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Skip Heitzig: Turn in your Bibles, please, to the book of Nehemiah, chapter 12. Now, you can probably see that there are only 13 chapters in the book. We're in chapter 12. You may think that means we're going to be done next week, but quite the contrary. I'll explain as we go. We're in chapter 12, and the name of this message is "How to Worship When You Come to Church."

I understand that worship is a thing that not everybody agrees on. I understand that worship in some places can even be divisive, and that there are different styles and techniques that some people gravitate toward while others gravitate toward something else. I want to begin with a story about two different people who had two different worship experiences.

One was a farmer who lived out in the country, and he went to visit the city one weekend and went to a big city church. He came home, and his wife asked him how it was. He said, "It was good, but it was different. They sang praise choruses instead of hymns." She said, "Praise choruses? What are those?"

He said, "Well, they're sort of like hymns, only different." She goes, "I don't understand what you mean." The farmer said, "Well, if I were to say 'Martha, the cows are in the corn,' that would be a hymn. But if I were to say to you, 'Martha, Martha, Martha, oh Martha, Martha, Martha, the cows, the big cows, the brown cows, the black cows, the white cows, the cows, cows, cows are in the corn, in the corn, in the corn, corn, corn,' and then if I were to repeat the whole thing two or three times, that would be a praise song."

Well, on the very same day, a young Christian from the city went out and attended a small country church. He came home, and his wife said, "Well, how was it?" He said, "It was good, but it was different." She said, "Well, how was it different?" He said, "Well, they sang hymns instead of regular songs."

She said, "Hymns? What are those?" And he said, "Well, they're sort of like regular songs, only different." She said, "Well, what's the difference?" He said, "Well, if I were to say to you, 'Martha, the cows are in the corn,' that would be a regular song. But if I were to say to you, 'Oh Martha, dear Martha, hear thou my cry, incline thine ear to the words of my mouth, for the way of the animals, who can explain? There in their heads is no shadow of sense, hearkenest they in God's sun or rain, unless from the mild tempting corn they're fenced. Yea, those cows in glad bovine rebellious delight have broke free their shackles in warm pens eschewed, then goaded by minions of darkness and night, they all my mild chill-wax sweet corn have chewed. So look to that bright shining day by day where all foul corruptions of earth are reborn, where no vicious animal makes my soul cry, and I no longer see those foul cows in the corn.' And then if I were to just do the first, third, and fourth verses and change the keys on the last verse, that would be a hymn."

This week is about worship, and next week is about worship. What we're going to do essentially is eavesdrop on a worship experience in the Old Testament, a dedication of the temple that amounts to us eavesdropping into how God's people during the Old Testament conducted their worship. And you say, "Well, why are you going to do it for two weeks?"

Well, here's the problem: because at first I found three characteristics of their worship, and then I kept reading and I found four, and then I found five. I have eight characteristics of their worship. So to be fair and to be able to cover them all, I'm going to split it up this week and then next week. So we're going to do part one this week looking at their worship and then part two.

That's one reason. But the second reason I'm doing two weeks on it is perhaps because worship is the cure to one of our biggest problems. I'm speaking of the problem of selfishness. Essentially, worship is a selfless act because you're taking all of the focus off of yourself and you're putting all of the focus on God. It is an exercise in which God is glorified, and that could cure our selfishness.

Years ago, I remember reading this. An author wrote warning the Church of England, saying, "We are drifting toward a religion which keeps its eye on humanity rather than on deity." When you truly worship, your eye is not on yourself, but on Him. You're turning upward instead of inward.

But I want to clear this up at the beginning. I think we have sort of taken the idea of worship, the word "worship"—we've sort of taken it hostage. We've confined worship to an event, to a worship service. We have worship folders, "Come to our worship service at this time or that time." We've sort of ruined the meaning to make it an activity. Or we think that worship is an emotional exercise where your inner feelings have to be conjured up, and when you reach a certain emotional level and you're at that level psychologically and emotionally, then you've attained true worship. We've made it that.

The truth is, not all people who attend worship services actually worship. Worship, we should broaden out the meaning, is a lifestyle. It's an identity. In fact, it's a synonym for Christianity in the New Testament. Paul said, "We are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit and have no confidence in the flesh." He used the idea of being a worshiper as a synonym for being a believer. It's our identity.

Now, a quick background. When we get into this chapter, we're at a certain place in this book. The wall is completed—we saw that back in chapter six. Revival has broken out—chapter eight, chapter nine, chapter ten. The city has been repopulated—that was last week. A re-urbanization protocol was put in place in chapter eleven. Now in chapter twelve, there's a dedication service, a dedication ceremony, dedicating the wall, dedicating the people, dedicating the city of Jerusalem, the temple, etc.

But again, this chapter begins with a list of names. And again, we're not going to read them. But I'm just going to tell you what the list is. He gives a list of priests and Levites going back 100 years to the time of Zerubbabel's first coming to Jerusalem up to the present to show the people that the priests and the Levites have a history of leading God's people into worship. That's what the names are all about.

A.W. Tozer once said that worship is the missing jewel of the evangelical church. His criticism was he felt that most churches were worried about their organization more than God, and so he said true worship is the missing jewel of the evangelical church. So what I want to do is give you eight characteristics of their worship—not all in one, but just four today. Four characteristics of their worship: their worship was biblical, their worship was vocal, their worship was musical, and their worship was joyful. That will comprise our time together.

First, their worship was biblical. I'm going to move you ahead to verse 24, where we read, "And the heads of the Levites were Hashabiah, Sherebiah, Jeshua the son of Kadmiel, with their brothers across from them, to praise and give thanks, group alternating with group"—so it was antiphonal worship—"according to the command of David the man of God."

What that is a reference to is David organizing the worship way back in 1 Chronicles chapters 23, 24, 25, and 26. He knew that Solomon would build the temple, he knew that he himself would be dead soon, but now you have a permanent place in Jerusalem. So what he wants to do, David wants to do, is to organize the worship of the children of Israel to be biblical, like Moses gave it back in the law. Now, Nehemiah goes back to those biblical principles for their worship at the dedication.

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When you give today, you'll receive "City in Shambles," Pastor Skip's complete 18-message study through Nehemiah on CD plus digital download. These messages will help you understand how God works in times of confusion and instability, how revival begins in the hearts of His people, and how to move from passive concern to courageous faith in action. Your gift helps extend the reach of Connect with Skip Heitzig, connecting more people to God's word. Request your resource when you give $50 or more at connectwithskip.com/offer or by calling 800-922-1888. Now, if you're looking for a way to go deeper in your Bible study, here's a great way to do just that.

Skip Heitzig: Learning your Bible matters. I'm committed to teaching God's word, and I want you to understand the depth of scripture for yourself. That's why I want to invite you to join me in a 90-day through the entire Bible reading challenge using the YouVersion Bible app. We call it Jesus People. When we read the Bible together, we grow. So for 90 days, we're going to read together God's word. We're going to learn it, receive it, and we're going to let it shape us so that we can also be faithful in sharing good teaching with others. So join me. Let's learn our Bibles and grow in the word of God. Now, here's more from Pastor Skip.

And the scripture informs me about the God that I worship, and the scripture informs me about how that God desires to be worshiped. If I don't worship according to revelation, I will worship according to imagination. And that's a very important distinction.

And what do I mean by that? I mean people do this all the time. "I feel God should be worshiped like this. I sort of picture God like that. I think this and I think that." You know what? We don't care. What we care about is who God is and how that true God desires and communicates to us how He is to be worshiped.

If I'm worshiping according to my imagination, another word for that is idolatry. I'm making it up as I go along. So then, worship is first an intelligent response to God. It involves the mind apprehending truth. You read and you go, "Oh, I get it. I understand," and you worship accordingly.

This is why Jesus said in Mark 12, "You are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength." And what we understand is that worship is not a frenzy or an emotional outburst or an altered state of consciousness; rather, worship is a lucid, sober-minded response to truth.

That's why Jesus said to the woman at the well of Samaria, "You don't even know what you're worshiping. You worship, but you don't know what you worship. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews." Moreover, the Father is looking for those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth, or according to truth.

You remember that Paul even rebuked the Jews for having a zeal for God. They were hyped up and emotional and just on fire. They had a zeal for God, but he said, "But it's not according to knowledge." So Christian worship, I just want to underscore this, is a response to revelation. It is based on truth, and that's the reason that we place a high priority on preaching and teaching scripture. That's paramount to worship. It forms our understanding of who God is. It shapes how God is to be worshiped.

John Stott, one of my favorite authors, wrote this: "It is a good and healthy custom either to encourage members of the congregation to bring their Bible with them to church or to provide Bibles in the seats. Then when the text of the lessons and the sermon is announced, there is a," I love this, "great rustling of pages as people find the place and follow the text." To this preacher, that is one of the most worshipful sounds in the world when I hear all the Bible pages being turned.

So worship is biblical. Their worship was biblical. Now, the songs that we sing in corporate worship must be biblically and theologically sound. And we have a great team that makes sure that it is according to the scripture. No song gets a free pass just because it was written by somebody awesome or it has a catchy tune. It has to be doctrinally and theologically sound.

Now, I'm a Bible teacher, so I listen to lyrics, and I like some of them and there's others that I don't like. I come across lyrics and I see them through the lens of scripture. And oftentimes, if we sing songs, I correct them as we sing them. And somebody will next to me go, "That's not the right word."

But so there's a number of examples, but I'll just give you one. There's always a lyric I never liked, and fortunately, it's been changed. But there was a song written a few years ago by John Mark McMillan called "How He Loves," "Oh, how He loves us," and there's a line in it that says, "So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss." I will not sing that.

I understand what they're trying to do. They're trying to say God's love is intimate love. But what that lyric does is it denigrates God's love, bringing it down to the level of human passion when it's so much more than that. So David Crowder—thank God for him—changed the lyrics to, "So heaven meets earth with an unforeseen kiss." It's a little bit better.

Then there's another song that we sing around here, "The Overwhelming, Never-Ending, Reckless Love of God." And I won't sing that. I won't sing that because what I know of God's love in the scripture is anything but reckless. It's very intentional. It's planned. It's perfect. It's not reckless.

So when we come to the lyric, if you're sitting next to me or standing next to me, I'll say, "The overwhelming, never-ending, precious love of God," because Peter says His love is precious. So that's biblical. Our worship should reinforce and not undermine biblical truth.

If you ever wonder why I make a big deal out of this, here's why: because so many people leave church and the only thing they're going to remember are the songs they sang. That's how songs are intended to be. You remember them because there's a melody attached to the words. It sticks in your brain. So I want them to remember biblical, truthful, accurate things.

So their worship was biblical. Second thing to note: their worship was vocal. It was not just theologically correct, not just going back to the words of David and then the words of Moses in Leviticus, but their worship was vocal. Go to verse 27. "Now at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, they sought out the Levites in all their places to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgiving and singing."

And verse 28, "And the sons of the singers gathered together from the countryside around Jerusalem, from the villages of the Netophathites, from the house of Gilgal, and from the fields of Geba and Azmaveth, for the singers built themselves villages all around Jerusalem." I kind like that. What a cool village to live in. They just got all the singers together and congregated and made their own little town.

And then if you go down to verse 46, "For in the days of David and Asaph of old, there were chiefs of the singers and songs of praise and thanksgiving to God." I'm just pointing out that their worship involved singing, and singing is one of the most common forms to express our worship. In fact, singing is important to just being human. I think it's safe to say that just about every person in every country in the earth sings something. There are national anthems, there are folk songs of every generation, there are songs that are in commercials, there's pop music.

Singing is the oldest form of music making, and I think God built us that way. I mean, just the human body, we have our lungs pump air like bellows into our larynx, acts like a little reed or a resonator, and then when we sing whatever we're singing, the cavities in our chest, the sinuses in our head act like an amplifier. Our teeth and our mouth, our lips articulate those sounds, and it is the oldest form of music making. All people sing.

But of all people, Christians should sing the most. And you know why I say that? We have the most reason to sing. We have something to sing about. We have a reason to sing. We are created, we are chosen, we are redeemed, we are adopted into God's family, we are provided for, we are cared for by God. My goodness, we should sing.

I just looked it up. The word sing, singing, song, sang appear in the scripture 206 times. It's a very common expression. Here's a sampling, and there are hundreds of them, so I won't go through them. There was singing at creation. You would expect that, right? It's one of the biggest events ever. Creation. God created the heavens and the earth. Choirs of angels sang. God said this in Job 38: "The morning stars sang together, and all the angels shouted for joy." There was singing at creation.

In the Bible, there is singing for redemption. When King Hezekiah formed a revival in Jerusalem and the priests and the Levites and the people got together, during the sacrifices, we are told that they sang about their redemption, their atonement. You know, you and I should never get tired of singing songs about the cross, about the blood of Jesus Christ. I know in some progressive churches, there's a movement to pull the blood out of the worship. No, pour it into the worship. We should never tire of singing about our redemption. And here's why: it's going to be our theme in heaven.

You don't believe me, you should read Revelation chapter five, where the Lamb opens up the scroll and everybody says, "You are worthy to open the scroll and unloose the seals, for You were slain and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tongue, tribe, nation, and people." Front and center in heaven.

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(Singing) Make a connection, make a connection now at the foot of the cross. Cast your burdens on His word, make a connection, connection.

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