Why Do You Worship God?

This message explores Psalm 33 and answers a simple but important question: Why do we worship God? It explains that worship is more than a church tradition or a musical experience—it is a response to who God is. Because God created everything, sustains everything, and is completely trustworthy, He alone is worthy of our praise. The message highlights that worship has always been a part of God’s design for His people, providing creative ways for us to express gratitude, awe, joy, and devotion to the One who spoke the world into existence.

This message also teaches that worship benefits believers by helping us recognize who God is, reminding us of His goodness and power, and teaching us how to respond to Him in faith. In a world where it is easy to trust only what we can see, worship trains us to trust God even when we cannot see how He is working. Ultimately, this message reminds us that worship is both a declaration of God’s worth and a practice that shapes our hearts, deepens our faith, and helps us trust Him in every season of life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Alright, so let's dive right in. Psalm 33. Here we go. Let the godly sing for joy to the Lord. It is fitting for the pure to praise him. Praise the Lord with melodies on the lyre. Make music for him on the ten-stringed harp. Sing a new song of praise to him. Play skillfully on the harp and sing with joy. For the word of the Lord holds true, and we can trust everything he does. He loves whatever is just and good. The unfailing love of the Lord fills the earth. The Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born. He assigned the sea its boundaries, and locked the oceans in vast reservoirs. Let the whole world fear the Lord, and let everyone stand in awe of him. For when he spoke, the world began. It appeared at his command. The Lord frustrates the plans of the nations and thwarts all their schemes. But the Lord's plans stand firm forever. His intentions can never be shaken. What joy for the nation whose God is the Lord, whose people he has chosen as his inheritance. The Lord looks down from heaven and sees the whole human race. From his throne he observes all who live on the earth. He made their hearts, so he understands everything they do. The best equipped army cannot save a king, nor is great strength enough to save a warrior. Don't count on your war horse to give you victory, for all its strength it cannot save you. But the Lord watches over those who fear him, those who rely on his unfailing love. He rescues them from death and keeps them alive in times of famine. We put our hope in the Lord. He is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone. I want to ask you this question, and it's going to seem like an obvious question that you might even think you have the answer for, or it might be a question that you've not ever answered before for as long as you've been in church, 20 minutes or 20 years, and it's this. Why do we worship God? Why do we worship God? It's a question that doesn't often get asked because it's assumed when you walk inside the doors of a church that worshiping God is commonplace and common practice. But do you ever ask the question, why do we worship God? Maybe why do we worship God the way we do inside of a church service? Practically, why do we use instruments and song? Or maybe it's deeper for you. Maybe it's why do you worship God on a personal level? And I want us to look at that today. But I want to share a story with you real quick that uh I think is fascinating because when you really think about it, breaking out in song inside of a large group of people doesn't happen in other parts of your life. It might be commonplace to do that inside of a church service, but have you ever seen it happen outside of a church service? Like it's it's probably rare that you were at Target and you walked down the aisle, you got a greeting card because it's a holiday, you picked up some deodorant because, you know, and then maybe you went to go grab some cereal, and as you turned down the cereal aisle, you didn't see a group of people standing around Cinnamon Toast Crunch singing praises. That's weird. That might strike you as weird. But about 11 years ago, something like this happened. It was actually in New York City in 2015, in the LaGuardia Airport, an airport that sends people all over the world, was experiencing something that many of us have experienced if we have uh flown to different places. It was a weather delay. And so you have hundreds on this particular day in 2015, hundreds of just weary travelers who are sitting right there in the LaGuardia Airport experiencing a six-hour weather delay. And you can imagine what that's like. People are frustrated, they're tired, they've gone through their snacks that they were saving for the plane, they're fighting over outlets because they need to charge their phones, and all the stuff is going on. And in this moment, something unique happens as everybody is frustrated and tense, and they're sitting on the floor, they're sitting in chairs, and all of a sudden, you hear songs from the famed beloved story, The Lion King, start to be sung out of nowhere. Because unbeknownst to the stranded group of travelers there, the hundreds inside of that terminal at the LaGuardia Airport in 2015, unbeknownst to them, one of the groups of travelers that were stranded with them happened to be the Broadway touring casts of Aladdin and the Lion King. And they decided to have some fun because they were all stuck, and they decided to embattle themselves in a Disney Songs sing-off from their shows. And so you can imagine being there, you're trying to plug your phone in and just wait and wait, and all of a sudden you hear, can you feel the love tonight in a whole new world? And you're looking like, what's going on? And there's video of it, you can see it. And the reality is that's a very random thing to happen. That doesn't happen all the time, that people will be stuck in a place together and just start singing, but it does happen every single week inside of churches all over the world. When you think about it, an uncommon thing in every other part of our lives is a very common thing within the Christian community that we engage with. But why do we do that? Why do we break out in song together? It's something that, again, doesn't happen. You're gonna leave here and maybe go out to lunch. You're gonna go to work tomorrow. And it's not like people are just doing that, but we do it all the time here. Why? Practically, why do we worship together? Because when we gather together like this inside of Christian community and we sing songs together, we call that worship. In fact, we call them worship services. All of us are in a worship center right now. That's what we call it. When we refer to this room, we say, hey, it's in the worship center. Why? Because where we gather is where we worship. We do that together. But why do we do that? Practically, why do we do it in the way we we do it? Because it's something that's actually been done for thousands of years, and a lot of people may not know why that we worship in such a way, musically or creatively. And it's a very simple answer, and it's this God is the creator of creativity, and so he hardwired people to desire to express themselves. And as a result of that, he gave us mechanisms, avenues for creative worship expression. In fact, you just saw six of them when we read Psalm 33 together. In Psalm 33 alone, you're gonna see six different expressions of worship. Sing joyfully, make music, praise the Lord, sing to him, play skillfully, and number six, for those who may not feel musically inclined, this one's for you. Shout for joy. There you go. You get to be involved in it too. You might think I'm tone deaf, I can't worship. You can yell. Why do we do that? Because in the Bible we read of musical and creative expressions as far back as we read of people worshiping God. Because God is a creative God, and so he gives us unique mechanisms for expressing that worship. In Psalm 33, if you were to read the Psalms straight through, 1 through 150, Psalm 33 is the first place that you encounter musical instruments being used in creative expression like this. With the stringed harp and the lyre, you see that going on. And the reason for that is in the Old Testament of your Bible, if you're familiar with the people of Israel and their story, it's a bit of a roller coaster. You know, they would uh they would have some highs and they would have some lows. And in one particular section of history, the people in Jerusalem had experienced some downfall. And God had restored them and had allowed them to rebuild parts of the city and essentially to restore the city of Jerusalem. And one of the final things they were doing was to restore the protective wall around the city that they utilized at that time. And so they did what you and I would understand, like if there's a new uh Walmart that opens up or a new restaurant that opens up, they have what? They have a ribbon-cutting ceremony, right? Or maybe there's a building and we have a dedication service to the building. The people of Israel there in Jerusalem, they basically did this. And they had essentially a dedication ceremony that they invited everybody to. And so what happened is in the Old Testament of your Bible, people were invited to travel back to the city of Jerusalem to celebrate this, and they were encouraged when they came to bring musical instruments with them, cymbals, uh, harps, other stringed instruments, and to sing together. So, as far back as we recognize worshipful expression in the Old Testament, we have seen God providing these mechanisms of creative worship. So practically, the reason that we utilize that means of musical worship is because it is something we have been given access to, and our desire is to express things, and God in his goodness gives us the beauty of enjoying that type of worship. But there's no cookie-cutter style of worship for people when you really think about it. Because some of us in the room, we're gonna say, I get it, Scott, but you know, I don't love music. You know what I mean? Like I can, you know, I couldn't even spell key, much less keep a key. You know, like I don't, autotune's not even gonna help me. Like you sing so bad that computers cannot even fix your voice. Like, you're just like, no. Some of us, let's be real. Some of us, when we sing worship songs together, you're like, look, I'm not comfortable with this, so I'm gonna lip sync these worship songs so that people know I'm worshiping, look, I'm worshiping in here, but nobody wants to hear what's coming out of here, right? And sometimes we do, but some of us are just like, you know, Scott, I love to just take a penitent posture and sit and consider the words. And here's the good news it's a kaleidoscope of exercise when we worship God. There's no cookie-cutter style. However, there is the hardwiring of every human soul to worship something. And so practically we do the things we do because stylistically it matches with thousands of years of practices and it honors God to express those creative mechanisms to him that he has in his goodness richly blessed humanity with. But on a personal level, the reason we worship God is because we were made to worship. The human soul was made to express sentiment. It was made to express admiration or affection or celebration or appreciation. You've experienced this, even maybe not so much in church for you. Maybe you're like, I'm not a big emotive person, right? Like I don't, I don't wear my heart on my sleeve, I don't really do that kind of thing. But we've all experienced expressions for things in our lives. Consider the last time you watched a sporting event for the team you rooted for. It's if you've ever, especially if you've been uh into a season and your team has made it to the playoffs and you're at home and you're watching and you're yelling at the TV, aren't you? You will do this. I had someone in the lobby in between services come to me and say, Hey, we need to tell you this. Uh, so-and-so watches a certain team, and it's gotten so bad, she yells at the TV so much that as soon as the game turns on, the dog jumps on the couch and hops in our lap because the dog is readying itself for mom to yell at the TV for the next 90 minutes. Now we joke, but we do that, don't we? We express things. We all do it. We've been, if you've ever been in a stadium packed full of people in a sporting event, there's 40,000 people in a stadium who cheer. You can feel their cheers when someone hits a baseball 400 feet. But then we walk into church the next day and we find it odd that 400 people don't seem as excited to sing to the very same God who made the 40,000 people who just cheered when the one person hit a baseball 400 feet. And while that might sound challenging for you, the reality is for us to understand we were made to worship. We were made to express celebration, joy, adoration, appreciation, gladness, thanksgiving. We were made to express that. And while that might seem challenging for us, the reason why we worship God and why it's important for us to understand what we do and why we do it is because many of us walk in week after week inside of a church service, and we actually don't even ask the question why do I worship God? Why do I worship God? And the answer is actually pretty simple, and we're gonna unpack it together. The reason we worship God first is because he deserves it. And the second reason might surprise you, the reason we worship God is A, He deserves it, and B, it blesses us. It actually blesses us to worship God, and we're gonna look at that a little more, but let's not go too far ahead because I think for a lot of people, we get into a service and we sing songs because we like the melody, we like the harmony, we like the beat, we want to sing that, but do we actually consider that God deserves our worship? Do you know why God deserves our worship? Because God made everything. He made everything. I want you to consider this everything in your life that you appreciate, God made. And I know before you're like, oh, but God didn't make these Pokemon cards. God made the people who made the machines that made the Pokemon cards. So, yes, you can trace it back. God didn't make this iPhone again. God made the people with the minds to create that stuff. God didn't make this taco bell food. Well, okay, I'll give you that one. I joke, but if you can come back with me, everything in your life that you appreciate, God made, because God made everything. In fact, we read of it in Psalm 33. In verses 6 through 9, this is what he said. The Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born. He assigned the sea its boundaries and locked the oceans in vast reservoirs. That's one of my favorite lines in all of Scripture. Let the whole world fear the Lord and let everyone stand in awe of him. For when he spoke, the world began. It appeared at his command. I want you to geek out with me for a moment because we just read a word that is word in Psalm 33. The Lord merely spoke and the heavens were created. He breathed the, what's that word? Word. Now here's what's interesting. These verses in Psalm 33 are a bit of a poetic summary of the creation account we find in the first book of your Bible, Genesis. And in that book of Genesis, you're also going to come across the same word, word. And it does mean verbal expression, oral expression. It is the exact same word in Genesis that you read here in Psalm 33, which means when the Bible says God spoke things into being, that is exactly what it means. When God said, Let there be light, there was light. Now here's something I want you to think about. Do you even consider that when we walk in the doors of a church and gather together to worship? Because here's what happens: life gets busy, things get crazy. We come in on a Sunday and we are just grateful we're not 20 minutes late, we're only 18 minutes late. You know, parents, you know. You're like, dude, I don't even know if the shoes match. I don't care. We got them, we're out. You come, you got to get caffeinated, and we do this daily, right? It's we got to get out of the house, we got this meeting, you got to pick up so-and-so. No, I thought you were picking up so-and-so. No, I think your sister's picking up so-and-so. No, I think your mother's picking up so-and-so. And at the end of the day, so-and-so is stranded wherever so-and-so was left because nobody knew where so-and-so was going to get. And life gets chaotic and crazy. So by the time we make it into the doors of a church on a Sunday, we're bringing stuff in our life backpack. We've got a lot of stuff, and we're just like, I'm here. Okay, Lord, I need something and I don't even know. And we skip this question: God, why do you even deserve my worship? Because we don't even consider when we walk in the doors and we begin to sing together, that God made everything with his words. That God spoke the world into being. We don't, that doesn't hit us sometimes. Like I even say that, and I can see some of us kind of wrestling with that. Okay, I know that's supposed to hit me. Why isn't that hitting me as hard? You know why? Because we're in an instantaneous society that if you go on Amazon today, by the time you get home, that thing will be there. So we live in that kind of environment, but here's the reality: the God of all things who made everything made it by speaking it. So let's do an experiment if we can bring this alive to everybody. I am going to now speak things into being. Here we go. Let's let's run the experiment, let's put it to the test. Right here. What I speak into being will appear right on this table. You ready? Let's go for it. Here we go. Mozzarella sticks. Oh man. Alright, let's try something smaller. Let's go smaller. Alright, here you go. Toyota Forerunner. Yeah, you're right. No? Okay, let's go smaller. You ready? Here we go. Elephant! Now that's silly, right? I can't speak anything into being, and you can't either. Have fun going home and trying that at your kitchen table. It's not going to happen. But do we consider that God spoke the world into being? That he gives the sea its boundaries. There's something powerful there that we often overlook when we choose to worship God, and that it is who He is. Why do we worship God? Because He deserves it. But not only does God deserve it, it blesses us. And here's where we start to really interact with worship and what it means for our lives. Because three things happen when we worship God that bless us. And so I want to give you these three things. If you're a note taker, they all start with the letter R. Three things that happen when we worship God. One, we recognize who God is. We recognize who God is, how good he is, how great he is. Two, we remind ourselves who God is. We remind ourselves how good he is, how great he is. Because sometimes that's actually what our soul is looking for in the moment. We're stressed, we're tired, life's been hard this week, and and we need that reminder of who God is because quite frankly, life's tough. And we need that. But we won't get reminded if we don't recognize. One, we recognize who God is. Two, we remind ourselves of who God is, how great he is, how good he is. And then three, we learn how to respond to who God is. We learn how to respond to who God is. That's why worship blesses us. Because something happens when you recognize who God is. When you recognize how great He is, when you recognize how good He is, it reminds us of who He is.

unknown 21:59

I want you

SPEAKER_01 22:00

To notice something special here in Psalm 33 that it might sound a little bit out of place, but it's making a point that is incredibly powerful for us, and we'll miss it if we don't circle back to it. In verse 16, the psalmist says this the best equipped army cannot save a king, nor is great strength enough to save a warrior. Don't count on your war horse to give you victory for all its strength it cannot save you, but the Lord watches over those who fear him. Those who rely on his unfailing love, he rescues them from death and he keeps them alive in times of famine. See, here's what's going on. Most of us put our trust in power we can see. Think about that. In the Old Testament, it was no different. Battles were a common thing as nations were growing and uh pursuing acquisition of land and goods. This was a common thing. To hear of battles. In fact, that's why you hear of a war horse being being the carrier for the king into victory, is essentially what that's talking about here. And so everyone reading this would have been familiar with battles. And the hope that the group of people had in their ability to attain victory was based on the power they could see, the size of the army, the strength of the army, the ability they could see. Oftentimes in life, as a Christian, we struggle to see victories on the other side of faith. Because it's a power that isn't as tangible to us every day as we think it should be, meaning this. God doesn't do things the way we want him to all the time. And because God isn't showing us, here's the exact way I'm going to see you through this, here's the exact way I'm going to fix this for you. God doesn't oftentimes take his power and show you the exact formula for how he is going to implement that into your life. So we struggle to trust that there's victory on the other side of faith. And that's a difficult thing. That's a part of the Christian life that is often unfun to talk about inside of church services, inside of worship services, because faith will require us to trust that God has victories that we can't see. And that's hard. I get asked this regularly as a pastor. Pastor Scott, what's the hardest thing about trusting God? And I look at him and I say, it's trusting God. And they look back at me and they're like, we were hoping for something better. And I'm like, well, it's honest. You know why? It is very easy for people to trust in power they can see. But faith and following Jesus, it will require you to trust that God has victories for you that you can't see. And that's hard sometimes. But that is a part of what blesses us when we worship God because we recognize who God is, how great he is, how good he is, and then we remind ourselves of who he is, how great he is, and how good he is. So what happens here is when we're tempted to let our trust muscles atrophy because we're not sure that God's going to do exactly what we want him to do, we remind ourselves that God is able to do anything God chooses to do, but everything he does is just and good. It might not be what we want, but it is what his best is for us. And so in those moments where it doesn't feel like life is a victory, worshiping God trains us, it teaches us to trust that God may indeed have a victory you just can't see yet. The journey might be a tough one, and there might be some pain you have to go through to get to that victory that may not at the time feel like a victory. But verse 15 He made their hearts so he understands everything they do. For some of us today, we needed Psalm 33, 15. We needed that reminder that God made our hearts and he knows everything we do. He knows exactly what you're going through. And he knows that right now you might be working real hard to trust him because you've spent a lot of time trusting in power that you can see. And right now he's asking you to trust that he is a victory you cannot see. But worshiping God blesses us because it helps us recognize who he is. Remind us of who he is, and then respond to who he is. Uh, my high school football team played in the state championship football game. If you've ever seen the movie Remember the Titans, there is a line in the movie that says, In Virginia, high school football is a way of life. It really is. It's a remarkable thing to see in the South. And high school state championship football games are a spectacle in and of themselves. And one year our team, our high school, played uh in the state championship. And the the team we were playing against, one of the players for the team, uh the opposing team, happened to be the son of NFL Hall of Famer Howie Long. If you don't know who Howie Long is, you can Google him. He was an NFL defensive lineman for the Raiders. He's now a commentator on sports. He is a Hall of Fame NFL player, and his son played on the opposing team. They won, by the way, if you cared to know how that story ends. But um we lost. However, at the end of the game, because we're young, you know, and we're look, we're bummed that we lost, but it's also there's Howie Long, and he's a Hall of Famer, and so I did what everybody else was doing. I went up to meet Howie Long. And I'll never forget because Howie Long has the largest hands, I think, of any human being ever created by God. Like, whatever, whatever glove size a grizzly bear wears, the next size up is what Howie Long wears. Like he shook my hand and my arm disappeared. Like it was, what is that, man? Like I've never experienced that before. But I remember I was so excited to meet Howie Long that that by the time I got up to him, because there's a line of people to meet him, by the time, and you know, you're sitting there, you're thinking, you got minutes to think about, like, okay, what am I gonna say to Howie Long? And I was so excited, and I got up to him and I met him and I looked at him, and this is what happened. I go, You're Howie Long. And he looks at me and he goes, I know. That was our entire conversation. That was our entire interaction. I told this man who had known exactly who he was for 45 years. Who he was. And his response was, I know. He knew he was how he long. But I got to experience how he long in person. I want you to hear this about worship. We worship God not because God needs us to worship him. God knows who he is. God knows we need to worship him. Because it's where we recognize who he is, remind ourselves of who he is, and respond to who he is. So God looks at us and says, I know who I am. I want you to know who I am. That's why we worship God. Because it trains our trust muscles and it shapes our character. Worship as we respond to who God is, as we're reminded of who God is, worship is one of those practices that actually produces godliness in our lives. Have you ever thought about that? That the more praise you give God, the more you appreciate God, thus the more you consider God, and then his character starts to shape your character. It's an underspoken and undercommunicated truth of one of the blessings of worshiping God is that worship is a practice that produces godliness because it's where we recognize that God is good, that he is great, who he is, and it's where we remind ourselves of who God is. And so the more we praise God for all he is, the more we learn to trust God with all we have. Because when you boil it down, worship is all about perspective and posture. How you see God will determine how you approach God. How you approach God will determine how you praise God. That's why worship is a practice that helps produce godliness, because worship brings us to a humble awareness of who God is and who we are, and then we respond to that reality. So worship blesses us because it's where we go to recognize who God is, to remind ourselves of who he is and to respond to who he is. Why do we worship? Because God deserves it and it blesses us. Practically, why do we do the things we do? Because God is the creator of creativity and he has blessed us with the beauty of creative mechanisms to express that, that we get to enjoy. And why do we worship God personally? Because worshiping God blesses us as we experience more of who he is. And the more we get to know God, the more we learn how to trust God in every season and every situation. There's a famed preacher many years ago. He's with Jesus now, his name was Charles Spurgeon. Maybe you've heard of him, and I figured it would be appropriate as we've delved into this collection of poetry in Psalms, to use a very poetic quote from Charles Spurgeon that I think sums up our conversation on worship today. Charles Spurgeon wrote this praise is the beauty of a Christian. What wings are to a bird, what fruit is to the tree, what the rose is to the thorn, that is praise to the child of God. We worship God because He deserves it and it blesses us. And so here's what we're going to do as we conclude our time together. Before I encourage you to be back and bring people with you next week for a very special Sunday and a very big announcement, before I encourage you to linger in the lobby and connect with people, and before we conclude our time, I figured that we would end our time in worship today in an old school, maybe somewhat unconventional way, and together read Psalm 33 again. And so I'm going to put it on the screen, and I actually want to encourage you to read it along with me. Because at the end of our conversation today, we started it with reading this psalm. And I wonder now that we understand worship as the place we recognize, remind, and respond that the words on the page might hit differently when we consider who God is. So I want you to follow along screen with me. They're going to put it up right now, and we are going to read this together as we conclude our time. Here we go. Let the godly sing for joy to the Lord. It is fitting for the pure to praise him. Praise the Lord with melodies on the lyre. Make music for him on the ten stringed harp. Sing a new song of praise to him. Play skillfully on the harp and sing with joy, for the word of the Lord holds true, and we can trust everything he does. He loves whatever is just and good. The unfailing love of the Lord fills the earth. The Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born. He assigned the sea its boundaries, and locked the oceans in vast reservoirs. Let the whole world fear the Lord, and let everyone stand in awe of him. For when he spoke, the world began. It appeared at his command. The Lord frustrates the plans of the nations and thwarts all their schemes. But the Lord's plans stand firm forever, his intentions can never be shaken. What joy for the nation whose God is the Lord, whose people he has chosen as his inheritance. The Lord looks down from heaven and sees the whole human race. From his throne he observes all who live on the earth. He made their hearts, so he understands everything they do. The best equipped army cannot save a king, nor is great strength enough to save a warrior. Don't count on your war horse to give you victory. For all its strength it cannot save you. But the Lord watches over those who fear him, those who rely on his unfailing love. He rescues them from death and keeps them alive in times of famine. Church together, we put our hope in the Lord. He is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone. We love you. God bless you. Amen. We'll see you next week.

SPEAKER_00 37:02

Thank you so much for joining us today at Sunrise Church. We hope this message encouraged you and blessed you. If one of the ways that you choose to worship with us here at Sunrise is by giving online, there's a link right here that you can follow and it'll take you to that payment portal. Everything that you donate helps not only go towards reaching people in the greater San Diego area, but also all around the world through our ministry partner. If you want to get further connected, whether in person or online, you can email this email right here, and either myself or some one of our team members will be there to answer it and help you get connected in any way that you need. Thank you so much for joining us, and we'll see you next week.