The Heart of Worship
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 4 viewsThe Heart of Worship
Notes
Transcript
The Heart of Worship - The Right heart before God
The Heart of Worship - The Right heart before God
This morning as we are coming off the week of Revival, I pray that God spoke to you through the different Men of God that came and spoke to us.
I know He spoke to me each and every service, and one of the things that He really spoke to me about was that we have to have are Hearts right with Him.
Each message was from a different place in Scripture, but each one seemed to come around to weather the believers heart was right before God.
As Josh spoke from Amos and how the people did not have the right attitude and they were going through the motions, but their hearts were not in it.
Kevin spoke from Revelation about the church in Sardis and that they had a reputation of being alive but were really dead, and that we need to examine our hearts.
Chad spoke from Jonah and how he went on the boat the wrong way and went to sleep and how churches and believers are asleep, and that we are not being the body of Christ that He has called us to be, and that we need to examine our hearts.
Al, preached from Philippians using Paul’s prayer and how we as believers should have joy in our lives, and be praying for one another, and sharing the Word of God, and if we love God we will be praying for others, and if we are not then we need to examine our hearts.
Vernon preached from
We see that the heart is an important thing, and it is important to God also; therefore, the heart is important to worship.
The heart is the central and most important part of our body, as it pumps our blood and without it pumping our blood, we die, it is also where all things flow, love, emotions and where true and genuine faith and worship comes from.
Therefore, God looks at that attitude and desires of the heart.
This morning God has laid on my heart from Romans 12:1-2 a message titled The Heart of Worship.
The first thing we must look at and understand is what is worship: Worship is so often misunderstood as just the singing portion of our church service.
Therefore, we must understand worship does not begin and end with the singing portion of our church service.
Worship is also not limited to bowing in reverence before God.
To begin with, worship is determined by God Himself, not by our feelings, our musical skills, or what we want.
True biblical worship must be reverent as we are told in Hebrews 12:28
28 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe;
The word service there in Greek, is actually a form of a word for worship, the second half of that verse is telling us that we are to worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.
See we must understand who is being worshipped. God is holy, just, perfect, powerful, loving, etc.
We are sinners saved by grace coming before a holy God on the basis of our Redeemer.
Look with me at our text Romans 12:1-2
1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Pray
Pray
From our main text here in Romans 12:1-2 we see all the elements of true worship.
I. True Biblical Worship
I. True Biblical Worship
1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, that is believers that Paul is writing this letter to, the believers at Rome, and so he is specifying that he is meaning listen up, listen closely.
In view of the mercies of God, this is the motivation to worship, the mercies of God are everything God has given us that we do not deserve which are things like: eternal love, eternal grace, the Holy Spirit, everlasting peace, eternal joy, saving faith, comfort, strength, wisdom, hope, patience, kindness, honor, intercession and much more.
The knowledge and understanding of these incredible gifts motivate us to pour forth praise and thanksgiving - in other words, worship!
Because of these mercies Paul urges us, that is he calls us to, or encourages us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God.
This is a description of the manner of the way we are to worship in, presenting our bodies means giving to God all of ourselves.
The reference to our bodies here means all of our human faculties, all of our characteristics - our hearts, minds, hands, thoughts, attitudes - are to be presented to God.
In other words, we are to give up control of these things and turn them over to Him, just as a literal sacrifice was given totally to God on the altar.
In the Old Testament, the people had to bring animals that had no spot or blemish, that is they had to be as perfect as could be and present them as their sacrifice before God.
When we come, we are to come as clean, as holy, before the Lord as possible.
That is we are to prepare ourselves before the Lord, we are to begin Saturday, really all week long, but especially Saturday night, preparing to meet with God in His house on Sunday morning.
The problem many people have on Sunday’s is they have not prepared themselves, they are expecting to come and be served on a silver platter and God is waiting on them to come prepared to eat.
God wants us to be fully and completely surrendered to him, it is like the pig and chicken, as the chicken and pig walk down the road they see the sign for a egg and bacon breakfast fundraiser, the chicken says hey lets help out.
The pig says hey not so fast, the chicken says what is the problem, the pig says for you all you have to do is lay an egg and go on about the day, for me i have to sacrifice my life to give bacon.
That is the thing, we are to give up control of our hearts, our minds, our hands, our thoughts, our attitudes and turn them over to God, just as a literal sacrifice was given totally over to God on the altar in the Old Testament.
II. How to Worship
II. How to Worship
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
We must remember that Worship is not just about singing, but is more of the awed response to the saving acts and praiseworthy character of God.
Worship is how we respond to what God has done for us, His mercies, and that comes in many different forms.
In verse two here we are told do not be conformed to this world, that is do not allow the ways of this world to lead us but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
We hear this conformed to the world, and we say well if you do this or you do that, or if you do not do this then you are conformed to the world.
There is only one way to renew our minds, and that is by the Word of God.
It is the truth, the knowledge of the Word of God, which is to say the knowledge of the mercies of God.
To know the truth, to believe the truth, to hold to the convictions about the truth, and to love the truth will naturally result in true Spiritual worship.
It is conviction followed by affection, affection that is a response to truth, not to any external stimuli, including music.
Music is not the origin of worship, but it can be the expression of it.
True worship is God-Centered worship.
People tend to get caught up in where they should worship, what music they should sing in worship, and how their worship looks to other people.
Focusing on these things misses the point.
23 “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.
24 “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
To worship the Father in Spirit is to have a heart that is in pursuit of an intimate spiritual relationship with the God who is Spirit.
To worship God in Truth is to worship in a biblical accurate way - through the One who is the truth.
God is on the hunt for those who will worship Him spiritually through Jesus Christ based on the truth of His Word.
This means we worship from the heart and the way God has designed.
Worship can include praying, reading God’s Word with an open heart, singing, participating in communion, and serving others.
It is not limited to one act, but is done properly when the heart and attitude of the person are in the right place.
The song the choir sang, The Heart of Worship, did you pay attention to the lyrics to that song.
They are found in the Hymnal on page 127.
They go like this:
When the music fades, all is swept away, and I simply come; Longing just to bring, something that’s of worth, that will bless Your heart.
What it all comes down too, not the music, is what we bring to God, are we trying to be a blessing to God, are we trying to honor and glorify Him.
The song continues: I’ll bring You more than a song, for a song in it-self is not what You have required.
Mere music is not what God wants from us.
It continues: You search much deeper within, through the way things appear; You’re looking into my heart.
God is not looking at the music we are singing, He is not looking at the clothes we have on, He is not looking at the shoes we have, the length of our hair, or the color of the carpet in the building.
No He is examining our hearts, He is looking to see if we are coming with a heart that is ready to worship Him, ready to bring worship to Him, to be a blessing to Him.
See God would rather hear Rap music from a tender heart, that is on fire for him, than a hymn sung from a heart that is hard, and ice cold towards Him.
It is never about the music; it is always about the heart.
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
The course to the song says: 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 thing I’ve made it, when it’s all about You, it’s all about You, Jesus.
As Matt Redman wrote here in this song, we need to ask forgiveness because it is not about us, it is all about Jesus.
We need to get back to what Christianity is all about in the first place, a intimate personal relationship with Jesus, and making Him number one in our lives.
The core of worship is complete and total surrender to Jesus, just as we seen in our text that we are to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice.
It’s also important to know that worship is reserved only for God.
Worship is done for God - because He deserves it - and for His pleasure alone.
True worship is felt inwardly and then is expressed through our actions.
True worship is the acknowledgment of God and all His power and glory in everything we do.
The highest form of praise and worship is obedience to God and His Word.
Worship is to glorify and exalt God - to show our loyalty and admiration to our Father.
As our text tells us, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
A verse that I strive to live by, one that I would say is my life verse if you will is:
30 “He must increase, but I must decrease.
The only thing is I generally say it backwards, because before God/ Jesus can increase I first must decrease.
Another words I got to get out of the way of what Jesus is trying to do in my life before He is going to do it.
We have to get our hearts right with God, realize it is not about us, realize it is all about Jesus, and recognize all that He has done for us, even though we do not deserve it, then we strive to bring glory and honor to Him.
See it does not matter what we are doing, it may be singing, reading God’s Word, praying, serving, or number of other things, we are to do it all to the glory of God.
31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
When we truly offer our lives as a living sacrifice we will be truly worshipping God in a biblical way, and we will also glorify God in all that we do.
Therefore, we must strive each and every day to offer our bodies, our lives as a living sacrifice.
We must fully and whole heartily surrender our lives before God and His will.
We must remember it is not about us and our wants or how we want it, but it is about Jesus, and how He is directing us, and His will.
If you have never accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, f you have never began a personal relationship with Jesus, than you cannot truly worship Him.
Therefore, if you are here and do not have that relationship today, I would love to share with you how to get that personal relationship with Jesus.
So that you can truly worship Jesus, and have a right heart with God.