking the grape juice.
Writing the check and placing it in the tray without contemplating anything concerning it.
Listening to sermons without finding how to apply that lesson to my life or simply drawing pictures on paper instead of listening at all.
There is not a single thing I just listed that I am not guilty of and I imagine each of you could easily say the same thing.
In our text this evening from 1 Corinthians 14:1-25 Paul’s makes this very point to the church there in Corinth.
There are two ways presented by Paul that the church can worship without the understanding expected by God and thus Paul is pleading with them to make sure the when the church comes together in one place it is to “Worship With The Understanding.”
So with that in mind let us look at Paul’s first point concerning worship with the understanding.
Worship Shouldn’t Be An Enigma
Worship Shouldn’t Be An Enigma
Uttering Mysteries.
Uttering Mysteries.
On any given worship service there is going to be a number of different people with various different maturity levels within that service.
Some will be seasoned, longtime faithful members of the body of Christ who hunger for that solid food of God’s word.
Some will be babes in Christ still feasting on the pure spiritual milk of God’s word while others will be visitors with little to no actual understanding of God and his word.
The church at Corinth was no different and though miraculous gifts of tongue speaking, interpreting, and prophesying are the issue at hand, it is there use in worship that Paul is warning them about.
If worship is conducted in such a way that it simply “utters mysteries” instead of helping people draw closer to God through a better understanding of God then that worship service was amiss.
1 Corinthians 14:1–2 (ESV)
1 Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. 2 For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 14:9–11 (ESV)
9 So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. 10 There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, 11 but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me.
If songs are chosen, sermons preached, prayers led, etc., that “no one understands” what good is worship?
Summary
Summary
With each worship service those that are leading it must take into account, to the best of their ability, the spiritual understanding level of each person.
From those that little to no understanding of God’s word to those that have studied diligently for years and years and everyone in between.
It is a great and sometimes impossible feeling task but it is one that God expects his leadership to do.
This brings us to Paul’s greater point concerning those leading the church in the worship service, whether it’s the song leader, preacher, the one leading the prayer, giving or communion…
Worship Must Be Led With Clarification
Worship Must Be Led With Clarification
Proper Preparation Is Vital.
Proper Preparation Is Vital.
There are two ways those leading the worship service can lead with confusion instead of clarification.
By either under preparing or over preparing.
When a leader of the worship service is under prepared, i.e., has no actual understanding of what they are leading to begin with, this is obviously bad.
1 Corinthians 14:15–17 (ESV)
15 What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. 16 Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? 17 For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up.
Have you ever had a song leader lead a song you wherein you have no idea what the words are talking about really?
Have you ever heard a sermon that was obviously not well thought out and had not been studied properly like it should be?
When the church is led by those who are leading “without the mind” and just winging it there are ramifications.
On the other hand, when a leader of worship service is over prepared, it can lead a worship service with confusion instead of clarity is by pushing maturity to hard and too fast for everyone to keep up.
It is all well and good that shepherds and church leaders want to feed solid food to the church so that they are able to discern from good and evil more effectively but if the congregation is not ready for solid food then it is a mistake to keep feeding it to them.
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Those leading the worship must understand those they are leading and if they milk or solid food.
How long most people in the congregation have been Christians is irrelevant as the Hebrew writer points out as length does not dictate spiritual maturity.
Illustration: Teach class on Hebrews in Hydro at first.
Not only must those leading the worship do so with proper preparation we also see that worship must…
Build Up The Brethren.
Build Up The Brethren.
Those leading the congregation in worship have a great responsibility to lead the worship in such a way that those being lead are “built up” not left walking away dazed and confused.
1 Corinthians 14:4–5 (ESV)
4 The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. 5 Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.
1 Corinthians 14:12 (ESV)
12 So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.
1 Corinthians 14:26 (ESV)
26 What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.
Summary
Summary
It is certainly a good thing and godly thing for the eldership or men of the congregation if there are no elders to strive and mature each member through challenging songs, prayers, sermons, and the like.
In fact this is a part of building up the brethren when we help them grow in spiritual maturity.
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
However, the leadership must not leave people behind on their spiritual journey either.
It is the shepherds and leaders responsibility to make sure no sheep has been left behind, but is growing and maturing as they should.
Whether seasoned, babes in Christ, or non-Christians, all should leave the worship service better spiritually than when they got there.
Conclusion
Conclusion
It is vital that we are lead in “Worship With The Understanding.”
It is the responsibility of the leadership and members as well to all do their part so as to worship God has he would want to be worshiped and we walk away blessed for having done so.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.