Lord Almighty, King of Glory – Sermon 12 July, 2015

Lord Almighty, King of Glory
Psalm 24
Psalm 24 is a Psalm celebrating the return of the Ark to Jerusalem after 50 years. It is a praise song of David sang at this occasion, David even danced and worshiped God.
We come to church every Sunday morning to worship God and we refer to our services as “Sunday Morning Worship Service”. But sadly to most people worship and going to church is the same thing.
Going to church is very important and there are many who love to go to church and do. Few weeks ago I heard the NRL commentator Ray Warren talking about an important Sunday Footy game and encouraging people to go early as there will be big crowds. He said if you are going to maw your lawn maw early and if you are going to church go early and don’t miss the game. For Ray going to church is something people do, but not necessarily worshiping God.
Church is a safe place from the outside world where we can put away all our troubles and focus on something more pleasant for a little while and enjoy some good fellowship with people who share a similar belief. There we can laugh, sing, cry, and enjoy each others company during Morning Tea. There we can find comfort, encouragement and feel good about ourselves.
But worship is more than going to church. Worship is the act of coming into the presence of God the Lord Almighty for the main reason of exalting Him and praising His name. Sadly many times those who go to church leave the same way as when they entered. Nothing changes. They sit on the pews unmoved and unemotional because for them attendance and worship are the same thing. Real worship happens when people stand in God’s presence to express humility, respect, adoration, gratitude and love for Him.
To worship God we must:
1. Focus on God
In the first few lines of this Psalm we see that David’s focus was God and only God. It was very clear for him that everything in the world belongs to God – the earth, everything in it, everyone who lives in it. God made the world and He preserves and sustains it. Knowing that it all belongs to God should help us to see life from a different perspective. If we focus on praising God as the Creator of everything then our worship will be different. We will have the same excitement that David had. David acted like a little boy trying to please God the Father.
David understood the glorious majesty of Almighty God. He had respect for God and he loved his God.
God must be the focus of our worship.
2. Be prepared
We must be prepared to worship God. To stand before God and worship, we should be spiritually prepared. We should be right with God; our attitudes and actions should be acceptable to God. We should have clean hands and pure hearts as David says. We should be willing to accept His authority, obey His commands, respect Him and respect our fellow man. This is clearly outlined in the words of Jesus, when He said “Love your God and your neighbour”.
We cannot worship the Lord if we aren’t right with Him; our sins should be confessed and dealt with. We should be pure in heart, body and soul. We must prepare ourselves spiritually every day. We must read and study God’s word daily. We must set aside time daily to be alone with the Lord in prayer.
We must be prepared spiritually to worship and we must focus on God when we worship.
3. Desire to worship
We should have the desire to worship Him. Without the desire there is no worship. Worshiping God should not be out of duty, but rather we should have the longing and the want to worship. Without this factor we cannot focus on God and cannot be truly prepared. We should open the doors of our hearts. With shot doors it is not possible to worship God. David’s reference to the gates makes this clear. Here we see a reference to the gates of the Temple which were beautifully decorated, sculptured and designed to provide protection. David here suggests that there was a desire to open these gates so that the great and mighty King of Glory could come in. In the letter to Corinthians Paul said, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 6:19)
To worship God we must have a desire for Christ, the King of Glory, to dwell within us. We must have a desire to open the door to our heart and allow him to enter in and fill us. We must desire to worship the King of Glory.
We have plenty of reasons to worship God.
The most important of all of them is that we love Him.
If we love Him, He will be the focus of our worship, we will prepare ourselves spiritually to worship Him and the desire of our hearts will be to worship Him.
We need to understand that worship it is not just going to church, but it is experiencing God through a personal relationship with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Worship is important to God, so much so that out of the 10 commandments, the very first one deals with the subject of worship. Ex. 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me. In the Old Testament, we see the importance of worship in the lives of the people of God. Abraham worshipped (Gen. 22:5), Jacob worshipped (Heb. 11:21), Moses worshipped (Ex. 34:8), Joshua worshipped (Joshua 5:14), and of course David the king worshipped (2 Samuel 12:20). Worship was an integral part of the lives of God’s people throughout the Old Testament.
We find in the NT that worship is still important. Jesus told the woman at the well that God is seeking for worshippers. John 4:23 “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks”. The Greek word used here for seek is desire, or to demand. God is looking for and demanding true, sincere worship. The disciples and the NT church worshipped the Lord.
Worship must begin with a right relationship with God.
Worship must include a respectful reverence to God.
Worship must offer a relevant response.
Let us worship the Lord Almighty the King of Glory.

Krikor Youmshajekian