Introduction: In a few short weeks we will be returning to our renovated sanctuary. That place has been the spiritual home for our family of faith since 1917. It is a place dedicated to the worship of Almighty God. It is a place that has witnessed the worship of this church for generations. Singing, praying, proclaiming, testifying, hearing the voice of God, weddings, funerals, dedication of babies, recommitment of lives for God’s kingdom and countless other things that are the treasures and traditions of this church family have all been included in the sanctuary. When we return you will be thrilled at the improvements, paint, sound, lights and, yes, there are new cushions on the pews! It will be a place in which you can say, "God is honored by this place to worship Him."

While we wait to return, the question is not, "When will it be ready?" but, "Will we be ready?" Our sanctuary was in critical need of improvement and repair. The physical improvements are nearing completion. It is time for us to consider the urgency of our personal spiritual preparation to return to the sanctuary. We became so comfortable in our sanctuary that we began to ignore the pealing paint, the leaks, stains, the inadequacies of sound, lights and other problems. In the same way we can get so comfortable with what we claim as worship that we ignore the question of, "Have we met God when we go to church?" If we were honest, the vast majority of us would admit that we have not.

George Barna is a leading Christian researcher on American Christianity. He said in a seminar recently that in a survey conducted among people who regularly attend church (30-35 worship services a year) that 32% have never had what they would can an experience with God’s presence and 48% have not experienced His presence in the last year. His research also indicates that while millions of people attend church each Sunday relatively few worship God. That is an indictment of those of us who are supposedly the "worship leaders" that we are not leading you to experience an encounter with the living God.

If that observation is true, then why do we come to church? To help us this morning I want us to visit one of the Psalms that addresses the reason for us to gather for worship. Psalm 122 is a psalm about someone who decided to go to church and worship God. It is a psalm of worship. It is an example of something people of faith do everywhere: gather in an assigned place and worship God. The background of this particular psalm is that it is a picture of someone arriving at the Temple in Jerusalem and looking around them in joy. They speak not only to themselves but to the group of worshippers. It was likely a song for one of the festivals that were celebrated each year. It reflects the arrival after a long sought goal. It is the song we need to sing as we prepare our hearts and lives to be a sanctuary for God.

1. The psalmist begins with what I would call his response to an invitation to worship. (Psalm 122:1-2)

His response was, "I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord’" (v. 1). His response was one of unrestricted joy. There are no hints of excuses or complaints. It was just when they said, "Let’s go to church!" he responded with joy!

Do you realize that more people attend a worship service in America each week than watched the Super Bowl. It is one of the most popular things that we do in our culture. We do it freely and voluntarily—unless you are too young to drive. It is not something that is forced on coerced. Without question worship is the single most popular activity for Americans today. So when we hear the psalmist’s encouragement, it is not some phony piece of propaganda but the testimony of a huge portion of our society. We attend worship services, maybe not always gladly, but voluntarily.

What’s sad is that with so many people responding voluntarily to worship attendance we aren’t sure what it is we are to do once we are there. Most people have an understanding that the reason we are here is to satisfy or please us, not to honor or please God. We have the idea that worship, or "good" worship, is getting to sing the songs you like, hear a sermon that borders on entertaining, visit with our friends and by doing all that we make God happy. We as worship leaders have the idea that good worship is if there are few empty seats, the "feel" is right, people sing, the transitions are good, we start and end on time and if a cell phone doesn’t ring. We who lead worship are just as guilty of forgetting our purpose as anyone.

What we forget is that the purpose and reason we are here is to put ourselves into such a place where we can personally and intimately connect with God to glorify, honor and bless Him. Our whole mindset is to get something from worship when the reality is our worship is to give—to give to God praise, honor and glory. As we give, we get in return the knowledge that we have been confronted, convicted, comforted and challenged by God.

Each week we do some evaluation of our worship services in our weekly co-worker meeting. You know what we do: We count how many were here and talk about what worked and didn’t work. We never ask the question, "Did people meet God? Were they shaken emotionally, mentally and intellectually, physically? Did people have an undeniable sense of God’s presence in their midst? Did people want to draw closer to God? Were their lives changed?" Those are the hard questions. Yet I am convinced that those are the needs that you want met when you come to church. When those needs are met then you are a person who is truly glad to come to worship!

2. The psalmist not only declares his joy at the invitation to worship but he also highlights some reasons for his excitement. (Psalm 122:3-5)

One question comes to mind when you think of all the persons who attend a service of worship week in and week out: Why? Why do we compel ourselves to be involved in these weekly rituals? The psalm singles out three items: Worship gives us a functional structure for our lives; worship creates a need for us to connect to God personally; worship causes us to make decisions God’s way—it gives us His perspective.

The writer says that his focus is to go to Jerusalem "that is built as a city that is compact together." It’s the idea of walls being restored or built so well that there are no gaps in the structure. The NLT says, "a well built city, knit together as a single unit." Jerusalem was the place that brought all of life together. It gave it order and purpose. Yet that was not done alone he says, "the tribes go up." The tribes had not been identified as such in Israel for centuries, yet he sees this as something that people do together. Being at Jerusalem with other people going to the House of the Lord put life in focus.

Haven’t you felt like you needed to get away so that you could "get it together"? Life gets so fragmented and ragged that it seems it’s nothing but loose ends. Where do you go? What do you do? Well, Christians gather for worship. Somehow through this experience of pushing aside everything else—choosing not to stay home, go out of town, sleep in or go back to the office—being here with other believers puts a structure or a frame around life. Worship lets us center our life weekly, consistently around God.

There’s another thing that worship does and that is that it creates in us a need to connect with God. In verse 4 the psalmist is reminded of how the entire nation makes its way to Jerusalem to worship because of an ordinance or law that had been mandated. Exodus 23:17 said, "Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord God." There was an order or law that you were commanded to go to the Temple and "give thanks to the name of the Lord." What could this accomplish? Wasn’t it later abused so that they obeyed but it was meaningless? The answer is yes it was abused but it also motivated them to do what they wouldn’t have done on their own.

As a culture we live off of our feelings as individuals. If I don’t feel some compelling reason to be involved or participate in an activity then why should I do it? We bring this into our attitude toward worship. Why should I go to church? I don’t feel like it! Your feelings are great liars and they are especially unreliable about faith. If all of us acted on our feelings about worship then very few of us would ever worship. You see here is something we forget and that is in God’s wisdom we can act our way into feeling much quicker than we can feel our way into acting. Worship is an act that develops or creates within us a need to connect with God. The more we place ourselves in the act of worship the more we find ourselves filled with the need for worship. As we do it we feel it!

Yet one more reason for worship is found in verses 5. He mentions "thrones set for judgment." "Judgment" here refers to the decisions that were made according to God’s word that corrected behavior. Matters of right and wrong were decided in the Temple. God’s word about behavior brought confrontation to what was wrong and guided a person into what was right. God’s word might be everywhere in worship. Whether in prayer, reading, singing, sharing, proclaiming, the word of God is to be the most prominent feature of our experience of worship.

There is simply no better place for that to occur than in a context or place of worship. I realize you can read the Bible at home and should, but you do not get the full benefit of all the ways God’s word can touch us like you do in worship. Here in worship is that one opportunity for our senses and our soul to be assaulted with God’s word, confronting us with the need for change and where our lives need to hear God’s voice. Worship helps us make decisions about life God’s way based on God’s word.

3. If the reasons for worship are so clear, what are the benefits? What do I get because I am giving God my worship? The psalmist points to two things that are the reasons or benefits for worship. (Psalm 122:6-8)

The first benefit is peace. He says to "pray for the peace" (v. 6) and that "peace" would be within the city. The words he uses are significant. "Pray" is a word used as a request for more food after being served or used to request direction if you are lost. The word "peace" is a word that describes the idea of everything just being right and good. Worship causes us to ask God for more that would make all of life good. Here we look to God and say we need His presence to flow out of our lives to other places and make life whole.

Also the psalmist mentions the benefit of prosperity, "peace within your walls and prosperity within your palaces." The NIV translates this "security" and really that is more accurate. It means being at ease, quiet and tranquil. (We might say "chilled.") The idea is not being sure you have enough in savings or having enough weapons for war. It’s the relaxed position of someone who knows everything is all right because God is over us and for us in Jesus Christ. As Eugene Peterson says, "It’s the security of being at home in a history that has a cross at its center."

Sometimes when I get home after everyone else is in bed I’ll peek into our girls’ rooms and go over and kiss them while they are sleeping. They don’t know I’m there. When I leave I think of all the children who don’t have a family that loves them, cares for them and provides for them. I’m thankful that we can give them those things because that gives them a sense that life is good, right and secure. They have peace and security.

Worship is to give you that. That when you gather to worship God is so real to you that you leave knowing I am at peace and am living in security because of my relationship with Jesus Christ.

Conclusion: The last two verses really bring us back to where we started. I like the way the NLT translates the words "For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, ‘Peace be with you.’ For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek what is best for you, O Jerusalem" (v.8-9).

What that says is that he cares enough about worship in God’s house that he will seek what is best. The application for us is that before we can fully worship there is some preparation that needs to be made. When we make our way back across the street we will be in a place that will look and feel new, fresh, bright and welcoming. The challenge is, "Will we be any different?" Will we prepare ourselves by asking God to make us a sanctuary – pure, holy, tried and true? Or will we bring the same attitudes, prejudices, complacency, criticisms and resistance toward God that we have struggled with?

It’s time that we not only prepare to return to a sanctuary but that we prepare to be a sanctuary. We do that by remembering that our purpose here is to connect with God. Then from that connection life has structure, direction and correction. As our life finds those things to be true then we know life, all of life, is at peace and is secure because of the person of Jesus Christ.

"Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true. With thanksgiving I’ll be a living sanctuary for you."

"I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’" May it be true for you and me!

Sunday, April 11, 1999

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org.