Living Expectantly in Worship
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Living Expectantly in Worship
Living Expectantly in Worship
Everyone’s take on worship is different. However you define it; or whatever your take or viewpoint is; one thing is I think we would all agree on: we need to rediscover the dynamics of worship in our services once again. You can’t find deadness in worship anywhere in the Scriptures. We need a transforming experience from the Lord; the kind of spiritual visitation that will help heal our broken homes & heal our churches & get us back to reality; that will restore true spiritual values & replace the cheap counterfeits we’ve created to take the place of God; and most of all, we need that which will bring glory to God that the world will sit up & see that God is truly amongst us.
A.W. Tozer said, "Worship is the missing jewel of the church." I believe that one of the problems in our church is that people do not have a biblical understanding of worship. As someone has well said of American Christians, "We have become a generation of people who worship our work, work at our play and play at our worship."
I think this is because we don't truly know we can worship expectantly and that God wants us to live in a life style of worship not only on Sun but everyday of the week. I want to show you first what worship isn’t so then we can see what worship is and how to worship expectantly
We have b
What worship is not Event
Event
We call the AM service “Worship Service" but calling it that doesn’t ensure that we will worship. You can attend a worship service without worshipping. Jesus echoed the words of Isaiah when He said of the Jews of His day, "These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me" ().
Worship is not Music - it doesn’t guarantee our worship.
I like this saying:
Music is a Vehicle to take us to the place of worship
if you have a car you aren’t going any wheres till you start the engine. You have to turn yourself and purpose in your heart to worship. Worship is powerful and the enemy knows it.Im going to talk about Worship and the enemy a bit more in a few minutes.
Worship is not a Entertainment- We live in a performance driven society. We may see ourselves as an audience and the people on the platform as performers. None of us should be spectators. All of us should be participants in the worship of our God
Worship is not a Feeling. Some people think if they don’t get a tear in their eye or goose bumps they have not truly experienced worship. Worship is emotional but being emotional doesn't guarantee genuine worship
Worship is not something that is confined to one day a week
Then why do some worship experiences seem to be so much more meaningful and the presence of God Felt more than others, think about it. When we go on a retreat we are often looking for that mountain experience. When we are on a calm vacation- I know these are few and far between or when we set aside time to be still before God, we listen intenly for God’s Voice.
So why don’t we look forward to Sunday worship with that same type of expectation and anticipation Are we so use to service the excitement has worn off. Its become a routine. its what we do on sundays There will always be things that get in the way of our purpose and distract us from what’s best - worshiping our great God worship him Expecting.
Worship is the believer’s response of all that they are – mind, emotions, will, body – to what God is and says and does” (Warren Wiersbe, Real Worship,
“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise” ()
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
It doesn’t take the right song to worship; it doesn’t take an eloquent preacher for us to worship. Knowing the character of God and what he has done for us through Jesus Christ is enough! Simply because of what we believe, we should be able to “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise” ()
We can expect God to show us something about Himself which causes us to respond with praise, gratitude, or repentance (or all three) because we are worshiping expectantly!
The leaders on the platform are striving to be signposts that lead to our great God. They try to lead the congregation in remembering what God has done for each of us and what He is continuing to do, No one cannot force you to respond to the message, or to worship.
Illistration:
Satan was standing outside a church building one Sunday morning. Inside, the people were singing, praying, and listening to preaching. A passerby asked Satan if bother him. With a demonic, sneering laugh he replied negatively. Then he added, “They get that way on Sunday, but they will be all right on Monday. It’s just a little habit they’ve acquired.”
God save us from such a habit. Our worship is to make a difference in who we are and what we do.
If we believe God is always with us. Then he is with us when we are worshiping him. We have to have an expectancy in our hearts and an excitement that what his word says and what we are singing is truth.
Worship is our response to God. We are responding to him
We love Him because He first loved us. Because God has loved us, saved us, called to us and provided for us we respond to his love and mercy and saving power by declaring his worth in worship. See expectantly means enthusiastically, gladly eagerly. Our worship should be joyous because he gave his all. We take this lightly but we need to worship him in spriit and in truth
We love Him because He first loved us.
I like the NIV for Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
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.”
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.
As we expectantly worship it goes deep into our hearts, we are valuing him above everyone and everything
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.
No one and no thing should be higher value to us than God. As much as we love our families we must love God even more.
AS we choose to worship an expectancy wells up inside us. We are choosing him
Isai
1-3
A Psalm of David When He Pretended Madness Before Abimelech, Who Drove Him Away, and He Departed. 1 I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2 My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; The humble shall hear of it and be glad. 3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together. 4 I sought the Lord, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears. 5 They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces were not ashamed. 6 This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them. 8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! 9 Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. 10 The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing. 11 Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. 12 Who is the man who desires life, And loves many days, that he may see good? 13 Keep your tongue from evil, And your lips from speaking deceit. 14 Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it. 15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their cry. 16 The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. 17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, And delivers them out of all their troubles. 18 The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit. 19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all. 20 He guards all his bones; Not one of them is broken. 21 Evil shall slay the wicked, And those who hate the righteous shall be condemned. 22 The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, And none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.
1 I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2 My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; The humble shall hear of it and be glad. 3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together.
See the Lord wants us not only to worship alone, in the car, at home but basically anytime but he wants us to worship together. We are to worship corporately There is a special dynamic of God’s presence in corporate worship. As we worship expectantly their is a dynamic that increases in our body.
Psalm 34:1-3
25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
As pastor says you each bring a measure of Faith when you come, this increases our faith and as you worship you are encouraging others in the body. Illistration Pastor the skeleton God has changed our vocabulary from Me, I mine, to us we and our. WE are the body so we should worship together.
Worship is a verb. its doing, sometimes stretching your self out of your comfort zone. You know we are to worship physically- We can worship quietly - in our thoughts , reading and meditating on his word. But when we worship him physcially is where some people find the hardest. See you have to go out of that comfort space and physcially do something. Surrenderion your self
1
Their are 21 verse in the bible that just talk about Shouting for joy,
Ps
4 Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; Break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises.
1 Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth! 2 Sing out the honor of His name; Make His praise glorious.
Joshua
20 So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets. And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.
When we go out of our comfort zone and expectantly worship him he can move in our lives situations.
See when we Sing and shout you open your mouth you are speaking out over the enemy. Your singing praises to the God who delivered you. Your shouting to the God who triumphed over situations you are dealing with at home or at work.
15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
The terms sacrifice and praise might seem to be opposites. We think of sacrifice as offering something at great cost to ourselves. Praise, on the other hand, sounds joyful as it bubbles from a grateful heart. However, in the spiritual realm, sacrifice and praise are intertwined.
Praise does not always cost us something. We praise our dogs for fetching the ball and people for a job well done. Praise is often our response to some action that directly benefits us, and we feel generous because we extend it. We often find it easy to praise God from the same motivation. When He has blessed us, helped us, and protected us, we feel generous toward Him. We can sing, worship, and talk about how good He is because we can see it. That kind of praise, although worthwhile, does not cost us anything. It is not a sacrifice.
Then there are those times when God did not come through the way we thought He would. A child is wayward. The mortgage company calls in the loan The medical test comes back positive. ( talk about thyroid..Choose Joy- not denying the condition but I know who controls it. . God seems very far away, fro you and praise is the last thing to bubble up from our hearts. We can't see His goodness, and circumstances scream that He has forgotten us.
To praise God in those times requires personal sacrifice. It takes an act of the will to lay our all on the altar before a God we don't understand. When we bring a "sacrifice of praise," we choose to believe that, even though life is not going as we think it should, God is still good and can be trusted ). When we choose to praise God in spite of the storms, He is honored, and our faith grows deeper (;
Job 13:15-17
15 Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him.
7 The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows those who trust in Him.
Job Coniuntued He also shall be my salvation, For a hypocrite could not come before Him. Listen carefully to my speech, And to my declaration with your ears.
The command in says that this sacrifice is to be offered "continually." Our praise of God is not to be based on our opinion of His job performance. Praise cannot be treated as a "reward" we give God for His obvious blessings. says, "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." Real praise continues regardless of circumstances. It flows continually from a worshiping heart in good times and bad as we expectantly worshiping him. It doesn't matter whats happening. Its coming from our heart
15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
Worship involves both attitudes (awe, wonder, reverence, respect adoration) & actions (bowing, clapping, praising, giving, serving.) As we Worship expectanly its our response of ALL we are—mind, emotions, will, & body. As we expectalnly worship him we might feel to bow down or kneel.
Psalm
5 The sea is His, for He made it; And His hands formed the dry land.
Psalm 95:6
6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
4 Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.
2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, And bless the Lord.
Actions to a God who deserves honor and reverence to a God who made the universe and loves us with an everlasting love. We should not be ashamed to worship him with our whole heart.
Do you know that 8650 times in the bible is hands lifting up as a gesture of worship and adoration . If its listed that many times it must be important to God.
Worship is a lifestyle. Worship is constantly putting God first in what we say, what we think and what we do. When we gather together to sing songs of worship, we are merely putting music to the song that is already in our hearts. AS we expectantly worship him a song comes our from our hearts that you might not even know why but its the joy of serving him in every situation. When we are hearing the word go forth and outwardly agree or say amen. You our expectantly worshiping the God who sought you out and saved you and on top of that you just put the enemy on notice that nothing is going to stop you from serving him.
But you have a choice to worship him with your all or just go threw the motions. The power we have in worship is so under used in our lives. Do you serve God from an heart of love and gratitude or do you just want to live a life that is done out of a routine, see the choice is mine and for us to decided which. I choose to worship in way that I give him my all
As we worship him expectantly we do it out of obedinece to him.
Conclusion:
A high school girl wrote the following letter to a friend:
I attended your church yesterday. Although you had invited me, you were not there. I looked for you, hoping to sit with you. I sat alone. A stranger, I wanted to sit near the back of the church but those rows were all packed with regular attenders. An usher took me to the front. I felt as though I was on parade.
During the singing I was surprised to note that some of the church people weren’t singing. Between their sighs and yawns, they just stared into space. Three of the kids that I had respected on campus were whispering to one another throughout the whole service. Another girl was giggling. I really didn’t expect that in your church. The pastor’s sermon was very interesting, although some members of didn’t seem to think so. They looked bored and restless. One kept smiling at someone in the congregation. There were several people who left and then came back during the sermon. I thought, "How rude!" I could hear the constant shuffling of feet and doors opening and closing.The pastor spoke about the reality of faith. The message got to me and I made up my mind to speak to someone about it after the service. But utter chaos reigned after the benediction. I said good morning to one couple, but their response was less than cordial. I looked for some teens with whom I could discuss the sermon, but they were all huddled in a corner talking about the newest music group.
My parents don’t go to church. I came alone yesterday hoping to find a place to truly worship and feel some love. I’m sorry, but I didn’t find it in your church. I won’t be back.
That is an ouch.
Will they find this in our church? We have 2 kids that were truly touched at camp When they come back I pray that they see us with worship him out of our hearts. Like the song recklessly abanded to him, our arms open wide and our hearts expecting that no matter what He is in control of the situation and I will worhsip him with my whole heart. Our hearts cry is to be a Church that truly worshipsI dont want to be know as a church who goes threw the motions. Do we want to worship expectanly or just act like it. The power we have in worship is so under used in our lives. The choice is ours.
How sad. What do we want to be seen as a Church that truly worships or a church who goes threw the motions. Do we want to worship expectanly or just act like it. The power we have in worship is so under used in our lives. The choice is ours.