Worship is very important! Worship reminds us of who God is and what he has done so that we find our security, significance, and satisfaction in him, and it forms our hearts to love and trust him.

Worship tells THE story Worship tells and retells the truth…the story of who God is and what he has done. The story of God’s creative work: Psalm 95:3-6: “3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!”

Worship tells THE story Worship tells and retells the truth…the story of who God is and what he has done. The story of God’s redemptive work: Psalm 95:7: “For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

Worship forms and shapes our hearts. Worship is formative Worship forms and shapes our hearts. Psalm 95:7b-10 “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, ‘They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.’”

Exodus 17:7: “Is the Lord among us or not?” Worship is formative Exodus 17:1-3: “1 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, ‘Give us water to drink.’ And Moses said to them, ‘Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?’ 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, ‘Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?’” Exodus 17:7: “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Worship is formative By mentioning this story, the psalmist was showing his fellow Israelites how absolutely absurd it would be to not trust and love God! What reason is there to not love and trust this God with all one’s heart when he has been so gracious and faithful?

Worship is formative In worship… 1. We praise and glorify God… 2. By telling and retelling, the story of… 3. How he has created the world… And how he has used his power to graciously redeem his people…. 5. So that our hearts are formed to trust and love him.

Worship is formative We are privileged to see more of God’s story than the psalmist. We have seen how God would send his own son to redeem unworthy sinners like us! This is a story worth telling over and over and it shapes and forms our hearts!

All worship tells a story and forms our hearts

But not all worship leads to rest Psalm 95:10-11: “10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, ‘They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.’ 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

But not all worship leads to rest Psalm 95:10-11: “10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, ‘They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.’ 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” As Augustine said “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until the rest in you,” (Confessions).

This is why worship matters! We can be tempted to be carried away by alternative stories. We need worship together to remind us of THE story which shapes our hearts to love and trust God.