WORSHIP PREPARATION GUIDE FOR SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12

Sermon Text: Isaiah 43:22 – 44:23

Songs for Worship Include: Rock of Ages, I Will Sing of My Redeemer, Come Thou Fount

Bored in Worship?

“Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob; 

but you have been weary of me, O Israel! (Is 43:22)

Is boredom a problem for you at church?  It was for Israel.  God had given his people a manual for worship in the book of Leviticus.  The instructions were detailed and the worship was elaborate.  But what looked good on the outside was empty religious ritual coming from cold hearts.  Worship had sunk to the level of joyless duty and had become a means of attempting to manipulate God.  What God had intended to be our humble awe-filled response to his greatness and grace had been turned into our feeble attempts to get God to respond to us. 

As you prepare for worship prayerfully consider this:  boredom in worship is not a music problem and it’s not a preaching problem.  Boredom in worship is a heart problem.  Alec Moyter asks this penetrating question: …”is our religious practice – our daily devotions in prayer and the Word of God, and our commitment to church fellowship and Sunday services – a bondage to which we have ‘enslaved’ ourselves (v23), or is it an experienced liberation of spirit and a proved means of spiritual growth?” (Isaiah by the Day, p 215)

Idols Blind Us To God’s Greatness and Glory

In this Sunday’s passage God (through Isaiah) mocks the absurdity and foolishness of idols.  Isaiah keeps coming back to the issue of idolatry because idols are always a problem for us.  “The central theological principle of the Bible is the rejection of idolatry.”  The sure remedy to idolatry is a fresh vision of the greatness and glory of God seen in Christ Jesus.

Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, 

and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts:

“I am the first and I am the last; 

besides me there is no god.

Is there a God besides me? 

There is no Rock; I know not any.” (Is 44:6&8)

Worship is our response to this fresh awareness of the greatness and glory of God.  As you prepare for worship ask the Lord to open your heart to see God and receive his word as we gather this Sunday.

Remember, Return and Sing to the Lord

Remember these things, O Jacob, 

and Israel, for you are my servant;

I formed you; you are my servant; 

O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.

 I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud

and your sins like mist; 

return to me, for I have redeemed you.

Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it; 

shout, O depths of the earth;

break forth into singing, O mountains,

 O forest, and every tree in it!

For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, 

and will be glorified in Israel. (Is 44:21-23)

The glorious vision of God we see in this week’s passage reveals his free offer to forgive our sins and his gracious offer to revive us through his Holy Spirit.  Our response to this great grace is three-fold:

1 - Remember your relationship with God  - a relationship he initiated out of his great love;

2 - Return to the Lord who has redeemed you through the blood of Christ;

3 - Sing to the Lord who has delighted to rescue you and make you his own.

I am praying that each one of us will gather together as God’s redeemed people to encourage and love each other, to hear from God through his word and respond him in worship.