Sermon – “The Heart of Worship”

25 For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is also to be feared above all gods. 26 For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens. 27 Honor and majesty are before Him; Strength and gladness are in His place. 28 Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples, Give to the Lord glory and strength. 29 Give to the Lord the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come before Him. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness! 30 Tremble before Him, all the earth. The world also is firmly established, It shall not be moved. 31 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; And let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.” 32 Let the sea roar, and all its fullness; Let the field rejoice, and all that is in it. 33 Then the trees of the woods shall rejoice before the Lord, For He is coming to judge the earth.[a] 34 Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.[b]

21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

8 Now I, John, saw and heard[a] these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. 9 Then he said to me, “See that you do not do that. For[b] I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”

25 As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. 26 But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I myself am also a man.”

20 And God spoke all these words, saying: 2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 “You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.

All right good morning. And it joyful to be in the house of the Lord. Karen was talking about the smiling faces we were saying in that first song and of course I was smiling because that song was said about making a joyful sound and so just kind of funny because we were saying that downstairs that you know I like to make a joyful sound Well it’s a joyful noise but that’s why the guy at the sound board turned me down a little bit. Because I make a joyful noise maybe not necessarily a joyful sound and so for your benefit he turns me now and praise the Lord. But I do like to sing unto the Lord and this you know I think we all like to saying we may not have the most beautiful voices but we like to sing and it’s prayerfully It’s a beautiful sound of the Lord and when it’s done with the right heart it is pleasing up to God and that’s going to be the focus today the heart of worship what is true worship and I hope we’ll have a good understanding of what true worship is today. Jack Hayford in his wife Anna were vacationing in Britain during the twenty fifth anniversary of the coronation of Elizabeth the Second while their paper it’s all constant reminders of royalty that along with the visits to the castles and as cause Hayford to have a sense of what it might be like to be raised as a child and sets world settings with this in mind he asked his wife and that to write down these words one day as they drove through the countryside Majesty worship His Majesty unto Jesus be all glory power and praise thus the song Majesty one of today’s most glorious praise songs was born on that country road in Britain Majesty Psalms ninety three one said. As. The Lord reigns he is clothed with majesty the Lord is closed he has been has girded himself with strength surely the world is a stablished so that it cannot be moved and I will move to our scripture lesson for the day it’s found in first Chronicles Chapter sixteen verse twenty five thirty four. Here the word of the Lord. For the Lord is GREAT and greatly to be praised he is also to be feared above all gods for all the gods of the peoples are idols but the Lord has made the heavens honor and majesty are before him strengthen get out gladness or in his place give to the Lord of families of the peoples give to the Lord glory and strength give to the Lord the glory do his name bring an offering and come before him a worship the Lord in beauty in the beauty of holiness tremble before him all the earth the world also is firmly established it shall not be moved let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad and let them say among the nations the Lord reigns let the sea roar and all its fullness let the field rejoice and all that is in it then the trees of the wood sour rejoice before the Lord for He is coming to judge the earth give thanks to the Lord for He is good for his mercy indoors forever amen. May God and His blessings to the year in the reading of His Holy Word let us pray Father we do thank you for your word we thank you that your written word reveals who you are father that you are worthy of our praise and adoration and father may our heartfelt praise be offered up to you Father father may we truly seek you with all of our hearts father may we not seek the things of the world but may we seek you seek your kingdom by the May your spirit be upon us may your spirit be with us today to guide us help us to receive what you have forced today in Jesus’ name amen. Some people today may have a misconception about what worship truly is. And that misconception that some have is that they have the idea of what they are going to get out of worship what they come to receive they want it they want to receive warship they want to feel good they want that warm and fuzzy feeling whenever they leave church Now don’t get me wrong I’m not saying we don’t want to walk away from church being miserable I mean if you walk away miserable I’m sorry I apologize I’ll try to do better next week but we do want to have that warm and fuzzy feeling but it’s not just what you get. Did you hear the passage give to the Lord. Of families of the people give to the Lord glory and strength give to the Lord the glory do his name bring an offering. Bring It’s about giving So when we war so to worship it’s about what we have to give what are we giving to the Lord what are we bringing before Him Jesus said to the woman at the well in John four verses twenty one to twenty four he said Woman believe me the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father you worship what you do not know we know what we worship for salvation is the is of the Jews but the hour was coming and now is when the true warship are will worship the Father in spirit and truth for the Father is seeking sets to worship Him God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. So what is true worship. The apostle Paul describes true worship perfectly in Romans twelve you’re not going to have this one Romans twelve versus one through two he says I urge you therefore brother and by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice except the bill to God which is your spiritual service of worship. So when we present our bodies present our selves to God that is or spiritual service of worship again it’s what we bring It’s what we give and he says and do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds that you may prove what the will of God is that which is good and acceptable or well pleasing and perfect. So that passage contains the true elements of worship First there is the motivation to worship what is our motivation to worship can anybody name anything that should motivate us to worship. Love the love of God the mercies of God. Everything that he has given us that we don’t deserve my friends God has given us eternal love but we don’t deserve that we haven’t earned it he’s given us eternal grace he’s given us the Holy Spirt he’s given us ever everlasting peace eternal joy saving faith comfort strength wisdom hope patience kindness honor glory he’s given us righteousness Louise son he’s given us security he’s given us eternal life forgiveness reconciliation justification sanctification freedom intercession again I could go on and on and on he’s given us all these sayings and so much more. In the knowledge and understanding of these incredible gives should motivate us. To these things motivate us. To come before the Lord with praise to come before the Lord with Thanksgiving to come before the Lord and sacrifice ourselves our minds and our bodies on to him presenting our bodies means that we give God all of ourselves it means we give him all over him and faculties It means we give him our humanness Oh we really need to giving that giving more humanness we give him our hearts we give him our minds we give him our thoughts we give him our attitudes sometimes he may not like the attitudes we have. But he wants us to give him our attitudes and help allow him to change our attitudes if they need adjustments. In other words we are to give up control. Of ourselves and our lives and turn them over to him say Lord take these take these changes what needs to be change. Laid ourselves on the sacrifice layer of cells on the altar the passage is clear it’s by the renewing of your minds the renewing of our minds that means daily cleansing them cleansing our minds of the things of this world. It filling it with the things of God in the true wisdom the truth that comes from God. And then we can worship Him with our renewed in cleanse minds and not with just our emotions our emotions is that fuzzy feeling but not just with our emotions you know emotions order are a wonderful thing that can be a wonderful thing but unless they are shaped by a mind that has been saturated with the truth of God They can be destructive at times they can be out of control with times you know the mind will go where the emotions lead that leads it you know the emotions are not always trustworthy I know we sometimes can get emotional but emotions are not always a trustworthy thing to guide us sometimes emotions can lead to bad things you know if you had a young guy that come down the street one day and he seen his girlfriend down there she just give a guy a hug and man is a motions kick in and that emotion is called jealousy he runs down or man and he he floors that guy and once she gets him off of she says that that was just an old friend from school I was just so glad to see him you know emotions can take over. So we can’t always trust our emotions and yes there are some times even where something may appear to be good. But. There too emotions may not be the MEST best thing to guide. You know we could look at a big revival service or an evangelistic service and you know the pastor might. Give a wonderful message but they have the Praise and Worship Music gone and and motions are getting stirred and next thing you know boys the people just start flooding down but some follow it’s just because of emotion No you a pastor might say well you know I had a big service last month and three hundred people came forward and I led them through that prayer you want to separate little of the Lord just pray this prayer you know the Lord forgive me my sins are committed to my heart and you say well where are those three hundred people they got in Bible study and you teach them about the Lord so that they can be grounded rooted Well I don’t know where they add Well I’m not sure. I’d rather have the thirty people come and say we know that was a good message day it’s made me think I’m going to go home and I’m going to study the Bible and they come back next week and say you know that made sense and I study but you know I really need to have a better understanding and maybe a month later they come back and say you know what. They’re studying that word now this makes sense to me now I understand who God is and now I want to worship Him Now I want to give my heart to him not driven by the emotions not driven by maybe the purpose of maybe they’re all the friends went down and they felt they needed to go to because of their emotions it may have been the music I love music I truly love music I love praise and worship music but I don’t want to run to the Lord just because of the music. I want the music I want the music to be an expression of what God has done in here. Let the music be an expression of what God has done in your heart then let the music be your worship let the music be the expression of your heart your true heart your heart that loves God wants to serve God that is surrendered to God you know. I like to use marriage as an illustration I’ve used it often the church is. The symbol it’s called the The bride the church is considered the bride of Christ and Christ is the bride groom So this is another just a crazy illustration why God gives me some of these I don’t know but imagine you go out on a date Gary you got on your first date Amanda first time you met this girl in your emotions got to you got carried away you couldn’t control me like man I love you so much I’m going to marry you today tonight let’s go get married right now on the very first date imagist crazy right who would do such a thing well there’s people that have so the same thing in the marriage with Christ. That was just a first date you ran down to that altar you follow me. Get to know the person little bit before you ask him the marry you right. God wants you to get to know Him He wants you to know the truth he wants you to understand who he is he want you to worship him because he is Majesty he is glory he is a he is the creator. He wants you to know these things he wants you to have a right heart as you come and worship Him music itself as I said can’t produce the worship but it can be the way we express. Our hearts. That are gripped by God’s mercy S.. True worship is God centered people tend to get caught up in where they should worship what music they send saying and how their worship looks to other people focusing on these things we tend to miss the point again Jesus said to true worship or will worship God in Spirit and in truth this means we worship from the heart and the way God has designed us to worship worship can include it can include praying it can include reading God’s word Dechen be a wonderful time of worship. Reading his word with an open heart it can be singing worser can be participating in communion. It can be in serving others. It’s not limited to one act when we come here we gather together when we put those songs up with there’s the worship songs that’s not the only act of worship but when it’s done properly. It reflects the attitude of the person’s heart. It’s also important to know that worship is reserved only for God. Only he is worthy and not any of his servants we are not to worship the saints. The prophets the statues the angels or any false god we’re not to worship Mary the Mother of Jesus we also should not be worse be worshipping for the expectation of what we’re going to receive. We should be worshiping thing was going to get healing about war worship God worship is done for God because he deserves it. He alone deserves it and Revelations twenty two eight nine. Says now I John saw and heard these things and when I heard and saw I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things then he said to me See that you do not do that for I am your fellow servant and of your brother in the prophets and of those who keep the words of this book worship God that is what the angel said and then in action after ten versus twenty five to twenty six and as Peter was coming in Cornelius met him and fell down it is feed him worship him but Peter lifted him up saying stand up for myself I am also a man. God alone is the only one we should worship the only one. Another example the founder thought of true warship. Go way back to the beginning Cain and Abel the first sons of Adam and Eve and it was about the giving. Many people wonder well why didn’t God accept Cain’s sacrifice it was a matter of the heart. Because Abel brought the best he brought the best of what he could offer the best of what he had to give the God because he knew God was he loved God for who he was he knew that he was Majesty you knew that he was the true God Cain did not bring the best it wasn’t because he didn’t bring a lamb it wasn’t because of his great offers because he didn’t bring the best he brought it grudgingly. That’s why it was rejected by God it wasn’t a true act of worship because he did it grudgingly. In our giving if you come to church and whenever that offering plates passed around or wherever you go wherever you give if you’re going to give it grudgingly I guess I really need to give this you might as well keep it in your pocket because God doesn’t want to if you’re going to give it grudgingly. Any you know what we needa We need someone to lead to use well I guess no one else is going to do it I guess I’m going to have to be the one to step up. Just good stay home if that’s the way you’re going to do it should be yes the Lord God I love you I want to teach these kids about you with the right heart. Don’t worship the god don’t worship God grudgingly do it with a heart that loves him that adores him one of the problems in our times. Is that some of our Some than some of our pastors have almost a celebrity status. Many men are almost worshipped by their followers layman Beecher Stowe wrote in his book Saint sinners and Beecher’s. Stowe told that on one occasion Thomas K. Beecher substituted for his famous brother Henry Ward Beecher at the Plymouth Church in Brooklyn New York many curiosity seekers had come to hear the written own Henry Beecher speak that morning so therefore when Thomas Beecher appeared in the pulpit instead of his brother some of the people got up and started for the doors sensing that they were disappointed because he was substituting for his brother Thomas Beecher raise his hand for silence and announce all those who came here to the warship Enry Beecher may withdraw from the church but all who came to worship God may remain you’re not here to worship me you know here to worship the Angels where to worship God and none other worship is a feeling or an expression of reverence and adoration for God It’s reserved for God alone. True worship. Exodus Chapter twenty verses one through six And God spoke all these words saying I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage you shall have no other gods before me you shall not make for yourselves a carved image any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth you shall not bow down to them nor serve them for I the LORD your God and may jealous God visited visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me but showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments. God says if you love me you will keep My commandments we are to give him worship and glory in a way that the Scriptures demand we should remember verse twenty nine in our scripture lesson said give to the Lord the glory do his name bring an offering and come before him who worship the Lord in beauty in the beauty of holiness Soames fifty one seventeen says the sacrifices of God or a broken spirit a broken and contrary heart these oh God you will not despise my friends God as well plays with that heart that is broken and surrendered to him. Singing praising rejoicing praying offering humbling ourselves loving all these things are commanded in various places in the scripture these we should do. When Mary said before the Lord Jesus listening to every word that he spoke. She was clearly worshipping him her disgruntled sister was angry that she wasn’t up helping she had so many things to report we’ve got dinner to prepare the Lord look at her just sitting there Lord won’t you tell her to get up and help me G.’s No she’s chosen the better thing she has chosen to worship me let her be. Let her be that’s worshipping God hanging on every word that he has to share to us worship him. Worship is a verb it’s an action something we do not something that’s done to us. Paul and Silas they were able to worship God when they had been beaten and thrown in the prison and were found themselves in chains they had the their backs was from the whippings they endure the beatings they endured. But how is it that they were able to worship God How were they with a split pray and sing praises in that situation is because they knew God was is because they worship the One True God it’s because they had that change hard that heart of being cleansed the the mind that had been renewed. They were that one that rushed down to the altar when the music was playing those that would rush down the altar because of that fuzzy feeling with the first beating it came later to bend their presence say Lord how could you allow this to happen to me. But pollen solace was able to pray and pray because they were grounded and rooted in the Word of God They knew what true worship was about they knew God was they knew that God was worthy of our praise. And they brought their praise before him. Someone pointed out one time that our nation is the only nation on earth were church members feel that they have to have a very worshipful architect to be able to come in and worship before they can adequately honor the Lord why I’m here to tell you that millions of Christians across the world seem to worship just fine without any accountability at all believes in Malawi mean under mango trees and according to a retired missionary might Candy their worship is just as annoying it as anywhere in the world. We don’t need this building to worship God We get more shipping out there in the woods if we want to under the tree we can worship him at home in her closet we can worship Him in our car driving down the road. In the book of mysteries. I learned just the smore ning. In the Hebrew the word for the Jewish people is Yahoo Tim It comes from the Hebrew word for praise yahud I’m comes from the word for praise Thanksgiving and worship a Jew is one who as I said his whose identity is based on praising God giving thanks and worshipping the almighty a Jew is one whose very existence is a praise and witness to the existence of God So my friends be a Jew. And worship God be a Jew I want to close with these words from a song penned by song leader and writer Matt Redmon and most of his A recognize these words I’m sure when the music fades and all is stripped away and I simply come longing just to bring something that’s of worth that will bless your heart I bring you more than a song for a song an Excel is not what you have a quote required you search much deeper within through the way things appear you’ve you’re looking into my heart I’m coming back to the heart of worship and it’s all about you it’s all about YOU JESUS I’m sorry Lord for the things I’ve made it when it’s all about you it is all about YOU JESUS friends that’s what worship is about it’s about Jesus it’s about God It’s about bringing it to him not what we get out of it but when we fully give these hearts to Him we allow him to cleanse these Hard’s and we allow him to cleanse ease minds we will get something out of it we’ll get the pleasure of pleasing God bringing that wonderful sacrifice to him bring him your best don’t give him your second best when it comes to worship that is what the heart of worship is about it’s all about the heart being right with him amen.