I Will Enter His Gates

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! Psalm 100:4

I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart.
I will enter His courts with praise.
I will say this is the day that the Lord has made.
I will rejoice for He has made me glad.
He has made me glad; He has made me glad.
I will rejoice for He has made me glad.
He has made me glad; He has made me glad.
I will rejoice for He has made me glad.

This Is the Day

This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

This is the day, this is the day, that the Lord has made, that the Lord has made.
We will rejoice, we will rejoice, and be glad in it, and be glad in it.
This is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
This is the day, this is the day, that the Lord has made.

Blessed Be the Name

Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore! Psalm 113:2

Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord!
Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord!
Glory to the name, glory to the name, glory to the name of the Lord!
Glory to the name, glory to the name, glory to the name of the Lord!

Behold What Manner of Love

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God...1 John 3:1

Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us.
Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us.
That we should be called the sons of God.
That we should be called the sons of God.

Worship: Following God's Directions

Last week we saw that God cares very much about what happens inside our hearts and minds when we worship. Jesus said that God is seeking those who will worship “in spirit and truth.” He wants worshipers who come with a clean heart and a right spirit and who worship in the truth of who Jesus is and what He has done. But to say what happens on the inside is important does not mean that what happens on the outside isn’t important. In fact, God cares very much about our outward actions in worship too.

Think about this:   If you wanted to give your grandma a special gift, would you look for something you like, something your friends like, or would you try to find something your grandma would like? It’s a silly question. Of course you would give Grandma something she would want.  In the same way, when we offer to God our gift of worship, we should do our best to give Him what He wants, not what we like or what might be pleasing to others. To find out what God wants from His people when they worship, we look to the Bible.

We’ll begin our study of God’s directions for worship by looking at the first four Commandments recorded in Exodus 20:1-11. Pause and read those verses with your family right now.

Commandment #1 teaches that since God alone delivered Israel from slavery, they should worship God alone—not angels, or objects, or any other person, no matter how “special” that person is.

Commandment #2 teaches what not to do in worship. Israel was forbidden to use images—statues or pictures—in their worship.

Commandment #3 teaches that since God is holy—perfect and set apart from everything else—His name must be worshiped with great care and respect, never casually, thoughtlessly, or jokingly.

Commandment #4 teaches that Israel was to set aside one day out of every seven for worship.

There are many more directions in the Old Testament about how Israel was to worship--directions about the tabernacle and the temple, about sacrifices and holidays, and about what priests should wear and do. The worship of Old Testament Israel taught the people what the promised Messiah would someday do for them—that He would take away the punishment for their sin and heal their broken relationship with God. When Jesus came and fulfilled those promises, Old Testament worship changed. The truths about God taught in the Ten Commandments remain, but God’s people no longer need to follow the directions for sacrifices and priests (the ceremonial laws) that have been fulfilled by Jesus.

In the New Testament, we have the example of the early church and the principles taught by the apostles to help guide our worship. For example, Paul taught the Corinthians about worship with this principle: “God is not a God of confusion but of peace,” and “all things should be done decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:33, 40). Look up these scriptures to see how we are taught to include certain elements in our worship:

1 Timothy 2:1 – public prayer

1 Timothy 4:13 – reading and preaching the Word

Colossians 3:16 – singing

Matthew 28:19 & Acts 20:7 – celebrating baptism and the Lord’s Supper

Acts 2:42 – a summary of what the early church did when they met.

When we follow these guidelines, we are applying the “regulative principle,” which states that we may do in worship only what God approves in His Word. This rule helps us avoid the “self-made religion” that Paul warns about in Colossians 2:23 and help us stay true to the gospel.

Christians can be tempted to worship the wrong way. I might grumble that I “don’t get anything out of church,” and I might wish that the church would use only music that I like or that we could skip the preaching so church wouldn’t be so long.  That’s like offering a gift to God that is just what I want. Or Christians might be interested in getting unbelievers to come to church, so they change the worship service to make church more fun and more attractive to unbelievers. But that’s like offering God a gift your friends would like. Our goal in worship must be to please God, not ourselves or others.

God calls us to worship Him, and He tells us in His Word what we are to do when we worship. Because God is valuable and important to us, we want to follow His directions to offer Him the kind of worship He wants.

Hymn of Worship: “Praise the Lord! Ye Heavens, Adore Him”

The author of the first two verses of this hymn is unknown. The words come from an English hymnal published in 1796. But it is easy to see that the hymn is based on Psalm 148 which begins, “Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens; praise him in the heights!  Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts! Praise him, sun and moon. . .” Dr. Edward Osler added the third verse to the hymn some years later.

The first verse of this hymn focuses on God’s work of creation and ends with the idea that creation is governed by God’s laws “which never shall be broken.” This is certainly true of the law of gravity, but it’s just as true of the Ten Commandments. “For [our] guidance hath He made” these rules to direct our relationship with Him.

The second verse praises God for His work of salvation and the promise He has made to save His people from sin and death. What a wonderful reason to “laud and magnify His name.”

Verse 3 gives us the proper response to the truths expressed in the first two verses. People of all ages must gladly offer up their worship to God, joining with the saints and angels in heaven, and humbly praying, “So on earth Thy will be done.”

“Praise the Lord! Ye Heavens Adore Him”

1 Praise the Lord! ye heav'ns adore him; Praise him angels, in the height;
Sun and moon, rejoice before him; Praise him, all ye stars of light.
Praise the Lord! for he has spoken; Worlds his mighty voice obeyed;
Laws which never shall be broken For their guidance he has made.

2 Praise the Lord! for he is glorious; Never shall his promise fail;
God has made his saints victorious; Sin and death shall not prevail.
Praise the God of our salvation! Hosts on high his pow'r proclaim;
Heav'n, and earth, and all creation, Laud and magnify his name.

3 Worship, honor, glory, blessing, Lord, we offer unto thee;
Young and old, thy praise expressing, In glad homage bend the knee.
All the saints in heav'n adore thee, We would bow before thy throne;
As thine angels serve before thee, So on earth thy will be done.

When we sing this hymn, we join with all creation in praise to our Maker and Redeemer. And with the words of Psalm 148 as our guide, we worship Him as He desires to be worshiped—according to His Word.

Activity – Following God’s Directions Will Keep Us on Track

Directions? Who needs them? Have you ever been so excited to try out a new toy that you tossed the directions aside and tried to put it together and operate it your own way? Only when it doesn’t work and you get frustrated do you finally get out the package and follow the step-by-step instructions. Maybe you’ve even ignored the directions and ended up ruining the toy so that it never works the way it’s supposed to.

Some people believe that God’s directions are unnecessary. They think they can come to Him any way they want, and they can make up their own rules for relating to other people. They think God’s directions—His rules or commandments—are a burden, they’re too much trouble, or they keep people from being free to live their own way.

But God, who created all things, knows what’s best, and His rules are meant for our good and His glory. When we ignore God’s rules, we are in danger of getting way off track and ruining things for ourselves and others.

Try this activity that shows how God’s directions are meant to keep us from flying off track and into trouble.

Supplies Needed:

·       A plate without too much of a rim 

·       A deep bowl 

·       A marble (maybe some extra marbles in case you lose some while doing this object lesson)

Activity Instructions:

To begin have your children start to roll the marble around on the plate. Tell them that the marble on the plate represents when we go our own way and do whatever we want, without any rules or instructions to guide us.

Inevitably and probably pretty quickly the marble will roll off the side of the plate. When it does tell them that like the marble, when we don’t have any boundaries in our lives, we can easily spin out of control, fall down, or even get lost (this is especially helpful if your marbles get lost under the furniture!).

Let them continue to try to roll the marble around on the plate a bit, continuing to reiterate the parallel between living without rules and easily spinning out of control in our lives.

Now give them the bowl and let them spin the marble around in the bowl. As they do, the marble will be able to get going really fast because it has the walls of the bowl.

Point to the sides of the bowl and tell them that God’s commandments are just like the sides of the bowl. They create safe boundaries for our lives so that we can live without having to worry about spinning out of control, getting off track, and getting lost in dark places.

God didn’t give us His commandments to make us miserable, but because He can see beyond what we can see. God knows that when we follow His commandments, we are set free of the burden that sin places on us and which can cause us to easily get distracted and out of control.

https://ministrymindedmom.com/gods-commandments-keep-us-safe-marble-object-lesson/