Please keep your Bibles open there to Psalm 96. Simply titled this morning, A Call to Worship. I spend some time each day finding good things to put on Facebook. And in the process of that, you When you do that, you'll scroll. And I couldn't help but notice in the last couple weeks that many, many churches are really advertising on Facebook and a lot of other places. And they're promoting, and it's not without reason, because what is called Easter is the biggest day of the entire year. for churches as well as for a lot of other people. And, of course, numerous of them are focusing on their dramas, their presentations, their Easter egg hunts, all of this. And I got to thinking about, throughout the Scripture, there have been times when there were people very excited about their worship coming in by the droves and hundreds of thousands maybe to worship. And I have no specific judgment on anybody else. I'm just saying this is what I've seen and this is what has been historically true from Cain and Abel until now. Lots of people get it wrong when it comes to worship. You and I need to make sure We glean from scripture the true method of worship. Also, if you have email, yeah, I put this on the little thing that we sent out last night about today's services, a link to about a four or five minute presentation of someone I've never heard of, don't know, but it was very powerful on calling attention to true worship. And he was not dealing with all the hullabaloo and stuff, he was dealing with the fact that many times we sing hymns and we preach the Bible, but we're living differently, and he said, you may be singing, but you're not worshiping. And too often, I've been there, it's easier than you think to go through the motions and miss the reality. Well that led to Psalm 96. It's obviously a psalm about worship and so let's pray and we'll ask the Lord to guide us through this portion of God's Word. Father we thank you for the glorious hymns of faith that we've been able to sing and listen to and we pray that as we go through the rest of this day and the rest of our lives that we would be in a revival mode of genuinely worshiping you as we ought to be. And we bless you. You're worthy of worship and worthy of praise. Open our minds and our understanding. For it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen. So the psalmist goes through from his day all the way to the second coming of Christ in this psalm. Many people have called this psalm a great missionary psalm and there's a number of reasons for that because he says in verse 3, declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people. And then in verse 10, say among the heathen that the Lord reigns, and the world shall be established, and it shall not be moved, and he shall judge the world in righteousness. That's pretty direct teaching on how to witness in a lost world, is it not? So, this psalm calls for God's redeemed people to be unashamed in their praise and in their worship of God. Verse three through nine, why? Because he's worthy. He's worthy. And there are plenty of scriptures that call us to praise and worship God in the midst of the congregation. You'll find that phrase used a number of times in the Psalms. to praise the Lord in the midst of the congregation, and that's fine and that's good. But this psalm calls us to worship the Lord out among the heathen. Again in verse 3, declare the glory, declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people. So, this should be very helpful to us and a source of guidance for us because we do live in a time when if you go to a pastor's conference or you go to some sort of seminar for pastors and you're talking about how to build a church, how to grow a church, invariably in these days the emphasis is going to be on something to do something that will attract the people. And a number of churches that have congregations of thousands upon thousands this morning got that way because they went among the neighborhood, and what do you people like? And then they develop a service around what people like. So what about that? Why would you do that? It works. And I happen to have been around pastors for many years, and I've not been out from under the influence altogether. And you get a bunch of pastors together, and they start talking about, this works. The ears get bigger. The volume of the listening volume is turned up. Because people like success. Well, when we're seeking To worship the Lord, we need to listen very carefully because this is not about us. There's nothing in this psalm about worshiping in order to please me. Well, what are you looking for in a church? Well, I'm looking for a church that has my kind of music, or has this, or has that, and something for me. And some of those things can be good. But worship is about Him. It's for Him. He's the one who is worthy to be worshipped. And that's what this psalm is all about. Sing unto the Lord. Sing unto the Lord. Declare His glory and His wonders. He's great. He's greatly to be praised. The gods of the earth are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. This is so God-centered. God and God alone. has the authority to prescribe acceptable worship. So we turn to the Bible. One of the things that you find so often in the Scripture is to bring an offering. You know, you say those two words and immediately we think money. The concept is far larger than that. What kind of offering? Well, the very first act of worship that we find in the Scriptures are with Cain and Abel. And we know from Hebrews 11-4 that Abel worshiped by faith. And when you worship by faith, you have listened to God. This is what God says, and you believe God, and you act upon what God has said. So he was not worshiping based on his imagination. He was not worshiping based on what he thought was good. There are pastors who are highly successful in our time who've written books and who teach seminars on how to be innovative. And the particular pastor that wrote this particular book, he's having a message on marriage, it's a big church, and so they have a bed up on this platform. And all kinds of things. You can go into services all across America, you can find animals, and I'm not talking about the two-legged ones, but just... People do all kinds of things, trying to create an excitement. But, by faith. What does that mean? Abel's worship was not according to his ideas, it was according to what pleased God, it was according to what God had revealed. And God had revealed that there had to be a blood sacrifice. Well, Cain's worship was very creative. It was probably one of the best offerings of vegetables and all of that that could have been found anywhere. Leaning to his own understanding, Cain's worship was not accepted. You can go home and read in Isaiah chapter 1 verse 11 through about 20. There's a whole section there where God is displeased with the worship of Israel. When you read, they were into it. They were not just passive. I mean, they were very into worship. But their worship was one thing, while their lifestyle was radically different. Their worship did not transform their lifestyle. And so it was vain, and God said it made him sick. So, it's not what pleases me. It's about giving to God. Well, I didn't get anything out of the worship. Hmm. That's a common expression. Well, what did I bring and present and give to God? Regardless of how frail the music may have been, or the sermon may have been, if I came and I gave myself to God, I gave whatever God has placed upon my heart is to be, my hands are to be opened up and I'm giving to Him, you'll have had a great time. So, it's not about a performance, it's not about impressing you. Well, when we think of biblical worship, we come to this word sacrifice. And again, when you think sacrifice, we have different images that come to our mind. And the chief one, so far as Old Testament worship, was the sacrifice of blood, the blood of lambs pointing to the Lamb of God. So thankfully, we don't have to go that route. It's been done. Two thousand years ago, once and for all, he offered himself. And that's why we regularly come to the table, to remind ourselves of our Lord's sacrifice. Nothing needs to be added. So then how are we to worship? So we don't have to come with a lamb, Psalm 96 verse 8 says, given to the Lord glory, the glory due His name, bring an offering and come into His courts. He is glorified when we worship Him with thanksgiving and praise at His table, or when we worship in reading the Scripture, or when we're singing about the Lamb of God, or some hymn, and if you'll notice, it was a number of years ago at the Assisted Living, we had sung a number of hymns, just first verses, didn't have a piano or anything, just singing hymns that people would know, and all of them were about the cross. And I asked these dear ladies, I said, why are all these hymns in the hymn book about the cross? Well, there were some elderly saints there who'd walked with the Lord for a long time, and they were rejoicing because they knew it was because Jesus is the Lamb of God, and we should be singing about Him. So what's the application? Now, in 1 Peter 2, verses 4-5, we are a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices unto God through Jesus Christ. What are some of the spiritual sacrifices we should offer up? What is the one that is emphasized here in Psalm 96? Praise. Hebrews 13, 15 says, let us offer the sacrifice of praise. unto God continually, that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. This is what worship is all about. Let us offer the sacrifices of praise unto God continually, that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to him. What sacrifice though? A sacrifice, what is a sacrifice? A sacrifice is an offering made to God demonstrating His worthiness and our need. That's the essence of what we're looking at. An offering made to God demonstrating His worthiness and our need. So the sacrifice of praise to God, to worship to God. Hebrews 13, 16 speaks about giving unto God the sacrifice of doing good. Giving unto God the sacrifice of doing good, and with some of the other translations, it takes with it the idea, the sacrifice of doing good, that is, of being generous. In Titus chapter 2 verses 11 through 14, and I'm going to read this from another translation, but this is a powerful summary. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared, it teaches us to say, grace does something. Grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, to live self-controlled, upright, godly lives in this present world while we wait for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good." It's a good summary of what it means to worship. It's a good summary of this is the essence of what it means to be a Christian. This is what grace does in your life and mine. So he not only saves us from sin, all of that, and hell, and Satan, but he saves us, too, a life of doing good. You say, well, I didn't come here to do something. I came here to get something. I have a lot of needs on my plate, and I'm hoping if I will give God a Sunday morning kiss, then maybe he will reward me. So how can I worship God in spirit and in truth? Well, we start again by giving the spiritual sacrifice of praise. That's the first thing. Then we give unto him the sacrifice of an eagerness to do good. And then Hebrews 13, 16 also tells us about giving the sacrifice of sharing with others. The Philippian Christians practiced that on behalf of the Apostle Paul. While others didn't minister to him, they did. And the sacrifice of ministering to others. What about giving unto the Lord the sacrifice, and we'll use a word that is not used a lot in the Bible, and has a lot of bad connotations or misuse that people refer to. Well, he's a great soul winner. That means that he's got people talked into praying a prayer and he's pronounced all these people saved. Well, be that as it may, the ministry and the blessing of being one who is used of God to lead others to Christ is a high calling. You say, well, I don't have the gift of gab. Well, let me read you something. It's written by a man that many years ago lay flat on the floor right here. I think he was about 87 years old. He had spent many years in China as a missionary. C.L. Culpepper, faithful servant of the Lord, He just preached a powerful message. We were at a state in the church at that time of having people that were at odds and out of sorts with one another, and he preached a very convicting message and encouraged people to come to the front and pray. Not a single person moved. I can't be God and the Holy Spirit in this, but I just felt like that if anybody moved, they'd have to deal in reality, there'd have to be some confession, there'd have to be some repentance, and God was not going to allow just going through the motions. But anyway, he wrote a little book about some of his experiences in China. It's a little book called The Shantung Revival. He said, one Sunday I was preaching in a church, where the preacher's wife told me about a 65-year-old woman who needed to go to the hospital. Both she and her husband were Buddhist. I took her to the hospital in my car, and she remained in the hospital for a month. During that time, the doctors and the nurses won her to the Lord. She couldn't read, but she wanted a Bible of her own. The staff gave her one and helped her to learn some of the verses by memory. They marked the verses she had learned and put bookmarks in her Bible so she could find them. She was changed and happy. When she recovered from her illness, I returned her to her home. When she got out of the car, she bowed to her family and said, look at me. I'm a new person. The doctors cured my body. Jesus cured my soul. Now I am saved. When her husband learned that she had become a Christian, he was greatly displeased. At night, she took her Bible, put her finger on the verse she had memorized, and repeated it by memory. Then she would kneel and pray. But her husband would push her over, or throw a shoe at her, or make fun of her. One night, he had already gone to bed. She was kneeling at the edge of the bed, reading the Bible, and suddenly he put his foot in her back. kicked her to the floor. After that she would wait till he'd gone to bed and she'd go out in the yard and pray and read the scriptures that she'd memorized. One night he woke up and heard her praying for him. It had been three months since she'd been saved. He was puzzled. What has happened to my wife? The next morning he went to see the pastor of the church. What have you Christians done to my wife? She went to your hospital and she came back completely changed. I've lived with her for 35 years and we fought all the time. I used to curse her, she cursed me back. I used to hit her, she hit me back. Now when I curse, she only smiles. And when I hit her, she just walks away. She does better work than she ever did. Last night I woke up and heard her crying and praying for me. What have you Christians done to her? That sounds like true conversion, doesn't it? Now, we're not done. This is where we need to turn up our ears. Now, she's not been to Bible school. She can't read. She can memorize. She's got the Holy Spirit living within her, and she's hiding God's Word in her heart as people help her to memorize them. One day, I went up to her church to preach. As I was walking to the pastor's wife, the old woman walked up to me and said, Brother Culpepper, now my whole family is saved and I want to do something in the church. He wondered what he could tell her to do. Imagine a missionary not knowing what to tell someone to do. Is that their duty? Finally I told her, Pray for us. She replied, for our brother Culpepper, I pray all the time. I want to do something. I still didn't know what to tell her to do, but it wasn't long before the Lord showed her what she should do. When I went back two weeks later, she came in just as I started to deliver the morning message, leading two women by the hand. She marched them down to the front and said, you sit here and listen to that preacher. She left the church and a few minutes came back with two more women. I found out later that she had been talking to them, telling them what Jesus had done for her in her life. She continued to witness to her neighbors and bring them to church. The next time I was there to baptize candidates, so there were a half a dozen of them, were people that she had led to Christ. Again, I've met Marta Minor in the office back here. She knew the secretary. And she was rejoicing in the Lord. And I learned that her husband would never come. But over the next number of weeks and maybe months, he came. Because she was transformed. Don't ever underestimate the transformation of a life. We so desperately want to change people. And we harass them, and we point the Scriptures to them, and we talk to them, and we lecture them. What God uses is a changed life. And a changed life will open the door for someone then to listen to the gospel sermon, or to read the tract, or to read the Bible. What about the sacrifice of our bodies? We're talking about how to worship God. It has nothing to do... I mean, there are things that we should do in structuring a corporate worship service to try to honor God and honor His Word and all of that. But we're talking about everyday worship. So, how does the sacrifice of our bodies come in? What Romans 12, 1 says presents your bodies a living sacrifice. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19 through 20, you've been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are his. 1 Philippians chapter 1, my desire is that Christ might be glorified in my body, whether in life or in death. And in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, the Macedonian Christians, who were poor and persecuted, first gave themselves. And out of that they gave offerings unto the Lord. Let's go for a moment. We've turned here many times. We probably need to have it doubly marked. This whole idea of worshiping by means of sacrifice. And we're called to present our bodies a living sacrifice. And in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19 through 20, we're bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit. So this would particularly, I'd say on the one hand this would relate to teenagers, but it relates to anybody. It especially relates to single people who might be of any age. We had a school family, divorced. The lady is the one that we have an open door with. We're witnessing to her. She has a love for the Lord. She wants to see the marriage restored. On fairly regular occasions, she would go to her in-laws' home. The in-laws were active deacons in a large church in that town. And that's where her ex-husband was staying. And she was pursuing a reconciliation of the marriage. And he was going through the motions of it. but found out in reality his live-in girlfriend was in the deacon's house and that's where she lived with their son. Never said a word. Well, I know that you're the mother of our grandchild I know that you were the wife of my husband, but you need to know, here's what my, the wife of my son, but here's what you know, here's what my son is doing. And oh, by the way, once we found out that, we kicked him out. You're not going to live in open adultery and fornication in our house. So I say all of that. And we just had one more little note here. Another single mother was very distraught at the single parent groups that she had been to at several different churches. She said, they're nothing but glorified dating agencies. And in her experience, The men that she was meeting there, their first order of business was to see how quick they could get in bed. Oh, but let me tell you a different story. Here's a young couple. I'd been around them enough, I'd witnessed to them, I'd seen, and when I say witnessed, I witnessed how they lived. They had an open confession of Christ. They openly talked about Jesus. They openly expressed love for Jesus. they were faithful, they had the respect of everybody. And when they got engaged, they didn't get engaged, well, we're going to get married next week, this week, would you give us counseling? Or, we're getting married tomorrow, would you do it and you can counsel us today? No, this was six or nine months away. We're engaged and we want solid counseling. So we started down the road with that. And I had some overhead transparencies that I put them up. This is solid white. And so the next one comes up, has some beautiful King James words that nobody ever uses. Concupiscence, lasciviousness. Well, they mean to be turned on sexually outside the will of God. And so I'm sitting here, and I know this couple. I believe, and I always believed, that their love for Jesus was genuine. So I'm thinking, they don't need this. Next page. Then a little thought. Oh, I'll give it to them anyway. So I never once looked up at them, and I came up with everything I could think about, about explaining concupiscence and less chiviousness, and the other word was defrauding, a little bit more familiar with that. And when I got through, the young man was sitting in a chair, and he almost jumped out of the chair, and he said, Brother Bell, thank you! I'm thinking, for what? In their dating. Now that they were engaged, what had a few weeks or months earlier just been some enjoyable kissing was getting more and more intimate. And they were probably about one week from total intimacy. You start going down a road, and I don't care how spiritual you are, Unless there's some divine intervention, you will not get off. That's just the reality. And so, and I have discovered this with so many couples that I've counseled with. Well, they've been married before. They've had intimacy before. So here they love this person. And so, here they are, spirit, soul, and body. We are triangular. Sometimes spirit and soul can be intertwined, but for our purposes, spirit, soul, and body. The spirit is that inner part of us whereby we commune with God. The Holy Spirit invades our spirit. And soul is mind, emotion, and will, and we're involved in so many things in life that we think about or we make decisions about, or whatever, and body. Now, Paul said, I pray that God keep your whole spirit, soul, and body to the day of the Lord Jesus. Now, remember, we're still talking about worship. Real worship. You can't skip over this and then worship and think, everything will be all right. I went to church today, read my Bible today. People start going down the road of cultivating and getting close and intimate physically. And if they're young, they have no idea what they're turning on. And if they are a young lady, they have no idea that the young man, by God's design, it's all much quicker. And so you start going down a road that you cannot righteously fulfill, and then you wake up too late. Or you wake up with your mind all messed up. You wake up and you've married a stranger. You didn't know anything about what they liked or what they didn't like or what their goals in life were. And oh, by the way, we want a church wedding and we want God to bless it. You see how it's backwards? Upside down? I told that young couple. I mean, they were repented immediately. They knew Jesus. They loved Jesus. But they were not immune to reality. They made a commitment right there. They repented and they made a commitment. They would not touch each other physically until they got married, more than just a peck on the cheek. Or certainly, if there was the least bit of sexual arousement, they'd gone too far, they would quit and get in reverse immediately. Because that could not be righteously fulfilled outside of marriage. presents your bodies a living sacrifice. Well, I didn't know that worship of God had anything to do with this. It has everything to do with it, in every other aspect of your life and mine. If I am not righteous and holy in whatever area I am in, and I'm misusing the body that God has redeemed by His blood, that's serious business. And it makes my worship attempts a fraud if I insist on going down this road and doing nothing about it. Present your body as a living sacrifice. You're bought with a price. Glorify God in your spirit and body which are his. nor that you be magnified in my body. You may be a unit of it, but there are people out there, and especially on the internet, who are looking for you. I don't care if you're married or not. True worship takes place as we first give ourselves to the Lord and give our bodies. True worship is all about giving Him praise. It's all about good works in His name. It's all about sharing with others in generosity. It's about being used of the Lord to introduce others to Christ. It's about presenting your bodies a living sacrifice. And real quickly, it's about giving offerings unto the Lord. Now, people debate back and forth about tithes. Tithes is an emphasis in the Old Testament. We never, in the 40-something years here, we've never had somebody to sign. You need to sign a covenant, a card to give so much. No, that's between you and the Lord. We don't promote tithing. The emphasis in the New Testament is just giving. And so that's our promotion. But in Psalm 96 verse 8, he said, given to the Lord, the glory due His name, bring an offering." Well, bring yourself. We've seen that from other scriptures. We're not church and state. We're not in the Old Testament system. But I'll tell you what conversion does. When Zacharias got saved, he went from greedy to grace, and in grace, a radical generosity. Martin Luther said of his conversion to Christ, when he was converted, he was converted head, heart, and pockets. You say, well, I would do that, but you have no idea how poor I am. Well, have you read about the Macedonian Christians In 2 Corinthians chapter 8, they were radically poor, and they were persecuted. An offering is being taken up for poor people in another place. Oh, we want to have a part. Paul said, no, no, no, no. And they gave, first of all, themselves to the Lord, and gave far more of offerings than they could ever expect it. Grace causes people to give gladly, with gratitude, with generosity. This is not total of everything that the Bible teaches us about the true nature of worship, but it certainly should prime the pump. You cannot put worship into a worship service. Worship should take place in a worship service. It should encourage worship. But worship is every day. It's going out there. That lady's name that was in Welcome Wagon that befriended Marta, her first name was Linda, that's all I can remember. But she was on mission. She shared the gospel with Marta. When Ron got saved on a Saturday at his home, and I was about to walk out, he was already concerned about others. Oh, Brother Bill, I drank. And so I just shared some scriptures. I'm going to leave you with the Lord. The Lord will show you what to do. And the Lord did show him. By the end of the next week, this is before email and all that kind of stuff, I got a stamped letter from Ron. I still have it. In which he talked about it was so different going to work. He had a good job at a factory here in town. He was a plant personnel manager. To show up on Monday morning and be sober. And to be happy. And have people... What's happened to you, Ron? And to have the opportunity to share the gospel with people. He wrote the letter about mid-morning or early afternoon. He said, I don't know how much company work I've gotten done today, but I've had person after person come by my office. They've seen a change. Christianity is not meetings we go to. It's the life of God and the soul of man transforming us more and more into the likeness of Christ, making us like the psalmist, worshippers, God-focused. Praise, good works, sharing with others, souls one, our bodies used for His glory, giving unto Him, and giving time. You spend time with people that you love. So God is calling us this morning to worship. This is not the kind of worship, oh, we went to worship this morning, so that's that, and now this is Monday, and this is different. God is calling us to be worshipers, 24-7. If this is worship and this is not, then it really doesn't matter how I live over here. There have been people living out the Christian life at work. And people come up to them and say, what are you, a preacher or something? They were hoping, expecting the preacher would live differently, but didn't expect Joe to live differently. All of life is an opportunity to manifest the glory of God. Sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name, show forth salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the heathen, His wonders among all people. The Lord is great and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. Above all gods. All the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before Him. Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Give unto the Lord, O ye kindred of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due His name. Bring an offering. come to his courts. If there's anybody in your work world, in your friendship world, that's wanting you to use your body in a way that does not please Jesus, if you're doing something and it is arousing in you something that you know does not please Jesus, you need to run. In fact, if it's fornication related, Whether you realize that's what it is or not, but now that we've had this message, you say, okay, I'll get that. Well, I'm going to stay and fight it. No, it says run! Flee! Flee idolatry. Flee fornication. This is serious business. And again, don't be deceived. Adults, 30, 40, 50, 60 years old, maybe even older, are not immune to being deceived and destroyed and are destroying others. If you work with someone and they're your boss, and they don't respect that you, whether you are already a believer or not, Your body is designed to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. It is holy and to be used for sacred use. So don't use it for cursing. Don't use it for fornication. Don't use it to be a thief. Don't use it for anything that dishonors God. Our Father, we bless you, we praise you. for the sacredness, for the privilege of worship, and how, as we truly worship you, we are kept from so many of the pitfalls of life. And for this we pray and give you thanks in Jesus' name. Amen.