Who are we Series (2)

We will worship

As a teacher, I know....

overload of information

we take in only so much

review is good!

DIsciples of Jesus - He is our Rabbi

Currency of the Kingdom

Temptations will come

these all have to do with Who we are.

todays message is We Will Worship

Are we worshippers?

Remember, I love you guys....

of what? What do we worship?

today, we will look at worship and briefly talk about,

what it is

what it isn't

and we will have an opportunity to enter into worship.

think about this..... we were made us to worship.... all of the human race.

we will worship. in fact, every single person worships something!

WE WERE MADE TO WORSHIP

who made us??? God.

Does everyone think that He made them? No.

then who do the people that don’t think God created them, who do they worship? or should I say what do they worship?

Not to pick on people who don’t know God and don’t worship God, lets look at ourselves here....

Just because we know that God created us, and created us to worship, does that automatically mean that we worship Him?

Let’s be real.

Let’s look at what worshipping God isn’t.

at the very end of 1 John, we see a startling verse.

1 John 5:21 ESV

21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

Let’s dig into this verse for a second.

Who is John writing to?

Believers.

What is John giving us here?

a warning.

What is the warning to believers?

Don’t have any idols.

in other words, inside your hearts, don’t put anything above the Lord. Nothing!

Is John saying this because we could have something in our hearts that would be above God?

what are the implications if we did? they aren’t spoken, yet we know what they are.

If we have anything above the Lord in our hearts, we will worship that thing.

And we will not be right in our relationship with our Lord if we have something in the place where only He belongs......And that means the Lord will need to deal (if the Lord loves us) with us in ways to get us to see that we are not putting Him first.... which we will need to repent, change our ways and come back to the place where He is in His rightful place in our hearts. Confession, and Repentance brings us back to right relationship with Him.

Wow.

(Matt Redman story) heart of worship song came from this.

there really are implications if the Lord is not in His rightful place, eh?

Is He really first in your heart today?

or is He second, or third to something else in there?

only you can answer that..... but, guess what.

It shows. In everything we do.

And,

whatever is first in your life shows through what you do!

think about it, everyone lives differently. why?

it is about what they value. what they want. desire.

if we value money too high? we work, hard. we might even be said to worship money.

if we value things too high? we get things, protect things and get extremely mad if something happens to those things.

In your heart, what is the order of value? everything in life has a value....

what is first for you? ONLY ONE THING CAN TAKE FIRST PLACE!!

that is what you will worship.

When the Lord is first! do tell, when the Lord is first!

Ahhhh. worship!

there are so many verses I could share with you.... so much we could talk about with the topic of worship.

lets just look at what it is. How is it defined?

Worship is the awed response to the saving acts and praiseworthy character of God.

Its a response!

While God wants us to worship Him we cannot worship Him just any way we will. The One who made us to worship Him has decreed how we shall worship Him. He accepts only the worship which He Himself has decreed.16

A. W. Tozer

Tozer says we cant worship any way we want. what has God decreed to us as the way to worship?

From the Lexham theological wordbook:

In the ot, worship encompassed a variety of activities. Bringing forward an offering to God was an act of worship (קָרַב, qārab). Bowing down in the presence of God was an outward display of an inner attitude of reverence before the Creator (חָוָה, ḥāwâ). The verb רוּם (rûm) could indicate that a person was “lifting up” or “exalting” God with praise. Together, these last two terms provide a rich image of worship: People both bow before God and lift him up in praise and wonder.

This week I asked in facebook land, what they thought worshipping God was all about.

they mentioned some of these things, reverence, total surrender, obedience, acceptable service, connection, adoration, transparency and letting Him love you so much that you cant help but want to love Him back!

SO SWEET, very special the words that they shared!

And so true!

Worship is something we show outwardly because of the state of our heart on the inside.

we express our heart by worshipping.

What can it look like?

So many things.

Where can it be done?

anywhere. anytime.

Can we be sitting? standing? on our knees, or face? lifting our hands?

Can we be involved in other things?

Remember where worship is from. It is from the heart and shown through our actions or postures.

We see in scripture, many people worshipping God.

We even see people worshipping Jesus when He was just a babe.

Matthew 2:2 ESV

2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

How did they worship Jesus?

Matthew 2:11 ESV

11 And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

they worshipped with,

Sacrifice, offering, bowing before Him.

Why? Why did they do this to Jesus?

well, what does it speak?

Sacrifice is giving something up for another. they gave their time to travel, it was a month or more.

800 miles, 20 a day, 40 days.

Would you walk 800 miles to see Jesus?

offering, they gave from their best, to show what they thought of Him, that He was worthy of their best,

Frankincense, myrrh, gold.

bowing down before Him is a sign of obedience, surrendering, as well as honoring and lifting the other up.

In our life today, lets ask ourselves if we are involved in worship like this?

What have we or will we sacrifice for Him, what will we give up for Him? we are called to give up our very will and to allow His will to be the highest in our lives.

Have you sacrificed your will to His will?

Remember Jesus in the garden, before going to the cross? He even sacrificed His will for the Fathers will.

“Not my will but Yours be done.”

Offering? Do we give our best? DO we give Him all of us or just some of us?

this can be time, talent and treasure.

Bowing down before Him, do we see how high and lifted up He is so we bring ourselves into a rightful position with Him? DO we bow our hearts and lives?

What if you felt like bowing before Him in church, would that be ok?

what if you felt like worshipping God by laying face down at the altar here in church? would that be ok?

We see people in scripture do this when they are in the presence of the Lord.

Revelation 1:17 ESV

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last,

Revelation is full of worship, in heaven and on earth. they sing holy, holy, holy in heaven.

We are all allowed to come to the altar during the music time to worship the Lord.

I would not one to try to force people to come and worship,

but today, right now, if you are getting that feel the Lord speaking to you, and you want to worship the Lord like what we have talked about, yet maybe you never have, or maybe you have and you want to right now,

Altar is open

I will have a worship song playing for about 6 minutes, I am ending early so we can have this special time. come, worship the Lord your God in your heart and express it before your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Who knows, it may encourage someone else that might be nervous about doing it. It may break the seal for you and you might become a weekly worshipper in an entirely new way!

I will be up here. I am all in. Are you? or will you leave me here to worship the Lord at the altar all alone? either way, I am doing it!

I love the Lord, and I am ok if I am the only one, so don’t feel pressured by me, but be led by the Lord..... allow it to be the Lord moving you to do it. to WORSHIP HIM and Him alone!

God bless. after the song, I will pray and dismiss the service, but until then, enter into this time of worship, will you?

Charles Spurgeon once said..

All places are places of worship to a Christian. Wherever he is, he ought to be in a worshipping frame of mind.

Charles Spurgeon

Lets worship church!