Praise and Presence 3

Do You Know Him?

John 4:22–24 NKJV

You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 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. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Everyone is worshipping something. You are created for worship and you will worship something. But what or who are you worshipping? What has your most allegiance? What gets your most time? What or who do you look for as your source?

“You don’t even know what you are worshipping.” Anything that takes the place of God in your life is an idol. There is nothing He hates more than idol worship.

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

Everywhere the Israelites when and conquered territory, one of the first things God told them was to go tear down the high places, the altars of worship to false gods.

God is a jealous God. He is not jealous because he is insecure. He is a jealous God because He is a holy God.

Whenever you seek fulfillment from any place other than God, you have set up an idol.

Jesus was talking to the Samaritan woman at the well. She had been seeking satisfaction and confirmation in all the wrong places. She had been married 5 times and was living with the 6th man. Jesus shows up as man number 7, the perfect man.

He tells her, “If you drink of the living water I give you, you will never thirst again.” He is talking about the cycle of her lifestyle. He is telling her, you can keep going back and going back and going through cycle after cycle, man after man, drug after drug, drink after drink, searching for something to fill the void in your life. But if you drink of what I am giving you, your thirst for all those other things will be gone. You cannot fill a God-shaped hole with anything in this world and ever be truly satisfied. You can spend your whole life chasing relationship after relationship, better job after better job, chasing more and more money, bigger house, nicer car, whatever it is and you always end up feeling empty. You get the new car you have been dreaming about and then a while later, you no longer like the one you have and want a new one.

Verse 22: We know what we worship.

You cannot worship a God you do not know. When you see people’s worship, you can tell how much they know God. There are some people who are uncomfortable with radical praise and worship. It is not because they are bad people or not because they are not saved, it is just that they have not gotten to know Him that way.

But when you see people worshipping God in ways that may even look foolish, it is because they have experienced God on such a level they cannot help but express it. They have seen Him come through so many times in their lives and in different ways, all they might be able to do is fall on their face and cry out to him in worship, or they might feel like dancing, or shouting, or running around the room.

Never judge someone else’s worship. You do not know what their worship has cost them or what they have experienced God through that has led them to this place of worship.

I have seen God heal cancer and remove tumors from people’s bodies. I have seen God move in moments where if he didn’t move, it was a hopeless situation. There are people who have been drug addicts who God has delivered in an instant with no counseling, no rehab, just freedom. And because they know Him that way, they worship him on that level. Some have seen God save a lost son or daughter that everyone thought could never be saved.

I have seen bills due and no idea how I was going to pay them and then all of a sudden God shows up and sends all I needed to pay the bills and more left over.

Because I know him that way, I cannot just sit still and act like God has never done anything for me. I am worshipping a God that I know!!!!

If you know Him like that, shout Hallelujah!!!

That is why we cannot come in here and worship him based on what has happened that week. We come in here with a lifetime of experience of God saving us, and sparing us. Some of you walked away from a car crash that should have taken you out. Some have had diseases that should have taken you out. There are times when you didn’t even know God that he showed up and helped you and saved you from what could have been a horrible situation. He kept you from that relationship that would have drug you down into addiction and abuse and left you bound for hell. He has gotten you off of medicine the doctors said you would never get off of.

When you look back on your life, can you see all the times that if God had not showed up you would have been dead? When you did not know him and he still had his hand on your life and kept you and protected you so that you could be here today?

If you know God that way, you do not need a band, or a cheerleader to get you to praise him and worship Him. He is not some far off God that has not touched your life.

Psalm 47 NKJV

Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph! For the Lord Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth. He will subdue the peoples under us, And the nations under our feet. He will choose our inheritance for us, The excellence of Jacob whom He loves. Selah God has gone up with a shout, The Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with understanding. God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne. The princes of the people have gathered together, The people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; He is greatly exalted.

Written by the sons of Korah. Korah was a man who was with Moses in the wilderness who rebelled against God and Moses. God opened up the earth and he and his family and all his associates that rebelled with him were swallowed up into the earth.

3 of his sons refused to join in the revolt and were spared. Their descendants are the ones who wrote this Psalm and several others. They are some of the strongest psalms of praise in the whole book.

Why?

They realize they could have never been born. They realize God spared them from the pit even before they were born. If you know you deserve to have died and gone to hell but God pulled you out of the pit and set you on a firm foundation, how can you sit and stay quiet and never give God praise?

John 4:23 “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.”

Seek and you shall find. Seek the Kingdom. God is seeking something too!!

He settles where He is worshipped in spirit and truth. But what does that mean??

Revealer

1 Corinthians 2:9–10 NKJV

But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

What has he revealed to you?

Mercy, kindness, goodness, grace, favor, glory, healing, peace, defender when everyone has come against you.

Worship him in a way he has revealed himself to you.

MOSES

“I AM THAT I AM”

The wilderness.

HOW HAS HE SHOWED UP?

TEACHER

John 14:26 NKJV

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

What has he taught you in your journey? When you get to that place to see God in that way, you do not care what song is played or who is singing. You will only care about encountering God.

Praise teams are great but if we all come in viewing God in that way, you don’t even need a praise team. There is a song in your spirit that needs to come out. You don’t need someone to beg you to praise God.

Luke 7:36–47 NKJV

Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.” And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” So he said, “Teacher, say it.” “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?” Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.” Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”

The level of your worship is a direct sign of your level of gratitude.

They did not even give Jesus the greeting of a common Hebrew.

Food, anoint of oil, wash feet, holy kiss - all common Hebrew greetings. Their familiarity with him killed their intimacy with him. They don’t even greet the Son of God with a common greeting because of their familiarity.

The church people were too pretty to worship. In comes a woman.

Lifetime of savings - prostitute. That box and oil costed her everything. This woman gave all she had.

Mark says she broke her box - when you break the box, you cannot control how it comes out. We try to pour and control how our worship comes out.

Imagine how they looked at her when she came in. How they whispered and talked about her. But she did not come for them. She did not care what any of them thought.

When you come to see Him, you no longer care what anyone around you thinks. When we get to that place in our worship, we will become the Church people are seeking.