Worship

Introduce Series - Worship: What it is and why it matters.

The motivation behind the series:

For the last two years, God has been doing something amazing through The Shed at Provence.

Those who have been here even longer than I have will tell you, God has been working here for some time and the result of that working is evident in a quick glance around the room.

While there are a few of you who come from a pentecostal or charismatic background, many of you who call the Shed home are either coming into church for the first time or rededicating your life after some time away.

In addition, we have many of you who are from various backgrounds where a charismatic, Spirit Filled environment of worship is a foreign concept.

Which means, while we have some powerful moments in worship, they are often seen through very different lenses, even in the same service.

For some of you, when the Spirit begins to move and the atmosphere of worship deepens to a place of tangible presence, you feel right home.

At the same time, there are others who immediately begin to sweat or suddenly need to use the bathroom, or go get a drink of water…

For some, the moving of the Spirit in our services may be met with trepidation or fear or uncertainty.

And if that is you, I want to say very clearly, you should not feel guilty for any of that.

What often happens in times of uncertainty is that we get into the game of comparison where if we don’t look like them, or we don’t pray like that, or we don’t feel what they are feeling, then somehow it is a failure, when the reality of the situation is more often than not, our fear and uncertainity comes out of the fact that no one has taught you the importance of your worship.

For the next several weeks, that is exactly what I hope to share with you as we walk through the scriptures and discover what the Bible says about Worship.

It is my expectation that as we begin to understand the importance of worship as presented in scripture, it will change the way we engage in here while we gather together and out there when we are on mission.

All throughout scripture, we are presented with the power of worship that results from the response of God to the worship of His people.

In 2 Chron. 20, King Jehosaphat sends the worshippers, the musicians, the praise team out in front of the army during a battle and their worship was so powerful that it is recorded this way:

2 Chronicles 20:22 ESV

22 And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were struck down.

When the temple was dedicated in 2 Chron 5, the Lord’s response to their worship made it so that no one could even stand:

2 Chronicles 5:13–14 ESV

13 and it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord), and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the Lord, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever,” the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, 14 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.

It was in response to the worship of Paul and Silas in Acts 16 that prison doors were opened and bonds were loosed:

Acts 16:25–26 ESV

25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, 26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.

The collective worship of God’s people when they are gathered together is a catalyst God responds to.

Psalm 22:3–5 ESV

3 Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. 4 In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. 5 To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

Psalm 22:3 AMP

3 But You are holy, O You Who dwell in the holy place where the praises of Israel (Your people) are offered.

God chooses to establish His throne in, dwell in the midst of, and inhabit the praises of His people!

In fact, it is not just that God enjoys our worship, it’s more. He actively seeks those who would worship Him:

John 4:23 ESV

23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

God wants you to worship Him! He is seeking for your worship!

“Well what if I get embarrassed?”

Embarrassment either comes from pride or shame and neither have the right to dictate your worship, because your worship is not about you, it’s about HIM.

Your status as well as your insecurities can be laid at His feet!

King David, danced before the ark of the Lord, worshipping the King above all Kings, and when David’s wife saw the way he worshipped without consideration of His kingly position she said:

2 Samuel 6:20–22 ESV

20 …“How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants’ female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!” 21 And David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord—and I will celebrate before the Lord. 22 I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes. But by the female servants of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor.”

David understood that his worship was not about Him, it was about the Lord Almighty!

If you’re concerned about your image or how you will sound or look to others, your worship has become about you rather than about God.

Worship doesn’t begin with us, it begins with beholding Him! Encountering Him! Pouring out our love on HIM!

There is a terrifying passage in Romans that tells us about those who refuse to worship God:

Romans 1:21–25 ESV

21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Look at verse 21, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him! And as a result, they became futile in their thinking and their hearts were darkened!

Your worship not only glorifies God and pleases Him, but it renews your mind and illuminates your heart to the magnificence of God!

When you encounter Him, the only proper response is worship, but if you refuse to worship in a corporate setting like this where His presence is evident, how then will you worship when He seems distant or quiet?

Let us worship with abandon, lifting Him up and glorifying His name that we may be engaged with His presence!

Here’s the bottom line: Everyone worships something. It’s in your nature to worship.

But you will only worship what you see as worth it…

Worship is simply our response to what we see as most worthy…

If we see Him as worthy of affection, we will pour our affection on HIm…

If we consider our pride as more worthy of consideration, we will stand stoic, refusing to give God the honor he deserves…

We are not here to simply receive blessings in worship, we are here to magnify the Lord and pour our hearts out to Him!

This is not a show you come to for entertainment, it is an altar you lay yourself on as a living sacrifice:

Romans 12:1 ESV

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

This is so real to me that I honestly despise a stage. It is my desire when we convert from pews to chairs to flip the room into a big half circle and everyone stand on level ground, because we worship together.

Dr. Bryan Jarrett, is one of my favorite preachers that I listen to on a regular basis and in a sermon he preached recently he said this,

When worship is taking place, you will either worship or become critical of those who are.

-Dr. Bryan Jarrett

This was the fault of David’s wife we just read about. Rather than worship with David, she criticized Him while He worshipped.

I’ll just tell you, if you’re engaged in worship, your eyes are on the God of the universe, the one who saved you and lifted you up and gave you another chance, not those around you, so you shouldn’t have to worry about what they are doing, because your perspective isn’t resting on them!

But if you’re so worried about how everyone else is worshipping, how can you be looking at them and gazing on HIM at the same time, you can’t!

There’s a song about the worship poured out on Jesus by the woman with the alabaster box that was done by Cece Winans and one part of it says,

“Please don’t be angry, when I wash his feet with my tears and dry them with my hair.. YOU WEREN”T THERE the night he found me! You did not feel what I felt when He wrapped His love all around me, and you don’t know the cost of the oil in my alabaster box.”

You don’t know what the person next to you had to go through to get here today in order to worship! You don’t know what they have been through in life to get to this point, and if you did, you might worship with them on their behalf!

I think some of us don’t realize how much we have been forgiven and therefore worship little.

The more you realize God has done for you, the more worship will pour out of you, but the more highly you see yourself, the less you will feel the need to worship God.

This is not to say that all worship is loud and demonstrative. Sometimes worship is quiet and prostrated, and no less sincere, but what we see throughout scripture is that beholding God in His glory provokes worship.

I’m going to read to you some of the instances throughout scripture where the Glory of God is revealed. As I do I want you to notice what happens in your spirit as you hear these things.. And I want you to pay attention to the reactions of those who are there…

What does their worship look like?

Ezekiel 1:26–28 ESV

26 And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance. 27 And upward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around. And downward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him. 28 Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking.

Daniel 7:9 ESV

9 “As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire.

Daniel 7:13–14 ESV

13 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

Isaiah 6:1–8 ESV

1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” 8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

Revelation 1:13–18 ESV

13 (I saw) … one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. 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, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.

Rev. 4:2-4, 8-11

Revelation 4:2–4 ESV

2 At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. 3 And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. 4 Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads.

Revelation 4:8–11 ESV

8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” 9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Here’s what I believe: If we would take a note from these scenes of the Glory of God and react to His goodness and mercy and glory and power and worship without reservation, we may just see the Glory of The Lord manifest among us…

I think if we held an attitude of sincere worship, it would affect how we show up to church, it would affect how we show up at our job, it would affect how we show up in our families, because when we put Him first, it alignes the rest of our lives in the correct order…

If we don’t get our worship right, seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness, we will be misaligned in all the rest of life…

Maybe it is that you have felt that misalignment in your own life lately. Maybe you’re been wondering why everything feels a bit off. Maybe it seems like chaos has been all around you, like you can’t catch up, or cant slow down…

Here’s my challenge to you: If you will align your worship first, the rest of life will follow suit. This must be your first priority. It’s what you were created for.

So when we worship together, don’t hold back. Don’t worry about what the person next to you is doing. Just worship.