The Benefits of Worship
Notes
Transcript
Psalm 16:11 “ Thou wilt shew me the path of life: In thy presence is fulness of joy; At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
The Benefits of Worship
This message today will help us to
understand the many wonderful
benefits that come from worship and
from spending time in God’s presence.
While we do not desire God’s presence
so that we might gain the benefits,
they are the result of spending time
with Him.
Every child needs a father who makes
a priority of spending time with them.
A recent study by the Columbia
University’s National Center for
Addiction and Substance abuse found
that the absence or presence of a
father makes a lot of difference in the
psychological well-being of children.
When a father is there to share meals
with his children, go with them to
church, help them with homework
and spend quality time with them,
there are many desirable outcomes.
Such children are much less likely to
become alcoholics, drug addicts or
substance abusers of any kind. Such
children are much more likely to
complete their education and fulfill
their goals. Such children are much
more likely to be happy, healthy,
secure and emotionally stable. The
presence of a father makes a big
difference in the lives of his children,
and many important benefits will
accrue to them because they have
spent time with him.
Conversely, the absence of the father
is usually very detrimental to the well-
roundedness of his children. Of
course, the mother’s role is extremely
important as well and cannot be
minimized. But this particular study
was focused on how important the
presence of a father is for kids. And
that presence was found to be
absolutely crucial. If an earthly father
is so important to his children, how
much more so is the presence of the
heavenly Father in the lives of God’s
children! The more we spend time in
our Father’s presence, the more likely
we are to find ourselves enjoying all
the wonderful benefits of His
proximity to our lives. And the less
time we spend in His presence, the
less likely we are to enjoy and benefit
from all that He wants to offer us as a
Father who loves to be with His
children. One of the most important
ways of spending time with our
heavenly Father is through worship. It
is a primary way of being with Him
and experiencing His presence. And
like there are benefits to hanging out
with our earthly father, so there are
even greater benefits of hanging out
with our heavenly Father. When we
worship, we open ourselves to
receiving more of what God has to
offer us. Now, let’s be clear. God
should be worshipped first and
foremost because He is God.
He deserves to be worshipped
because of who He is. We should never
make the mistake of deciding to
worship Him because of what we will
get out of it. But when we do worship
Him because of who He is and what
He has done, and when we spend
time in His presence because it is
what He deserves and what we need,
then many benefits will overflow into
our lives from that time spent with
Him. We need time with our heavenly
Father, and we can only find the
deepest kind of joy, purpose and
meaning in our lives when we have a
deep and intimate connection with
Him. Worship can be a place where
that connection is strengthened, and
we receive so many of the blessings He
intends to shower on us. Let’s explore
some of the benefits that come from
being in God’s presence.
1. THE EMOTIONAL BENEFITS OF BEING IN GOD’S PRESENCE •
Psalm 16:11 is a familiar passage for
some of us, and it contains a deep
truth when it says that God’s presence
brings joy:
“You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”
• Worship changes our emotional
state. • You cannot find joy by looking
for joy. You find joy by being in an
environment of joy. • As a child of God,
if you are feeling emotionally off-
center and down, it might just be that
you are in the wrong place. You need
to gravitate toward God’s presence to
find comfort, peace and joy. • Psalm
34 deals with our experience of fear.
Verse 4 says, “I sought the Lord, and He answered me, and delivered me
from all my fears.” Then verse 5 says, “
They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed. ” The psalmist goes into
God’s presence filled with his fears,
but when those fears see God, they
run away. Instead of fear, there is
radiance. • Psalm 42 gives us another
example. David said, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.” In a time of great stress
and suffering, when he is down and
discouraged and feeling hopeless,
David finds his hope renewed through
praise, for he knows that in God’s
presence things would begin to
change. • Instead of looking inside, we
should look up. We should shift our
focus from our problems to God. He
can meet our every emotional need. •
We should hang around what makes
us joyful and fulfilled if we want to be
joyful and fulfilled. If we are not
careful we will become like what we
worship (2 Kings 17:15-16).
THE EMOTIONAL BENEFITS OF BEING IN GOD’S PRESENCE •
2. THE DIRECTIONAL BENEFIT OF GOD’S PRESENCE
• When we are in God’s presence, we
are in the best place to receive
guidance and direction for our lives. •
In Isaiah chapter six, Isaiah needs
God’s guidance for his life, he gets it by
being in God’s presence and being
honest about his own inadequacies.
• Isaiah doesn’t ask for the advice of a
whole bunch of people about what he
should do. He goes straight to God.
•Revelation 1:10-11 tells us that John
receives his revelation from God when
he is in worship (“I was in the Spirit on
the Lord’s day”).
• If you are wanting to hear God speak,
there is no better place to be than in
worship. • His still, small voice is
waiting for you to listen.
• Romans 12:1-2 tells us that when we
present ourselves to God that we will
be transformed. God’s guidance is
given in His presence. God will steer
us toward the place He wants us to be.
THE DIRECTIONAL BENEFIT OF GOD’S PRESENCE
3. THE RELATIONAL BENEFIT OF GOD’S PRESENCE
• Being in the presence of God with
others changes our relationships with
them. • God’s presence can bring
harmony and unity (Numbers 11). •
Ephesians 4 reminds us of how
important the unity of the Spirit is. It
is not a unity we create, but one where
God Himself knits us together. • The
powerful witness of the early church
arose from being in one accord
through praying together (Acts 1:14).
THE RELATIONAL BENEFIT OF GOD’S PRESENCE
4. THE JUDICIAL BENEFIT OF GOD’S PRESENCE •
Psalm 149 speaks of singing, praising
and even dancing in worship. And in
the midst of that activity, the psalmist
writes that God will “execute
vengeance on the nations, and
punishment on the peoples.” • When
we need justice in our lives, the best
place for us to go is into God’s
presence. • In Matthew 18, Jesus
teaches about church discipline, and
He says that when two or three are
gathered together in His name, He is
in their midst. • Notice the context of
this often-misunderstood verse. This
is a promise that comes in a section
where He is talking about dealing with
people who are sinning. • Authority is
dispensed when God’s people gather
together to follow Him. • When we
gather under Jesus’ authority, He will
bring justice and needed correction.
He will execute righteousness.
THE JUDICIAL BENEFIT OF GOD’S PRESENCE •
5. THE CIRCUMSTANTIAL BENEFITS OF GOD’S PRESENCE
• The presence of God can change our
circumstances for the better. • Psalm
68 lists a number of situations that can
be overcome through worship. * If
you are lonely, orphaned, imprisoned
or in need of a change in the weather
(like Elijah!), you should worship God.
* If you are poor, surrounded by
enemies, burdened or in need of
deliverance, you should worship God.
In 2 Kings 20:1-7, Hezekiah is told by
the prophet that he is going to die.
But Hezekiah turns toward God and
God reverses His decision, and
Hezekiah lives many more years. • In
God’s presence circumstances can
change. There are many examples in
Scripture of worship making a change,
THE CIRCUMSTANTIAL BENEFITS OF GOD’S PRESENCE
6. THE SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF GOD’S PRESENCE •
2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009),
This verse tells us that in the presence of God we can be transformed from “glory to glory.”
The Bible Knowledge Commentary (3:18)
The glory that evident in Moses’ face
was a diminishing radiance (vv. 7, 13).
By contrast, in the faces of Believers
is God’s ever-increasing glory. It is
this“from glory into glory,” i.e., from
one stage of glory to another.
The Believers’ glory, like that of
Moses, is a reflection of God’s glory.
But unlike Moses’ transitory glory a
believer’s glory is eternal. This is
because of God’s abiding presence
through the Holy Ghost (4:17). This
glory is the experience of salvation
available in the New Covenant and
mediated by the Spirit who leads
Believers from justification through
sanctification to glorification. As
believers manifest the fruit of the
Spirit (Gal. 5:22–23), we are
progressively being transformed (the
same word Paul used in Rom. 12:2)
into His likeness. Christlikeness is the
goal of the Believers life (Eph. 4:23–
24; Col. 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: *
The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), Col 3:10. ).
No wonder Paul said the New is far superior to the Old!
• In His presence we become new.
THE SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF GOD’S PRESENCE •
OUR SURROUNDINGS MAKE A DIFFERENCE
When you are out in the sun, you
cannot help but feel warm—
sometimes even hot. When you are
out in the snow, you cannot help but
feel chilly—even painfully cold. The
environment around us makes a
difference. Similarly, living in the
atmosphere of God’s joy will naturally
make you more joyful!
When you make a cake, you have to
take all the ingredients and stir them
together thoroughly. When you do
that, all the separate ingredients
become one substance, and a tasty
one at that. It takes a lot of work to
bring all the elements together, but
they can be blended into something
wonderful. The goal of each separate
ingredient needs to be to become part
of a bigger whole by being stirred
together to make something better in
combination than each of the
individual ingredients that go into the recipe.
CONSIDER THE BENEFITS
If we are thinking about taking a new
job, one of the most important issues
will be looking at the benefit package
that is being offered. Sure, the salary
is a critical factor, but to examine the
full compensation, we must take the
benefits into consideration. The
amount of the salary only tells us what
we will get right now, but the benefits
tell us what we will get in the long run.
Health benefits and retirement
benefits are about making our future
secure as well. In the presence of God,
we find the ultimate benefits package.
“When joy has escaped you, it is time
to worship. When life has crushed in
on you, it is time to worship. When the
devil has robbed you of joy it is time
to worship.”
“The church began in a prayer meeting
—not a preaching service!” “When you
are in His presence, you are before His
face, and it is like a mirror. When you
look into the presence of God, His
glory beams back on you, and you
become changed
1. THE EMOTIONAL BENEFITS OF BEING IN GOD’S PRESENCE •
2. THE DIRECTIONAL BENEFIT OF GOD’S PRESENCE
3. THE RELATIONAL BENEFIT OF GOD’S PRESENCE
4. THE JUDICIAL BENEFIT OF GOD’S PRESENCE •
5. THE CIRCUMSTANTIAL BENEFITS OF GOD’S PRESENCE
6. THE SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF GOD’S PRESENCE •
