Good morning. Well, as we move into November, what I want to do over the next couple of months until I leave for my honeymoon, is I want to take a look at he meaning behind several of the songs we sing, and a look at a couple of songs that just have a great message behind them. We will begin this week, and over the course of the next 2 months we will take a look at 7 different songs and try and gain something that we can apply to our lives from these songs.
Today, we are going to take a deeper look into worship. Now worship is definitely something that we do here on Sundays. However, I think that there is more to worship than what Kyle and Caitlin just lead us in. And as we take a look at some things this morning, that is exactly what we will see.
Before we get started this morning, let’s just open with a word of prayer.
Turn with me to Exodus chapter 15 if you have your Bibles. Here in this passage we read about the worship that Moses and Miriam experienced following their ordeal at the Red Sea. Here in Exodus 15:1-21 it says, “1”
I have a selection from Our Daily Bread that I would like to read at this time. In Our Daily Bread it says, “If you are looking fro a praise and worship pattern, look no further than exodus 15. There you find the Israelites heaping honor on God. The people were just hours removed from one of the greatest rescues in history. The Lord had protected them from the rampaging Egyptians, and their praises reflected the renewed trust in God that this even brought them.
It’s appropriate to pour out our unbridled praise on God when we see Him work in great and miraculous ways. But those aren’t the only times He deserves our adoration. Too often we wait for God to perform a big answer to prayer before we feel like singing His praises.
But think about this: God doesn’t owe us any miracles. He doesn’t need to do anything to prove his greatness. He has already given us an incredible display of His power in His creation. He has made the ultimate sacrifice to purchase our redemption. Through His power, He has conducted the most miraculous transaction known to mankind, He brought us from spiritual death to spiritual life.
Waiting for a miracle? God’s done plenty of them already. Recalling what He has done and echoing the praise in Exodus chapter 15, let’s give God our unconditional worship.” The author ends that section by saying, “Praise flows naturally from a grateful heart.”
Now I can agree that when it comes to our praise and worship of God, it is the easiest when things are happening in our lives and God has done some great things. But what we have to realize is that He has already done more than enough to deserve our praise and worship.
Now, what I want to do this morning is I want to take a look at our worship, and how it really should be. I think that there are 3 ways that we need to worship God in our lives here on earth.
First, I think that we need to worship God personally, with whole life praise.
As you look at the passage that we just read over, in order for Moses and this group of Israelites to sing this song of praise to God, they had to be delivered from their enemy. Now the only reason that they were delivered from their enemy was because they trusted God, they obeyed Him and believed in Him. As a result of that trust and belief, they lived their lives in a way that showed that.
Turn with me to Romans 12:1. Here in Romans 12:1 it says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.”
That verse could also say, “…This is your reasonable act of worship.” Now as we look at that verse, notice that God has not just done something amazing. Instead, Paul says “…in view of God’s mercy…” As we look back and we realize all that God has done for us, the only reasonable thing that we can do, is live our lives for Him. Offer our bodies, our lives, as a sacrifice to Him. And notice what it says, “that is your act of worship.”
You see, we are not just to worship and praise God through singing here at church, we are to worship God by our very lives that we live. So how are you worshiping God right now with the way that you live your life Monday through Saturday? Is what you are doing on those days worshiping God, or are you just living for yourself through those actions.
So Moses and the Israelites lived a life of worship to God, and Paul urges us to live our lives holy and pleasing to God, as a way of worshiping God.
Now not only do we need to live our lives as worship to God, but second, we need to worship God privately, with whole hearted praise.
As we read the passage from Exodus, we notice that it was a large group of people that were worshiping God for what He had done. However, it is vitally important for us to spend time in true worship to God, on our own.
In his autobiography, Dwight Eisenhower tells of planning the D-Day Invasion of Europe. It was during intense moments of preparation that word came of the death of his father. It was impossible fro Eisenhower to leave his command. He couldn’t possibly return home, nor was it possible for him to take some time off. But as he wrote in his book, it was also impossible for him to go on with his work as if nothing had happened.
Sending everyone out of his office, he set aside 30 minutes to think about his dad, and to write out his thoughts in a diary. That’s all he could do. But if General Eisenhower, in the midst of planning the invasion of Europe, could shut the door and spend a half an hour thinking about his earthly father, shouldn’t we find a way of shutting the door, opening our Bibles, and thinking about our Heavenly Father and all that he has done and means to us.
Aside from living our lives as worship to God, we need to spend some private time worshiping Him on our own as well. At times through the Bible Jesus and many others go off by themselves and spend time praying and worshiping God. Never overlook the personal time that you spend with God. That is also worship to Him. When you spend time praying, worshiping, and reading your Bible, God is very pleased and He accepts that as a pleasing worship to Him.
So we find that we need to live our lives as worship to God, and that we need to make sure that we don’t overlook personal times of worship when we are worshiping God by ourselves.
The third thing that we need to learn is that we need to worship God publicly, with a group of fellow believers.
As we look at the Exodus 15 passage, we realize that at that time, that praise that Moses and Miriam lead the Israelites in was a corporate worship. It was with a group of fellow believers.
Now this is what we come to church for. But when we come together we can worship God in a couple of ways. Turn with me to John 4:23. Here in this passage we read about the couple of ways that we worship God while we are here at church. Here in John 4:23 Jesus says, “A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers that the Father seeks.”
Now as we look at that passage, we find that we need to worship God in spirit, and what I have found at KCU is that when we worship God in spirit, that is when we are singing out to Him, you see that is what we do before the sermon. That is what we ask people like the youth, and Kyle and Caitlin, and the other worship leaders to help us with.
But then we are to worship Him in truth as well. And what I find is that the truth part applies to the worship through His word. When we read God’s Word, we are reading the truth, and by reading it and applying it to our lives we worship God through truth.
So we need to make sure that we come together each week and we spend time worshiping God in spirit and in His truth. Now before we close, I want to put our a warning about our worship while we are here. You know, living your life as worship to God, should keep you from doing things for yourself. When you spend private time with God, that should keep you focused on Him and not impressing others. However, when it comes to your worship here with others we need to guard ourselves from doing it for the wrong reasons.
Let me share this story with you. It is from the author of the song, “Heart of Worship.” This is what he writes in his book:
“A few years back in our church, we realized some of the things we thought were helping us in our worship were actually hindering us. They were throwing us off the scent of what it means to really worship. We had always set aside lots of time in our meetings for worshipping God through music.
But it began to dawn on us that we’d lost something. The fire that used to characterize our worship had somehow grown cold. In some ways, everything looked great. We had some wonderful musicians, and a good quality sound system. There were lots of new songs coming through, too. But somehow we’d started to rely on these things a little too much, and they’d become distractions. Where once people would enter in, no matter what, we’d now wait to see what the band was like first, how good the sound was, or whether we were “into” the songs chosen.
Mike, the pastor, decided on a pretty drastic course of action: we’d strip everything away for a season, just to see where our hearts were. So the very next Sunday when we turned up at church, there was no sound system to be seen, and no band to lead us. The new approach was simple - we weren’t going to lean so hard on those outward things any more. Mike would say, “When you come through the doors of the church on Sunday, what are you bringing as your offering to God? What are you going to sacrifice today?”
If I’m honest, at first I was pretty offended by the whole thing. The worship was my job! But as God softened my heart, I started to see His wisdom all over these actions. At first the meetings were a bit awkward: there were long periods of silence, and there wasn’t too much singing going on. But we soon began to learn how to bring heart offerings to God without any external trappings we’d grown used to. Stripping everything away, we slowly started to rediscover the heart of worship.”
At this church, their focus got off of what it is suppose to be on. As a result true worship was not happening. Luckily, they realized that before it was too late, and they made a change. They went a while without group worship other than the sermon. Then at the end of that time, this is what the author of the song had to say:
“After a while, the worship band and the sound system re-appeared, but now it was different. The songs of our hearts had caught up with the songs of our lips. Out of this season, I reflected on where we had come to as a church, and wrote this song.”
The first worship song that they joined in was this one, let me read the words to this song and I want you to truly thing about these words:
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’ll bring You more than a song,
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required.
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear;
You’re looking into my heart.
And then the chorus encourages us with these words, listen to them. It says:
I’m coming back to the heart of worship,
And it’s all about You,
All about You, Jesus.
I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it,
When it’s all about You,
All about You, Jesus.
When we worship God, no matter how we do it, it should be for the right reasons. It should always be all about God. Because when the music fades and all is stripped away, God will still be there expecting us to be able to worship Him.
Too many times people get caught up in the sound of the worship, the people that do it, and the way that it moves you, but we need to be able to worship God without all of the stuff that adds to worship. The heart of worship depends on the status of your heart, not the music that is played.
Another thing that people get caught up in is not worshiping God for the blessings that He has given us. You know, there are people who lead worship services for the wrong reasons; there are people who preach out of the wrong motives. These people need to realize that the gifts that they have are given to them by God, and He alone deserves the praise.
Let me conclude this morning with one last story. Shane Hamman is one of the most dominant weight lifters in U.S. history. And he proved that at the 2003 National Championships by winning the super heave weight division for the 7th strait time. When it comes to pumping iron, nobody can match this 5 foot 8 inch 350 pound athlete with a 62 inch chest, 35 inch thighs, and 22 inch biceps. And he has been proving his power in weight lifting competitions since 1990.
To make a long story short he has excelled in every area of weight lifting and has accumulated many Olympic and professional records. He has also brought home gold in the Olympics. Shane Hamman is obviously one powerful guy. And if you asked him why he’s so strong, he’d have just one answer, and it’s not because he has big muscles.
“I realized early on my strength was a gift from God,” Hamman says. “I totally dedicated my weight lifting to Him to be used for His glory. And He’s really blessed be for putting Him first in my life.”
God wants all of His children to put Him first in their lives and worship Him. Whether they’re 98 pound weaklings, or like me and Shane, Olympic weight lifters. By putting God first, everything else will fall into place as well.
If you will make a commitment to worship God in the way you live your life, in private alone time with Him, and in a group worship setting, He truly will bless your lives.
So as we close this morning, we are going to sing as our invitation song Heart of Worship, and I want you to be aware of the words and the meaning behind them, and I want you to make a commitment to God to truly worship Him.
Let’s Pray |
