The Power of Worship

DNA Series - Worship

The Power of Worship

Today we are going to finish our series, “DNA”

We are going to be talking about worship

And most of us when we think of worship we think of singing songs.

But worship is something we do in every area of our life.

When we give we are worshiping God with our money.

When we use our gifts to glorify God, that’s a form of worship.

So worship is something that we should constantly be doing, not just when we come to church.

With that being said, I do want to focus this morning on the form of worship that we think of which is lifting our voices in praise to God.

The title of my message is, “The Power of Worship”.

My goal is for you to leave here with a better understanding of WHY we worship and hopefully you see how POWERFUL worship is!

But if you’re new to church the common question you might have is “why do we worship?”

Why do we come here and sings songs about God?

The short answer is we worship God because of who He is and what He’s done for us!

Who is He?

He’s the creator of the universe

He’s the King of Kings and Lord of Lords

What has He done?

Died on the cross for us.

He saved us.

That alone is good enough reason for me to give praise and thanksgiving to Him through worship.

But there’s a lot more to why we worship.

Worship is Commanded by God

“Sing for joy to God our strength; shout aloud to the God of Jacob! Begin the music, strike the tambourine, play the melodious harp and lyre.”

“Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. 2 Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. 3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, 4 praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe, 5 praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. 6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.”

All you have to do is read Psalms and you’ll see over and over again David talking about how we should worship.

Worship is a time that we can drown out the distractions of life and turn our attention to God.

I think one of the reasons God commands us to worship Him is because it forces us to humble ourselves.

Because if there’s one thing we know God hates it’s pride.

“To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.”

“But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”

Worship is laying your pride down and humbling yourself and saying, “God I need you. Thank you for you grace. I praise you for who you are.”

It’s not about who's watching or how silly you look.

It’s about putting God first and showing God that you’re not ashamed to worship him.

And just like any area of your life, when you humble yourself before God, He moves in a powerful way.

Worship is no different.

Worship Ushers in the Presence of God

– Elisha said “But now bring me a harpist." While the harpist was playing, the hand of the LORD came upon Elisha.”

There’s something about music and worship that invites the manifest presence of God.

Some of the most POWERFUL experiences you will have with God will be while you’re worshiping.

I remember being at a youth conference where Kari Jobe was leading worship.

All of a sudden the presence of God hit me and I just started crying.

He then spoke to me and showed me what I needed to do in my youth ministry that year.

When you as an individual and especially when a room full of people come together and put their focus on praising God, He can’t help but show up.

Example of youth group.

Worship is a Weapon

The Moabites and Ammonites are planning to attack the people of Judah where Jehoshaphat was king.

So Jehoshaphat declared a fast for everyone and he inquired of the Lord what to do.

Then the Lord spoke through the prophet Jahaziel

“He said: “Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the Lord says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s. 16 Tomorrow march down against them. They will be climbing up by the Pass of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the gorge in the Desert of Jeruel. 17 You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.’”

Verse 21-22 “After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.” 22 As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.”

So Judah is about to be overtaken by this army and God tells them not to worry!

They’re probably thinking God is going to give them this great battle plan to defeat the enemy and it’s just… to sing!

Why?

Because God was saying that the only weapon we need against the enemy is the weapon of our worship!

So many people try to fight their battles on their own and focus on what THEY can do to fix it instead of just taking time to worship and trust God.

Things like you may have a child who isn’t living for the Lord

So we think if I just forced them to go to church

Or if I made sure they never talked to someone who wasn’t a Christian, that would work.

Sometimes the things we’re trying to do aren’t all bad, but the point is we put our focus on us and what WE can do instead of putting our focus on God and what we KNOW He can do.

You see it’s easy to worship God when life is good.

But what about when the storms come?

When the enemy is on the attack against you?

Are you still willing to praise God?

It reminds me of one of my favorite stories in the bible when it comes to worship is Paul and Silas.

Paul and Silas are preaching the gospel and people are getting and saved.

They then came across a woman who was a fortune teller.

She would follow them and declare that “these men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.”

But it says that Paul got annoyed by her and turned to her and cast the spirit out of her.

So her owners weren’t happy about that so they told lies about them to the authorities and they were arrested.

So they end up beating them with rods and throwing them into prison.

And this is what happened.

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” 29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.”

This is such an incredible story.

Paul and Silas were doing great, getting people saved

Then they get beaten and thrown in jail for doing nothing wrong.

Most people and this time would be like, “really God? This is what I get for serving you?”

But even in the middle of a pretty big storm they chose to lift their voices and WORSHIP!

And because of their faithfulness and willingness to praise even in the middle of a storm, God shakes the prison and their chains came off!

Then God uses them to save the jailer and his whole family!

Which brings me back to verse 25 “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.”

PEOPLE ARE LISTENING TO YOUR WORSHIP!

I don’t mean when you sing in church.

But they see how you still praise God in the storm

How you respond in the middle of your trials WILL have an affect on the people around you.

Worship is a weapon!

It has power to break chains

To tear down walls.

Do you remember how the Israelites took Jericho

In we see the Israelite army marching around the walls of Jericho once a day for six days.

Then on the seventh day they were to march around it seven times.

And on the seventh time the priests will blast their trumpets and then the whole Israelite army is to let a shout out.

And the walls came down!!

Once again God uses the voice of His people to lead them into victory.

And again the same is true for us.

WHEN PRAISE GOES UP, WALLS COME DOWN.

So many times when we have issues in our life we spend the whole time praying and asking God for help.

And I think sometimes God is waiting for us to worship.

We can’t just look at God as a genie in a bottle, and just ask him to fix all our problems.

Sometimes we need to TURN OUR PRAYER INTO PRAISE!

Say God I don’t know how this is going to end but I will praise you either way.

INVITE BAND UP

It reminds me of a story about a song that we are going to end with.

A child named Jaxon Taylor

A two or three year old boy.

E. coli which turned into HUS which turned into kidney failure.

He kept going up and down

One night a couple weeks in one of the worship leaders from Bethel, Jonathan and Melissa Helser, got the phone call saying they didn’t know if he was going to make it through the night.

Jonathan said he had this big cloud of unbelief come over him.

But he said all of a sudden this melody and lyrics came to his mind.

“I raise a hallelujah, in the presence of my enemies I raise a hallelujah, louder than the unbelief, I raise a hallelujah, my weapon is a melody, I raise a hallelujah, heaven comes to fight for me.”

So what happens is they write this song and end up recording it within a day or so, and they send it to Jaxon’s father.

So Jaxon’s father just would sit there next to his bed and play that song over and over again.

All of a sudden Jaxon started doing better and better and next thing you know, he’s leaving the hospital!

This family had prayed and prayed until they were all prayed out.

So they turned their prayer into praise and God started to move.

The point is church that God doesn’t just want us to pray and ask for His help, but He also wants us to make sure we’re taking the time to praise Him.

Through the good and bad.

And you might find that your praise is just as powerful as your prayers!

Altar Call

Lead into worship!