What does the Bible say about worship?

my wife can attest to this is I probably own too much Sports swag I have Sun stuff I have dback stuff I have ASU stuff and when we wear this stuff we are spreading the joy the Overflow we have and we're telling it to the people around us we see what Paul is going to show us today is our faith is no different and our faith should actually be on another level that the more Jesus has changed our lives the more we claim to love Jesus and know who he is it should have external spill that the world sees around us but hey if you have your Bibles go ahead and open to 1 Corinthians chap 11 1 Corinthians chap 11 and if you've been with us as we've gone through this letter in this study uh we've been studying through this chapter that kind of or through this book that has all these just complex topics and recently we've been kind of approaching and see through the lens of hey Paul that Paul the Apostle Guided by the Holy Spirit as he writing the INSP ired word of God he's been answering these questions that this church in Corinth almost 2,000 years ago has been writing to him and as he's been answering these questions he's been answering hard topics and things that are relevant for us today is what does the Bible say about marriage what does the Bible say about the gray and the tough areas of our life what does the Bible say about my rights and on and on and on and today we're going to continue down that vein and we're going to ask hey Paul what does the Bible say about worship ship and as we dive into this topic and we think about worship there's probably a lot of things that flood to your head we use that word a lot and maybe we use it almost too Loosely at times when we say we worship you're like I'm going to a worship service you you you hear worship and you think maybe that's just the singing part of church but today as we kind of dive through that and we're going to say what what truly is worship is it just the singing is it just the guitars is it just when we clap off beat because we don't know how to clap on beat all right um you know who you are and it's all of us all right um you're like I think I'm clapping right isn't it okay uh but is it just those part or is there something more and does worship just happen on Sundays when we are gathered together or does it extend past this well this morning as we go into 1 Corinthians chapter 11 here's our answer that we're going to get the biblical answer for this text today is that worship is the Overflow of a changed life that worship is the Overflow of a changed life here's what our worship is and then we're let me kind of give you just a little overview of this and we're going to go back through and see how this practically fleshes out is worship is when you recognize that Jesus is God that he died for your sins that he raised again that the the Jesus we read about here in this scripture that is history that inspired word of God that he is God come down for us that he died on a cross because we could not pay our own sins we could not work for our own sins that we accept him as God that we say his grace covers us that he raised from the grave and he changes our life completely and when we accept that truth it should change how we live our lives all of a sudden we should live as people who are more like Jesus and less like our old sinful lives we should becoming in part of a church family of sort and this is hopefully your church family or maybe you're kind of exploring and maybe you're here for the first or second time and debating if you want this to be your church family you should start living your life in a way that all of a sudden is Guided by the Holy Spirit where your decisions that first voice that comes into your head usually I call that my dumb voice right it is countered by the holy spirit's voice it's like nope don't listen to that guy he's wrong okay um maybe I'm the only one that has two voices in my head but it's like and as you're living this life this change life that is overflowing and people start to take notice your family your Community the people around you that is what worship is more than just singing songs on a Sunday morning and today as Paul gets in this text he's going to show us two principles of worship and he starts this in verse two he says this now I praise you because you remember me in everything and you hold fast to the Traditions just as I delivered them to you he he starts this chapter and he says hey hey I I commend you I give you credit I praise you because you are holding fast to these Traditions now Paul isn't just talking about empty Traditions here he's talking about how the Corinthians were starting to live out their faith in very practical ways and as we'll see these practical ways of living have everything to do with how they are worshiping their God and the first worship principle that we're going to see that flows out of this practical living out of their faith is that a changed life in Jesus should be seen externally that a change life in Jesus should be seen externally today is our our March Madness event and we're like hey there's a lot going on in March right it's a for me there's a ton going on because we have a thousand birthdays which we wrapping up this week but in the Sports World there's a lot going on of if your college team isn't trash in basketball unlike mine right you're celebrating that a spring training is coming to the end and the dime backs are going to win the World Series this year mark it down right I'm not Pastor Jackie so when I say stuff it doesn't automatically mean the opposite is going to happen when I make Sports predictions all right right um hopefully I am a Suns fan so that should say something but it's like there's so much NBA playoffs are going to start soon and the suns are going to be the 10th seed playing and we're going to go from the 10th seed all the way to the NBA finals it's going to be the Cinderella story and they're going to make movies about it at least in my head okay um in some universe that's probably happening if you know there's multiverses I don't know but anyway so in all that but you you see here's what I love about sports and fanship is as you love your team as you support your team you become a vocal proponent of your team and my wife can attest to this is I probably own too much Sports swag I have Sun stuff I have dback stuff I have ASU stuff um and and and all of that like and I Cardinal stuff and I love it I'm passionate about my teams and when they're good I'm actually a fan when they're bad and good okay I'm not fair fair weather but when they're good I'm more obnoxious and even like louder about it and I want everyone to know how great my team are and when we wear the stuff when we talk about it in that vein it's almost a form of worship on a surface level of we spreading the joy the Overflow we have for us and we're telling it to the people around us we see what Paul is going to show us today is our faith is no different and our faith should actually be on another level that the more Jesus has changed our lives the more we claim to love Jesus and know who he is it should have external spill that the world sees around us now as we dive into this text I want to acknowledge that this is one of those passages that's been misunderstood and misapplied throughout church history that's been misunderstood by a lot of people in our world that they take it they point to it and they say this is why you believe this and they and they put words in the Bible's mouth that it did not say and Mis and misunderstand it so that twist it to something else but it also gets misapplied inside the church at times to say things that Paul and God does not say so with that said let's take a a careful look at what Paul is really saying here and the first thing we see about this external life change of worship overflowing in our lives the first part of this is we need to recognize the created order that God has established as he continues in verse three and we'll just read this one verse as we start into this he says this but I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man and the man is the head of the woman and God is the head of Christ as Paul starts here he he gives a statement that's pretty controversial he gives a statement that when we kind of read out of context can feel a little uncomfortable here he he starts out and he's saying hey uh there's an order to Creation my my son Archie I love when he's learning different things at school because he'll start talking about him and asking questions uh when it comes and we're driving and things like that and recently he's been learning about plan plan and you know planets have changed over the years like when I grew up there was nine planets and now there's only eight like in our solar system what's up with that like I say make Pluto a planet again is there a petition we can sign for that or whatever I don't know um let's take it up with NASA but anyway he'll talk about planets and we're like talking and cool and like one and he's like oh and we're you know giving random little facts and information about it but you look at our solar system it's so amazing because if Jupiter was just a little bit further away from Earth then our planet would be a mess because it's the perfect distance to Where Jupiter's so big its gravitational pole is pulling us but the sun's even bigger so it's gravitational poles there and it puts us just in the right spot that we don't freeze to death or burn alive that's a pretty good thing right and and you look at that and the planets they're all different they're all different sizes different Scopes but they all work in Harmony in our solar system so that life can happen on this Little Rock we call Earth and science will say that and we're like well just a crazy coincidence that's just whatever but I look at that and say wow that's God's created order that's pretty awesome and you see what Paul is talking about here is see he this is what he's getting at he's saying that there's a divine order to life and he's saying this in the sense that everyone has their role not to create inequality but to create Harmony which we'll talk about a little bit more but here's kind of the order God gives he says God is the head of the universe that means everything that's created the entire universe not just our galaxy not just our solar you know but everything the entire universe the whole solar system but then he also shows us that man is the head of the household that's where we get a little controversial in our world and put a pin in that before you throw any rocks or tomatoes or tomatoes would be better than rocks I'm just going to say that um but before you do that because we're going we're going to come back to that in a second but Paul kind of establishes right now there's a created order to things but then he also talks about but we also need to recognize cultural Traditions keep going in verse four he says every man who prays or prophesies with something on his head dishonors his head every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head since that is one and the same as having her head shaved for if a woman doesn't cover her head she should have her hair cut off but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved let her head be covered a man should not cover his head because he is the image Andor glory of God so to women is the glory of man and we all said what okay this is one of those passages where you first read and you're like what in the world is he talking about you're like so I need to cover my head but I don't know you cover your head no wait you you cover yours no let me switch that up and and you know as as I was praying about this I needed a break as I was trying to like go through this all and we have a lot of birthdays even on our staff um so like our kind of four core full time um uh staff members and pastors here on our church we're like hey let's take a break because we have three of our four birthdays in marked I'm like let's go get some lunch and celebrate our birthdays so we went to go get some birthdays and we went to go get sushi at Trappers now show of hands who loves Sushi that's more than first service still a terribly low number okay and actually half of our staff was like I'm not so I'm not so sold on Sushi and here's what I say if you don't like sushi you just have had never had good sushi okay um you have the right stuff your life will be changed like it's like an explosion of flavor in your mouth and like all of the sudden everything is different but we went to Trappers and Trappers has this amazing deal where you like pay like you do a lunch their lunch unlimited it's like 20 bucks and you get unlimited sushi rolls unlimited I ate three I tapped out Josh was on five and he's like are we already done I'm like sorry but as we're eating um it was funny as we were going Jessica asked hey she asked the sushi chef and she said do you guys have Forks as we're like eating our Chopsticks and I'm like doing this like I'm not like a real white boy and I know what I'm doing but anyway she asked with forks and her Chef said yes it's right by the ranch in the ketchup that you can dip in the dude was awesome all right he was fantastic but here's what's funny as we go into that environment there are certain ways to try to eat that to a adopt to that tradition to understand how you eat sushi the right way and what Paul here is moving towards us he's not trying to enforce some universal dress code or tradition that would go throughout the Echoes of all history but he's about recognizing that our worship should be culturally important or appropriate while maintaining the distinctiveness of our faith let me give you some background What's Happening Here on Corinth as first he said that men should have their heads uncovered now is he saying that we should never wear a baseball cap or a a hat in church or in the house of God ever for the rest of time some of you guys like I hope not right you're like I'm about to take my head off as he's preaching this no he's not saying that uh here's what actually happened in that time in Corinth um Pagan philosophers would have their head covered and and they would have a covering on their head that would identify them in that way so Paul was saying hey when you're covering your head inside Church you look to the outside world like you're a pig philosopher preaching that falsehood rather than preaching the truth of Jesus Christ that's step one but then he goes to women and then he tells women that your head should always be covered so does that mean we always need a head covering at all times in church for women throughout history I have a lot of women that are probably saying with their eyes I hope not right and Paul is saying no the reason he said this is because when in a woman who had their head uncovered in the church or in the culture of Corinth they were often associated with prostitution so he's saying hey don't give the wrong idea cuz that was happening at the Pagan temples he's like that's not happening in the First Baptist Church of Corinth okay and what Paul is trying to say here he's like hey we need to act in a way that sets us apart from culture and we need to not be a stumbling block that when someone tries to come to Faith in them that they're thinking something else because they're reading the culture into it and for us when we talk about this is we can we can act in a certain way we can do certain things but are we removing distractions that might keep others from seeing Jesus and us for example I have every right to preach with a hat on and and I have a weird head so I can't even wear hats normal I have to wear most of my hats backwards okay and and if I wore a backwards hat I promise there would be people in our church that it would hurt and there would be a roadblock in their faith be like I am not comfortable with that okay there is some deep Catholic or Baptist in me that just feels like this is wrong and even though I can make a theological case for that is it worth it to distract someone from the beauty of the Gospel no so do I preach with a hat on no because I understand our cultural context and the things that aren't worth fighting are there things that we just need to let go that we need to move past on luckily you've let me preach in a jersey before so I'm glad with that right but how do we keep our eyes focused on the right thing instead of the cultural distractions of the day but then finally in this kind of externally showing our faith our change lives are worship Paul then points to the Creator's purpose keep going in verse 8 uh he says this uh for man did not come from woman but man came from man neither was Man created for the sake of woman but woman for the sake of man this is why a woman should have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels in the Lord however woman is not independent of man and man is not independent of woman for just as woman came from man so man comes through woman and listen to this CU you're like okay he he's saying like yes men yes women and then it's going back and forth but then this is important at the end of verse 12 he says in all things come from God who's over both of them it's God verse 13 judge for yourselves is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered again he speaking of the cultural context there in Corinth he says does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair is is a disgrace to him again the culture of that day but it that if a woman has long hair is it her glory for her hair is given to her as a covering verse 16 if anyone wants to argue about this we have no other custom nor do the Churches of God you see Paul is saying that true worship recognizes the beautiful complim design that God has established and he's not saying this to create inequality he's not saying this to create Strife but he's saying this to create Harmony When I tell my kids especially my two older kids to go clean the backyard when I tell them and only one of them does it it takes forever because one of them will go out and then they'll barely do anything then they'll complain that the other one's not doing anything and then when I finally get the other one out there the other one stop doing it and then they're just yelling at each other and it takes so long but there's been like three or four times in the thousands I've asked them to clean something where they both do it the first time together and it takes like 2 seconds cuz their minds work different all of a sudden Archie he like is grabbing all the little Nerf bullets that are probably mostly on my roof but also on the grass a little bit and he's grabbing those and put them in a little bucket my daughter's grabbing bicycles and lining up nicely along the house and all of a sudden like they're working together their brains are different their strengths are different but when they work together something beautiful happens and when Paul is bringing this inside the family and inside the church what he's saying that in a world that often pits I think men and women against each other he's saying hey they are different but they are equal and they are complimentary in how they fit together our world today and this may be uh you you might be here and you're like all right you're preaching the choir I agree with what you're saying but a lot of our world does not our world says that a man can do everything a woman can do that ain't true I've watched my wife give birth three times can't do that okay all right and women can't do everything a man can do I and you know gender stereotypes whatever but every time there's a bug in my house my wife screams for me to kill it okay and and and I'm like it's not even hard it's like the tiniest bug ever and my daughter does the same thing now she'll be like terrified to get a shower until that bug is gone I'm like it is like this big and I'm like just take a tissue and do it and then I go over there and you know the econom is bad right now so I'm not even using tissues cuz those are vital things I'm just taking my finger squishing it and then you know washing it off got to got to save money somehow okay that's where I do it but men and women we're just created differently we're wired differently and Paul in this text is saying that's okay because it's not about who's better who's greater who's this he's saying what is more important is do you come together do you complement each other do you harmonize together think about that from a music perspective of there's when someone sings Harmony someone is they're not singing the same thing when someone is singing The Melody and someone is harmonizing with them they're singing different parts but they are complimenting one another and when those compliment it creates something beautiful and Paul here is trying to show the world and show the church that hey there are different roles within your family there are different roles within the church he's going to get into this more in chapter 12 as he talks about spiritual gifts but when those come together to compliment one each other it creates something amazing and just step back for a second when you kind of reflect on the first 16 verses of this passage how beautiful it is when a church looks like this a church that submits to the will of God a church that chooses Focus over distractions a church that complements and harmonizes together rather than competes or tries to copy one another and when that's done right when that's done well when it's exactly what what Paul was praising them for it creates a beautiful community of changed lives that overflows into worship but Paul continues in the second half that not only should this worship be seen externally to the world around us but a change life in Jesus should also be felt internally you see Paul in the second half of starting in verse 17 he shifts to talk about how worship isn't just kind of about these external actions we do but it's also about what's happening in our hearts and and he uses the Lord's the example of the Lord's Supper to start illustrating this and and the first kind of subo we see of how do this internal change happens is he emphasizes Unity over division check this out in verse 17 he says now in giving this instruction I do not praise you see the the contrast here in verse two he says I do praise you I do commend you for holding these Traditions but in verse 17 he says now in this I do not praise you he said that you did good this you guys need some work on so let me tell you the work you need and he says in the the second half of verse 17 since you come together not for the better but for the worse for to begin with I hear that when you come together as a church there are divisions among you and in part I believe it he says indeed it is necessary that there may be factions among you so that who you that those who are approved may be recognized among you but when you come together then it is not to eat the Lord's Supper for at the meal each one eats his own supper so one person is hungry while another gets drunk don't you have homes in which to eat and drink or do you despise the Church of God and do you humiliate those who have nothing what should I say to you should I praise you and then he says emphatically I do not Praise You In This matter when Paul gets in the second half he's saying hey when you guys are gathering as a church family to have services to pray together to to sing together to read God's word together when you are coming together to recognize the Lord at supper he's saying you're doing it wrong and you're missing the point all together oh at our last house um when me and my wife and our family we were in North Phoenix really close to our surprise campus as we were to our Phoenix campus we were in an older home and it had a brick kind of building and it had a big yard and a and a pool and it was built in the 70s so I loved it until I went to sell it and everything broke and I had to fix it um but as we kind of had that that home we were the party house like not keger parties like Baptist parties okay so you know we had grape juice instead of wine or whatever um but as we're like hosting parties so we had friends from church and Bible groups and all all these different and we'd like have Fourth of July parties and New Year's and wouldn't you do that like I would Grill and I would make most of the food but then other people would bring sides and as people bring sides there's always that one couple or that one family that when they bring it you're like that's what you brought I think that can feed like two of my kids for dessert all right um I'm like did you have more in the car you need to bring in oh that's all are you good all right cool um and if you don't know who that is when you go to parties it's probably you all right um just but when that happens what's what's how do you react to that what's the natural reaction well I mean clearly and like the obvious answer is they just don't eat anything else right like you punish them for only bringing that little that's a joke all right you guys are up tight today no that that's crazy okay you you don't do that but here's this is exactly the scenario Paul is painting when they were coming to take communion when they were coming to take the Lord's supper together they were dividing them by classes they're like you're the rich people you eat together you're the middle class you eat together you're the poor people go eat outside and you can take the Lord's supper together and Paul is saying like this is insane you're literally taking an act to the Lord's Supper that signifies the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ that signifies our sin being forgiven by God and you're dividing yourself instead of you the one thing that unites you beyond all classes and worldviews and everything else that brought you here the one thing that unites you is the grace and the lordship of Jesus Christ and that should be more important than anything else and Paul as he's coming he's he's kind of saying I don't praise you he's like you got this all wrong but then Paul continues and he also says we not only the internal changes we focus on Unity instead division but we also need to focus on victory over defeat uh keep going in verse 23 he says for I received from the Lord we also passed on to you on the night when he was betrayed he said the Lord Jesus he took bread and when he had given thanks he broke and he said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance in me in the same way he also took the cup after supper he said this cup is a New Covenant in my blood he said do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me in verse 26 he says for as often as you eat this bread and you drink the cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes you see when we take communion we're not just remembering our defeat of a sinful life we're proclaiming a victory when we take communion we're not just focusing on the fact that Jesus was unjustly martyred and was put on a cross that is Good Friday but we also remember that Easter is coming and here Paul is saying hey we're all broken Sinners but we also have a savior and our worship should reflect this triumphant reality it should not be focused on a somber defeatism yesterday I I drove to North Phoenix uh church and in North Phoenix is a Southern Baptist Church Richard Jackson used to preach there now noi Garcia does an amazing Church Church on uh way in it it's actually an almost Central Phoenix not really North Phoenix anymore but I used to be 20 minutes from there and I went to a kids's birthday party and it was a nice 45 minute to an hour drive but as I went there uh they have a roller skating rink anyone want a roller skating rink in our church yeah sorry um not happening budget requests denied all right uh but they created that I think it was from the 70s when roller skating was cool I don't know um the shoes sure felt like they were from the 70s and I might have athletes foot now after skating in there but I went there for my daughter and she and I took her to a friend's birthday party and and as we're there we're like roller skating and she first was using like the granny thing like you know like it's like you're skating and like she looks like she's on a like you know a walker and I'm like and slowly she got away from that and then she got started getting better and she was falling a couple times and within all of a sudden and near the end she's like watch how far I can go and went like 20 feet without totally falling or having to grab the wall and as we left I just think the beauty of it is she didn't talk about how many times she fell down she didn't talk about how much she had to use the granny stroller she was so excited on the victory of her last little run that she got to go and she's like did you see how much better I got I'm like yeah absolutely and when we come to the Lord's table we don't come being like man Jesus had he got unjustly crucified or man my sin put him there my sin is so terrible my sin is so bad my former life is so horrible that is all true and there's a realization we'll see in the end of that that we need to have but the point of the Lord's Supper is not to focus on our sin it's to focus that is Forgiven in the glory of Jesus Christ which Paul kind of brings to a last uh kind of shedding light on this in verse 27 as he emphasizes humility over Pride check out verse 27 as he kind of starts wrapping up this section on this internal look of our worship he says so then whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and the blood of the Lord he said let a person examine himself in this in this way let him eat the bread and drink from the cup forever eats and drink without recognizing the body eats and drinks judgment on himself this is why many are sick and Ill among you and many have fallen asleep if you were properly judging ourselves we would not be judged but when we are judged by the Lord we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned with the world here's what Paul is getting in in this last section as he kind of talks about the Lord's supper here and he calls us to examine our lives and where we're at is he saying hey you can try to live the Christian Life you can try to go to church and you can give and you can serve and you can do all these things well on the outside but if under the surface inside your heart if it is corrupt if you're not giving yourself over if there is unrepentant sin in there he said there's still a problem he's saying and when we approach the Lord's table in communion when we approach the gathered Church in worship he's saying there should be a true examination there should be a true humility that when we come to the table of the lord we don't bring any food we don't bring a side dish we don't bring our own stuff the only thing we bring to the table is our sin that made the death and resurrection of Jesus necessary and Paul here he's getting us to point to and see that our worship is the Overflow that externally what God is doing in our lives it should be blend we should be repping Jesus we should be wearing our spiritual Jesus jerseys telling people how much we love him and how much he's changed our lives and that should be part of our worship Sunday through Saturday but it also requires an internal change that we should constantly be looking internally and saying do we find our Victory in Jesus and not in what we have achieved but all this leads to where Paul wraps up this chapter in verse 33 and I love this he says therefore because I've said all this in conclusion you've heard that from a pastor before right he says therefore my brothers and sisters my church family who is worshiping Our God the people I've been talking to how externally we show this how internally we love him he's my brothers and sisters when you come together to eat welcome one another here's how we attempt to apply this today as we look in this and and we start to think of like how do I begin to apply this worship to my life how do I show externally and internally that I have a changed life and that bleeds over into the world around me what do I do with all that pent up worship that is just overflowing to the World Around Me will we worship Jesus when we when our changed lives welcome people into see our change you hear that this is how we worship we worship Jesus this is ultimately what this chapter is all about ultimately what Paul is how he's defining worship when we invite other people in to see the change life that we have you know the best advertisement for our church I I started this today as we're coming up to Easter and Easter is one of those times of the year is it's the Super Bowl of the church it's when when more people are inclined to come to church because of Catholic guilt or whatever else is in their life than ever before and we'll Market it we we'll put it out there on social media we'll tell you to invite other people on social media we'll we have some things in two weeks that we're going to challenge you to how you can reach your neighbors a little bit more and we can do all of that stuff we put a we'll put a banner outside we we'll have our sign lit up we'll do all these fun things to tell people this is coming but you know what the best advertisement for our churches when you invite someone around you into your life to see how Jesus constantly is changing your life that churches grow not when they have cool lights not when they have great singing and instruments not when even a guy can be competent on stage for a little bit they grow when the people of God the gathered body has such an overflow of worship in their life that when we leave these doors people can't help but to notice what is different about you and that's when you get to say what's different about me that Jesus has changed my life he is my Lord and Savior who when I was in my deepest low when I was trying to work for my salvation when I was trying to go after that he saved me he forgave me and he gave me a new life that only the god of the universe the one we call Jesus can give and nothing else my prayer for us church is that in this Easter season as we lead up and Beyond this that our world knows we love Jesus that they see our worship by externally how we praise him how we represent him how we love the people around us and internally our hearts can constantly be broken that it is not us that brings us to the table but that when we bring our sin to him he covers it with his blood he brings us into his presence and he changes our lives for all of eternity let's pray